Finding Inspiration

Training this year has been difficult so far. Having rolled my ankle again back in December, and sailing the majority of the year haven't given me much time on the mats. I've been doing what I can to maintain my fitness while out to sea, and make it to classes when I can. Spending a few days in Hawaii back in April really gave me a lot of time to think and find new inspiration. I've never been a religious man, but something about being in Hawaii, talking to some of the people I met on the sail about their tragedies, and reading a story about a child that was born without ears in a book called "Think and Grow Rich" taught me that having faith can go a long way. The world itself can have many different meanings to many different kinds of people so I won't presume to tell anyone what its definition is, or should be.

Over the past year I've come to believe that positive thinking can have an incredible affect on not only your life, but everyone else's around you. It has often been very difficult to practice this belief while being away for long periods of time. It seems that for every ounce of progress I've made, an equal amount of negative progress, sometimes more, has almost immediately followed it. Maybe life is just meant to have these types of balances for periods of time, who knows...

I've spent several years now working on my physical fitness, which has also helped my mental fitness a great deal. I've often thought of this approach as a sort of Yin & Yang balance; the stronger the body, the stronger the mind, and vice versa. I'm beginning to realize that this has been the wrong approach however, because I've been neglecting a third component: the spirit.

As many of you know the symbol that is often associated with Jiu Jitsu is the triangle. The three sides each represent mind, body, and spirit. I've known this for quite some time, but honestly that's ALL I've ever known about it. I decided to dig a little deeper today and found a quote from Rickson Gracie that helped me put it into perspective:


"If you imagine a perfect triangle in three dimensions - in pyramid form - you can see how you can push it to either side and will always be stable. It regains its solid position every time. The application of this concept works that way. When you are mounted on your opponent ans have three points of contact, he can move you around and you will easily find your third point again. No matter how or where he moves you, you will be able to find his third point of support."


Another great source of inspiration lately has been watching my fellow Jiu Jitsu practitioners getting promoted to the next level: many blue, some purple, and one brown belt! I was away at sea during the testings last year (seeing the pattern yet?) and could only read about them and see the pictures through Facebook. Being there in person this time was different, you could feel the emotion in the air; the fear, the anticipation, the excitement, the joy, the passion, and the massive feeling of accomplishment once it was all over. Even though I wasn't testing for my own belt promotion it was time well spent to show support for those who were.

Following the two days of belt testings was the Trifecta seminar which was a combination of three different styles of Jiu Jitsu: Can Ryu, Kokodo, and Brazilian. I had never even heard of the first two until the seminar and it was fun to see different flavors of Jiu Jitsu. We began the seminar with Sensei Steve Hiscoe, and 8th degree Red/White belt instructor of Can Ryu Jiu Jitsu. Many of the techniques he demonstrated were focused on self defense and striking. I had a lot of fun with these techniques and didn't have much difficulty in learning them.

The second phase of the seminar was rather difficult for me to learn. This is where we took instruction from Sensei Michael Seamark, a Kyoshi in Kokodo Jiu Jitsu. Many of the techniques involved very suttle, small movements in order to be effective and I couldn't quite get most of them to work. Even though they weren't working for me, they were well worth learning and seeing them done properly by Kyoshi Seamark was an experience in and of itself!

We finished the seminar with Sensei Keith Owen instructing, a 2nd Degree Black Belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. He demonstrated techniques to make our upa escapes while being mounted much better, and from a few different scenarios. We also learned a really cool choke using the opponent's gi, which I almost caught someone with while rolling last night.

With all of that being said, I've decided that it's time to try competing again! I've signed up for the BC Provincials tournament as a light weight competitor. The tournament is on June 13th so that gives me three weeks to train and make weight. I need to be down to 168lbs. for the light weight division, unless I want to compete at the middle weight division of 181.5lbs. It will be fun to get off the island for awhile and competing is always a good learning experience.

That's all for now. I'll update again as the tournament gets closer.