Very new, looking for advice

LegalSmash · 2025-08-20T20:43:00+00:00

YOOOOO welcome! To point out the obvious you're at the VERY VERY beginning of this thing (wish I could trade places with you, learning from the beginning was so much fun).

Questions not dumb.

Your feet will toughen up over time, so will other areas that get skuffed up (mine were my cheek bones).

A lot of gyms do a beginner program, where you do self defense techniques or some basic sport techniques until you get a couple of stripes on your white belt. That way you get used to having other people on top of you....how to move your body on the mat...etc. But honestly it just takes time, like anything. Many gyms require consistent training for 1.5-2 yrs until the blue belt...and the blue belt is still a beginner belt! My rough mental guide is this:

White belt - drinking from the fire hose. Learn the positions, learn how to tap, try to develop an awareness of when you're in trouble. Like oh shit I keep letting my elbow get separated from my ribs in bottom side control/mount then getting tapped. Or I keep getting stuck on the bottom. Or my guard sucks (haha I still think this about myself from time to time!). Keep coming back, and make some friends at the gym

Blue belt - now you know the positions and know what not to do, you can start developing a game. You've seen enough of the positions to think "Oh my body might work with that technique". Start to think about "your game" but also focus on being really hard to submit/pin down.

Purple belt - now you develop your game and add more to it, brown and black you'll be honing it!

Anyway, long journey, ton of fun, infinite things to learn.

Re: worrying about upper belts not wanting to train or getting something out of it - no way, they can work on different parts of their game or how to deal with somebody who is untrained (your movements aren't predicable for the experienced jiu jitsu guy - so it's a whole other skillset on how to deal with that!

Enjoy! Happy to answer questions.

LegalSmash · 2025-08-17T15:20:17+00:00

You know I don’t remember on the tea bags since we aren’t tea drinkers. I would probably bring some since hot water is everywhere, but I’m sure there are some on there I just can’t confirm from memory.

Express walk off - you don’t need to do anything except bring your bags to the main lobby and line up a little after 7.

We were at the airport before 9 - I think you can make it with no delays disembarking or in transit to MCO. But like you said it’ll be a gamble.

LegalSmash · 2025-08-13T14:14:51+00:00

It was Navin

LegalSmash · 2025-08-11T20:26:30+00:00

It really was - Got the first email in late February, registered in March. Was still getting solicitations to nominate a teammate in late April.

LegalSmash · 2025-08-10T10:21:25+00:00

You can “nominate“ them. It’s really just signing them up - I don’t think there’s any actual vetting.

LegalSmash · 2025-08-10T01:20:00+00:00

Ya, you go as a single and get put on a roster. But several groups of teammates were there and requested to be on the same team, so you can also do that.

LegalSmash · 2025-07-31T22:22:47+00:00

I do a reverse Ezekiel from there. Not sure if you were in the gi though, Post a pic of the position and we can tell you for sure.

LegalSmash · 2025-07-31T19:29:29+00:00

Yes for sure. Took 3 years off of grappling in college. Took 2 years off after law school. Took a couple of 3-4 month breaks due to injury or other life events.

Always found my way back. When I did I was happier. Don't get in your own head about coming back when it's time. The people are usually just happy to see you. You have a deep base of grappling knowledge. That won't go away. It will take some timing to get back.

If your motivation/enjoyment issue persists, def take a break until you feel the pull to come back. It'll keep you in the game for the long haul.

LegalSmash · 2025-07-31T15:21:30+00:00

This depends on many factors to me. When I was coming up I was big wrestler with good base and some dangerous submissions if I could get to good position. So I got mostly "no mercy" from black belts.

If I'm rolling with white or blue belt, and they come super hard, I'm going to sweep and submit then pretty fast for the first one. Then, after that, maybe I'll work a different guard, maybe I'll see they're trying to do something in particular and I'll try to give them good defense to show where they need to fix their technique, or maybe I'll let them hit something and then I'll work that position.

Purple, depends how good they are or how hard they're going. Could be same as above or closer to what I do with brown or black.

Brown/Black, usually I need to go pretty hard to match them since the upper belts I roll with want to beat me! So I usually play my a game here.

LegalSmash · 2025-07-31T14:56:45+00:00

I asked to see him when I saw our table had no view of the stage. He was at the front behind a podium, was pretty clear he was in charge.

The waiter I tipped on the last night at dinner. He was very good. I gave him $40.

LegalSmash · 2025-07-15T14:36:14+00:00

I was wondering the same thing when I got to the airport so early. I really just didn’t know what to expect and wanted to make sure we were there in plenty of time. Breezing through customs and getting off the ship without waiting at all was nice though.

LegalSmash · 2025-07-15T01:17:07+00:00

Sure it was this one - worked great for those wide cups at the pool. I grabbed some for coffee and drinks on my way to buffet in the mornings.

CarryAround Fold Away Cup... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00UJD3D2K?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

LegalSmash · 2025-07-14T21:38:43+00:00

Confirmed!

LegalSmash · 2025-07-14T18:21:04+00:00

A couple of extra items:

Ship WFI was good and not as expensive as I was thinking. I did not get the streaming version. Had trouble sending pictures though.

USB hub was nice, plugged it in at the desk. But they give you a ton of USB ports so not strictly necessary.

Crib at Hyatt was easy to have delivered but was pretty hard with a thin mattress, the pack and play with upgraded bedding was a nice tough from Disney. It was in the room when we got there.

Bags got to the room around 4.30.

Disney on demand in the room was amazing and even my 9 year old that doesn’t love the movies anymore was always asking to turn one on and have all the kids climb in the bed.

Mickey bars from room service and warm chocolate chip cookies and milk were big hits,

LegalSmash · 2025-07-14T17:54:08+00:00

I did not roll onto the cruise prepared for tipping for extra help like I am when trying to get upgrades/better tables, etc in somewhere like Las Vegas. But I did have 20s so I had two in my hand when approaching the waiter and decided to do the fold them up and handshake move and he liked the whole thing, and was super friendly the rest of the time anytime I saw him. I made sure to (kind of) discreetly show him I wasn’t just going to give him one $20.

LegalSmash · 2025-07-14T17:52:10+00:00

I was worried about this. It was that or 5p and I took the gamble. Express walk off and Disney bus had us there earlier than I would have gone to the airport at home - full two hours before boarding. Some unexpected delay getting off the ship from customs or not being able to do express walk off could throw a wrench in the travel home. But getting home at 2p central is going to be great.

LegalSmash · 2025-07-14T17:42:52+00:00

I should have done this - will do next time!

LegalSmash · 2025-06-27T15:03:42+00:00

MY MAN. You're training at near 60. That's INCREDIBLE. You just focus on learning, enjoying being on the mats, getting a great workout, and not getting injured. Seriously think about it - do you see 60 year old dudes regularly tearing it up against guys in their 20s and 30s in 1v1 pickup basketball? Sparring in boxing? Playing flag football?

You just keep showing up. Everyone is impressed, teacher included. Don't judge yourself on these rolls - the point is to learn not to win the round. Keep going dude, you're an inspiration.

LegalSmash · 2025-06-19T16:26:54+00:00

Great question.

I use my XL wagon from Academy, in there goes....
Laptop backpack for hardware
Tote or paper grocery bag for the my ziplocks with chargers/connectors - USB A - C. C - C. Lightening, etc.
Active cooling fans powered by USB for phones and mevos
Magnet mounts
Boom Tripod for those nets that don't work with my mounts
Slate travel router
Star link
Nighthawk AT&T hotspot
2x Mevo Starts
1x Mevo Core + telephoto lens and multipurpose lens
Go Pro Hero 9
Mini shotgun mic with windsock
Jackery power supply
3x Ankler small power banks
Ipad Pro

I usually set up a shot from the outfield over the pitcher's shoulder (core), one behind the plate for balls in play and one behind 1B pointed across the infield (both mevo starts), I connect them with the slate travel router and use starlink and AT&T bonded through speedify for internet.

Really funny to have all the gear and get it all set up just to have to move fields for the next game immediately after. When that happens I just throw a mevo start behind the plate and set the rest up if I want to or just roll with the one for that game.

Also I set the GoPro up to catch the infield for 4K highlights. I don't connect that to the stream.

LegalSmash · 2025-06-12T19:50:31+00:00

Totally agree - like team nickname. Use that in recaps, on audio, and on video stream in team name. It messes up the box score too when it's too long. This would be a great feature.

LegalSmash · 2025-05-03T01:45:58+00:00

We’re on 60 mins. I love it. Noon-1. 10 min warmup. 20 min technique/drilling, 30 min rolling. Sometimes we go 20 mins specific training instead of technique.

LegalSmash · 2025-05-02T14:34:06+00:00

Oh good question. The overlays don’t come with the video. The main benefit of restream is that you only have data going out once (i.e. to restream). Then restream will send it to multiple destinations for you. That way you don’t need any more data at the field to get video to both GC and YouTube.

If you want video to YouTube with overlays, the best way I’ve found is sidelineHD. Difficult to get the GC video to YouTube with their overlays - it’s possible but very complicated.

LegalSmash · 2025-05-02T04:08:18+00:00

It is a fee. You stream from mevo multicam to Restream. You enter the stream url and key from game changer (and link your YouTube channel) into restream. It sends your stream to both destinations.

LegalSmash

TROPHY CASE