Fighting with injuries, 884 flighthours video

Ok so I am not dead, and I did not quit BJJ either :) Well in fact I have been out of training for a while, since I've been having a sh*tload of different injuries in this first part of the year. All minor, all super annoying and all on my left side. My hip injury is getting better and better, but I have just been out of sparring for 8 weeks with a neck injury from a scramble. Also my (left) shin and (left) wrist have been injured and my (left) ear has been extremely sore for some months.

I just hope that I can get over this period of injuries soon, since it is driving me crazy that I cannot spar with full intensity. I see light at the end of the tunnel though and I think everything will be good again very soon. I actually planned to do a little "come back" and fight in a grappling turnament saturday, but with all the injuries - combined with being sick for the last week or so - I had to forget all about that. Nothing to worry about though, as 16 other fighters from the team will fight and I will be able to dedicate a whole day to coach and help them through the day. Most of them are beginners and I am very excited to see them get a good experience and enjoy participating in their first turnament.

Speaking of the team, I just realized yesterday, that it has never been stronger. The quantity is one thing; our beginners class with much over 50 members have SO much potential and the advanced class is 20+ experienced, tough players on the mat every time. But the level of everyone has really risen lately, as we have been running everyone through a lot of basic technique drilling, repetition and isolation sparring. Last night was my first training where I was trying to jump in on the high intensity sparring since I got my neck injury eight weeks ago, and I was really surprised how much the guys in the class had progressed in that time period. Everyone was giving me a really tough time and I really had to be fully concentrated to not get tapped out right and left. It was a really cool experience and I can't wait to get up in gear and catch up with everybody. They are all peaking athletically at the moment, and I am crawling back from my injuries so my odds are really bad, but I feel more motivated than ever to get my mind and body back in shape.

Right now I just feel like I am a mad scientist (coach), who has created a monster (a team of supergrapplers) that is attacking me (tapping me out) and I am trying to invent something new quickly to defend myself LOL

On another note, I have reached the first 100 flighthours some time ago and is currently down to 884 hours. All the injuries has really slowed down my progression, but I am psyched to catch up with my earlier pace and currently I am getting a good amount of sparring hours every week. I have shot some new video of some sparring just like I did at 964 flighthours. I have definately improved my game a lot since then, but it is difficult to tell on the video as I am not really on my peak at the moment and the rolls I have filmed are a little slow compared to my normal pace. It does however give a good look of what I am working on at the moment, so for my own record it is a good video to look back on in some time. Also, the video is a showcase of some of the cool shorts I use for training.


Again, it is very long (about 40 minutes) and I would never expect any of you to watch it all, but maybe you can pick up a detail or two that can improve your own game. If there is anything in the video you would like me to explain, just let me know and I will make a post about it, maybe with a small videoclip :)

Here are some of the things I am currently working on in my game:

- Footlocks from all positions but especially guard bottom and omo plata
- Attacking far arm in sidecontrol using kimuragrip setup
- Countering backmount escapes
- Taking the back from armbar position
- Scramblepass
- Flipover guardpass using "doublejump"
- Armdrags in guard
- Marceloplata mountattack position
- X-guard sweeps as guard defense
- Triangle as a way of control from sidecontrol bottom and top

I will try to adress all of these here in the blog over the next period of time. Also I am currently writing a post on "A-game camping" that I hopefully can publish soon :)

Until then, I am working hard on my next event Adrenaline 2 that should be a huge show, really looking forward to it.