BJJ STORY TELLING

I was rolling with a blue belt from another academy the other day. I am by no means no master. I do think I know what a master is though. A master in BJJ means you are a master storyteller, and your story is of course BJJ.

I was training with the blue belt and he had moves and ideas but he kept changing the way he began, and the path he took led off into tangents and ultimately I didn't know what his end goal was. I know his goal was to finish, but what kind of finish, how, at what point?

It's like a story with no plot, or a business with no plan. It can succeed sometimes but usually not. There are guys like that who have no real story to tell, just a lot of different endings. And sometimes that's cool and entertaining and they will finish some people. Most of the time though it's predictable and boring and when it leads off into a tangent, you just finish their story for them.

A good BJJ player same as a good storyteller creates a strong beginning that sets up everything for later on. The plot is the middle of the game, the ride, you promised your audience something at the beginning and you are now taking them on that ride to fulfill that promise. The ending then knocks down everything you set up prior and everything is synced up the way it should be. You carefully plotted it step by step. BJJ is your story and you want to tell the story well. If you don't and lose your focus and forget where you were going with it, your opponent will finish your story for you. In his story he is the hero and ultimately the champion. You are the bad guy and the one who had to be defeated. Even when he tells the story of the victory, he will be the main character and he had to overcome everything to beat you.

It's the same with all ventures in life. Same with running or managing a business. A lot of martial arts schools fail because they had no plan, no goals, no foundation, no stages or phases.

About the Author:

Sam Y. is a Master Personal Trainer, Certified Nutritionist, Coach, Performance Enhancement Specialist, Corrective Enhancement Specialist, Yoga and Pilates instructor, and holds multiple certifications. He is also an avid Martial Artist, training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Kickboxing, Boxing, and MMA. He is also the author of the popular fitness blog All Out Effort as well as the popular martial arts blog Inner BJJ. You can find him in the Los Angeles area personal training his clients, or at home annoying his wife, or on Facebook at his personal fitness page.

Can BJJ Become A Cult?

Most often, we think of a cult as some offshoot religious group. It doesn't have to be. Other groups and communities can have cult like attributes. There are several work out and fitness groups that seem very cultish, from Crossfit to yoga.

Often times these groups themselves recognize it and will joke about it and wear it as a badge of honor, such as the Crossfit guys. I would have to say though, BJJ guys are more fanatical about their sport than the Crossfit guys and would put them to shame, but I never hear the word cult uttered from any of them. Maybe the cult is that strong?

This is more of a reflection on what I've seen and experienced and also done tongue and cheek but there are many similarities.

1. Religious. Though cult isn't thrown around, the word religious is. Often to describe how often someone trains or competes.
2. Sacred space. A place where all cults need to go to meet, have their own rituals, and ceremonies. This would be the academy.
3. Their own sacred clothing. Gi or no gi. Belts as well.
4. Own language. TMA, MMA, S&C, Gas, Rolling, Spaz, BRO, Oss, I can keep going on and on.
5. The group displays excessively zealous and unquestioning commitment to its system, belief, leader (alive or dead) as the truth.
6. Questioning, doubt, and dissent are discouraged.
7. Chanting. As heard in every IBJJF tournament.
8. The leadership explains, sometimes in great detail, how members should think, act, and feel.
9. The group is elitist and claiming an exhausted status for itself, its leaders, and members. You complain to your teammates about how your other friends or loved ones just don't get it? Do not understand how special you are a human being are for doing this art?
10. Which leads to this next thing. A you vs. me mentality.
11. The group teaches or implies that its supposedly exalted ends justify whatever means it deems necessary. This may result in members' participating in behaviors or activities they would have considered abnormal or dangerous. Competing. Training while injured. Not working. Not going to school. Living off parents. Eating expensive acai all the time. Etc.
12. The group induces feelings of shame and/or guilt iin order to influence and/or control members. Often, this is done through peer pressure and subtle forms of persuasion. Why can't you train more bro? Don't be a pussy. Come on compete!
13. Members are expected to devote inordinate amounts of time to the group and group-related activities. I watch so many videos and drill so much bro, you don't even know.
14. Members are encouraged or required to live and/or socialize only with other group members.
15. The most loyal members (the “true believers”) feel there can be no life outside the context of the group. They believe there is no other way to be.
16. Status and rank. Promotions.
17. Proof of commitment in the group, usually through ritual. Belt ceremony, whipping or being tossed.
18. Ultimately you have improved greatly through the group and would not have done so otherwise without it.
19. Just STFU and train bro!
20. You pay to be in the group.

This is all in humor of course so relax. I think BJJ is a great art and sport and I truly love it. But I think you need a balance and sometimes people take it too seriously and let it under-develop every other area of their life. If a baby didn't want to explore or play you would worry because it wasn't trying to develop. So you would take it to the doctor to see if they were mentally retarded. Your job as an adult is STILL to develop as a human being, in all the areas that human beings can develop in. If you don't you may need to question if you are also mentally retarded.

About the Author:

Sam Y. is a Master Personal Trainer, Certified Nutritionist, Coach, Performance Enhancement Specialist, Corrective Enhancement Specialist, Yoga and Pilates instructor, and holds multiple certifications. He is also an avid Martial Artist, training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Kickboxing, Boxing, and MMA. He is also the author of the popular fitness blog All Out Effort as well as the popular martial arts blog Inner BJJ. You can find him in the Los Angeles area personal training his clients, or at home annoying his wife, or on Facebook at his personal fitness page.

MMA Fighter Loses Ear In MMA Fight

Common Errors On MMA and Fitness Sites

Common internet spelling errors on personal trainer websites and on MMA message boards such as MMA.TV and Sherdog.

Kron Gracie BJJ Mindset

Roger Gracie Breaking It Down

Invisible Jiu Jitsu or Forgotten Jiu Jitsu

I am going to be reprinting some old classic entries from my previous blog called The Angry Grappler. It will chronicle the evolution in my understanding of martial arts.

18 April 2010 @ 01:46 pm

Lately a lot of people have been advertising invisible Jiu Jitsu. And after thinking about it a lot, and speaking to people like Henry Akins, I think invisible Jiu Jitsu is just forgotten Jiu Jitsu. It's all the little details that our instructors teach us, that we just forget over time. Which is natural. Whether you write it down, rep it a bunch, we can only retain so much.

A way to get a grip, a way to grab the collar, a way to control their hips. And as people get their black belts, they all put their own spin, their own unique twists on Jiu Jitsu.

It's like taking the Mona Lisa, and then a really great artist, hand copies it. Then another great artist, hand copies that. And after a while, it may still look good because it's made by good hands, but maybe it doesn't look so much like the Mona Lisa anymore. Or maybe it looks like her, unless you look close. This is what probably happened to a lot of martial arts.

Our ability to retain the basic principles and details will determine our ability to master the invisible. It's invisible because we are doing the shit the other person forgot right? Or their instructor forgot to teach for that matter.

About the Author:

Sam Y. is a Master Personal Trainer, Certified Nutritionist, Coach, Performance Enhancement Specialist, Corrective Enhancement Specialist, Yoga and Pilates instructor, and holds multiple certifications. He is also an avid Martial Artist, training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Kickboxing, Boxing, and MMA. He is also the author of the popular fitness blog All Out Effort as well as the popular martial arts blog Inner BJJ. You can find him in the Los Angeles area personal training his clients, or at home annoying his wife, or on Facebook at his personal fitness page.

2 Types of BJJ Mind Sets

I am going to be reprinting some old classic entries from my previous blog called The Angry Grappler. It will chronicle the evolution in my understanding of martial arts.

15 April 2010 @ 06:46 pm

If it were a video game, and you are creating a character, you can put a certain amount of points into their skills or into their physicals. You could have a magician who would be highly skilled, or a barbarian who is very physical. Or a knight who is somewhere in between.

BJJ is the same way. You can come from the mindset where technique rules over all. Or someone who thinks physicality rules. Someone who relies purely on his physicality will think if they have an off night, they are just out of shape, they just aren't in the zone, they aren't strong enough, etc. When it could be their technique is what's failing them. On the other side a technician who is having an off night may think they have to learn a new technique or fix a perfectly fine technique, when in actuality it was their body that failed them not their skill.

Both have a lot to learn from each other. You need a proper blend of both.

About the Author:

Sam Y. is a Master Personal Trainer, Certified Nutritionist, Coach, Performance Enhancement Specialist, Corrective Enhancement Specialist, Yoga and Pilates instructor, and holds multiple certifications. He is also an avid Martial Artist, training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Kickboxing, Boxing, and MMA. He is also the author of the popular fitness blog All Out Effort as well as the popular martial arts blog Inner BJJ. You can find him in the Los Angeles area personal training his clients, or at home annoying his wife, or on Facebook at his personal fitness page.

Friction in BJJ

I am going to be reprinting some old classic entries from my previous blog called The Angry Grappler. It will chronicle the evolution in my understanding of martial arts.

31 March 2010 @ 03:43 pm

Sometimes you are in a position and in your mind you can see yourself doing something but when you try it, it just doesn't work. It's because of friction. The friction of their body against yours. The friction of your gi against theirs. How someone creates and controls the friction becomes a huge advantage. Both people put the same amount of weight on you but that invisible part is the friction one person creates.

About the Author:

Sam Y. is a Master Personal Trainer, Certified Nutritionist, Coach, Performance Enhancement Specialist, Corrective Enhancement Specialist, Yoga and Pilates instructor, and holds multiple certifications. He is also an avid Martial Artist, training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Kickboxing, Boxing, and MMA. He is also the author of the popular fitness blog All Out Effort as well as the popular martial arts blog Inner BJJ. You can find him in the Los Angeles area personal training his clients, or at home annoying his wife, or on Facebook at his personal fitness page.

The Banking Method of Jiu Jitsu

Since Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is a Brazilian art, let's talk about the Brazilian educational system. Their most well known educator and educational theorist and philosopher is a guy named Paulo Freire. I am no expert by any means as you can get advanced degrees on his work. But I know a little, just enough to get my mind thinking.

The Big Flaw

He believes a flaw exists in education and learning, something which he calls the banking method of teaching. That we the students are empty vessels to be filled by the educators. We have no critical analysis, no self reflection, no consciousness. We are shaped by whatever gets filled into our empty coin slots of a mind. There is also then a dichotomy between teacher and student, authority and subject.

Unconscious Practical Knowledge and Self Reflective Knowledge

He thinks there are two ways to learn, unconscious practical knowledge and self reflective knowledge. To make it simple the way we learn now is passive learning, we know info and can regurgitate it but we have no idea how to apply it. As many new college graduates realized they know a lot of stuff but no way to apply it. We always call these people "book smart" because they seem to be an encyclopedia of knowledge but of little practical use. So the difference lies in passive learning, just storing information, or active learning, owning information. He questions knowledge and doesn't believe you know anything unless you know why that information is important, thought about it, and can apply it in some way.

This also happens in BJJ or a lot of martial arts. We are considered an empty vessel to be filled by our instructor. With no discussion, no self reflection, no dialogue. Whatever our instructor tells us or shows us becomes a belief but it never becomes knowledge. Knowledge is shaped by discussion and critical self reflection and dialogue.

So we learn this move, then that move, and whatever our instructor tells us is right. No wonder it seems like in BJJ there is some sort of destiny where some people get it, and some people never get it...no matter how long they train. If BJJ is based on math and physics and logic, then it should be something every last human being should be able to grasp. But there is a high turnover rate especially at blue belt of people who quit because they never got it. Even people who get their ranks out of commitment, even though "they never get it."

Student/Teacher/Student

There is even a problem with the whole teacher and student dichotomy. It's not a good organic environment to truly shape knowledge if there is someone in charge of it, who dictates if something is correct or not, and if they are the master of all that you learn. Freire believes there should be Teacher/Student and Student/Teacher. Meaning the teacher is always still a student who is willing to learn and the student is also a teacher who is willing to share discoveries.

Sometimes in training, when the class is over and there are a lot of good guys, just training, talking, sharing ideas, this is the hot bed of life in Jiu Jitsu. When your game will grow like a living organism. It won't be stuffed and stifled down by rules or waiting to ask questions or just sitting there and letting the teacher show you want he wants, not what you need. No wonder Robert Drysdale says sparring is more important than drilling. He may not realized it but during that time is when things bend, move, get reshaped and shaped. Knowledge is created. Not all the time but when the environment is right.

Some people feel this kind of learning has no structure. Well most active learning doesn't seem to have a structure because it is so organic but it definitely does. Don't mistake, teacher talks, you listen, with structure.

Even drilling a move incessantly is a form of passive learning. A mistake some people will make is, to think just because you drill a lot you are technical and have a grasp of Jiu Jitsu. It is just taking what the teacher showed you, and doing what he just showed you without the teacher being there. Basically an autonomous empty vessel who will now refill his mind slot with the teacher's information on his own...ad nauseam.

The structure to active learning is, identity, purpose, method. Identify what is being taught, what is the purpose of it, what is the best way to apply it. For instance I am training with someone and he is almost passing my guard. I must identify what he is doing, low pass! What is the purpose of this move? To pass my guard. What will be my method to retain my guard?

If we compete like we train, and in training we are just automatons who do the teacher's bidding, we will definitely have a hard time. Now if in your training you learned to identify, calculate purpose, figure out a method to change this threat, then you will also do this while sparring or competing.

Question what you think is truly "being technical" or a "good teacher" or a "good student." Then throw out the idea of student and teacher and being technical.

BJJ SHOULD BE LIKE A LAB, NOT A CLASSROOM.

Challenge everything you think you know and you believe. Then make the correct adjustments to your training.

About the Author:

Sam Y. is a Master Personal Trainer, Certified Nutritionist, Coach, Performance Enhancement Specialist, Corrective Enhancement Specialist, Yoga and Pilates instructor, and holds multiple certifications. He is also an avid Martial Artist, training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Kickboxing, Boxing, and MMA. He is also the author of the popular fitness blog All Out Effort as well as the popular martial arts blog Inner BJJ. You can find him in the Los Angeles area personal training his clients, or at home annoying his wife, or on Facebook at his personal fitness page.

Growth and Development

I am going to be reprinting some old classic entries from my previous blog called The Angry Grappler. It will chronicle the evolution in my understanding of martial arts.

16 March 2010 @ 10:30 am

I have been thinking about is growth and development as a BJJ fighter. I look at some of the guys I train with, have trained with, will train with. I know their habits and tendencies so I sometimes use them as my guinea pigs to see learning curves and growth and how that works, just through observation. A lot of the guys who are really good, I can see them plateau when they keep doing the same moves, or keep creating the same themes in their BJJ game. Themes and moves I am already used to, which makes it less and less important for me to train with them in my own development. Whatever problems they pose, even if they got better at them, even if I have problems with it still, at the end of the day are still the same problems I've already been given by them. Problems I've seen that I have either already worked out or already in the process of working out.

No one likes losing and to say you can train with no ego is like saying you can train without breathing. Though of course I don't always want to be getting beat up or losing all the time...I do want to be posed with new problems, complex problems, things I've never considered.

So when I see good guys no longer imposing new questions to their opponents, then I see a problem in their growth.

I first contradicted my own premise by looking at 2 of the greatest BJJ fighters, Roger Gracie and Marcello Garcia. Then after further inspection my original hypothesis actually seems to hold true. These 2 guys seemingly finish ever opponent the same way, what about their development? They always impose the same problems...but like all sports, our memory is very short.

Marcello mastered the top game first through his judo background, as fighters got better, he mastered the closed guard, when they got savvy to that, butterfly, then x-guard. From armdrag to rear naked chokes to heel hooks from the x, to guillotines, to takedowns and passes, etc etc etc. There are definitely thematic growth here as a fighter. He could literally come out with a new instructional every 2 years. Even though he has a string of losses, he is widely considered the best because of his ability to constantly grow.

Roger Gracie is the same way. As someone who was impossible to submit, he became a great finisher. He had a great closed guard to triangle or armbar. Then later he was taking everyone's back. Now he likes to mount and finish. He still works on his judo.

His problems seem to last longer than others but that does not deny he is still growing. Remember his scissor sweep from closed guard or his half guard sweep from bottom? He doesn't use those much anymore because he has developed other areas of his game now.

Even Rickson had runs where he finished everyone in his closed guard, to everyone from the back, to the now famous, Rickson by armbar from mount.

Even if I am getting my ass kicked by a black belt; my mentality as a fighter like any good fighter is, this guy is within my reach. I will catch up. And if all the problems they are posing are the ones you already know, then their only reason for beating you is because they are better at answering your problems then you are at answering theirs. Which will still get you properly thrashed BUT there is light at the end of that tunnel. It's why eventually you will yourself become a black belt when you start catching up to them. It's why there are black belts and world class black belts, because most black belts have a hard time in developing after black belt. They have that judo mentality of learn a few moves and master them. World class black belts will always give you problems, then new problems, and never let you pose any of your own problems. I've heard countless stories of Rickson spending countless days and hours creating and developing new ways or refine old ways of doing something. That is why Rickson is Rickson...

About the Author:

Sam Y. is a Master Personal Trainer, Certified Nutritionist, Coach, Performance Enhancement Specialist, Corrective Enhancement Specialist, Yoga and Pilates instructor, and holds multiple certifications. He is also an avid Martial Artist, training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Kickboxing, Boxing, and MMA. He is also the author of the popular fitness blog All Out Effort as well as the popular martial arts blog Inner BJJ. You can find him in the Los Angeles area personal training his clients, or at home annoying his wife, or on Facebook at his personal fitness page.

BJJ vs RTS vs Chess vs Any Strategy Game

People like to compare BJJ to Chess or any other strategy game. Actually BJJ is more often compared to strategy games than it is any other physical sport. There is definitely a strategic and mental aspect. But there is no strategy game like BJJ, and any comparison will never do BJJ justice as it is the most unique strategy game that I know of.

Let me compare it to first Chess.

• Chess is turn based - BJJ is not turned based, actually I can take all your turns in BJJ if I am good enough. 
• Chess is a perfect knowledge game where you know where you see his pieces and he sees yours - BJJ depending on the players, neither players can see anything, both players can see everything, only one player can see everything and the other can't see anything, or any combination therein. 
• Chess allows both players to start exactly the same with the same pieces - In BJJ one player can have all Queens, or one player can have only one piece. Even the arrangements can be different. One new player can have all his pieces in the wrong order, whereas an experienced BJJ player can have it ready to checkmate. 
• Chess, each game is unique and starts all over again fresh with the pieces replaced - BJJ is cumulative, the more you play, the more pieces and tools you have the next time. 
• Chess has a opening play, middle game, end game - BJJ also has an opening, middle, and end game. Grips, positions, finishes. But in BJJ you can start out in the end game, or middle game, or restart at any time to the opening play, or end it all with one move.

This is not only true for BJJ vs Chess but really for any turned based strategy game like Go or Poker or Risk.

BJJ vs RTS (Real Time Strategy)

• RTS is not turned based and neither is BJJ.
• RTS allows both players to start with same resources - BJJ allows players to start out with resource disparities.
• RTS allows each game to be a new game - BJJ is cumulative, more games I play more resources I start out with.
• RTS both players cannot see what the other player sees, they have to scout - BJJ one player can start out with full knowledge of everything you can do.
• RTS allows people to have the same kinds of units and is very balanced - BJJ is not balanced and can be very lopsided towards one player.

In RTS and Chess and other strategy games, you can theoretically have a prodigy. In BJJ we use the term prodigy loosely but no one ever really is in the truest term. No one can train a few times and accidentally beat a world champion. Even people who get black belts in 3-4 years, they train 3-4 times a day religiously and accumulate more mat hours than people who train 10 years. So its not like a Bobby Fisher or a Josh Waitskin who sees a Chess game, plays a few times in the park, and then starts to beat adults. In BJJ a child cannot beat an adult very easily. Sometimes you will find people who have a natural instinct or intuition for a certain strategy game, it just makes sense. This is less true for BJJ where by design all your intuitions and instincts are wrong, because all my submissions and moves are based on you doing what you would naturally do. Extend your arms to push me off leads to an armbar. I sit on your chest so you give me your back to try and get up, leads to a choke. All the instinct you have innately or were conditioned with are wrong and will be used against you. Prodigies? No way. Hard workers? Yes.

They all have rules, but BJJ only has rules in a tournament. The actual art itself has many variables as you can be creative. A Rook works the same way for everyone in Chess, whereas in BJJ you can use a move differently based on the player. There are an infinite types of games that can be played in all of these games, but in BJJ, each move can have an infinite amount of variables, whereas in other games that piece or unit can only move or work in the way that was established when the game was programmed or created. In BJJ you are the rule maker, the programmer, the designer. Every day the whole thing changes each time people roll.

The mental side is close to this game, but the physical side can be compared to any tough sport. And the psychology now changes when you risk and factor in your general well being is at stake. You can then make a fair comparison to rock climbing or surfing, but you are not manipulating nature in BJJ, you are manipulating another human being who has the ability to manipulate you in a rational manner...

What is true of all strategy games are, you cannot think so many moves ahead. You try to out think your opponent or think too many moves ahead or predict that you think he thinks, and after a while you just have gibberish. You have to always play with the tools in hand at the current moment the best you can. Do what you can when you can the best you can. It's about being there in the moment, in the zone with no distractions.

The similarities are there, especially the one where to be world class you need thousands of hours of practice. But BJJ is a totally different animal that is unfair, confusing, physical, goes fast, and ever evolving. At the end of the day a Queen is a Queen in Chess but in BJJ a totally different move can be created. BJJ in a sense is like the Universe. Its ever growing, ever changing, unfair, strong, cruel, hard to predict but at the same time in perfect balance and harmony.

The best part about BJJ is that, unlike other strategy games it is not always about diminishing returns. In an RTS if your units or supply line or economy gets hurt early on it is impossible to win unless there is a major failure on your opponents part, which is relying on something out of your control. Same with strategy board games, more pieces you lose harder it is to win. In BJJ though no matter how bad of a position you are in, you can still manage to survive and win. In other games a game can be decided from the opening play, but in BJJ you never know what will happen with absolute certainty until it actually happens, there is always a chance for the underdog or the person who is down to win. That is why BJJ was created, to give the little man a fighting chance. His struggle may not be for not.

I live life like I play BJJ. That everything I thought I knew was wrong, and is always wrong and is in a process of being proven wrong and corrected. That all I really know is from trial and error and even then it may be wrong. I will forever be a student and in my pursuit of excellence will I make my biggest gains. You can't have just one master or teacher in life because you will miss so much, too many variables. You need a wide array of perspectives to guide you in your journey.

*As you may have noticed, this blog keeps getting updated and gets bigger and bigger. Key concepts always have room for development, which is the sign of its vitality. Just like my own ideas on BJJ and life keep growing and evolving and developing.

About the Author:

Sam Y. is a Master Personal Trainer, Certified Nutritionist, Coach, Performance Enhancement Specialist, Corrective Enhancement Specialist, Yoga and Pilates instructor, and holds multiple certifications. He is also an avid Martial Artist, training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Kickboxing, Boxing, and MMA. He is also the author of the popular fitness blog All Out Effort as well as the popular martial arts blog Inner BJJ. You can find him in the Los Angeles area personal training his clients, or at home annoying his wife, or on Facebook at his personal fitness page.

Balance in Life And BJJ

I am going to be reprinting some old classic entries from my previous blog called The Angry Grappler. It will chronicle the evolution in my understanding of martial arts.

28 February 2010 @ 11:44 pm

In Jiu Jitsu, in a fight, and in life the most important thing is balance. Even in sports, more than power or explosiveness your ability to move while maintaining your base and not getting hurt and putting proper pressure on your opponent or the other team is the key to victory.

Balance breathing, balanced focus and mind, balanced body, these are all important things and they never made as much sense as they did to me today.

My ability to stay on top of my opponent while pinning him down is the key to my victory. From bottom my ability to keep my opponent off balance is the key to my victory. Whatever he wants, he can't have. Whatever he doesn't want me to have, I must take.

I have been so fortunate lately to train with some of the best guys and I got to train with Henry Akins and he influenced so much about my Jiu Jitsu in just one meeting.

About the Author:

Sam Y. is a Master Personal Trainer, Certified Nutritionist, Coach, Performance Enhancement Specialist, Corrective Enhancement Specialist, Yoga and Pilates instructor, and holds multiple certifications. He is also an avid Martial Artist, training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Kickboxing, Boxing, and MMA. He is also the author of the popular fitness blog All Out Effort as well as the popular martial arts blog Inner BJJ. You can find him in the Los Angeles area personal training his clients, or at home annoying his wife, or on Facebook at his personal fitness page.

Effects of Conditioning on BJJ

I am going to be reprinting some old classic entries from my previous blog called The Angry Grappler. It will chronicle the evolution in my understanding of martial arts.

25 February 2010 @ 04:28 pm

This is straight out of the National Academy of Sports Medicine's book on Sports Performance.

The goal of cardiorespiratory training:

"To improve performance. A primary purpose of training is to delay the onset of fatigue during competition. Although a sports performance professional can teach an athlete various skills, these abilities are of little use if fatigue diminishes skilled performance when it matters most.

To reduce mental anxiety. With fatigue comes a loss of concentration and confidence in critical components of performance."

The old adage, if you hit a black belt he turns to a brown belt, if you hit a brown belt he turns into a purple belt isn't quite as true as the statement...

An extremely tired black belt will fight like a white belt. It's tiring to get hit in the face.

About the Author:

Sam Y. is a Master Personal Trainer, Certified Nutritionist, Coach, Performance Enhancement Specialist, Corrective Enhancement Specialist, Yoga and Pilates instructor, and holds multiple certifications. He is also an avid Martial Artist, training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Kickboxing, Boxing, and MMA. He is also the author of the popular fitness blog All Out Effort as well as the popular martial arts blog Inner BJJ. You can find him in the Los Angeles area personal training his clients, or at home annoying his wife, or on Facebook at his personal fitness page.

Transitions and the In Betweens

I am going to be reprinting some old classic entries from my previous blog called The Angry Grappler. It will chronicle the evolution in my understanding of martial arts.

23 February 2010 @ 10:44 pm

You know how sometimes people say, I caught him in a transition or I can only catch them in a transition. Well what does that really mean? Let's break it down because it really makes no sense and it's misleading.

You typically always catch them while they are moving, and there are no moves that are not an actual move. I think what people really mean is this, they catch them when they make a mistake of undercommitting. I myself am notorious for this. I think mainly because my jiu jitsu game is known for being efficient but at the same time often lackadaisical and lazy.

I get caught when instead of let's say pushing too deep or not going in at all, I push shallow. Or instead of coming high or low, I come in the middle.

For instance when I am playing bottom half guard instead of coming into them high with an underhook or really low to get their leg, I come somewhere in the middle and sometimes it works, and sometimes I get d'arced or guillotined.

So when these "transitional" submissions happen, they aren't really in any transition. It's when one player undercommits and moves in between 2 moves. Like I catch it a lot when people drive into me and they don't come with their head high or low, in the middle and I get a guillotine on them. They think it was a scramble and so did I, but if it's a scramble, you just say oh it happens and there's nothing to fix. But there are no scrambles in BJJ, everything happens and exists. You just happened to undercommit and do a move that's inbetween moves, just being sloppy.

When do you get caught in closed guard? When you are neither postured or smothering them. When can a good player take advantage of this? Time it so as you are coming up but still somewhere in the middle he catches you with an up and over or a triangle. Those are the only times you get caught in transition, but it takes really good timing.

About the Author:

Sam Y. is a Master Personal Trainer, Certified Nutritionist, Coach, Performance Enhancement Specialist, Corrective Enhancement Specialist, Yoga and Pilates instructor, and holds multiple certifications. He is also an avid Martial Artist, training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Kickboxing, Boxing, and MMA. He is also the author of the popular fitness blog All Out Effort as well as the popular martial arts blog Inner BJJ. You can find him in the Los Angeles area personal training his clients, or at home annoying his wife, or on Facebook at his personal fitness page.

Active and Passive Learning

I am going to be reprinting some old classic entries from my previous blog called The Angry Grappler. It will chronicle the evolution in my understanding of martial arts.

22 February 2010 @ 04:09 pm

Something that makes you a great BJJ player I think is your creativity. Your ability to take all your mat hours and create your own BJJ, create your own set ups, or create your own combination of moves that you were taught. It's something every BJJ school needs, to promote creativity. Listening to Ricardo "Franjinha" Miller of Paragon, he says that you don't want it to be like Simon says. Where I tell you this, and that's the only way you do it. Or take something the way he does it or any instructor does it and assume it is law and you always have to do it that way. You need creativity.

In chess and other strategy games like Go, the thing that the computer programs always lacked was creativity. Even when the computer finally beat Kasparov, it was when the computer was able to be creative and why Kasparov taught there was human involvement involved. It's something that programs for Go still haven't been able to do. Be creative with no bound rules.

It's when you learn math, the difference between being given a problem and figuring it out on your own, to turning to the back of the book and just copying the answer down. Passive learning to active learning. Active learning where you figure it out on your own is the only true learning and knowledge. It's why in science you always have to apply it and try experiments.

If an instructor told you all the answers or played Simon says, you're BJJ will become stagnant like an old computer program with no creativity. If you take knowledge or are put into a situation and figure out things on your own with the guidance of your teachers, then you will be like Big Blue vs Kasparov.

If your take a butterfly out of its cocoon for it, it will never learn how to fly. We know this with other things right? Teach a man to fish instead of just giving them fish. The same is even more true to BJJ...but maybe you never figured it out because you always had your answers spoon fed. 

To really learn something, you must know the principles and apply them in a creative way. That is applied knowledge. All good BJJ players have their own unique BJJ and to become great you need to create your own style. You can even look at someone like Roger who we say has the basics down, yet no one else currently on the competition scene has his style. All the greats are unique, that's what makes them great. So before you try to learn someone else's system or think being good at their game is your key to getting good or even learning everything step by step is good... 

That tend to make good white belts but it always stops them from making that giant step to purple belt where they need to be creative. You will be excited to be a good white belt but it will ultimately stifle your game.

About the Author:

Sam Y. is a Master Personal Trainer, Certified Nutritionist, Coach, Performance Enhancement Specialist, Corrective Enhancement Specialist, Yoga and Pilates instructor, and holds multiple certifications. He is also an avid Martial Artist, training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Kickboxing, Boxing, and MMA. He is also the author of the popular fitness blog All Out Effort as well as the popular martial arts blog Inner BJJ. You can find him in the Los Angeles area personal training his clients, or at home annoying his wife, or on Facebook at his personal fitness page.

The Glass Ceiling between Us and Elite

I am going to be reprinting some old classic entries from my previous blog called The Angry Grappler. It will chronicle the evolution in my understanding of martial arts.

16 February 2010 @ 10:07 pm

What separates a black belt from a world class black belt? What separates a blue from another blue who trained just as long as you yet they got their purple? It's a thin glass ceiling that separates the two, you can see where they are and where you need to be, just can't seem to break through that barrier and get there. How come?

I have a theory. What separates the two is a subtle but HUGE difference. The people who are better, when given an opportunity to improve their position will take it. The people who aren't as good when given the opportunity will think about it. In BJJ and in life, the lack of making a choice or the process of thinking is sometimes more dangerous because that's when you get caught sleeping. You get caught with a silly submission you never should have been caught with because you weren't paying attention. You were thinking about moving instead of moving. Even deciding not to move would be less threatening.

It's not only with that, as in life it's related to all things that will affect your progress. When a good BJJ player is given an opportunity to improve his game, or improve his overall Jiu Jitsu, he will seize the day. Another player who is always frustrated at the pace of his progress will just think about it...Even though he beats himself up for not getting better. A good player will drive far, give up sleep, find a way to get money, to improve themselves, or have an opportunity to train with the very best. The other faction simply...will think about it.

Hey let's go to this seminar. Let me think about it.

Let's train with this guy. Let me think about it.

He's got you sidemounted, go for the single leg. Let me think about it.

You have an opportunity to get a better job if you leave your current one! Let me think about it.

This girl could be the girl of your dreams! Let me think about it.

You will see that with a lot of these people, the pattern continues in the rest of their lives. They say a successful person who loses it all, will find a way to get it all back. That's what he does. He's not successful because of how much money he has, he is successful because of the types of choices he makes and he will always make those same choices whereas someone unsuccessful will also make the same kinds of choices that holds him back. That's karma. Karma doesn't mean you do bad things, bad things will happen to you. Karma means if you make stupid choices, you are more likely to make more stupid choices in the future. Decisions you make won't affect that one thing, it will help to create a pattern of behavior that will affect your overall growth and progress.

About the Author:

Sam Y. is a Master Personal Trainer, Certified Nutritionist, Coach, Performance Enhancement Specialist, Corrective Enhancement Specialist, Yoga and Pilates instructor, and holds multiple certifications. He is also an avid Martial Artist, training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Kickboxing, Boxing, and MMA. He is also the author of the popular fitness blog All Out Effort as well as the popular martial arts blog Inner BJJ. You can find him in the Los Angeles area personal training his clients, or at home annoying his wife, or on Facebook at his personal fitness page.

What is Rolling?

I am going to be reprinting some old classic entries from my previous blog called The Angry Grappler. It will chronicle the evolution in my understanding of martial arts.

15 February 2010 @ 09:07 pm

I put a lot of thought into training, especially before or afterward. But while in the process of actual live rolling...it almost becomes meditative. I enjoy it and everyone enjoys it because it's that one moment of the day you shut out all the outside chatter, mind noise, and just live in the moment and roll. Why? Because if you aren't focused in rolling you will get hurt, but not only that you get caught up in the flow of it all.

Now if that were to ever go away, I would quit BJJ the next day. It's the main and best thing that attracts me to this sport, I'm sure surfers feel the same way when they surf. They don't worry about what wave they will surf, where, what time, they just do it.

Same with BJJ. If ever before I roll or during my roll I start thinking, what if this, what if that, especially what if I shouldn't be rolling right now, or rolling here, or rolling with this guy, or any other static noise or politics gets in the way of my free roll, it's when I hang it up. If that is happening to you while you are rolling or you are taking that into consideration, then it no longer becomes rolling. Don't put those thoughts into your training, just train, doesn't matter when or where or with who. Just train.

If that no longer applies to BJJ, then you know what, to be honest it doesn't offer much else. It's sort of a good self defense but then there's always likelihood of injury or the fact that they could just keep it standing. It's not the most disciplined martial art. It's sort of gay. It on paper is about as much fun as knitting.

What else is there beyond the zen and oneness of the roll! I ask you. If you're going for any other reason...then you are either much smarter or much dumber than I.

About the Author:

Sam Y. is a Master Personal Trainer, Certified Nutritionist, Coach, Performance Enhancement Specialist, Corrective Enhancement Specialist, Yoga and Pilates instructor, and holds multiple certifications. He is also an avid Martial Artist, training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Kickboxing, Boxing, and MMA. He is also the author of the popular fitness blog All Out Effort as well as the popular martial arts blog Inner BJJ. You can find him in the Los Angeles area personal training his clients, or at home annoying his wife, or on Facebook at his personal fitness page.

Training With Jeff Glover

I am going to be reprinting some old classic entries from my previous blog called The Angry Grappler. It will chronicle the evolution in my understanding of martial arts.

11 February 2010 @ 11:13 pm

Last 2 weeks have been insane. I had the chance to roll with my regular black belts I know, Shawn Williams and Sean Flannery. But I also got to train with Romulo Barral, Alberto Crane, Braulio Estima, Sean Apperson, Franjinha, Sean Conley, but most recently Jeff Glover...

Okay my roll with him...embarrassing. This isn't like boxing where we can look for movement from our opponent. You have to feel it and Jeff made me feel blind because he never put any weight on me so I could never anticipate his move. He kept giving me problems to solve and I never once got a chance to give him any problems to solve. He played his game and took all my turns. I felt blind and confused, I was a white belt again. This was a good reminder I have come far but I have a long way to go. I also think I was intimidated and did not roll my best either.

He never used strength, it wasn't even all technique, he just implemented his game way beyond I could my own.

I came to train twice today just to get another look at him to see what the hell he is doing and how he is moving.

It's not so much about his finishes, it was more about his hips and how he used them.

I have been using the tree analogy lately. You can focus on the leaves of the tree or its branches. I know people who know every move and watch every tape and go to every seminar and take every private and memorize every new move...and they suck. They just focus on all the finishes or sweeps, all the end game moves. The leaves if you will. At the end what do they have? A bag full of leaves, hopefully they are able to find the right leaf at the right time.

Now if I focus on the branches, I don't need a lot of leaves because I will always know where the leaves I need will be, off of this branch, or off of that. That's how good guys move it seems, that's how I try to move. That's how Jeff moves, when asked a question if I should do this or that, he just said it depends. He basically told me what I do isn't necessarily as important as getting into the position to even have that choice. Getting in the position to play my game.

About the Author:

Sam Y. is a Master Personal Trainer, Certified Nutritionist, Coach, Performance Enhancement Specialist, Corrective Enhancement Specialist, Yoga and Pilates instructor, and holds multiple certifications. He is also an avid Martial Artist, training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Kickboxing, Boxing, and MMA. He is also the author of the popular fitness blog All Out Effort as well as the popular martial arts blog Inner BJJ. You can find him in the Los Angeles area personal training his clients, or at home annoying his wife, or on Facebook at his personal fitness page.

A Word on the Importance of Practice and Repetition

I am going to be reprinting some old classic entries from my previous blog called The Angry Grappler. It will chronicle the evolution in my understanding of martial arts.

08 February 2010 @ 09:57 pm

So inside of our bodies are muscles. Inside of muscles are muscle spindles. Inside of those are cells. Our cells are constantly moving, it's what helps us heal, function, and basically live. With enhanced microscopes you can even see cells moving like glow in the dark worms.

When muscles contract, the cells move even more, in a frenzy. Uncoordinated and wild. Now the more that muscle contracts in the same manner, the better the cells move. It moves smoother, carries better signals, creates patterns. This is the scientific act of muscle memory. Something trainers and martial artists always throw out but have no idea what it really boils down to. The more you practice something, the more your cells remember, the more they remember the better they perform. Scientists have been trying to figure out ways to make cells move, especially to help with healing. All they have determined thus far though, is the best way to make cells move is through constant repetition.

If I teach you a punch, will you be knocking someone out in a day? No. But maybe after years of practice you will be knocking people out professionally. If I show you how to bench, you won't go from 130 to 250 bench over night. That will take years. You don't grow more muscle fibers, your cells just move better. This is true for all physical and athletic endeavors. I apply this especially in my martial arts training. The repetition of gross movements and common movement pattern.

There is one other thing that practice and repetition does. It creates more myelin around your synapses. That means faster signals from your brain to your body. That means no matter how fast someone is, or how many fast twitch muscles they have or explosive training they do, they will never be able to compensate with someone who can send a signal from their brain faster. Not only that it also remembers efficient movement and takes the slack out of your moves, makes you perform better, faster, with less effort. Be it a golf swing to a judo throw.

Muscle memory combined with nervous system memory creates perfection in human performance. This is another secret that separates the elite from the regular Joe.

About the Author:

Sam Y. is a Master Personal Trainer, Certified Nutritionist, Coach, Performance Enhancement Specialist, Corrective Enhancement Specialist, Yoga and Pilates instructor, and holds multiple certifications. He is also an avid Martial Artist, training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Kickboxing, Boxing, and MMA. He is also the author of the popular fitness blog All Out Effort as well as the popular martial arts blog Inner BJJ. You can find him in the Los Angeles area personal training his clients, or at home annoying his wife, or on Facebook at his personal fitness page.

The Guard

I am going to be reprinting some old classic entries from my previous blog called The Angry Grappler. It will chronicle the evolution in my understanding of martial arts.

07 February 2010 @ 10:53 pm

Some of you watched UFC 109 and saw Nate lose to Chael Sonnen and it was a poor Nate performance and a great performance by Chael who ground out the decision. What I want to talk about here is the guard though. Something that is neglected. While Rogan was saying Nate needs to work on his guard, what he didn't mention is, even with a competent guard you can use it as a very defensive position.

At the end of the fight, Nate's face was fine whereas Chael looked like it went through a meat grinder. Nate had about 40 seconds of offense all together and lost the rest of the fight. But in that 40 seconds he did more damage than Chael could. That is by no means an indication of winning the fight but it says something about where the damage took place.

When Nate was doing all of his damage to Chael, Chael was outside of the guard. Either shooting or standing or in a scramble. Whenever Nate took damage, which was in the majority of the fight, it was in his guard. Chael even got cut really badly inside of Nate's guard.

You can see this plenty of times in MMA where the guy who won looks worse than the guy who lost. BJ Penn every time he loses tells you to look at the other guys face, but what he doesn't mention is not that the other guy didn't do damage, it's that he did it while in BJ's guard.
We can even go far back to Henderson vs Vanderlei 1 where Vanderlei looked like he was in a car wreck but won the fight peppering Hendo who looked fine, but inside of his guard.

This is the guard! The great equalizer. When you are inside of someone's guard, in MMA they say the guy on top is winning. I feel different, I don't even feel its neutral, I feel the guy on bottom has the advantage slightly. Reason being, inside of close guard it is very difficult to hurt someone, hence most people do most of their damage in half guard. Tito had great success in someone's guard but now as the guard has advanced he is no longer able to finish fights there.

There is a penalty for being in someone's guard. Don't let that type of thinking pull you away from working the guard. If someone jumps guard, and the guy on top is peppering shots, and so is the guy on bottom. I don't care what the announcers say, the guy on bottom is doing about the same damage as the guy on top. There is gravity on the top guy's side but they aren't punching down where gravity would help you. They are hooking to the head and body, so is the guy on bottom...

In conclusion...MMA scoring of the guard is not completely accurate. But I will say this, the guard saved Nate's face! Without the guard a lot of guys who lost would never be able to say the famous phrase, "look at the other guy's face."

About the Author:

Sam Y. is a Master Personal Trainer, Certified Nutritionist, Coach, Performance Enhancement Specialist, Corrective Enhancement Specialist, Yoga and Pilates instructor, and holds multiple certifications. He is also an avid Martial Artist, training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Kickboxing, Boxing, and MMA. He is also the author of the popular fitness blog All Out Effort as well as the popular martial arts blog Inner BJJ. You can find him in the Los Angeles area personal training his clients, or at home annoying his wife, or on Facebook at his personal fitness page.

Hard Rolling Does Not Interest Me

I am going to be reprinting some old classic entries from my previous blog called The Angry Grappler. It will chronicle the evolution in my understanding of martial arts.

05 February 2010 @ 08:59 pm

I hear about some of the best guys in the world and they don't roll hard anymore. I can see why. For me I did all the hard rolling I can take during my early days, now the fatigue, the injuries, and especially the lack of learning no longer interests me.

It's like in hard rolling there is a high MPS. Movement per second, and I can only consciously control so much of that action or retain so much of what just happened. If I can't retain it, I am not learning! If I am not learning I am a dead fish in the jiu jitsu pond.

What I do like is setting a goal, something I want to accomplish during my training. Lets say some key positions like passing butterfly or deep half guard. Then I drill it with a good training partner who gives me constant feedback, and I work it with trial and error. It's less repetitive, starts and stops more, but way more effective. Then I focus on technique as much as result.

When you have two highly skilled training partners in drilling, just drilling for 30 mins becomes an intellectual and physical journey. And it's always worth taking.

Lets say all you do is hard roll. For every 5 mins of hard rolling you retain one move, the finish, how it ended. So in one hour of hard training you learn 12 things.

In one hour of productive training with minimal yet repetitive moves, you retain every move. So lets say it takes you 1 mins to drill a move 3 times. That could be 60 moves or micro moves you learn in an hour.

Who will be the better grappler in the long run? I don't mean in the next 5 years, I mean for the next 50!

About the Author:

Sam Y. is a Master Personal Trainer, Certified Nutritionist, Coach, Performance Enhancement Specialist, Corrective Enhancement Specialist, Yoga and Pilates instructor, and holds multiple certifications. He is also an avid Martial Artist, training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Kickboxing, Boxing, and MMA. He is also the author of the popular fitness blog All Out Effort as well as the popular martial arts blog Inner BJJ. You can find him in the Los Angeles area personal training his clients, or at home annoying his wife, or on Facebook at his personal fitness page.

ABA

I am going to be reprinting some old classic entries from my previous blog called The Angry Grappler. It will chronicle the evolution in my understanding of martial arts.

03 February 2010 @ 12:35 am

Always be attacking. Whether its sub attempts or sweeps or passes, always take one step closer to that eventual goal. Whether in life or in BJJ.

About the Author:

Sam Y. is a Master Personal Trainer, Certified Nutritionist, Coach, Performance Enhancement Specialist, Corrective Enhancement Specialist, Yoga and Pilates instructor, and holds multiple certifications. He is also an avid Martial Artist, training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Kickboxing, Boxing, and MMA. He is also the author of the popular fitness blog All Out Effort as well as the popular martial arts blog Inner BJJ. You can find him in the Los Angeles area personal training his clients, or at home annoying his wife, or on Facebook at his personal fitness page.

Progress Is Slow In Your Comfort Zone

I am going to be reprinting some old classic entries from my previous blog called The Angry Grappler. It will chronicle the evolution in my understanding of martial arts.

30 January 2010 @ 10:31 am

In the game of BJJ you have areas that you feel more comfortable in and tend to draw the game into, if you are smart anyway. But there are some areas I am not as strong in and would like to develop more by the summer. More of my wrestling and top game. But as I work on these games more as my B game, there is always new things coming out of my A game that I also want to work on. More bottom sweeps, more ways to get to the back. This makes me put a hold on my B game.

I'm sure people get this to, where there is an area they want to work on but its so tempting to stay in the area you already know. But progress is slower there.

About the Author:

Sam Y. is a Master Personal Trainer, Certified Nutritionist, Coach, Performance Enhancement Specialist, Corrective Enhancement Specialist, Yoga and Pilates instructor, and holds multiple certifications. He is also an avid Martial Artist, training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Kickboxing, Boxing, and MMA. He is also the author of the popular fitness blog All Out Effort as well as the popular martial arts blog Inner BJJ. You can find him in the Los Angeles area personal training his clients, or at home annoying his wife, or on Facebook at his personal fitness page.

Wrestling in BJJ

I am going to be reprinting some old classic entries from my previous blog called The Angry Grappler. It will chronicle the evolution in my understanding of martial arts.

26 January 2010 @ 03:49 pm

Rolling with a world class wrestler is in a lot of ways like rolling with a world class Jiu Jitsu black belt. Both are master grapplers on the ground and it is hard to do anything on them.

The difference is, with wrestlers I feel they play it more by ear. They feel things, play it by sensitivity, rhythm, and a lot of it seems attribute based. Whereas a black belt seems much more deliberate.

Both are great for different reasons and a good blend of both will make you an even better grappler. Sometimes a wrestler, because of how they move seems untouchable, but a world class black belt seems unbeatable.

About the Author:

Sam Y. is a Master Personal Trainer, Certified Nutritionist, Coach, Performance Enhancement Specialist, Corrective Enhancement Specialist, Yoga and Pilates instructor, and holds multiple certifications. He is also an avid Martial Artist, training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Kickboxing, Boxing, and MMA. He is also the author of the popular fitness blog All Out Effort as well as the popular martial arts blog Inner BJJ. You can find him in the Los Angeles area personal training his clients, or at home annoying his wife, or on Facebook at his personal fitness page.

Setting the terms of your game

I am going to be reprinting some old classic entries from my previous blog called The Angry Grappler. It will chronicle the evolution in my understanding of martial arts.

19 January 2010 @ 03:37 pm

Once you are good enough to even have a game, and your opponent has a game, who wins? Whoever is able to set the terms of their game first wins.

Big mistake is sometimes you don't even set any terms and just trying to play but all you end up is reacting to what they are doing or trying to outspeed them.

What's better is always do the moves and especially set ups that moves them to an area that is well within your game. Like grip fighting until you get a cross collar grip. Or pushing them away until you get butterfly guard. That is setting the terms of your game.

About the Author:

Sam Y. is a Master Personal Trainer, Certified Nutritionist, Coach, Performance Enhancement Specialist, Corrective Enhancement Specialist, Yoga and Pilates instructor, and holds multiple certifications. He is also an avid Martial Artist, training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Kickboxing, Boxing, and MMA. He is also the author of the popular fitness blog All Out Effort as well as the popular martial arts blog Inner BJJ. You can find him in the Los Angeles area personal training his clients, or at home annoying his wife, or on Facebook at his personal fitness page.

Brazilian Jiu Jitu and the popularity of drilling

I am going to be reprinting some old classic entries from my previous blog called The Angry Grappler. It will chronicle the evolution in my understanding of martial arts.

13 January 2010 @ 12:59 am

Especially at my academy, there is a new popularity with a lot of the guys trying to get good quickly of drilling over rolling. I think finally the advice of a lot of the better guys has trickled down to all the guys of my jiu jitsu academy.

But like all things, there is a bad habit I see with how people drill. Drilling like any skill, is on a weighted scale. Some things weigh more than other things.

The problem I am seeing with a lot of guys who think drilling with be their panacea to indestructible jiu jitsu is, they are drilling anything and everything. This assumes all moves are created equal. This is not true. A good low pass is much more valuable than a good heel hook. Not only that but the drilling is done with no order, no outline, no body, no structure. Imagine if I writing a story, with no outline, no middle, no structure, it would be utter shit. Well in this case, jiu jitsu is your story and your drill moves are your words and paragraphs. Some words and paragraphs will be more important than others. Like the word "you" which would come up quite often as opposed to the word "idiosyncratic." The second word is much more complex and advanced but comes up far less in regular conversation. There is direct line I am drawing here.

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, grappling, fighting, is like learning a new language. Each move is a word, and to master that language there are important words you must learn to master that language and some words you don't ever need to know and still be considered to have a mastery of that language.

There is a huge difference between me being able to order a taco in Mexico to having a good conversation in Spanish. This is the same as merely catching someone as opposed to taking them down, passing their guard, mounting, taking their back, and then submitting them (not just catching them).

Think about it.

About the Author:

Sam Y. is a Master Personal Trainer, Certified Nutritionist, Coach, Performance Enhancement Specialist, Corrective Enhancement Specialist, Yoga and Pilates instructor, and holds multiple certifications. He is also an avid Martial Artist, training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Kickboxing, Boxing, and MMA. He is also the author of the popular fitness blog All Out Effort as well as the popular martial arts blog Inner BJJ. You can find him in the Los Angeles area personal training his clients, or at home annoying his wife, or on Facebook at his personal fitness page.

BJ Penn Style Passing Work

Work on your opening moves and the finishes will come. If you focus on the finish, the opening will never show itself.



About the Author:

Sam Y. is a Master Personal Trainer, Certified Nutritionist, Coach, Performance Enhancement Specialist, Corrective Enhancement Specialist, Yoga and Pilates instructor, and holds multiple certifications. He is also an avid Martial Artist, training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Kickboxing, Boxing, and MMA. He is also the author of the popular fitness blog All Out Effort as well as the popular martial arts blog Inner BJJ. You can find him in the Los Angeles area personal training his clients, or at home annoying his wife, or on Facebook at his personal fitness page.

Ideal Situations in BJJ

I am going to be reprinting some old classic entries from my previous blog called The Angry Grappler. It will chronicle the evolution in my understanding of martial arts.

04 January 2010 @ 04:09 pm  

There is an ideal situation that arises in BJJ when you are doing everything right. It is very unique in that it always happens in this combination and works better than any other combination.

It's a situation where your opponent has to either defend his neck, or defend his legs. It's not like the catch wrestling mindset of fake the neck then go for lower body submission.

It is the strategists mindset of take one or the other but you can't take it all. You are forcing their hand.

It occurs when you are lets say on top. You are trying to pass guard and have managed to work a decent collar choke. For you to finish properly you must pass their guard but they are not allowing you. But you threaten it enough where they must act. They are now given a choice.
Defend their neck now yet risk getting passed and submitted at a higher percentage. Or defend the pass so they can't submit from a better angle, but risk giving up your neck now.

This is the ultimate advantage.

Same can be done from bottom. Guy is trying to pass but you threaten with a deep collar choke. He can try to pass and in passing free himself from the choke, yet risk getting choked now. Or defend the choke now, yet risk getting pulled back to full guard where the choke is even more dangerous.

BJJ is not a game of techniques, it is a game of leverage. Leverage would be the primary skill and techniques would be the secondary skills. Like wrestling would be a primary skill, takedowns would be the secondary. When you make the mistake of making the secondary skill your primary skill, you have put a giant hole in your game for someone with proper BJJ to walk through.

Also BJJ is not a game of points, it is a game of seconds. Let's say you pass, you earn points. Mount you earn points, get the hooks in from the back, you earn points. Points is secondary to time. Whenever you improve position, what that affords you is time. A few more seconds to submit. You have more time to submit from sidemount than you do behind their guard. You have more time from mount than you do sidemount. You have more time from back than you do mount.

In economics, its called cumulative advantage. By the time you are on their back, you are so many seconds ahead of them, they should surely be submitted. It's not about being moves ahead, you are always only one move ahead. You try to think more than one move ahead and you will go into mathematical jibberish, there is no way to account for all the variables that may happen. The old add age of BJJ, he thinks 10 moves ahead of me is ignorant man's explanation. Might as well say, oh he used magic.

Think of leverage, think of seconds. The ideal situation affords you both, gives you time, because you have the greater leverage, and in the psychological game of BJJ, you are forcing their hand and always putting them in peril. In the game gomoku, a good player threatens his opponent, no matter what move he makes.

About the Author:

Sam Y. is a Master Personal Trainer, Certified Nutritionist, Coach, Performance Enhancement Specialist, Corrective Enhancement Specialist, Yoga and Pilates instructor, and holds multiple certifications. He is also an avid Martial Artist, training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Kickboxing, Boxing, and MMA. He is also the author of the popular fitness blog All Out Effort as well as the popular martial arts blog Inner BJJ. You can find him in the Los Angeles area personal training his clients, or at home annoying his wife, or on Facebook at his personal fitness page.

You may or may not like it

I am going to be reprinting some old classic entries from my previous blog called The Angry Grappler. It will chronicle the evolution in my understanding of martial arts.

24 December 2009 @ 05:06 pm

But you still have to deal with it. I was talking to this old guy, he was asking me to coach him while he rolled yet he consistently did not do anything I told him to do. I told him the reason he kept getting passed was because he would not grab the underhook from the bottom. He told me he doesn't like the underhook, he likes overhooks to wrap people up.

I told him you may not like gravity either but you still have to deal with it. That's what the underhook does, it helps you fight that downward pressure and gives you leverage. You may not even like leverage but doesn't mean you go and stop using it? You may or may not like certain techniques but to dislike an idea of concept or a force (like gravity) and choose not to use it to your advantage will keep you at a low level for a very long time.

It's all about concepts. You can know a million techniques, but still the chances of you doing the right technique at the right time are not consistently high. Whereas if you know concepts, you will always do the right technique, according to one of my training partners and life long martial artists.

Slow down your roll, see the concepts in action. Who gets good at golf, chess, even checkers if they play speed golf, speed chess, and speed checkers. You won't see whats going on and won't learn anything. A hard 10 min roll, you will only retain the last 10 seconds where the finish transpired, if there is no finish you won't retain any of it. So a 10 min to 10 sec ratio of learning. That's beyond retarded learning.

I remember a concept from the movie Unforgiven. The deadliest shooter isn't the one who's fastest to pull his gun. It's the one who takes his time, pulls it out, aims and fires and does it right. Because everyone else will miss but he won't. Be a jiu jitsu sniper not a jiu jitsu tommy gun (which were notorious for being inaccurate.)

About the Author:

Sam Y. is a Master Personal Trainer, Certified Nutritionist, Coach, Performance Enhancement Specialist, Corrective Enhancement Specialist, Yoga and Pilates instructor, and holds multiple certifications. He is also an avid Martial Artist, training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Kickboxing, Boxing, and MMA. He is also the author of the popular fitness blog All Out Effort as well as the popular martial arts blog Inner BJJ. You can find him in the Los Angeles area personal training his clients, or at home annoying his wife, or on Facebook at his personal fitness page.

BJJ amd GJJ

I am going to be reprinting some old classic entries from my previous blog called The Angry Grappler. It will chronicle the evolution in my understanding of martial arts.

15 December 2009 @ 05:52 pm

So my time is winding down and am I any harder to tap than before? If anything I think I am easier to tap...which is a good thing. Giving myself that proper time to tap as much as I can, one day I will be impossible to tap, that is also when my learning curve slows to a crawl. I want my learning curve as steep as possible for as long as possible.

The main thing of interest lately is the idea that BJJ is divided into 2 philosophies. BJJ and GJJ. Gracie JJ and Brazilian JJ.

What are the main differences? Gracie JJ is about all the fundamental positions, about surviving, defending, reversing, submitting. BJJ is more sportive, more innovative, more aggressive, more wrestling and Judo, more about points.

When I read interviews of the late Helio Gracie, I used to think he was out of date, antiquated, and irrelevant. A lot of Jits players felt this way. Now even more than ever, since receiving my purple I feel Helio was right all along. As I get better the more I go back to that old idea of Jiu Jitsu, the one I tried initially to get away from.

This is what I now believe. If a black belt gets stuck in a blue belt of equal size's closed guard. No time limit. The black belt is unable to get out of the closed guard, eventually the black belt will get submitted.

So why open the guard? If he makes you that's one thing, but if he can't get you to open it, keep your legs closed and submit them. Now if your finish ration is so high in closed guard, why not do whatever you can to get back to that guard?

If you are on top, and you know how dangerous the closed guard is, you know its in your best interest to not only pass the guard, but to put yourself in a position to make it the hardest to recover closed guard. Which is either mount or back mount.

Now if a blue belt mounts a black belt and no time limit, and the black belt cannot escape, eventually the white belt will submit him.

Now the mount, back mount, closed guard are all the same. My legs around their waist. What else is in common is the high finishing ratio. The final thing in common is the amount of patience you need to get that finish.

If you have a really high fat percentage, you will get some kind of cardiovascular disease. It's not about if, its about when. The same with that old school style of BJJ, it's like a disease, an infection, it will spread slowly over time till you are finished.

An incurable disease will kill you 100% of the time eventually. A bullet may or may not kill you, but it will happen quickly...

About the Author:

Sam Y. is a Master Personal Trainer, Certified Nutritionist, Coach, Performance Enhancement Specialist, Corrective Enhancement Specialist, Yoga and Pilates instructor, and holds multiple certifications. He is also an avid Martial Artist, training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Kickboxing, Boxing, and MMA. He is also the author of the popular fitness blog All Out Effort as well as the popular martial arts blog Inner BJJ. You can find him in the Los Angeles area personal training his clients, or at home annoying his wife, or on Facebook at his personal fitness page.

Sakuraba And Catch Wrestling

My Treatise on BJJ

I am going to be reprinting some old classic entries from my previous blog called The Angry Grappler. It will chronicle the evolution in my understanding of martial arts.

18 September 2009 @ 05:28 pm

For the longest time I have not shared one of the critical revelations I have made in BJJ. I made it when I was a 2 stripe blue belt. It's only something I shared in private lessons lol. Call me a capitalist but when someone pays me I hold nothing back. But now I think about it, this journal is actually more for myself. It is my own personal log of my jiu jitsu journey. So here it is.

BJJ is broken down in 4 paradigms and it happens normally in this sequence. Grips, Hips, Base, Leverage. That's BJJ summed up into 4 words and 4 key values.

In that order then you get a catalog of jobs to do. Never should there be a moment of confusion because you should be working your way down that sequence.

Meaning:

• Grips
- Get your sleeve and collar grip and do not allow him to get his grips. Always maintain a point of contact on your opponent. 

• Hips
- Point your hips toward your opponent and point his hips away from you. 

• Base
- Make sure you have good base by maintaining 3 points of contact to the ground. One or even 2 of those points can be imaginary points. Like if your bouncing on one leg defending a take down, the reason you can hop and not be taken down is because your body imagines 2 other points of contact and is hopping around those points to maintain that center of gravity. This may be hard to master but wrestlers who ever based off their head are masters. 

• Leverage
- Now you are in a good position to exert your leverage and tip your opponent over in some way to get a sweep or submission.

You can work forward or back. If you don't have the leverage go back and fix your base. If your base doesn't improve go fix the hips. If that won't go fix your grips then work down the line again.

Anyway that's enough for now. I will expand on this later. I think though for this blog to become more productive I have to do what I did for my journey. Give it some kind of purpose and deadline. I will think about this as the days come.

About the Author:

Sam Y. is a Master Personal Trainer, Certified Nutritionist, Coach, Performance Enhancement Specialist, Corrective Enhancement Specialist, Yoga and Pilates instructor, and holds multiple certifications. He is also an avid Martial Artist, training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Kickboxing, Boxing, and MMA. He is also the author of the popular fitness blog All Out Effort as well as the popular martial arts blog Inner BJJ. You can find him in the Los Angeles area personal training his clients, or at home annoying his wife, or on Facebook at his personal fitness page.

BJJ as a game of chance

I am going to be reprinting some old classic entries from my previous blog called The Angry Grappler. It will chronicle the evolution in my understanding of martial arts.

16 September 2009 @ 03:33 pm

Let's say arbitrarily you need to accomplish 3 things to do a successful armbar from guard. If you miss any one of these steps of the sequence, you reduce your chance by 1 out of 10. The 3 factors are, breaking posture, grip on the arm, turning of the hips. If you skip a step like, breaking posture, now your chances of landing an armbar is 1 out of 10. If you somehow miss 2 steps its 1 out of a 100. If you miss all 3 steps and somehow try to land an old school just climb the back Royce Gracie magic armbar which worked for him well in the UFC, against a savvy opponent, you've reduced your chances to 1 out of 1000. Now if you don't go for the armbar at all you've reduced your chances to 0.

Think about probabilities is, you don't add them together, you multiply. It's something gamblers already know. Chance of finding cards in the same suit is hard, same suit and in a certain combination like a straight, exponentially harder, and same suit combination of descending order from ace down is just that much more rare.

How does that help your jiu jitsu? I for years have talked to my friends of a thin veil that separates good players from bad players. The veil in mathematical terms is the initial important sequence that cannot be skipped that will pay exponential dividends later. It's like chess, 2 good players. The opening sequence of 2 good players will seem non-important because there are initial movements that cannot be skipped, only after the 4th turn of play does it now gets creative. Its why in poker when you watch it on TV, they always use percentages and there's certain moves that are always agreed upon.

So now there are certain moves that must be accomplished for you to win. If you are able to win at times without accomplishing those key moves, it's what your coaches will always tell you. You are teaching yourself bad habits and all you are proving is if you do it, there are bound to be times it will work, even streaks where it will consistently work. Coins don't have to flip heads then tails over and over, there can be streaks of 4 heads, as well as streaks of tails. All you are proving is not that what you are doing is good, that you are proving that probability is correct and there will be times it still works out. Then competition time comes you don't win. Now we all know you don't do something like grab his gi, its hard to complete a takedown. But you take it more of a hunch or a suggestion. But I don't think its like that, its exponentially harder. What about luck? Luck is just an amalgam of advantages. What are advantages? Being in the right place or doing the right thing at the right time as many times as possible.

If nothing else, even if you lose and you stink at BJJ, the more you compete, the more you will win even if you suck. That's a guarantee. Maybe your winning ratio won't be high but you do it long enough and you will win though. No one remembers how many times Babe Ruth struck out.

About the Author:

Sam Y. is a Master Personal Trainer, Certified Nutritionist, Coach, Performance Enhancement Specialist, Corrective Enhancement Specialist, Yoga and Pilates instructor, and holds multiple certifications. He is also an avid Martial Artist, training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Kickboxing, Boxing, and MMA. He is also the author of the popular fitness blog All Out Effort as well as the popular martial arts blog Inner BJJ. You can find him in the Los Angeles area personal training his clients, or at home annoying his wife, or on Facebook at his personal fitness page.