I made a brief tournament hi-lite reel featuring my classmates at Hollywood BJJ.

We practiced the Almeida guillotine today and I came as close as I’ve ever come to blacking out.  My field of vision started to shrink and I could feel myself starting to go out.  All I could think was, man I hope I don’t crap myself.

On a happier note, a couple of bad-asses from the academy got promoted to brown belt at the academy’s christmas party.  I had a mix-up with my ride, and I couldn’t make it to the party so I have no pictures unfortunately.  Ah well…

So a bunch of us drove to Las Vegas for Grappler’s Quest.   I have many observations from the weekend, but the main thing I took away from the weekend is that the submission grappling scene isn’t for amateurs anymore.  There were countless pro MMA fighters competing in the tournament.  Some of these guys are contractually obligated to train six days a week.

After the tournament we ran into Joe “Daddy” Stevenson in the parking lot and he was totally cool and gracious.  As I was snapping this pic, some guy wearing a Rey Diogo shirt jumped in the picture, gave Ron a wedgie, then ran off screaming like a madman.

The guy second from the left with the demonic eyes is Jose.  After this trip he will be known simply as “Mr. Las Vegas”.

Some of you know that I am a software engineer by trade, which means I sit around all day writing computer code.  For the most part we coders are an incredibly anal lot.  The level of neurosis that pervades my profession is sometimes baffling to outsiders.  When non-engineers see us bickering about how much white space should follow an opening parenthesis, the natural reaction is to dismiss us as a bunch of pointy-headed dweebs.  How can something so seemingly trivial matter so much?

It matters because beautiful code tends to be durable code.  Beautiful code gets used and extended and disseminated for years and years.  Its value to society vastly outweighs the investment of its creation.

Conversely, ugly code is like a dog turd in the middle of the sidewalk.  Until its inevitable demise ugly code causes a major annoyance and hazard.

I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest that the same rules apply to BJJ.  At the top level of our sport is there anyone who has an ugly game?  Roger Gracie and Marcelo Garcia have very different styles but they are both beautiful to watch.

So what is beautiful BJJ?  What qualities do Roger and Marcelo share?

A couple years ago I had the privilege of hearing a prominent software engineer named Marcel Molina give his take on what makes code beautiful and I think it applies equally well to BJJ.  Marcel used Thomas Aquinas’ definition of beauty to offer the following rules for what makes a thing beautiful:

• Proportion: the parts of the system are no bigger then necessary and nothing is missing
• Clarity: no unnecessary complexity
• Integrity: the solution is well-suited to the problem

When I think about how I can improve my game it always seems to come down to one of these elements.  When I attempt a triangle do I remember to flex my foot, squeeze my thighs, elevate my hips and pull down on my opponent’s head?  When the proportion of the parts is correct I tend to finish.  When I leave something out or go too hard on one of the movements my triangles fall apart.

Anyway, I don’t want to dork out too much but sometimes it’s helpful to me to think about things in new ways, so I thought I’d share this with the five people who read this blog.

Here’s a picture of me and Professor Larry on my last day at the Ricardo Almeida academy in Hamilton, NJ.  I feel very fortunate to have had an opportunity to train with this team.  They showed me the most generous hospitality and were amazing representatives of Ricardo and the sport of BJJ.  I hope I get another chance to learn from Professor Larry and Ricardo under better circumstances.