FINAL PUSH!
There’s just a little over a week left to register for the IBJJF Chicago Spring Open! We are currently representing strong with 10 people, and I’d love to see a few more signed up! This will be a very fun trip, outing, and competition as a team. If you’re on the fence about competing, please come and talk to me!
Saturday, April 5th will run all of the Adult Gi matches and Sunday, April 6th will be the Kids’ divisions and all of the Adult No Gi divisions. March 7th is the cut-off date for early registration. If you sign up by then, it’s $134 for one division or $229.00 for both Gi and No Gi. If you miss the early registration you can still sign up by March 28th but the registration fees go up $162 & $276, respectively.
Remember that for IBJJF you will have to both register a membership with IBJJF and register for this event. There is a sign-up sheet for this at the front desk. However, this sign up sheet is just for our information purposes and does not register you for the tournament. However, it’s as easy as scanning the QR code at the front desk to get you started!
When we compete at IBJJF tournaments we compete under the larger Brasa CTA umbrella which includes many academies in Wisconsin (including 360 in Milwaukee) and Illinois (including Comprido BJJ). It would be really cool to do our part to get Brasa CTA on the podium this year!
If you have any questions about this, including the registration process, please reach out to me, Karen, or Ryan and we can help you out!
TRAINING WITH INTENTION
This last week I’ve been emphasizing the importance of setting your intentions while training. While the cliche “80% of success is just showing up” is true, you will get so much better – and progress faster! – if you are utilizing your training time intentionally and to your benefit.
What does this look like? Before you train, think about what you are looking to accomplish. Set goals that you are looking to achieve within the position we are working on. These can be incredibly small, vague, and achievable goals such as, “I’m not going to get submitted/scored upon for the first minute of this round,” or big, precise, and challenging goals such as “I’m going to escape side control using the anchor hand, look to establish my RDLR guard, and off balance my opponent so I can sweep or enter the back using the Kiss of the Dragon” – and everywhere in between.
The important part is that you have goals, you’re positioning yourself to achieve them, and then adjusting based upon the results you’re getting; both successes and failures. Start small, give yourself somewhat of a handicap, and work from there based upon the results. Upon failure, don’t just abandon your goals and train blindly to win. Think about why you’re failing and what you can do to progress, implement the changes and then rinse and repeat until success. Once you have gained ownership of a particular technique, position, or sequence this will give you a blueprint that you can apply to all other techniques, positions, and sequences.
This method of training will also make your training much more enjoyable because you will be focused on particular aspects of your own game and progress and not just trying to win a training round against other people – riding the emotional rollercoaster of having good days and bad days.
As usual, if you have any questions or want any advice or coaching, please reach out and ask me!
Fundamentals: this last week in our Fundamentals classes we drilled a logical progression of techniques, starting each class by drilling the entire week’s techniques in a continuous drill. We studied pulling guard into a Tripod Sweep (Monday), passing the Open Guard with an Over Under Pass (Wednesday), and finishing our partner via armlock from Side Control after switching our hips (Friday). I got a lot of positive feedback about this progression and drill, so we’ll definitely be doing more of this in the future!
Advanced: in Advanced class on Monday we studied the Cross Arm Sweep from SLX, transitioning into a very tight Footlock, and then taking a look at how to defend and escape the Footlock into the Mount. On Wednesday we reviewed the previous techniques and then transitioned into finishing with a Belly Down Footlock into a Toe Hold.
No Gi: in No Gi this week Coach Fabian taught attacking the Single Leg Snatch and transitioning to the Butterfly Guard from the 1/4 Guard. On Thursday Coach Andrew taught the how to utilize the Hip Heist and Technical Standup to sweep from the Half Guard, and Coach Jordan taught attacking the Outside Heel Hook from SLX on Friday evening.
This week in kids’ class, we worked on sweeping from a guard pull, the hip pin pass, and an armbar attack from side control. We played “down on points” and did some competition rounds this week to prepare for an upcoming competition in Wisconsin Dells. Congratulations to Viggo and Ezra on earning their next stripe! We are proud of your Jiu-Jitsu and your leadership on the mats.