The Wednesday Wellness threads are meant to encourage users to ask for and provide advice and motivation to improve their lives. It isn't intended as a 'containment thread' and any content which could go here could instead be posted in its own thread. You could post:
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March BJJ Update: Promotion Day Blues
So after class Tuesday was promotion day at the gym. It was cute for the comp-team teenager who got his blue belt, and a couple other guys were excited to get whatever the stripe is that comes right before your belt promotion. I had no problem clapping for everyone. But then they got to "FiveHour get up here" and I got my first stripe, a piece of electrical tape wrapped around the white belt. I felt embarrassed and ridiculous, somehow combining a sense of meaninglessness of the participation with the level and still feeling a sense of imposter syndrome or that it was given out of pity because I don't know squat. I know less than squat. Squat and I could go to dinner and Squat could wear an "I'm with stupid" T shirt.
Which is fine whatever I was embarrassed. But then I was surprised the next day, when my friend who I started going to BJJ with, B, called me and said hey congratulations, and sounded genuinely jealous. He said he really felt like he was falling behind last time we had rolled; he was coming off an injury and I was able to dominate position pretty emphatically. B decided that to make more progress, he wanted to start doing private classes in addition to the scheduled classes, and the professor had told him that it was better with two people rather than one, as it is essentially impossible to do BJJ by oneself, so B asked me to join him and we'd book some private classes together. Which, honestly, at the price quoted I don't mind doing maybe once a week, I can pick a time where it makes scheduling easier for me, and it'll probably be good for progress, and I don't mind paying a bit of extra money because I feel like it's been such a good deal so far for me.
I was just so surprised that where I felt like getting the stripe was a participation trophy and mildly embarrassing to even get at 33, B was mildly upset about not getting it. Which he was wrong about anyway: he simply hadn't showed up for class that day, he got it tonight. Just such an odd shift of perspective.
I've made a lot of progress the last few weeks, and I think a big part of it is altering my scheduling to go four days in a row three days off, rather than four days sprinkled through the week. The way the gym structures things, every week every class is devoted to one position or type of move. So half-guard week, armbar week, Judo week, etc. I've noticed that going three days in a row, I start to actually use the moves more, because I'm practicing it in quick succession. Interestingly, BJJ is a very intense workout every time, and I'm noticing physique results, but it doesn't have the same muscle-soreness or necessity of rest days that lifting and rock climbing do for me. I couldn't do the same lift or climb four days in a row without dropping the intensity close by a lot on the second day. Where with BJJ I can roll every day, and while I probably wear down eventually, I feel like if I manage my energy and warmup well that day, I'm fine each day. Picking up soreness or a knock is more idiosyncratic, a matter of getting caught in a bad position and fighting it too long, rather than just pure muscle soreness and weakness with lifting, or the way I need to rest my fingers in between climbing days.
This made me think, along with chatting with @oats_son about kettlebells, about the roll of the 30 Day Challenge in my fitness history. I first started with kettlebells doing the 10,000 swings in 30 days thing, and after that I've never been scared of swings. In law school I did a 30 days of yoga things, and it permanently improved my yoga practice. These brief focused efforts lead to long term improvements! On the other hand, I did Smolov Jr. for Bench and Strict Press over the years, and while I hit PRs after the program, the value didn't hold over for long after.
My biggest frustration remains my limited vocabulary of moves. I don't think there's any way out of it except time. But I hate the feeling of getting mount, as I did last time, and then not having the moves or the confidence in them to go for a sub; or sitting in guard and being good enough to avoid getting swept or subbed, but not good enough to pass, and just wasting time stalling. My defense is progressing faster than my offense.
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