Week 1 Paleo Log

Day 7  November 18th 

Slept well.
Morning weight:155.2
Breakfast: 2 strips of steak, very small chicken breast, a few black berries, coffee w/ tbsp of coconut oil
Lunch: 1/2 pint of black berries 1 square of lindt 85%
Dinner:(large fatoush, no pita chips) with plain chicken
I feel like I forgot something... I'm not hungry but I feel like I should be.

Day 6  November 17th 

Slept pretty good for a hotel room.  but only for about 6 hours.
Morning weight:no idea
Breakfast: scrambled eggs (probably those fake ones restaurants use), fruit salad
Morning Snack:Pecan/walnut/almond/coconut shreds/sunflower seed trail mix
Lunch: 1/2 pint of raspberries 1 square of lindt 85%
Afternoon Snack:Pecan/walnut/almond/coconut shreds/sunflower seed trail mix
Dinner:Pecan/walnut/almond/coconut shreds/sunflower seed trail mix
hmmm, road food menu might need some tweaking.

Day 5  November 16th 

slept well till about 4am, then tossed and turned.
Morning weight:155.5
Breakfast: 3 eggs with spinach in cooked in a bit of olive oil
Morning Snack: Pecan/walnut/almond/coconut shreds/sunflower seed trail mix
Lunch: 1/2 pint of raspberries
Dinner:  ace restaurant pea soup (definitely not legal, but i was hungry and it was there).  steak and veggies

 Day 4  November 15th 

slept well till about 4am, then tossed and turned and woke up alot.  had xcom dreams haha
Morning weight:158.2
Breakfast: 8:15am 2 eggs with a bit of green onion and 1/4 red pepper.  20 1/2 spears of asparagus. 2 cups of chocolate mint tea

Lunch: sweet potato and squash caserole.
Afternoon Snack: 1:30 green apple, 2:30 10 walnut halves
sleepy around 3:15
Dinner: ribeye steak and "asian style" mixed vegetables 

Day 3  November 14th  

Slept pretty well, but had weird dreams.
Morning weight:159.6
Breakfast: 8:00am 3 eggs with spinach and a bit of olive oil.  chocolate mint tea.

Lunch: 12:05 pm  chicken breast and "summer" vegetables
Afternoon Snack: 1:00pm clementine, 2:00 10 walnut halves, 3:30 20 almonds
very lathargic and sleep in the mid/late afternoon today.
Dinner: large fatoush from la luna express no pita chips of tomatoes

 

Day 2  November 13th 

Slept much better.
Morning weight: 160.7
Breakfast: 8:00am 15 asparagus spears grilled in a bit of olive oil. 2 eggs scrambled with a bit of red onion
Lunch: 121:15pm squash and yam casserole by Jon.  Chocolate Mint Tea in the morning,  water with blackberry tea after lunch
Afternoon Snack: 1:45pm - 20ish almonds, 2:15pm - honey crisp apple, more tea
bit of a headache
Dinner:  4:30pm - chicken breast and "summer vegetable" mix. 1/2 pint of rapsberries
snack: 8:00pm - coconut milk, coconut oil, 1/2 frozen banana, bit of frozen fruit mix, bit of honey, bit of vanilla


Day 1  - November 12th  
Slept terribly last night.  Great way to start the new diet.
Morning Weight:  162.5
Breakfast: (7:15AM) 1 cup of spinach pan fried with about 1tbsp of olive oil and 2 eggs.   1 cup of chocolaty mint tea.
Snack (10am): 10 walnut halves
Lunch (12:20 ):  pan fried steak (rowe farm skinny ones) and some pan fried veggies in olive oil and dave's veggie rub). Very Berry tea
HEADACHE!!!!!!
Afternoon Snack (2:15pm)  Clementine, big glass of water
Afternoon Snack (3:30pm)  1/2 pint of raspberries
Dinner(8:15pm) la luna express large fatoush, no tomatoes or pita chips.  plain chicken

The F.F.C. Autism Charity event

Yesterday, Alasdair and I made our way up to Montreal one last time for the year. We thought we were done with the 401 East for the year back in early November, but then this event came up and I was happy to make the drive one more time.

A little background in case you don't know about this event. It was organized by Glen MacKenzie, known as Glen MM on Facebook. He seems like a pretty cool cat. There were nine super fights: three purple, four brown, and two black (I think that's the right break down). All of the money from ticket sales and raffle sales went to two autism foundations. I think one was a research program, and the other a martial arts program for kids with autism.

I wasn't originally on the card, but when her scheduled opponant Elsa Sery injured her back training, Alison suggested me as a replacement and I was happy to help! I think fighting for a cool event like this is a much more worthwhile cause then competing in a tournament for a medal or whatever. I shuffled some plans around, got the day off work and I was in!

The event was nice enough to put us up in a room for the night, pay for our parking and get us coupons for a continental breakfast in the morning. Gringo is such a nice guy, he refused to let them even do that, so more money could go to the charities! I would love to have the financial freedom to do that, but this road trip probably will end up costing three or four hundred dollars when you take in time off work, gas, food and whatnot. I was happy to be there even with those expenses, but to have to pay for a room and parking on top of those would have probably broken the bank.

So how were the fights you ask?

I missed the first two because I was warming up. Up first was Mike Trembley and a local guy. Mike won on points, and from what I heard it was a great match, Mike had a triangle at one point and it looked like it would be over, but then later in the match the other guy got Mike in a tight kimura and they went out of bounds.

Second fight was a no gi purple belt match, I have no idea what happened in it.

3rd fight was Alison and I! I think we gave the crowd a great show. If you looked at the score board at the end it looked like a slaughtering: I lost 22-0, but I felt like it was a pretty competitive match. I stuck pretty well to my game plan at the beginning, but once again, when I didn't get my pass points it threw me off and it went a bit downhill from there. I did defend the kimura (thanks everyone at Pura for trying to take my arm off on Wednesday) and also one or two other attempts, but I kept reguarding a terrible half guard and getting it passed, so Alison raked up the points. I managed to create some decent opportunities, but I was sloppy and wasted them. I've got a few things to work on before we fight again!

I missed the 4th fight because I was helping my friend Dainis warm up for his fight which was 5th. Dainis fought Ryan Keller, a local brown belt who was ridiculously strong. It was a really great match. They did quite a bit of standup and Dainis got a throw straight into an arm bar. The crowd went crazy and Ryan managed to power out of it. They spent a lot of time in Dainis's guard and near the end Ryan got a nice half guard sweep and almost pass to tie it up. The ref decided to do a 5 minute overtime instead of a decision. Dainis really picked up the pace and laid it on in the over time, passing to mount twice and winning 16-2. 

Next was a nogi fight between the 10th planet guy (Louis Ho) and another local guy (Ord Millar). The local guy started strong with a nice takedown, but the 10th planet guy quickly set up a nice deep half guard and worked a banana split sub! Yes, you read that right, he did a banana split sub in real life! I've never seen it work and this guy wad actually pretty flexible, I was insanely impressed! He got sub of the night for it, and it was well deserved.

The last brown belt fight was Jimmy Tat, from Revolution BJJ vs David Guigui. It was a pretty fun fight to watch, Jimmy worked a lot of guard stuff and in the end caught the other guy in a slick arm bar. 

The first black belt fight was a tight game of attempted guard passes and sweeps with the guy with the mustache and tattoo winning by a single advantage. There probably could have been one or two more advantages scored on the match, but I think the right guy won.

Last match of the night was Gringo vs Mark. It was insanely close with no scores at all in the first 10 minutes, or maybe one advantage each, I forget. Either way, Gringo was working a nice closed guard almost the entire match setting up sweeps and stuff but Mark was defending well. Gringo almost got a really nice sweep -- he came up, but wasn't able to maintain enough to get the points. They ended up doing a 5 min overtime where Mark was able to get some points and a nice looking inverted triangle but was unable to finish. Mark won by five points or so I believe.

All in all it was a great night of fights to watch as a fan, and I learned a few things in my fight with Alison. So its win/win even though I lost.  

The event was packed to the rafters with fan. It ended up being in a much smaller place because the hotel booked the original room for a paying customer and we got bumped to a smaller place, which is totally understandable. The hotel hosted the event for free and also donated 1000 points to each fight winner, which I think works out to a free night or two, very generous of them. SAU was also a sponsor of the event, donating free entry to their next tournament to the winner, which is pretty cool. I will probably check out their tournament next time. Popeyes nutrition donated a huge prize pack for the sub of the night as well.

Thanks to Alasdair for coming along and cornering me, I may not have listened to everything he yelled but I tried most of the time. Also, thanks to Clidan, who happened to be in town for the UFC, for coming out to watch and work the camera for me. It's amazing to have teammates like this who support me everywhere. 

So that's that. Next weekend is provincials. I'm fighting for free, or I would probably skip it. I'm also refereeing which will be fun, and stressful.

The weekend after that is Grappler's Quest in London, once again fighting for free and refereeing. I've been hoarding away my referee and commission money to save up for Pans and Worlds. It's a slow process but hopefully I can save some other money as well and I'll be able to compete there.

Faixa Roxa and other unrelated things

Yesterday was the big grading day at Pura BJJ! We had a huge group of guys testing and it was a great day all around.   I have to thank my super awesome professors PJ and Riccardo, and all my excellent team mates who help me learn jiu jitsu every day!

Six team mates and I tested for purple belt. This brings the count of regularly attending purple belts to about ten or so. Eight people tested for blue as well, so we should have ten or so blue belts on the mat on a regular basis too!  Everything is going to be so colourful, it's going to be amazing.

Back Row: Steve, Matt, James, Vu, Joel, Rob, Jon, Greg
Front Row: Chris, Alasdair, Andre, Riccardo, PJ, Kyle, Me, Rodney, Mark

Jon and I with our new belts!

Among the guys testing for blue was my husband Jon! He's been doing BJJ for just over 2 years and has gotten pretty good at things. I'm ridiculously proud of him, it's kind of silly. He's going to have his hands full with the blue lightweight / featherweight division, but I think he'll fit in nicely.



For me, attaining purple belt is a cool milestone, on the way to a much more lofty goal of black belt. It's also quite inconvenient because there are so few purple belt women to compete against locally. The blue belt scene was sparse, purple is almost non-existent. There are about five girls in Ontario who compete sometimes.  The only tournaments that had any purple belts compete in Ontario were the ones with blue and purple combined (if I recall correctly) -- even the Toronto IBJJF tournament didn't have any.  The IBJJF tournament in Montreal had one purple belt division that actually had a fight and a 3 girl absolute. It looks like the OJA is going to separate blues and purples at all of their tournaments in 2013, so I won't be getting many fights locally that way.

Grappling Co does blue and up divisions AND because they give away trips, they tend to draw some higher level girls out, like a few weeks ago Nathalia came up from Boston to compete. So, locally in the GTA I'll pretty much just be competing at tournaments that give away trips and other prizes. I'm planning on heading out to California for Pans, and hopefully Worlds, if I can find the cash or win a trip. That's going to get really expensive so hopefully I can win a trip to one or the other.  I'm also planning on hitting up IBJJF Chicago and Boston. They both had a few girls in a bunch of the purple belt divisions so will be worth the road trip out.

The other cool thing about being a purple belt is now my super fight with Alison next weekend won't look silly. People like to see fighters of the same belt fight, and even though Alison and I have fought many times in the past (as white vs blue, and blue vs purple), next weekend will be the first time we compete against each other as equal belts!  I hope my new shiny purple belt is luckier then my white and blues were (jokes, I know it's not about luck)!

Does anyone have an recommendations for belts?  I really like the colour of my new one, and don't mind the belt itself, but unfortunately, we washed and dried our belts and they both shrank significantly! I was expecting it to shrink a bit, but it probably shrank 4-6 inches! It's a lot softer and easier to tie of course, but I don't think it's IBJJF legal anymore! On a related note, I'm going to need a new ranked rash guard or two as well. What a pain in the ass being promoted is. I really like the look of the new scramble ones, but they are pretty expensive and shipping them in from the UK adds another 10 or 20 bucks on top of that! 

Mike, Celine, Lucas, Brayden, Adrian, Diana, Cierra and Johnny

On a mostly unrelated note.  The Pura Kids were in action at the JCC Provincials on Saturday as well!  I wasn't able to watch any of them compete, but I know they worked really hard to get ready for the competition and they all did great!  I spent some time with them before the competition to help them with their take downs and it was a lot of fun working with them.  I'm looking forward to helping them out again for future competitions.





On a completely unrelated note, tomorrow I start my Paleo(ish) diet. I'm going to try to stick with it for 4 weeks at first and see how it goes. The basics are no dairy, no grains, no soy, no sugar, no processed crap.  Today we went grocery shopping and spent over 200 bucks!! Meat and real food is expensive! I cooked up a whole bunch of beef and chicken and veggies for my lunches. I'm quite looking forward to trying this out and seeing how my body adjusts and deals with it. I'm hoping for some great results, but I'll settle for decent ones. This weekend will be interesting, with the road trip to Montreal and everything. 



Coming up to round out the year:

• This Friday: The super fight card in Montreal to raise money for autism: Facebook Event
• This Saturday and Sunday (I'm only attending Sunday)  Hannette Staack Seminar in Toronto
• Nov 24th: OJA Provincials 
• Dec 1st : Grapplers Quest in London

I'm looking forward to a very busy 3 weeks, and then a few weeks off from competition to relax, work on some new moves and maybe go lift some weights and stuff to get ready for the INSANELY busy 2013 competition schedule.  You can have a peek at the list of potential tournaments to attend in the GTA / Montreal / Ottawa area on the Pura BJJ Blog.  It's going to be a crazy year!

See you on the mats!

Thinking about trying a little caveman dieting.

Also known as Paleo. It certainly isn't the most convenient diet I could test out, but from what I've read on the internet (and we all know everything on the internet is truth), it's a pretty healthy way of eating/living. Dieting/diet has such a negative connotation, when I say diet, I mean eating plan, or a list of the things I put in my belly -- not dieting in the calorie restricting lose weight kind of way. I'll be honest, I'd love to lose some weight while I'm at it, but for me the goal is to be healthier.

For those of you know are new to this diet. Basically it's eating like a caveman would. No processed food, and no highly farmed types of food. Lots of meat, vegetables, nuts, berries and some other fruits. Nothing that comes out of a package. No dairy, no grains, no soy. This is why I say it's not a very convenient diet.   You can't just stop at McDonalds on the way to work and grab an "Egg McMuffin". While the egg and bacon are allowed, the muffin and butter not so much.

Why would I do this to myself you ask?

I've read a lot and talked to a lot of people about gluten, and how it's not that great for you. For some people, it's fine, it doesn't affect them at all, for others, like my sister in law, it does very bad things to your digestive system, and entire body! I've read and heard all sorts of things about gluten affecting your bodies ability to heal itself and whatnot. It got me thinking, maybe that's the reason my scratches and things take so long to heal? Maybe the gluten I'm eating is affecting my body's immune system?  I know, I know, I'm the first one to say that completely eliminating one thing is not usually a good idea, but this is going to be more of an experiment than anything. I'm not doing it as a quick and easy weight loss miracle diet, I'm trying it to see if I do indeed have a sensitivity to it. So, eliminating grains takes care of the gluten.

The other big thing I've been reading and hearing a lot about is dairy. The argument can be made that no other mammal drinks milk as adult. Also, the whole dairy industry is a little frightening. Did you know the PPPM measurement is "Pus Parts per Million"?.  EWWW. That's how much infection is allowed in the milk. I know here in Canada the dairy industry is much more restricted than in the States. We don't allow the cows to be fed a lot of the fake shit and hormones that they allow in the US. But, let's be honest, does the fact that if you stop drinking milk for a while, you generally become quite intolerant not make you scratch your head and go "Hey, maybe we shouldn't be drinking this?" I think dairy will be harder for me then gluten. I love chocolate milk, I love cheese cake, I LOVE CHEESE! But, for an experiment, I think it'll be worthwhile.    There are coconut and almond milk/iced cream replacements that may or may not meet the rest of the guidelines for the whole paleo thing... I'll have to look into that.  

No soy is easy, I've never been a huge fan of the stuff. I don't like tofu, and while I used to drink soy milk, I've since replaced it with almond and coconut milk. I've read a bunch of stuff about soy and how it mimics estrogen, and how it's been connected to breast cancer and that alone is reason enough for me to avoid it. Even if it's the slightest barely connected link, I'm going to avoid that shit like it's the plague: I don't really need to increase my chances of that anymore than they already are.

Anything with sugar is out, although this mostly falls under the processed food category anyway. I'm going to miss iced cream so much. I think I can probably find a way to make some fake ice cream with plain almond milk, coconut oil, and some fruit or something. One thing that might be tricky is almost all salad dressing has sugar as an ingredient. It's weird, and seems completely unnecessary, but it's there! I suppose I can make my own, or just be careful which ones I buy. My favourites all have dairy in the form of feta in them anyway. 

What about Pork? While pork is not on the list of things that aren't allowed with this diet, I think I will cut it out completely as well. One big reason is, I'm undecided if it should or shouldn't be eaten as a Christian: in the Old Testament it was a big no-no, but in the New Testament there are couple of verses that seem to indicate it's OK. The other reason being pork is just not a very clean meat. There is a reason you have to cook it a lot more than beef, and that is a bit concerning. I do love bacon, but I think I can live without it. 

What about things from the water? Paleo allows for most things from the water, but like pork, I already don't eat a lot of it, and won't eat things like lobster, shrimp or other nasty sea insects. I do occasionally enjoy a nice battered and fried perch or cod, but the batter and frying will have to go. I'll probably eat some salmon and maybe tuna once in a while. 

Other things I love that aren't allowed:

• Crystal Light and other things that make water taste good
• Cookies
• Protein shakes
• Dessert
• Cheese--  Oh wait, I already mentioned that.  Cheese might be the worst part of this. Seriously.
• Gatorade
• Alcohol

So, when am I going to dive in and do this? I'm thinking after this weekend. That will give me a chance to clean up my kitchen, get some proper groceries, and have some time left to enjoy the deliciousness that is everything that is bad for me. Also, Saturday is a big team dinner thing at an all-you-can-eat sushi place, and I don't eat raw fish, so that leaves me with tempura vegetables, which certainly aren't paleo.


Did I miss any of the big no-nos when it comes to this diet? Have you tried it? Got any tips? Please let me know here, on my Facebook fan page, or my fitness pal profile!

Stuff and Things

So I normally blog about a tournament as soon as I get home, but I have nothing good to say about last weekend, so I don't really want to talk about it. I lost because of poor reffing in the very first round of my division. So I was the ONLY person in my division who didn't get into the absolute by default. So I went all the way to New York, for five minutes of jiu jitsu. It wasn't even a standard length match, they only do five minutes. I don't want to sound even more like a big whining baby so I'm not going to get into it.

I will NOT be returning to the Abu Dhabi Pro Trials in New York, and I will be strongly cautioning against it to anyone I talk to about it. I'll stick with the Montreal Trials from now on, which are run very well, have qualified referees and have added a bunch of weight classes for the women this year.

Check out the facebook event for the Montreal Pro Trials here:  https://www.facebook.com/events/427250647334271/   I will be competing in the Purple and up division, maybe -61kg but likely -68kg. 61kg will be quite a challenge for me to make, but it puts me at the top of the absolute, instead of the bottom. The weigh-ins are the day before, so in theory, I can dehydrate a bit of it, and still perform well.   When my mom reads this I'm going to get a lecture, but I deserve it. 134 lbs is really really light for someone who is 5'10. 

Yesterday, I agreed to replace an injured fighter on a super fight card in Montreal. I will be facing my friendly nemesis Alison Trembley in a purple belt super fight, assuming I pass my grading on November 10th. If I don't, well, I guess it will be a mixed belt super fight, which is fine, because a lot of tournaments are blue and up anyway so it's all good.

Alison and I have some serious history, we have competed against each other six times in the past, four of which took place at the Ontario Open last year. I have lost every encounter with her, but I feel like in the gi matches last year I wasn't being outclassed or anything, she was better than me, no doubt, but it wasn't like I didn't belong in the match. I did score some points on her, which is more than the people she fought in her division at worlds last year can say! I'm really looking forward to fighting her again because she is one very tough cookie, and it will be a good measure of how my jiu jitsu has come along in the six months or so since the Ontario Open. 

Here is a link to the Facebook event for the super fights: https://www.facebook.com/events/267227370058467/ All of the proceeds from the event are going to an autism charity. None of the fighters are being paid, we are all donating our time and efforts to support the cause. The event has some great sponsors on board, and is taking place at the Holiday Inn Midtown Montreal, which seems to be a very supportive hotel to the Jiu Jitsu scene in general. It is often the official tournament hotel for events in Montreal. VIP Tickets are $50 and regular tickets are $30, hit up the Facebook event to order them.

Also coming up is the OJA Provincials. Myself and 4 team mates(Alasdair, Matt, Jon and Heather) have all earned free entry into the provincials by earning points throughout the year at other OJA events.  Alasdair was 2nd in male adult Blue, Matt was top 10 in white belt no gi, Jon was top 10 in white belt gi, and Heather was top 5 in female white belt gi. Congrats to all of my teammates and also to all the other athletes who earned their way to Provincials. It should be a great event, even though they aren't giving away any trips.

Last but certainly not least is the Grappler's Quest North American Championships coming up Dec 1st in London. They are giving way $500 to a bunch of the absolute winners, so that should bring out some top level guys and girls. This will be the last event of the year for me, and will be competition number 18 for the year, or 19 if you count the super fight.  

I'm really looking forward to the break between Grapplers Quest and Ascension in January. I am going to spend some time developing some new techniques and having fun with jiu jitsu instead of always being super focused on the next competition and the testing and everything else. 2013 will be quite different than 2012.  As a purple belt, I will have a lot less opportunities to compete locally. I will limit myself to tournaments that have significant prizes for the advanced divisions (because that will bring people out to play) and to the few tournaments that Pura will be attending officially as a full team. I plan on going to Worlds and hopefully Pans in California, as well as the Chicago, New York City, and possibly Boston IBJJF Open tournaments.  These tournaments have all had some purple belt ladies in my division in the last year, so in theory, I will have people to compete with there.

That's all for now!  See you on the mats!

The Importance of Game Plans

This is part 4 of a series on the mental side of fighting and training.   Make sure you read the first 3 parts!

1. Intro and Goal Setting
2. Visualization and Positive Self Talk
3.  Fight Day Strategy

I touched on having a game plan a little bit in the visualization part of the series, but didn't really get into it much. Just said that you should be visualizing yourself executing your game plan. So, what exactly goes in the game plan and what do you do with it?

Your game plan should be simple. Those t-shirts and internet memes that say "Pull. Sweep. Submit" aren't far off from a solid game plan. It's a tad on the simplified side, but here is what you don't want your game plan to look like: "First, I'll grip with my left hand, then the right. If they step with their left, I'll go to the right. Then, I'll step in with my left, and scoop up their right leg for a single..."  Get the idea? That is way too detailed, way too much information.

Game plans can't account for every single scenario either. There shouldn't be 1000 "ifs" in your plan.  One or two is OK, but if your plan involves a lot of "ifs", then you are counting on your plan not being effective, and you need to go back to #2 and get that head on straight. Here's an example of an OK "if" in your game plan.  "Double leg straight to side control. If they get a guard, pass right away before they can close it. Follow with knee on belly to cross choke / armbar sequence.".  As you can see, there is one "if" but it resolves to the same place so we don't have a million branches.

So you've got a plan, now what?

Drill, Drill, Drill. You know the saying, "you fight how you train" or "perfect practice makes perfect" or "drill to win". All of these apply.  You need to drill all aspects of your game plan, individually, and together.    If your game plan is to get a double leg, you need to start standing when you roll.  If your game plan is to do a triangle from side control, don't pull guard every time you roll.

Now, it's important to note that I'm not saying always roll exactly what you want to do in a fight, because then you will never expand your game and never really learn jiu jitsu. But the week or two leading up to your competition should be full of very focused drilling and rolling. This is not the time to be experimenting with new techniques and playing around in your rolls. 

When your drilling your game plan, work together with your partner, let them know your game plan, so they can help you. Have them purposefully throw a wrench into your plan by reacting differently, so you can work on your reactions to all situations. Jiu jitsu may be competed as in individual sport, but it is most definitely a team sport. You will need your team mates to help get your game plan sorted and ready, and you will need to help them with the same!

There are some people out there who are against having a game plan. They feel like if they have a game plan, and something goes wrong, they will be lost like a fish out of water. But, in my opinion, if you don't have a game plan, you are already that fish out of water. If you are just reacting to what the other person does, you're going to be one step behind, the entire match. There may be a time that your game plan doesn't work out. Maybe they pulled guard faster then you could, maybe they've got legs that are a million miles long and got their guard around quick before you could pass. It doesn't matter why; at this point, you just go back to the jiu jitsu you know, and get yourself to a point that your game plan comes back into play.  

Like all the other factors in the mental side of the sport, this is going to take time to develop and work into your training and competition habits. Having a game plan will help you visualize more effectively and help you become more confident in your fights. 

So, what's your game plan?  How are you training to be able to implement it?  Where are you going to give it a test next?

See you on the mats!

Competition Day Strategy

This is part 3 of the series on the mental side of the game. If you haven't read part 1 and part 2  do it now, then come back.

It happens to everyone,  you train hard, you know your stuff, you can pull it off rolling, and then at the tournament you forget everything and get smashed.   It's not because your bad at jiu jitsu, and it for the sake of argument and this blog post, it's not because the other guy is better then you. It's likely because your not "in the zone" or any of the other buzz-words that basically just mean your head wasn't in the game.  

So, How do we fix this?   It's not easy, and it's not going to happen over night.  But it starts with the first 2 parts of this series and carries on with the rest of this post.

Developing your competition day routine

Sports players everywhere in every sport have there little things that keep them grounded when they compete.  They wear their lucky socks or underwear, they always have the exact same thing for breakfast, things like that.   These things that are often brushed away as being superstitious and nonsense can be really powerful mental tools.  Consistency in your habits will help you focus and be prepared for the day.

I can't tell you what works and what doesn't for you, Everyone will be quite different in this. Some people really like to be social at tournaments, some people don't like to talk to anyone.  Some people like to watch matches, some people that makes them very nervous.  The best way to figure out what does and doesn't work for you, is to keep a competition journal, and keep track of what happened that day leading up to your matches, and write down how you felt physically, mentally, and emotionally through out the day.  It's a bit of work, but it's well worth it.  After a few events you should have a bit of a picture of how what you do leading up to your matches affects your state of mind and your performance.

There will always be things that are out of your control, like when weigh ins are,  the time your division starts,  who you fight, what colour fighter you are.  But there are all sorts of things that you can control to counter act these unknowns and keep you focused.

This is a topic that examples will speak much louder then explanations, so let me give you a bit of a breakdown on the things that are part of my competition day strategy to get me focused and ready.
For the sake of the example, I'll use a local event that I'm driving to the morning of, since I think that is a more common case and will be a better example.

The night before:

1. pack my gear back with everything I need, including, but not limited to:
1. 2 gis, my mendes gi, and one other one, ussually a red star
2. 2 pairs of shorts, 2 rashguards, 2 sports bras
3. a full change of cloths for afterwards.
4. mouth guard, camera, extra battery, nail clippers, a fresh package of hair elastics
2. pack my non-gear  bag
1. snacks including protein bars, granola bars, some fruit
2. gatorade, usually a 6 pack, almost always grape g2.
3. a bit of candy or chocolate for quick energy and a post-fight reward
4. often i'll have some chocolate milk (the kind that stays good not in a fridge, weird, but tasty, and a good recovery drink)
3. pick out my cloths for the morning, ussually a comfy pair of jeans, my pura t-shirt, and a sweater, you never know how hot or cold the venue will be, and layers are the best way to get warm, and stay warm, but not roast when your done. Also: my competition socks, not always the same pair, but always an interesting pair, and almost always mismatched, and knee highs.
4. print out the directions, any registration confirmations, schedule, and the list of my team mates that are competing so we can keep track of the day.
5. Shower and get to bed nice and early (I like to be in bed and relaxing by 10pm, but it doesn't always work out).

Competition Day: Before the tournament:

1. Wake up about 45 minutes before we have to leave.  
2. Get up as soon as the alarm goes off (If I lay around in bed I get groggy and get headaches)
3. Check my mail, facebook, twitter.
4. Put anything that was in the fridge in the snack/lunch bag and double check my bags
5. Get breakfast, usually at mcdonalds. I know, it's weird, but I love breakfast burritos and orange juice on fight morning. 
6. Drive to the venue! I like to give myself at least lots of time to get there, generally if it's less then an hour drive, i double the time, if it's more then an hour, I give myself an extra hour to get there.  

 At the venue

1. Check in / Register right away,  pick up my free t-shirt if there is one and stake out a spot in the bleaches/stands.
2. If it's all bleachers, I go for the top of the most central place. This way you can see all the mats, and you don't have to worry about people stepping on your bags b/c your at the top.
3. I'll check my weight on the scale right away, and depending on how that is, have a snack, or not.

 More then 1 hour before my fights

• The time way before my fights I'm really relaxed, I'll be social, I'll listen to music, I'll watch the fights.  
• I tend to just be relaxed and not thinking about my matches, my division, whom i'm fighting and whatnot.
• I like to watch my team mates,  video them, or take pictures.   
•  

 Less then 1 hour before my fights

• At about the hour mark, I'll get changed into my gi, and check my weight again, just to be sure.  If i'm good, I'll have another snack, likely some of the fruit, and gatorade. 
•  At this point, you never really know when exactly your going to be up, even at the most organized and scheduled events.  (except maybe IBJJF they are pretty particular about their schedules).   So  I like to be pretty much ready to go about 1/2 hour before i'm scheduled.  
• I'll put my headphones in both ears, but not loud. I listen to mostly metal, rock, alternative.  Pre-fight is a lot of stuff like In Flames, Korn, System of a down, avenging sevenfold and killswitch engage.   I have a lot of the same songs on my car's usb drive that I do on my mp3 player.
• At this point I get a lot more anti-social, I'll still chat a bit with my team mates but I'm starting to think about my matches, and doing some visualization and whatnot.

 After my divisions has been called up

•  Music on, socks on, sweater on.  
• Generally I'll pace and do some light stretches before the matches, just staying warm, but not spending a lot of energy.  I'll close my eyes and do some serious visualization and self talk to.

 I'm up next

• Head over to the mat,  pacing if there is room, or just standing beside it, staying loose.  
• headphones, sweater and socks come off just before I step on the mats and it's go time.

 Match Time:

• Check the score board, make sure it's clear and the match time is right.
• Shake hands with the ref, shake hands with my opponent, and say "ooos".   This is something I've done since my judo days, back before ooos was said at the end of every sentence, on every picture that has anything to do with jiu jitsu, and before it was completely watered down.   It's me saying "Thanks for coming out, let's fight hard, and do what we came to do".  It puts my brain right where it needs to be. 
•  FIGHT!

Between matches

• Put my socks back on right away, ussually put my music on in one ear. 
• drink some gatorade 
• shake hands with the coach(if they are around) of my opponent and congratulate them and the coach on a good match.
• I'll chat with a team mate or two between matches, but generally stick to myself, keep warm, and listen to music.  I don't think about the last match, and I re-focus myself with some visualization and whatnot.

So that's generally what I do,  If it's a tournament I have to travel to, I stick to this, but of course drive to the tournament, sleep in a hotel, but It's mostly the same.  This strategy, or plan, or set of habits, whatever you want to call it, is key to me being ready mentally and physically for my fights.  It's been in development since I was about 16 or 17 years old competing in judo tournaments.   It's shifted over the years but hasn't changed a lot.

For you, it might be quite different!  You might be social until right before you step on the mats,  maybe you like to sit at the bottom,  maybe you can't watch your team mates because you get to excited and nervous and it wastes all your energy.    It's going to take some experimenting to figure it all out, but once you do, you'll have a very powerful tool to help you perform the best that you can.

Alright, this blog post is long enough, I was going to talk about game plans but I'll save that for another day.   If you have any questions about this stuff please post a comment, or message me on facebook, or twitter, or email me or whatever.   I'm more then happy to share my experiences and the stuff I've learned in courses with fellow competitors.

I'll be running a new, much easier to enter contest on my fan page to correspond with this blog post.   All you have to do is Share my blog on facebook or twitter, like my fan page, and post on there that you shared it(There will be a post to comment on to say you shared it. if it's twitter, i'll need a link to the tweet, just to verify it) Alternately, you can just share the post from my fan page that has this blog on it, if that is easier for you.  OR, if you got here from twitter, give my tweet with the link a retweet and I should see it.    The winner will be chosen randomly and will win a VVV rashguard of their choice! Contest closes October 24th.

Toronto Grappling Grand Prix Oct 13th 2012

I failed, again.  I went into this tournament with the intention of winning the blue and up absolute to win a trip to pans in 2013.  Well, someone you may have heard of,  Nathalia Azoff, a brown belt from BTT in Boston, put an end to that plan, in a very decisive fashion.  She is ridiculously good,and a really cool person, so I can't even vilify her in my head.

I did have a couple good moments of competition.   I avenged my loss to Tiffany, and escaped or just survived long enough for her to transition to something else, an insanely tight bow and arrow choke, that I probably should have tapped to, but I had made a goal in my head over the last few weeks to not give up on escaping from chokes as quickly, so I feel like I accomplished that.


Here's a picture of me in trouble!  Link .The picture is courtesy of Kelvin Martin. Here is the album.

The +135 blue and up division had 5 ladies in it, and -135 only had one!  I felt bad for Jodi, who only got one match in the absolute (against Nathalia).  Thankfully she didn't come from a long ways away to be there, and she got to have a great match with Nathalia, so it wasn't a completely wasted day for her.   It's weird because ussually the smaller divisions have more girls, not the other way around.

The white belt ladies divisions were pretty good sized as well. I think under 135 had 5 people, and over 135 had 2 or 3.   There was more in the nogi.   and I don't think any advanced nogi matches took place because Nathalia had to leave, and that left only team mates in the division.  I did not compete in nogi because I was refereeing.

So, a little bit about the event.

There was about 380 individual people competing, which added up to about 550 competitors when counting gi and nogi.  The event ran from 9am to 7pm, which is pretty good considering how many matches that adds up to when pretty much everyone is fighting 4x.  The organizers stated that there was over 1000 matches scheduled.   They had 11 mat areas, in a U shape, with the tables in the middle, which is a great idea because it keeps the view of the mats pretty open for the spectators and coaches. 

It seemed like the tournament was running pretty smoothly,  There were a few very new refs, myself included, but from what I saw, and heard, they all did a decent job.   I heard a few cases of people arguing with some of the more experienced referees, but from what I heard, the refs were indeed in the right, and the coaches were not understanding the rules.   The tournament followed the IBJJF rule book pretty well, other then their tournament format (always single elimination) and a few other details not relating to the match rules.

The level of competition at the event was high, I think due to the fact that 4 trips to pans were on the line!  There was a LOT of purple belts, and a decent amount of brown/blacks to!   I didn't get a chance to watch many of the matches because I was busy, but from what I heard they were very competitive.  

My first time as a ref

I took the IBJJF ref course when it came to town with the Toronto Open back in the summer.  It was interesting, but I didn't find that I took as much away from it as I wanted.  I think the course could use some tweaks, and some more real-time and situation training instead of just reading the rules and talking about them.   Anyway, this got me invited to ref at this event.  At first I wasn't confident enough to do it, but I was convinced that I could, so I did. 

I was refereeing junior 1 and 2 all day. Gi and No Gi.   It was quite the adventure.  There are quite a few restrictions on subs that are allowed and not allowed, and it changes between 1 and 2, so I had to keep on my toes to keep them straight.   I know I made a few mistakes about allowing things in 1 when I they were not allowed, but they got sorted out, and the right kids won the matches in the end.  At the end of the day, I took over for one of the other refs and got to do a few adult beginner -170 nogi matches.  It was quite different from the kids divisions but I think i handled them well.

By the end of the day I was really really tired,  and my knees were more sore then they have been in months.  I guess all the standing, crouching, kneeling, and walking around to referee took it's toll on them.  They are fine today, so no damage done.   I certainly have a new appreciation for the referees at events and how exhausting it is.  10 hours on your feet, focusing hard on a task is physically, and mentally draining.  

Here is one of the albums of pictures floating around on facebook:  BJJ Addict
My Team mate Heather also took a few great pictures of my matches. You can find them on my fan page tournament picture album. Please stop by there and give the page a like. 

The next tournaments for me are:
NYC Abu Dhabi Pro Trials
OJA Provincials
Grapplers Quest London 

Also coming up, but ones I sadly cannot attend are:  Ottawa Open (this weekend), and Montreal Grappling  (November 10th).  Both of these are going to be great events that I am pretty bummed about having to miss.

Then I have a few weeks off over December and early January before Ascension, Montreal Grappling and Toronto Grappling in Late January/ Feb. 

See you on the Mats!

Believe and Achieve aka Visualization and Positive Self Talk

Alright, so I stole the title from our amazing team head instructors, the Mendes brothers. But, they are right on the money with the phrase so I decided to borrow it.

 If you haven't read the first post in this series make sure you do! It introduces the mental side of the fight game and goal setting.

Visualization and positive self talk really go together nicely. Basically, visualization is watching videos of yourself doing what your game plan is in your head, over and over and over. There's a bit more to it, but that's the basics. Positive self talk is basically telling yourself that you can do it, of course, there is more to that too.

Visualization

This is something you can do any time, anywhere. Visualize yourself doing all aspects of your game plan from start to end. Watch yourself start the match, slap hands, pull guard, and set up your sweep or sub.  Watch your hand being raised at the end of the match.  All in your head of course ;)

It's important to visualize things on the high level, like I just described, and also on the more detailed level.  Think about and visualize exactly where your grips are going to be, exactly where your feet are going, how you break their balance, and so on.

So take 5 minutes before or after class, or while you're waiting for the bus, or brushing your teeth and do some visualization :)

Positive Self Talk

Basically, this is you not being negative. It's believing in yourself, and reinforcing that belief by telling it to yourself.  This is something you can do while you are working on your visualization, and before your matches to get you into the right mind set.   Some examples of this are "No one has trained as much as I have for this", "I will get the triangle set up I have been working on", "It will be my hand raised at the end of the match".

If both of these concepts are new to you, it'll probably feel weird at first, but give them a chance, try to spend a few minutes every day on each and you will feel less weird pretty quick. :)  And even if it does seem weird, do it anyway, and keep at it. It'll help improve your game and mind set quickly!

So these two tools will help you get your brain on track and help you get focused and ready for competitions and other challenges.   Like goal setting, these concepts can be applied to all things in your life, not just jiu jitsu.  They can be applied to your general fitness goals, school goals, and life goals.

 

"90% of the fight game is half mental" or something

I think it was Tim Sylvia who said that particular quote, and it's almost kind of accurate.  The mental side of fighting is a HUGE part of it and there are many different aspects of the mental side of fighting.   

One of my team mates and I had a discussion the other day about the mental side of competing and ways to improve our competition results (aside from the obvious, drill more, roll more, lift more type things).   Mental Preparation is often over looked and can make a huge difference! 

 I'm no sport psychologist, but I've taken and completed the NCCP program all the way up to Level 3.  I'm not technically level 3 certified, because I never got around to doing the practical side of Level 2.  But I have passed everything for level 3. so whatever.   This blog isn't about my NCCP progress.   In these courses we talked and dealt a lot with the mental side of sports, and combat sports specifically, since I took the Judo sport specific side of the course.  I would day 99% of the content, aside from the technical stuff,  directly relates to Jiu Jitsu.   I have applied a lot of the things I learned over the years in taking these, and other courses/seminars directly to my self and had pretty solid results.

So what exactly is involved in the mental side of the game?  Some key parts are:

1. Goal Settings
2. Visualization
3. Positive Self Talk
4. Developing and Using your competition day strategy and mindset.
5. Game Planning

Goal Setting
This goes way beyond making your new years resolutions.   But to give it some perspective, every year, we make new years resolution, and we are mega motivated to meet them, at first, then we get bored, or we've made them to lofty, or forget, or whatever.  But, think about how amazing it would be to harness that early motivation, and apply it to your training, and competition! 

There are really 2 main types of goals, short term goals, and long term goals.  You need both to be successful in the fight game, and in everything.   Your short term goals are goals, and milestones along the way to your long term goals,  and/or things that will make your long term goals possible.

Short Term goals should be based on a a time span of a week to a month, of course they can be shorter, or longer, but that's a pretty safe range.  So examples of short terms goals, for jiu jitsu are:

• Drill 200 arm bars from 2 different positions
• Use a specific technique in live rolling successfully X amount of times
• roll 5 rounds in a row without taking a row

As you can see, these are generally easily attainable things, that are steps towards medium, and long term goals.  Some examples of long term goals:

• Win a medal at a tournament 
• Earn a trip to Abu Dhabi
• win a match by submission
• not gassing at a tournament

These goals are clear, consise, and measurable.   Goals like "have better cardio" arn't good goals, how much better? how do you determine what is better?   Same with "Do better in competition",  what is better? Is it winning more? is it not getting subbed? is it not being sloppy?  it's to broad!


So what do we do to use this information?
At the begining of the year, or season, or what have you,  You need to sit down, with a pen and paper (or computer i suppose).  and figure out what your long term goal(s) is.  Don't make to many, 2 or 3 is good.   Then, come up with the short term goals you need to reach that long term goal.   Once you have those written down,  make your schedule of when you want/need to obtain those short term goals by, in order to reach your long term goal.   Finally,  make notes on HOW you are going to achieve those goals.     Going back to my examples for short term goals:

For drill 200 arm bars:  the notes would be something like "Get to class early 3x a week with a partner, and do 2 sets of 20 each.  Also take 1 round of rolling during open mat to drill as many as possible".   For rolling 5 rounds without a break... "roll every other round the first week.  Roll 2 in a row with one off the 2nd week. Roll three in a row the third week, and so on.  Also, do this and that specific cardio at the gym 3x a week"  Got the picture?  It's basically making a road map for yourself.

I've made a little document you can use to set this up: Goal Document


It's important that your Long Term, and Short Term goals are reasonable, make them attainable, but not to easy.   It's also important to keep yourself accountable to these goals.   Update your goal document as the dates for them come around.  Make new short term goals as you accomplish them, and always keep your eye on the prize, which is your long term goal.

It can be helpful to share your goals with your coach, or a team mate or two.   Having them aware, and on board will help you be attain your goals by having them help you be accountable, and by supporting you on your journey!

 So, that's a basic introduction to Goal Setting!   It's a great tool to help you get where you want to be and a huge part of the mental side of the sport.   You can even have goals about the mental side of the sport, but since we've only covered goal setting so far, I'd stick to the more traditional goals ;)   

I'll write about the other 3 parts in subsequent blog posts over the next few days/weeks as time permits!   In the mean time,  set your goals, make a plan, and feel free to share them with me!