Here are some pictures from Sean Flannery’s black belt celebration. All of us from Hollywood BJJ went to a hotel in downtown LA called the Standard. The Standard has a rooftop bar and lounge. I believe Sean Flannery is Shawn Williams’ first black belt so it was a big deal for the academy.

Sometimes during open mat I’ll watch Sean tie people in knots and I am gripped with schadenfreude. “I got mugged by Flannery” is a rueful phrase you hear a lot at Hollywood BJJ. In addition to being a two-fisted ass kicker, Sean is a truly generous and genuine dude and I really enjoy his classes.

Due to my inept photogritude, everyone I snap looks like the devil. In the picture below, Sean is the devil in the middle.

This picture sucks too, but it’s one of about three that doesn’t have my thumb in the frame. I just had a private with the guy in the “Thinker” pose (Warren Stout). I have to write more about that later.

Here’s the other picture.

I roll with all of these guys. The guy looking at the camera is a for-real photographer named Ron who is also known as “The Meanest White Belt”. Soon he will be “The Meanest Blue Belt” and then the universe will need to re-balance itself with another mean white belt.

It’s hard to believe but I’ve been doing Brazilian Jiu Jitsu for a year now. Looking back over the year it’s hard to remember who I was when I first stepped on the mat. A year ago I weighed 230 pounds. Years of driving a desk had turned me into a festering mass of nagging yuppie ailments. Running four miles was an agonizing mental test for me. Today I weigh 190 pounds and my overall fitness is better than it’s ever been. Mentally I’m a lot tougher and that discipline has carried over into every other aspect of my life.

While there are many positives, I do have regrets about the past year. For someone who trains five or six days a week my Jiu Jitsu is appalling. I think there are a lot of reasons for this but the main reason is that I didn’t train with a specific goal until recently. When I did narrow in on a goal, it turned out to be the wrong goal. Here’s what I mean:

After months of training with marginal improvement I decided to just focus on one thing and get really good at it. Since back mount is the most dominant position I decided to focus on obtaining back mount. For four months this was all I worked on, and I really improved. Unfortunately, I neglected my guard game and as a result I can’t fight off my back well. I can count on two hands the number of times I’ve submitted anyone from guard. That’s pretty sad. In my last tournament I had to pull guard out of desperation and I could not threaten my opponent at all from my back.

For people who are just starting out at BJJ, I think it’s important to train with a specific goal, but not to “swing above your weight.” For example, if you’re not good at passing guard, you’re not likely to be in a position to take someone’s back. If you’re not good at take downs how often are you going to pass guard? And so on.

In my own case I think I need to stop swinging above my weight by focusing on the following things over the next year:

• Escape from side control (but not the single-leg attack which is all I do now)
• Escape from mount (but not the bridge because I don’t want to take on the complication of guard passing)
• Full guard
• Half guard

When I feel comfortable with those things, maybe it will be time to develop other positions.

My photographer friend Ron took this picture of me stretching between matches at the South Bay Open this weekend. I lost my first match in overtime. I’m not sure how points were awarded, I just know I lost. I won my second match by kimura. Then I lost my third match on points. I got tooled in my third match actually. My teacher Shawn Williams was there and his coaching probably saved me from getting submitted a couple of times in the third match when I got a step behind.

In between my matches these two huge Samoan guys fought. They probably weighed 400 pounds each. It was awesome to behold. It was like watching two shaved grizzlies put on kimonos and then smash each other.

I’m a big fan of kettlebells, and think they’re great for BJJ. For a while I was doing a variation of the “Fight Gone Bad” circuit that is popular with CrossFitters. In my version of Fight Gone Bad I would do one minute of squats, one minute of rows, one minute of shrimps, one minute of swings, and one minute of presses. I’d do three of these five minute rounds. This workout is both mentally and physically draining, and after a while I found it to be detrimental to my BJJ. I was so depleted after doing Fight Gone Bad that I was too weak to roll and ended up getting injured twice.

Then I discovered Kenneth Jay’s VO2 max workout. I actually bought the DVD from dragondoor. If you’re considering buying the DVD I’ll give you warning that it is tailored to RKC kettlebell instructors. There are a lot of diagrams and charts that demonstrate the scientific underpinnings of VO2 max from an instructor’s point of view. The DVD will not teach you how to snatch properly. If you want to learn the snatch I recommend one of Mike Mahler’s DVD’s. I have two of his DVD sets and they’re very good for kettlebell biomechanics.

I won’t get into the science stuff, which I barely understand anyway. In brief, I’ll just say that VO2 max refers to the body’s ability to transport and utilize oxygen. Many consider VO2 max to be a key measure of cardio-respiratory endurance. Improving VO2 max is complex - the one thing I’ll mention is that interval exercise has been proven to be more effective at increasing VO2 max than long duration exercise.

Anyway, the DVD shows you how to measure the kettlebell snatch cadence that optimally stimulates VO2 max. In my case it was 16 snatches every 36 seconds. So the complete workout consists of 20 sets of 36 seconds of work and 36 seconds of rest. During the work period I’m supposed to do 16 snatches at a cadence that will make me finish the last rep exactly at the end of the 36 second interval. Unless you’re huge, a 35lb kettlebell is the ideal weight for this protocol.

In my case I started at 12 sets. I couldn’t do any more than that because my hands were too weak to do that many snatches. Eventually I worked my way up to 16 sets of 16 reps. I wanted to compete in a couple of tournaments this summer and I thought I better amp up my cardio training so a few weeks ago I started doing 16 sets of 18 reps. Last week I started doing 20 sets of 18 reps. Here’s what my hand looks like this morning…

I started developing blisters about ten days ago. I put krazy glue all over them so I could get through my workout but I guess the additional four sets I’ve been doing all week were the straw that broke the camel’s back. The big blister in the middle of my hand was oozing in a frightful manner this morning. It was effing heinous if you want to know the truth. I’ve also got three blisters on my right hand that are ready to go at any moment.

Anyway, the good news is my cardio is better than it’s been in twenty years. Also my grip strength is way better. Now if I could just elevate my technique…

Today’s class was taught by a Korean gent who also teaches at the Apgujeong academy. In this picture he’s the guy making the tripod.

The class was taught in Korean so I was sort of scratching my head and trying to follow along. But Dane helped me out by translating. Dane is passing guard here.

A lot of the blue belts were practicing leg locks and heel hooks. These moves are off limits for white belts at Shawn Williams’ academy so I don’t know any of this stuff. Brian is doing a heel hook on Dane here.

The instructor helped me out with my sit-out from the north-south bottom position. Then he got hungry and decided to open some cans.

It’s the monsoon season in Korea so it’s raining like a mother. During class the rain was pounding on the roof of the hangar where we work out and it was really loud. For some reason I can’t stay hydrated here. My pee is a really weird radioactive yellow color. That means you’re dehydrated.

Anyhoo, I’m going to try to take better pictures today.