Colored Up - On Getting a Purple Belt

Much to my surprise I was promoted to purple belt. Caveirinha Jiu-Jitsu Family (CJJF) held a promotion ceremony and technique seminar recently. There was a huge turnout and a lot of stripes and belts were given. I thought I'd get another stripe on my blue belt, if anything at all, and I was utterly shocked when Professor Caveirinha gave me a purple belt. My first thought: Ummm...why?



Receiving a purple belt with Professor Casey,
Professor Lorenzo, and Professor Caveirinha

I've been training for about 3 years now. Well, that's 3 years with a few breaks thrown in here and there. I don't compete much, in fact I've only won one match in competition. My training has been inconsistent at best for the past 2 months. So why did I get a belt promotion? I honestly don't get it.

After thinking about it for a week or so, I realized that I have a hard time grasping that I could actually be deserving of a purple belt because I still feel new to jiu-jitsu and I remember how I looked at purple belts when I first got started. When I first began training there weren't any purple belts. Maybe one or two would drop by now and then but there just weren't that many. When one would come by there'd be a silent admiration among all us newbie white belts. The skill they displayed was so smooth and seemingly effortless. Getting there seemed so far away.

When I got a blue belt there was a sense of validation. Sort of like, I've put in the time, paid the dues, endured the sores and bruises enough to be recognized as a legitimate part of jiu-jitsu. It didn't necessarily feel like I was a certain skill level, but more like I had reached a point where I was no longer starting out. I was part of the sport, part of the art.

The purple seems to carry a certain weight of expectation, the way I see it. I am still a part of the sport. But now I should be contributing to the art. I should be more than just a spectator. There might even be a white belt watching me the way I watched purple belts a few years ago. And to me, that's weird. I don't feel like I'm that good. There are so many others at CJJF that are much more skilled that I am. Like some of the same people I watched and admired when I was starting out. We still train together. And I still think I'm far away from being as skilled as they are. But I guess that's the point really. We all get better with time, work, and good teammates.

I guess the best way I can put it is that the purple belt feels sort of like being brought from the second-string into the starting lineup. There's a bit of a spotlight on you. An expectation to perform at a certain level. A certain level of responsibility to be a role model to those just starting out. And it's surprising that Professor Caveirinha feels I'm deserving of that. Nonetheless, I'm grateful and thankful to be part of jiu-jitsu and CJJF.

Congrats to everybody at CJJF

Gassed n Smashed

In training tonight I got pretty gassed. When class ended it was time for open mat, aka sparring time. I figured I would do one round of sparring then head home. So after my second round of sparring I was simply exhausted. I sat down to catch my breath and was ready to go home. And then Professor Lorenzo called me out to spar with him. I tried to say no, but really, you can't tell a black belt no. So there I went for a third round of sparring expecting to get smashed and submitted like a long-limbed rag-doll. But it didn't quite go that way...

Professor could tell I was reluctant to spar. He made some comment about being tired and I made some comment about how that doesn't matter because of the color of his belt. With a smile, he offered to trade belts. He told me how belt color really doesn't matter and then went on and told me about how when he was a blue belt he was able to control one of his Professors. And I'm thinking, “That's great, and that's definitely not gonna to happen here.”

Then he said something I never heard a higher level belt say to me. He said, “It's all good. I'm a higher belt so try everything you can imagine or have ever wanted to try.”

Hearing that changed my whole mindset. I was no longer facing an inevitable defeat (and likely a healthy dose of pain). It turned into fun. Hey, it's training, we're all just trying to get better so have a good time with it.

Rolling with Professor Lorenzo was certainly a lesson. He let me try a few things but he was in control the whole time. At one point he was able to pin my arms by using his body weight alone. Yes, that means he pinned my arms without using his hands. But he motivated me to keep moving and work to get out no matter how exhausted I was. “Keep moving, keep moving” he would urge in the moments I would stop to take a breath. So every time he smashed me I squirmed and bridged in hopes of getting to a better spot.

It didn't work. Every time I felt I was making progress he effortlessly responded to my movements and reestablished total control in a new position. He got side-control on my left, then on my right, then full mount, then back to side-control. It was amazing to watch and feel how he maneuvered from one position to another.

At the end, I was smashed, gassed, utterly defeated, and I felt awesome. It was one of the rare sparring sessions when I feel great about losing. Probably because I learned from it. In that way, it doesn't even feel like I lost. After all, it's training. I had fun and I'm better for it. Kind of sounds like a win win...kinda. Now I'm going to drink some water, go to sleep, and hope to be able to walk in the morning.

NAGA - October, 2013

 

We waited in the bracketing room. It was hot, stuffy, and full of anticipation. There must have been about 50 of us waiting for our ring assignments, eager to see where to go and who our opponents would be. Nerves were running, sweat was beginning to bead. Finally, the moment came. The organizers came in one by one announcing which mat each division would go to. Then I heard it.

“David Greer. Ring 12.”

I put on my gi and made my way from the hot and stuffy bracketing room into the not-so-stuffy, but still hot, gymnasium. Ring 12 was at the far side of the gym where the Caveirinha Jiu-Jitsu Family (CJJF) had settled in the bleachers. Good, I could get my water from my bag and have a drink before my match.

My division (age 30-39, 160-169.9 lbs) had 9 people in it, way more than I was expecting. Since there was an odd number of people, my first match would decide who would face the odd guy out of the bracket. I was first up. I had been thinking of this match all week. Debated with myself if I should pull guard or go for a take down at the onset. The way I figured it, I'm more comfortable fighting from the bottom with my opponent in my full guard. But, lately I've been getting my guard passed a lot in training and I really struggle recovering once my guard gets passed. So what to go for? I decided that I would go for the take down and fight for top position because if I get the take down I'll get some points.

There I stood in the middle of the ring waiting for my opponent to be called. I could hear friends and teammates cheer me on. Clinton's and Kim's voices stood out. Grateful to to have some supporters, I took some deep breaths, feebly tried to calm my nerves, and focus on the fight.

My opponent came out. He was about the same size as me, a little shorter. I quickly noticed that his gi was on a little loose. Perfect for a collar-drag take down. We shook hands and the match began. I pawed at his collar once but couldn't get a good grip on it. He batted my hand away but not before I loosened his gi just a little bit more. He tried to grab at me but I swatted his hand away. I reached for his collar again and this time I had a good grip. I immediately went for the collar-drag and nailed it. When I grabbed the single-leg my opponent was already on his back. I quickly pounced on him to keep him on his back. Only thing is that I didn't clear the leg I was holding so I ended up in my opponent's half-guard. But I scored 2 points for the take down.

I put as much pressure on the guy as I could hoping that he'd open his guard a little and give me room to move around him. But it didn't happen. When his guard was open, he had a grip on my ankle and I couldn't move. As soon as he let it go I made a move but he was ready for it and scrambled away. I tried to bull-fight but couldn't quite get the grips I needed to really press his legs into the ground. I also gave up too much space with my hips. I think I even heard Clinton and Clint calling for me to get my hips down. But every time I tried to pass the guard my opponent had enough room to get a leg in the way and block me. I definitely gave up too much space.

Eventually I went back down onto my knees with double-under grips. I do pretty well with guard passing from double-under grips but my opponent didn't stay still and scooted back to keep me from pulling him toward me like I wanted to do. Also I was really, really tired. The build up of nerves and the adrenaline rush had me gasping for air. So I took a few deep breaths while slowly adjusting my grips on his collar and the other on the back of his leg.

When I began to move again my opponent shifted and tried to get me off balance but I was able to post out on a leg and keep my base. I abandoned the double-under grips, my arms were getting tired, and stood to attempt another bull-fight pass. Same result. I just couldn't get around his guard and my opponent managed to get me in his full guard.

I felt gassed. More tired than I thought I'd be. I didn't move much so my opponent began to attack my right arm. He tried to grab it and set up an armbar attack but I pressured down and stacked him. The attack was well defended so I held my opponent in that spot just to make him uncomfortable. Being balanced on your head with somebody pressing down on you isn't all that pleasant. It wasn't long until he let my arm go.

With time winding down my opponent started trying anything. He tried to hip bump, tried attacking my arm again but I was able to keep my base and stay safe. At the very last second my opponent scrambled enough to knock me off balance and I fell to my side. But before my opponent could finish the sweep and try to control the position, time expired. I won by a score of 2-0.

I couldn't believe how tired I was. Gasping for air, dry throat, and sore arms. My grip strength was gone. I got some water and tried to shake out my arms. I got a 15 minute break and then it was time to get back on the mat for my second fight.

When my second opponent stepped on the mat one thing struck me: this dude was built like a tank. Shorter than me but he looked like he could bench press a car. The strength advantage was undoubtedly his. Usually I rely on my conditioning to overcome stronger guys but I was already exhausted from my first fight and my opponent was fresh, he hadn't fought yet being the odd man out. Nothing I could do about it so we shook hands and got to it.

We battled for collar grips. I wanted to go for an inside leg trip. When I got a hold of his collar and his sleeve I tried to pull him toward me and step into him. But when I pulled, he barely moved and just as I began to step forward he picked up my leg. I hopped around on one leg and held my balance for a little bit looking for a way to counter him. I felt that I was losing my balance so I decided to go to my back and pull him into my full guard before he fully dictated the take down.

The guy's strength was ridiculous. I tried to push his arm across my chest. It didn't move. I tried to break his posture down. He didn't move. I timed a sit up sweep when he leaned back and barely nudged the guy. All I was able to do was get a grip on his collar. I heard Jordan somewhere calling for me to keep that grip so I did. With that grip and the length of my legs, I was able to keep the guy in my full guard.

At one point I felt that his wrist was a little loose so I pushed it between my legs and attacked a triangle. He powered out of it with no problem (did I mention this guy was strong?). In hindsight I should have yanked him down toward me as soon as I shot my legs up. It might have been able to keep him close and I may have been able to really attack the triangle. But I didn't, and he got out.

After he escaped my left foot was on his hip and my right foot was free so I decided to go for a quick tripod sweep. But when I kicked him back, my opponent maintained his balance by grabbing my pants...and as a result my pants were pulled down. That kind of shocked me so I abandoned the sweep in order to keep my pants from going all the way down past my knees. A short scramble ensued and I pulled him into half-guard. Not one of my favorite places to be.

I tried to get into deep half-guard and get under the guy as best I could before he began setting anything up. I wormed my way underneath the guy but he felt heavy...and strong. I was really tired at this point. I heard Jordan call out to grab his foot. What foot? Visibility isn't too good when your head is buried in a guy's crotch and I couldn't see where anything was. Anyway, I reached out to grab a foot and there it was!

While I quickly tried to set up a sweep, my opponent kicked his foot free and spun. I grabbed onto a leg and moved with him and transitioned into turtle position. I stayed there for a moment expecting him to try to spin to my back. I was thinking I'd follow him when he spun and scramble out. But he didn't move. Fine by me. I reached for his knees, drove forward, got my shoulder to his chest, then pulled his knees out and was able to get my opponent on his back. I figured I just scored 2 points for the sweep.

There was a small opening and I quickly went to knee-on-belly. I tried to press my knee down and pull him up into me to keep the guy down but he's really damn strong...have I mentioned that enough? He began to scramble so I tried to sneak my leg across and get to full mount but it didn't work. The guy was able to catch my leg in half-guard. Feeling completely gassed again, I feebly tried to circle around and pass his guard but I only managed to move right into his full guard.

Out of breath, I glanced at the score. It was 2-2. I needed to pass his guard to win. I broke my opponent's guard open relatively easily and stood to try a bull-fight pass. But I had very little energy and couldn't get it done. The match ended with me back in his full guard. The score was 2-2. In these situations the ref chooses a winner or, if he feels the match was close, he can call for a 2 minute overtime. I was hoping he'd give me the win since I ended the match on top but my opponent got the nod. A fair decision. He controlled the top position for the majority of the match. Plus he may have had an advantage point for controlling me in a cross-faced half-guard but I'm not sure. Either way, it was a good fight.

A quick lesson learned: Remember to hold the position and get your points. I told myself going into the tournament that if I found myself in a position that gets awarded points to hold it and count to 5. You need to hold a position for 3 seconds to get points so I figured if I count to 5 the ref would surely get to 3 and the points would be mine. Yeah, I didn't do that. Knee-on-belly is worth 2 points, but when looking at video of my fight I only held it for a count of 2. I missed out on the points that could have won me the match.

Also, I didn't follow my own plan. I like knee-on-belly. If I got there the plan was to hold it and pressure down to tire out my opponent. Then when I did get that position I let it go because a strong opponent began to scramble. Maybe I was psyched out by his strength, nerves got to me, or I tried to do too much when thinking I could sneak into full mount. Whatever the case, I missed out on an opportunity to take control of the fight.

I'm happy with my performance and very grateful for the support. I could hear Clint, Jordan, and Clinton from the side and tried to follow their advice as best I could. Thanks to you all for the help. You got me through my first competition at blue belt and helped me get my first win in competition.

One thing that struck me about competing was how utterly exhausting it was, mostly due to the adrenaline rush. My conditioning will need to be more tailored for explosiveness and recovery in order to cope with this. Even though my second opponent was really damn strong, our match was still competitive. I don't think I need to increase my strength much. I put conditioning over strength anyways.

As for the rest of the tournament, CJJF got kind of beat up especially in the no-gi competition. Several knees got tweaked leaving teammates limping and one guy got his elbow dislocated. But we had some victories too. Brandon, Steel, Chris, Chris and Randy took gold and there were a few silver and bronze winners.

Brandon, on his way to gold...always smiling

A couple highlights. First is Clinton's no-gi fight. He came up short on points but he had the most action-packed fight I saw that day. He threatened with a triangle choke for a good portion of the fight, escaped several good leg attacks, and launched a few leg attacks of his own. It was a fight to the end and congrats for putting on such a great display after just a few short weeks back from injury. Then there's Brandon. He took gold in the adult blue belt division...he's 16. And he had a smile on his face the whole time. Nicely done!

CJJF was well represented at this NAGA. There were lots of competitors and supporters alike. It was difficult to walk 10 feet without seeing a CJJF shirt or logo. It's great to be part of a team with such a strong sense of camaraderie to the school and to Professor Caveirinha. Congrats to all the medal winners and all that competed! See ya back on the mats!

David vs Goliath

Sparring the other day was good fun. I got the kind of scenario I like. Rolling with a guy that's twice my size but not quite as experienced as me. My opponent was around 6'5, easily had 50lbs on me, and he was fit...not fat. It's like my own little David vs Goliath moment. I see it as a good test to see if my technique can overcome a ridiculous size and strength advantage.

We shook hands and got to it. We started on our knees and he basically shoved me back, and yeah, he's strong so I went backward and he immediately jumped into side control. Okay that's fine, let's see what he can do. He got a good position and felt pretty damn heavy. Then he quickly attacked an americana and I tapped just as quickly. I don't like americanas. Okay, big guy knows what he's doing a little bit. I was curious of what he could do and a bit careless so I got tapped. All good. We reset, started again, and I was focused on not getting tapped again and mounting some offense.

We shook hands and began round 2. He shoved me again but this time when he pushed me back I slid to create more distance so he couldn't pounce onto the top position again. I figured I wouldn't be able to get him on his back so easily so I sat down to bait him into butterfly guard. It worked, he came close and I attempted an arm drag. That didn't work so well. He was strong enough to keep his posture, plus my angle was a little off, and I ended up in half guard on the bottom. Dude was heavy. He quickly tried to transition to full mount but I shrimped and regained half guard. Eventually I was able to recover into full guard. Time to go for a sweep...easier said than done.

I got control of his arm and attempted a pendulum sweep. Didn't work, I couldn't get my body angled properly. His neck was a little exposed so I attacked a cross-collar choke. My grips were in pretty deep but his chin was tucked blocking the choke. I could've cranked it hard but that would just hurt his jaw more so than choke him. I hate when people do that to me so I chose not to do it and let go. I fought to get control of his arm again and attacked an armbar but the guy was so strong he just literally ripped his arm out of my grip and immediately tossed my legs aside and got into side control. Dammit!

I kept my arms in tight, did not want to give up another americana. I bridged to create space and rolled belly down. Trust me, bridging and rolling under the weight of a guy his size took some effort. I got a grip on his legs and was in a good spot to go for a double-leg. I felt him start to sprawl and try to create distance to break my grips. Right then my mindset switched. It went from let's practice technique to time to get aggressive. Attack, attack, attack!

I bull rushed into him before he could sprawl, swept his legs aside and got the guy on his back. Now I was on top in side control driving my shoulder into his face to keep him facing away from me. Did not want this guy turning into me. I stayed aware of my body position because if I was off by just a little bit the guy could literally pick me up and toss me aside. I kept my shoulder in his face and shifted my hips to keep his arm out from under my body so he couldn't push or lift me.

With side control established it was time to advance my position. I wanted to tire the guy out so I transitioned to knee-on-belly (a pretty self-explanatory position). I drove my knee and shin down into his gut while pulling his body up into me. The cringe on his face told me I had it anchored pretty good. When he gasped for air, I drove my knee in harder. When he gasped again I transitioned to the full mount. I quickly dropped my chest into his face to close the distance (don't want him tossing me) and to make things uncomfortable for him. I could feel him tiring. Good thing because fighting for the top position took a lot of energy out of me.

His elbows were sticking out so I attacked an armbar again. In hindsight I should've attacked a choke since everybody is weak at the neck but in the moment I saw an opening for an armbar. The guy – did I mention he's really strong – easily yanked his arm back and rolled me over. Now I was on my back again. Dang it! Sure I had him in full guard but I didn't want to be on the bottom. The guy's heavy...

I broke his posture down and held him close to keep him from muscling out my guard. When he regained his posture he leaned back a bit...just as I was hoping he would. I attacked a situp sweep and got the guy on his back and I was in full mount again. Okay, no armbars this time.

This time the guy scrambled like crazy. He bumped, bridged, and pushed. I struggled to maintain the mount but didn't feel too stable so I got out of mount and went to side control. I felt a little more stable but he continued to scramble. I tried to pin his arm down with my leg but it wasn't happening. I was off balance and the guy basically lifted me up and rolled me onto my back. We scrambled. Somehow I ended up on my feet with a grip on his legs and he was on his back. I went for a bull-fight pass. The whole time I'm thinking stay offensive, pressure him, keep him working, get him too tired to defend.

I tried to pass his guard and the guy rolled away from me onto his side. His back was exposed to me and I sensed that if I could take his back he'd be mine. If I could get his back I could sink in a choke. I attempted to step on his hip to take his back but as I didn't have the right leverage and the guy just grabbed me and rolled. I was on my back again. Dang it!

The guy was in side control and put his weight on me. At this point I'm feeling pretty damn tired. I realized something. When a guy is strong as hell and not tired he's strong as hell, but when he's tired and I'm just as tired, he's still strong as hell.

I felt my gas tank nearing empty. It was becoming a burden to breathe. I had to get out of his side-control and regain the top position. I bumped, bridged, and scrambled. We ended up in a weird position. He was still on top sort of in side control but I had a grip on his legs, similar to a bull-fight grip, and I was still on my back. I couldn't move because I was exhausted. My gas tank was pretty much empty. But so was his. I could tell because we both lied in this awkward position for about 10 seconds catching our breath.

With the few drops left in my gas tank I had to make a push to regain top position. I had a grip on his legs, he was on top, but lying more on my hips than my chest and he was off balance. I did the only thing that came to mind and sat up. Lemme tell ya, doing a sit up with a big guy sitting on you trying to hold you down is difficult as hell. But the grip on his legs helped. As I sat up I lifted his legs as best I could hoping to roll the guy off even more off balance. To my surprise, it worked. It took every ounce of strength I had left but it worked. The guy rolled onto his back, I regained the top position and I was in side-control once again driving my shoulder into his face. The guy was more tired than I was and the voice in my head told me to attack. Ignore the fatigue, suck it up, and attack.

I transitioned to full mount, which was pretty easy telling me the guy was exhausted. I drove my chest into his face and looked for options. I wanted to attack a choke. At first I thought arm-triangle but I'd have to move his arm and I didn't want to battle against his strength. Simply didn't have the energy for that again. Then I thought of a collar choke. A good option. Then I had the idea to bait him into turning over so I could take his back and attack a choke from there. Rear naked, collar, bow and arrow, any of those would work. I figured I'd feint an americana just to get him to roll a little so I could take the back but just as he started to move the way I wanted him to, time was up. The sparring session was over.

Damn, what a roll! Even though I didn't submit the guy I felt in control for most of the match...ya know, excluding that first 30 seconds when I was careless and gave up a submission. If we were keeping track of points that second round, I would've won by a healthy margin. I gained a lot of points with a few sweeps and advancing to the full mount. I probably had around 20 points. He gained points from passing my guard a couple times and a couple sweeps. He probably had around 10 points. It was an utterly exhausting roll, but damn fun.

Next time I need to focus more on maintaining the top position and not getting reversed onto my back. Even though I prefer to play from the bottom, I should get better at maintaining top position and setting up submissions from there. Something to keep in mind for next time.

CJJF @ UFC

Today several people from the Caveirinha Jiu-Jitsu Family met up to roll at the UFC gym. There was over a dozen of us and we took up almost the whole mat room. It was great to see so many people show up, some I hadn't seen in quite a while. Clinton got things started by playing coach. He paired us up for a 5 minute flow roll. For those who don't know, a flow roll is when you go at about half intensity and just go through the motions of different positions and techniques without trying to submit your partner. It's a way of warming up.

Next, Clinton partnered us up for sparring. 10 minute rounds, a new partner every round. I don't think I've ever done a 10 minute sparring session so things were going to get exhausting. And somewhere around round 3, I was feeling exhausted. No problem though, we only did about 6 rounds...actually I have no idea how many rounds we did. I just know we were there for about 2 hours.

It was good fun. I caught a few submissions, got caught in a few submissions, learned a few techniques, and nearly passed out. That was a new one actually, the nearly passing out part. I was rolling with Cyrus and he attacked a choke at the same time I was trying to advance my position. I figured if I got to the better position it would lessen the pressure of the choke. I eventually did get into a better spot but I was so caught up in gaining position that I forgot I was getting choked. There wasn't much blood getting to my brain and things were starting to look hazy. I tapped out, Cyrus let go, I don't remember moving but when I became aware again I was sitting on the mat and Cyrus was off his back sitting up too. When did he do that?? I think I winked out there for a second which leads me to believe if I tried to hold off any longer I would've fully gone out.

All of us were there to roll and have fun but some had the extra incentive to train for the upcoming Abu Dhabi Trials on Feb 2. For those who don't know, Abu Dhabi is a world renown grappling tournament held in...you'll never guess where...Abu Dhabi. Those who do well enough in the trials get an invitation to the main event. There are a handful of CJJF members that have signed up to compete in the trials, and I believe there are a few more to come as well. I will not be competing myself but will be there to watch and support CJJF. In the meantime, I hope there are more rolling sessions like today. It was exhausting but damn good fun.



CJJF rolling session at UFC Gym