A Malaysian BJJ Experience..

New Training Venue 2011

2010-12-31T09:53:00.000-08:00

In case you are wondering where I'm training now...Look here

Downtime for July

2009-07-31T19:23:00.000-07:00

Haven't been for BJJ class since I sprain my knee in early July. I could hardly bend my right knee after hyper flexing it during no-gi practice. Strangely, I had a feeling that I was going to get hurt that night since I was clueless. I hardly spar no-gi so it figures. I was sitting on my knees and my partner tried an anaconda and I fell sideways and backwards resulting in hyper flexing my right knee joint. The Dr said it was nothing too serious and that my MCL was sprained and I needed lots of rest.

It took over 3 weeks to recover. During this time, I spent rehabilitating myself in the comforts of my home. I swam and did specific weight training exercises for my upper body. I brisk walked, progressively moved to running once I could bent my knee completely. I feel much better now and positive that I should be able to return for practice in Aug. However, I wish to recommence gradually to avoid over straining it. I learn it the hard way, I tried to return to practice too soon. My knee obviously wasn't fully recovered and I felt pain after class, even though I was very careful and did not push myself.

I'm planning to commence practice with some CM. Looking forward to Rodney's King seminar next week. So no hard core stuff or any fancy moves for the next month or two. Will have to keep that in mind and also remind my training partners...

What's It Going To Be?

2009-06-19T11:00:00.000-07:00

This is the first post since my daughter was born on 13th April 2009. Practice have been regular for the past 6 months of this year. Thank God, despite being a new parent with a new job, I still manage to keep to my routine. I have to admit, it can be tough after attending multiple late night conference calls. I also have to thank my wife for being so understanding of my hobbies. I hold true to the saying, "If there's a will, there's a way!"

On the front, I was recently awarded 2 stripes by my BJJ coach. While I felt very honored being promoted. I also noticed that I'm more confident with my game. I'm actually steering myself towards my prime years. I foresee myself coaching others in about 3-4 years time. Hopefully then, I would be a competent martial artist to carry out my blond ambition. My goal is to teach people that really need help. I hope to be able to coach at secondary schools/universities or ymca where I can reach out to the community.

Being a dad really made my life seem more meaningful. I'm not sure how this had had effected the way I roll. Since I've always been very mindful of my training partner, by nature, I'm a laid back person (at times). I guess it goes a long way since I intend to make this a long term hobby instead of switching to golf :-)

Lastly, I've received a couple of compliments from fellow BJJers. A few have said they really enjoyed rolling with me because I'm mindful and do not use unnecessary force. Others also say that I'm gentle yet technical. Geeez, I'm not sure how true that really is but heck, it really motivates me to train more!

What's being Happening

2009-03-15T05:40:00.000-07:00

I started doing CM once a week now. It's certainly refreshing to learn something new, for me that is. I mean, I never boxed in my life. I did attempt to pick it up a couple of times in the past, but sadly, it never made an impact on me. Starting CM was like a welcoming breeze. The class is well structured and catered to the participant needs. Never in my life, I've seen a MA class conducted in such a fashion. Fantastic! the class offers a friendly atmosphere to learn new stuff in a fun and safe manner.

My colleague and I got together during office hours. Yes, you heard me right, 'office hours' and I hope my boss don't stumble on my blog, to do a few rounds of light rolls at our office gym. Thanks to the Capoiera guys, the club decided to invest in jigsaw mats :) We rolled for an hour last Friday at 3pm when others were busy finishing off their work for the week.

Just the other day, I visited my Aikido sensei of more than 15years. He opened a new dojo in Puchong. Nice place, lots of room to roll. He even invited me to teach BJJ there! I had to politely decline his offer since I do not think I am ready to teach at the moment. Further more, I prefer to sweat it out myself than watch others have all the fun. At the moment, time is of the essence for me and I have way enough commitments in my life already. The thing about traditional MA is that teaching is suppose to be an honor. I on the contrary don't look at it that way. I do understand that teaching gives some people a sense of satisfaction, which is good. I have no problems in that.. my sense of satisfaction is when I've learnt something and had a good workout for the day..

I watched my Aikido sensei teach the class on a lazy Sunday afternoon. The students were made out of teens and elderly adults, all of them beginners. The techniques are pretty much the same. Same drills, same moves, same philosophy. Nothing changed. While I understand that repetition is part of perfecting a technique, I just wish that traditional MA evolved. I hardly see techniques change, let alone their methods of training. Most traditional MAs think that what have been thought by the founder is absolute. I am pretty sure if Morihei was still alive he would incorporate new techniques. Anyway, for me, I've moved on...and I'm glad I did...

Other than that, I'll be expecting my baby girl anytime this month or latest next month :-)

Can I live without MA?

2009-02-05T23:54:00.000-08:00

This post came to me after I read my comrade Blog. While the thought of quitting something I love doing never crossed my mind. I do, however, realize that it could be a reality. Perhaps it could be other commitments such as family, work, financial matters, injuries, etc. So the thought is, YES, I could live without MA. But there is certainly one thing that I could never live without that is 'sweating it out'.

I love working out, I love the feeling it gives me after a hard workout. Contrary to most people, my muscles turn sore if I do not work out for more than 2 days. I think one of the reason I'm hook to working out is because of my upbringing. I was never an athletic person in school. In fact, I was an overweight child. My mom was a fitness guru. Yes, she took up aerobics at some shop lot in JB shortly after I was born. She made a very successful career out of it. Being a fitness and health guru, she ventured into her own business a couple of years ago. She operated a fitness center. I was teenager at that time, I spent much of my time helping her run the place. Often manning the counter for enquiries and handling payments. I wasn't really into fitness nor did I took any interest what she was doing. I merely saw it as a way to earn extra pocket money since my dad stopped giving me dough.

My mom had really instilled important values such as taking care of my body. She cooked healthy and was very selective in her groceries too. All meals prepared in our house had to be healthy. Such behavior instinctively rub off on me until today. Hence, why I am so active in what I do. It just so happen that MA is one of my ways of sweating it out and having fun!

Lunar New Year Practice

2009-01-29T18:37:00.000-08:00

The gym is closed for another week. Instead of lazing back, my colleague and I decided to do some training at our company gym. We headed to the aerobics hall at lunch time. Laid out some yoga and exercise mats, wore our Dogi and commence drilling a few moves. Since the mats weren't thick enough we had to keep it low to the ground, avoiding take downs or any sudden move that might cause us to crash head first.

We had the curtains separating the gym and aerobics area drawn down so we had more privacy. About 30 mins into our roll. Someone drew open the curtains. At that time I was on about to mount my colleague when I notice a small crowd standing in front of us gawking and whispering.."what are they doing??...". I looked up and jokingly said "Sorry for the indecency, we are just wrestling...". To my surprise, one of the guy asked "Are you guys doing Brazilian jiu-jitsu??". I smiled and said "Yeah...you are welcome to join us". He smiled and watched us trying to strangle each other. Good thing I wasn't playing guard. Anyway, the crowd soon dispersed.

After a few mins, the same guy walked in on us again. This time he apologize for disturbing, I mentioned to him that it's no harm and he's free to walk about or even join us. He told me, "I do Aikido, falling and tumbling is norm for me". He asked me a series of questions "Where do you practice? How often do you teach? Is it under Sensei xxxx". I said "Sorry, no, I don't know him..We practice at KDT and No, I am not an instructor we are both practitioners from the same academy". He then proceeded to the punching bag next to us and started kicking it. For a moment there, I was wondering if he was trying to make a point...Anyway, I continued strangling my colleague.

Our roll lasted about an hour 30 mins. Far pass our 1 hour allocated lunch break :-) We soon dispersed and told ourselves that we would do this more often. The thing is I'm quite apprehensive when people ask us what the heck are we doing. I feel like telling 'em we are doing Judo since not many people heard of BJJ. They might think 2 gay guys trying to make out..Baaaah...who cares what people think!

Visiting Dojos in 2008

2008-12-31T08:22:00.000-08:00

While training at other centers during the holiday period, I've notice something important. I can see several commonalities between schools. I notice that in all schools, people train in a cooperative manner. This is great as I've heard that there are some schools that are competition based and might not be suitable for casual rollers.

I acknowledge the importance of a good instructor, on the other hand, I felt that students play an equally important role. In order to improve, I need good training partners. Therefore, depending on my training goal for that day, I would want a partner that can give me a hard time and at the same time go easy on me. What I mean is that having a good mix of experience grapplers and less experience ones makes a great combo. I believe that having a good instructor is a small but important fraction of the learning process, the rest is up to the student.

As for the instructor, I believe his main purpose is to teach, guide and motivate the students. Usually, the instructor is a role model for the students. However, I don't advocate being a photostat of my instructor because I believe each one of us are unique and don't necessary have the same physical limitations.

My schedule in 2009 is definitely going to be challenging as I am switching jobs. Along with the expectations of being a new father soon. There will be many obstacles to overcome in order to keep the same routine up.

New Name, Same Blog

2008-12-31T03:50:00.000-08:00

They say you need to evolve and change with times. Well, for starters, I've drop the porn sounding URL to add more flavor to my spanking new BJJ Blog. Call it what you like, I'm blogging about my extra hot curry laksa BJJ experience in and around 'Boleh Land'. Yes, there are not many of us around..yet. Let's see how it goes, maybe this site will attract more interest in the sport. I'm going to try to keep it to the theme. Mainly about my BJJ experience or any other martial experience I may encounter along the way...

My goal is to share my thoughts as I go along discovering my martial journey...