For the Love of Rolling!
For me, rolling is the absolute best part of training Jiu-Jitsu. I'm a chronic over-thinker, and rolling is the best way for me to escape my own mind. As soon as we slap-bump hands, everything from the day fades away and I meld into this zen-like state where it's just me and the other person. It's this physical chess game and it becomes a beautiful flow of attacks and counter-attacks. My mind is only allowed to focus on what is happening, as I try to study my partners game looking for weaknesses and things that I can take away and learn from. I just love it! I'm consequently always looking for opportunities to roll more. When I move to North Carolina at started training at Cornerstone BJJ, for the first time I let myself get completely absorbed into this whole Jiu-Jitsu thing and quickly found myself training for 4-6 hours every day of the week.
All of that class time still wasn't enough for me though! I wanted to get better as fast as I could and I also just wanted more rolling! So I asked myself how I could get more rolling in. It started out with myself and my teammate Josh Wren rolling in-between classes. The schedule at the school was slightly different then and there was an hour long kids class in between the two adult classes. So after the first class, Josh and I would move to the far end of the mat and do nothing but roll for an hour while the kids class was going on. The school relocated though and with that move the schedule changed and we lost that hour. The new schedule was definitely an improvement for the school as a whole, but those rolling sessions are still one of my favorite memories of training.
I used to hate weekends because it meant no training on Sundays. I couldn't stand it, so I talked several of the guys into meeting up on FT. Bragg to train.
One of the gyms on base has a mat room upstairs and we would meet up for 2-3 hours early in the afternoon and use that time to talk techniques and roll. We would have about 3-7 guys meet up there and even got lucky enough to have some random people that would show up and jump in with us. This era was short lived though as many of the guys moved away and the military kept eating up my weekends.
When I quit my job to train for a year, I wanted to spend every possible minute that I could on the mats (That story could be its own series). Add in my love for rolling, and the Jiu-Jitsu Lab was born. The lab is undoubtedly the most enjoyable and rewarding experience in Jiu-Jitsu that I have ever had. Recovering from a bad knee injury, the guys took me from barely being able to walk, to being able to win the IBJJF Atlanta Open 2 weeks after tying a purple belt on for the first time. The lab not only had a bunch of rolling in it, but it also let me be around experienced, professional individuals that helped to motivate and direct in my development outside of the mats.
Coming out of a mid-life retirement meant having to leave the lunch time lab behind. Looking for a new job landed me out in Oceanside, California. Right next to the mecca of Jiu-Jitsu. This catches us up to the present, and I have done a much better job of capturing the stories and adventures of my temporary relocation to the West Coast on this blog. With working full time again, it has been a bit more challenging to get extra training in out side of regular class schedules. The other day was a great time though! I was able to meet up at CSG 360 for a lunch class roll session. It is still in its infancy stage, but it reminded me a lot of the beginning of the lab!
I'm looking forward to seeing how that class develops and the other rolling sessions in the future!
Steven McMahon earned his Kyuki-Do Black Belt in 2011 from Grand Master Kim at Kim's Black Belt Academy and his BJJ Purple Belt in January 2017 under Professor Charles Nunley. He trains out of Cornerstone BJJ in Fayetteville, NC. He is an active competitor at Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Army Combatives tournaments.
All of that class time still wasn't enough for me though! I wanted to get better as fast as I could and I also just wanted more rolling! So I asked myself how I could get more rolling in. It started out with myself and my teammate Josh Wren rolling in-between classes. The schedule at the school was slightly different then and there was an hour long kids class in between the two adult classes. So after the first class, Josh and I would move to the far end of the mat and do nothing but roll for an hour while the kids class was going on. The school relocated though and with that move the schedule changed and we lost that hour. The new schedule was definitely an improvement for the school as a whole, but those rolling sessions are still one of my favorite memories of training.
I used to hate weekends because it meant no training on Sundays. I couldn't stand it, so I talked several of the guys into meeting up on FT. Bragg to train.One of the gyms on base has a mat room upstairs and we would meet up for 2-3 hours early in the afternoon and use that time to talk techniques and roll. We would have about 3-7 guys meet up there and even got lucky enough to have some random people that would show up and jump in with us. This era was short lived though as many of the guys moved away and the military kept eating up my weekends.
When I quit my job to train for a year, I wanted to spend every possible minute that I could on the mats (That story could be its own series). Add in my love for rolling, and the Jiu-Jitsu Lab was born. The lab is undoubtedly the most enjoyable and rewarding experience in Jiu-Jitsu that I have ever had. Recovering from a bad knee injury, the guys took me from barely being able to walk, to being able to win the IBJJF Atlanta Open 2 weeks after tying a purple belt on for the first time. The lab not only had a bunch of rolling in it, but it also let me be around experienced, professional individuals that helped to motivate and direct in my development outside of the mats.Coming out of a mid-life retirement meant having to leave the lunch time lab behind. Looking for a new job landed me out in Oceanside, California. Right next to the mecca of Jiu-Jitsu. This catches us up to the present, and I have done a much better job of capturing the stories and adventures of my temporary relocation to the West Coast on this blog. With working full time again, it has been a bit more challenging to get extra training in out side of regular class schedules. The other day was a great time though! I was able to meet up at CSG 360 for a lunch class roll session. It is still in its infancy stage, but it reminded me a lot of the beginning of the lab!
I'm looking forward to seeing how that class develops and the other rolling sessions in the future!
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