Thursday, December 22, 2016

Stubborn But Not Stupid...

With work continuing to be an utter nightmare, I am struggling to make hapkido classes with any form of regularity. And with me moving to work on the other side of London next year, it's unlikely the situation will get any easier. 

This is a pisser. I have a 14-year relationship with the school and its teacher and seeing that slip away is quite sad.

On the plus side, my BJJ studies remain pretty consistent because I can train in the mornings and I can make classes before the corporate carnage of work begins. But there are times when sensible decisions have to be made, so if it's BJJ for a while and hapkido becomes a thing I do very rarely – or maybe even no longer do then that's OK. It's better to train at something rather than at nothing.

It's important to persevere, but it's more important to survive and that latter attitude is one that permeates a lot of my current thinking. Because of work pressures, I am in survival and consolidation mode.

In a related story, I was sparring at BJJ a few weeks ago and an old war wound got caught and it hurt for a while. But I brushed it off and carried on. My partner smiled and said, 'Wolverine's tough!' My teacher walked by and replied, 'He's not tough. He's stubborn.'

My teacher's nearly right. For the record, I've never pretended to be tough, though I will begrudgingly accept stubborn. Put more simply, its just resilience. But I'm not stubborn or resilient to the point of stupidity and damaging myself. 

I generally know when to let a thing go... and that includes resistance to clamped-on armbars and any relationship I can no longer sustain. 

But we'll see how things go. There's no need to make any big decision just yet about what gives. I may have to at some point in the next two or three months, though.

Sunday, December 11, 2016

Competition Time No.2

I lost my fight today and I have no complaints. I lost to the better fighter.

My initial gameplan of getting an early grip and pulling guard worked. But I couldn't secure the position and he escaped, then he threw me when I got up to my feet. From there, I failed to escape his top position and he eventually mounted me and choked me.

So, takehomes from defeat:
Plan: My plan was solid, but I wasn't good enough at executing it.
Mistakes: I didn't fight to collapse his posture enough and really secure full guard.
Other: In north/south on the bottom, I had no escape plan.
Other: I rushed from the point he escaped and stood up, and I should have been more composed and more careful.

It was a good day, though. Competing is always an education and I now have lots to work on before I compete again in either late January or early February.

Saturday, December 10, 2016

Competition Time No.1...


Tomorrow I compete in my first BJJ tournament at blue belt. I know the guy I'm fighting and he's also a new BJJ blue belt and we're both black belts at other martial arts, so it should be a decent fight. 

His judo black belt and greater competition experience in that area means I'll have to be wary of his grip fighting, hip throws and trips. 

I'm slowly working out how to employ my standing wrist locks from hapkido, but I'm not confident enough to employ them in a competition environment yet. If I get a strong position on the floor, though, I'm confident I can spot the chance and hit them.

I'm on weight and I'm calmly excited. There is another LFF fighter competing, too. 

It will be a good day. And, even if it's a bad day on the mats for me, there'll be a learning experience somewhere.

Saturday, December 03, 2016

Great TV Shows That Nearly Were: Part V...

Buck Rogers in the 25th Century: Futururistic ski-fi adventure. 
Fuck Rogers in the 25th Century: Futuristic sex challenge show with a specific target group of people called Roger in mind.

Premiership Darts
Premiership Farts: Members of the London Gay Men's Voice Choir trump in Eric Bristow's face. Louie Spence commentates.

Call the Midwife: Period drama about midwives delivering babies!
Ball the Midwife: Real-life adult drama about midwives making babies. 

Downton Abbey: Edwardian nonsense. 
Downton Shabby: A bunch of a bunch of Geordies squat in a castle, get drunk and shoot up. Jimmy Nail is the moral compass.

American Sad: A follow-up to The West Wing in which Donald Trump is president and everyone else is just sad.

I am also sure we can do something with CountryFile...