Jiu Jitsu Lessons

I haven't posted in a while.  Recent months, however, have been a rough patch for me.  Full of painful decisions and mixed emotions.  It is always these times that I feel I grow the most.  When things are going smoothly in my life I always talk positive.  I tell my self that I will always be positive and always have faith in God to see me through tough times.  When mildly challenging issues arise I stay positive, I have faith and I think, "Wow, I handled that well."

But then the really hard times come, and damn do I lose sight of things.  I've been fortunate in my life to have people who love me and a roof over my head.  I know I have it good, but every once in a while, I find my faith tested.  Every once in a while, I find my self in one of those times when something so big comes down on you that the outlook just seems bleak.  I think its these times, not the good times, that make us who we are.

The last few months have been tough, and I know I can't say I stayed positive though all of it.  While I never thought of giving up, I truly did not want to be where I was.  Being on the tail end of this trial now, I can look back and see the lesson that I am starting to learn, and it is invaluable.  As to what that lesson specific lesson
was, maybe I'll share it in a later post, but I just want to address this in a broader scope right now.  What I've learned is, what ever trial I'm going through, there is a purpose.  I should be thankful in those hard times, learn the lesson that they are teaching me, and them form me into a better, stronger person.

I think this relates back to Jiu Jitsu in many ways.  If you follow this blog you'll know that my life aspirations are in Jiu Jitsu.  If you don't, I think the message will still apply.  On the mat we face many opponents.  Some are better then us and can make us tap.  Others, we can over come with ease.  However, we never improve if we constantly train and spar with the noobies.  We have to get out there and swim with sharks, get our asses kicked,  and learn from it.  That is, I believe, how we get better.

I know I have many hard times in front of me.  I know there will be a lot of good too.  I don't think, however, that any of it will be bad times.  It's all a lesson.  I can learn from all of it, and while I admit that my lack of knowledge and the mass of knowledge to be learned is daunting.  I can't wait to learn it.  Time to do some Jiu Jitsu!

Thanks for reading,

Please help this blog grow by sharing this post,

Nick

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How Bad Do You Want It?

There's a story I heard by a guy named Eric Thomas, to paraphrase the story he told:


There was a young man that wanted to be success, and one day the man went to see a guru.  The young man said, "Guru, I want to be as successful as you are.  I want to accomplish what you have done." 


The Guru said, "okay, if you want to be successful meet me at the beach tomorrow at 6:00 A.M."


The man said, "The beach?  I want to make money.  Not go for a swim."


The Guru said, "If you want to make money, meet me at the beach."


So the young man gets to the beach the next day at 5:45, wearing a suit, and he sees the Guru out in the water.  The Guru calls for him to go out to meet him.  The young man walks out into the water and walks until the water is waist high.  and he says, "okay I'm here, now what?" The Guru tells him to come further.  So the young man walks until he is chest high and says, "okay I'm here, now what?"  The Guru tells him to come further.  So the young man walks until he is up to his mouth in the water.


The Guru grabs the young man by the neck and holds him under the water.  The young man kicks and scratches and fights but the Guru holds him under.  Not until the young man is on the edge of unconsciousness does the Guru lift him from the water.  He asked the young man, "when you were under the water, what did you want to do?" 

The young man said, "breath."

The Guru told him, "When you want to succeed, as bad as you want to breath, then you will be successful."

Make a list of things that would take priority over breathing in your life.  It's pretty short.

For more on Eric Thomas, check out his site.  www.etthehiphoppreacher.com/

Thanks for reading,

Nick

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GOOOOAAALLL!!

I'm pretty stoked tonight because I was able to put a check next to one of my goals.  If you don't know what I'm talking about, last week I wrote a post about setting goals to improve your Jiu Jitsu game.  My first goal that I set was to survive 5 minutes in a leg war roll with a guy that is one the best leg lock guys at my gym.  I was actually able to "one up" that.

I rolled with this guy and not only was I able to survive and not get leg locked, I actually ended up coming out of it with a full mount on him.  I didn't counter or submit him, but my goal was to survive and I actually did more than that.  Now,  he tapped me 3 consecutive times right before that, but like I said, I learn how to defend submissions by getting tapped, analyzing, getting tapped, analyzing, getting tapped, and then analyzing. 

Also, tonight I rolled with another one of our resident leg snatchers, who is a brown belt.  He did catch me in a toe hold once buuuut.... tap, analyze, tap, analyze.... the second time around he went for a quick succession of heal hook variations and I was able to fend them all off and secure the superior position.  I'm pretty exited that I reached one of my goals.  Ze Mario was right, achieving goals does give you a confidence boost in your game. Again, if you don't understand the reference go the post that I linked above.

Another thing that I was able to prove to myself tonight was that when you suck at something, just keep doing it.  Keep showing up every day and eventually you quit sucking. 

Okay well thanks for reading everyone,

Nick

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Training Injury: Couldn't Stay Off the Mats

  I have to say, pick a career that you can't wait to get there and work.  It's a great life to have.  Imagine if you were legitimately bummed out when your boss gave you a day off of work.  Except.... I don't make any money doing Jiu Jitsu right now... but I will soon!  I'll be sure to post about the first Jiu Jitsu dollar that I make.

I wasn't suposed to roll today because of my elbow injury but I couldn't help it.  A brown belt from 10th Planet Headquarters came down to Riverside this morning though, so I couldn't resist the chance to roll with someone new that was high ranked. It was actually cool though, because I had to do everything with one hand.  If you can keep someone from passing your guard with one hand then you can do it with two.  I wish I had pictures of the roll.  I just have this one though.

I gotta say, my arm hurts a little bit more than it did before!  That's okay though it was worth being able to roll.  I missed it :'-).

Any ways even though my arm is a little sore now, I'm recovering at such a fast rate I'll still be back on the mat when I planned to be.   I'm off to do electrical stimulation therapy on my arm.  I highly recommend this by the way.

Thank you all for reading,
Please, help this blog grow by sharing it on Facebook or Twitter

Nick

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Why Do I Fight

When you truly dedicate your life to something, and you put that something above all of the other things that happen in your life, people think your crazy.  You get asked a lot, "Why do you do it so much?" or "Do you really enjoy doing it that often?"  To me, those people are missing out.  They're missing out on having something that they're so passionate about that the question "what do I want to do with my life?" doesn't come into their reasoning.  Maybe I am an extremist, but name any great man or women in history that wasn't?  So when someone asks me why I do it, I tell them some of the few things that I know for sure.  I know that I want my life to have an impact on others.  I know that I don't want to settle for an average career.  I know I want to die knowing that I accomplished something, and I know that I want to live a life that is worth living.

Its always been important to me to reach others with my life.  I think, ultimately, the the thought of eternity scares me.  I want to know that when I die I will have done something that lasts longer than I do.  If I can share my passion with someone maybe I can put some passion in their life. When you have passion in your life you have happiness.  I feel that if I can share passion and happiness with people then I'll be leaving the world a slightly better place.  I hope that maybe I can do well enough that I will reach a platform high enough to truly reach a lot of people.  Most importantly, growing up I've always been in the average group when it came to athletics, I've never been terrible at them, but I have never been exceptionally good at them.  If I reach the goals that I have set by myself, then it will be from nothing but hard work and God's blessing.  I hope that in doing this I can inspire so many more people to really work hard for their goals.  Imagine what kind of world we would live in if every one strove to do something great?

Photo by: Elisa Alves

I have never been someone who could handle any mundane activities.  I feel like so many people underestimate their abilities and settle for a middle of the road job.  Now, let me make this clear, there's nothing wrong with working hard at a blue collar job to take care of your family.  There is, I think, something wrong with working a job that you never wanted to do, because you don't think you have what it takes to do what you really want to do.  I have never been able to accept being average, or to accept the statistics that people recited to me about how many people actually grow up to live their childhood dreams.  I have a need to do something that stands out.  I have a need to do something special.

When I am ready to die.  I want to sit there and think back on my life, and think, "damn, that was cool.  I really did it."  I want to know that I left my mark on the world with the things I did and the people I inspired.  Will fighting really do this for me?  I think so.  In the end, it isn't really about the fighting, its about overcoming extremely tough obstacles and getting past everything in my way to get where I want to be, and showing other people that they can do what they want to do.  All you have to do is try; really try.


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Thanks for reading,  :)

Nick

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Winning is a State of Mind. Not a Score on the Scoreboard

First off, let me say that in any of my posts, if i share an opinion or a claim, I am not in any way trying to pretend to be some Jiu Jitsu guru with this huge store of boundless information.  I am student of this game, absolutely nothing more.  This blog is simply a sharing of lessons that I learn, as I learn them.  That being said, I would like to share what I learned today.

I arrived early to class today, so I thought I would watch the kids wrestling class.  I heard the wrestling coach tell the kids something that was interesting.  He said, "Winning is a state of mind. Not a score on the scoreboard."  At first it didn't make sense to me.  I thought, winning a match in its definition is scoring more points than the other guy. 

But the phrase resonated in me, and I began to think bigger.  I don't think he was referring to one single match.  I believe he was referring to true winning; winning the title or the championship; consistent winning.  I think he was right, because sure scoring more points will win you a match, but to truly win, to be a champion, you need the state of mind.  It reminds of me of a quote I once read.  The quote was, "success comes from a state of mind knowing that you did everything that you possibly could to prepare."  This was my mantra for many of my tournaments when I thought I might face people who were more experienced than myself.

What I concluded from this lesson was that in order to succeed, you must have the right state of mind, and in order to get that state of mind, you must do everything in your power to make sure you are the best you can possibly be.  Work hard for your goals and you will reach them.

I hope this post will help some of you.  Thanks for reading.

Nick

Go for it

I had a discussion with a friend of mine from work about how so many kids grow up being told that they need to be more realistic with their dreams and about how the odds of them being a rock star or an astronaut are very slim.  It got me thinking about how so many people give up on their dreams.  Almost every single person that I know is in a job that the settled for or stumbled into.  Growing up we are told, to a certain extent, that the odds of us achieving our dreams were slim, and that hundreds of thousands of people try for that goal but very few make it.  Well I think very few make it, because very few try.

So many people give up on what they want and settle for something that will just get them by.  They may say that they tried, but they didn't put their heart and soul into achieving their goal, for hours, days, and years, ignoring everything in their way.  The just bought into the statistics and gave in.  I want to share my belief that if you want something bad enough, and if you work hard enough, there is nothing that can stop you from what you want.  I want more than anything to be a world champion, and I will get there.

Forget what you were told by society, don't believe in them, believe in your self.  Find something that you want to do and go for it, and never let go.  If you put in the work, and you never give up, than you can't fail.  One of the biggest things that Jiu Jitsu taught me is that the person who trained more, almost always wins.  And I'm not just talking about who trained more for that particular match, I mean in their entire life.  If I put more hours on the mat than the guy across from me, I'll beat him. 

I want to challenge anyone reading this to go for something big.  If you a Jiu Jitsu player, then I challenge you to put in the work and win the next World Championships.  You can do it.  You can win.  Dream big, think big, win big.

Thanks for reading guys,

Nick