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“Go get ’em Waylon!” Hearing you decades later “Was a good idea!”

I was not quite two years old when Waylon Live was recorded.

I was four years old when it was released.

I was 20 years old when I saw Waylon live for the first and only time in my life. I had a really good time at that show, but not as much fun as I should have. I didn’t quite get Waylon yet. In fact, I was mostly there to see Willie Nelson, and Waylon was just a bonus. I’m ashamed to admit that Asleep At The Wheel played on that show too, and I had no idea what a treat that was at the time.

When I listen to Waylon Live now, I regret I didn’t enjoy that show as much as I should have. If I’ve ever been jealous of anyone, it’s the guy who I know for a fact had the time of his life at this show in 1974.

He yells out 13 seconds into “Loving Her Was Easier Than Anything I’ll Ever Do Again”.

He yells out again 40 seconds into “Bob Wills Is Still The King”.

You can tell from these two little clips that this guy was ROWDY. I’m not sure if he got into a fight during the show, in the parking lot before the show, or at a bar after the show. But I’m pretty sure he got in at least one fight that night. Probably lost too, but he didn’t care.

I mean, I’m not 100% sure this is the same guy. But if it’s two guy, they probably drank some cold beer together.



    Here’s what it was like to see Waylon live:

In the CMT episode of Inside Fame about his life, Jennings recalled that he told the jaded rock audience he was from Nashville and would be playing country music, adding “we sure hope you like it, but if you don’t like it you better keep your mouth shut ’cause we ‘will’ kick your ass.” When met with the a reply from the audience of “Who the hell are you?” the then-burgeoning outlaw legend replied: “I’m Waylon goddamm Jennings.”

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Three years.

I haven’t gone anywhere.

I’m still training.

But there’s a weird thing about BJJ that I didn’t experience with things like running and rugby. It’s a very personal experience. Super personal. It becomes more personal the more I do it. And I’m not really comfortable sharing much of it publicly. I’m not even comfortable sharing it with the one or two people who may actually read this.

I was thinking the other day (while cleaning mats) about some online profiles I see where people list their BJJ rank and are loaded with photos of their training and all things BJJ. I will admit that I do post our team photos on my Strava workouts as I log them. So, ok, I may kind of be one of those guys.

But training BJJ isn’t something I really want to advertise or talk about outside of the gym or with anyone other than training partners. I’m very aware of when and where I wear a t-shirt or anything that has grappling stuff on it. In a weird way I don’t want it to be something that is part of what makes me up, even though it’s something that definitely is a huge part of my life.

I’m not going to lie–a big part of that is that I suck. I don’t know enough about BJJ to know exactly where I land on the spectrum of athletes. But I know enough to know that I’m on low end of that totem pole.

I write lots of notes in my personal journal about BJJ, but there’s not much of it that I think should ever see the light of day. Part of that is because I keep (what used to be) copious notes about my training partners. Not so many notes about them are being kept now, but it’s something I always feel like I should be doing.

But to what end? Well, I’m realizing the purpose of taking notes on these guys isn’t at all about “beating” them. It’s more about learning how to deal with different types of partners and different styles–handling different strengths and taking advantage of different opportunities.

Just last week I had a mental breakthrough about how to deal with a particular type of style that gives me lots of trouble. No need to get into the details here, but my realization was that the amount of pressure I’m able to generate isn’t the key with this type of player. The location and direction of pressure is more important than the amount of pressure, and I’ve been applying all my pressure in the wrong plane.

And wait…that applies to every type of player.

Duh.

So, yeah, you made it to the end. Or more than likely you didn’t, and that’s how I know that this stuff is just too personal to matter much to anyone else. My journey through this is so unique and personal that other people can only get it on certain levels, even if they train too, because their path is so unique too.

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I’ve been reading Seth Godin’s blog for several years. It’s one of the few things I read on an almost daily basis.

Today’s post gave me a little bit of an opportunity for a back pat, and made me smile.

The other kind of marathon is one that anyone can run, any day of the year. Put on your sneakers, run out the door and come back 26 miles later. These are rare.

It’s worth noting that much of what we do in creating a project, launching a business or developing a career is a lot closer to the second kind of marathon.

Has me thinking about making a comeback.

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If you aren’t listening to the Turnpike Troubadours, you ain’t livn’ right.

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Some old drunk on a barstool on a Merle Haggard tune That’s my kinda room

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I bought The Daily Stoic: 365 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living for myself as a New Year’s present and for, you know, education. I’m really enjoying reading it because I see applications everywhere–work, traffic, when kids fight over who owns which pillow, etc. What I like most about this book is that it takes me less than a minute to consume each day’s passage, and the concepts are simple enough that I can read them to the kids at bedtime as well, and they get it.

Yeah…kind of brainwashing them.

Of course, stoicism applies to jiu jitsu as well. The last paragraph of today’s entry was especially applicable.

Remember that the tools and aims of our training are unaffected by the turbulence of the moment. Stop. Regain your composure. It’s waiting for you.

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I’m working on a longer post about applying agile methodologies to BJJ training, but I thought it would be kind of cool to take the Agile Manifesto For Software Development and tweak it a little bit to fit my BJJ needs. I’m surprised how well things translate. Feel free to tell me how I mucked it up.

My highest priority is to improve my jiu jitsu through continuous development of skills.

Welcome training partners who expose my weaknesses and bring to light needs for change, especially when I think I have something figured out.

Deliver continually evolving BJJ by focusing on areas of improvement for a couple of weeks to a couple of months.

You can’t train jiu jitsu alone. Work together with training partners to foster their development as well.

Improvement is inevitable for motivated individuals. Give me the environment, information, and time. I will improve.

The most efficient and effective method of finding out what actually works is during live sparring with a non-compliant opponent.

A healthier body and a calmer mind are the primary measures of progress.

Agile processes promote sustainable improvement, so don’t burn out by over-training. I should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely. Grind.

Continuous attention to technical excellence and enhances agility. Slow is smooth. Smooth is fast.

Simplicity–the art of maximizing the amount of energy NOT exerted–is essential.

The game plans and techniques that will work best for me emerge naturally. They must be recognized and cultivated.

At regular intervals, reflect on how to become more effective, then tune and adjust accordingly.

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I was talking with one of my teammates last night and found out she’s a software engineer. I asked if she used Jira at work and told her about using it to run sprints for BJJ training. She thought it was a really cool idea, and it made me kind of mad at myself that I haven’t been continuing with it. I think it really did help me focus, and I realize I should get back to it.

If you’re wondering what in the heck Jira is, it’s a project management software tool that’s pretty popular with software developers. I’ll stop the geekiness part there.

But I realized it was a great tool for managing BJJ training as well. I’m realizing I need to write a much longer post that describes this concept and process, so hope to get one going soon.

I think the biggest problem is that I’m confined to using my installed version of Jira at home. I love the tool, but the cheapest level of the SaaS version is $10/month, and it’s hard to justify that when I’m the only one using it. That means I only have access on my home network, and lately the last thing I want to do while I’m at home is look at a screen.

I did a check this morning on some free alternatives to Jira. It looks like Pivotal Tracker may be a good option for me, and I’m going to give it a try.

I’m actually excited to get started again and to try a new tool right now because I have a couple of restraints that will help keep things simple. First of all, my cardio is crap after taking 4 weeks off for broken ribs. That’s something I can squeeze into my first few sprints and see some definite results. I thought about including something about weight management as well, but I haven’t really gained that much during the time off. It worked out well that a full belly was VERY uncomfortable for me, so I didn’t really hog out.

My ribs aren’t really in a place right now where I can include weight training or yoga yet, but that’s good. It will help me focus on BJJ and cardio until I finish healing up.

I plan (hope, really really want) to get a sprint lined up for the next week. Maybe posting this publicly will hold me to it…even though no one reads it?

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Super fight March 9 @submissionhunterpro! Super proud of her work ethic and focus! Super jealous because there is walk out music involved. #subhunterpro41 #bjjgirls #girlsingis #submissiononly #grappling #bjj #offthegridbjj via Instagram http://bit.ly/2N4Qael

#IFTTT #Instagram

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I’ve probably watched this about 100 times on VHS. Thankfully somebody posted it to YouTube.

Just for some perspective, the nominees for male vocalist of the year were:

George Jones

George Strait

Randy Travis

Ricky Skaggs

Hank Williams Jr.

Just let that sink in.

What in the HELL has happened to country music?

[image credit]

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Big jiu jitsu realization yesterday.

“Yeah, but it never happens that way.”

I realized pretty quickly in rugby that the way we drilled some things in practice never happened in a game. But it doesn’t mean there wasn’t value in drilling.

We’d practice approaching a ruck and binding onto your teammate before you got there, getting hip to hip, and hitting the ruck in unison. Yeah, nobody will drill rucking that way now, but it was the early 90s. But what did happen during games is that you’d find yourself in a ruck and naturally reaching for a teammate to bind onto. It felt weird not to.

The scrum sled didn’t push back. But during matches you found that the tight binds and combined strength you’d worked on in order to move the dead weight gave your pack better stability and prevent sloppy scrums.

You get the idea. And I don’t know why it took me so long to realize that the same is true for BJJ. It’s almost NEVER going to go down the way you drilled it unless you have a ton of experience and ability over your opponent. They pretty much have to be completely unaware of what’s happening to not put up any sort of obstacle.

*DISCLAIMER: NOT THROWING MYSELF INTO THE “AWARE” CATEGORY. PEOPLE CATCH TEXTBOOK STUFF ON ME DAILY.

It seems like it becomes more and more about concepts than steps I guess. I mean, do you really want to go through the 14 steps it takes to get an armbar? Wouldn’t you rather be able  to recognize the situation and see that 8 of the first 9 steps are completed, and if you can borrow a step from another technique to fill in the missing step, you’re almost there?

I guess that’s what these really good have going for them. They have options layered into options. It’s a Choose Your Own Adventure book with a million pages, and they are writing new chapters as they roll.

Also, you get your ribs broken sometimes too.

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Favorite new (to me) YouTube channel. Hypnotizing.

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The other day after I was taking a round off during open mat and talking to one of my favorite training partners about a visitor we were training with that day who was absolutely wrecking both of us. He said, “Do you ever feel like you’re getting worse at this the more you train?”

I guess I could have been offended at this question, because we’d just finished rolling. Does he think I was getting worse too?

But nah…I knew what he meant. And yeah, I can relate to the sentiment sometimes, but those days actually make me feel the complete opposite. Bad days happen in every sport. Pushing through them and taking what they have to offer are where some of the biggest gains are made, at least mentally.

Slap five, fist bump, and get submitted again.

The ability to push through the tough days with a positive attitude has led me to where I am now. After 2.5 years of training 3-4 times a week consistently, stretching more than I ever have, eating healthy, and keeping up with my cardio off the mat, I’ve made huge improvement.

And the past few months have given me the opportunity to train with some high level guys–multiple black belts and even a couple of active UFC fighters. They toy with me. I’m a round off for them. I’m not talking about world champions or anything. Just guys that are really good.

It’s sobering to realize there are a lot of guys out there that these guys wouldn’t stand a chance against.

There are levels to this shizz. And I’m seeing more clearly lately exactly where my level is.

I’m absolutely horrible at BJJ.

In the grand scheme of things and comparing myself to what is possible in the world of BJJ, I’m absolutely horrendous. Atrocious. Dreadful.

But my hope is that I’ll be able to keep up my solid training schedule and stay health for another 3-5 years. At that point, I think I will have improved so much that I’m no longer horrible at BJJ, just really (really) bad.

It’s very freeing to realize that:

I’m going to continue to get better for the foreseeable future

I’m never going to be good

I can’t even blame this on starting at 43. The reality is that if I’d started in my 20s, the best I could have ever hoped for would have been to be decent

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#IKnow via Instagram https://ift.tt/2AEJU8p

#IFTTT #Instagram