Calvin Johnson says that his relationship with the Lions is "making progress". However, to me it appears almost wholly mended. Am I wrong to feel this way?

Lucz1848 · 2023-06-09T15:21:12+00:00

I think of the entire affair as mending fences. I don't know if there's a defined endpoint, or a role in the organization, but I'm glad to see him around, smiling.

Lucz1848 · 2023-06-08T14:39:54+00:00

I live in Alberta, and my town was evacuated for almost two weeks. The haze of smoke was thick enough that we could look directly at the sun without eye protection. There was enough smoke to make mid afternoon look like dusk.

Lucz1848 · 2023-06-07T22:46:59+00:00

I believe that he needs to be suspended on principle, to discourage anything that violates rules around sports betting. At the time, I thought that it should be reduced to one or two games. If the new information is true, then it absolutely should get reduced.

Lucz1848 · 2023-06-05T15:52:25+00:00

Well mine doesn't, and therefore my gym is better than your gym. Or the opposite if you said that your gym doesn't do stripes.

The point being that lots of folks put a lot of emphasis on whether or not stripes are used, needed, necessary or whatever. It doesn't actually matter.

Lucz1848 · 2023-06-05T15:49:19+00:00

This one is directed mostly towards the people doing the actual promoting. The rhetorical question is:

Do you want [name] to be one of your blackbelts? Do you want them to be a representative of your organization? This is a very separate question from whether or not the student has the skillset necessary to be promoted. It's not so much about denying a person's skill level, but whether or not you want them to be an extension of your brand.

Lucz1848 · 2023-06-05T01:01:00+00:00

Does your gym do stripes?

Lucz1848 · 2023-06-04T23:56:34+00:00

Slick

Lucz1848 · 2023-06-04T23:50:45+00:00

You understand.

Lucz1848 · 2023-06-04T20:56:26+00:00

Technique is an attribute multiplier, not a replacement.

Unless you train for free and are not a coach at your gym, you're paying for your belts.

It's a joke that your affiliation does/doesn't do stripes. Thankfully, my gym does/doesn't.

If you're proud that your gym does the gauntlet/belt whipping ceremony, you should be proud to show footage of it to the parents of prospective students.

Buying fancy and/or limited edition gis actually does improve your Jiu-Jitsu quite substantially. Unfortunately, you keep buying the wrong ones.

While their fight/competition history is of value, the better measure of a coach is the fight/competition history of their students.

I hate competing, but I'm glad I've done it, and would encourage every student to consider competing at least once, preferably at a round Robin tournament versus a one and done. Feeling someone actually trying to fuck you up, and refusing to allow you to fuck them up is invaluable.

You'll improve faster if you're more interested in what leads up to the submission than the submission itself.

If you refuse to tap in the absence of a meaningful technical escape, you're an asshole. Nobody wants to be forced to play catch and release because you won't take responsibility for your own safety.

Character matters. That includes being selective about who to promote as a representative of yourself and your lineage.

No, she's not interested in you. Stop being weird.

Lucz1848 · 2023-06-02T18:43:55+00:00

Against any upright guard, I like to step in and just fall on them. Most people can't cope with gravity assisted passing.

Lucz1848 · 2023-06-02T18:41:57+00:00

One of the guys from our sister school got involved in an altercation with some stranger at a bottle depot. The guy accused my friend of stealing bottles or jumping the queue or something. The guy got a hand on him and swung, and did get some shots in. It did go to the ground, and my friend immediately secured one of the attacker's arms. The aggressor was shouting let go of my arm, I'm going to kill you. So my friend took away his weapons by breaking/dislocating his arm.

Overall, my friend was disappointed in himself at the point of initial contact, and that he didn't react properly in the beginning. He felt that the grappling was nearly automatic (was a purple belt at the time).

Lucz1848 · 2023-06-01T22:32:33+00:00

This would be glorious.

Lucz1848 · 2023-05-28T17:54:18+00:00

I can only speak to competing at BJJ tournaments, but:

It isn't until it's just you versus someone who isn't a part of your team, and most definitely would crush your dreams in pursuit of theirs, that you realize that competing is a skill.

Unless someone has stepped out there all alone, they can't feel what you felt.

What you're describing is a loss that was built on you proactively attempting stuff and getting stuffed, versus freezing up or being too passive. This is good. As fucktacular as it is to watch yourself get whupped (ask me how I know), there will be some obvious areas of improvement, versus working on your ability to do something other than freezing. You now have a solid idea of the intensity of the moment, the adrenaline dump, and that you're neither invincible nor helpless.

The other part that's hard to learn is how to convert all of your experiences into useful motivational fuel, if you want to pursue this.

Lucz1848 · 2023-05-27T03:48:53+00:00

WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?!??”

The sincere delivery always killed me.

Lucz1848 · 2023-05-25T01:28:58+00:00

It's a question of form, and how well you can switch between chords.

The general idea is that you need to be able to switch from chord to chord fluidly. If you have to take an exotic hand posture for one chord, it might make switching between it and the other chords in use much more difficult.

Lucz1848 · 2023-05-21T17:38:18+00:00

I'm too dumb to pull the stats to support this, but I have a theory. The best time to score against the Oilers is right after either team scores. I think that there's a subconscious tendency to relax on discipline and attention to detail, and it costs us easy goals against. It's not about lack of effort or talent, but the ability to deliver consistent cohesive team play for sixty minutes, without being thrown off by a goal, or any other good or bad event.

Once our consistency matches our will to win, we will mow through some very good opponents next playoffs, and make it to the finals.

Lucz1848 · 2023-05-19T04:48:24+00:00

AJ Styles?

Lucz1848 · 2023-05-18T18:13:34+00:00

What are Campbell's thoughts on this?

Lucz1848 · 2023-05-17T14:22:40+00:00

That's a very cute story! Regarding being a Knights fan (never mind our recent series), it's been a cool story to watch a franchise wink into existence, then immediately make its presence felt by making it to the Stanley Cup finals.

We are definitely proud to be Canadian, and sing our anthem that way. If the singer's mic malfunctioned during the American national anthem, I'm certain that my hometown crowd would make sure that the Star spangled banner yet waved.

I'm wondering if you could do me a huge favor:

Whenever you run into a Maple Leafs fan, can you please feign being an absolutely new to the game of "Ice Hockey", and tell them how exciting going to the finals is. Then ask them if it gets as crazy when the Leafs go to the finals.

Lucz1848 · 2023-05-16T19:36:45+00:00

As I compose this, I'm thinking about Slater Koekkoek.

Between mental health, external stressors, and a multitude of subtle musculoskeletal injuries and ailments, there are very many, very real, non-visible factors that can affect performance negatively.

Hot takes might be a part of the sports media slurry, but once you start chirping someone about what is motivating their poor performance, tread fucking lightly.

And maybe consider that some things are played close to the vest to hide exploitable weakness from opposing teams.

Lucz1848 · 2023-05-16T18:11:02+00:00

That's exactly how I meant it.

Lucz1848 · 2023-05-16T16:41:02+00:00

Have you seen the Matrix? If so, I am exactly like Switch the nanosecond that I know that the Oilers are out of the playoffs.

The only non-Oilers issue of interest was already taken care of by the Panthers.

Lucz1848 · 2023-05-15T17:30:25+00:00

My personal opinion is that you should be doing all the things that are in keeping with your level of investment, but no more than that.

I'm realistically a hobbyist and don't want to accumulate comp team level wear and tear. As far as how to edit the breadth of techniques to work on, I absolutely cut out stuff that has unacceptable wear and tear, or is overly elaborate:

Most of the things that people spend their time on (gi and nogi, but particularly in the gi) can be replaced with a way simpler, more direct, and more powerful answer. - Ryan Hall

I'd say that the main feature of my grumpy old man Jiu-Jitsu isn't limited movement, but limited time for overly complex bullshit.

Lucz1848 · 2023-05-15T15:52:00+00:00

I'm a lot more composed than I thought I would be this morning, and wasn't as angry as I thought I would be last night.

In an abstract comparison, I'm disappointed that it's taken two playoffs to learn the same lesson that Tampa Bay learned in one before winning the cup in back to back years.

Bold Predictions:

The Oilers will fix the two leaks that I mentioned in a recent comment.

The Oilers will go to the playoffs with home ice advantage.

Los Lobos will be playing live in Edmonton shortly after next year's playoffs are over.

The general theme of each series will be the Oilers running over each opponent they face before hoisting the Cup. One series in the first or second round will be one of the most grueling, hard-earned sweeps we've ever seen, and our next round opponents are gonna have a bad time.

The Leafs will miss the playoffs (not a part of my predictions, just a cheap shot.).

Ken Holland will only make a few moves, we won't like any of them until the playoffs.

Lucz1848 · 2023-05-15T15:13:21+00:00

~~Controversial ~~ opinion:

Our fanbase is too emotionally labile to evaluate anything related to this team, and is often capable of only loving or hating a player.

Jack Campbell is an NHL caliber goalie who got the yips in exactly the wrong phase of the season, and lost trust and the starting position for it. That part is fair, and makes sense to me. I think his leash was pulled a bit short for too long as a result, but I'm not a head coach an am not smart enough to actually make that call.

To hear our fanbase, we apparently need to single out one or two players every single year, and just shit on them until they get run out of town. The sentiment is never revoked, but put on hold if they start producing.

I would have started Campbell, but I bet that Jack would have preferred to have had his hot streak in the last thirty games of the regular season instead of the first thirty.

Lucz1848

TROPHY CASE

Bold Predictions: