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Team Purebred-Lloyd Irvin returned from the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu World Championship. Bringing home a Bronze Medal finish by Aileen Wong. In the Adult Womens Light-Feather Division. And Our Purebred World Champion as Eric Sian stood at the top of the podium as the Mundials Youth Blue Belt-Super Heavy Champion. I know he even missed his graduation too compete in the tournament.With his Birthday following right after. It couldnt get any better than that. I didnt make it out but from what I heard everyone showed great skill getting the W’s out there. Thank you for everyones prayers as the Team represented the strength and heart of Guam on the biggest stage of competition for BJJ.
Today is the day I begin to put my thoughts in writing….I have thought of starting this blog for awhile, hopefully to use as my motivation to pick up the pace in my training but like some of the other things in life I only made a half A** decision to do so but never put any sincere physical effort to make it happen. For me today is the day that I start doing instead of thinking or saying…. (my 1% for today)
How did I get from there to here….that’s where I would like to start.
Like some, if not most, I took many ‘wrong turns’ early on in life. A couple of years ago I decided to make it right…I started to make smarter choices and things started to look up. Today, I have accomplished two of my major life goals, 1) DO NOT get into any more trouble and 2) Become a productive citizen on my island, though several still exist (including BJJ black belt).
I have always been motivated by competition, since back in the the days of team sports, break dancing, backyard boxing, etc. When I first heard of BJJ after watching the early UFC’s, I thought to myself “I learned all I need to know on the streets & training was for those who fought for money!’ I could remember throwing up on the first night I went to class at the former Tamuning location….not only was it embarassing but I thought to myself it was just cause I was out of shape after not keeping physically fit for several years. After a little more EGO crushing I came to accept that progress in BJJ would take hard work, self sacrifice, and committment. Three things I was NOT willing to give too much of at the time! It still took several years to accept that ‘mental juijitsu’ was just as important as the physical aspect of the game.
Fast forward about 3 years…..Today, I understand that this truly is a way of life…a couple of hours on the mat a week is required to learn and drill technique….the remaining hours outside the gym is required to build motivation, make healthy lifestyle changes that enhance my game (damn I’m going to miss fried pork bellys and sodas), and build character. This is where I get stuck! Given my work and home schedule (and alot of unhealthy habits), I have limited myself to minimal time in the gym (2 nights a week). However, in the past few weeks as I started to get that feeling that I was not progressing I constantly thought to myself of all the things I was going to do to better my game outside of the gym….Lots of thoughts, ZERO commitment on the action side.
Here is where that ends. I hope to use this space as a place to write my thoughts down (in terms of how I will better my life and my game) and then provide updates…setbacks included, as to my progress. A saying I heard a couple of months ago (I may misquote this), possibly from Sensei Mike when he was still out here, was to set a goal of improving myself 1% every day and in 100 days I would be 100% better. Although this always made logical sense I never really made a honest conscious effort to improve by 1% on a daily basis…Today it starts….
You hear people say that they live jiu jitsu. But what does that mean? Does that mean that they live in the gym and wish to spend every waking moment “rolling”? Maybe for some! For me I can say that I live jiu jitsu. How could this be some may say. Those who know me know that I have a job that expects a 110% and all 26 hours of the day from me, so how can I live jiu jitsu. Simple… Since I have really took jiu jitsu seriously I have learned how to apply the thought process and theories that I have experienced in my 1 and half years of training in the GI. What kind of thought process and theories am I talking about? I’m talking about the ability to withstand being put in a tremendously dangerous situation and then being able to be calm to analyze the situation and make a quick subtle move/decision that will better your position in a given situation that will in turn lead to a series of movements or movement that leads to a personal victory. That is how I live jiu jitsu. Being prepared to deal with the worst so when the worst comes I know what to do. Be it be on the mat or in my personal life. I wont “spazz” out once that time comes, instead I’ll have a game plan and go with it. Wether it be a match or a life situation, jiu jitsu can be a way of life. Like Coach Mike and Coach Berto says, Luck is when opportunity and preparation meets. Being ready when the time comes and coming on top is Lucky. Life lesson #1.
Larron Gandaoli
