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Friday, January 8, 2010

Fabio's school has been getting a lot of press recently and he told the class last week that we should look into getting sponsors. I'm sure he wasn't talking about crappy white belts when he said this, but how do you go about getting a sponsor? Do you just cold call people and say, "Hey, want to sponsor me?" Do you have to be uber to get one? Because if that's the case, I need not apply. ;)

Rolling today went well today. I actually finished a gi choke from half-guard for the first time ever. And, also for the first time, I went for leg locks during a couple of my grapples with some higher belts. I did catch a few legs, but they escaped before I could finish. I'm just happy that I was able to think, "I can do a leg lock here," during the grapple.

I realized something while I was rolling today. I mentioned a couple posts ago about how I haven't been catching the same submissions as I used to, that I'm either catching new ones or none at all. This afternoon, I rolled with someone who I haven't rolled with in a long time and realized my game has changed. I'm ending up in completely new positions, working leg locks and ankle locks, chokes from turtle and half guard, sweeps and attacks from inverted guard. I'm also tapping to completely new things as well-- weird leg locks, chokes that seemingly come out of nowhere. I think the reason why I'm not catching submissions right now is because I simply don't have it down from those positions yet. I fumble around with a leg lock the same way I used to fumble around with an armbar from guard. And I'm tapping a lot more because I don't know what to defend from those positions yet, nor have I figured out how to defend even if I did know what was coming.

That encourages me, though. Because it means I am not a retard, like I originally thought. ;) It's just another few pieces of the puzzle falling into place. I feel relieved.

5 comments:

bluej said...

i just read/heard this the other day and though it might be able to answer your question about bjj sponsorships:

http://thefightworkspodcast.com/2009/11/15/bjj-sponsor/

cool blog, btw.

A.D. McClish said...

Thanks, bluej! I'll look into it! :)

Georgette said...

That's pretty much how I got my sponsors. I bought their products, tried them out, and if I liked them, I made efforts to be photographed at a tournament wearing them. Since I did well as a whitebelt, the pics included medals :) Then I pitched them for "help" and received free merchandise, money for tournament entry fees, and so on.

Then I made blue and started sucking. Blech.

Go for it! Remember-- sometimes you have to ask many resources to get one "yes." Just keep asking! I'd make it clear to them you have a blog, you have however many unique hits a month, you travel to tournaments with X competitors... whatever will show them you can help their business by repping their product. Make it easy for them to say yes by being specific with your request ("I'd like you to pay my entry fees at two tournaments a year which would be about $200 total." Or whatever.)

jo said...

Grats on starting to think about attacking the legs. I also have a hard time getting my brain to think that way. We probably both just need a week of rolling where we can't do any subs but leg subs.

A.D. McClish said...

@ Georgette: Thanks for the advice! I've only competed twice, but I did alright at both competitions. I think I'll take your advice and buy something from some of the sponsors that I'm interested in and then try to wear their stuff at NAGA in June. Coming in cold and talking to someone about sponsoring me is pretty intimidating, though.

@ Jo: That is a really good idea!! The last few classes I've gone to have mainly focused on positions and I was already planning to do grapples where I focus only on moving and controlling the roll, and less on submissions. But I might allow myself to only do below the waist submissions. It'll probably end up working out the same as if I grappled no submissions. lol!