Wake up, eat, train, eat, sleep. This is my typical day. The only difference from one day to the next is who I train with and where I train. For everyone who has speculated about what it would be like to own your own school and train/teach grappling for a living, I’m here to confirm your assumptions: it is awesome! One of the only negative side effects of teaching Brazilian Jiu Jitsu for a living is that the days go by so fast its dizzying. I’m afraid that I’m going to wake up tomorrow and realize that 20 years have gone by.
I find that the only way I can keep up with the week is to take photos of everything. Then after the week is done, I go back through the photos and recall the past events. If not for the photos, I would be lost.
I am happy to report that videos have been taped for my new YouTube channel, which can be found at http://www.youtube.com/
The first set of videos came out well, although there are a couple of changes that I plan on making in the future. The camera that we are using does not appear to have a white balance and the coloring is off slightly. I’ve manually fixed it when I edited them together but I will be cruising craigslist and ebay for a better quality camera. But I must admit that the quality is definitely better than anything that I taped while in Brazil.
As I stated earlier this project will get regular updates, 3-5 a week (and maybe some bonus footage on top of that). In the future I will replace videos that need to be updated either because of quality or because I change the way that I view a technique (remember guys, I’m still learning too). My goal is to have over 200 videos on this page by this time next year…totally doable.
Here is photo of us doing the setup for the videos (I also plan on getting better exterior lights in the future too).
Here is the first video, an in depth look at the Cross Collar Choke.
Even though the videos are a big project that I’m taking on, I’m still finding time to take on other teaching activities. Recently I was approached by a local daycare about possibly teaching all of the kids in their summer program. I jumped on the opportunity and what a great idea! Throughout the summer I’m going to be teaching groups of 25 children at a time how to do basic grappling maneuvers. They are always enthusiastic, hard working and well behaved (thankfully).
This time I remembered to bring my whistle because the last time I taught the children I lost my voice. I didn’t lose my voice from screaming in anger or frustration, but just like a faithful fan at a football game, I lost my voice from cheering so hard.
Here is the photos of the girls from class while they are awaiting instructions (you should also note that the girls are always more interested and well behaved than the boys)!
The end of the week brought a special treat. A seminar with Vitor Shaolin in High Point, NC. I was excited to get some mat time in with the 3 time world champion so I didn’t even complain when I had to get up at 6:45 on Sunday morning and drive two hours to attend the seminar.
The Living Defense Martial Arts facility was amazing (a Novia Uniao affiliate) and the owners/instructors were extremely nice. There were a lot of people in attendance but shockingly I was the only black belt (aside from the school owner and Shaolin).
We went over some great warm up drills (that I will be passing on to my students), and a wide array of moves. Shaolin went over a wide range of moves including some very basic transitions all the way to spinning triangles from spider guard. Shaolin showed some really good techniques and when you take into account the seminar was only $50, I dont see how there weren’t twice as many people in attendance (don’t get me wrong, I dont mind having to compete with half the amount of people for personal attention from Shaolin).
Here is my photo with Shaolin after the seminar. It appears that I need to clean my camera lense.
That puts another week in the books and it can only get better from here!
Thanks for reading,
Jeremy
