My First Grapple-A-Thon

I don't know if all dojos are this way, but Performance Martial Arts Academy (PMAA) coordinates regular fundraising efforts to benefit everything from team members or families in hard times to local organizations that help children, and the like. This Grapple-A-Thon was at the Springfield PMAA dojo and benefited The Child Center in Springfield, where one of the Springfield PMAA blackbelts volunteers.  Entry fees make the basic money for these fundraisers, but participants can also obtain pledges from friends/families/businesses for number of rounds as well.

The Grapple-A-Thon is essentially a "glorified" open mat. "Open mat" is when there is an opportunity to grapple/wrestle/roll/spar with a partner for a single round (often about 5 minutes), have a minute or so break, choose a different partner if you like, and do it again. You can go one round after another, take a break, or however you'd like to do it.

This Grapple-A-Thon was scheduled for 1-5 pm on Saturday, November 19. Daniel and I decided to go from 1-3 pm as we had evening plans to get back to. We wanted to support Coach Ryan, support The Child Center, see the Springfield PMAA, and just get some new experience. It was a great time. We got there just before 1 pm and warmed up.

We were still warming up and stretching in the first round, but by the second round, some other participants came over and invited us to roll. Haha! I laugh to myself, because most of the people there were "colored" belts: blue, purple, brown, black. I've been doing BJJ for two months! :-)  But these people are awesome. They let us try things, sometimes counter, sometimes let us "get them" and then they would practice an escape. Of course for Daniel and I, 115 lbs and 155 lbs, respectively, most of these people also outweighed us by 20-100 lbs!!!  Many times Daniel and I found ourselves in a position where we had no idea what to do. Some of our partners would kind of "drill" on us, some of them would give us tips--during or after--on what we could or should do in particular situations, either to make a technique more effective, or to defend one of theirs.

Unfortunately, after about my 3rd or 4th round (I was doing every other one), something went whacko in my right-side back/rib area when someone sat on my rib cage while I was in safety position on my side. I probably would have been okay so long as no one sat on me in that area again, but ... I'm so intent on not injuring myself to the point that would keep my off the mat for a long time, I debated whether to continue, and decided to just watch Daniel for the rest of the time, ...and rub my back/ribs. (It's healing up I think.)

Daniel was a go-getter and went about 12 rounds or so, with all belts, white to black! While Daniel could not out-tech these more experienced grapplers, he really made one blue-belt WORK!  The guy was sweating like a mop when the round was over and Daniel was hardly breathing and dry as a bone!  Haha!  Just wait until Daniel hones his skills! :-)  I did see Daniel pull off a good bridge-and-shrimp escape on a larger guy (they were all larger). Nice Job Daniel!  I also watched these guys teach Daniel a few things to do in particular situations. The teaching/mentoring culture of BJJ is tremendous.

I hope the rest of the day went well. Looking forward to my next Grapple-A-Thon!

The First Two Months: The People and the Art

Early on I began to understand that there was some vocabulary that I was not familiar with, such as "closed guard" and "open guard." Even some of the warm-up exercises had interesting names I was not familiar with, such as ninja crawls, bear crawls, alligator crawls, side lunges, various types of squats, etc.  But it just took a quick question here and there to begin catching on.

I mentioned in "Our First Visit" the excellent teaching qualities demonstrated by Coach Ryan. I also subsequently learned of his many competition efforts and accomplishments. Knowing that your teacher has "been there" in a big way in the skill he/she is teaching gives great confidence and respect. I very much appreciate and value the experience that Coach Ryan has. On a related note, Coach Ryan is a relatively small guy, roughly my height but less weight, less flab, more muscle. Anyway, I can really use the perspective of a smaller guy, so Coach Ryan is a good fit for we Hunter boys.

Not only that, but Coach Ryan has BJJ Coaches Seth Williams and Matt Bricka helping out, sometimes in the same classes; sometimes in separate classes.  These guys are TOPS, not only in their experience and game, but in their teaching abilities and personalities. God, if the world could be filled with more people like these coaches!!!

One other important thing I've been learning: being a valuable training partner.  For one to progress well in BJJ, and to help others do the same, one needs good training partners. What I'm learning is that when we are drilling, one wants to offer the right amount of resistance. When first learning a technique (hand goes here, foot goes here, hip turns like this) that may mean zero resistance other than a somewhat rigid and properly positioned body so the person practicing can get the movement down (versus a limp blob which is of no help). Once the movement is down, some increase in resistance can help refine the movement. Ultimately, positional sparring gives a most realistic scenario for attempting to carrying out the technique. However, even then, if you are 200 lbs and your partner is 130 lbs, you might see if your partner would appreciate 50-80% resistance at first. Go 100% if they request it, but take care of them; they are your BJJ family!

Early on I also began to see that BJJ not only began as an adopted and adapted martial art, but continues as a changing martial art. This really is an understatement. It is not a traditional, fixed martial art with a fixed set of moves done exactly the same way by everyone. Although there certainly are many long-standing tried and true techniques, not only do different people implement them slightly differently, many new techniques or new ways to implement old ones continue to be developed. Imagine this simple dynamic: (1) a technique aims to take down or submit an opponent. (2) a technique is developed to counter that take-down or submission. (3) a technique is developed to counter or foil that counter, (4) and so on. This "countering the counter" is not the only source of new techniques. People actively engaged in BJJ for many years also discover and actively develop new techniques, some that work well for everyone and some that work well for particular body types or positional circumstances. For now, I want to focus on the most basic and reliable methods, and learning these well enough to implement them during active sparring. Over time I expect to adopt and adjust to my own body type and preferences. Ultimately, each person develops their own "custom" jiu-jitsu--favored techniques and sequences. This is referred to as your "game."

My priorities for now: learn some basics of BJJ, increase in fitness and strength, and develop positive relationships with my team.

The First Two Months: My First Stripe

Most martial arts as well as individual dojos (dojo is the room/area where martial arts are practiced, but often refers to the people training there as well) have different belt rank systems, not only in colors/stripes, etc., but also in the process of advancing in these belts.

At Performance Martial Arts Academy in Roseburg, they have a series of colored belts, but they also manually apply "stripes" (with athletic tape), to signify progress within some of the belts. Each stripe signifies demonstrated ability to perform a specific set of techniques, usually a variety of guards, passes, or submissions.

At first, since we had just started there, I was figuring on skipping the first upcoming stripe test. But the test date was delayed and ... I like a challenge, so I decided to go for it.  Daniel and I are in the adult class together, so we both drilled during open mat and at home and both passed our first stripe test! Stephen's test was a couple weeks later and he passed as well. Such a simple, small thing in the big scheme of things, but a happy accomplishment nonetheless.

The First Two Months: My Body and Mind

Early on we discovered that we could also attend Judo class on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. I had taken one Judo course in college ... ooohh ... say 30 years ago....  I enjoyed that, and it develops a lot of balance, so we decided to try that too. I'm all for getting my money's worth!

After the first week in BJJ and Judo, my legs--in particular my hamstrings and quads--as well as various other parts of my body, were really sore. It was a good sore, but sore nonetheless. This wasn't from the BJJ techniques practice per se, but initially mainly from the full-body warm-up exercises we did. Really, it was awesome to begin feeling my body again.

Feeling the "pain," I began researching and learning how I (a "guy over 50") should approach my training; how I should think about my body; how to loose fat, build strength, recover adequately from training, versus overworking and injuring myself. I wanted to be in this for the long haul.

One hesitation I had initially was that my back is not 100%. It has issues mainly if I compress my discs in my middle back. So, I have self-monitored how things were going. Amazingly, my back problems have actually lessened! I attribute this to the strengthening of my core--my abdominal and back muscles. I do regular stretching as well, which seems to help everything.

After a couple weeks of Judo before my BJJ class on Tuesday and Wednesday, I decided I was often too worn out to concentrate well on BJJ, and it was taking me too long to recover, so I decided to forego Judo. I tried it again after feeling better a couple weeks later, but I still was not concentrating as well in BJJ, so I'm just watching for now. Daniel and Stephen both continue with Judo, and I'm happy for them.

About a month in I decided to participate in some sparring. I found that after a couple minutes, especially if someone was on top of me, I was having some trouble breathing. I didn't like that feeling. It wasn't that I couldn't breathe, really, but that I could not get a satisfying full breath, so the longer I put off getting that breath, the more suffocating it felt. I tapped out 2 or 3 times (tapped my partner telling him I was done) just because I felt like I couldn't get a breath. I talked with Coach Ryan and did a fair amount of research online. Clearly my cardiorespiritory system could use some improvement, so I continue to work on that. Some people online reported a kind of claustrophobic feeling, but I didn't feel afraid; I just couldn't breathe!  Sometimes I would just be standing there, not grappling, and could not catch my breath! In additional to improving my cardio, I have concluded that three other things have contributed to this breathing challenge: (1) sometimes if I eat too close to training time, either my belly is too full, or my insides have a lot of gas (perhaps I'm eating the wrong things). It makes sense that all that gas in my belly or midsection is taking up space that my lungs could expand to. Often after belching (politely, haha) as much of that as I can, I can breath more fully. I haven't even seen that as a problem or solution on the web, but it seems to be a real thing for me, so I am trying not to eat very close to any time I might be sparring--I'm not too concerned if we are just drilling.  (2) I found that my BJJ training was challenging muscles and various parts all over my body, including my upper torso and rib cage. This tends to tighten up those muscles and my rib cage. By doing some deep breathing practice with some associated stretching of the muscles around my rib cage, front and back, it seemed to loosen things up a bit for me to take fuller breaths. (3) Finally, another really crucial thing that has helped me so far--and I have seen this on the web a lot--REMEMBER TO BREATH!!!  I realized that I would tense up and take shallow breaths or even hold my breath for certain movements or efforts. Doing that once or twice in a minute might not be too bad, but every held breath gets my oxygenation process more and more behind, and making that standard operating procedure means I'm out of breath soon! So, I've been trying to practice breathing more just during the day, as well as at BJJ training. This breathing training has helped a lot, even with my breathing just during the day.

Finally, my latest physical challenge is my fingers. Jiu-Jitsu in a Gi (traditional uniform worn in some martial arts), involves a lot of gripping and grip-fighting. Early on my fingers were a little sore after some training, but so was everything else, so it was no big deal. Now, most of my body parts are getting used to the training, but my fingers don't seem to be recovering as quickly. The pain and stiffness and lack of mobility is getting worse. You can learn more about this with a web search for "bjj finger pain." Many BJJ practitioners wrap their fingers in a specific way with athletic tape to give their fingers additional support. I have not done this yet--I was hoping to avoid it. But I'm at a point now where I either need to tape my fingers, or play "no-gi" for a while, or just don't grab so hard for a while.


I want to stay healthy, get stronger, and breathe better with a good attitude so I can continue for a long time.

Our First Visit

After emailing and texting Coach Ryan Cunningham a couple times, Daniel and Stephen and I visited on September 1, 2016. We targeted the Youth BJJ and Adult Fundamentals BJJ classes that Thursday evening. There was a nice sitting area where parents or students waiting for class could sit and watch. As we came in and sat down a couple people greeted us and made us feel very welcome and at home. I was impressed with the warm welcome. Anyone we asked was happy to answer our questions. I was impressed with the organization and discipline and the way Coach Ryan interacted with the kids. He was clearly a very dedicated, passionate, kind, and caring person, but simultaneously very serious, strong, disciplined, and all about hard work and respect. I also perceived that his instruction was clear and spot on. I don't mean that I could evaluate that he taught the techniques correctly, I mean that there was no question as to what he was teaching; each step was like the hammer hitting the nail on the head: each step was loud and clear and unquestionably finished with the nail sunk in the wood--and demonstrated multiple times. Eventually, Coach Ryan was free to chat with us about how things work, schedules, costs, etc. I was still on the fence as to whether I would join the boys on this venture, but Ryan's fixed cost for the three of us and as many classes as we wanted seemed pretty straightforward and flexible. I couldn't resist....

My Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Journey: An Introduction

My name is Matt Hunter. I'm 53 yrs old and live in Melrose with my wife Lisa and three teenagers: Katy (18), Daniel (15), and Stephen (13). I make a living through consulting in wildlife ecology (www.umpquabirds.org), and (mostly these days) handyman/remodeling construction (www.matthewghunter.com). I've always been interested in martial arts, but have not had much training.


I had wanted to get my kids into some kind of martial arts for some time, but didn't have strong determination until summer 2016. I had talked with a few people around town, but didn't have a strong feeling on what to do. My brother-in-law, Damien Cole, who has a purple belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ), mentioned to me a year or two ago that someone named Ryan Cunningham was teaching BJJ in Roseburg and urged that I go check him out and get the boys in BJJ. I didn't know much about BJJ, but I never forgot what Damien told me. Looking on line I found Ryan at Performance Martial Arts Academy in Roseburg. On September 1, 2016, Daniel and Stephen and I went for a visit....

NOTE: This blog is me "thinking out loud" about my BJJ journey. It will also be a way to get out some of my thoughts and questions and invite feedback. My first few posts will be "catch up," from our first visit at Performance Martial Arts Acadamy (PMAA) through yesterday's Grapple-A-Thon. Then, I hope to just write as the desire comes. I intend to avoid re-hashing many BJJ issues that overflow the internet. I may occasionally give my own concise perspective on particular issues, and you can do your own research. I want this to be about MY journey.

Thanks Damien, for tipping us off to Coach Ryan Cunningham and Performance Martial Arts Academy!