TrumpetDan's jiu jitsu training log

T

TrumpetDan

Green Belt
@Green
Joined
Nov 25, 2008
Messages
1,301
Reaction score
0
Seeing as how worlds 2009 just ended, I figure its a good point to start a training log. My goals for a long time have been to win the pan american or world championships with the gi. I dont want to be average, above average or even just good. I want to be the best. I want to win and I want to win by submission. I can take a loss in stride and attempt to learn from each one. Despite my goals, Its more about the journey than the destination so I hope you enjoy this journey with me. Maybe one day ill sit and look back on this and laugh about it with friends.

At the start of this blog I am a blue belt under Brad Jackson and Bruno Paulista. I train regularly at my gym Ralph Gracie OC no less than 5 times a week. As a blue belt I have won a few local tournaments but nothing major yet. I compete as a lightweight for most tournaments, though I am pretty light for that class when i train hard.

Ill add more about myself in my first several posts, but ill keep it at that for now.
 
It looks like I wont be doing commentary for the IBJJF any more...at least in the near term. I think its no secret that budovideos produces the IBJJF ppv's under the IBJJFtv banner. The IBJJF, and most others, have gone to FloGrappling. I am not privy to much special information so I am mostly just sharing my opinion as a fan.

I dont care for FloGrappling and do not think its good for the sport. Period. The community has given them control of nearly all of PPV access. This makes my jaw drop at the willingness for so many people to just hand over their product in an exchange for an, "all i have to do is sign these papers, do nothing and I get a check?" check. With this near monopoly, they are putting it all are all behind a single paid subscription wall. You think your new white belt or blue belt just waking up to the competition scene is going to subscribe to a flow grappling plan to watch the NY Pro? Of course they wont. I wont. Think whatever you wish negative about the IBJJF - they only matter in the world of the IBJJF. You as a community are empowering Flo to effect how you consume nearly all major organizations. The people you empower - the flograppling organizers, now have a major influence in the sport. Do you know who these people are and do you want to give them this control?

One FloGrappling representative (and coincidentally, my replacement) was actively trying to rally support against me on social media while commentating in Vegas. I was told about this out today which was pretty upsetting as well. Vegas was a difficult thing to do for 11 hours solo, but I felt like I did a decent job even when not considering the various challenges of the event - ranging from technical difficulties to skeleton staff. I personally didnt care for the Flo commentary at no gi pans, but its a tough job. Its hard for me to knock it given the challenges of the gig and ultimately the commentators just need to do what they feel is best and let the chips fall where they may. You can listen here:

http://www.bjjee.com/bjj-news/aj-agazarm-answers-critics-of-his-enthusiastic-2015-pan-commentary-on-flograppling/


This move personally somewhat depressing to me as I finally seem to be getting my chops up and have invested a lot of mental and physical energy developing skills in this area. I feel kinda sad that the IBJJF didnt even consider me and Sean as an important part of the brand regardless of who produces it.

Though to be clear, It would be unlikely I would choose to support FloGrappling as a commentator regardless. In the unlikely event that FloGrappling changes management and asks me, they will find my day rate for them prices me out of the market. So this effectively turns a chapter from commentary with the IBJJF it appears unless they switch back to budo production (which I happily do for peanuts plus travel). I strongly believe they will do this as they get feedback from the community.

With budovideos, there was a small group of people (5 or so) which care about the sport in more of a selfless way. Trust me here.

The free events of the past are gone.

For now get out your credit cards and get ready to pay.
 
Welcome - I look forward to following your log. I am a 15-month whitebelt (goal is blue by christmas). Are you going to log your training sessions here? I'm not sure how often you read the training logs but there are a few good BJJ logs going on. Kaboom and Team Dragonfire come to mind specifically but I am sure there are more.
 
Well that sucks, I always really enjoyed your commentary Dan.
 
good to see you start a log TD. Good luck in your training!

Do you ever train for grip strength specifically?
 
I subbed for Polaris then cancelled, this will only harm the sport, as Flograppling aren't putting the videos out online on Youtube, and if they do then Agazarm's commentary makes the sport look second rate. You and Sean made the BJJ product more appealing and professional.
 
Thanks for the welcome guys. Im brand new in the training log forums so I have not got the chance to take a look at too many blogs. Ill check some out. I plan on updating a lot. I have been doing it on facebook, but all my real life friends are tired of hearing about jiu jitsu. I figured this would be a decent place for me to reflect on my training.

This month is going to be an awesome jiu jitsu month. Ive bumped my training up to 7 days a week and many of those days will be morning and evening training. My evening training always consists of at least 3 hours of training and makes up the bulk of my training. Morning training I do technique only.

Today:

Today has been going well. I took my first in a series of five private lessons over the next few days to learn Tameem's wicked overhook half guard. Its a very unusual part of his game that he is most known for. Today I learned the basics of it and a few techniques. Tonight we are going to Leo Vieras la habra school at 7 and attending class there. His old instructor is going to be there along with possibly the Mendes brothers and he invited me to come with. Im actually about to give a music lesson in Brea and going to head over there. My computer battery is about to die so i gotta run. Thankfully everybody always leaves unsecured wireless connections and its easy to get internet around here. :cool:
 
I finally launched my website! Head on over to http://www.jiujitsu.net to check it out!

dashboard.png
 
I rolled with both Guilherme and Rafael Mendes a lot tonight. Probably over 10 min with each. It was fun. I played mostly bottom game with Rafael and top game with Guilherme. Guilherme had a guard style very similar to cobrinha's. He liked the inverted DLR guard and he was working a lapeloplata/kneebar sweep/taking the back combo a lot. I experimented with my new overhook half guard stuff i learned this morning on Rafael and did moderately well given our large difference in skill.

I was really interested with the way they rolled with everybody. They would not be limp noodles or anything, but they would roll on the level of their opponent and be juuuust a little bit better. I really think they were striving to bring out the best in the people they rolled with. For this reason I think they would make excellent regular training partners. Thats probably why they are both so good. I kinda wish they had turned up the heat though. :icon_twis

mendesbrossmall.jpg


Beneil Dariush(Benny) got his purple tonight. Despite only training for 2 years, it was getting kinda embarrassing he was not a purple. He won no gi worlds, american nations, pan ams and 2nd at gi worlds and 3rd in absolute...and he makes it look easy. Im bummed I couldnt be there. Benny and I train a lot together. Few people on this planet train more than him. I promise you all very soon everybody will know his name not only in the jiu jitsu world, but in the MMA world. He is an example to me of what kind of sacrifices it takes to really be a champion. You cant be a champion training only 5 times a week. It takes more....much more. 5 times a week will make you good. 7 times a week will make you great. To be a champion you need to live the stuff.....breath it....a dedication that is unmatched by any of your peers as we all come up the jiu jitsu ladder. Iron sharpens iron and im happy to have such great training partners like him.

Benny and I as I got my blue in may of '08
bluebelt.jpg
 
A video introduction of myself:



These are my 2 most recent tournaments. I made this just before worlds, so the stuff from this past Mundials isnt on there. Ill post something from worlds later.
 
I trained both evening classes and sparring sessions today. I was a bit sore from yesterday. Marcel at Leo's place had us rolling for over an hour straight.

After class Sean Roberts and I did the "Arnold House Run" at about 10:30. In Yorba Linda (CA) we have this stupid city legend that Arnold was about to buy one of the biggest home in yorba linda. Its up in Hidden Hills where all the homes burnt if you all remember that wildfire. It made national news because there was no water to put on the fire because they couldnt pump it up the big hill. Anyway...the run is 2 miles and ascends 1300 feet in that distance. Sean did ok for his first time running.

I took an ice bath for recovery and then hit up the spa. Im gonna go lay down and relax.
 
Last edited:
I just checked my gyms website and they have some awesome pics of me up from worlds. They have it in a flash slide show and it will only let me save the first and last pic in the slide show. Strange. Ill see if i can get the other 3 tomorrow somehow because they are great. Thanks to Jeff Roberts for these.

worldspic2.jpg




worlds4.jpg





Worldspic3.jpg





worldspic.jpg





worldspic4.jpg



and video from one of the matches. Thanks to my dad for taking off work and filming this match.

 
nice to see you here. seems like you're an absolute monster on the mats. i'll try to follow your lead, i need to bump my training hours up.
 
Welcome to the logs

Whats your other strength and conditioning programs look like.
 
My knee was a bit sore from the run yesterday so I only did a private lesson today. I continued learning the philosophy behind Tameem's overhooking half guard in my lesson. Im going to see how my knee feels tomorrow morning and make a decision on my training. Ive learned to listen to my body, even if you dont like what its telling you. I still went and watched both classes, watched some jiu jitsu dvd's and ate with Sean Roberts.

I talk about Sean Roberts and Tameem a lot so here is a video intro of both. They were in the finals together of a tournament a few months ago, so they just goofed around for the final match. At the end you see a CheChen lock which is the core technique of what I am learning from Tameem.



Ive had a few questions regarding my strength and conditioning so ill post about that tonight.

My philosophy on the matter is that strength and conditioning needs to be a non issue. If you get tired, you will probably loose. It doesnt matter how good you are if your muscles are shot or your out of gas. Ive been there...and im sure everybody that trains and does tournaments has.

Strength and conditioning is easiest part of the whole jiu jitsu package. It is far easier to get in shape than it is to have black belt level jiu jitsu. Since my S&C goals are to allow me to do my jiu jitsu without ever getting tired, I design my training accordingly. I have no desire to put on weight or look good at the beach. I dont care how much weight I can lift. I want function, endurance and stamina.

I have adopted Benny Dariush's circuit training routine he suggested to me a while back. I changed it to taste. Its a 6 min circuit designed to confuse the muscles and get you really tired. I do 3 circuits 2 min in between each. Like any circuit, you get out of it what you put into it. You do each exercise quickly and run to the next exercise. I am very upset with myself if i dont finish in 6 min. You have to work pretty hard. Sorry for the funky names.

Benny Dariush Circuit - TD Variation:
10 - Pushups with 15lbs dumbells with an arm extention after each pushup
10 - "up and outs" with a water medicine ball of unknown weight
3x - Vertical jump over hurdles with bear crawls back
10 - Bent over row - 10 lbs on each side
10 - upright row
10 - military press
15 - Sit Ups on bench with max incline
2x - frog jump the mat
8 - Gi pull ups
8 - tricep push downs
10 - jump as high as you can
3x - sprints
40 - jump rope
10 - Triangles (with hip raise)
? - Ground and pound grappling bag with armbar until time expires

I then go and roll with lower belts after my 3 sets. Right now im only doing this two times a week and then doing hill runs one time a week while my body adapts to training two times a day for 5 days and 1 time a day for the other 2 days...maybe less. Ill listen to what my body says. Ill film this circuit sometime next week and update this blog.
 
Today was tough for me to stay off the mats. I wanted to train, but my knee was still at risk for serious injury. These are the hardest battles to fight. Fighting your own desire to train when it is not in your best interest.

Some history on my knee.... I injured my knee a year and a halfish ago right after I got my blue belt. I was rolling with Benny Dariush getting ready for worlds and tore my meniscus completely. It hurt quite a bit, but nothing too terrible. The surgery to fix the problem was another story. I can not describe a worse experience than it. Long story short, The surgery itself couldnt be scoped so they had to open it up. I had a terrible recovery with side effects from medication combined with leg spasms in early recovery. I did not have pain meds because I had such violent reactions to them. That stuff will break you mentally. I did not train for 6 months and then had to slowly come back. I was not the same for quite a while on the mats.

n587445467_3486503_4154.jpg


Today I still kept my mind active by attending class and mentally going over the techniques for the day as well as reflecting on my lesson from the day before. I killed time with Bruno Paulista and Alexandre de Souza. Bruno showed Alexandre the documentary I filmed for him. He really liked it.

After watching two classes, Brad Jackson, Sean Roberts and I went swimming at 24 hour fitness in Brea. Brad is my main private teacher and Sean and I are both produced by Brad. We train out of his garage. Gotta love garage training. He is a world class teacher. If your in Cali, take a lesson or 2 with him if you can. His day job is in education so he has that background in how to explain and break stuff down. He trained at the Torrance academy pre UFC 1. Thats old school. He was there as Royce was making history. He was with Rickson as he was fighting in Japan. Must have been something. He was Ralph's first black belt and he was the one who started Ralph Gracie OC.

Brad just had a gnarly knee surgery and hes about into his 3rd month of recovery. I really hope he recovers and is able to show the tournament world what he can do. He is 37 now and I know how much he would like to give it one last go as a competitor. He hasnt competed very much as a black belt or even climbing the jiu jitsu ladder. He won pan ams in 2001 as a black but that was before jiu jitsu blew up so nobody really knows him outside of those in the know. Hes not plugged into all the Brazilians who train together so none of them really know him either. Hes a well rounded jiu jitsu guy who has great depth in all positions. Every time I roll with him, he just crushes me...literally...you go home with sore ribs and abs because he is so freaking heavy. Heavyweights dont feel as heavy as he does. "smoke and mirrors" as he puts it.

Anyway...we decided to all go swimming every thursday and brad is going to teach us how to swim. After Sean and I went and ate and talked jiu jitsu until like 12:30.

Sorry my posts are so long. Hopefully they are mildly interesting. I dont expect anybody to actually read my posts, but if there is anybody out there I try and keep it interesting with pictures, videos and stories.

I train tomorrow. Goodnight all.
 
I was back on the mats today. Since a lot of the active Brazilian black belts in so cal get together and train in private groups we formed our own small group to kinda mimic that vibe. We meet on fridays at 3:00 and just flow and exchange new moves. LaRon, Benny Dariush, Tameem and myself trained today. Sean Roberts had something going on so he couldnt make it today. My knee is still a bit iffy, but i hope it will be ok.

I went and weighed in for a Grappling X tournament im doing tomorrow. Sean and I are the only ones doing it. I accidentally weighed in at a division lower than lightweight. I mentioned that I was a light lightweight in my first blog. Some days I can take a leak and be a feather. I want to start carving a name for myself as a lightweight. When people ask where I train I would be nice not to hear, "Ohhhhh...is that Sean and Benny's gym?" BAH! lol

Im training tomorrow morning with some well known jiu jitsu guys and then competing in the afternoon. It should be a interesting blog tomorrow.
 
Yesterday was certainly a busy jiu jitsu day. I woke up around 10 and went and trained with Alexandre De Souza, Leleo and my coaches. Alexandre showed an arm drag series of 4 moves, 3 passing open guard moves and a side control sub. He also helped me with one position I was having trouble with. It was pretty cool having 4 black belts helping 7 students. People are crazy for not wanting to train on Saturday mornings.

LeleoAlexandreMe.jpg


I didnt get a chance to stay and roll with everybody because I was running a little late to my tournament. I drove there and got there about 2:50....10 min before my division started. It was in San Bernardino and there was an MMA expo there. The tapout crew was there and I think Junie was with them. There were strippers and a nascar expo next door. It was pretty white trash.

Anyway, there were only 3 people in my division. I was first up. About 2 min into the match I had him mounted and he escaped into a straight ankle lock. I defended and he reaped my bad knee while going for it which was of course illegal. I hung on to win with a final score of 12-2. I walked off the mat and have not walked since. Im afraid the injury may require surgery. To be honest, im pretty scared of having to go through it again...not to mention the financial cost. I took second as I won the first match but could not continue.

This was the only thing I was worried about entering the tournament. I figured my knee would be ok as long as my opponent didnt go for an illegal move on my bad knee. Im pretty down today.

Here is parts of the match. I hope you enjoy. You might want to mute your speakers. LOL...youtube took away the original audio I put in and Tameem always jokes that my hilights are so dramatic....sooo...i proved him wrong and audio swaped it with one of youtubes free tracks. hahah. sorry.




I went and watched the fights after. At least it was a good day aside from the injury.

Wish me luck.
 
I hope its nothing serious man, best of luck wiht that! you looked amazing as per usual.
 
Thanks for the well wishes kaboom. At least Ill have more time to read everybody elses training blogs.

Today was pretty lame. Through the Torrence Gracie Academy I started a Gracie Garage where basically people could come and train with me in my garrage. I really like teaching and would love dedicated ppl to come train with me. Rener Gracie put my intro video in their newsletter. I made it as corny as possible and played piano to add humor. It was fun. Check it out on GracieUniversity.com if you want. It wont let me link it here.

Well, I finally got somebody that wanted to train today and he no showed. I was planning some stuff we could do with my bum knee and set up everything. Oh well.

Tomorrow will be as great of a jiu jitsu day as it can get given im not able to walk. Im going with Bruno Paulista to his closed door training. Obviously not to train myself =(. Benny is training with them though and im very jealous. Braga Neto, Romulo Barral, Alexandre Dande, Babalu and company should all be there training with the gi.

Oh...and is anybody as excited as I am to see Cobrinha in ADCC this year?!
 
About 3 months ago I switched to new health insurance off of my parents plan. This was a big problem because despite being a non smoking, non drinking 25 year old who maintains a healthy diet and exercise program, nobody wanted to give me medical coverage. They all saw the knee surgery in my application and wouldnt touch me with a 10 foot pole. Well, a $600 a month foot pole actually....and that was for marginal coverage. To extend my parents coverage was about the same cost.

I finally found a plan through Anthem for $390 after getting turned down for a bunch of other plans. After reviewing the 65 page booklet of fine print on my plan this morning, it appears that anything I do to my knee for 6 months is not covered by my current plan. I have to wait another 3 months for treatment. I can go to the doctor 3 times for 30 bucks, but I cant get an MRI or surgery if that is needed because it has to do with my knee. I can just go for the doctor visit. Maybe ill use the doctor visits to go to some new age healer who will cure me with voodoo and hippie herbs.

There is still some fog around if I am covered on this injury, so ill post when I know more.

Bruno Paulista just text me and we are going to pospone the last part of filming of the documentary until wed.
 
I obviously work, but I am a music teacher so my income is from in home lessons as well as a part time positions for various schools. Read: no health insurance from employer. This is part of the reason I went back to school to get my degree. Even though I make a fair income, health insurance and a salary are a must for having a mortgage and/or family.

At worst.. ill need surgery again and have to dip into my savings. At best, in a few weeks i could be fine. Ill just wait and see.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
1,236,405
Messages
55,418,258
Members
174,765
Latest member
durbanik916

Share this page

Back
Top