Our Jiu Jitsu DNA is made up from all the countless hours we spend on the mats learning with those around us.

I can attribute, while rolling, each move or transition I am performing to the person who taught me it. From every team mate to every Black Belt. I really feel that you steal some essence of every person you train with and you add it to your game. That's why it is so important to roll with as many people on as many levels as you can. And watch as much as you can from the people around you. You can learn much from observation - something which is deep routed in the lore of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. The power of simply watching the art.

The last 3 months been a great chance for everyone training at Toronto BJJ to get more in touch with their own game because of the training schedule we have had. And Even today I felt myself again start to branch out while rolling.

A key area I can feel improvement in is leverage. It's when leverage started to make sense that Jiu Jitsu started to reveal more of it's options to me. These new options come in the form of ways to pass the guard or ways to sweep that I did not see before. Leverage is the common thread that runs through all Jiu Jitsu. It's the X Factor. So when that makes more sense it means you can start linking moves together. To go from Closed guard to a spider guard sweep right into full mount securing an Americana. These types of combination moves all of a sudden becomes accessible when you are able to correctly find the leverage to make it work. (Obviously you can argue that won't work against everyone ...It's just 1 example)

And grips. Understanding where to grip, when to do it AND WHY seems to be making more sense. Keys to control - especially knowing 'why' to do something. It makes more sense as I understand the 'Why'.

...and I understand 'why' my fingers are actually staring to change shape. The swollen, callused knuckles I am developing are caused from gripping the Gi.. either to control positions or probably more from chokes... I guess Jiu Jitsu really does change you physically...I'll take the fingers over the ears ;)

• Abu Dhabi Trials - 1 week out (2010-02-24)
• Abu Dhabi Trials - The Final Approach (2010-02-22)
• To Blog or not to Blog (2010-02-21)
• The Road to Abu Dhabi #1 (2010-02-01)
• Correcting a mistake (2010-01-30)
• A 'not so gentle' art (2010-01-29)
• A week of firsts (2010-01-25)
• Finding better balance (2010-01-19)
• So you had a bad day, takin' guys down (2010-01-17)
• Saulo's last class (2010-01-14)