Not too long ago I ordered the Atama Ultra-Lite Gi, which, as confirmed via email with Atama-Kimonos.com, ships with the Mundial #9 pants.

This is a review for Atama Mundial #9 pants, size A3*.

Currenly, the gi and pants are sold only as a pair, but I expect them to be available individually soon.

For a rundown of the Atama Mundial #9 Gi, check out Georgette Oden’s writup where you can also find links to some reviews.

Materials & Structure

The pants are 57% cotton and 43% polyester, but feel like 100% cotton to the touch. Not surprisingly, they are thin – perhaps thinner than denim or an average tee-shirt. Despite the thinness of the material, the pants are still tough and most seams are triple sewn. The pants have no stretch.

Atama must have confidence the pant’s material. I was expecting to find the bottom cuffs reinforced with a thicker fabric, but found it to be reinforced by the same cotton material as the pants. The drawstring also uses the same material rather than a cord or rope (which holds very well when rolling).

The pants also feature a generously large reinforced knee area from about three inches from the bottom of the pant to the top of the thigh.

An interesting disadvantage of the material – at least in white – is that it readily collects and retains dirt and residue. I have owned these pants for a little over a month now and worn them about 12 times or so: they already show more dirt than another pair of pants I own – which was worn to almost every class for about 7 months.

Feel & Cut

Light! The pants feel light and don’t get in the way – and as alluded to earlier, tough. I am currently playing a lot of open guard so my pants are often grabbed (tightly) around the knees. I’ve never thought twice about the material or stitches not holding.

One of my favorite things about the pant is the cut. It is roomy enough not to impede movement, yet tight enough so that it feels like there is no excess cloth. I find the cut of the pants to be a perfect middle ground. They hit at a comfortable spot above the ankles.

From left to right: close-up of patch on upper right thigh, example of reinforced inseam, close-up of drawstring, and the bottom cuff.

Lastly, the pants have good “hang” – they tend to maintain their shape rather than drape over the legs when standing. They also tend not to stick to my legs when they are sweaty.

Summary

I cannot attest to how well these pants wear on every body type. I am 5′11 and about 168 pounds with long arms and legs, and I wear a 32” waist.

These pants are are a great find and I’d buy them again, but probably in a different color. I really enjoy the material, the cut, and I really do feel less “weighed-down” when I roll in them.

* I didn’t review the entire Ultra-Light because I did not feel I wore the top enough before having it tailored to fit me better. It took about 4 or 5 classes to realize the cut was really not for me, despite getting the correct size. I don’t feel right about giving it a review after the alterations.

I will say this, however: the material is good and light and I could really get used the room in shoulders.

Last night, after some deliberation, I skipped class. I’ll make it up soon enough.

I attend class about 3 times a week, but I aim for 4. Sometimes it’s only 2. The number of classes I attend depend on the usual things: work, I how I physically feel, etc. No surprises there.

When I think about class attendance I remember I conversation I had with another student about five months ago. His point was that you should never “over do it” when I comes to attending class: you should go to class as you want to and when you feel like it. Not following his advice, it was argued, can lead to burnout or injury.

He gave multiple examples from his Jiu Jitsu career of people who would sign up, start training, and get pumped. Very pumped. These people attended class whenever they could (5 times a week or more) and usually advance quickly. But unfortunately, after their first belt, or even as soon as 8 months into training, they would begin to burn out, their attendance would decline, and most of them would quit. Exceptions abound, of course, but this was the pattern he observed.

He also discussed how Jiu Jitsu should be fun. When it stops being fun, you should take a look at yourself and your training. In even some of the highest levels of athleticism (the Olympics, for example), trainers often ensure their pupils are having fun and enjoying themselves because it can be a key factor to not only their happiness but their success in the sport. Jiu Jitsu should be no different.

I tend to strongly agree, and this philosophy largely guides my attendance decisions. Jiu Jitsu is too fun, interesting, and empowering for me to give up, and I plan on doing it for a long time. I follow these guidelines because I don’t want to get sick of, stop liking, or get burnt out on the martial art.

Last evening I finally scored a set of patches from Boulder Grappling Academy. They look sharp and three go to set: one is meant for the chest, another for a pant leg, and a large one for the back. I couldn’t ask for a cooler logo or patch for my school. As an additional bonus, they are pre-shrunk which should help reduce the odds of them becoming warped when sewn on the gi.

I plan one applying these to a fancy new gi / kimono I just ordered (which I plan on reviewing for the blog) which should lend itself to these quite nicely.

I was recently thinking about the different people I have rolled with at this point in my Jiu Jitsu career and the characteristics of a good rolling partner. On the one hand, the answer I came up with is “it depends” – it depends on (your) mood, what you and your partner are looking to get from the session, energy levels, etc.

On the other hand, there does seem to be some things common to good sparring partners.

Desire To Learn (Not Just About Winning)

Winning is always fun, but for rolling, it’s not always the goal. We all have fights with high intensity where both participants want to win – badly. These fights can be fun and invigorating. It is one of the things I love about the martial art.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nathaninsandiego/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

But there is a collection of moves that are good for winning but are more appropriate for tournaments or the street. Two examples of these kinds of moves are putting pressure on someone’s nose to set up a rear-naked choke and covering an opponent’s nose and mouth with an available hand to try to force someone to move.

I often enjoy myself the most when my sparring partner and I are both trying to learn or apply new moves, when trying to win at an agreed or implied intensity. In these sessions I often learn new techniques and improve the context of moves I already know. This is a huge part of my training: when I am complimented on my progress by other students, I’ll normally tell them it is greatly because of them – because of training, practicing, and rolling with them.

Being Relaxed

“Tweaking out” seems to be endemic to most people brand new to any type of grappling. I was guilty of this when I first started Jiu Jitsu. I have obviously moved on, but I think we have all experienced this in a sparring partner: you are rolling with a (likely new) Jiu Jitsu student, and he/she is wiry and excitable.

A good sparring partner is typically relaxed because they are comfortable. In contrast to “tweaking out”, their movements are under control, even though they may not know what to do next (should I try to escape? should I go for a kimura?), it is mostly intentional. Unintentional, spazmatic movements can be unsafe, which bring me to the next item that makes a good rolling partner.

An Appreciation Of Safety

While being a “spaz” certainly makes for less safe sparring session for both participants, so does trying specific holds or submissions without proper training. I am referring to moves such as ankle locks, knee bars, and wrist locks. The odds of injury are greater if you aren’t trained in them. At my school, people are usually cleared to do these moves at some point after white belt (typically blue, I believe).

Personally, I don’t mind when I am put into one of these positions by someone who knows what they are doing, such as a teacher or an advanced student. I do get concerned, however, when someone puts me in ankle lock without the context or training they should have before trying the move. It is not safe and probably not a good idea. Just like anyone else, I don’t want to get injured.

Well, kinda. JAKKS Pacific is finally getting ready to ship action figures based on various UFC fighters this November. Announced last year, the

“.. new UFC product line from JAKKS(TM) will be collector-focused, and the license covers UFC legend Chuck “The Iceman” Liddell, Brock Lesnar, Antonio “Minotauro” Nogueira, Michael “The Count” Bisping and UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson “The Spider” Silva … and its classic and current roster of star fighters.”

While those are some famous names, my first choice would no doubt be Royce Gracie. He seems to be the only character in a gi – an appropraite uniform for such a famous Jiu Jitsu practioner.

MMA Warehouse seems to have a (complete?) line of them for sale here.

http://www.mmawarehouse.com/v/vspfiles/photos/jak-1001-2T.jpg // T&C

Twitter And Jiu Jitsu Kit

Some time ago I set up a Twitter account for this blog, @jiujitsukit, and I’m having a hard time finding a meaningful use for it. I don’t want it to merely be an RSS of the blog. I wanted to ask my readers: do you have ideas for what you’d like to see it used for?

Upcoming Product Reviews

I plan on reviewing two products soon: Atama Rip Stop Pants and a Kaizen Rash guard. I will not be reviewing my new Atama gi for reasons I’ll explain in the pants review.

Upcoming Redesign

Lastly, I am excited about a slight redesign I’ll be doing for Jiu Jitsu Kit. I am going to be emphasizing the Lijit search wijit for searching, rather than the search that comes with Wordpress, although it will still be available. Lijit gives more context to the search results; it is like blog search on steriods.  And in fairness to full disclosure, they are also my employer.

For my first six or seven months of Jiu Jitsu I was convinced it was smart to wear a cup when training. This was confirmed when I racked my training partner with my knee – on accident, of course – and when my cup protected me from various impairments to my reproductive compacity when people passed my guard with various knee passes which would have otherwise may have been quite painful.

I was able to overcome the discomfort and considered myself wise for wearing one – and for better or worse – my Jiu Jitsu was probably a little more fearless because of it.

My thoughts on the issue remained consistent until I had a conversation with an instructor. He mentioned the following two points about wearing a cup when training:

1. In a street fight you won’t have time to put on a cup – and if you find yourself somehow wearing a cup you should consider yourself lucky – lucky enough to go buy a lottery ticket. As much as possible, you should be able and used to defending yourself without having a dependence on a piece of a equipment. This is a common-sense reality of street fights.
2. When you don’t train with a cup, you get accustomed to it. He said you “develop radar” and sensitivity – you begin to make adjustments that reduce likelihood of injuries to groin.

I pretty much immediately stopped wearing a cup after the conversation. I was a bit nervous at first, but he is right: you really do begin to account for your sensitivities when you don’t wear protection down there. And the more I think about the arguments for not wearing a cup when training, the more obvious and true they  seem.

I have done a complete 180 on the issue and I think my Jiu Jitsu and self defense is better because of it.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ronalddevillaphotography/ / CC BY 2.0

Yesterday I was forwarded this great video demonstrating Gracie Jiu Jitsu with Rickson and Royler Gracie. I don’t know the context of the video or where it is from, although the announcers reference Pride Fighting Championships. It demonstrates some Gracie self defense techniques followed by sparring.

I like this video for showing what clean, expert Jiu Jitsu looks like to novices and experienced practitioners alike.

Thanks Brad!