Had some good training in the last couple days… one of my favorite training partners is back on the mats in almost-100% condition after a lengthy pause due to back and knee problems, so that makes me very happy. At least until we actually roll and I realize I’m not really much better at passing his damn guard than I ever was. However, I did feel like I was doing some things better– I just can’t recall what they are :\
Been working on a hodge podge of stuff. Open guard, spider, sweeps, butterfly, passing, DLR, and my armbar attacks from side control. Last night I learned an answer to the negative halfguard pass but I will have to drill it a bunch and it’s only one or two people who routinely pull it off on me. I need to tighten up my halfguard sweeps for sure.
We have new girls! NEW GIRLS AT THE ACADEMY– I feel like it should be in lights. Normally we have 1-2 inconsistent whitebelts, me and Rebecca for the blues, Shama’s purple, and Christy’s brown. But there’s two new whitebelt chicks, one of whom did some training in Indiana at some point, so I am hopeful at least one will stick with it. I drilled sidecontrol armbars with the Indiana girl (whose name I do remember, but don’t want to call her out here yet) and she is very tight, controlled, and seemed comfortable putting weight and pressure on. Yay.
There’s a few tournaments coming up around here but I’m still not terribly motivated to compete. I’m deep in the lab these days and have no desire to tidy my hair and be presentable for guests.
I spent some time working on the party plan for Saturday the 11th and dang, that’s a lot of food 
My favorite part of the party, aside from the food, drink, and friends is the gift exchange and I have a great one this year– having jiu jitsu people at the party makes it much easier to pick something people will crave. At least some people
Got some bad news recently… one, a dear friend who helped me get into jiu jitsu and who has always been in my corner was diagnosed with colon cancer (and he’s YOUNG! my age!) and possibly stomach cancer. He has a 9 year-old boy and seems very healthy and fit… he’s still being courted to come fight on the TUF Bantamweight season next year, and the UFC would like to see him fight Jose Aldo… but he’s holding off on a wedding date with his fiancee until they get this cancer thing settled. I am praying for him as hard as I can, and if you do that sort of thing, it would be appreciated.
Second, my aunt Ginny in Virginia fell and broke her hip and leg, and has to be in a rehab hospital for 4 weeks. (She’s my dad’s younger brother Leonard’s wife… the uncle who passed in October was my dad’s older brother Louis.) Mitch and I were supposed to stay with them for Christmas, and they’re the epicenter of all things holiday and family, so with my uncle being rather affected by senile dementia, I’m not at all sure where we’ll go and more importantly, where Christmas will go. They have 5 daughters, all in the same town/area, so I’m sure we’ll pull something together… but I worry for my aunt and uncle. I can’t imagine it but someday I’ll be that old and fragile. (Or perhaps I’ll be a female version of Helio? just with fewer children and hopefully better hair.. just KIDDING…)
Anyway shoot some prayers her way as well if you don’t mind.
Stephan Kesting puts out nice instructionals. I just ordered two to join the 500gig I have and don’t watch… because I’m weird! but anyway, I liked this kesa reversal into armbar, and he’s demoing with Jennifer Weintz, no slouch on the mats. Enjoy.
Oh, and more mindcandy… MARCELINHO! No matter how many times I watch this freakin’ thing I am amazed anew… *sigh* The backtakes.. the chokes.. the armbars.. his flippyhippy butterfly pass that makes it look like his spine is made of gummibears..
Last, John Frankl just wrote a very insightful piece for Global Training Report titled “Movement vs. Technique– Why Rickson, B.J. Penn, Marcelo Garcia, and Marco Barbosa are Good at Jiu-Jitsu.” I recommend giving it a read.
On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman previews the December 4 Strikeforce mixed martial arts card, and speaks with former Strikeforce light heavyweight champion “King” Mo Lawal.
The Strikeforce show will take place Saturday night, December 4, at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis, Missouri, and will be shown live in the U.S. on Showtime. The main event pits two veteran former champions against one another, as Dan Henderson faces Renato “Babalu” Sobral in a light heavyweight bout. Also, Paul Daley fights Scott Smith in a welterweight fight, Robbie Lawler fights Matt Lindland in a middleweight fight, and Antonio “Big Foot” Silva fights Mike Kyle in a heavyweight fight.
On a series of media conference calls, we got some quick assessments of what to expect in these fights from Dan Henderson, Renato “Babalu” Sobral, Paul Daley, Scott Smith, Robbie Lawler, and Matt Lindland. We also heard a comment from Strikeforce CEO about the status of negotiations between Strikeforce, Showtime, and M-1 Global to extend the contract of the legendary heavyweight Fedor Emelianenko with Strikeforce.
On Wednesday, we spoke at length with “King” Mo Lawal. He gave us an estimate of when he will be able to return to Strikeforce following his rehab from surgery. We discussed the December 4 Strikeforce card and the main fights on it. Mo Lawal will also be a guest commentator on the December 11 HDNet telecast of the K-1 World Grand Prix 2010 Final at the Ariake Colosseum in Tokyo, Japan, and also a guest on MMA Live on ESPN2 late Thursday night, December 2. We discussed the K-1 card and why we expect it to be very exciting, as well as some of the developments in boxing this year, including why Sergio Martinez deserves to be named fighter of the year in that sport. We also discussed the great sport of wrestling, and much more.
The No Holds Barred theme song is called “The Heist”, by Ian Carpenter.
No Holds Barred is free to listen to and is sponsored by:
American Top Team. Whether you’re a beginner or a champion, train with the champions in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, boxing, wrestling, grappling, and mixed martial arts at American Top Team. Check out their web site at http://americantopteam.com/.
BJJMart.com, your premier source for all Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu gear, videos, books, and much more.
FightBeat.com, for news, results, interviews, and free exclusive videos from the worlds of boxing and mixed martial arts.
Thanks, Eddie Goldman
EddieGoldman.com
Reprinted from the New York Times:
By RON LIEBER
There are no one-handed push-ups or headstands on the yoga mat for Gordon Murray anymore.
No more playing bridge, either — he jokingly accuses his brain surgeon of robbing him of the gray matter that contained all the bidding strategy.
But when Mr. Murray, a former bond salesman for Goldman Sachs who rose to the managing director level at both Lehman Brothers and Credit Suisse First Boston, decided to cease all treatment five months ago for his glioblastoma, a type of brain cancer, his first impulse was not to mourn what he couldn’t do anymore or to buy an island or to move to Paris. Instead, he hunkered down in his tiny home office here and channeled whatever remaining energy he could muster into a slim paperback. It’s called “The Investment Answer,” and he wrote it with his friend and financial adviser Daniel Goldie to explain investing in a handful of simple steps.
Why a book? And why this subject? Nine years ago, after retiring from 25 years of pushing bonds on pension and mutual fund managers trying to beat the market averages over long periods of time, Mr. Murray had an epiphany about the futility of his former customers’ pursuits.
He eventually went to work as a consultant for Dimensional Fund Advisors, a mutual fund company that rails against active money management. So when his death sentence arrived, Mr. Murray knew he had to work quickly and resolved to get the word out to as many everyday investors as he could.
“This is one of the true benefits of having a brain tumor,” Mr. Murray said, laughing. “Everyone wants to hear what you have to say.”
He and Mr. Goldie have managed to beat the clock, finishing and printing the book themselves while Mr. Murray is still alive. It is plenty useful for anyone who isn’t already investing in a collection of index or similar funds and dutifully rebalancing every so often.
But the mere fact that Mr. Murray felt compelled to write it is itself a remarkable story of an almost willful ignorance of the futility of active money management — and how he finally stumbled upon a better way of investing. Mr. Murray now stands as one the highest-ranking Wall Street veterans to take back much of what he and his colleagues worked for during their careers.
Mr. Murray grew up in Baltimore, about the farthest thing from a crusader that you could imagine. “I was the kid you didn’t want your daughter to date,” he said. “I stole baseball cards and cheated on Spanish tests and made fun of the fat kid in the corner with glasses.”
He got a lot of second chances thanks to an affluent background and basketball prowess. He eventually landed at Goldman Sachs, long before many people looked askance at anyone who worked there.
“Our word was our bond, and good ethics was good business,” he said of his Wall Street career. “That got replaced by liar loans and ‘I hope I’m gone by the time this thing blows up.’ ”
After rising to managing director at two other banks, Mr. Murray retired in 2001.
At the time, his personal portfolio was the standard Wall Street big-shot barbell, with a pile of municipal bonds at one end to provide safe tax-free income and private equity and hedge fund investments at the other.
When some of those bonds came due, he sought out Mr. Goldie, a former professional tennis player and 1989 Wimbledon quarterfinalist, for advice on what to buy next. Right away, Mr. Goldie began teaching him about Dimensional’s funds.
The fact that Mr. Murray knew little up until that point about basic asset allocation among stocks and bonds and other investments or the failings of active portfolio management is shocking, until you consider the self-regard that his master-of-the-universe colleagues taught him. “It’s American to think that if you’re smart or work hard, then you can beat the markets,” he said.
But it didn’t take long for Mr. Murray to become a true believer in this different way of investing. “I learned more through Dan and Dimensional in a year than I did in 25 years on Wall Street,” he said.
Soon Dimensional hired him as a consultant, helping financial advisers who use its funds explain the company’s anti-Wall Street investment philosophy to its clients. “The most inspirational people who talk about alcoholism are people who have gone through A.A.,” said David Booth, Dimensional’s founder and chairman. “It’s the people who have had the experience and now see the light who are our biggest advocates.”
Playing that role was enough for Mr. Murray until he received his diagnosis in 2008. But not long after, in the wake of the financial collapse, he testified before a open briefing at the House of Representatives, wondering aloud how it was possible that prosecutors had not yet won criminal convictions against anyone in charge at his old firms and their competitors.
In June of this year, a brain scan showed a new tumor, and Mr. Murray decided to stop all aggressive medical treatment. For several years, he had thought about somehow codifying his newfound investment principles, and Mr. Goldie had a hunch that writing the book would be a life-affirming task for Mr. Murray.
“I had balance in my life, and there was no bucket list,” Mr. Murray said. “The first thing you do is think about your wife and kids, but Randi would have killed me having me around 24/7. I had to do something.” The couple have two grown children.
And so he has tried to use his condition as a way to get people to pay attention. The book asks readers to make just five decisions.
First, will you go it alone? The two authors suggest hiring an adviser who earns fees only from you and not from mutual funds or insurance companies, which is how Mr. Goldie now runs his business.
Second, divide your money among stocks and bonds, big and small, and value and growth. The pair notes that a less volatile portfolio may earn more over time than one with higher volatility and identical average returns. “If you don’t have big drops, the portfolio can compound at a greater rate,” Mr. Goldie said.
Then, further subdivide between foreign and domestic. Keep in mind that putting anything less than about half of your stock money in foreign securities is a bet in and of itself, given that American stocks’ share of the overall global equities market keeps falling.
Fourth, decide whether you will be investing in active or passively managed mutual funds. No one can predict the future with any regularity, the pair note, so why would you think that active managers can beat their respective indexes over time?
Finally, rebalance, by selling your winners and buying more of the losers. Most people can’t bring themselves to do this, even though it improves returns over the long run.
This is not new, nor is it rocket science. But Mr. Murray spent 25 years on Wall Street without having any idea how to invest like a grown-up. So it’s no surprise that most of America still doesn’t either.
Mr. Murray is home for good now, wearing fuzzy slippers to combat nerve damage in his feet and receiving the regular ministrations of hospice nurses.
He generally starts his mornings with his iPad, since he can no longer hold up a newspaper. After a quick scan, he fires off an e-mail to Mr. Goldie, pointing to the latest articles about people taking advantage of unwitting investors.
The continuing parade of stories does not seem to depress him, though. Instead, it inspires him further, bringing life to his days. “To have a purpose and a mission for me has been really special,” he said. “It probably has added days to my life.”
In a cruel twist, one of Mr. Murray’s close friends, Charles Davis, chief executive of the private equity firm Stone Point Capital, lost his son Tucker to cancer earlier this year. In his last several months, Tucker was often on the phone with Mr. Murray.
“Gordon has a peace about him, halfway between Wall Street establishment and a hippie,” Mr. Davis said. “It was clear that he and my son could talk in a way that very few people can, since they were in a pretty exclusive club that nobody really wants to join.”
Mr. Murray managed to outlive Tucker, but he does not expect to see his 61st birthday in March. Still, he didn’t bother memorializing himself with a photograph on his book cover or even mention his illness inside. “I’m sick of me,” he said.
But he plays along with the dying banker angle, willing to do just about anything to make sure that his message is not forgotten, even if he fades from memory himself.
“This book has increased the quality of his life,” Mr. Davis said. “And it’s given him the knowledge and understanding that if, in fact, the end is near, that the end is not the end.”
Found on the internet, anonymously written…
“We enter this world with nothing: no hate, no fear, no prejudice, no cares or worries, and no hidden demons. Only as we experience life do these things become part of us.
We should aspire to keep them at bay, and to be better today than we were yesterday. The spine which should support us all should consist of love, of self-control, of trust, respect, and of course, honesty.
Without these things we are nothing. Through our experience we learn to choose whether we will be good, or bad, and those choices are reflected in how others see us.
Make those choices wisely, for if you do, you will be loved by others, and comfortable in yourself.
Do not judge, for others may judge you the same. Have an open mind, and a gentle demeanour, for in all things the good in you will shine through, as long as you let it.
Do not pretend to be something you are not. If others cannot accept you for who you really are, they may not be worthy of knowing you anyway.
With Knowledge, We Grow. Live this way and at the right time you may leave this existence at peace with yourself, and the rest of the world.”
Class #364
RGA High Wycombe, (BJJ), Kev Capel, High Wycombe, UK – 30/11/2010
I’m not sure I’ve posted these up before, but there is a series on YouTube called ‘Ask A Black Belt‘. The idea is pretty simple, as a guy just gets a bunch of black belts together, asks them all the same questions, then edits them together into clumps. The unnecessarily long intro is a bit annoying, but the content is excellent: lots of great answers from the various black belts, with some big names like Kurt Osiander and Dave Camarillo. Also, there is some random competition footage which doesn’t seem necessarily related, and it was beginning to feel a bit tiresome…until this awesome move by Sean Roberts. Definitely want to try that next time I’m in half guard, though I’m guessing there is way more to it than simply rolling to the back.
Kev continued class with a couple of De La Riva passes. For the first one, turn your trapped knee outwards, which should either loosen their grip or pop it off completely. Put both hands on the trouser leg of the foot pushing into your hip, and drive that hip forward slightly. You can then bring it back while at the same time bringing that leg across your body. Switching your grips, push that leg down to the floor on your hooked leg side. Maintaining a grip on the bottom of their trousers and clamping it to the ground, move around behind them to settle into side control.
The second De La Riva pass begins by grabbing both their collars high on their chest, then driving the knee of your hook leg through to meet that hand. You want to get as much weight going through that knee as possible, so they’re pinned to the floor. Take a big step forward with your other leg, while pushing their leg underneath it.
You can then move into a pass, with two options. Either you can underhook their far armpit, to help settle into a tight side control, or alternatively, you can slide that hand into their near collar. This means you’re threatening a choke, and it also makes it more difficult for them to try and slip under the arm in an attempt to scupper the pass.
Sparring began with Callum, from inside the guard. Once again I was looking for that running escape, to see if I could get into a strong defensive position. I then somehow ended up in position to attempt a double underhooks pass, I think (unless that was from a different position). Either way, something went wrong, as I got stuck in a triangle. I tried to move into the escape Kev showed us, but my base had been knocked flat, so I couldn’t get my knee across.
With my next partner, the same injured blue belt I rolled with last week, something similar happened, after a long stalemate in his guard (particularly as I had the excuse of his injury, I was being even more passive and defensive than usual). At some point he moved to side control, and I immediately went for the running escape. Like Drazen, he tried to take my back, but this time I was able to stay tight and block the hooks, spinning to try and drive through for top half guard or side control instead. Although I can’t be sure that would have worked, as time ran out before I could secure anything.
I’ve got two more poetry seminars to teach on Thursday, so won’t be back to RGA High Wycombe until Tuesday. Lots of PhDing to get stuck into as well, as I want to polish off the introduction in time to pass to my supervisor, so I can then get cracking on the conclusion. A fast turnaround on my part would be good, particularly as it is coming up to Christmas so I don’t want to piss him off. After all, eating turkey and opening presents is rather more fun than reading the ramblings of a PhD student. 
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