A Look Back on November 2018

Worm Guard with Daniel Frank

November was a great month for me. I knocked National Guard training out the first weekend of the month, which meant the rest of the month's weekends were free for Jiu-Jitsu! All in total I racked up 4 new schools visited, 1 seminar and 1 tournament.

Justin and I reunited at Wakizashi!

Worm Guard Seminar
The first free weekend of the month I headed over to Bellingham BJJ for a Worm Guard seminar taught by Daniel Frank. I've never delved into worm guard, only having ever played against it a couple of times, so I really enjoyed this one. What really made the event cool though was getting to attend it with my instructor, Professor Eli. I've never had a  black belt for a training partner before, and it really made a big difference with training and discussing the technique.

I played around a little while rolling with the guard this month and I really like it. Tons of control and lots of options from it into my other favorite techniques. I love working the lapel, and I'm surprised I haven't utilized it before. It's really cool to go to a seminar and not just have a great time, but walk away with a whole new area to play with.

Running into old friends
Another highlight of the month was getting to cross paths again with a lot of old teammates. At the Ghost Combatives fight house I got to roll with one of my really good teammates and former member of The Lab Clint, as well as one of my old white belts Jake. I also got a blast from the past when Justin joined the Wakizashi team to rain with us. Justin and I used to train some 7-8 years ago at Fusion Fitness MMA, and it has been really really cool to get to train with him again. One of the best parts about training is that if you stick around long enough, you meet some really awesome people that you never know when you get to be share the mats with in the future.

Ghost Combatives Turkey Tournament
After a flurry of tournaments in October, November was lacking in that challenge/adrenaline rush that I love so much about competing. I started to write about it here, but it ended up being rather lengthy, so I gave it its own spot for those interested in reading up more on it.

Traveling!
I slacked off a bit on traveling the past couple months, so with the open weekends I jumped in the car and put some miles down! Dropping in for class or open mat at four new places: Livewire MMA, Combat Arts Academy of Seattle, Defiance BJJ, and returned back to the Ghost Combatives fight house to get some training in with a room full of Army mat monsters. I did unfortunately neglect to grab a picture at Livewire, which I have to apologize for. I often get lost in conversation with the new people that I've met, only to get in my car after leaving and think "Aw Crap! You've forgotten to ask for a picture yet again Steven." Great people, great training and a good time were had at all, and as always, I'm incredibly grateful to all of the schools that have welcomed me in for training. 💓 I also made another visit to Bellingham BJJ for some extra weekend training. I thought the team photo was rather fantastic and deserved the extra pixel space 😂

Training with the Team
Probably the best part about the month of November, was that I felt like finally able to get some real consistent training in with the team at Waskizashi. It's not that I was absent from class in months before, but frequently flying back and forth to North Carolina, and being in tournament mode, I found my focus more on sharpening my A game rather than on expanding and experimenting. With those distractions gone, I was able to turn all my focus on the techniques we were going over, and I both got a lot of enjoyment and saw big improvements as a result.

As I'm writing this, I just realized that it has already been over five months since I moved here. In that time I believe that my game has evolved and changed so much. It makes me feel blessed at lucky to be at such a good spot. Particularly having a bunch of people that let me harass them with a million technique questions 😆

What I'm Looking Forward to in December:

Toro Cup 12!
Getting to do Toro Cup 8 has been one of the highlights of my purple belt. I think of it as the biggest party for JiuJitsu in North Carolina and has an extended family reunion feel to it with a huge room packed full of JiuJitsu people.

Army scheduling has gotten in the way of participating in subsequent Toro Cups, until now! I'm stoked about getting to be on the card again this weekend. A fun fact about Scott Pelzel and I competing against each other. Scott beat me in beginner no gi by a knee-bar after a submission only match that went for over 15 minutes. We matched up again at intermediate no gi, this time in a points match and Scott won that one something like 3-7. We then both entered into the same All Armed Forces Combatives tournament (A three days event), while we didn't cross paths, he placed second and I finished fourth. So I'll give that one to him too. It has been two years since we've gotten to competed against each other though, and I'm really excited to see how this one plays out!

Professor Flavio and Helio Seminar!
Another thing to get fired up for with December, Professor Flavio and Professor Helio are flying all the way from Japan and Okinawa to teach a seminar at Wakizashi. I constantly hear great things about each of them and I'm enthusiastic to meet and learn from them.

I think that about sums up November. Thank you so much for reading and being a part of my journey!

About the Author:

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 currently trains out of Wakizashi BJJ  in Oak Harbor under Professor Eli Trevino. He is an active competitor at Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Army Combative tournaments.