Thanks! I have a good friend at your gym. Cody Wilson.

Very cool! He's a great guy and a very tough training partner! Always enjoy training with him even though I know it's going to be a tough roll.

So you mentioned being about two months into BJJ, enjoying it so far?

Loving it. My mind still thinks I'm 18, but my body reminds me often that I'm 47. I'm still in the frustrating stage of feeling lost out there, but I know that it takes time. Staying humble and asking for advice bodes well early on!

Glad to hear you're enjoying it! It's a great sport!

As far as feeling lost, keep training regularly and the pieces will start fitting together. And once you pick up on the fundamentals (posture, elbows in, pace, etc.) things will accelerate in terms of knowledge/ability.

Also helpful to keep in mind that everyone typically feels lost about something in BJJ, regardless of their belt level/experience (just because BJJ continues to evolve and introduce new styles, etc.).

Had my first match in a competition at the Austin Open

I left a lot of good opportunities out there and have a lot of stuff to work on, but it was good to get the first one out of the way.

I am wearing the Black Gi

AggieChemE09 said:

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Had my first match in a competition at the Austin Open

I left a lot of good opportunities out there and have a lot of stuff to work on, but it was good to get the first one out of the way.

I am wearing the Black Gi

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You could tell both of yall were whipped 2 and a half minutes in. It's amazing that you can hit an open mat and roll for over an hour and at a tournament you're tired after a minute or so.

Excellent work putting yourself out there. It's not easy.

Got my little guy started in BJJ. His sister is REALLY going to hate this in about a year.

Oops. I replied to the wrong person...meant to reply to AggieChem. Oh well......Congrats on getting out there and giving it a try. No matter how much ya' train, competitions are always such a different experience than training.

Was the tournament run smoothly, organized, etc?

Sweep4-2 said:

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Oops. I replied to the wrong person...meant to reply to AggieChem. Oh well......Congrats on getting out there and giving it a try. No matter how much ya' train, competitions are always such a different experience than training.

Was the tournament run smoothly, organized, etc?

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Whoops didn't see this to respond.

I have no frame of reference for what an event like this should look like, but I thought it went pretty smoothly. No complaints really.



In other news, I got my second stripe!

Very cool, congrats! By the way, not sure if anyone saw this but the IBJJF has announced a major change in IBJJF rules for next year (quite controversial as well).

Next year, for brown/black belts the IBJJF will allow knee reaping and heel hooks. A number of other BJJ groups already allow them (ADCC, EBI, etc) for no-gi. But leg-locks are a controversial topic in BJJ and their popularity has grown forcing the IBJJF to make the choice (from a business standpoint).

Curious about how the rule change will trickle down in terms of instruction to lower levels. There have always been upper belt moves (knee bar, toe hold, compression locks) reserves for brown/black belts but heel hooks are a completely different creature. Thoughts?

Anything involving knees scares me! But we actually have started going over some basic leg stuff from singleX guard and from what I understand are going to incorporate more and more. My coaches say "they aren't teaching us to be White belts, they are teaching us to be black belts, so you WILL learn it all"

Glad it's reserved to just upper belts. I would even go as far to let it slide to purple as well. Hopefully it will open the game up a little (cough cough 50! 50! cough cough).

Yeah, agree with y'all. Leg locks are here to stay, so might as well teach them to continue evolution of the sport (while still limiting them a bit).

I don't train nogi regularly and I've never trained heel hooks, so it's a new experience for me. Last week, I rolled nogi with some blue/purple/brown belts. First part was IBJJF rules, and things were fine for me. Did my normal thing and was rarely worried about losing position or getting submitted.

But when we opened it up and allowed heel hooks, it changed dramatically (and not in a good way) for me. The threat of submission (or being submitted) seemed like it was everywhere. And I ended up being caught numerous times in leg entanglements and heel hook attempts (which I quickly tapped to). The times I did escape were more an experience/intuition escape and not based on a plan/knowledge.

So I'll definitely be spending more time on the leg entanglement game in the future.

My ear is a little swollen after yesterday's practice.... any tips to avoid Cauliflower Ear? I've read that it should get drained....but where? by who?

Sometimes a little swelling will go back down with compression and ice. As goofy as it sounds I used to put clothespins on my ear if it had small amounts of swelling. That combined with the ice helped reduce it. And I also stopped rolling or wore headgear for a few days.

If you've got more swelling and larger amounts of fluid, the only way to prevent it from solidifying and becoming solid is by draining it with a needle/syringe. Most folks I know just have a teammate or instructor drain it. I've watched it and it's a little disgusting (so probably not something you'd want a spouse / significant other doing unless they're in a medical field). Another option may be going to a walk-in clinic (but I have no idea whether they drain ears or how much it costs).

Cauliflower ear can be tricky. I know guys who have rolled for years and barely have any. And I know other guys who have rolled for a year and look like UFC vets. But to try and prevent, a couple things: 1) Be careful where you put your head and how you escape. People often try and escape guillotine chokes and headlocks by wrenching their heads out (which is bad technique and bad for the ears). 2) Buy headgear so that when your ears are sore you can keep them from getting more trauma. Cliff Keen, Asics and Adidas all make good headgear for a reasonable price.

Hope that helps!

Sweep4-2 said:

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Sometimes a little swelling will go back down with compression and ice. As goofy as it sounds I used to put clothespins on my ear if it had small amounts of swelling. That combined with the ice helped reduce it. And I also stopped rolling or wore headgear for a few days.

If you've got more swelling and larger amounts of fluid, the only way to prevent it from solidifying and becoming solid is by draining it with a needle/syringe. Most folks I know just have a teammate or instructor drain it. I've watched it and it's a little disgusting (so probably not something you'd want a spouse / significant other doing unless they're in a medical field). Another option may be going to a walk-in clinic (but I have no idea whether they drain ears or how much it costs).

Cauliflower ear can be tricky. I know guys who have rolled for years and barely have any. And I know other guys who have rolled for a year and look like UFC vets. But to try and prevent, a couple things: 1) Be careful where you put your head and how you escape. People often try and escape guillotine chokes and headlocks by wrenching their heads out (which is bad technique and bad for the ears). 2) Buy headgear so that when your ears are sore you can keep them from getting more trauma. Cliff Keen, Asics and Adidas all make good headgear for a reasonable price.

Hope that helps!

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Thanks for the reply! Finally got a response from my coach and he is gonna take a look at it and bring what he uses for draining.

All I know is, if I get bad C Ear my wife is gonna kill me.

Good deal, hopefully you'll be able to drain it and it'll be good as new. But if you have concerns about the future, definitely look into wrestling headgear. And although off-topic, if you're not wearing a mouthguard I'd highly recommend getting a custom one (from a dentist). Keeps the teeth safe, and you'll never go back to the 'boil and bite' mouthguards from Academy ever again.

Funny story about my worst ear injury......despite my training BJJ for 14 years the worst ear injury I've ever had was in a Macy's. I fell and hit my head on an oak table, knocked me out and split my right ear in half horizontally. Top half and bottom half could move independently. Emergency room had a plastic surgeon who stitched it back together with 16 stitches. It was red/purple for 6 months, and for a couple years it would turn red when I drank beer or ate hot sauce.

For at least a couple years I looked like a legit tough guy (until it healed completely and lost the red color that it is).

Pick up the smallest gauge insulin needles at your pharmacy and do it yourself. No need to go see a Dr, plus you will have to do it several times to get it adequately drained.

Make sure to clean the ear first and use alcohol wipes, etc. Then just poke into the swollen spot and pull back on the plunger. Rinse and repeat until you can't extract any more fluid. Then apply pressure for a few minutes.

Fun stuff, but cheapest and easiest way to treat at home and keep your ears looking normal.

Got my veterinarian wife to do my ears.

They gave me a blue belt yesterday in Waco. Fighting the urge to buy a bunch of celebratory gis and rash guards.

shaynew1 said:

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They gave me a blue belt yesterday in Waco. Fighting the urge to buy a bunch of celebratory gis and rash guards.

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Congratulations!!!!

Thanks man. I can't say I wasn't super excited about the prospect.

I'm ready to get back in there next week.

shaynew1 said:

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They gave me a blue belt yesterday in Waco. Fighting the urge to buy a bunch of celebratory gis and rash guards.

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Congratulations. Keep it up

Congrats on your promotion to Blue Belt!

I posted my own thread on this, but wanted to post here for specific BJJ answers.

Long story short: I had a grade 2 AC joint separation on 8/23 at an open mat from a judo throw. I went back one time on 10/4 and it was too soon. I feel like I'm ready to get back to drilling and safe rolling with an experienced partner now, but don't want to rush it. I just miss it so damn bad. It's still sore to shrimp on that side and worried about any type of submission on that arm. Should I have some patience or do y'all think I can do it safely, if I check my ego? I'm a one stripe white belt, so forgive my ignorance. I just REALLY want to get back on the mat.

New big guy showed up to class the past few weeks. Former HS & College wrestler, Marine.
Good lord this dude is tough. Takedowns are top notch & he is excellent at getting out of anything.

He knows zero BJJ but on the mat he is a beast. He does this thing where he hooks both feet inside my lower legs when he's in mount.... can't for the life of me figure out how to get out of it. I don't even know what that move is called!!! Any ideas in general on rolling with a top-notch wrestler & on WTF that move is he's doing & how to get out of it! It's going to really suck going against this guy when he learns subs.

Wrestlers are tough, skilled grapplers for sure. The thing he's doing in mount is called grapevining and it can be a pain at first.

Good news is there's a number of ways to prevent it and escape it that aren't hard to execute. Prevention and escape all stem from your being able to win/maintain inside position with your feet.

Lachlan Giles and Jean-Jacques Machado are both top notch instructors who have short, free videos on YouTube that show escapes. Here's a link to the Giles one Stephan Kesting also has a good escape video re mount escape

As far as rolling with top notch wrestlers, there's a couple things to consider. My apologies up front for the length of the post below....but i obviously enjoy talking BJJ...haha.

First, they are much more experienced grapplers than the majority of BJJ students and start their BJJ journey miles ahead. So some of their 'game' is very much white belt level (guard and subs), while other parts are already easily brown and black belt level (takedowns and top control). Their top game alone enables them to easily smash most white and blue belts, and to really harass the purple/brown/black as well.

Second, there's the wrestler conditioning and mentality, They generally have strength, explosiveness and conditioning to go along with an aggressive style based on the rules of wrestling. They push the pace and apply constant pressure. Just a relentless style of rolling when going with a wrestler.

The initial approach many new BJJ guys take is to try and match the wrestlers speed, strength and explosiveness by rolling as violently as they can. and being even more physical But this approach really doesn't work though, because they've just blundered into the wrestlers 'A game' and the wrestler will just grind them into the ground.

To beat the wrestler (or to survive as long as possible), you have to take them out of their game and bring them into yours. So for BJJ, that mostly means 1) Realize that you'll likely start the match on your back 2) Have four points of contact at all time when they are in your guard so that you can maintain guard and control and disrupt their posture 3) When they want to go fast, you slow things down. 4) Be patient but disruptive and look for openings to submit or sweep to the top.

Sounds easy, but in reality it can mean spending 4-5 minutes getting smashed and then hitting the sweep or sub in the late stages when they are tired and/or make a mistake that you can use to your advantage.

Another way to deal with wrestlers is open guard sweeps and leg locks. But those are concepts/moves that I wouldn't recommend for someone still trying to learn fundamentals.

Hope that all makes sense. Definitely want to hear others opinions/thoughts!!

Thanks for that response!!
Last night wrestler was smashing me with grapevined legs & I managed to escape using the technique in one of the videos you linked.
I will definitely take your advice on slowing down & looking for openings.... I had been going hard & just getting crushed in cross face pressure.

Pull guard. Stall. Half joking.

Good deal, glad to hear that it worked! Sometimes just picking up on a couple quick hints/tips from a video can help make a huge difference.

I was struggling recently with a couple positions, so I turned to my Lachlan Giles Leg Lock series to troubleshoot. Made a few changes and was able to start hitting leg locks against some of my brown belt training partners Felt pretty confident that I had found 'the key'.

Tried the same set of moves against my instructor (he's a 5th degree black belt from Brazil) and he laughed and said 'hey, you want to play leg locks?' He then proceeded to submit me with a toehold, kneebar, belly down ankle lock and a calf slicer just for fun. I realized that I had not found a magic new move and that I probably never will (against my instructor anyway). But it was fun and it made me appreciate the skills he's got.

La Migra - I like your post. Good advice and much more concise than mine!! Sounds like you've also spent time trying to deal with wrestlers. Whereabout do you train?

Sweep I'm having to use a different username. I'm a 2-3 year brown belt out of Austin so I'll let you figure out which username I used to be.

Yeah we have some wrestlers come through our gym. Most technical and intense class I took was from a wrestler.

It's my experience that wrestlers are awesome at getting position and bad at executing/defending chaining submissions. But, they'll learn eventually.

FightnFarmerUSMC said:

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I posted my own thread on this, but wanted to post here for specific BJJ answers.

Long story short: I had a grade 2 AC joint separation on 8/23 at an open mat from a judo throw. I went back one time on 10/4 and it was too soon. I feel like I'm ready to get back to drilling and safe rolling with an experienced partner now, but don't want to rush it. I just miss it so damn bad. It's still sore to shrimp on that side and worried about any type of submission on that arm. Should I have some patience or do y'all think I can do it safely, if I check my ego? I'm a one stripe white belt, so forgive my ignorance. I just REALLY want to get back on the mat.

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I got back on the mat yesterday and it went a lot better than I had hoped. I only drilled and was cautious when doing that. It is clear that I'm not ready to even do light rolling yet, but it felt great to get back out there. I could shrimp fine on the injured shoulder and was okay in the bottom of cross side position getting squeezed. I could even back break fall from the squat. I still have a little ways to go, but VERY EXCITED to be back.

Yesterday, my coach passed away while warming up. Details are pretty sparse, but they think it was a stroke. He was 29. My team and I are devastated.

Where and who was this?