The 10th planet Guy texted a photo to our group today with the caption "Thanks for the Warm Up rolls!"

The picture was of him & Nicky Rod (of ADCC & B-Team fame) after they had rolled a few times at 10th planet today. He obviously got thrashed pretty good!

There are levels to this thing for sure!!

If anyone is free Saturday morning in the mid-cities area, there's a free seminar by Joao Rocha at 413 Jiu Jitsu in Southlake.

https://instagr.am/p/Cp00bsjJEI4

Feels like I've been in a rut the past few weeks, just having an issue with some of the progressions sticking. There's so many people in class that it's tough to get questions answered when drilling. Not quitting, just frustrated. Also some of what we've been working on involves quick movements while standing which I can't do thanks to my knees, I can't do the same movements that the 20 year olds can, I realize that.

Will hit my 5 month anniversary next week, one positive is at least I'm hitting some sweeps from time to time by staying calm and paying attention to where my partners center of gravity is, baby steps. And my defense is getting decent, guys have a problem getting me to submit, a lot of the times I get submitted are just because my partner is too big and I just can't breathe with their full weight on my chest, not because they were able to hit a choke.

It's good I was in class Saturday because I saw my first guy straight up quit mid-class. That just helps me to reinforce that it's not for everyone, it's difficult, and if I want to improve I have to keep showing up, don't be that guy. I wish I could go more than 3X a week but my body just can't at this age.

Just gotta keep grinding. Hope y'all are doing well.

P.S.
No one at work knows I'm doing this, one of the girls that works for me said that she and her fiance are headed to Austin for bachelor/bachelorette parties and asked for food recommendations. She also let slip that he's going to check out a couple of BJJ gyms while they're in town, they're from Ohio. I asked if she knew which ones out of curiosity and she said New Wave and B-Team, her fiance is a purple belt. I guess he wants to find out how he stacks up to the guys that go to those gyms.

Hang tough man, I know its hard going, but the pay off is soooo worth it.

My gym has a lot of wrestlers in it and we've been working on a lot of different take downs, which can be rough on the old knees but.....there are several of us older guys that have a gentleman's agreement & we aren't crushing each other in practice. You'll get there, keep showing up.

As to the gym in Austin, I sort of know(ish) one of the black belts at this gym in south Austin. He got his black belt under my instructor, and I've heard good things about the main instructor.
http://www.ghaustin.com/index.html

This one is Tim Kennedy's gym but I'm told that he rarely teaches. I've visited there once, nice people, its in Cedar Park if you are in that area.

https://www.ghcedarpark.com/

Just curious, any way to practice BJJ on your own or with a couple of folks maybe without going/paying for a gym?

HoopsAg said:

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Just curious, any way to practice BJJ on your own or with a couple of folks maybe without going/paying for a gym?

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Man, I would be careful that you are practicing with someone that knows what they are doing. I know one guy that built a home gym in his garage and he has people over, but he is also a purple belt. Anything below that, I probably would be skittish of.

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I wish I could go more than 3X a week but my body just can't at this age.

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3x per week is a good number of times IMO, especially if you are rolling with white belts that go 110X.
It's a marathon, not a sprint!

Apache said:

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I wish I could go more than 3X a week but my body just can't at this age.

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3x per week is a good number of times IMO, especially if you are rolling with white belts that go 110X.
It's a marathon, not a sprint!

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I know, I get ahead of myself from time to time. It's crazy how different the material can be to pick up depending on who's teaching as well. For the night classes I go to it's one of 2 black belts or a brown belt. The brown belt is the best teacher IMO, the steps he breaks it down into make more sense to me and he doesn't string too many movements together. The two black belts try to break it down but I think it's all just too easy for them and perhaps they are too far removed from when they were white belts. They start out with one or two things, and before you know it there's a dozen things I can't remember. There's another black belt on Saturday that's a great teacher as well, I think he generally does the morning or noon classes during the week which I can't make it to.

Yeah being a great black belt doesn't always translate to being a good instructor.

Best instructor I've had wasn't all that great a black belt but was good at breaking down techniques and more importantly stayed on topic and didn't go off on tangents.

Why did the guy think he could step to Nate Diaz. Good example of how someone like Diaz could have really messed this dude up but instead gave him a little nap.

Probably the old combination of "Alcohol + I watch a lot of UFC on tv+ Surely someone will hold him back".

That being said, I had two takeaways. 1) Diaz ended that confrontation quite politely and easily. 2) I wish they had showed the setup...that sucker was tight.

Why anyone, regardless of the amount of alcohol, would challenge a man whose ability to pay his bills rests upon his ability to beat the **** out of other men is beyond me. I'd love to know what that other guy's job is, I know what Nate Diaz's job is, people pay good money to watch guys like Nate Diaz do his job. Also, both of the Diaz brothers are two of the toughest guys to step into the octagon, very few people on the planet have what it takes to handle one of them.

Last time I was in Vegas I was just walking around and Nick Diaz was walking the other way, just straight up smoking cigarettes. I just found it hilarious that a guy like him and the cardio/stamina needed to be in those fights was just walking around, smoking cigarettes, just DGAF. Professional athletes today just take care of their bodies so much more than in the past and here's a guy that goes the other way. But he's also a guy that was interviewed and straight up said he doesn't pay taxes, he's a different breed.

Max Power said:

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Why anyone, regardless of the amount of alcohol, would challenge a man whose ability to pay his bills rests upon his ability to beat the **** out of other men is beyond me. I'd love to know what that other guy's job is, I know what Nate Diaz's job is, people pay good money to watch guys like Nate Diaz do his job. Also, both of the Diaz brothers are two of the toughest guys to step into the octagon, very few people on the planet have what it takes to handle one of them.

Last time I was in Vegas I was just walking around and Nick Diaz was walking the other way, just straight up smoking cigarettes. I just found it hilarious that a guy like him and the cardio/stamina needed to be in those fights was just walking around, smoking cigarettes, just DGAF. Professional athletes today just take care of their bodies so much more than in the past and here's a guy that goes the other way. But he's also a guy that was interviewed and straight up said he doesn't pay taxes, he's a different breed.

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Nick does triathlons for fun…he (and his brother) are in phenomenal shape even outside of fight camp.

Astroag said:

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Max Power said:

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Why anyone, regardless of the amount of alcohol, would challenge a man whose ability to pay his bills rests upon his ability to beat the **** out of other men is beyond me. I'd love to know what that other guy's job is, I know what Nate Diaz's job is, people pay good money to watch guys like Nate Diaz do his job. Also, both of the Diaz brothers are two of the toughest guys to step into the octagon, very few people on the planet have what it takes to handle one of them.

Last time I was in Vegas I was just walking around and Nick Diaz was walking the other way, just straight up smoking cigarettes. I just found it hilarious that a guy like him and the cardio/stamina needed to be in those fights was just walking around, smoking cigarettes, just DGAF. Professional athletes today just take care of their bodies so much more than in the past and here's a guy that goes the other way. But he's also a guy that was interviewed and straight up said he doesn't pay taxes, he's a different breed.

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Nick does triathlons for fun…he (and his brother) are in phenomenal shape even outside of fight camp.

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Yep, the Diaz brothers are known for their cardio and being able to outlast people and just wear them down. Drunk jerk wagons "try" legit fighters all the time, because they see it on TV they think they can do it too.

Rogan has talked about this before.

Random dudes on the street barely have a chance against hobbyist BJJ guys.

Hobbyist BJJ guys barely have a shot against competitive experienced BJJ guys.

Competitive experience guys are gonna lose to the Diaz brothers in a street fight.

Random dudes don't have a prayer against Nate Diaz.

Yeah, the gap between professionals and hobbyists is huge.

I've rolled no-gi with four UFC fighters while they were still active/under contract with the UFC. Two women (both bantam weight one a brown belt the other unranked) and two men (a LW and a Light Heavy).

I was a brown belt at the time and outweighed the women by 50 lbs, but lost by heel hook to both despite the weight advantage and years training. The guys submitted me too many times to even remember (the LW was also a brown belt, the LHW was blue).

Really glad it was just sub grappling.....I would have run away crying if significant strikes had been allowed haha.

Question for y'all. I've skimmed the thread, but forgive me if this has been answered / discussed.

I have a 5 almost 6-year-old daughter. At what age is a good age to start BJJ? Is cost fairly consistent across gyms? TIA. In Sugar Land FYI. Just curious right now, she's into soccer and gymnastics but thought the BJJ skillset would be beneficial.

6 years old is a great age to try out BJJ. Kids learn really fast and most schools take a very structured (basic) curriculum and make it fun for kids. Best thing to do is visit a couple different schools and see whether she likes it.

The Renzo Gracie school in Sugarland has a great reputation, and there's also a brand new Gracie Barra school in Sienna (a couple friends of mine own it and I drop by to help coach). I'm sure there are other great places as well, but those two are ones I'm familiar with.

Professor Marvin and his team are great over there at Renzo Gracie in Sugar Land. They look like they have great attendance in their kids classes.

If you are farther down 59 in Sugar Land, my gym "Markle BJJ" had great kids classes too. We have a dedicated Kids coach and parents that train that serve as assistant coaches.

I saw that Mark Zuckerberg competed in a BJJ tournament this past weekend and did well. I only saw one match and it looked pretty robotic and stiff....but he wasn't bad. Looked about like most white belts competing for the first time.

I heard the guys that he beat are all driving new sports cars, but I"m not sure if that's true.

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I heard the guys that he beat are all driving new sports cars, but I"m not sure if that's true.

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As bjj slowly starts to transition to a tae Kwon do level of mcdojos…lineage matters, imo. There are black belts and then there are black belts. You don't want to be the guy that shows up w a particular belt to another school and looks like you got it for just showing up.

Sweep4-2 said:

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I saw that Mark Zuckerberg competed in a BJJ tournament this past weekend and did well. I only saw one match and it looked pretty robotic and stiff....but he wasn't bad. Looked about like most white belts competing for the first time.

I heard the guys that he beat are all driving new sports cars, but I"m not sure if that's true.

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If he's really traingvw Camarillo out at guerilla bjj, give him some time and he's gonna be really, really good. Dave is legit.

Yeah, I agree. I've seen a couple schools where it was obvious that instruction was via YouTube and promotions were self-promoted at whatever interval they felt was necessary to retain folks. And they NEVER competed for fear of being exposed).

As far as the discrepancy between black belts...I think it's due to focus (hobby or profession) and age...with age being huge. But overall, I think people worry foo much about their own belt and others belts. It takes the enjoyment out of the sport if stripes, belts, etc. overtake focusing on skill, teaching, etc.

As far as Zuckerberg, totally agree. Those guys could make him better than about 95% of the keyboard warriors who are criticizing him (on FB, ironically). Curious to see whether he keeps it going.

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I think people worry foo much about their own belt and others belts.

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"Don't compare yourself to where others are today, compare yourself to where you were yesterday"

That's normally a really good quote, but I'm worse at BJJ now than I was several years ago. So I need a different quote haha.

Pretty sure I broke my pinky toe last night rolling... no idea how it happened.
Not good when I'm on my feet for work about 4-6 hours of the day.

Pondering going to the Dr, but might just buddy tape it & see how it goes. Pain isn't too bad.
Any thoughts?

Apache said:

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Pretty sure I broke my pinky toe last night rolling... no idea how it happened.
Not good when I'm on my feet for work about 4-6 hours of the day.

Pondering going to the Dr, but might just buddy tape it & see how it goes. Pain isn't too bad.
Any thoughts?

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Man, that's rough. Pain could get worse, so it might better to go see a doctor in the long run.

Ouch. Those hurt. I broke my big toe a while back on a foot sweep gone wrong and decided to have a doctor check it (which I rarely do).

The doc confirmed the break and advised that there was nothing that could be done (generally) with toe breaks. And that I could tape/splint it and follow RICE.

I asked for my copay back (he declined).

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And that I could tape/splint it and follow RICE.

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So that's what you could have done..... how long were you really off the mats??

One or two classes I think. Got a bunch of tape and some old wrestling shoes and made it work.

Of course, this same approach to 'healing' is how I broke my right pinky finger 2x in 2 weeks. And why it now only straightens halfway.

About a week ago I had a small cyst removed from my forehead, ended up needing 3 stitches to close it up. The doctor said no restrictions on physical activity. I didn't go to class last Wednesday because my head still hurt from the stitches and I figured I probably shouldn't go the same day I had them. I was able to go to class on Saturday and my large bandaid stayed on the whole time, no issues, just a little bloody underneath when I took a shower. I couldn't go Monday night because my daughter had her last soccer game of the spring season. I went last night, made it to the very end of class when the guy I was rolling with did something weird and rolled his whole body basically across my face completely removing the bandaid, which was followed by him yelling WTF? Evidently they think I'm an animal for doing that, but I didn't want to miss anymore classes. I just didn't roll anymore after the bandaid came off. Work is crazy right stressful right now, I need to go to class to stay sane. It's weird that it helps me find balance, but it's true, that's how I self medicate these days.

Oh man, I can definitely understand the need to roll/train and the positive impact it has physically and mentally.

But BJJ mats are REALLY nasty and an open cut is an invitation for that nasty stuff to cause an infection and put ya' off the mat for a while.

Had a few staph infections over the years, and they were a pain to deal with.

Yea I get that, I know there's a risk, and I certainly don't want to end up with an infection. If I wasn't so stressed at work I'd probably wait but rolling is helping me not lose my mind right now. I've got some bandaids with stronger adhesive that I use up there. The only reason the one I had on came off is because my partner's entire body scraped across my face, I don't even understand what he was trying. I was very cognizant of what I was doing each class I went to trying to keep my face from making contact with as much as possible..