The more I learn, the less I know...

Sunday afternoon, Auburn Bob invited me to work out at Ippon Dojo in Tacoma. It was a good workout. Did some newaza and tachi waza randori. Afterwards there was someone in the club working on no-gi grappling. Did that too. I haven't done no-gi in a long long time, and it was a much faster game, much different. No gi opens up faster turns, rollovers, etc... Basically it's still the same, although the convenient handholds (the gi) is not there. However the basic moves are still the same. Hadaka Jime (Rear Naked Choke) still works. Ude Garami/Juji Gatame/ still works. The difference is that you can slip in and out of a hold that is not tight. There's more clinches and stuff in no-gi. It's different but good.

It was a good workout. I'm just hitting a plateau in my training.

Basically, I'm starting to know, enough of WHAT I AM NOT DOING.

1. Working out every day with one day a week to rest and recover. Improve my cardio, strength and flexibility...

2. A balanced healthy diet. Not a SEE-FOOD diet. I see food. I eat.

3. Attend practice consistently and on time.

On the technical side here are some things I need to work on:

1. Grip and Throw. What I do now, is grip, grip, grip. I would have that awesome grip for a half second, but guess what, I wouldn't throw, and that fleeting moment of an awesome grip is gone. You get a great grip, throw. It doesn't open up that often, so seize the opportunity.

2. Transition Control. I need to control the transition phase, where you knock someone down, not enough to get a point, but enough that he is on the mat. Take advantage of it, establish a superior position and attack. Sometimes, I get the deer in the headlights look, because, well, I don't train as much in transition as we do the two main phases. The stand-up and the ground work. Transition Control is key. I know Aaron always emphasizes transition control, and it's finally coming together that I need full control throughout the fight.

3. Repetitive/Telegraphic Attacks. When I fight someone, it shouldn't be like the AT&T Commercial, "reach out and touch someone..." I need to vary it up a bit and not telegraph "hey I'm going to do this next..."

Anyways, just gotta plug away. It is after all a journey and there is no magical end. Actually, I'd get absolutely bored if there weren't any challenges. That's the beauty of martial arts, there's constant learning. It's not like a book where you read from cover to cover and that's it. There's more to it...