I always get the "o how long have you been doing and when is your next belt" I also always hear how everyone seems to have a cousin or brother who did jiu jitsu, got a black belt and stopped. Seems like the blue belt blues come around at black belt too.

I also still have to explain what jiu jitsu is and that we aren't training with the kids.

Gary Pond we all know the answers to your first and last response....

This week in advanced gi we will build a nice little system off of a defended spider guard sweep.  We’ll get a triangle, arm bar, and omoplata. 

This one will provide some new options. Need someone to look up for inspiration? These were all inspired by Marcos Tinoco. 

I feel like this Russ person is getting a bad reputation for no reason. I've got nothing but GREAT things to say about him 😀

I would say just keep going even if you can only get there 1 day some weeks. Even if you go a different day or have to do no gi when you normally do gi classes, keep going. Too often I hear people get discouraged because they can't get to the gym 4 days a week they want to or maybe their normal 2 is cut down. Schedules change and life will happen if you train long enough. Some weeks you'll get an extra day and it balances out in the end. 

This is SUPER hard to hear early on when you first fall in love with it, but the longer you go, the more you realize how true this becomes.

Thomas Rozdzynski I would do not such thing. For some reason I have this crazy wrist locking reputation. 🤷‍♂️

This week we we will be taking a lot at defeating or passing spider guard. 

I often times like looking at the defenses before we dive into the attacks so we have a better idea how our partner will react. 

Haven't spent much time with spider guard? Well this will be the perfect week since you'll see the basic position and learn some defense 🕷️

Gi advanced will continue our look at spider guard.

We will be focusing on sweeps when our partner hasn't stood up yet. A typical position if we transition from closed guard to spider guard.

Get those fingers stretched out!

Thomas Rozdzynski the biggest change I foresee is a more universal ruleset. Right now we have IBJJF, EBI, ADCC and local tournaments tend to use some combo of those. The downside to a universal ruleset is people gamifying the rules. We saw it with EBI. People strategized to survive the main time limit to purposely win in overtime. I also wonder if moves or positions would also need to be eliminated or changed (in the ruleset) to make it a more exciting presentation to increase viewership for the Olympic audience? What do you think?

I think a lot would need to be decided before this can happen, like a unified rule set. I know many have suggested this may not be the most ideal way for the sport to grow due to issues that Judo encountered. 

While it would be great to see, with events like ADCC becoming bigger each year and new events like CJI popping up, these may provide an even bigger stage for grappling. Especially since these type of events come around more often than every 4 years, it really helps keep the popularity momentum going!

Advanced gi is going to be starting a great spider guard block! 

Plenty of drilling this week and an intro to sweeps. If you haven't spent much time with spider guard this block and especially Wednesday will really get you up to speed!