Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Stupid and Brave are often interchangeable in BJJ.

I have a new puppy... Yes, another one.  Three dogs.

My new puppy, Lord Vader is awesome.


I've been playing with him a lot, which has resulted in about 900 scratches all over my arms and legs.

Not a big deal in and of itself, but when you mix that with BJJ, and especially with the latest outbreak of ringworm going to class seemed like a bad idea.  The Miami Open is looming, and I didn't want to miss a class because I might get ring worm.  

I got two comments about my choice.  Brave, and stupid.  I think it is mostly just stupid.

I went... but I took precautions.  I washed my entire body with hibiclense.  It says it continues to protect you from any of the mat baddies for 6 hours post use.  I also covered all of my scratches in Nu-Skin  and wore long a long sleeved rash guard and long yoga pants under my gi.  I also rubbed down with this Anti-ringworm foam Fabio got for everyone to help combat the ringworm issue.  

Then I showered and re-hibicleansed when I got home.

Hopefully my lack of making good choices won't come back to bite me in the butt and put me out of training for longer than having just sat out last night.  

In other news... last night went much better than last Monday.  Though, realistically it couldn't have gone worse.  

I'm going to wait on working on the heel hook thing until after the Miami Open.  Last night, just worked passing and maintaining dominate positions.  I also did not purposefully give up side control, and gladly did not find myself there once last night.  I decided if I get into side control I will work that choke, but other wise I will stick to normal competition preparation.  Pass.  Maintain.  Submit... and most importantly move move move.  My normal game is more of a guard to sweep kind of thing, but I think my biggest error in competition is getting stuck on the bottom by purposefully going there to sweep.  If I end up there that will be one thing, but I will not go there of my own accord any longer.  At least not in a competition.  


I am pretty fortunate and I have a lot of guys who are willing to answer my questions, and help me out after class.  I will save all of my weird questions and positions for them, and of course Fabio.  He helped me figure out that choke I was screwing up last Monday.  Woo!


67 days until the Miami Open!




4 comments:

  1. Good luck on the ring worm defense and tournament training too.

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  2. Keep training hard for the Miami Open and good luck. My daughter loved the pic of your dog:)

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  3. I love his name! He's adorable!

    A word of caution from someone who just paid for misuse of critter killing substances...don't use antibacterial soap before training. It'll kill all the good critters on your skin that keep the bad ones away. I was on anti-biotics and stayed off the mats almost the whole time, partially because of quarantine, but also because I knew I was WAY vulnerable to viruses and fungi. If anything, just get some skin barrier spray (3M makes a good one you could use on the scratched spots) or some wrestlers foam for some added protection.

    Good luck at the Open!

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  4. Thanks guys! So far my attempts to keep the worm at bay have been successful! Getting more and more nauseated at the thought of the Miami Open... but train I shall.

    Megan - Fabio has actually been having everyone use the wrestler's foam before ever class, and cracking down hard on those who come to class with ringworm. It seems to be under control now... and hopefully this will be the last of it. It makes me really angry that people are being so freaking inconsiderate.

    And I've been trying to back away from the overly strong antibacterials but ... but I was afraid! LOL I'm going to try to stick to just Dial from now on.

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