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Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Hitting the Plateu


Merry Christmas to all of you out in the blogosphere!

In an effort to fight off all the cookie-weight from the Christmas season, I've been to class every day except Sunday this week. In my rolls with everyone at Fabio's, I was noticing something. I'm not catching the same submissions I used to. And, while I am catching some new submissions--weird arm bars and omaplatas and a few sloppy leg locks--I am not getting very many submissions. In fact, I was going some classes without getting any at all. I have noticed a few improvements in my movement, like more sweeps and passes. But I was feeling frustrated because I felt like I wasn't improving with my submissions. It almost felt like I was regressing.

I talked to a few of my instructors, Ben and Mario, about it and he told me that this kind of thing is common. He said that likely my game is changing. People know my normal submissions and are defending them. That's probably why I'm not catching the same submissions I did before. Also, the higher belts are forcing me to work different things, which is good. They know I can do a traditional arm bar or triangle (not that I do them well. I still forget to squeeze my knees half the time.). So they're not going to just let me work them anymore. I am forced to try different things now if I don't want to get demolished.

So, even though it feel like I'm not improving, this is a necessary step if I want to see progress. Ben and Mario said this will happen over and over again and that it happens to everyone. The important thing, they told me, is that you keep working and don't get frustrated. Eventually, you'll start to feel like you're improving again.

Hope you guys have a happy and safe Christmas!! See you in the New Year!

4 comments:

Junior Familia said...

its a wonderful feeling knowing your training partners have to adjust to you.

keep it up!

Georgette said...

Absolutely! LOL I was thinking geez... I have gone weeks without a successful sub. I live on the plateau and only dream of the foothills!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

Meerkatsu said...

Just think of it as the fact trhat your partners are now very wary of your best moves...let me repeat - you have BEST MOVES how cool is that?

Happy Xmas, keep blogging, keep training. Seymour

A.D. McClish said...

Haha, thanks for the encouragement guys. Georgette, once again, it is awesome to hear that I am not alone! Dreaming of the foothills together!! lol

But I'm not sure that my higher belt training partners are adjusting to my game because they have to. I think they're adjusting to my game because they don't want to let me get the basic moves they used to let me work. Maybe I'm wrong. No one has said anything specifically, but I've noticed that everyone has upped the intensity when they roll with me. I think they're trying to push me to grow, more than they are having to deal with my moves. That will be cool to have moves one day, though, Meerkatsu!!