It's Saturday, and after a full week of intense training, my body is shot. My eyes are heavy. I have bruises all over my body, and my muscles are completely drained. Today's noon class was probably the most intense class that we've had all week. Jacare literally put us through hell today. We did a lot of situational rolling, high-pace interval rolling, regular training, and just when we thought that class was over, what better way to end the day than with some last minute sprawls? Days like these are a true test of how far we can push our bodies until they collapse. Oddly enough, not even the most beat up body could keep me away from my time on the mats this week. I've literally been living at the gym lately. All of my time has been devoted to training, drilling, working out, studying BJJ videos, and well....other than that, I am just eating and sleeping. It's as if, even though school has just ended, I am still in a constant year-round "jiu jitsu school." I enjoy this type of school much more, though. I get to do what I love all day long. What person in their right mind wouldn't want that?
I finally got around to registering for Worlds and booking my flight to Long Beach in three weeks, so there's no turning back now. Now, it's time to really start eating clean and pushing myself more at training. I have a couple of pounds to cut, so now I am in the dreadful stage of eating "weight cutting" foods, like fish, raw veggies, fruits, and nuts. I basically have to eat like a caveman-- eating all natural. It's hard to find a happy medium of eating enough food to give my body energy to train this much and trying to eat just enough food to lose the weight that I need to get rid of. Hopefully now that I am able to train full-time, the weight will just fall off without me having to suffer too much. One can only hope though, right?
Aside from worrying about my weight, I couldn't be more excited to see how well I can execute all of my hard work over the past couple of weeks on the mats in California. It's kind of nerve-wrecking to compete at such a high level, but I just have to go out there and trust my game. I think it's important to prepare yourself as much as possible for competition. There is no room for excuses when you're about to compete against some of the best in the world.
In training, we are able to make mistakes and learn how to correct them without any real penalties against us, but in competition, there's no room for error. You have to execute techniques almost perfectly or else your opponent will execute their moves perfectly. That's why it's so hard to accept defeat sometimes. Losing a fight could just be a result of a simple domino effect of errors. Even though you may be doing really well training in your gym and you feel really confident in winning, one error could cost you a match. I think that's why drilling techniques is key to your jiu jitsu game. It allows you to repetitively do a move until it's almost like a reflex. Like they say, practice makes perfect. I try to drill techniques every day before or after class, and I can honestly say that it helps my game tremendously. Even though it's sometimes hard to put in the effort to do the extra work outside of class, all of the hard work will pay off in the long run.
Sometimes, I don't know how I stay so motivated. I train so much throughout the week, and I still want more. Tomorrow is Sunday, and I had planned to take the day off. I've had a really tough week of training, and I probably should just take the day to rest, but that would be weak of me. What would I do with myself, without a whole day of not training? ....Well, I don't have to worry about that, because I am just going to go train anyways. There's no such thing as over-training for me. It's time to start living life on a new level.
--Morgan Beverly
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