Suits you! #BJJ #Triforce #Tokyo .#fb

Fujita San picked up his new purple belt, embossed with his name in gold – a very nice colour scheme indeed! Congratulations and enjoy breaking it in Thanks also Shibamoto sensei for an excellent class this morning!

#Snowboarding is dangerous! #BJJ #triforce #Beijing#fb

Unfortunately, Jack broke his wrist snowboarding in Beijing over the new year: spending the 1st holed up in a Chinese hospital did not sound like my idea of fun at all!

I’ve met at least five people since living in Japan who have broken bones snowboarding – sliding down a big icy mountain is asking for trouble- your much better off staying warm and training some jiujitsu thought the winter!

Heal quickly Jack!!

Time running out… #BJJ #Triforce #Tokyo #Jiujitsu#fb

Today's morning regular class

Both Tim and Tony only have a few more days with us until they go back to their respective countries. Tim will first head back to the US before deciding on whether to move on back to the land down under, and I believe Tony will head back to Taiwan – the foreigner numbers take a hit again! If you’re foreign (or even if you’re not) and you think you’d like to begin training Jiu Jitsu with us, please come and take a (free) trial lesson – I guarantee you’ll enjoy it – and you’ll be helping keep the foreigner numbers alive!

Rules are rules… #BJJ #Triforce #Tokyo #JiuJitsu

I think due to the number of members Triforce has, it has been decided that receiving stripes will be dependant mostly on the number of times you have trained. At Ikebukuro we have an electronic sign in system where we just need to swipe a card before going in and getting changed – this data is accumulated over the weeks and months, and allows the management to know exactly who is training where and when. Case in point, I trained precisely 99 times last year at Ikebukuro (pretty hasppy with that number considering everything that happened last year) … So with that, I was happy to receive another stripe on my belt from Hayakawa sensei yesterday. I believe this rule does not apply to getting a belt promotion, so I’ll need to keep training hard if I’m to be lucky enough to get my purple.

Receiving my 4th stripe from Hayakawa sensei

I’ve been off for the last two days so was able to get some decent training in, both last night and this morning. I was surprised that I could move more or less OK considering the beating I took yesterday – hope this will serve me in good stead as I make my way to the first competition of the year which will be held on the last Saturday of the month – Ganbaru!

The chaps after a monster sparring session this morning

 

2 Dans #BJJ #Triforce #Jiujitsu#fb

I headed down to Shinjuku yesterday to participate in the sparring class. Starting at noon, this class is more manageable and fits into my day better. Also with an eye on upcoming competitions, it’s a good idea to spar with people I don’t really know- or so they tell me!

12/31 @ Shinjuku #Triforce #BJJ #Jiujitsu#fb

Thank you Shibamoto sensei for holding a sparring session at Shinjuku Triforce today – despite my hangover lasting into a second day, I managed to get to the gym on time and have five or six fights – not bad considering! The rest of the chaps also saw it as a good opportunity to train – there must have been something close to 20 guys all taking it in turn to spar.

Tried to keep it to six pairs at any one time....

And with that, 2011 Jiujitsu training is over – there were lots of ups and a few downs! The beginning of the year was all systems go with some competition success and keeping up with training – things took a turn for the worse from May with a neck injury, taking a few months to heal before coming back strong from September / October ish. /Looking forward to to a solid year in 2012! yoyotoshio!

To the very end! #BJJ #Triforce

Yesterday’s morning regular class was headed up by Shinjuku Triforce’s Shinamoto sensei -always good to train with him!

We’re lucky at Triforce – we’ll have the opportunity to train every day, right up to the 31st with open mat sessions (potentially 1st, 2nd too?? Onegai!) so I’m looking to make good use of my time off at the gym. I read some other blogs saying that the gym they go to will close up for the holidays – you know what you need to do if….!

Welcome Lasse & Congrats Sakamoto san! #BJJ #Jiujitsu #Tokyo #Grappling

Another 90 minute morning session in the books!

Congratulations to Sakamoto san who received his blue belt from Hayakawa sensei today – he’s been training a lot and definitely deserves to be moved up to the next level – enjoy breaking in your new belt!

Hayakawa sensei with Sakamoto san - congrats!

The foreign invasion has continued over the last couple of days – we recently welcomed Lasse to Triforce (I hope I spelled your name right!) Actually today was his last day training with us as Lasse will head up to Hokkaido for the snowboarding season – it seems like  foreigners like putting jiujitsu on the back burner in favor of the big snow up north come wintertime – count me out of that: tall guys can’t ski!

Lasse with Hayakawa sensei

Welcome, Luza! #BJJ #Tokyo #Triforce

Today was my first day back after seven days on the sidelines with sa shoulder strain. As it was close to the same area where I had my neck injury, I thought that rest and a trip to the doctors was in order- I’m really glad that it was nothing serious, but such a bummer that I had to drop out of the competition on the weekend (congrats to all those who competed by the way)!

Ryosei giving Luza a traditional TF welcome

Cam and Jardi have since gone up to the snow for the winter to practice their snowboarding (good luck to them!) – Cam will come back and train with us in March, which is great news – in the meantime, the foreigner ranks have a new recruit – Luza from California dropped by TF tonight to take a trial lesson – hoping to see more of him in the weeks and months to come!

Shibamoto sensei at 池袋 #BJJ #Triforce

Shinjuku’s head instructor came to Ikebukuro this morning to hold regular class- thank you Shibamoto sensei!

Shibamoto sensei’s class focused on half guard escapes- 3 techniques that will be super useful – as long as I can remember them!