What a weekend - or should I say, four day weekend. On thursday last, I made the trip to Tasmania to meet up with the fantastic Tasmaniacs! This time around the session was held in Hobart - and was well attended by students from both launceston and as far away as Ulverston. I really appreciated the huge effort they made to be there. After an in-depth and very technically oriented training session, we went out for a bite at a local restaurant. More wild tales were shared before it was time to say our goodbyes. What a great bunch!
The next morning, I flew back to Melbounre, waited a few hours at the airport and then to Adelaide. My good friend Darren Cartwright played host and we held our session at his brand new location in the heart of Adelaide city. Another great training session was had by all - before a few of us headed out for dinner at T-chow’s - a favourite Chinese restaurant. After Peking duck and other delights, it was time for five hours sleep before getting on the dawn flight to Perth.
At perth I was picked up by BJJ black Belt and good friend Steve Stevenson, and taken to his school for the first of five seminars. After that it was over to Adam Metcalf’s for another great session, and then on to Paul Marsden’s for the last session of the day. We all had a great time - and lot’s of learning took place.
Another nights sleep and then Steve picked me up again to head over to the Submission factory, headed up by Troy Flugge. Here I had the immense pleasure to be able to award Stacey Wilson, his BJJ Black Belt.
Stacey has trained for 12 years now - and although he has had a couple of short breaks, back in his native New Zealand and over in the UK, he has kept up his training during those times and acquitted himself admirably. Actually, the word’ admirably’ doesn’t do Stacey justice - he is an exceptionally talented and dedicated BJJ man - and is an asset to any mat he chooses to visit. Congratulations Stacey on this milestone achievement.

After another great session we headed off to the other side of Perth for the last leg of my Perth tour, at Lance Johnson’s school. We did a really fun session on Closed Guard strategies before another round of goodbyes took place and it was time to head to the airport for my flight home. Steve came in and sat with me for a bit as I waited for my flight - and we chatted about all things martial arts over a coffee.

I arrived home, after my late flight, and drive back to Geelong - at 2am this morning.
A day off today is welcome - although I used it to catch up on e-mails, this blog and a few other matters that were lurking on my desk. Time to kick back for the evening - and begin another day tomorrow.

Be well,
JBW

Last Thursday’s class was all about working from different positions. After the warm-up we took turns holding guard, being placed in side control, the mount and being mounted from the back. The person in the defensive position had to work their way out or reverse their partner while the person on top went for the [...]

Sorry for the long absence, I really haven’t had much time to be at the computer. Just a few more days before I return to Asia and resume posting regularly.

Also, check out the most recent podcast show with reports from China at AOW12 with interviews with Pedro Schmall and Thomas Fan. -Luke

THEFIGHTWORKSPODCAST

I shouldn’t be on the computer right now. I have to scrub every square inch of my bathroom and finish packing. And I have to leave for wrestling in 2 1/2 hours. Yikes!

Yesterday, I taught a swim lesson to a 3 1/2 yr old little girl from San Diego. The water temperature out here is a bit colder than they are used to (they just moved here two weeks ago). But despite the cold, she listened really well and I’m pretty confident that she will be swimming before the end of the summer. When we finished the lesson, I also received a request from another parent to teach her son.

From the swim lesson, I went to the gym (after a detour cashing a check at the bank) and taught the women’s class. Well, more like a private lesson since Mary Anne was solo today. Eric’s wife was supposed to be there and showed up at Open Mat time when class ended. Eric got the times wrong. But we put her in my old pink and white War gi and put her on the mats anyway. Yay! New women is always fun!

I had to bust my ass to get up to my parents’ house for my Dad’s suprise 60th birthday party. Good thing he was late getting there or I would’ve missed the surprise. There were a lot of people I didn’t recognize and it seems like everyone is having kids. There were probably 10 children under the age of 10 and 4 pregnant women all giving birth in the next month.

There was a chocolate fountain. Everything was dipped into it…strawberries, pineapples, fingers, even birthday cake. Kids were running around with chocolate covered shirts getting in the way of the bean bag toss, hitting each other with swords, and squirting water at each other. Occasionally, an adult got up to check on the reason behind a 3 yr olds tears or yell at the pre-teens for teasing the 5 year olds (yes plural at all age groups). Mostly it was a free for all of entirely too much consumed food. I got on the scale this morning and weighed more than I have in weeks. But damn those chocolate strawberries were good!

I haven’t been training for a week, yet again.  My cat was sick and I had to take care of my little fellow.
I got home on Tuesday night with Qish the Siamese cat scratching his right ear wildly.  He didn’t touch his food as well, and kept on howling while scratching.  My teammate Mark said I [...]

Our friend and BJJ black belt has just won another MMA match by submission yesterday, this time in Sweden. He won by Katagatame on the 3rd round. Soon more details and pictures here!

Here’s coverage of the preparations for the Gracie Barra team from Gracie Magazine.How’s preparation of the Gracie Barra athletes in California going? How did you organize things after the 2009 Pan?We’re training every day, seven times a week, at 1…

I’m working on my book proposal, which is very exciting. It’s weird and rewarding for me to start thinking of myself as a professional writer, though that’s obviously the goal; my agent is ostensibly going to shop the proposal around to publishers once I have written it. (And yeah, it’s weird and rewarding for me to have an agent.)

The book is supposed to be about how I threw away a life that didn’t fit me and worked to build one that does. As my friend Anahi would say, it’s kind of a sunshine and babies story, uplifting, inspirational, motivational. So the proposal reflects that: how I went through some dark times but came out the other side feeling far more fulfilled and joyful with the life I eventually constructed. Sounds nice, eh?

The conundrum is that while I felt that way about my life when I finished the first draft back in February or March, I so don’t feel that way about it at the moment, while I’m trying to meet a self-imposed deadline for the second draft. I may have hinted that this was happening: I’m going through a rough patch, for a variety of reasons, and I’m feeling sort of fraudulent about trying to be upbeat and use language that would convince readers that they, too, can live happily ever after if they just believe they are worth the effort and trust their guts and clap their hands and believe in fairies! I will probably go back to believing that eventually, but be forewarned that you shouldn’t try to convince me of it right now. It could get ugly. Fairy dust everywhere.

I’m phoning in a lot of things that are usually very important to me. I won’t say what, because I reserve the right not to incriminate myself, despite the fact that I have done it many many times here over the years. Plus, it would take too much effort to list the things I’m slacking on. Suffice it to say that everything is taking me about twice as long as it normally would, and I’m being about half as effective. I’m sure you can guess at some of the things I’m neglecting without me specifying anyway.

As always, my timing is impeccable. The Mundial (world gi tournament) starts on Thursday and I compete next Sunday. My parents are arriving on Thursday as well, to visit and to watch me compete. So I should be concentrating on training and getting ready to show them a good time. But I can’t bring myself to fold my laundry, let alone scout out good restaurants. Sleeping is manageable, though; I seem to be able to do that at the drop of a hat.

I’ll snap out of it eventually, and I guess it’s good that I can see the humor in my situation even while I’m living through it. And I know that you have to go through some bad times to be able to see how great the good times are; without that comparison, how would you know?

But that doesn’t mean I have to handle it with aplomb–or unwrinkled clothes.

It absolutely rocked. I am in the middle of forgetting half of what he covered so this will be short– sucks not being able to video but I totally understand; the downside is I only take notes later, boo.

We started with an hour of takedowns. Here he’s demonstrating some standup with Lee, one of our purples. I took a couple shots during the instruction, but most were blurry since I didn’t want to interrupt with a flash. I really liked one of his simple judo foot reaps. (I’m sure I’m using the word incorrectly but whatever.)

Then we did about 2 hours on the mats- everything from a NS choke and a side escape into a choke to a butterfly pass and some bottom half guard work. I was impressed with his personable, mellow vibe and his willingness to get down on the floor with us, have us do the technique to him and give feedback. We had about 50-60 people on the mat so it was crowded, yet you still felt like he was giving you a mini-private lesson. Somehow he was everywhere, all the time, and so encouraging and constructive. Funny too. And I thought he’d be bigger– but believe me, when he moves, you know it, and there’s no escaping his chokes

I’m proud to say I was choked by Royler. My friend Scott can say he swept Royler, which even cooler. Here’s Ronny, one of our blackbelts who recently joined us from Brazil, getting RNC’d.

Yours truly..

Scott…

Wednesday, 27 May was my one month follow-up appointment to see how the PFO closure was healing, to make sure the device is working as it should and to find out whats next. I was hoping for good news, what I got was so much more.

I showed up to the fifth floor of the south tower at Cedars Sinai about an hour and a half early. I guess that I was feeling excited and apprehensive at the same time. Before seeing the Doctor I was having an echocardiogram with bubble study. Basically, it is a normal echocardiogram (ultrasound of the heart) but at one point they inject a bunch of saline bubbles into a vein and watch them flood into the right atrium. If the surgery worked as it was supposed to, all of the bubbles would stay in the right atrium and not shoot across into the left thru the newly closed PFO.

I have become somewhat used to having echos done now. I know what images they are going to grab and typically in what order. I even know how to stay comfortable in the awkward positions. So I knew when it was over and time for the bubbles. A nurse had already come in before the test and installed an IV line in my arm but for the actual injection of the bubbles the technician called the Fellow who was on duty.

The tech had a pretty picture of my left and right atria on the screen (the right one appears on the left of the screen…..go figure). And in coordination with the fellow, the bubbles were injected rapidly. On the screen the right atrium started to show up bright white as the bubbles rushed in. The left atrium was remarkably empty. Neither myself, the tech nor the Fellow could see any bubbles pass thru the PFO. The surgery worked as it should have.

With a new sense of relief I left the echo lab and made my way to the Doctor’s office. I felt like a kid running home to see a parent with a good report card (not that I have ever known THAT feeling). I couldn’t wait to hear what Dr. Kar would say. Most of my apprehensiveness had now been replaced with pure excitement.

At Dr. Kar’s office the wait felt intolerable. It wasn’t very long but I was dying to get in to see him. Asma came and took me to the room and went over how I was doing. She asked if I had received her reply to my email that told me basically no increased physical activity until at least a month after surgery. I said I did receive it and we laughed that I knew the answer to the question before I had asked it….guilty.

Dr. Kar came in and was as excited as he is every time I have seen him. He asked how I was feeling and I told him that I was fantastic. He read the echo report and told me that the doctor who read the results had seen a couple of tiny bubbles make it into the left atrium. Dr. Kar told me not to worry about that because first off I had, in his words, “a Huge PFO”; and secondly at the end of six months enough scar tissue should grow over the device so that no bubbles would come thru. But for now, the size and relative amount that passed thru were nothing at all to be concerned about.

Then when the appointment was drawing to a close I asked about my activity level; about what I could or could not do. In one of those moments where one’s words were not specifically chosen but they are exactly right he said “you can do anything”. How inspiring is that? That’s right, I have NO LIMITATIONS now. I committed that upon my return to the mats (probably Tuesday, 2 June) I would take it slowly and not roll for a month or so. The Doctor told me to come see him again at the six month mark and sent me on my way.

I cant begin to describe my appreciation for Dr. Kar, Asma, and the entire team who got me thru this. When one hears that they have a hole in their heart the level of fear is paralyzing. They made it so easy to deal with and as I saw with my own eyes, they fixed it.

When I return to the mats next week, it will have been after about five months off. I last trained on Saturday, 10, January. 2009 will go down as a year where I lost half of it to a couple of strokes, the discovery of a hole in my heart, surgery and finally a mid-year triumphant return.

Stay posted, the return of Jiu Jitsu content is imminent!!!