Join Bloody Elbow every Wednesday night to discuss the latest episode of the Ultimate Fighter 12, featuring UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre and Ultimate Fighter 1 alum Josh Koscheck.
Excuse me while I turn the Ultimate Fighter discussion thread into my own personal Livejournal. (It relates to the show, don’t worry.) For those who are interested in my progress in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, my instructor awarded me two stripes on Monday, making me a three-stripe white belt. This is very exciting news.
I’ve trained in Jiu-Jitsu for a little over a year-and-a-half. I did six months a few years ago at the BJJ club at Indiana University, fell out of it for a couple years due to changes in my personal life, and have been at my current gym for just over a year now.
If you are a fan of MMA, you should consider joining a gym and taking Jiu-Jitsu or Muay Thai or boxing or judo or whatever. It’ll get you in shape. You’ll learn about the sport. In the case of Jiu-Jitsu, women will appreciate the increased range of motion in your hips.
You have to be willing to take a beating though. The first few months of training in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is an exercise in patience, fatigue, and futility. Everything appears complicated. Even the basic armbar looks like a complicated Rube Goldberg machine.
Pull your opponent’s hand across your body. Not too much, though. Now, open the guard. Foot on the hip. Pivot your body. Bring your other leg over the back and press down. Swivel the leg on the hip over the head and lock it down. Turn the opponent’s thumb up. Pull down and lift your hips.
As Dan Savage would say, it gets better. It’s not until the six-month mark that something clicks in your head. And it’s not until the twelve-month mark that you start modeling your game to best suit your body type, flexibility, athleticism, and intelligence. And then it gets real fun.
So how does this all relate to the show? Well, I received my stripes from Jeff Serafin, who runs a school out of Ultimate Fitness in downtown Evanston, Illinois. Jeff received his black belt this weekend from Jack McVicker and Wellington “Megaton” Dias. The Megaton/McVicker family is also home to one Kyle Watson, who fights tonight against Aaron Wilkinson.
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