Once upon a time, back in far land called TJ, I used to only train in my Gi, once a week we would train no-Gi, we called them, No-GI Thursdays.
Now since I’ve been in Bujutsu it has helped me polish my game, they do a lot of no Gi here, their game is different which has helped me learn new things and evolve my game. I truly believe that Gi and no-Gi go hand in hand, you cant have one without the other; And at the beginning here in Bujutsu I can honestly tell you I was intimidated by no-Gi training.
I felt helpless, like I was obviously missing my grips, not explosive enough, slow, it was horrible, I felt like a newbie again. I’ve worked a lot on my no-Gi training lately , think of it like rehab, a Gi detox if you must, LOL.
As I get ready for nationals next month I’ve been pushing myself harder when I train, I’ve never felt secure without Gi, and for the very first time I felt strong last week , I didn’t feel like I was missing my grips, I felt I was flowing quite decently. My cardio
is a lot better now than when I first arrived to the city, last week I was able to train for two clases straight a couple of days on the weekend, which sums up to 4 hours straight of training, my weight is on point, but I do feel the need to do more drills to succeed.
I’ve been rolling all my rounds with no excuses and no resting until I’m done, I’m pretty sure on Sunday I got to roll up to 7 rounds or more. I do feel somewhat lighter since I have the weight off, I came to Mexico city at 63 Kg. Now 3 months later I’m on a steady 57 Kg. My diet during the week is mostly chicken, grilled veggies and salads (with the ocasional guilty pleasure on the weekends).
How else am I preparing for nationals? Stay tuned for a couple of tips on what to work on once you are getting close to a competition.
Keep Rolling!!!
