CGJJ Stories from Abroad

[david5]

Great stuff as always.

Have you met Shen yet?

yeh, he met shen. posted about it on atama bjj forum

[Simon Hayes]

So there i was,on the bottom,trying to hook up deep half guard with a very good 4 stripe brown belt who knew exactly
what i was up to,sprawling at each attempt.He slowly,methodically began to pass my guard and there was nothing i could do about it.
As he moved to side control i tried to escape my hips but his knee was locked to my hips and he gave me absolutely no space to try
and replace guard.He jumped up to knee on chest to try and look for an opening and i managed to immediately replace half guard
but we went through the same process.He passed again and this time took the mount.I was feeling ok with him mounted and i just kept
thinking 'keep calm and don't make any mistakes'.I am pretty used to being to underneath mount as my training partner Dickie has a very
aggressive mount and i know how to try and not give any submission openings,and try to force my opponent into a submission attempt that
will give me an opening to escape.You see the thing is,when you have a brown or black belt your own weight mounted on you,your normal
escapes won't work,they are too good,too wise.You have to force them to make a mistake,thats your only way out.After i has exausted my
usual escape attempts and none of them worked i showed the dog a bone.A dangerous game but i stuck my arm up.Bang,he immediatley
swung for the arm bar and i ripped my elbow towards me,and felt that magical feeling of the joint being passed his groin as i sat up.
We were in a scamble and back to kneeling.The round finished and i thanked my lucky stars that hadn't happened in a competition and there
were no points being scored,because this guy would have won about 12-0.
A wake up call.This guy was tough.After speaking to him afterwards i began to realise just how solid his depth of Jiu Jitsu is.As well as the training
he'd done with Rey in LA he'd lived in San Francisco for a while and trained at Ralph Gracie's which is a notoriously tough gym.
He told me about the warm ups there that sounded like an SAS boot camp.He also told me stuff like he had to drill 100% arm bar escapes
with a guy with a fully locked arm bar on him and he had to escape,agaain and again for an hour.The regime there sounded truly hard core.
This guy,this brown belt,i have been told,is expected to make a very significant showing in the Pan Am's very shortly so watch this space and i'll give
you the result.Its hard for me writing this stuff because there is a lot of things i can't say but suffice to say this guy is extremely well respected in his dojo
and it was an honour to roll with him.


Next,you'll hear about me rolling with "The Fridge" the incredibly skillful 275 pound purple belt.Also meeting the famous "Shen" from The Underground who let
me teach half a class at REY's on his night.Also,my adventures around Beverley Hills and Malibu.
Guys,i'm having such a great time its hard to find time to write but i've got so much to tell you all.
Oh yeah,and i've been invited down to Eddie Bravo's next week.Interesting.Very Interesting.

[JC228]

Oh yeah,and i've been invited down to Eddie Bravo's next week.Interesting.Very Interesting.

Can't wait! I've been gripped by the stories haha. The ego part was really Inspirational too I've copied it down for future reading

[Zukes]

This is awesome! Thanks for posting, inspiring stuff.

[Brigsy]

Great writing and great stories. Thanks.

[Torre]

I eagerly await the story of your visit to Eddie's place, should be a fun read. Thanks again for sharing all this.

[akiraB]

So there i was,on the bottom,trying to hook up deep half guard with a very good 4 stripe brown belt who knew exactly
what i was up to,sprawling at each attempt.He slowly,methodically began to pass my guard and there was nothing i could do about it.
As he moved to side control i tried to escape my hips but his knee was locked to my hips and he gave me absolutely no space to try
and replace guard.He jumped up to knee on chest to try and look for an opening and i managed to immediately replace half guard
but we went through the same process.He passed again and this time took the mount.I was feeling ok with him mounted and i just kept
thinking 'keep calm and don't make any mistakes'.I am pretty used to being to underneath mount as my training partner Dickie has a very
aggressive mount and i know how to try and not give any submission openings,and try to force my opponent into a submission attempt that
will give me an opening to escape.You see the thing is,when you have a brown or black belt your own weight mounted on you,your normal
escapes won't work,they are too good,too wise.You have to force them to make a mistake,thats your only way out.After i has exausted my
usual escape attempts and none of them worked i showed the dog a bone.A dangerous game but i stuck my arm up.Bang,he immediatley
swung for the arm bar and i ripped my elbow towards me,and felt that magical feeling of the joint being passed his groin as i sat up.
We were in a scamble and back to kneeling.The round finished and i thanked my lucky stars that hadn't happened in a competition and there
were no points being scored,because this guy would have won about 12-0.
A wake up call.This guy was tough.After speaking to him afterwards i began to realise just how solid his depth of Jiu Jitsu is.As well as the training
he'd done with Rey in LA he'd lived in San Francisco for a while and trained at Ralph Gracie's which is a notoriously tough gym.
He told me about the warm ups there that sounded like an SAS boot camp.He also told me stuff like he had to drill 100% arm bar escapes
with a guy with a fully locked arm bar on him and he had to escape,agaain and again for an hour.The regime there sounded truly hard core.
This guy,this brown belt,i have been told,is expected to make a very significant showing in the Pan Am's very shortly so watch this space and i'll give
you the result.Its hard for me writing this stuff because there is a lot of things i can't say but suffice to say this guy is extremely well respected in his dojo
and it was an honour to roll with him.


Next,you'll hear about me rolling with "The Fridge" the incredibly skillful 275 pound purple belt.Also meeting the famous "Shen" from The Underground who let
me teach half a class at REY's on his night.Also,my adventures around Beverley Hills and Malibu.
Guys,i'm having such a great time its hard to find time to write but i've got so much to tell you all.
Oh yeah,and i've been invited down to Eddie Bravo's next week.Interesting.Very Interesting.

Looking forward to hearing how u get on at eddies, be great if u get to roll with the man himself..whatever way will be interesting read. cheers

[seanbrowne]

I too am very looking forward to the write up on Simons visit to eddies i just didnt want to ne first to admit it ;-)

[TheJuice]

Oh yeah,and i've been invited down to Eddie Bravo's next week.Interesting.Very Interesting.

I rolled with Eddie on Monday, nice enough guy, a warning to you though, lots of star seekers there, I'm much happier at Shawn Williams.

[fishface]

Awesome as ever Simon Had the pleasure of meeting Brett in Thailand last year at TMT

F