The Free Piper

Swam 1,100 yards today with my lady. This is my opening easy 500 yard swim. I then cut the distance in half with very little recovery between sets.

1 X 500
1 X 250
2 X 125
1 X 50
2 X 25

I increase power and speed and a negative split time as I progress through the session.

Tonight I had good success in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu training. I am a 1 stripe white belt with a couple months of training about 3 times per week. I train in the Gracie Barra system (Dublin, Ohio) and my professor is Cauê Rodrigues. Cauê is an amazing professor and man. He is a 3rd degree black belt, and a well decorated elite level multi-time champion. I have been blessed with developing a brotherhood with Cauê.

"Associate with those who are likely to improve you." ~Seneca

Tonight I rolled in this clip with a seasoned blue belt with an advanced level of knowledge, skill, and understanding. He's a really good teacher who has taught me a great deal. I love rolling with him. He was rolling with a significant rib injury. We decided to roll lighter than usual keeping Matt's rib in mind. He was not doing hard core dynamic movements to safeguard his rib. Keeping that in mind I saw a moment to attempt a "punch choke" submission from full mount. His roll from bottom position in this specific training drill was to primarily defend and get back into half guard, full guard, etc. Once he achieves a guard position we stop and switch roles. My job in mount was submissions and back takes. I was able to get a submission with the hand in sleeve punch choke. I got my fist pulled in tight on his carotid artery. I got it tight. He tapped.

I was then able to pass to half guard.

Later I rolled with El, and we had a fun roll. Pretty evenly matched. He has a wonderful smile and an attitude to match. He is a solid teacher. We always have a good time when we roll.

Next I rolled with Mike. Since he had higher rank I gave him his pick of starting position: Mount or Bottom.

He told me to take bottom. He started in mount. I did well to hip scape to half guard.

From there, I pressure up Mike's chest to pin his shoulders up and get his arms to stretch over his head, I'm able to isolate his right arm into an Americano arm lock. He tapped. That's a dangerous lock that pressures the shoulder a lot. I took it easy so as to not wreck his shoulder. It's all about keeping each other safe while still remaining very competitive. Next, I secured an arm bar from technical mount.

It was a great training session. These men are all courageous, self-controlled, self-disciplined, and eager to humble themselves for the sake of learning. It's a great community to be part of. I'm very blessed to train with these wonderful human beings. It's a great honor and privilege.

I'm working towards competing soon in the IBJJF World Championships in the Masters 5 division at 168 lbs (77kg). I should be in good shape. I have a great school of teachers, and Cauê as my professor.

I am 52 and a 1 stripe white belt with about 25 hours of total training in the gym. I have learned a great deal. Tonight against all higher raking belts, I earned 3 submissions from the mount. I successfully implemented a punch choke submission during a roll with an injured blue belt. I also achieved a successful Americana shoulder lock, as well as an arm bar from technical mount with a higher ranking white belt. It was a very fun and successful learning experience with great men.

Roy Jones Jr - Can't Be Touched

Drum flows are good for building timing, rhythm, spatial awareness, reaction time, proprioception, brain neurons, brain synapses, memory, and overall kinetic intelligence.

What are you regularly thinking about? 🤔

"What is the hardest task in the world? To think." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Sow a thought, reap an action; sow an act, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character; sow a character, reap a destiny." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson (attributed)

"Thinking is difficult that's why most people judge." ~Carl Gustav Jung

"Your thoughts determine the quality of your mind. Your soul takes on the color of your thoughts." ~Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

"As a single footstep will not create a pathway on the earth, so a single thought will not create a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path we must think over and over again the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives." ~Henry David Thoreau

"Man is but the product of his thoughts what he thinks he becomes." ~Mahatma Gandhi

"Even the smallest things may be taken as evidence of character." ~Seneca as quoted by Arthur Schopenhauer in On Human Nature: Essays in Ethics and Politics

Every decision you make has consequences.

"Consequences." ~John Wick

"The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. The fears are paper tigers. You can do anything you decide to do. You can act to change and control your life; and the procedure, the process is its own reward." ~Amelia Earhart

"Our whole lives are startlingly moral. There's never an instant's truce between virtue and vice. Goodness is the only investment that never fails." ~Henry David Thoreau, Walden

"When we are unhurried and wise, we perceive that only great and worthy things have any permanent and absolute existence, that petty fears and petty pleasures are but the shadow of reality. This is always exhilarating and sublime." ~Henry David Thoreau, Walden

This video is dedicated to the Trump supporting useful idiots and unthinking imbeciles who support WWIII, war crimes, and the death of innocent human beings.

"Even the smallest things may be taken as evidence of character." ~Seneca as quoted by Arthur Schopenhauer, On Human Nature: Essays in Ethics and Politics

"The man who has no conscience in small things will be a scoundrel in big things." ~Arthur Schopenhauer, On Human Nature: Essays in Ethics and Politics

"The only good is knowledge; the only evil is amathia (ignorance)." ~Socrates

"Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth." ~John F Kennedy

"Whoso would be a man, must be a nonconformist." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essay: Self-Reliance

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." ~George Santayana

Those who follow Donald Trump blindly are clearly uneducated unthinking imbeciles who suffer from Dunning-Kruger Effect amathia and arrogance, and I make my case in this video. Share this with your unthinking Trump supporting blind conformist friend or family member. Let them know they are acting as blind conformists, useful idiots, and imbeciles who are clearly ignorant and haven't learned from history. These useful idiots are the most evil problem with the world today; due to their amathia.

"We are a race of tit-men and soar but little higher in our intellectual flights than the columns of the daily paper." ~Henry David Thoreau

"One piece of good sense would be more memorable than a monument as high as the moon." ~Henry David Thoreau

Are you doing your thing?

What is that thing you are most passionate about?

Are you settling for mediocrity or a boring lifeless existence?

When will you say, 'Enough is enough, already!'?