Why Are Leg Locks And Neck Cranks So Vicious?

Some submissions are naturally brutal

By Sam Yang - Get similar updates here

I've grappled against 300lb wrestlers in the past. I've tried to armbar them from top, I couldn't. Imagine if you weigh 140 lbs but you're a high level grappler. Your opponent is 300 lbs but is a novice. Yet he can cling from a pull up bar with one hand nearly indefinitely. So that means he can grip 300 lbs in one hand for a long time. Now imagine two of those hands gripping together. Not only that but he can two hand curl well over a 150 lbs. Even with perfect technique, an armbar is essentially a back extension. Someone's back versus someone's arms, most of the time the back wins, but not always. Now imagine if I had tried to leg lock him? Or neck crank him? Basically attacking the strongest parts of him.

In lifting terms, most submissions use the same muscles as the deadlift. It becomes my max deadlift versus their max cling to exhaustion. My best shot would be to weasel my way to his back and choke him (attacking his arteries and not the neck), much like Rickson did against larger opponents.

Why neck and leg attacks can be so brutal is because they often require more weight, more strength, more speed, and a certain relentlessness. They're the limbs that are hardest to control.

BJJ Is About Community

BJJ Is About Community And Resilience

By Sam Yang - Get similar updates here

I recently was promoted to a BJJ brown belt. The lesson I've learned was, BJJ is not just about techniques, it's also about the community, camaraderie, and the resilience you gain from this art, which is what makes it so unique.

I went through a lot while I was a purple belt and we all go through stuff that we can't simply explain through a belt color. I recently posted a part of my ceremony and my thoughts about what it means to have a rank in BJJ on Facebook and the amount of support and encouragement I received from the Jiu Jitsu community only reinforced my belief.

Numerous people were sharing my story and telling me how it was also helpful for them for their own life. So I decided to publish a version of it online so people outside of Facebook can have access or share.

You can read it here: On Getting My Brown Belt
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Sam Yang from an early age has been obsessed with connecting the dots between martial arts and efficiency, health, mindset, business, science, and habits to improve optimal well-being. For more info, join his newsletter. You can also connect to Inner BJJ on Facebook and Twitter.

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Curious About The Mind Of Inner BJJ?

Via LetzTrain

THERE'S A LOT MORE TO CONSIDER THAN DIET AND EXERCISE

By Sam Yang - Get similar updates here

If you're into productivity, life hacks, mindset, business, martial arts, BJJ, health, fitness, or just curious about who I am -- check out this podcast interview I did with Jason Bridger-Berkeley of LetzTrain, where I discuss some of my personal philosophies, habits, and things I work on with my own clients. I'm a fan of Tim Ferriss, Dave Asprey, Napoleon Hill, Tony Robbins, and Malcolm Gladwell -- but my viewpoint is first and foremost from the perspective of a life long martial artist. I read as much ancient texts; from western stoicism and eastern philosophy, as I do scientific studies and productivity hacks.

From training with Rubens "Cobrinha" Charles Maciel, using post-it notes to optimize creativity, that change is incremental, recognizing you are probably your own biggest obstacle, and how you must prioritize your time and energy wisely to get anything done.



Read the rest on my main site: All Out Effort
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Sam Yang from an early age has been obsessed with connecting the dots between martial arts and efficiency, health, mindset, business, science, and habits to improve optimal well-being. For more info, join his newsletter. You can also connect to Inner BJJ on Facebook and Twitter.

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Harnessing The Loser's Mindset

Photo courtesy of Five Grappling

I lose by 22 points and get submitted?

By Sam Yang - Get similar updates here

To boil down everything I talk about into one word, the word would be mindset. Mindset meaning, "The established set of attitudes held by someone."

Whether it's competition in sports, public speaking, or any intense activity, we are told that we need to think like a winner -- to be positive, to own the room. That's nice but we're all human. A lot of thoughts go through our heads very quickly and we can't control all of them. Sometimes you just have to let it go and think what you're going to think and let it pass on its own. I will never be able to remove all doubts, and I have come to accept them as a part of myself, it's something that keeps me sharp and informed.

I'm going to tell you a story about what went through my mind during a match in my last competition but frankly it's what goes through my mind during any intense situation.

Read the rest: Must Triumph
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Sam Yang from an early age has been obsessed with connecting the dots between martial arts and efficiency, health, mindset, business, science, and habits to improve optimal well-being. For more info, join his newsletter. You can also connect to Inner BJJ on Facebook and Twitter.

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Was Bruce Lee The Best Fighter?

By Sam Yang - Get similar updates here

I was recently asked, "Does Bruce Lee have any weaknesses in combat?"

The True Spirit Of Martial Arts

By Sam Yang - Get similar updates here

I've always had a love for martial arts history. A pattern I've seen so often in so many traditions is loss of information. Whenever there have been times of occupation, colonialism, imperialism, or war, anything related to warriorship gets destroyed. Temples burned. Masters killed. To keep the people docile, and prevent uprising or future wars. A new history even gets written, one where people believe there never was warriorship in their culture (warriorship has existed in all cultures), that they have always been pacifists.

This is why I believe martial arts is so important. It's a passing down of heritage, culture, and the will to fight against oppression.
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Sam Yang from an early age has been obsessed with connecting the dots between martial arts and efficiency, health, mindset, business, science, and habits to improve optimal well-being. For more info, join his newsletter. You can also connect to Inner BJJ on Facebook and Twitter.

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Are All Martial Arts From Asia

Martial Art And Tradition

By Sam Yang - Get similar updates here

Someone recently asked me this and I had to think about it for a moment. No it's not all from Asia but to many it may seem like it because it's so important in the East.

Learning Business From Jiu Jitsu

Rafael Mendes and Rubens Charles "Cobrinha" Maciel locked in a complex guard position

By Sam Yang - Get similar updates here

Martial arts was created to help us understand the tough situations we find ourselves in

There are so many ideas from martial arts that I find to be transferable to any situation. To think martial arts is only about fighting or cheap parlor tricks is a mistake, and if you train martial arts purely for those aspects you're leaving a lot on the table you can benefit from. Maybe because we compartmentalize and don't transfer knowledge well (here's martial arts, here's everything else), maybe it's the Puritanical foundation of American culture where we take everything literally and at face value (a punch just represents a punch, what else could it mean), and it's why we need a good bonk or two to the head through fighting to realize martial arts is so much more than physical conflict.

Sadly I have met few modern teachers of any martial art who have been able to accurately convey this message, and my goal is to remedy that. Nothing more ironic than to be a black belt on the mats and a white belt in life (or the board room).