Quest for Grip Strength and Jiu-Jitsu Guard »

Sometimes when I drive into work, I just turn off the radio and let my mind wander for those 30 minutes. I think about my goals (far too many to count), finances, the internet, and martial arts. Most of the time my mind wanders towards my “martial arts and strength goals”. Where I would like to be, what I would like to accomplish, and how I am going to get there.

There a few factors which cause my mind to go there a lot….

1. I am completely obsessed with martial arts, particularly jiu-jitsu and strength. I’ve always had this problem where I just want to do it ALL.
2. I am about to turn 31. I had set a lot of goals for 30. And besides one, (I thought I would be an internet millionaire by now), I would say I am right on track. But I also realize I am getting older, and I cannot do it ALL. My wife and I want to start growing our family and I have to be realistic about what I want to accomplish in the next 4-5 years. 35 years old is my next benchmark. So, I have been trying to analyze what goals are truly feasible and most important to me.
3. I am injured right now. 5 weeks after surgery and still a shoulder that is about 40% of where I want to it to be… or let me say it should be. If its where I want it to be, it would probably be around 10%. So, because I am injured it has been causing me to refocus my goals. Its also brought the fire back into me for some things.
4. I have been reading a lot… Strength, Grappling, Martial arts, etc

So today, I was trying to think of some strength things I could do while I’m injured. Basically any upperbody pulling or push motion is out. Most lowerbody stuff is out too. I can’t deadlift, or squat. I could leg press, but there is something weird going on with my knee that I am just choosing to ignore…

What can I do then physically? I woke up this morning at 5:15, about an hour short of what I normally wake, but sleep has been horrible because of shoulder pain. I made some coffee and picked up my ALL TIME favorite magazine / quarterly publication: “MILO®: A Journal for Serious Strength Athletes”.

There is no other publication that gets me so inspired, yet provides excellent information. To top it off, there are NO advertisements except for the back cover. IronMind just rules…
So, I’m reading my magazine and I get to their Captians Of Crush certifications. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Captians of Crush Grippers, they are grippers, but ones that are just insanely hard to close They have a trainer, a level 1, 2, 3, and 4. If you can close the #3 for one rep, your name is listed among some respectable and powerful strength athletes. There are only 4 people in the whole world who have ever closed the #4 gripper. While reading I decided this the PERFECT goal right now. Train to close the #3 gripper! I’m realistic. I know the #4 is for freaks of nature! Working towards this goal will actually give me what I really want, some serious grip and hand strength. Having a strong grip will make me a better fighter and weightlifter. Plus, having strong hands and grip is just “right”.

My goal for the next year or so… that is about what it takes, is to be able to close and become certified as closing the No. 3 Captains of Crush Gripper .

On a side note. One of my most inspirational lifters I ever saw was a man named Jesse Marunde. He was the youngest to close the #3 gripper at 18 years old. He went on to compete in the worlds strongest man, and placed second in 2005. I never met Jesse, but he was a truly inspirational man. He died in 2007 after a particularly hard training session. He was only 27. He had a rare condition where he had an enlarged heart. It was unnoticed and after a hard session, he collapsed and died. Here a video highlighting some of Jesse’s amazing feats of strength.

Another one of my thought processes always goes jiu-jitsu or submission grappling. I thought for a while that I wanted to be a MMA fighter, but in all honesty. I don’t have the time, health (shoulder), and mental focus to be going for that goal right now. What is a realistic goal is to greatly improve my grappling skills and be able to compete at a VERY high level in grappling. I started doing this last summer by taking private lessons from an American Top Team BJJ black belt Luigi Mondelli. Luigi is my body type and size, yet has an excellent jiu-jitsu guard game…. which happens to be my weak point.

This goal will have to wait for a while, till I am at least 75% shoulder strength, but in the next 4-5 years I want one of two things. 1.) To be able to compete in the expert divisions of a grappling tournament, and to be very competitive. I don’t need to be a champion, but I want to win. 2.) Possibly a BJJ black belt from Luigi. I have begun conversations with him about this, and we have talked about laying out a plan of training. Getting my Kobukai Ju-Jitsu black belt was something that…. I just can’t describe. It meant a lot, and I know I earned it. My test was insane. If you really want to know about it, let me know. But I do know this. I earned that black belt. BTW: I would never accept or take a black belt or any martial arts promotion if I AND my instructor did not believe I deserved it. Back to the BJJ black belt. Earning that again, will set me apart from many others and take my skills that much further.
While I progress down those long term goals, there is one more immediate jiu-jitsu goal I want to work on. That is my Jiu-Jitsu Guard. I want to be BUCKNASTY in that position. Don’t know if that’s a word or not, but I like it. I want a bucknasty guard. I want men to FEAR my guard.

To summarize my goals!

1. Close the No. 3 Captains of Crush Gripper and develop some seriously amazing Grip Strength

2. Greatly improve my grappling game, particularly my guard game. Possibly obtain a BJJ black belt in 5 years

   Basically I want to be able to fight like a big boy version of this guy - HAHAHA!!
   
   If you don’t know… that’s Marcelo Garcia… the best grappler on the planet.

Fee free to comment and post on some of your goals!