On the Mat Day 555: Catching up on training

I've had more time to train recently and have been hit with the BJJ bug a bit so feel excited to go train again. I think the new 2 hour video from Roy Dean has helped to get me wanting to train. I enjoy his commentary before while his students are rolling on the mats. I wish I had access to something like that to give me feedback on how I roll. The video has also given me ideas about techniques I could use.

If you haven't seen it, you need to.



The mat on Saturday was so god damn cold. It was snowing outside but didn't lay. I felt like I was crazy to go training at a place that only has steel walls and no insulation but the club was actually full of people. I plan to do more training on Saturday morning because I had some good rolls with people who are better than me. It's the only way to improve.

Saturday morning training in single digit (Celsius) temperatures

 Saturday was our end of year gathering for drinks and food. Usually this is the time when people get promoted. Mine is a long way off so I didn't have any concern about that (although dropping a purple belt on me 3 years in was a shocking surprise and something I had a hard time adjusting to initially). We had 2 guys promoted to brown and a couple of whites to blue and a 15 year old kid who is very good promoted to Green. He will most likely be blue belt next year when he turns 16.

Yoshida-san was one of the new brown belts. He is very inspirational and I have enjoyed seeing him go through his BJJ journey as I joined about a year and a half after him. He is all round very good both at guard and passing, can roll hard or light, and has a very slippery feel when in guard and strong pressure despite being small when passing. I like how he intelligently thinks about jiu-jitsu in his approach to improving. It was his decision to start a Sunday 8 am - 9.30 am class just for drilling, something I had wanted badly for a long time. This drilling class has really helped me to probe into the small questions and ideas that I have in my head concerning BJJ techniques and to also work to fill the holes that I have. If he ever considers it, I think he will make a great instructor in the future.

Yoshida-san congrats on the brown belt!