Tuesday, December 11, 2007

A lesson in humility.

I got a pretty good lesson in humility at ju-jitsu last night. I had a couple sparring sessions and got pretty roundly handled. It's part of learning the game, but it still stings a bit. One of the rules at a Gracie Barra school (and most schools at that) is "leave your ego at the door." However, it's my pride that's smarting.
Hope your evening was a little easier.
Mahalo.

4 comments:

Jesse said...

I know that feeling all too well.

But at least you're out there punching your weight.

If you just schooled your partners all the time, you'd be a dirty sandbagger and you wouldn't be progressing nearly as much as if you train with people who are fully capable of taking you out behind the woodshed.

Also, given how much resistance my body put up to the lateral and rotational lunges, the hip mobility drills are definitely needed. I tried squatting with a wider stance and just the bar. Was able to go deeper with posture. I really felt it in my hip flexors. I suppose that is the point?

J.B. said...

THanks for the commiseration.

That is exactly the point.. although it is a pain in the ass. keep working that depth, and things will come around. If you don't have someone who can teach you mobility drills in person (it's way too complex to go over via text) you can make a couple sets of light, deep, wide stance squats part of your warm-up. It'll help a lot.

Anonymous said...

I'm not sure it's the same thing - I've been blessed w/ reasonable "natural" flexibility - but I've found lately I squat noticeably better when I warm up w/ overhead squats first.

Have you tried that?
Does that help?

J.B. said...

I have tried it, the problem is that I have to warm-up so much before I warm-up with overhead squats that it becomes unproductive.