Inner BJJ

MMA Gay? No Way!

2012-02-07T21:51:00.001-08:00

Nothing Gay About MMA - watch more funny videos

Train Karate Not BJJ

2012-02-06T21:44:00.001-08:00

You guys all remember this one right? Oldie but goodie.

How To Tie Your Martial Arts Belt (BJJ) Belt

2012-02-02T17:03:00.000-08:00

Sick of people in your academy tying their belts the wrong way? Show them this video and once and for all have them learn the correct proper way to tie a belt. Please share this video with everyone in the martial arts community. Get it to the karate to the judo to the JKD or TKD. Everyone MUST WATCH THIS.

Stop the madness before it becomes a bigger epidemic.

About the Author:

Sam Y. is a Personal Trainer, Coach, Performane 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 Perfect Candidate

2012-02-02T09:21:00.001-08:00

If you don't have much of a life outside of BJJ, you have the perfect lifestyle for BJJ.

You Vs. Time

2012-01-31T17:03:00.000-08:00

BJJ is a great reminder about time. There's many great lessons I learn from BJJ that I apply to life. When people ask me why I train or what I want out of it, its hard to explain. BJJ now to me is a series of abstract movements. If I mastered all these movements, I don't know what I would be. In that community I would be regarded highly but the rest of the world wouldn't take much notice. What a lot of us Jiu Jitsu players don't realize, and it took me a long time to realize is, it's all jibberish. It's all just moves that you can't really use anywhere else. Some of it you can use for self defense or fitness but now there are so many moves, most of them have no application outside of the training hall or competition.

But then...when you unfocus your gaze on the moves, and just look at the overall picture, or in BJJ terms, just try to feel it, you will understand all the concepts it is trying to teach you. It's all the unspoken intent in BJJ. It's probably why Rickson sounds like such a mystic when he speaks about his art. When you see it in that way, there is so much you can learn from it. So then if someone is better than me at these moves or can tap me out, that's not what's important to me. What's important is how much of it I can walk away with and apply it that day to my life. So ever person who taps me out teaches me a great deal. Every person who shows me a detail teaches me. My teachers teach me in all the moments in between their words and phrases.

What I am learning these days from BJJ is that every day I am playing chess. But not chess with any one person or persons. I am playing chess against time. Every time I procrastinate, every time I hesitate, wait, or get scared to act, time takes another one of my turns. Its a game of chess where time has the ability to take their turn and take my turn for me.

I think about this when I am sparring with someone. I think about a move, I have it. I wait to do it. I am waiting for the right moment, the right time, maybe smoke signals, or a sign from God. I wait. It literally is about 1 second of waiting but in my mind it feels like an eternity and I waited too long and my opponent has advanced on me. Still not too late, I think of my next move. Key word is thinking, not acting or doing. It's not that my opponent is moves ahead of me, it's that while I am thinking of things, he is just doing it. Because that's what he's been trained to do. Whether he does that outside of class in every aspect of life, I don't know.

It's what I now train myself to do. Every day I try to do Jiu Jitsu whether I am in class or not. I hesitated and once lost over 10,000 dollars in the stock market. I waited to start my strength training business and lost years of opportunity and money. I should have stopped watching so much BJJ and started just listening to BJJ years ago.

About the Author:

Sam Y. is a Personal Trainer, Coach, Performane 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.

March 12, 2008 Atlanta

2012-01-29T11:06:00.000-08:00

Back in March 12, 2008 I got to train at Alliance Atlanta with Cobrinha and Jacare. It almost sounds like I was training at the zoo, as both their nicknames are based off of animals.

It was part of a 4 month 40 state road trip I decided to take, living out of my car, training at every possible academy. Here is what I wrote about the experience.

"I finally got the chance to train at Alliance BJJ. I had heard about it for years. Jacare is the head of Alliance Team and they have produced a lot of champions like Jacare himself, Chris Moriarty, Marcello Garcia, Franjinha, Fabio Gurgel and Cobrinha. Their academy is top rate with some great techniques.

They were getting ready for the Pan Ams when I arrived. Everyone was working hard and I learned some invaluable lessons. They had a great mix of older and younger grapplers. This academy produces champions as they say.

They had us work a lot of takedowns, which were great. Every time I just grabbed any old way, I was corrected. Proper grips! They are highly technical.

There were also a lot of Brazilian guys there. There's a lot of brazilians in Atlanta? I never knew. Jacare's guys were all tough. He pairs everyone up and has us do 10 min rounds and oversees and along with Cobrinha coaches everyone. It was really great to know the instructors are watching and observing you at all times. Makes it safer and makes you better.

They were generous and we talked about the person in common we knew. Jacare even gave me a souvenir. And I left a toe nail there as a souvenir haha. Hopefully some day I will come back." Read the original post here.

It's poignant now that I reread this because I have now had the opportunity to be coached by Franjinha and Cobrinha. My last statement was of wanting to come back was quite ironic because it ended up Alliance came to me, and Cobrinha moved to LA. The attention to detail and flawless technique I remembered then still remains present now under Cobrinha in his own academy.

About the Author:

Sam Y. is a Personal Trainer, Coach, Performane 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.

Will And Desire

2012-01-27T13:58:00.001-08:00

About the Author:

Sam Y. is a Personal Trainer, Coach, Performane 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.

Where Does Dedication End?

2012-01-23T15:55:00.000-08:00

Recently I started training BJJ again. Not nearly at the level of commitment I had before. It's fun again. I had stopped training all together for a while and when I came back, I decided this time around my life wouldn't revolve around this art. Somewhere along the line, at least for me dedication turned into obsession. It's a fine line where someone can really admire your dedication, but when you cross over to the other side, your family and outside friends may consider you to be a bit obsessive.

Really when I see a room full of young BJJ players, I really can't tell who is just truly dedicated and who is just obsessed. Maybe there is no difference. Maybe you have to be a bit obsessive to get that good. It's like they say, programmers need to be a bit autistic to be able to program for 12 hours straight.

Maybe it's a good thing we have so many obsessive, crazy, addictive personalities involved in this sport. Without them this sport wouldn't be where it is today. MMA wouldn't be where it is today. We wouldn't have all the new moves and all the new rules we have today.

And without obsessive programmers, the internet wouldn't be where it is today. So maybe they are a necessity for the cause. As for me? I'd rather observe and have some fun.

About the Author:

Sam Y. is a Personal Trainer, Coach, Performane Enhancement Specialist, Corrective Enhancement Specialist, 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.

Former King of Pancrase

2012-01-22T08:39:00.000-08:00

Guy Mezger saves girl and pummels knife attacker.

http://www.cagepotato.com/awesome-story-of-the-day-guy-mezger-saved-a-woman-from-knife-wielding-scumbag-last-month/

No Limitations

2012-01-17T16:09:00.000-08:00

Ben has a great story. I tell his story to all my other clients who are self doubters. He was a DJ, he didn't know how to play one instrument. He taught himself how to use a computer program to make digital music and now he is a highly sought out producer for digital music on commercials.

The other special thing about Ben is that he was involved in a car accident. His left leg got smashed. They saved his foot but they had to fuse it to his ankle. Goodbye mobility. He had a life long obsession with martial arts but he was never able to train. Too fearful, and no school would take him because of his limitations.

Somehow he came to me and we started to work together. I was an established Los Angeles Personal Trainer but he was one of my first martial arts clients. When I filmed him working the pads with his pad holder Matt, if I didn't know him, I would have no idea he had any issues.

He doesn't let stuff like a fused ankle stop him from strengthening his mind, body, or doing kick ass moves.

If you really want something, is there anything that would stop you?

About the Author:

Sam Y. is a Personal Trainer, Coach, Performane Enhancement Specialist, Corrective Enhancement Specialist, 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 Man Earns BJJ Black Belt At 78

2012-01-16T09:47:00.000-08:00

http://www.dailypilot.com/news/tn-dpt-0114-blackbelt-20120113,0,1768188.story

Best Martial Arts Shoes

2012-01-12T20:13:00.000-08:00

On a whim I ordered some shoes from RMAX to wear at my gym. I needed something for both martial arts and fitness. I have 4 different kinds of barefoot style shoes, but none of them were a good cross trainer for fitness AND martial arts. I read the reviews, saw the endorsements, especially from a lot of BJJ guys including Steve Maxwell who is also a world renowned strength trainer. You all probably know his son Zak as well.

I LOVE these shoes. Best shoes I've worn. It molds to your feet. Feels like your wearing nothing, but feet still feel protected. If you need shoes to spar in, unlike wrestling shoes, these won't hurt your ankle or knee because of the excess traction that sticks your foot to the mat. That's the main reason I didn't like my other shoes. On my rubber plyomats, whenever I pivoted, it hurt my knees. Not with these.

Click on the picture below to pick up a pair.

A Class With Cobrinha

2012-01-10T12:56:00.000-08:00

I was fortunate enough to take a class with the legendary "Cobrinha" Rubens Charles Macial the other day. In watching him teach and move, I got a small glimpse into why he is as good as he is. It's impossible for me not to look for efficiency issues everywhere. So I am going to break down Cobrinha as an athlete and his ability to generate strength.

The Athlete

Cobrinha is not just a great BJJ player, he's also a great athlete who could have excelled at many sports. All BJJ (Brazilian Jiu Jitsu) is, is a series of movement patterns. No matter the physical activity or sport, all movement patterns obey the same laws of physics and biomechanics.

I mentioned in an earlier post about the importance of proper movement, energy leakage, and BJJ technique. Better aligned and straighter movements can create more force. Misaligned and rounded movements leak energy, and you can lose 50% of your strength and feel overpowered. Or with proper movement, feel that much stronger.

For you to constantly stay aligned, you also need great flexibility and body control. 99% of the BJJ players out there look like this when they bend over to pass the guard.

Us Mere Mortals

Not to throw my buddy Budo Jake under the bus here but this is how most of us do it. Look at his back, its round. Any lifter would tell you, you will not be able to get to your maximum deadlift or squat with a rounded back like that. You are leaking 30%-50% of your energy. Not only that, you are more likely to tire your back out and also cause injury to yourself. But our posture is poor anyway. We sit at a desk all day, we are rounded forward, and this is what is comfortable and what we know. If I told someone to flatten their back and bring it to a neutral position, they may not know how to send those signals to their body.

World Champion Level

As I was searching for images, almost every competitor at black belt in the worlds could maintain a neutral spine now matter how bent over they were or how squatted they were.

As bent over as Cobrinha gets to show a move, his back stayed neutral. He can generate a lot of strength for lifting or driving here, while keeping his back from getting tired and relying on his main muscle driver, his glutes.

Probably at this level of competition, if YouTube videos are any indicator, the guys who do this full-time also have access to strength coaches who can show them how to generate more power and assess them for functional movement pattern distortions.

Same Move In the Strength World

In the example shown above, it looks a lot like this technique that Pavel Tsatsouline is showing. A variation of the Zercher squat, called the Zercher dead-lift. Pavel is generating a lot of force here, enough so that they are studying how he is able to manage such strength in that awkward position.

But look at his back, how neutral he can maintain his back. Observe his neck, he is looking at the floor, so his cervical is also more in lined with his spine. As opposed to looking off to the horizon.

Putting It All Together

Now look back at Cobrinha. He is also looking down and keeping his thoracic, cervical, and lumbar spine in alignment. An athlete of Pavel and Cobrinha's level who are already gifted, who are aligned, can generate a lot of force here. In Pavel's case he can lift a lot of weight. In Cobrinha's case he is generating a lot of pounds per squat inch pressure onto his opponent.

How We Train

It reminds me of all the terrible conditioning I see at gyms and martial arts academies where everything is misaligned, and its hackneyed strong man moves with none of the proper technique. You end up with some decent cardio and strength, but your energy leakages also get strengthened that much more.

Strength is definitely also a skill, like BJJ, that needs to be drilled perfectly over and over and over.

About the Author:

Sam Y. is a Personal Trainer, Coach, Performane Enhancement Specialist, Corrective Enhancement Specialist, 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.

How To Get Up

2012-01-09T11:31:00.000-08:00

In a previous post I mentioned what matter's most in training. The ability to stand up under duress, and to keep yourself safe while doing it. One for fitness and weight loss and one for self defense.

Here are some examples and drills you can do on your own.

About the Author:

Sam Y. is a Personal Trainer, Coach, Performane Enhancement Specialist, Corrective Enhancement Specialist, 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.

Judo Champion Vs BJJ Champ And MMA Contender Demian Maia

2012-01-04T12:55:00.001-08:00

Energy Leakage And Efficiency

2012-01-03T15:32:00.000-08:00

We talk about being technical all the time. So why is that so important? Why can't I just spaz and power moves? It can't be just a matter of pride, or showmanship. There must be an ultimate reason. The reason is effectiveness. Moves done technically are just plain more effective no matter how strong you are, if you do it more technically, it will be more effective. What does being technical mean? It means my movements are efficient and use economy of motion. So why is efficiency so damn important for martial arts?

So it boils down to the idea of energy leakage. When you do something efficiently, its only efficient because you are using most of the energy applied. If you did it without efficiency, a certain percentage of your strength will be lost in the move.

For example you would leak 40% of your energy doing a deadlift with a rounded back. Where does that energy go? It has to go somewhere. It goes the the apex of where you are rounded, and most likely will leak itself into an explosive injury. Same with knees and joints in other athletic movements.

So there's no point in even training to get stronger, if you leak so much energy because of poor technique. Trying to strength yourself without addressing your leakages, would be like pouring water into a jug that has a hole in it. Not only that the more water you pour, the bigger the hole will get.

It is important to get stronger, but the first priority is to deal with any amount of inefficiency and energy leakage.

How do we do that? It comes back to technique.

In all things, when they use the term technical, from dance to fighting to sports, it is the athlete's ability to move or create straight lines. Moving straight vertically, punching straight, making a neutral spine, straight legs, standing straight, etc. Because the fastest way from one point to another is a straight line.

Curved lines like I said have an apex of the curve where it is weakest. It could mean rounded backs, it could mean knees bent laterally. It could mean your armbars are not straight, it could mean you don't aim true when you punch, it could mean you don't shoot straight through your target, etc.

Before you correct me and give me examples of when there aren't straight lines, yes those are examples but not the general rule. Even a circle needs a focal point. From the focal point out to the circle is still a straight line.

So before you go out and try to do all this conditioning that you saw on Countdown To UFC, make sure all your techniques are correct before you try to strengthen them. From your martial arts techniques to basic lift movements. One other point, sports specific movements do not work.

Man In Wheel Chair Uses BJJ To Stop Robber

2012-01-03T14:11:00.001-08:00

Worry

2012-01-02T16:03:00.000-08:00

"Worry" is a total waste of time. It steals your joy and keeps you busy doing nothing.

Always The Teacher Never The Student

2011-12-23T17:10:00.000-08:00

I notice that people love being the teacher and not being the student. I've seen people who come from another art who need to learn BJJ and instead of using their time to learn that art, they waste their time explaining to the teacher and to the other students about their art, and why outside of this space they are still a capable student. But they came there to learn BJJ did they not?

Or a BJJ guy learning kickboxing, having to teach about his art. When its time to work on some technique or sparring, they may be seen in the corner showing how to takedown off of a clinch.

Or a kickboxer learning boxing, explaining, "well in my art, I stand like this because I am worried about kicks," or trying to teach kickboxing to his boxing instructor who he has hired and paid.

This doesn't just happens in martial arts. It happens in life as well. Someone who is in a really bad situation in life may give decide to lecture you on how to live. In personal training, I have clients try to teach me some work outs or weight loss tips, on their time, on their dime.

It's a form of projection. They aren't telling you, they are telling themselves they are valuable when no one cares or is questioning that. And its a waste of time and serves no purpose.

I have a thriving training business and often I will have other trainers remark how well I am doing, how they wished they were in my position. But never have any of them asked me how I got there, instead they use our time to tell me what they are doing, what they have done, what plans they have for their business, how great they are but just undiscovered, etc. None of which I care about, and its obvious they really came to me to see how I got there but that never comes up in the conversation. They get too busy talking about themselves when no one has asked.

Well I will tell you how I got here in business and to my level of proficiency in martial arts. I asked a ton of questions, I sought a lot of mentors as opposed to seeking students who I can talk about myself to. And the most important thing, I always pretended to know nothing even if I knew something in that area.

I too find myself projecting and defending myself when no one is attacking me or questioning my value. Then I realize what a waste of time it is. BJJ is about efficiency and this is not efficient. If you want to know how someone got to where they are, ask them. Don't go to them to find that out, but end up talking about yourself. Don't be that weird uncle who tells the rich nephew how he too is a great business man selling Amway and the nephew could learn a thing or two.

You Are Who Your Friends Are

2011-12-21T17:16:00.000-08:00

They say your income is the average of the 5 people you hang out with the most... This may be an important thought to people who live and breathe the sport.

What's Most Important...

2011-12-19T15:34:00.000-08:00

I had a client come in. Wanted to learn martial arts to help her with her anxiety. She performs classical music and the amount of stress and pressure of performing and auditioning and competing at a high level were wearing on her and she felt martial arts would help her fight this, along with helping her learn to protect herself, and work out some inner rage.

She told me she felt she needed a hardcore teacher. A bad ass who was in her face screaming. That's what she needed. Tough love. I asked her why she felt this way? She said her teachers tell her that's what she needs, that's already what she's used to, and its the only way to get good performances out of her. I saw where all this anxiety was now coming from. I told her that's not the type of coach I was, and that's not what she needed.

I handed her a stick. I told her to hold on to it. Then I tried to rip it out of her hand aggressively. Every time I did, she braced and clenched. Even when I pretended to grab it, and feinted, she still clenched. When I came at her slowly, more politely, more respectfully, she relaxed and allowed me to move her around with the stick. I told her when people come at her this hard way, that's her natural reaction. Freeze, clench, stress, and react also aggressively. When I came at her respectfully and controlled, she allowed me to move her, we created a mutual bond of trust. I told her then that people will come at her in life this way, but she is also coming at herself this way as well, she is coming at herself without respect, impolitely, aggressively. She needed to be easier on herself.

I asked her what's the most important thing she needs to learn from martial arts? What's the first thing she needs to learn? What does she need to get out of today?

She gave me varied answers. From relaxation and breathing, to learning how to kick and punch or defend a grab.

I told her all those things were important, but to me the most important thing is learning how to get up.

I told her to lie on the ground, and asked her if she knew how to get up without having someone kick her in the face? She realized she had no idea. The simplest thing, the thing taken most for granted.

I then demonstrated a way to get up without taking any damage.

I asked if she knew what I just showed her? She said I showed her how to get up.

I said no, I showed you how to rise against duress. Duress of any kind. Physical or mental or situational.

Martial arts to me is all about being able to get up, rise to the occasion, or keep picking yourself back up, against any stress, pressure, or attack. Whether it be mental, physical, emotional, financial, spiritual.

I told her she would perform as she trained. If I screamed at her, she would just be good at taking orders. cog on a ship. Not the captain of the ship. It's not about taking orders, its about mastering yourself. To master yourself, you need to learn to rise against any adversity.

Get up.

A True Master

2011-12-15T13:56:00.000-08:00

Isn't someone who can beat everyone, or has mastered every technique, or someone who can even control his breath and all the functions of his body. A true master is someone who can control their own thoughts. You see the greatest fighters, martial artists, bad asses. If they have some fault or something wrong with their home life or some weakness, and they want to stop a habit or stop thinking something, or behaving in some way, they say they can't.

Or it's as simple as removing all negative self talk.

A true master is not the one who's mastered their body but the one who's mastered their thoughts.

Getting Older

2011-12-14T13:13:00.000-08:00

A friend started BJJ as a young man. He was all about the sport, competing, seeing how he was against other competitors. Now he's gotten older and greyer. He said he tried fooling himself for a while, but he just isn't the same. He just can't hang with the young men who were like him when he started, hungry and fit, and needed to see how good they were.

Now his goal has changed. He didn't use to care about self defense before, but now that's why he trains. He trains to see if he can apply BJJ to keep himself safe at all times.

He can't out sport a young man in that young man's game, but he can still continue to love the art. His goal in training is different so how he trains is different and the techniques he learns is different. And he is becoming a more complete martial artist as opposed to just a BJJ player.

Is your goal to be a BJJ competitor or a martial artist?

Vote For All Out Effort

2011-12-13T14:15:00.001-08:00

As best in LA.

http://promo.rush49.com/best-of-la/best-killer-workout.php

Energy Debt

2011-12-10T12:24:00.001-08:00

You've been training hard all week. Maybe twice a day a few times. Friday rolls around. One of your buddies comes in, he maybe trains 4 times a week. You feel you have surpassed them. You guys roll, and somehow he smashes you. What happened?

He is coming in the fresher while you are suffering from energy debt. You have spent more energy than you can recover from, and so at this point, your friend comes in with full energy.

Or you have been training super hard for a tournament, even to the final week. You go in and gas out, you are competing while you have energy debt. Or maybe you get a cold or flu because of the energy debt.

Instead of getting into your own head and questioning your skills or heart, it probably comes down to over training instead of optimal training. You can train and do strength and conditioning. But there definitely is an optimum amount to do both.

I think if your body can handle training 6 times a week. Then if you do 1 day of strength and conditioning, you should only train 4 times unless its only temporarily leading up to something. Now if you can train 12 times a week, if you do strength and conditioning twice, you should only train 9 times. The mistake is people who train 12 times, do not make adjustments to training, just add S & C and train injured or sick all the time.

No Posts Explained

2011-12-08T14:15:00.001-08:00

Sorry guys. Been busy opening up my own strength and conditioning studio in Hollywood!

Sensitivity Explained

2011-11-29T12:47:00.001-08:00

“It would be possible to describe everything scientifically, but it would make no sense; it would be without meaning, as if you described a Beethoven symphony as a variation of wave pressure.” - Einstein

I don't think there is a better explanation of that invisible sensitivity that BJJ requires.

Dynamic Climbing

2011-11-22T12:59:00.001-08:00

I've been indoor bouldering a bit these days. I love it. There are two ways to climb, dynamically or dyno as they call it or statically. Dynamic is where you sometimes lunge or leap for a hold. Static is where every grip and hold you take, it's purposeful and stable. I was asking a trainer about this, he said inside you can climb dyno, it's a lot of fun. But outside he said he only climbs static, because it's life or death out there.

He also told me he himself doesn't even climb dyno inside the rock gym, because he doesn't want to teach himself unrealistic habits.

It made me think of BJJ. Would you change your style if your life depended on it? How about choices in life?

At the same time though with all that said, there are certain goals you want to attain. A certain precipice you want to reach, and sometimes the only way you can get there is through dynamic movements. You risked your life for a goal. There is that whole side too. But the amount of dyno moves they used I guarantee was very conservative.

Joe Rogan Explains Why You Should Train

2011-11-21T20:58:00.001-08:00

Steve Jobs Explains Success

2011-11-21T12:22:00.001-08:00

Yelling At The Screen

2011-11-20T16:16:00.001-08:00

In the classic, possibly top 5 greatest MMA fights of all time with Shogun and Hendo, did anyone else yell armbar at Shogun during round number 5?

Occupy BJJ

2011-11-16T20:36:00.001-08:00

Here's a common situation. You are a blue belt. You just graduated college last year. You are unemployed. You train three times a day. You live off of an entitlement program. Not Welfare because you wouldn't qualify, otherwise you would probably try. You live off of the biggest entitlement program of all, your parents. So what do you want more, a job or your purple belt?

I've known people who have lived off of cheating unemployment for over a year just to train more. To "live the life."

It's funny, because its about a martial art but in its essence, all the young guys training BJJ now in their early twenties are the Occupy Generation as they are called. Baby Boomers to Gen X to Gen Y to Occupy.

Cardio BJJ

2011-11-14T14:18:00.001-08:00

There is cardio boxing or cardio kickboxing, where technique is thrown out of the window and you only focus on constant moving, and cardio, and getting tired.

Is there also a version of this for BJJ, where you come in and just train hard, throw technique out the window and keep moving? Maybe we call it conditioning though.

Speaking The Language

2011-11-10T13:15:00.001-08:00

If you try to learn a language fast, and say the words too fast, you will learn slowly and no one will understand what you are saying. BJJ has often been called a language, so in the same sense if you try to learn it fast, and do everything fast, no one will be able to do what you are doing is BJJ and it won't make a lot of sense.

Trick Or Treat

2011-11-09T15:04:00.000-08:00

I often hear "experienced" or "world class grapplers" explain grappling in such simple terms. This happens more than not in non-BJJ circles, hence why their is such a rivalry. One side can't see how simple it is, the other side can't see how complicated it is.

I hate listening to an instructor who explains things like this, "So you go for this submission here, he's going to do this, that's when you get him with this move."

He does it on the student who is a compliant partner, student is amazed and teacher gloats and is like, "See? those BJJ guys don't know about this stuff."

Typically it's something like, go for the arm, if he escapes, attack his legs! Go for the choke, if he sees it coming, do a neck crank!

They also show the submissions very haphazardly, with very little details. So that's probably why that initial submission won't work in the first place. Then you dive for your next move. So even if your master of the move is low, you will get them by "surprise."

Most of the submissions of non-BJJ arts are based on the element of surprise. Sadly the other element is the assumption that the opponent will be compliant, and is very dim, weak, and inexperienced.

This system of grappling looks great in demos, on youtube videos of why you should go to so and so's seminar. But it is never that easy. It's not like your opponent can't defend more than 1 thing at a time, and also he may not react the way you expect him to because he actually escapes properly.

A lot of these guys were initially thrilled because the BJJ guys didn't know leglocks yet. That was about 10 years ago, now they are pretty well versed...

All of the other grappling martial arts that tries to differentiate from BJJ, always rely on this concept. Those guys don't know this stuff. Don't know leg locks, rubber guard, neck cranks, catch wrestling etc. There is an inherent weakness if the base of the philosophy is the assumption that you always are more trained and more knowledgeable than your opponent. Or you know some secret set of moves that he does not.

Instead of trying to trick your opponent, or doing it very poorly but expecting to capitalize on speed and element of surprise, try doing it right and see what happens.

A lot of these schools have a reputation of people getting hurt, of people spazzing, or going hard and fast. But think about it, the only way this sloppy move can work is if its done fast and hard, otherwise it's so loose, it's that much easier to escape if done slowly. So the sloppy style depends on speed and ferocity to even give it a chance of working. Forget conserving your energy.

Companies have failed plenty of times on this false idea. Be the first. It's not always be the first, more often than not it's be the best(though sometimes the first is the best). Otherwise we would all still be using Friendster.

Things I Learn From Prison

2011-11-08T15:43:00.000-08:00

I was speaking to a good friend of mine JP. He is a bit older than me, a successful businessman who has been around the world and has friends from various walks of life. In living and working in LA he's also met people who have spent time in prison.

We were discussing the merits of BJJ and MMA and self defense. There is a common belief that in self defense, you don't need to know submissions. You can take someone down and punch them until they submit because you are trained and they are not.

JP mentioned that people in prison, when they get into fights don't use traditional ground and pound if it hits the ground. Imagine a Fedor like jumping punch to a downed opponent, and half the time Fedor misses. If you miss in prison, you shatter your hand and forearm on the concrete. You were on top but you will end up losing he fight or possibly your life. Breaking your hand and arm when there might be other people around, and you may need to pick up a weapon to defend yourself, is a big disadvantage.

So instead they use hammerfists on the ground, short rabbit punches, elbows and forearms. If you can somehow choke the opponent or break his arm, this also lowers your own risk of injury and success in victory. So maybe the submissions aspect of BJJ is actually better for the street than MMA where people don't have to worry about hitting their hands on the canvas while wearing gloves with their hands wrapped.

A form of self defense that arose out of the penal system is called Prison Boxing. Where you mainly throw elbows, and block in a manner where your opponent might break their hands punching you because you try to block with your elbows.

In MMA you try to corner your opponent against the cage and throw punches. If you miss and hit the cage, it's not so bad. Even being tackled into the cage isn't so bad. Punching or running into a concrete wall? Not as good. So elbows and open palm strikes and clinching become important.

In self defense I think the best form of fighting is in the clinch. Unless your opponent has a weapon, in which case you run. Clinch, drag the fight to the ground, then try to submit. Or hold them with their arms tied up like Rickson does so you can't miss. If you've ever seen Rickson fight, he never throws hard crazy punches on the ground. Short controlled shots, that way he never misses.

What Is Our Ultimate Goal With BJJ?

2011-11-04T11:40:00.000-07:00

A BJJ colleague asked me a typical question you hear a lot in the BJJ circle. We have a mutual friend who started after us who is training a lot, like a mad man. My colleague knows I am not training often these days so he asked me that question everyone always thinks and asks themselves, "Do you think he will surpass you bro?"

I replied, "Hopefully in BJJ but he will never surpass me in life."

The Temporary Source of Power

2011-11-02T21:39:00.000-07:00

Everything is temporary. So is power. You might have a really good degree and it will give you about 5 years of power. If you don't improve in that time you will plateau and eventually sink. If you are smart and get good advice, in that 5 years you will get another degree, learn a new language, learn a new skill, or somehow improve your power source and buy yourself the next 5 years. In which time you need to create another new value for yourself.

If you used to be really good looking, that automatically got you some power, but it will only last so long. Same with being the scary guy in high school. It bought you 4 years, which was high school. Once it's over, now what? Did you assume it was going to last forever? You only had a temporary source of power.

You're only as good as your last job, last degree, last skill, last book, last belt. Even oil is temporary. If you are the head of the world's biggest fuel company, to keep your job, you better be diligently working on the next fuel source when oil runs out.

Successful people always have foresight and are always working on their next source of power. If you've ever wondered why someone who went to a good school is stuck in a mid-tier job, or the high school prom queen is a poor mom with three kids, it's because of this reason. No foresight. Not realizing they only had a temporary source of power.

My favorite example is the rise of cougars. Girls into their 30s or 40s who are still single, and have never been married. What happened? They had this source of power. Their looks. So they were super picky, assuming they would always have their buying power. Then time passes and they have priced themselves out of the market, no more suitors. But now their power source is gone. They wanted a guy who was rich, well read, spoke several languages, in great shape, etc. During that time they didn't increase their value by getting richer, reading more, learning a new language, getting in great shape, or whatever else they were seeking from the other. It's like betting everything on real estate and thinking it will rise forever. It's a gamble on a finite commodity. People will always need homes, yes. But there is only so much land, and too many owners and not enough renters. Some people who saw that coming walked away with billions. I left my job in real estate with a nice savings right before the collapse because I too saw it coming.

Hence why the 1% is the 1%. 99% of us think our last source of power should give us a high paying salary.

I learned this through BJJ. BJJ is analogous to life. I am only as good as my last grip, last position, only as good as the new position I am reaching for, always looking to improve my standing, not stalling, not resting, moving forward.

BJJ is the reason why I stopped training BJJ as much. I know that doesn't make sense but if all I have going for me and invested all my time in is my last belt...well I may be a winner in BJJ, but I am a loser in the game of life. If 5 years have passed and I am in the same job, making the same wage, moved nowhere in my personal life, didn't get any new degrees, didn't learn a new language, learn to program, learn accounting, learn to rock climb, learn to swim. If all I did in that time is get some new belts, I've got other problems.

It's a weird sickness I see in martial arts. Thinking that your art will give you some infinite new power. It's not only temporary, but it's also false power. Because the only people who will care about it are others who do it. It's similar to the effects of the online game World of Warcraft. Both activities reward you on hours played, both have a unique community and culture that is immersive, and both are misunderstood by the rest of society. I would go so far as to say, BJJ in a way to some people is like real life role playing. I have a friend who's lost their job from playing too much World of Warcraft. I also know people who have lost their job training too much BJJ. That's when they may try to work somehow for the school and be all the envy of all the members of their guild. I mean school.

Now the exceptions are the people who do it for a living. If that's your goal...wait thats the key. Goal. That's their goal so they improve. A lot of people train without a goal, a lot of people don't want to do it for a living. They want to use BJJ as something that distracts them for life. If you do BJJ as a hobby and still progress in all other areas of your life, then that is the actual goal of the art. I just happen to know too many people who don't. Too many people who are flat broke but are stoked they got to tap someone tough. I know one guy who is in their late 20s, always in school but never managing to get a degree because he trains so much. Lives off the money from his parents, has to ride his bike everywhere or get a ride. Never had a girlfriend or a job. His life is about BJJ and has been for the past 5 years. He is also terrible at BJJ but it's all he cares about. He could meet the CEO of Facebook and will ask him if he trains BJJ because to him that's all he thinks people value. There's websites and magazines dedicated to the jiu jitsu life, glamorizing being poor and almost homeless but "doing what you love all the time." I see no glamour in this. That's like how Hollywood used to glamorize the lives of hobos. Free, independent wisemen who went anywhere the trains took them. I could see the point of it all if they said, this will be my life. I will make a living off of this, or I want to be world champion. Or something. But most people I know have no goal. Some may say, getting their black belt is their goal. I guess that's something. But a lot of people will say they don't even care about belts. They have no goal. In life, in BJJ, at work, personally, romantically. Why invest so much time with something that has no goal. That has no end game? You don't just lack an inner game, you no longer require it at that point.

I still train, but BJJ isn't my life. It enhances my life. It helps me realize why I need to constantly improve my position, learn new skills, gain new power before the last one runs out. I no longer need to roll to practice Jiu Jitsu. I just need to live my life and I am practicing it. Whenever I realize something is temporary and I act to improve upon it, I am practicing my art. That's jiu jitsu.

You get a grip, that buys you 2 seconds to get your next grip. You hip escape, that buys you a moment to swim for an underhook. You get the underhook, that buys you 5 seconds to escape out the back door. You get over/under control. That buys you a few more seconds to get the hook. The hook gives you a temporary source of power to get your grips on the neck. The grips on the neck gives you the chance to finish.

Before you say, what about this guy, what about that guy, what about someone like Renzo! I will say those people, like Renzo not only became a black belt, they became a champion, a professional fighter, a husband, a father, a business man, an entrepreneur with a huge affiliation and franchises, learned English, became a coach, learned politics, learned boxing, learned wrestling, learned judo, learned how to teach, learned to be a leader, etc. Someone like him may tell someone, hey stop obsessing about this art and go find a job.

After I left my academy, several of the people have been asking me and each other, why would anyone quit BJJ? Why did you quit? That's stupid. Why would you not train. That makes no sense.Then in the next sentence they will go on to say, man I don't even know why I train BJJ so much. It makes no sense. Screw BJJ.

It's a balancing act. It's a beautiful complex art that deserves time to be mastered. But you need to train enough for it to enhance your life, and if you do it will give you many benefits. The trick is not to train so much it distracts your life.

Back To Front

2011-11-01T17:23:00.000-07:00

Whenever we discuss the basics, we always bring up the mount and talk about position being first. How we pass, get the mount. Stabilize it. Get our grips. Then choke.

With the back it's sometimes different. We skip our hooks or securing the position and go for the choke. We skip the grips and go for the choke. The back I believe works in the same principle. We get that position first. Stabilize it. Get our grips. Then choke.

In the same way, we wouldn't go for a choke while on top, and then try to jump to mount would we? Some may say yes.

Fedor

2011-10-31T14:48:00.000-07:00

I saw this recent training footage of Fedor training. Whenever you mention such a high name fighter, you feel like you have to apologize before hand if you were to share any of your thoughts that might be perceived as slights. I have to say he is the man, who am I? I am just a mere mortal who has never fought MMA so forgive me for these observations, etc.

Well just pretend I said all that. Watching this footage I did have some thoughts and noticed some things. First Fedor rarely let his training partner start out with an underhook. Secondly he never hip escaped, instead he constantly belly rolled onto his knees. Thirdly he also started out on his side and didn't let the top guy get good hand positioning on him.

Fedor is the man. But this footage isn't necessarily a good example. What's my expertise? No I don't fight MMA. But I do put my money where my mouth is and bet on MMA. And I am right more often than not.

Elbow And Knee

2011-10-27T17:01:00.000-07:00

With such limited space, and the risk of over exposure and being submitted, we often times use our elbow on our opponents hip to frame and create space. We can also do the same with our knee. If we alternate from knee to elbow frame off of your opponent's hip, you will start to look like a ball. Which is the shape every instructor turns themselves into when they are explaining the concept of staying tight, like a ball...

It all starts with elbows and knees.

What My Client Said

2011-10-26T21:20:00.001-07:00

One of my training clients told me this recently, "I think Jiu Jitsu is like life. If you stall you'll just get passed. If you move without the fundamentals you'll get swept. If you get submitted learn from that mistake or you're doomed to repeat it."

Enough said.

All About The Hooks

2011-10-26T14:41:00.000-07:00

Ultimately the thing that will conserve the most energy and prevent damage or win you the fight is your ability to get hooks. All the kind of hooks. Underhooks, overhooks, butterfly hooks, half butterfly, hooking their ankle, hooking their hips, tucking your hooks in when you get mount, etc.

Why the hip escape or shrimp is so stressed is because they get you those hooks.

Control The Middle

2011-10-25T13:29:00.000-07:00

Think of the bottom person's torso as a canvas, both top player and bottom player are trying to control that middle canvas. Not both people's torso, just the bottom person, but for different reasons.

You are both trying to paint different things on this canvas. Maybe the top person wants to post his hand on your chest to stand up or posture. You need to get his hands off your canvas. But maybe you want to armbar him, so you drag his arm across your canvas, or better yet you drag it so well you can take his back.

Bottom guy goes for your collar, your bury your head into his chest. Bottom guy wants to go for a triangle, you bury his head into your chest.

You are trying to pass, you post your hand on his hip. He is trying to pass your guard, you frame so he can't grip anything on your torso.

Because of gravity, it becomes the bottom person's torso that becomes a canvas. You guys are both trying to draw your masterpiece on it. Guard was invented so the bottom guy can actually use his torso as offence from the bottom, as long as he is the one in control of it. Top guy must draw his own masterpiece on it to defeat the bottom person.

BJJ Key Terms

2011-10-24T17:32:00.000-07:00

I think there are certain terms that will always come up in BJJ because they are connected to an idea. We use those words but how do we really know if the person listening understands what you mean, or how you mean it?

I think there are some BJJ key terms that people should memorize or even be given a list. Here's just some of those terms.

Parallel
Perpendicular
X - Axis
Limbs - Not just including arms and legs, but trunk and head as well.
Cling
Grip
Over
Under
Sag
Sweep
Reverse
Lever, fulcrum, effort, load
Angle
Center of gravity
Center of mass
Force

You guys can probably think of a lot more. As you get more advanced, it seems there are more terms you use to define certain nuances.

But also as you get more advanced, there are some things just left to feel. As Albert Einstein said:

"It would be possible to describe everything scientifically, but it would make no sense; it would be without meaning, as if you described a Beethoven symphony as a variation of wave pressure.”

The School Monitor

2011-10-21T16:32:00.001-07:00

If you kept monitoring your opponents hips, he probably wouldn't be able to sneak in a hip escape on you.

Changing Phone Carriers And BJJ

2011-10-20T14:07:00.000-07:00

When you switch to a new phone carrier, it's not so much that the other carrier seemed so much more appealing. Though that has something to do with it also. But it's more like, you are just unhappy with your current carrier, and that's why you switch. It's not that this other carrier seemed so good, it's that your current company was not making you happy and not taking care of you.

Sometimes people will do moves, make moves, change their game, change their school, change their teacher, model their game after a different player. Sometimes it's because they get swept up in the hype. But most of the time, just like in business, it's because they aren't happy with what they have. And BJJ is also a business. So people try new schools. Get new DVDs. Get onto a new program. Buy a book of new moves. Take private lessons from someone. It's all to satisfy their need to make make up for whatever is lacking. It's in the incentive to make money to make sure those other options are out there. It's also in the incentive to keep people happy to keep making money.

Happy phone carriers don't switch coverage. Happy couples don't cheat.

And in the opposite end, if whatever you have has always been working for you. Like for instance Roger, who has seen all these techniques, teachers, ideas come down the pipe. If he never had success with his simple approach, he would have switched something. But because it always gave him success, and he's been happy with it, he is now a very happy grappler.

The Guy On Bottom

2011-10-19T12:48:00.000-07:00

Has one big thing going for him in his favor. The guy on top will always be off balance because they are on an unstable object. You.

Strength And Conditioning

2011-10-18T13:19:00.000-07:00

For a BJJ player I think you should install a pull up bar on your bedroom door.

Every time you walk in or out of your bedroom, you do 2 pull ups.

On top of that do 100 hip escapes a day. I think that probably covers it all outside of, of course training at your academy.

Shifting Your Weight

2011-10-17T13:39:00.000-07:00

Just the simple economic and invisible motion of shifting your weight and balance can affect things more than brute force can. You shift all your weight onto your opponent and off of your arms, you are now free to attack with your arms.

Shift all your weight and balance to your knee, you are free to posture up. You can attach your opponent's limb to your body and shift your weight forward, making him break his grip or give up one of his limbs, or just move out of position.

Shift all your weight to one side from bottom and you may sweep him as all your weight falls onto one side.

Idea Of Time And Pacing

2011-10-13T11:21:00.000-07:00

A drill I do with some of my students/clients is; I will tell them we are going to do a ten minute round. Once they begin I stop them at three minutes. This is especially good for round robins.

What happens is, they go at a ten minute pace, without realizing it's just really a three minute round. If I tell them it's a three minute round, they will go at that pace.

I explain this idea to them and have them go again, now knowing it's a three minute round. They start to control their breathing, and control the pace and tempo.

Fighting For Control

2011-10-12T15:44:00.000-07:00

When you are on top and your opponent from bottom is swimming for an underhook grip, it becomes a game of who is better at pummeling if you try to repummel and get your underhook. Just use shoulder pressure to prevent the underhook. You have the ability to press them against a flat surface. They do not have that luxury.

The Gun Holster

2011-10-11T11:58:00.000-07:00

If you wore a gun holster, where would it be? On your hip. When you train BJJ, what should you do? Protect your gun holster, because it is your great equalizer. If you allow someone to put their hand on your hip, they can flatten your hip down and pin you on your back.

From the bottom you must frame and protect the hip. From the top, when you are passing. Try to get to their hip. It's like going for your opponent's gun, once you control it, they don't have much power. This will help you attain your goal.

What is your goal? Well anyone who wants to beat up someone, hold someone down, et.c will want to get pass their opponents legs. Why? Because they want to get chest to chest on them. That's what you would naturally want, that's what anyone kid would want. It's just that someone naturally doesn't always think to get pass the legs to get chest to chest, they just want to get to that chest to chest position somehow. The best way to be that close to someone though is by passing their legs. That's what passing is, it's a set of techniques to get to your natural goal of chest to chest. What happens when you get there? You can put all your weight on them and make your opponent, friend, younger brother miserable. You see kids, they naturally hold each other down chest to chest, and get perpendicular. It's also how they do it in pro wrestling. Kids are natural pro wrestlers.

What else would you naturally do? Sit on their chest. Why? So you could hit them, pin their arms down, or dangle a loogie over their face. So the mount is also a natural thing. We have to demystify these positions to what they really are, a form of our natural tendencies and wants.

We want to naturally protect our hip, its where we would hold our guns. We want to control our opponents hips. This will get us to the chest to chest AKA pass, or to sit on their chest AKA mount. Cultivate those instincts, they are not wrong.

Overly Cautious

2011-10-10T13:07:00.000-07:00

The other point I wanted to make off of my previous post was that of being overly cautious. If you don't act when you are supposed to, capitalize on their mistakes, or you wait too long, it can also be detrimental. Waiting too long is like playing chess against time. The longer you wait, time will just take all your pieces and leave you with no options except whatever is left.

Wait too long with your opponent and all your opportunities can be taken away. Then you have made the greatest error and they win in the long run and beat you in the short game of attrition.

The Game Of Attrition

2011-10-07T16:06:00.000-07:00

Sometimes the best strategy when you seemingly are over matched, is to use the other person's poor sense of value against them. Meaning people will naturally over value some traits or skills or even in the stock market a certain company, or in a sport, the ability to dunk. The other side is to undervalue certain skills, traits, stocks, or the ability to pass the ball. What we really are about is success, not things that look great on paper but does it actually equal success?

So people will make natural errors. We have to count on this. In BJJ or any game, you can turn it into a game of attrition. Don't worry so much about what they are doing, more about what you are doing. Control what you can control, and do everything correct. Don't try to win, just try not to lose. You stay in the game, the market, the fight long enough, your opponent/opposition will start to accumulate errors, make mistakes. They may have more strengths, but in the long run, if you accumulate less errors than they do, you can beat them.

It's like in a race, maybe someone runs faster than you but takes a lot of wrong turns, if the race is long enough, you can win. Someone can invest in a lot of risky stocks and beat you initially, but in a long enough time frame, if you stay consistent with your returns, you can also beat them.

If in a boxing match, you make your opponent miss for long enough, you will be the one landing a higher percentage. Attrition isn't just about making your opponent tired, but that happens too. You want them to lose. Do this not by you making a sweep, allow them to give up a sweep, give up a position, stay in the game and do everything you can do right, and you may not get the most slam dunks, but you may get enough assists in a game to win it by the final quarter.

Weakness

2011-10-05T15:44:00.000-07:00

When you are physically weak, you do the move right, or you can't do the move at all. A blessing and a curse.

Memory

2011-10-04T12:49:00.000-07:00

Memory is like water in your hands that you are trying to dump into a bucket. It leaks and leaks quickly. So you must quickly dump it into the bucket to preserve as much water content.

So when you are being shown a move, if the instructor spends ten minutes explaining and going over details, by the time you go to practice it, you won't even remember where to start. You will just remember how smart the explanation was and how well worded it was.

Just like water, you must see it demonstrated, then quickly move to practice it. Then as you get to practicing it, ask questions, have it corrected. Come back, be shown another detail. Quickly go apply it.

When the instructor says, should I see it again, people think they are doing themselves a service by watching it again. Actually that's that much longer you must wait to apply it. Instead of ten minutes, how about a 2 minute explanation. The go practice. Then another 2 minute explanation. Practice. Until it adds up to ten minutes...

Defending Vs. Attacking

2011-10-03T13:32:00.000-07:00

Attacking in all martial arts is easier than defending. It's easy to punch someone. Kicking someone. Trying to squeeze the crap out of someone. Defending your arm, evading punches, blocking kicks, that's hard. So more time should be spent on the hard things, this will even you out as a complete balance of offense and defense. And as your defense gets better, you can capitalize on the game of attrition. Meaning capitalize on all the mistakes your opponent will make over his series of attacks. Make him make the mistake, make him lose because of his error. Make it less about what you are doing right, and more about what he's doing wrong.

Multitasking

2011-09-29T12:25:00.000-07:00

Your brain has to process a lot of information when you are sparring live or fighting for real. You know what to do, but does your brain know in which order of importance?

1. Take no damage.
2. Conserve energy.
3. Win the fight.

Too often it is:

1. Win the fight.
2. Win the fight.
3. Win the fight.

BJJ Exchange

2011-09-28T17:09:00.000-07:00

Imagine a BJJ class setting where maybe the teacher presents a certain situation and asks the students to try to figure out their own solution to the problem presented. Using purely their own creativity and individual problem solving skills. Or they can even brainstorm in groups, test their ideas, etc. Then come back to the middle and each person or group shares their results, their problems, situations they are getting stuck with.

This will encourage better problem solving skills for the student. The teacher also shows what he's come up with to solve this problem. It is not the right way, it is just one solution he has come up with. He has delegated several other minds though (the minds of his students) to come up with a better solution. 30 heads is more efficient than 1 head. Every good leader should be a good delegator, and the best delegator is not always the brightest mind. He delegates to the bright minds.

In this manner, the teacher becomes a teacher/student and the students become student/teachers.

It's just a class scenario I would love to see someday...

You Vs Your Opponent

2011-09-27T15:58:00.000-07:00

Your goal, based on if you are attacking or defending changes. If you are attacking, your goal isn't to simply pass the guard, get chest to chest, sit on their chest, then submit.

It's even more basic than that. It is to get a tighter and tighter squeeze around their body. If they are on their back and you are standing up, you will start out with just their pant legs. So you are pretty far from each other, and barely have a connection, you are not squeezing them tight yet but you are starting to pull them in.
As you drop your weight, your elbows bend, you get close to their body, you are pulling them a little closer, squeezing a little tighter. You are not in half guard, you have their partial waist. You are pulling tight, squeezing their waist. You manage to pass their guard, now they are even close to you, you are squeezing more and more, you have chest to chest. It's hard to pull them in any closer to you, into your squeeze unless you get parallel to them.

So you do, you get mount. You are low, squeezing and coiling and wrapping like a snake. Squeezing their head with your arms, squeezing their hips with your knees. Then you finally isolate their arm or neck and squeeze that as tight to your own chest as possible. Either breaking their arm or choking them out.

So its like a big lasso. You started out with your arms opened wide and pretty straight. Then your arms closed in a little more. Then a little more, each step of the way. Arms closer and closer to your chest, with them in the middle of this lasso of course. Moving from the hip, to the chest, to the neck or arm (sometimes both). You don't have to necessarily squeeze with your arm strength, it just means getting tight. You can use your weight, gravity, your hips, legs, etc. But without a good squeeze, you got no pressure, you are too far from them.

What does your opponent want to do during this whole squeezing, tight, pressure, mess? He wants to do one thing and one thing only. Separate.

The Eyes

2011-09-26T17:50:00.000-07:00

Think of your hips as eyes, wherever your hips look, is where your center looks. Which is eventually the direction they want to go into. So whether I am upside down, sideways, or straight on, if my hips point at you, you are still within my guard.

The same is true with the head. Where the head looks, your center also looks. I have a special leash for my dog. It's called a "Gentle Leader." It's a more humane way to control your dog. It works by wrapping a harness not around your dogs neck where he will choke and pull against it but it wraps it around their snout. How it works is, it will turn the dog's head the direction you want the dog to look. Like horse reigns, that is how you will steer the dog.

So now back to BJJ, when you are holding someone down. When you look up (and this happens often) to look around, look who's watching you, or look at the clock, you are not only lifting your head up but you are also slightly lifting your weight off of your opponent.

When you take your opponents back, and you start peering around looking for your opponents neck or trying to see how he has his hands configured, you start to disconnect, you start to shift your weight and give your opponent an opportunity to escape.

This is why sensitivity and blind training (drilling moves with eyes closed) is so important. So you can feel the move, without having to shift your weight by moving your head around like my dog does.

In wrestling, you look into your opponent to finish certain takedowns. Your opponent crossfaces you (turns your head the other way) to stuff the takedown. Why would you then in key situations move your head around and shift your weight or redirect your momentum?

Skilled and Highly Skilled.

2011-09-23T14:57:00.000-07:00

A skilled person does the same moves as a beginner, only at a very skilled level. A highly skilled person only does the highest percentage moves at a very skilled level.

From Experience

2011-09-22T11:48:00.001-07:00

It seems after a while it's not a matter of knowing more moves but using better strategy. And using the moves you already know better.

Why Do I Train?

2011-09-21T17:23:00.000-07:00

Few of us will fight professionally or on the street or even have time to compete. So why do we train things that are all about that?

Tim Cartmell in a recent interview stated very intelligently that, the goal of martial arts is self cultivation.

Exactly. It's why to some, then why the sparring, the competing, the hard conditioning doesn't interest them. The technical aspect interests them, in knowing the techniques and concepts better, they understand themselves better. Their goal is purely self cultivation. A martial artist vis-à-vis a fighter.

Sniper Analogy Continued

2011-09-20T14:23:00.000-07:00

One of my friends is an avid marksman who was taught by family members who were in the military. He told me when you train to shoot, you first do everything very slowly. Aiming, waiting, breathing, then squeezing the trigger.

He told me you start out like that, then eventually you want to shoot quick tight groups of shots in the middle of your target.

Even like a snake, it moves slow then attacks sudden and bites more than once.

BJJ gets very fast, you start out training and practicing moves slowly then you need to become like a sniper or a cobra.

One Attempt One Kill

2011-09-19T13:25:00.000-07:00

Rickson said a submission should have one attempt and one end. How should one train to have a one to one ratio, attempts to finishes?

Probably very differently from the way you train now.

It reminds me of how a sniper trains. Sniper academy not only teaches marksmanship but also reconnaissance, camouflage, and weapons.

It's broke down into three phases:

Land navigation and marksmanship.
Stalking techniques and field skills.
Communication and surveillance.

To quote Gunner Sgt. Richard Tisdale who leads some of the training said, "When many people think of a sniper, they think of a person who randomly shoots people. A sniper selects his target and fires upon it. Marksmanship makes up only 10 percent of being a sniper.

He also said, "we train our snipers to be patient and wait for the perfect opportunity to fire upon the target when it will best support the mission. They could lay in a dormant position for days at a time before actually pulling the trigger and engaging on the target."

So being a sniper isn't just about shooting. It's a lot of other things outside of it. If we trained BJJ in this way, where we learned how to get to strong positions, some basic submission practice, patience, reading our opponents weakness, and learning how to listen and communicate to our coaches, we could become BJJ snipers.

Before all that, that inner fortitude of patience and that ability to not get distracted and hone in on one task. That inner game they have is the biggest key to becoming a sniper, not just being a good shot. Otherwise you would just be a trick shot at a rodeo.

MMA, BJJ, And Reality Fighting

2011-09-16T12:39:00.000-07:00

Some people want to learn MMA because they want to fight in a cage. So they learn MMA. A lot of people have no ambition of fighting in a cage, but still want to learn MMA. But it seems kind of misdirected to teach people about all the rules of cage fighting if they are never going to fight in a cage.

When most people say they want to train or learn MMA, what they really mean is they want to learn reality fighting. MMA almost looks like pro-wrestling. Except it's real. It uses only the most realistic moves for a fight situation. So maybe certain moves from Kung Fu or Aikido do not seem realistic. But something like a double leg and a jab makes sense. But that doesn't mean MMA is reality fighting. In MMA you have 5 minutes, you are inside of a cage, no body else is in there except you two and the referee, and there's a set of rules. Compared to every other fight sport, it is the most real, but nothing about time rounds is realistic. Does that mean those weird traditional martial arts where they have 200 moves to hit the groin is more reality based? No probably not. The groin is pretty hard to hit because everyone is always expecting it. And plus how good can you ever be at gouging out eyeballs when you've never had a chance to do it?

MMA in its root form is an amalgam of martial arts moves that are the most effective based on the laws of physics. So people want to learn these moves to defend themselves because they've seen it work.

So when most people want to learn MMA, they want to learn those realistic moves of MMA but not be tied down by all the constraints, and they want to know how to use these moves in a self defense scenario if the other person is unarmed. Or how to use MMA moves against a untrained attacker. This is where pure BJJ comes in.With a 5 minute round, it is very hard to do BJJ against an opponent. In a real situation with no time constraints, this is where BJJ is at its most effective. BJJ doesn't care if it's slow or boring or stalled out, as long as in the end you don't get hurt and you finish your opponent.

Now imagine BJJ in an MMA match. You have 5 minutes. Go. Okay 5 minutes to feel my opponent out. I've felt him out now I have 3:30 left to clinch my opponent. Now I got the clinch and have 2 minutes to take my opponent down but he keeps breaking the clinch. After several attempts at taking my opponent down and them standing back up, I have finally taken my opponent down and held him down. I have 1 minute to pass my opponents guard. I mounted my opponent, 10 seconds to finish! Buzzer rings and I am still working ground and pound and a choke.

Round 2. I am exhausted, my opponent is sweaty as hell and now it's even harder to clinch, takedown, pass, and finish...

This is an example. Sometimes maybe you get knocked out in attempting all this. Sometimes you may KO your opponent. Sometimes it hits the ground fast and you finish. But the way I have outlined is the typical gameplan of a BJJ fighter, but under realistic passage of time. The first round is always most tiring for a BJJ guy because all their energy is used to take it to the ground and implement their plan. Your opponents plan is simply to stifle your plan which is much less tiring. The BJJ fighter can use all this energy because in their art, they rest on the ground, while their weight crushes their opponent, and their opponent gets tired. Then they submit a tired opponent.

But in MMA after you used all your energy to take your opponent down, you have the energy loss of taking down and opponent but the 2nd round starts with them standing up again. So you have the energy loss without any of its reward. And because you never got to hold him down for very long, your opponent never got crushed or felt your weight on him. So he is fresh. Imagine a 15 minute first round. Let's say there is a takedown after 5 minutes. Then it stays on the ground. Imagine how tired the guy on the bottom will be after 5 minutes on the ground with someones weight on them? Wonder how many finishes there will be? Pride had a 10 minute 1st round and had spectacular 1st round finishes on the ground. It's this use of time that makes MMA sometimes very boring. People stall out the clock. It's also what makes it exciting. People try to do as much as they can in 5 minutes. It's what also makes for great knock outs. Even if I am an inferior wrestler or inferior on the ground, I only need to stuff takedowns for 5 minutes. In that 5 minutes I may knock out my opponent. Sometimes that happens. Then in their next fight if they get taken down easily, and you are shocked at their takedown defense, how much did you really know about their takedown defense in 5 minutes? Its easier to stop takedowns for 5 minutes than to stop their takedowns for a full wrestling practice.

Now even if you want to learn MMA to fight someday, forget about age or athleticism, but the level you will reach in your MMA career in the modern times will be very limited and will plateau very early unless you have a wrestling background. Here is why. Yes wrestling dictates where the fight goes. It also does something more important. It dictates the energy use of the fight.

The better wrestler can determine how physical the match is. They will dictate how much energy you exhaust, it's why a wrestler, even though they may be an inferior striker, may knock out a better striker. Sometimes its luck, other times they wore out their opponent so bad.

All strikers have an initial advantage because the fight always starts standing. BJJ is good at finishing the fight with the least amount of damage. Wrestling though is good at controlling the intensity and energy use of both fighters. So they dominate MMA. GSP learned wrestling later, but even he dominates with wrestling and passes the guards of exhausted BJJ players who may be superior to him on the ground...

But in reality fighting, you don't have to worry about the time so much. In reality most of the times it will go to the ground. You don't have to be a wrestler, you don't even have to shoot, you can drag people to the ground. Or people trip or fall over by overswinging punches. Once it hits the ground, you don't have to worry about stand ups (though you may have to worry about their friends). You now can conserve your energy, and look for the finish.

Someone thirty will have a very hard time learning how to wrestle people at a high level. Which limits their MMA career. But they can learn to jab, clinch, drag their opponent down, and finish them. So you don't necessarily need to be a good wrestler to defend yourself in real life.

Ignorance Begets Confidence.

2011-09-15T17:28:00.000-07:00

"Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, and not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science." - Charles Darwn

I think what most people don't appreciate about BJJ but the main reason people love it so much is that, it is in the end based in science. Presently anyhow. Other martial arts may have to rely on vague notions, mysticism, chi, or some quasi-religious explanation. BJJ is rooted in physics.

When you start it seems so simple. You don't understand why you are not getting it. Then as you get better, you realize how complex it really is. The ones who know the least have the most opinions about it. It's probably why black belts hardly ever write blogs and so many lower belts do. I started mine as a white belt...

Guillotine And Ankle Locks Tip

2011-09-14T13:48:00.000-07:00

When I do either of these techniques, I try to use the full power of my hips. It is why when I am squeezing, I drop my elbow towards my hip...

Speed

2011-09-13T15:13:00.000-07:00

Jiu Jitsu isn't so hard. It's not. Sure there's a lot of moves but there's only 4 limbs to attack, one neck to choke, and you can sweep by removing one or more posts. It's mostly made up of a few gross motor movements such as the hip escape.

It's just when you go live, things happen very quickly. You don't have time to go through your database of moves and know which one to do right when you need to do it, and when you do, your timing is off. It's not that you don't know how to properly execute a move, so a lot of times going over that move isn't necessary. It's that when you roll live, things are happening so quickly, you don't have enough time to do every move properly or sometimes you don't have time to do a move at all. Very few competitors do every move perfectly, it's too fast sometimes to even do the simplest move correctly. That's why I don't know if it's like kinetic chess, because in chess you get turns. In BJJ you don't always get turns, your opponent may take all your turns. And speed isn't as important in chess as strategy. The best competitors can do maybe a few moves properly at a very high speed and under duress.

You do the best you can in the time allotted. Doing moves properly is important, doing moves against resisting opponents is important, and practicing moves quickly and making it as minimal and efficient as possible is also very important. Start things slow and speed up as you get better at them.

Shortening The Lever

2011-09-08T18:44:00.000-07:00

For someone smaller and weaker to generate more technical power, they can try to shorten the lever. You can sit back deep on your heels when someone tries to break your posture, or when applying a kimura from on top, pull your arms tight to your center, that connectedness and centeredness I spoke about. And try sitting on your heels. Then your lever is that much shorter and easier to generate force.

When let's when someone is in your guard and trying to pick you up, you can extend that lever by sliding your shoulders backwards and climbing your legs high onto their back. Now your weight is no longer underneath them where they can pick you up, but extended far beyond their head. Now you seem a whole lot heavier. It's like holding a weight close to your chest or holding that weight far away from you with extended arms.

Instead of physical power, this is the power of physics.

The Student

2011-09-07T19:49:00.000-07:00

Improving in BJJ like anything else is beyond just a question of your instructor or training facility. It is also a question of the dedication of the student and what the student is made of.

This is a treatise on what that student is:

In the poorest sections of Brazil, kids play soccer and become some of the best players in the world.

On little Spanish speaking islands, little boys with makeshift baseball fields, no technology, no dedicated coaches, no athletic performance institute, no one to record their baseball swing and make minor improvements, have a disproportionate amount of players in the major leagues.

Russian kids train in small tennis courts, not elite clubs like in the US. They can barely afford lessons, their training regiment is unusual and seem disorganized. Yet they play and play with conviction, without break, without boredom, and repeat the same swing over and over.

Inner city kids in the US who don't have the same privilege, private coaching, or paid trainers who work strictly on their vertical jump, somehow even with underpaid coaches who were terrible basketball players or sometimes never even played basketball somehow keep winning titles. There's even a story about Vince Lombardi who is a god amongst football coaches, who has never played one game of basketball, somehow took a high school team to the city title...

You look at boxing, mostly a sport of the poor. Most of the coaches early on are in all honesty, terrible coaches. Hardly pay attention, train several fighters at a time, they themselves were never a good boxer, and got hit so much they hardly make any sense when they speak. They can barely demonstrate a technique properly themselves. Yet somehow champions come out of these janky gyms.

What these coaches can't account for, all the things their gyms lack, all the special attention they don't get or high tech equipment they don't have, it still doesn't account for this:

All these places have a huge number of very very hungry kids. Sometimes more so than their privileged counterparts. Hungry kids who really love something and somehow make it work with whatever they've got.

Countless BJJ heroes started out in no names schools no one ever heard of. They didn't care, or know that that should matter.

If a school had a "bad" teacher but everyone there loved the sport and loved training and trained twice a day, they will produce stars and beat the high priced school with the nicest and most technical instructor with rich kids who train three times a week. A lot of good guys hardly train with their instructors. How often do you really get to roll with your instructor? A lot of the good players came up training with each other and also training during off hours when no instructors were around, watched tapes together, brain stormed, helped each other, fueled each other's fire, and motivated one another.

So who takes the credit there?

Sometimes people get good in spite of the teaching. Look at guys like Greg Jackson. But when he started out, who was he? Some guy who was not a good wrestler, never fought MMA, not a good kickboxer, didn't have a rank in BJJ. Yet he formed a team with great guys, brought the right guys in, treated them well, and now he is the Greg Jackson we know. Everyone of his fighters say he is a great motivator or thinker, but no one talks about him teaching them any actual technique...

Then you got guys like Ted Williams, Walt Bayless, and Gokor Chivichyan. All non-BJJ guys who have no strong BJJ affiliation system, not a ton of good black belts coming through the door, who had early successes at BJJ tournaments and then transferred that to MMA.

I have a friend who helps teach at a school with a lot of poor kids. Tells me the instruction is bad, the teachers are no names. That it's just a bad school. That it's just very inexpensive and large so a lot of people can go (Wow martial arts designed for the mass as far as price and space, what a terrible school). And he knows better because he's trained at a very expensive small school with a famous teacher. Yet maybe he has the wrong definition of bad. Or he is using the wrong criteria. Because the kids there don't know its bad only my friend does, and yet they keep winning these little kids tournaments whereas that small school...well doesn't. It sort of reminds me of the joke about the blind guy who is dating a model but is somehow convinced she is ugly. Yeah this school has already a good amateur MMA team, tough guys, wins things, but he tells me, "Sam you don't understand. They got this guy teaching that, that guy teaching that, and you know they suck."

Well seems like all these kids didn't know they were supposed to fail. And I hope they never figure that out. Kind of the the story of any kid coming out of the inner city.

The Center

2011-09-06T13:36:00.000-07:00

I've talked about the center a whole lot. I keep thinking of new ways that this becomes relevant. I think about how important it is to control your center in a BJJ match. Like when you are playing guard, where their hands are? Is it in the middle or is it on the outside? Like in your closed guard, are their hands on your center line or is it on your biceps/armpit? Controlling all the action that happens in the middle is key to victory. It's harder for your opponent to stand up or break your guard with their hands outside of the middle, so you have to be ready once they place their hands on the centerline to move their arm to one side or the other of that centerline or midline.

A good example of this concept is when someone is trying to knee through pass your guard. Imagine you split your center up. Your waist is one line. There is also another line from your nose to your crotch. As they attempt to pass, you have to see where their weight is relation to those two lines. If they are just starting to pass, their weight is still behind your waistline, so you can push off their knee and hip escape backwards to recover guard. If they are too far pass your waistline and their weight is too far forward, you can push them even more forward with your knee as you get to all fours. If their weight is too far too one side, you can look to sweep. If it's too far to the other side, you can swing into deep half guard and sweep right away.

The Game Of Inches

2011-09-05T12:33:00.000-07:00

We always hear BJJ is a game of inches. Especially true for black belts. What happens when it's at the highest levels? It has to be a game of millimeters. Nuances and feeling, sensitivity over gross motor movement improvements. How you shift your weight because you are already good at smashing your opponents hips...

Wonder how it feels when you can notice even those small subtle differences...

Torn Up Toes

2011-09-01T16:56:00.000-07:00

A good sign that you're getting better at jiu jitsu is when you notice the bottom of your toes are getting torn up and calloused. It means you are staying on the balls of your feet more and they are getting mat burn. That's some good pressure.

New Experiment

2011-08-31T13:17:00.000-07:00

At a new adventure in my BJJ career. A few years back, I left my academy to travel around the country for 4 months and train in different random academies all over the country. Read about it at angrygrappler.livejournal.com. It was great and I loved it and I learned quite a bit.

I still love BJJ but it's lost quite a bit of its fun for me. I need time away from the practice halls and the schools. It's probably impossible for me not to train completely though. So I guess this is a new adventure. Learning BJJ 100% completely on my own, outside of the confines of a classroom, and without aid of instructors. I don't know how long this will last or what I will gain or lose but this is the path I have chosen currently. Self directed learning with the aid hopefully of some random drilling partners. Maybe I can drop in to some schools as well from time to time and open it up. Or maybe I won't even end up training. I doubt I can stop thinking about it or posting about it though. So here we go.

Types Of Learners

2011-08-30T15:40:00.000-07:00

I have had discussions with people where I have discussed different methods to teach, and the best way for our brains to learn. The usual counterpoint is, what if they are a better visual learner, or a better audio learner, or are better at learning from application (kinestethic).

Scientists are debunking the myth of different types of learners. The brain is the brain and from person to person, it is more similar than it is different. There are just better ways for a brain to learn. Not the old thinking of, every type of teaching is good based on the student.

There is no evidence that there are visual, audio, or any other type of learner. There are just fast learners, or slow learners. It may not even be about the learning style like audio, or visual. It may be more of an issue of subject, better at learning math than history. Better at learning wrestling than submissions.

The modality of learning should be based more on the subject matter, than on the individual. Unless the learner is blind, deaf, etc.

What are we left with for martial arts? Just deep learning and deep practice. Seeing it, doing it, repeating it, experimenting with it, repeating it, owning it.

Long Or The Short Of It

2011-08-29T13:09:00.000-07:00

Someone may ask you a question, but a lot of times they don't really want an answer. They want you to give them something short, and for you to pretend that's the answer. Sometimes you may wind up answering it anyway, and they look at you like, why are you telling me so much. Give me a simple answer.

For me now I tend to ask, if they want the long answer or the short one. Short one being something like, "just push his head," or, " keep your elbows in." A short answer is just one detail of the long answer. Long answer being the actual concept. The actual answer. As a trainer, sometimes someone will ask me how to lose weight. I give them this long answer and they look very sad. So I tell them something simple, like do 15 mins of cardio every morning, and they look very happy. They want it easy, simple, and they want to believe it.

People's want of short answers is what probably prevents a lot of BJJ, or a lot of information in general from being learned, or at the very least makes it take longer. Yet BJJ is supposed to be about efficiency...

Over Thinking

2011-08-25T15:07:00.001-07:00

A BJJ colleague of mine said something to me that struck me as very important and I never forgot it. It was told to me by Rolly from http://www.rollothecoach.com/.

Let me rephrase this concept because it's an important one. Don't try to out think your opponent. Make them out think you. Make them over think...

It's what classically happens when a lower belt goes with a black belt. The lower belt beats themselves, trying to think so far ahead. He is grabbing me here, setting this up, then he will do this, then that, and before you know it, you basically beat yourself and you tapped mentally, before tapping physically. And you are asking him, "how he was so many moves ahead of you?" When all he did was throw up a tight armbar.

Don't over think, be patient, let them freak themselves out. Love it. Classic BJJ mental game.

Action, Reaction, Distraction

2011-08-24T16:14:00.000-07:00

When you are first becoming a competent player, you learn to attack, you learn to act. You learn to submit off your back, learn to pass the guard. You create action.

As you get a little better, you get better at countering and exploiting, and at submissions. You let your opponent move and you begin to react. You learn to play half guard and sweep when they rush. You learn to take the back off of their mistakes. You learn to be patient and out wait your opponent. You create reactions.

Eventually you can't get the reactions you want, the other player won't let get anything off and you can't take any action. You learn to distract. Attempting one move, setting up a submission to get the sweep. Looking for a sweep to try and triangle. No longer patient, you set long term traps. You create distractions.

There are examples of players who are high level at each of these three categories. Highest examples of action players, reaction players, distraction players. One is not better than the other. You need all three though to create a complete game.

This is the point where you are no longer looking at accumulating moves, but now creating strategies based on the moves you have. Some people, their problem is not lacking an arsenal of moves as they may think. They are lacking proper strategies at the correct times.

In a bad situation, see if you can act, if that doesn't work, react, if that doesn't work, distract. Not a BJJ of physical moves, Inner BJJ of mental strategies and an ability to weigh risk reward quickly in your mind and make correct choices at the right time.

Subtract To Add

2011-08-23T15:14:00.000-07:00

Instead of adding more moves to your game, try removing some moves and simplifying it. Go lean.

When Does Actual BJJ Start?

2011-08-22T16:41:00.000-07:00

Does it start when we slap hands and grab sleeves? Does it on the street start when they grab my collar or throw a punch?

I think BJJ starts as soon as conflict arises. Before either one touches you and things are elevating, how you try to resolve the situation, how you calculate all the different paths things can take, your stance, where you hold your hands, if you are backing up, if you are protecting yourself, if you are aware of your limbs and their limbs, if you are aware of your space and surroundings, if you are ready to clinch and recognize when that distance emerges.

BJJ starts as soon as their is conflict.

Chiefs to Indians Ratio

2011-08-21T19:11:00.000-07:00

We have all heard the term, "too many chiefs and not enough Indians." So what does that mean to us? You could be in a situation where you have too many people giving you their opinion on what you should be doing, how you should be doing it, what your problems are, etc. Who do you trust? Why do they all have opinions? It could be higher belts, training partners, to instructors. Everyone's trying to help, but there is only one you, and too many of them. This sounds like an ideal situation but it's not always the case. You need one voice you can completely trust.

Someone recently told me it's like this. You need a strong foundation in whatever you do. Artist, painter, or chef. If you are a chef, someone needs to teach you how to cook. Once you learn, you can have all these different people teach you how to do many different flavors, all the flavors in the world. But if you never learned how to cook, no one taught you, and now all these people are teaching you their flavors, you can flavor your food any way you want and it may fool some people, but eventually someone will get sick.

There are many people who get very far in BJJ, they know a lot of moves and finishes but they don't know Jiu Jitsu. I know some people who are a master of one move, but they don't do jiu jitsu, until they get that move it's a whole ugly mess and then bam they slap on their move and finish. Sure they caught you, but that finish was the only jiu jitsu utilized in the whole roll.

You can have lots of people show you how to season that steak, but especially early on you need that one person teach you how to perfect grill a steak.

What Does Guard Mean To Me

2011-08-17T19:14:00.000-07:00

When I think guard, I think "with closed legs." Open guard means a guard where your legs have opened. Half guard half of a closed guard, meaning closing your guard only around one of their legs.

Animal Instincts

2011-08-16T14:10:00.000-07:00

Most animals when they attack, they automatically try to mount whatever they are attacking. Most animals also try to avoid being pinned on their backs. This is also instinct for most humans, they come in the door wanting to mount and avoid being mounted and pinned. These are good natural traits that we can build upon. Somewhere in the training we forget these instincts, they don't get enhanced. We lean its easier to hold someone down in cross side of half guard. We learn to accept being pinned, and are told to remain calm and lose any sense of urgency. We stay flat on our backs instead of always angling off to the side.

Sometimes a new person will walk into a school and the instructor will have them train with someone and have their student hold the new person down in mount and not let them up to prove a point. Either to prove how little they know, or how their instincts are wrong. Wonder what would happen if that new guy was instead show a simple concept idea of escaping their hips, and were told that this one concept added to their instinct of not wanting to be pinned will make them extremely hard to hold down from that day on. That their instinct was right, just unpolished.

Or from day one, a better way to mount. Instead of sitting on their chest and putting your knees on their arms, how to spread out your weight.

What if from day one, we were able to teach the student a game and teach them Jiu Jitsu in a natural way based around their natural instincts? Animals are naturally very dangerous and great killers because they mount and they are hard to pin. Evolution in that instance did all the work. What if we just enhance evolution. It wouldn't be about creating any new moves, just reorganizing the way its taught, the flow, the order things are taught and the way these ideas are framed. Not as some foreign martial arts magic, but based on things we are already familiar with. Don't show them what they don't know, or prove they know nothing. Show them what they already know instinctually. This is my what if.

Proper Timing

2011-08-15T21:45:00.000-07:00

Timing isn't always about reacting. Timing is having foresight to see the right scenario to come along and acting upon it when it does. It's seeing what's about to happen before it happens and preparing for it. It's not about doing it when the right scenario isn't there. Like the first companies to market on anything usually (but not always) fail. Like Friendster was first but the timing wasn't there, they were not prepared but Facebook was and they came later and took over. Or the first cellphone makers for that matter. They did it when the time wasn't right.

Sometimes the right time hasn't come and there's an idea but people abandon it because they thought it was stupid. Whenever you see someone product come out, you always hear someone say "I thought of that years ago!" Well why didn't you do anything about it? Because you thought it was stupid. People thought the electric car was stupid too, now it's coming back.

Ray Kurzweil, a brilliant inventor and futurist has countless patents. He also has all these patents waiting to be patented, when the timing is right. He said all the inventions and ideas he has aren't necessarily ready to be made right now because people aren't ready or the technology isn't there. Doesn't mean he has abandoned it. He has schematics of when he thinks the technology will be there and the people will be ready for this invention, and when the time comes he will be prepared, and use proper timing. When you wait to react, you are already too late. If you go now, you are too early (like a lot of CGI moves that were made when CGI wasn't ready and it looked terrible). Timing is about preparation for something you see that is about to happen. So have it ready. George Lucas and James Cameron had ideas for movies that they sat on for decades because they knew eventually the technology would be ready, so they waited, didn't abandon the idea, and made lots of money.

There is something even called patent trolling that big corporations do that patent inventions and ideas before anyone can even come up with the idea using vague legal language. Somehow through our legal system, it is possible to steal someone's idea before they've even come up with them.

Timing is coming up with ideas, or preparing for things that haven't happened yet. Or inventing something that can't be invented yet. Your mind somehow travels in time by almost seeing how your thought it a piece of a puzzle that hasn't been made yet.

So what does this have to do with BJJ? That's a big question. It has everything and nothing to do with it. Normally I explain how something in life relates to BJJ, or how BJJ relates to something in life. This time I'd rather not explain it and let the reader work out how it all relates to this game of strategy. To me this concept of timing is the essence of the most beautiful aspects of BJJ. The part that seems so Zen, and makes some guys look superhuman compared to other BJJ players.

Joblessness, Value and Skill, and BJJ

2011-08-12T14:55:00.000-07:00

The US has some of the highest record of unemployment in it's history. There are also thousands and thousands of jobs right here in the US that have not been filled for quite some time. How is this possible when there are so many unemployed people? You should think one problem would solve the other correct? Real life doesn't work like it does in theory.

The reason there are so many jobs that can't be filled is, people are not qualified. It has to do with skill. There aren't enough skilled laborers, people with skill building cars (not just working an assembly line), skill with steel, engineering skill, accounting skill, experience, etc.

We don't just have a lot of unemployed people, we also have a high amount of unskilled unemployed labor. Maybe you went to a good college, a piece of paper that says you completed 18 years of school or so in your lifetime. It doesn't mean you have any skills or bring any value to the table. Not only that, even though you have no skill or value, you feel entitled due to the amount of time and money invested in you to have your employer spend their time and money training you in a skill for free, but also paying you some high salary as you do it.

You could have someone who's been working for years and suddenly be laid off and be in the same position they started out in as a new graduate. Having no skill and not creating any skill while employed. Maybe they were a mortgage broker, used to making 100k a year. Now newly laid off, wanting a starting salary of 100k, but having no real tangible skill outside of some general sale and people skills. He could have in that time used his resources to start his own company, learn a new language, learn management, investing in other securities, create value for his name, etc. Now he is a high priced, low skilled, laborer...

This same problem exists in all things, even martial arts. There has been criticism of how martial arts has been watered down over the years and BJJ is no exception to this criticism from some of the founding members. Some people come in, mindlessly training, putting in their time, punching in their clock, and waiting to get their next belt. When they do get it, maybe they can't show a triangle or how to maintain a mount.

Then you get a surplus of upper belts. How many of them have a lot of skill and constantly create a value for themselves? What if they all want to open schools, now you have a surplus of schools, can they all offer a high value? Probably not. So you get unemployed martial artists and a watering down of the whole system.

You get some guys who have been training for 10 years and you see them teach something and wonder how different they are from when they were a new blue belt. Then you get some rare blue or purple belts who seem more valuable in skill than most black belts. Their demand has been secured.

Maybe degrees, belts, time, money invested, teachers you've had are not the best way to gauge value. Maybe value can only be gauged by the old standard, of interviewing, references, number of masteries (languages, programs, certificates, classes, arts) , and a proposition: of what they can give you and your company and how they plan to do it.

Maybe martial artists aren't as good as what they've done in the past but what they are continuing to do, continuing to learn and master and accomplish, and their foresight into the next 5 years and beyond. Only as good as their plan, their system. A master needs a master plan.

The Cling

2011-08-11T10:20:00.000-07:00

People who know no BJJ come in with the ability to still cling. You tell someone to take someone's back and finish them, they will have no idea how to do it and the art of taking the back, staying on the back, and finishing has to start from the beginning, from ground zero... BJJ is all about efficiency and this may not be the most efficient way to teach.

You take someone who knows no BJJ, and simply ask them to cling to someone's back and they will naturally take the back with hooks in, if you tell them to cling and not be shaken off, they will naturally grip their arms around the torso and their legs in as hooks. From there you simply teach the transition of clinging, and choking while still maintaining the cling. Some may naturally get to the bulk of the rear naked positioning if you just ask them to now cling to your opponents neck as opposed to their torso. It's using what they naturally have instinctually and building upon it.

The idea of clinging is not just from the back but from lots of positions, basically anytime you clinch. Standing or on the ground.

3-D Control (Video)

2011-07-28T12:38:00.000-07:00

Here is a video I made to expand on this idea of controlling someone in all angles.

As They Disconnect...

2011-07-27T15:51:00.000-07:00

As they disconnect, for example from on top, trying hold you down with their arms, pushing their arms down but lifting their own body up, or look and disconnect to look up at the clock or people or to look for a submission, monitor their movement and follow them up at that pace. As they disconnect, space is created, suck that space up to escape or move yourself. The saying, where the head goes the body follows? So if they look up their body leans up instead of leaning down on your. There is your moment.

As they disconnect, start occupying that new space.

Teach Them Nothing

2011-07-26T15:59:00.000-07:00

You really want to teach them nothing, show them everything.

If you try to teach a whole year's worth of history in one day, the class will remember nothing. This is true for most things. This is a good tool to use for teaching and learning BJJ as well. If you teach too many things, moves, concepts, details, the student will remember nothing. The teacher should then pick just a few things to focus on and drill a lot. The student if shown a great deal of moves should try to only remember a handful of those moves and focus on that the rest of class. Make the most of the situation.

In history, those who always did the best or knew the most, always had specialized knowledge in one area. With one area of expertise they learned everything.

So instead of learning every move or teaching it, just learning a few moves really well, teaches you nearly every move BJJ has to offer.

A Short Cut

2011-07-25T16:10:00.000-07:00

Some people like to bypass the pass by just going for a footlock. Some people like to bypass the open guard or guard by holding onto half guard.

I guess then inversely if becomes very difficult to pass or use any of your attacks from cross side, mount, back, knee on belly, etc. if you only go for leg locks. It also makes it difficult to play guard, open guard, all the sweeps and submissions from guard if you just hold onto the half guard and never try to get to guard.

I know some people who complain about never being able to pass and never being able to get to full guard. They also always dive for footlocks and hold onto half guard for dear life...

Bad Posture!!!

2011-07-22T14:51:00.000-07:00

Your coach, instructor, your teammate, your own mind will tell you to maintain good posture. It's not even in the back of your mind, it's at the front of your mind. And what happens? You break posture. What belt are you? You could be belt color and this can happen. More seldom at higher belts but if it never happened at higher belts, there would never be any sweeps or finishes at higher belts either.

So even when we know better, why do we have such "bad" posture? Meaning, bending over? Because we want to grab or control something. And when we reach with our hands, we bend our back. There it is. The secret to all this mess. You know to keep posture, yet you also know you need to control grips, so how do you marry the two ideas? Normally people don't. They normally take turns vacillating from one idea to the other. Controlling grips and breaking their own posture, to weakening their grips or letting to completely and regaining posture.

This happens a lot in BJJ, the seemingly contradictory concepts we are supposed to maintain at the same time. This being one of them, there are plenty of others, I will cover them as they come up in future blogs.

For now, control and posture. My arms are only so long, how the hell am I supposed to get a hold of him, or control him so I don't get swept or submitted without breaking my posture? How am I supposed to ever win this fight if all I do is posture? They don't work together and you feel like you have learned nothing in BJJ and that you must suck at this stuff.

Bad posture is sort of a plague with modern BJJ and it's one of the reasons so many old timers complain about how the art is not as good as it was before, or is being diluted. And the proper techniques are now invisible. Well if they were just a little bit better at explaining it or their English was a little better, maybe it wouldn't seem so invisible to us, this connecting of concepts.

Bad posture doesn't just happen in BJJ, it's something you carry with you throughout the day, throughout your life. A bad habit that was passed down from your parents and parent's parents. Why? Because we humans walk on two feet. This frees up our hands so we can grab things, such as tools or open doors, or pick something up. So because of this ability, we tend to lead with our arms. So we slouch, have poor posture because we are always reaching for things in front of us, pulling ourselves forward, where even standing upright, we look slouched and now are starting to look un-evolved like an ape again.

What should we be doing? Instead of reaching far for something, walk closer to it and get it. We need to pick something up from the ground, what do we do? We bend over and reach with our backs, instead of using our legs to kneel down, bringing us closer to the object, allowing us to pick it up with greater power.

If we are trying to pull something, what do we do? We pull with our arms instead of gripping it with our arms and using our legs, hips, back, and our whole body weight to pull it. Thing of your hands as hooks, arms as chains, your body as the tow truck.

So back to the dilemma of constantly breaking your own posture to get grips and feeling like you are not improving. What should you be doing? Leading with your hips and legs like I said in a previous post. What else? You should be bending your legs to get lower, or dropping your weight on them and planking to get heavy. Instead of trying to shove them down with just your arm strength and hunching over.

Get your position first, then get your grips. Grips are there to help positioning. Don't get your grips to get your positioning, Don't use positioning to help grips. Imaging trying to pull yourself up a flight of stairs using your arms on the banister, as opposed to walking up the steps and using the banister for balance.

If something is on the ground like I said, what should you be doing? You lower yourself to that object, in this instance your opponent. What happens if you reach and bend over? Well half of your body is still far away from the object, meaning everything from the waist down is still where they are, and the other upper half has lowered itself. So half your weight is where it was, half your weight is now bending down and being pulled by gravity. If you were a building, you would have toppled over by now. A vertical angle is easy to maintain, a broken angle that bends any degree down is hard to maintain. And also, you can only pull or use the strength of half your body, the other half is using all its strength to keep yourself upright. Lower your whole body, maintaining posture, and use the might of your whole body, upper AND lower half. Bring yourself, your whole self closer to the thing you are reaching for, not just part of your body. Otherwise that half is gonna gonna down and the other half is coming with it. It's like splitting up your army into two battle fields, when your enemy is only occupying one.

If you were climbing a tree, which is very similar to BJJ, the best way to waste energy is to grab a branch and do a pull up, then set your feet. It's way more efficient to climb up the tree as high as you can first with your feet, then set your grips on a branch, climb up the tree some more with your legs, then set your hands on the next branch. Walking up the tree instead of doing a series of pull ups, up the tree. Look at monkeys, they use their legs and walk all the way up, using the hands as anchors.

Hands are hooks, arms are chains, your body is the tow truck. So think about that before you break your own posture, don't REACH with your hands, LEAD with your hips and legs, don't worry about setting your grips they have no way to escape your grips.

Get close to your opponent, remember you want to be tight. Meaning walk up to them as close as possible, squat down if you have to. The worst thing you can do is be far away and bending over. You are mechanically weak there, vulnerable, have your worst balance, and also you are now allowing your opponent to get grips on you! When all this time you wanted grips on them.

How do you marry grips and posture? Get grips last, position and posture first. That order will make you better than you are. Do it the opposite order and you will look a lot worse than you are and not in a good position to show how good of a finisher you are.

What will happen if you never fix this inefficiency? You will try to use speed, arm strength, acrobatics, or some combination of all three. Or if you are passing, you may just give up on learning how to pass and dive for crappy footlocks that you are not good at, because even footlocks need good posture.

Hate BJJ

2011-07-21T16:05:00.000-07:00

I have met a few people who have quit BJJ shortly after getting their purple belt. I asked them why, they said they didn't like it anymore. They in fact hated it. Waking up sore, tired, always injured, in pain...

I think what they really hate is rolling and all the wear and tear on your body. And they assume all BJJ is, is rolling and hard training sessions with conditioning. If they could enjoy the theoretical side, the practical side, the constant repetition of movements, discovering of moves, the soft art of Jiu Jitsu, they may still be training today.

It's a common perception, people think all BJJ is, is the sparring. If I hate the sparring, I hate BJJ. I am sorry they never got to discover and enjoy the technical, theoretical, the Inner side of BJJ.

Why And How

2011-07-20T13:46:00.000-07:00

Those are two philosophical trains of thoughts. Why and how? A lot of Western philosophy is all about why, why do we do this, why are we good or bad, why do bad things happen, why do I think, why do we believe in gods or God, why do we care about quality, etc.

Another more Eastern way of thinking is not focusing on the why, but on the how. Like how can we fix this, how can I move on with my life, etc.

This method of thinking can be applied to your life. It's not important why you got fired, it's important how you can start to make money again and more of it. This is also an efficient way to think about Jiu Jitsu. Actually I think that is what Jiu Jitsu is, not why someone did something, but how do you react to that.

I've seen coaches yelling at their students after a bad match and asking them, "why did you do that?" The student doesn't know why he made that error nor is that even important. If he did something wrong, its more important to figure out how to fix that problem, or how do you enhance their strengths.

If someone grips your collar, it's not important why they did that, it's important to know how to break that grip and how to use that grip against your opponent.

Whys lead to a series of more whys and then you just end up in mental jibberish. When you think about how, you get right to the point and start to become productive. Why also has its place, but it's more about investigation, whereas how is about creativity and productivity.

Start Your Lesson From The Beginning

2011-07-19T14:03:00.000-07:00

When you are showing somebody something, or you are learning something in BJJ, you should take the mindset of someone off the street who just walked into class. Does this immediately make sense? Is this applicable to my daily life? What if I don't plan to fight MMA or compete in BJJ? What if I know nothing about grappling?

I think it's always good to teach or learn with that assumption in mind, that they are just someone off the street trying a class. That way there is no confusion, it's starting from the beginning. And if you already know a lot of things, it becomes like a review. It's the mindset of good black belts who take a beginner class or take privates with people. It's just good review

Lead With Your Legs

2011-07-18T13:01:00.000-07:00

A common problem people have not just in Jiu Jitsu, but in everything, is they lead with their hands or head or both. Like let's say you are passing, you look down at them and lead with your head, then you grab, then your legs follow. But now you are leaning forward so much, you can be easily swept. If not that, you are giving them enough space to play their guard. Same from bottom, instead of hip escaping and leading with your hips or legs, your are trying to shove them away with your arms or trying to escape your head away. Inefficient.

Try instead to lead with your legs, better yet your whole body, especially your hips. Then follow with your arms and head later.

You ever watch good climbers, on indoor walls and boulders, you will see they always lead with their legs and hip. Once their leg and hip have moved, then they follow with their arms. That is why girls learn to climb so much easier than guys. Guys are so grabby, they want to just grab and do pull ups to the end. Which is inefficient and tiring, as opposed to walking sideways and doing squats all the way up. The reason you have to do this is, the more space you create, the more gravity will pull you down. You lead with hips and legs, you eliminate space and use less strength.

Same with Jiu Jitsu or anything else that uses the body. You have to lead with the body, hips, legs first. A boxer with no footwork will never be in a position to throw any good punches.

Lead with your legs and body, use your arms just to help out. Your head will follow. You lead with your head and arms, your opponent will use that old saying "wherever the head goes the body follows" to counter you. Lead with your body, and they can't use your head to steer you.

Your hips, your legs, your body is so much stronger than your arms or neck. Lead with your best attributes.

Strength Matters

2011-07-14T16:26:00.000-07:00

It matters. No question. I may not agree it is the best thing to do, or easiest thing to teach, but it works. I tell people there's two ways to beat someone. You can out technique them or you can over power them. If they are better than you technically, and you are not strong enough to over power them, then you lose. If you are stronger and better, then you win every time.

Roger Gracie is one of those guys who is bigger, stronger, and on top of that better than most BJJ guys. If he can't beat your technique, he will just over power you.

Even Rickson had a daily morning work out that he said was to maximize his balance, flexibility, and strength. So the physical aspect an element of training. We keep saying Rickson is slow and methodical, but every BJJ fight I've ever seen him in, he was sprinting to a finish.

Here is the important thing though that I have heard from a few black belts. You need to work your technique first. Once you got that, you can always work your conditioning later. Roger didn't start his strength and conditioning I read until he was a black belt and training in New York with Martin Rooney the MMA strength coach. I heard a lot of good guys didn't pick up a weight until black belt. Rickson has been a black belt so long, and probably only after his black belt and his game was more defined did he realize the type of conditioning training his body and game needed.

When you are good enough, you will meet guys who are just as good as you. Then you will definitely need strength on your side. You see guys like Caio Terra and Bruno Malfacine. Evenly skilled but Bruno I heard is much stronger. Sometimes that becomes the deciding factor. If you have both, then even better.