Don't Tap to Staph: A Primer on Hygiene

This post sponsored by Defense Soap. Offense wins matches, Defense keeps you on the mat.
Go to http://www.defensesoap.com/

Respect for your training partners, and gym, begins with your personal hygiene. Regardless to whether you’re still spazzing out on the mats, or still talking too much when rolling, your training partners are going to notice your body odor, bad breath, skin condition(s), and/or hacking cough way before your other bad training habits (Just like the time And you found ‘the stinky guy’ of your gym—and if you haven’t, it’s coming). As you've—no doubt—found out by now, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is a very close-contact sport; where you’re in contact with your training partner and training surface at all times. But your personal hygiene is about more than just splashing on some after shave, or popping in a piece of gum before you walk into the gym. You have to take care of yourself, your training gear, and ultimately your training partners. In this blog post I’m going to point out a few up-front issues, skin conditions and how to try to prevent them, and what makes Defense Soap so cool.

A few points to make sure you’re covered on before you get in the gym are:

•             Fingernails/Toenails- Are they trimmed down enough that they won’t cut or scratch your training partners or hold any dirt? If not, you need to take care of that before you ‘suit up.’
•             No shoes on the mat! (Ever)
•             Pre-workout Cleanliness- Please do not come straight from replacing a sewer pipe to the gym—or any other activity that might call for you to get a shower immediately after. Yes, you will need to shower after, but don’t be gross.
•             Breath- We’ll all come with coffee-breath once in awhile, but try to be considerate. As crazy as it sounds, a lot of athletes will still use tobacco products, too, that will leave your breath coming out real harsh into your training partner’s face. Go the extra mile and brush up, or at least hit a mint before you hit the mat.
•              Clean/Fresh Training Clothes- Wear a new gi to class, not the unwashed one you wore to the previous class. Same goes for all training clothes. Wash them. They’re gross.
•             Hair Product- We’re going to sweat. Your hair product is going to mix with your sweat and get on your training partner and the training surfaces; and that’s not cool. As your training partner, I've already accepted some things, but when hair product gets in your eyes it stings and can lead to worse issues. Plus, you don’t know who’s allergic to what 

Now those things are probably pretty obvious, but what’s less obvious is avoiding skin conditions. Skin conditions (Ringworm, Impetigo, MRSA, etc), bacterial, and viral infections are all things that you could pass on to your training partners (and then ultimately their families) and training surfaces if you’re not taking the proper measures of prevention. The first line of defense is not training when you’re infected—with anything. If you’re sick, please, stay home. But in addition to spreading your germs on your partners, you’re going to be transferring it to the training surface(s) as well. Think of all the training equipment that you use that you might not usually wash (headgear, grappling dummies, support braces, the inside of your gym bag, even flip flops) that will host those germs until they can latch onto some other unfortunate soul all because you just had to hit the mat. I do believe in my heart of hearts that gyms do keep their facilities clean, but what good is a clean mat if you’re rolling with someone who’s carrying some nasties on them? 

“But, Jesse, I wash my hands all the time!” and I bet you do that with anti-bacterial soap, too, don’t ya—and that’s part of the problem. Using anti-bacterial soap kills the natural flora (the good germs) on your skin that fight off the bad germs when they come looking to ruin your day; and it doesn’t kill fungi like the kind you get with Ringworm. So when all of the bacteria on your skin is dead, and your nicely washed clean hand makes contact with something that can host some bad germs, the bad germs just take over because you killed all of your good troops—good job. Crazy to think right—but it’s true. So how do you stay clean without killing off your entire good flora? The answer is: Defense Soap.

     Defense Soap cleans your skin and kills all of the bad germs while keeping your natural flora safe, happy, and intact ready for war. By using a form of alchemy known only to the good people of Defense Soap, they combine essential oils into a wonderful concoction that not only kills the bad germs that can cause skin problems, but it smells great as well. So when you get home from your training session, you’d want to shower with something that’s not going to ruin your body’s natural defense systems and then compromise your health.

So, in keeping with White Belt Survival tradition, please be clean when you get to the gym, bring clean gear to train in, and clean both yourself and your gear when you get home.

A special Thank you to Defense Soap for sponsoring this week's post, go to http://www.defensesoap.com/ to keep clean, stay clean, and keep on the mat; and to the winner of the giveaway contest, Thomas Beckett

Name that Blog Title Contest #1 Sponsored by Defense Soap

Ladies and gentlemen, this is exciting news. White Belt Survival Strategy has teamed up with Defense Soap for contest to run now through Friday August 29^th, 2014. As you may have guesses by now the contest is to come up with a fun/creative name for the next blog that will be focused on hygiene and, of course, BJJ. When you come up with something, send it to us on Twitter @WBSurvival and hashtag it #WhiteBeltSurvival to enter. Winners will be contacted via Direct Message on Twitter, so don’t forget to follow us to insure your odds of victory!

One winner will be selected and their entry will be used as the next title for the next blog. In addition to that the winner will receive one Defense Soap Deluxe Travel Kit; that comes complete with 1 Bar of Soap, Wipes, Shower Gel, Oil, Salve, Loofah and Soap Dish—all smartly packed in a high quality travel bag that features 3 pouches with heavy duty zippers and handle. And all courtesy of the fine people of Defense Soap.

Winners will be chosen 100% at my discretion and contacted upon the end of the contest via Twitter Direct Message. Be funny, be creative, but don’t be too gross. We’re looking for something fun and in return give a great prize. Defense Soap has stepped up and brought their A-Game, so should you. The contest will run until 11:59pm EST on Friday the 29^th of August, 2014 and the winner will be promptly notified by me via Twitter direct message and your contact information will then be passed on to Defense Soap who will send your prize. We look forward to your submissions and can't wait to start reading them! Good luck!

Special THANK YOU to Defense Soap! Go to http://www.defensesoap.com/ so you can keep your skin healthy!

Breaking Down the Notebook

In my initial post for my school (Goal Setting, available here) I touched on starting a notebook to write down everything you learned in class. Everyone that spoke with me about the blog post on my school's page ultimately said something about the notebook idea and how they started using one. So to build off of that, in this post I'm going to break down the notebook, how I use it, why I think it's helpful, and some newer--more digital--takes on this idea of keeping track of your techniques.

I started with that exact notebook. You'll notice that it's a 3 Subject notebook, I picked that on purpose because a notebook without those dividers will undoubtedly become a mess--unless, of course, you're some superhero of using tabs, homemade dividers, or are super crafty, then by all means. But I'm, more or less, an ape in clothes and if I can get something already tailored for my needs, then that's my best bet. Now I chose "3 subject" specifically because at the onset of my white belt phase I was basically always in Full Guard (in mine or my opponents), in Side Control (mostly on the bottom (you know)), or in Mount (again, mostly on the bottom), so I dedicated each section of the notebook to each of those positions. Of course, Jiu Jitsu has other positions, but as a white belt you're typically not going to be getting a lot of classes on the Deep Half, X-Guard, or really even normal Half Guard. While you might get some classes/lessons on those, as a white belt it's important to remember to focus your efforts on the basics. But if you do get something from those classes/lessons that you really want to remember, jot them down on those subject separators, or a 3x5 index card--and if you feel like that's 'just too much effort' for that technique, then it's really not worth remember for you right now at this stage of the game.

'Why write it down, though?' you might be wondering, because, yes, it is a lot of effort and can be time consuming. Besides the fact the writing things down helps you remember them better, when you apply that to Jiu Jitsu, you're forced to recall every step of every move/technique down to the most subtle movement for the technique to work. How many times has your instructor reminded you to "Put your head on the mat" when you're applying a triangle or an arm bar--a lot I bet. When you write down your techniques you're replaying everything you learned in your head and forcing yourself to recall every detail; and when you do that, you remember things better.

Once you learn something new in class, I highly suggest writing it down as soon as you get home (after you shower, of course) while it's still fresh in your memory. If you're not 'a writer', or don't know how to write something like a technique down, don't get discouraged. There's a couple of things you need to remember:

1. Write it clearly, both in penmanship and thought-expression. Don't muddy the waters or skip over words thinking you'll know what you mean later, because you won't. Trust me.
2. You're probably the only one that's going to be reading it, so don't be afraid to do it how you want to do it, or how you think will work best for you.

In the example above, you can see it's my first note from the Side Control position. I made a point to circle the word "IN" to the left, because to me, that told me that I was on bottom and that particular technique was to be applied from the bottom position in Side Control. Next you'll see I used arrows to show direction, and possibilities of where the move could take me. You might not want to use arrows, you might have a better idea--again, use what works best for you. I used arrows because there's usually an 'If Scenario' where if your opponent does this, then you do that, so arrows were just a way that I could help myself remember 'the routes' I could take if...

The old school method is great. The new school method is cool. Recently I was made aware of a new website that comes with an app for smartphones called http://www.bjjtrainingjournal.com/ . This website is basically your online notebook where instead of writing out your techniques longhand, you can type them in and then tag them with what position they apply to, whether the move is a submission, sweep, transition, and every other possible Jiu Jitsu term--really neat stuff. You can even embed YouTube videos to be recalled later (Huge bonus). The website also has some other cool features like logging your training time so that you have an average of how many hours you're spending on the at 30/60/90+ days. Additionally it has a "Tap Tracker" where you can keep track of your submissions (both giving and receiving)--though, it's got some bugs, but nothing heartbreaking. You can find friends online (I'm on there), share techniques, and break them down to them being in your "Complete Game", "Practice Game", or your "A-Game"; it's a really neat website that, like I said, comes with an app so that you can recall those techniques at the gym or on the go. By the way: It's all For Free. Beautiful, right?

In closing: I like to use both of the methods I mentioned because they both work for me in their own respective ways. I need to be able to write techniques down longhand to help me remember, but I really love having that online access via the app to techniques in the gym. Play around with both of them, see what works best for you, and in doing so you'll be taking that extra step to getting better.

Now, go get your learn on.

Introduction

On June 1st, 2012 I walked into Steel City Martial Arts in Pittsburgh PA for the first time. I went in with the intention of learning Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and having some fun while training with a friend; but had no idea just how much Brazilian Jiu Jitsu was going to take over my life. Earlier that week, I had spoken on the phone with the gym's owner and head instructor, Sensei Sonny Achille. I had the standard questions (gym fees, gis, etc.) and he had the warmest and most welcoming personality to accompany an answer to every one of my questions that I felt that if this new 'Jiu Jitsu thing' didn't work, then it would be on me and not the instruction.

June 1st was a Friday that year. I arrived at the gym shortly after my work day, along with my aforementioned friend, in time to see the last hour of an open mat session. I signed the waiver papers and committed to a year-long agreement--without even taking a class--put on my borrowed gi, and dove in head-first.

I trained with my friend for that first class, and I can only imagine his level of patience. My friend, Luca, was a blue belt at the time and real student of the sport, so I have to assume that his night wasn't nearly as fun as mine. That is, until the last fifteen minutes of class arrived and I got to roll for the first time. And if you're reading this, it's safe to assume you too remember your first roll--specifically how bad you were dominated, how fast you were winded, and how you had absolutely no idea just how helpless you REALLY were. I didn't forget that either, and that's the purpose of this blog--to address issues that commonly (and maybe uncommonly) plague white belts in the journey to blue.

On July 26th, 2014 I received my blue belt from Sensei Achille (you can see us there, pictured above). Now you may be asking yourself something like 'Why is this blue belt giving advice?' Fair question. The/My answer is: Those white belt struggles are still fresh in my mind. Instead of writing this advice later on down the road (as whatever rank), trying to recall issues and specific examples, I thought now is the best time. You wouldn't want to get driving directions from someone who was there ten years ago would you? Most likely not. And much like street signs, traffic patterns, construction sites, and landmarks, Jiu Jitsu also changes. You're best to get the directions from someone who was just there.

Now, that's not to say I'm going to be making blog post after blog post as some Jiu Jitsu guru vowing to lead you to the black belt Promised Land if you just follow my directions, no, that's not my role. Follow your instructor/Professor/Sensei for that. What I propose is to provide guidance on the issues you're too afraid, embarrassed,  or just too dumb to ask (but only "dumb" because you don't know any better). I may occasionally post a technique or suggest something that, I feel, is beneficial for a white belt, but let's keep it real: I'm just a blue belt trying to help a brother out and pass on what I picked up over these two years of getting brutalized and finally starting to dish it back out.

I decided to start this blog based on the strength of the blog post I had written for my school's website. You can read that here. I got a lot of great feedback from my training partners and instructors on the post; and that felt good. I wrote it hoping that it would help some people--plain and simple, I wanted to help. But the response was so positive (almost everyone I train with said something genuine about it) that I felt like I should keep it up. So here we are, and why. I can't forecast how often I'll update this, but I will promise at least one a month; but I will try to add more than that, as often as possible, when something comes up.

In the meantime, if you have any questions for me, suggestions for content, or want to pass on some advice, please feel free to reach out to me at Jesse at whitebeltsurvival@gmail.com

Thanks for checking in, and please tell a friend and stop back soon.

-Jesse