John has been my instructor for over four and a half years and knows my game better than just about anybody. I asked him to identify a few areas I could stand to work on over the next 25 days.
Also, I agreed to let him speak about me for forty seconds without interrupting him -- which, as many of you know, can be a struggle for me.
Read More"Hey Raf, I think it's cool that you're doing this, but have you built in rest days into this at all?"
The following inquiry comes from one young Eric Medina of The Los Angeles Jiu-Jitsu Club. As I work up my reassuring answer ("yeah, of course I'm going to build in some rest days"), I also can't help but remember that this happens to be my seventh straight day of training jiu-jitsu when he asks me this question
Read MoreIn the video below, I confront one example of trying to replicate Justin Rader's snap down double leg take down. When I saw him do it on the video, I thought it might be a nice option for my style of wrestling. I thought (and I don't say this often), "oh, I might actually be able to do that one."
The results below, however, proved otherwise.
Read MoreAs I outlined in my original post, a great deal of my wrestling has always come in the form of counter-wrestling. Letting my opponent make the first move and then working to put out fires as they come up.
It's not the smartest of strategies, but it's pretty much all I've got. Today, I opted to try and identify a few of my worst habits so that I can hopefully start to break a few of them.
Read MoreSo I had my good friend Joey Hauss from The Los Angeles Jiu-Jitsu Club help me out with an exercise yesterday. Joey's wrestling and jiu-jitsu are very solid. Not only has he competed at a couple EBIs, but he's managed to combine his natural athleticism with a very technical rolling style under the tutelage of Jean Jacques Machado.
In short, training with him is the worst.
Read MoreDay One of my #HybridSuccessChallenge: I did the most Bugs Bunny-esque style of physical comedy/prop humor that I have ever done in jiu-jitsu.
Read MoreI have managed to go the past five years of my jiu-jitsu journey getting by on counter-wrestling, misdirection, and (what I like to call) creative sprawling, but I see my tricks getting old real fast. Despite the better efforts of my truly amazing instructors and training partners, my efforts to improve my wrestling skills have been marginal at best. I know that in order to even maintain level of being “passable” as I continue to rise up the ranks in BJJ, I have to evolve.
That is why I’ve decided to put myself on a 30 day wrestling challenge.
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