Given below is a nice video from Grossi Jiu-Jitsu on placing yourself on bad positions in Jiu Jitsu.Patience

When I train, I normally put myself in the worst positions and then I try to get out of it and go on from there. Sometimes I even do that in tournaments. I remember that I was in a rear naked choke that was locked on, but I was able to manage to escape and even able to get to side control to get the kimura. In the past, I would try to force things to make things happen and as I get deeper into the art, I have slowed things down to the point in which I naturally make things happen. It's kind of like guiding my opponents and my training partners to the positions that I need for them to be in, so I can apply the moves that I want to do.

Setting up is the advance and mastery level part of any martial art or practice. There's so many positions, sweeps, reversals, and submissions, but there's only certain paths to get there through setting it up. This part takes patience, timing, and commitment.

What I have learn so far is that I have become predictable to the point that people see it from a mile away, but I have several techniques down and so much strength, in which I can impose my will on most people. Now, that I am rolling with high belts and better competition, I have to be more subtle and have better acting skills to get the job done. Lately, I've been playing with different movements and I'm widening my repertoire with moves that I normally don't use.

For example, when I get to full guard, I usually just abandon it to half guard and work on from there. Now, I go for a hip bump sweep, flower sweep, pendulum sweep, and more. I'll even attack for a kimura and guillotine. The patience for me is not giving up my position early to something that I'm strong at.

​ Given below is a nice video from Grossi Jiu-Jitsu on placing yourself on bad positions in Jiu Jitsu.

Competition

When I was a white belt and blue belt, I competed a lot, since I was single and younger. For the past 5 years, it has calm down a lot, since I'm married with children and I'm older now being in the Master II division (36 - 40 years old). The mindset is different as well, since I'm calmer and my objective is a bit different, depending on the competition.

So when I was a white belt and blue belt, I was going to competitions to win everything, but now I go to the smaller tournaments to test some things and I go to the bigger tournaments for the win. When I competed a lot, I took every loss personally, and now I'm just grateful to be healthy enough to compete and if I win, it's even sweeter, since I know that I'm barely training in Jiu Jitsu.

I have a ton of competition experience, so I don't get too excited going to tournaments. Going to tournaments is more like a reunion for me to see all of my Jiu Jitsu friends and family. I get to hang out a bit. It's nice because I never hang out after lunch Jiu Jitsu and chatting online is not the same experience as with being with people in person.

I'm pretty selective now with the tournaments, since I'm experience with my current rank. Even when I get to brown and black, I'll still treat the tournaments the same way. My tip for the inexperience tournament grapplers is to be conditioned, relax, and stay with the techniques that they know. If your coaches are with you, LISTEN!!! Just make sure to pay attention to what you are doing in your match.

From experience, when a coach yells something that I don't know, I lost concentration, lost position, and lost my match. I was kind of surprise that my coach got mad at me during that time, because I was barely doing Jiu Jitsu for 3 months and I was in on my 2nd tournament. I think coaches need to be compassionate and understanding of each student's situation. I wouldn't expect too much from a white belt, since they are barely learning the moves and the name of the moves. ​Well, I'll note more on this journey next week. Good day and thanks for reading.

I've been a purple belt for over 3 years now. Looking back at this journey so far, I've been taking nothing but basic classes during this time frame. I have a basic guard game, a basic passing game, a basic submission game, a basic sweeping game, and a basic takedown game, if I choose to use it, since I pull guard in tournaments. The only difference that is not basic are my transitions and chaining, which is in my opinion, the hallmark of the purple belt. The purple belt is able to use multiple amount of moves in sequence from any position.

Now the difference that I see between a purple belt and brown belt is the detail and timing on the execution of their moves. Brown belts are more polish in their moves and they anticipates better with their timing and execution of strategies on the mat. I still put myself in worst case scenarios with higher belts, but now I'm attacking the higher belts more often, since I'm able to anticipate better with their strategies, attacks, and defenses. Instead of reacting, now I'm imposing more and forcing the situation, after I get a better feel for my training partner's game. 

I'll try to go fancy with some purple belts and mostly with the blue belts and white belts, but I'm at the stage of experimentation. I'll even experiment with the higher belts. Because of my size and strength, I don't feel comfortable in applying certain moves though like wrist locks and sweeping people with the kimura from half guard, since people tend to be too resistant and I don't want to challenge my ego in which I might break someone's wrist or shoulder.

The one thing that I will implement back is starting to use my strength and speed. I'm so used to going slow, in which the last tournament, I became to relax and not urgent or being not aggressive. It's one of those things that I am working on, since I'm too nice. I don't care if I tap and I let things happen, so the roll can move on. ​Well, I'll note more on this journey next week. Good day and thanks for reading.

I've been doing Jiu Jitsu since August 2009. I took about a year off from 2011-2012 due to a shoulder injury. Since I switch gyms several times, I practically started over. In December 2012, I finally got promoted to blue belt by Professor Steve Cardenas (The Red Power Ranger) from Force Balance BJJ\ Paragon in Burbank. I switched gyms again because of work, life (I got married and then I started a family), and I moved a couple times. Then, in July 2015, I was awarded my purple belt by Professor Andrew Viado at Gracie Barra West Covina. Now, I'm currently a four stripe purple belt under Rodrigo Freitas at Rodrigo Freitas BJJ in Hawthorne.

My first 3-4 years of Jiu Jitsu, I was able to train and compete a lot, since I was single. Then, when my career started to take off and I got in a serious relationship, I started to whine down on the training. After that, when I started to have kids, then it got really difficult to get the training in of any kind. Going from 6 days a week to once or twice a week took its toll. There has been a couple of times in which I wanted to stop training.

For over a year, I found different ways to get my training in. I had to go for Win-Win scenarios. I traded my lunch hours for training. I had to make several sacrifices and different things to do training on the weekends if possible and even to compete as well. The one thing that I learned from all this is just to make effort and talk to people about my goals and objectives and if I can train with them. In Jiu Jitsu, the community is willing to help most of the time. In this, communication is key.

Through tournaments, I make a lot of friends and I'm invited to their training or classes. I sometimes go and sometimes, I can't, but I have good reasons. My family and work are priorities in my life, since I love my family and work pays for Jiu Jitsu and other important things.

I always go by the philosophy that something is better than nothing. I'm normally late to class. I miss warm ups, but I show up. Sometimes I have to leave early, but my instructors and friends know that I'm there during lunch or that I have to attend to family. 

As I close in to the brown belt level, I have a lot to brush up on. Expanding my guard game, working on different submissions from various positions, and timing. Well, I'll note more on this journey next week. Good day and thanks for reading.

I'm looking to try this in the next bench session and also on the squat and deadlift sessions, but I would need an available rack and time to set this up, since I train on my own. I've gone through  the process before with both a bench and deadlift session, but I didn't see any immediate results. I'll give it a shot again and review the process, then post my results.