The Liberal's Creed

The Liberal's Creed

Boring stupid post about Brazilian Jiu Jitsu that was written only for the sake of writing something...

Well, I was gonna write something profound and meaningful… but I don’t have the heart for it right now lol. I feel like being a complaining little sniveler… but luckily I recognized the urge before it took control of the keyboard. So I’ll just do the journalish thing for the sole sake of staying in the habit of writing.

I’ve been reading some essays and stuff about the craft of writing in general. It’s pretty interesting, but some of it I already figured out. For instance, as I mentioned once before, writing is like working out. If I get into the swing of it and make it a daily thing… eventually I start to look forward to it and it is nearly effortless to put something decent together when I want to and have the time. On the other hand, if I let a few days go by and don’t at least do a little something here and there, it becomes easier to make excuses and harder to get back into it.

Running, writing, working out… there are a lot of parallels out there. Studying in college (not that I did a whole lot of that), fighting, golf… on and on.

Fighting is a good example. There are few things I love more than fighting (when I say fighting… for those who haven’t been here since the beginning… I mean Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. I don’t mean actual fighting like I randomly punch people on the street lol.) When I arrived here on Fort Jackson I was at the top of my game and rarely lost a fight. I was driven by the fact that I had to teach regularly at Fort Campbell, and didn’t want to lose to one of the soldiers I was trying to teach.

Fast forward a year and a half. The cycles blur together. One thing I have always loved about the Army is the constant change and new situations to keep boredom away. Now I do the same thing over and freakin over, with little time for good PT and virtually no time for extracurricular activities like Combatives. I always teach the same principles, techniques and drills to the privates each cycle. Only the most basic level is taught in BCT, and few people here are willing to actually put the extra time into getting better at the higher level stuff.

We have a new main Instructor here on post now though, and it looks like that is going to change. There are about 5 of us who are trying to stay committed to rolling at least once a week when training allows. We have gone to the gym twice in the last two weeks and I think we are going to try to maintain at least that frequency through the cycle.

SSG R. is the new Instructor. That’s one of his only duties in the army right now, and he teaches all the level 1 courses for the permanent party soldiers and Drill Sergeants. They are supposed to begin teaching the level 2 course here on Ft Jackson sometime soon, and I have a verbal commitment from higher that I will get a chance to go. The big one is level 3 though. That is taught only at Ft Benning, and gets into great detail, to include a lot of standing, striking, weapons, etc.

I have fought SSG R. twice now and have lost twice. That sucks. I hate not being the best, and WILL NOT REST until I defeat his sorry ass lol. I have won all the rest of my fights, and beaten some good fighters, but it’s gonna bug the hell outta me until I beat R.
In our first fight, we rolled for about a half an hour, which is a hellishly long fight. The other guys fought three times and some had already left by the time we finished. He ended up making me tap with a strange sort of joint-lock/smother. I think he was going for the common bent arm bar from the mount... but couldn't get it and took my arm back behind my head somehow. From that fight I learned a little variation of the kimura from the guard that R. tried to use over and over. When the kimura doesn’t fly it is fairly simple to flow into a timing sweep to the mount from the same setup. I haven’t used it yet, but really haven’t had a chance. I need to practice it by itself before I use it in a fight.

I’ve been fighting pretty conservatively since I started up again, and haven’t been willing to go for the more exotic techniques for fear of giving something up. Just about anytime you try a technique, you open something else up somewhere. This was fine today and I won fairly quickly with everybody but R… but I probably need to be a little more aggressive with him. His guard is outstanding and he capitalizes on any mistakes made.

Well, this post sucks…
But I just needed to write something fairly long to stay in the habit. Also, I haven’t written anything on BJJ in a long time…

By the way, I am guessing that the Mystery fish was one of the largemouth/smallmouth hybrids that “chasingthehorizon” mentioned. I’m still not 100% sure, but she has my eternal gratitude anyway.

MYSTERY FISH

Went fishing on Lake Murray today. Didn't do any good trolling for stipers but caught a few fish off the rocks by the dam... (only one keeper size Largemouth) If anybody is in the SE United States and has any idea what fish is colored like a Largemouth Bass... but has a small mouth ... but ISNT a smallmouth bass (LOL) ... let me know.

Before you make the obvious guesses.. it wasn't a smallmouth, white bass, sandbass, striper, hybrid... or any kind of bream/panfish etc. It also wasnt any kind of walleye, pike type fish either... Definitely not a Drum, Buffalo, Carp, or any kind of junkfish like that...

I know all kinds of things it WASN"T.... just not sure what it was.

Anybody who can help me identify the MYSTERY FISH wins....

nothing...

except my eternal gratitude.

OPERATION SHOE FLY

SGT HOOK is a 1SG with the 25th ID(L) in Afghanistan. He has the helicopters to fly them out to all the remote locations... he just needs the shoes. Check out the info on his site (you should be reading it anyway).

Never pass up a chance to help someone out. If you're anything like my family you probably have too many damn shoes lying around anyway. I'm not sure what the cost of postage would be, but I'm sure you can swing it for a worthy cause. It's stuff like this that people remember their whole lives and their lives have been hard enough already in that war-ravaged country.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ...

to the United States Army.

Here's to New Uniforms, Thermobaric M203 rounds, Individual Thermal Sights...

and the XM8 Carbine :)

It is a tough time to be a soldier in many ways, and there is no end in sight... but at least they are getting us the kickass new gear now.