Jiu-Jitsu is not for the WEAK!

Today was an Amazing Saturday at Unit 2 and Team Roberto Traven BJJ!  It started off with an amazing Women's BJJ class at 10am.  It was a full class of 11 incredibly tough and willing to learn ladies.  All these ladies come to class with an open mind and more importantly open ears.  They all listen very well.  No matter what is asked of them they will try their damnedest to do so.  This also includes the warm-up.  Now if you go to any legit bjj school... You know what scratch that.  If you bring your ass to Traven's BJJ school you will understand that this term "warm-up" is just a term used loosely.  The "warm-up" is actually, in most cases, a very difficult workout.  So f-ing what!  There are reasons for this "warm-up".  Jiu-Jitsu has a lot of technique involved and you can focus more on learning and applying this technique if you are already a little fatigued, also Jiu-Jitsu involves a lot of anaerobic and aerobic conditioning.  So performing this workout will only help you in your competitions and your progress.  Also, this is a great opportunity for a lot of you who have busy lives to take advantage of a great situation.  You can come to BJJ and get an excellent BJJ session as well as a chance to get an overall total body workout that you may not have time to do other wise.  Another advantage to these workouts/warm-ups is to work off a lot of the terrible shit you eat on a daily basis, or the beer you feel you have to drink, or get the most out of your one workout session per week (see first blog entry).

(Now back to the "perfect Saturday".  I also had a personal training session with a client today who is willing to come in and kill herself to get better; she doesn't complain and bitch about what she is told to do.  Some of you could learn from all the ladies I had the privilege of working with today.)

While I was training my client I could see a training partner of mine, Richard, who was covering the 1130 class for Traven, as he is in Jacksonville at Jacksonville BJJ for a seminar.  He is already known for making the warm-ups quite exhausting but still very beneficial, so people should have known what they were getting into and jumped on the opportunity for a great class.  I believe the class started with about 5-6 people so Richard made 5-6 stations at an allotted amount of time per station and an allotted number of times for the circuit to be completed.  Well, after this was made people still continued to show up for class late.  Maybe for a reason or maybe just to try and avoid these warm-ups.  (You know who you are and what your reason was; if it was the latter take a look in the mirror and reevaluate your mental and physical toughness.) So every time someone showed up late Richard added a station and the warm-up continued.  I believe by the time it was all said and done another 5 or so guys had showed up making the entire workout take upwards of like 40 minutes or so.  Most were screaming and grunting their way through the stations, others were quietly focusing and pushing themselves inside to complete it, but 1 individual decided that he wasn't mentally and physically tough enough for this workout and no longer wanted to participate in things like this so he walked out and went to the front office, filed his complaints to the owner/operator and canceled his membership.  Now I don't think an acronym does my feelings and reactions justice so LAUGHING MY F-ING ASS OFF!  Wow! Seriously are you that weak of an individual that you cancel a gym membership where you joined to learn from one of the best ever competitors and instructors bc one of his more experienced students made a warm-up "too hard".  Well if that is the case then I say good ridden bc there is no room for you on this team and truthfully there is no room for you in any gym.  Stay your ass at home and do P90x so no one sees you quit and cry bc something is too hard.

People listen! You can not be the best at anything if you don't work hard.  "Anything worth having is worth working for."  No sport is one sided. Whether technique or strength and conditioning is your specialty it involves a balance of both for you to succeed.  If you don't believe me then come to our gym and tell me bc we have all types that are working to balance out what they are weaker at to become a complete student that will help me prove my point.  If you are just a strong person then come on in and get your ass kicked by a much smaller guy who is extremely technical and if you are purely technical then come on in and get slammed on your head and thrown around by a very strong, avg sized student who will send you running to your nearest squat rack, or the damn doctor!

Training is for Training!

When it is time to train and your instructor/trainer gives you technique to work on or puts you to roll/spar full speed how many of you spend the first few minutes talking to your partner before rolling? Or how many of you start listing out the reasons as to why you can't go hard this roll? Or how many talk throughout the whole roll just bullshitting or better yet you are probably trying to "help" your partner with their technique. LMAO! Why in the hell are you doing this? Shut your damn mouth and do what your instructor put you to do!

I know why most of you do it. It goes back to my very first post. You really aren't at the gym to get better or to work hard. You are just there to be able to tell your friends that you train in something cool. Well If this is the case stay your ass out of any class I am participating in. And have more respect for your partner. They most likely aren't a lazy ass like you and they came to get better. If you can't keep your mouth shut then do us all a favor and fake an injury and sit on the side or go home until you can figure out how.

And to all of you who have comments and criticisms while training for your partner... GO PLAY IN TRAFFIC! Here we go back to my second post. Leave that to the INSTRUCTOR. There is a reason you pay someone for instruction, because you don't know what the hell you are doing. I mean Damn! You are probably telling them how to fix something they just kicked your ass with and you are trying to delay another ass whooping. Again if this is the case fake an injury and sit on the side and watch real people who want to learn train or just drive back home to your computer and watch it on YOUTUBE.