general update

I didn't go to the Vics. But I will enter the GTA comp in May.

There are a couple of seminars coming up which I have booked in for. In early June, John Will is coming to our school. I'm also going to a Carlos Machado seminar in Geelong in May. I'm looking forward to both of those.

I just received Roy Dean's Brown Belt Requirements. I have only managed to watch the first half of the first DVD so far. Awesome. Notwithstanding the fact that I'm a long way from brown belt (hey, I think I'm a long way from purple!), it is incredibly interesting. As expected, he speaks more of concepts than techniques, and emphasis is on stringing attacks together. The points about creating and maintaining pressure alone are worth having.

I finally finished reading Fighter's Mind by Sam Sheridan. Lots of interesting stories and bits from interviews with all sorts of people from the BJJ and MMA scene. In the end, one of the take-home messages for me was that dedicated training is real and bears results. Talent doesn't. That ties right in with what Josh Waitzkin talks about in his book, and what the book "Talent is overrated" is all about. Interesting stuff.

Winter is coming to the great land down under. The other night, I had cold feet when starting a class, and it occurred to me that I'll soon be wearing my fancy scramble spats to no-gi sessions again :-) So in good time, I received my parcel from BJJHQ. They had the Scramble Be like Water Rashies on sale recently, and I grabbed one (seeing it has long sleeves). That was the first time I had ordered from the company. The parcel only took a few days to get here.

It is Anzac Day in Austalia today, and being a public holiday, it means we have no BJJ classes. But it also means a day off work. I hope the weather will improve, so I can indulge in my second passion, which is horse riding :-)