Jiu-Jitsu Prevails, Again

Name: Tate Wright

Record: 1-1-0 (Win-Loss-Draw)

Weight: 170 lbs

Team: Roseberry's Martial Arts Center

Discipline: Jiu-Jitsu





It was just like another day at the office for Tate as he pulled out an easy win over his opponent, Issac Hansen, with Team Cestus (Rochester, MN). Tate had the usual pre-fight jitters in the hours leading up to the fight, but he had his support team there to keep his mind focused and get him warmed up.

James started the warm-up with a set of traditional warm-up exercises, called Daruma exercises. Sensei David Ossian would be proud of us. Although I've talked about these exercises in a previous post, I'd like to give a brief overview again for those who don't know what they are. According to legend, the theory behind the Daruma exercises taught in Okinawa traces back to around 520 AD. At this time the Buddhist monk, Daruma (aka Bodhidharma), traveled to the Shorin Ji temple in China. On arriving, he discovered the monks were weak and unhealthy. Daruma taught the monks a set of exercises to restore their strength and health. Since the monks at the Shorin Ji temple couldn’t own weapons, they began to practice unarmed martial arts for self defense. It didn’t take the monks long to discover that the exercises Daruma had taught produced tremendous internal power for the martial arts. Daruma's method of Kiko, recorded in two books called Ekkin Kyo and Senzui Kyo, eventually reached Okinawa and merged with the Okinawan fighting arts. Today most Okinawan masters still regard Daruma's teachings as the "most fundamental precepts of Karatedo."

Mark and I followed with some Yoga movements to round out the warm-up. James then slipped on the focus mitts to work on striking with Tate, and it wasn't long before Tate was ready to go.

I kept glancing over at Tate's opponent to see if he was going to get warmed-up, but he never did. That was his first mistake. Every fighter should know that you should never start a fight cold.

As the first round started, Tate exchanged some strikes with Issac, then got an easy takedown. Tate maintained top position while his opponent burned a lot of gas trying to hold Tate's head and arms. Tate stayed calm and worked his ground game. James and I were cornering him and realized Tate was focusing a little too much on straight Jiu-Jitsu techniques, rather than thinking MMA. With a little coaxing from the corner, Tate started setting up his movements with strikes and ended up doing a considerable amount of damage to the other fighter. Tate had inflicted enough damage on the guy that he called it quits just before the 2nd round started.

Tate was in such good shape that he said he was ready to fight again. Tate's performance was a thing of beauty. Congratulations, Tate. All your hard work paid off!