General Thoughts

A guy on www.jiujitsuforums.com requested that I make my blog a bit more appealing to the public when I had more time - well, I just finished writing my final assessment task for the year, so here's a nice long viewer-friendly post for the masses...

First, on my game.. I've been looking at the things that differentiate me from someone of blue belt level, as that's the next logical step up for me. Obviously, my general game is simply not of blue belt standard, but specific things that stand out at the moment are:

• My game under side control
• My control in side control
• My ability to finish once I am in good position
  

I guess it's clear that I am lacking partial understanding of the actual side control position. I allowed some of the less experienced people to pass my guard so that I could play around with some escapes and movement under side control. I guess I'm reasonable against less experienced people, but I suppose one would hope so. All of the three times that I was submitted were from under side control - once by the only blue belt there, and twice by my instructor (both subs coming from reverse triangle setups... lol...) I'm really going to put some effort into improving both my control on top and my escapes and defense from the bottom, as I think it's definitely something that's holding me back.

I'm not so worried about my finishing at the moment, as I think that's something that will become easier as I improve my ability to get good position and control. But it's something I will work specifically on once my side control is fixed.



Next item on the agenda is the school holidays - they start in two weeks, and I've got a job just in time. One of the blue belts in my class is opening his own Subway. I think I'm going to ask for loads of shifts during the holidays so that I can afford some private lessons, as well as having money to go out clubbing/partying.

Another interesting thing is that my instructor is going away from the 23rd of December to the 7th of January, and there will be no classes through this time period. I think I will go and train at either his instructor's school, his training partner's school, or the other affiliate school that is in a nearby suburb. I'll discuss it with my instructor and see which he thinks will be best for me, as well as having the most convenient training times and location (transport to/from). I'm going to approach this as an opportunity to diversify my training, rather than an absence of my instructor...

Anyway, I guess my general goal for the school holidays is to make a vast improvement in my BJJ and train a LOT, preferably with quite a few private lessons thrown in the mix.

Hope someone gained something out of reading that, 'cause that sure was a lot of typing when I should be preparing for tomorrow's assessments.. :p