Things I learned (about BJJ, mostly) in 2011.

I was planning on going month-to-month and listing one lesson I learned for every month in 2011, but my memory is very non-linear and tends to be clumped into feelings and events rather than spaced out in a coherent, normal way. Also, I tend to get really wordy about… well, everything, so bear that in mind as I start this list. It may take on a life of its own and start to meander aimlessly. You have been warned.

1. Appreciate your body, even if you can’t love it. I started 2011 on a bad note, with a dislocated patella. Having never injured my legs in any real way before (sprained ankles and a broken foot notwithstanding), I suddenly discovered how important it is for my sanity that I am able to move around. A lot.  I’ve talked before about how I have a love/hate thing going on with my body, but that’s more about aesthetics than ability. This injury  taught me to be less complacent about my joints and their health.
2. Wrist locks, toe holds, and “dirty jiu jitsu” are absolutely the way to go. I grew up (in BJJ) in a Gracie school, one of the first Gracie Barra schools in the continental USA. I learned a straight ankle lock, and that was pretty much it for small joint manipulation. Suddenly, I found myself having to compete in Asia, against women who do Sanda, Judo, and so on… and who are famous for their small-joint manipulation. I spent weeks working on wrist locks, toe holds, ankle locks, and knee bars, and now I have the entire gym trained to flinch away whenever I grab a wrist or look at their feet.  Ladies and small dudes: learn yourself some wrist locks. They will save you.

   Note: If anyone is interested, I’ll take a video of some wrist lock/toe hold techniques that I find work the most frequently. I know it’s not taught very often in the States.

3. I had the potential to be a top player all along. After my knee injury, I became a top player. This was a perplexing turn of events for me, because I had spent ten years defining myself as a guard player (I have a spider guard that is quite, quite difficult to pass). But suddenly I lacked the flexibility and strength in my leg to play guard the way I used to, and I had to play the top. Now my top game and my bottom game are more in balance, which is comforting to know.
4. Size really does matter. I grew up hearing that size doesn’t matter in BJJ, but it does. I think hearing “size doesn’t matter” is almost a bad thing, especially for new people. Size matters, technique matters, speed matters. All of these things are important. Having size doesn’t guarantee a win, but it certainly helps.
5. On the topic of size: I’m really goddamn small. You get used to being in your own skin, I guess, and you just feel… you-sized. Because the only people I ever have to compare myself with are Asian women (who are usually very small) and men (who are bigger than me), I sometimes forget that I’m small, even for a woman. I was reminded of this when I met Luanna Alguizar, who towered over me like some kind of muscular giant. It was a watershed moment for me.
6. Cutting weight makes me fast, fast, fast. Around August, my gym had a brown belt Mundials champion come to teach us. He and I took a shine to each other and because I am emotionally twelve years old (and he didn’t speak much English) we communicated our affection by being at the gym together all the time, training. At this point, I was training two or three times a day for no particular reason. As a result of all this nonsense, I cut down about four kilos in two weeks. After that I cut down for a competition and I realized that if I was fast before the cut, after the cut I was… much much faster. And squirmier. And nearly impossible to pin down.
7. Competition. There is no lesson here, not really, just… competition. I need to do more of it, and there’s no excuse for me not to win.  That’s all.
8. Be patient. It comes and it goes. For me, timing and technique come and go in waves. It’s easy to get disheartened and frustrated on a downswing, but I need to try to avoid getting frustrated as much as possible to hasten the return of the upswing.

So these are the big lessons I learned in 2011 as far as BJJ is concerned. What did you learn this year?