ever not able to "see" the problem?
Original Poster: bamboo
Forum: Grappling & Jiu-Jitsu
Posted On: 19-11-2007, 02:37

Orginal Post: bamboo: Last night starting from half gaurd I was tapped 6 times in row in an arm triangle from the exact same setup. Each time I watchedit happen as if I was not a real particpant but rather a casual observer from the ceiling above. I stayed calm, good breathing, time to think and each time he sunk it in and choked me out.

Eventually I called the instructor over and he watched as I was again choked out. He had me "talk it out", as in each step for my escape. Its funny, as I talked it through I realized that although I knew the step I was not actually doing them.

Amazing what you can learn about yourself when you stop and smell teh flowers.

Books/DVDs
Original Poster: NeverMan
Forum: Grappling & Jiu-Jitsu
Posted On: 05-11-2007, 15:33

Orginal Post: NeverMan: How many people here supplement their training with either books or dvds or both?

I thought maybe people could share their opinions on certain books and dvds (what they thought were good, which ones to get, which ones to avoid, etc, etc). If there is already a thread out there for this feel free to delete/move this one please.

I recently purchased "The Guard" by Ed Beneville and Moriera. They also wrote "Passing The Guard".

I just got this book but it come with great reviews from Amazon.com buyers so I thought I would give it a try. Full of illustrations, focuses solely on the guard. Starts from fundamentals (exercises like shrimping, the snake move, etc) and then goes by section (escapes, sweeps, armbars and stacking, chokes, etc).

Like I said, I can't really give a full review as I just got the book, so has anyone else gone through this one? If so, what did you think?

Train with 2x BJJ World Champion in Durban, South Africa
Original Poster: morne
Forum: Grappling & Jiu-Jitsu
Posted On: 25-10-2007, 10:10

Orginal Post: morne: Less than 2 weeks left before our International BJJ seminar with Blackbelt world champion, Felipe Costa from Brazil. There are only a couple of spaces left as we are only allowing 40 participants per day due to limited mat space. Book today or there might not be space left in a couple of days time......

Morné Swanepoel from combatcoaching.com will be hosting 2x Brazilian JiuJitsu (BJJ) World Champion, Felipe Costa in South Africa during November. Felipe, who resides in Rio De Janeiro - Brazil, is scheduled to conduct a 2 day training seminar at Morné's High Performance Mixed Martial Arts gym in Pinetown, Durban. Felipe has an impressive Black Belt competitive track record which includes two world titles and is part of the coaching staff and competition team for one of Brazil's top teams, BRASA. You can check out more at [URL="http://www.brazilianblackbelt.com/" www.brazilianblackbelt.com[/URL 

This will be a no gi seminar so dress in anything comfortable to train in i.e. baggies, t-shirt etc. Both sessions will focus on Brazilian JiuJitsu for Vale Tudo/No rules fighting and submission wrestling. The seminar will be suitable for total beginners to the most advanced.

Seminar is scheduled for:

Saturday 3rd November 2007 from 13h00 – 17h00
Sunday 4th November 2007 from 10h00 – 14h00

To book your place you can do so online by visiting [URL="http://www.combatcoaching.com/" www.combatcoaching.com[/URL  and following the `latest news' links or contact our headquarters and speak to Aileen at:

Email [EMAIL=" This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it "  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it [/EMAIL 
Cell +2783 226 1576
Tel +2731 903 7616

All spaces are pre booked. Limited mat space.

Aggressive or passive
Original Poster: bamboo
Forum: Grappling & Jiu-Jitsu
Posted On: 12-10-2007, 18:32

Orginal Post: bamboo: How do you roll- with aggression or very passively? Why?

When it comes to the takedown I am very passive. I never take a shot or work for the clinch but rather just let the person come to me, I find offbalancing and throwing quite easy when executed in a passive manner.
When we hit the ground I'm an entirely new person, I work hard for position and fight for the choke or sub. Because I train with alot of wrestlers this sems to be the norm among that group bu tthose with bjj training are always quite passive and wait for a mistake on which to capitalise.
I can see the logic behind this but simply can't bring myself to do it.

-bamboo

Non tappers
Original Poster: bamboo
Forum: Grappling & Jiu-Jitsu
Posted On: 05-10-2007, 01:48

Orginal Post: bamboo: I just don't get the guys that refuse to tap when rolling.

Thursday I was rolling at the club and it was business as usual. At one point I rolled with a guy that was a little bulky in the torso, In an effort to stay mounted I grapevined him and then worked to sink in a key lock. WHen I got it and began to let go of the pressure he says -
"not yet", I put it back on and then just let go, this was silly.
Move ahead to saturday and hes not there, his buddy tells me he seperated his shoulder or something when we rolled. I was shocked.
Turns out this guy has a huge list of past injuries including a broken leg from rolling.

What the hell? You'd think surgery and broken bones would put a persons' pride in check.

How old is too old?
Original Poster: bamboo
Forum: Grappling & Jiu-Jitsu
Posted On: 29-08-2007, 10:40

Orginal Post: bamboo: How old is too old to compete? I was thinking I may one day compete (contrary to a post I made in another thread, heck, even the wife said if I want to go for it) but it seems that time is slipping away. I'm 34 now and will by feb. be in the "seniors" division.

Seniors? WTF?!?!?!

I would even consider lying and going down to the normal adults age bracket, I don't want to be a geriatric killer at 35.:lol:

Anyway, any thoughts?

-bamboo

How long till its all uniform?
Original Poster: bamboo
Forum: Grappling & Jiu-Jitsu
Posted On: 13-08-2007, 13:37

Orginal Post: bamboo: So in 92-93 when BJJ became well known in martial arts circles of north america it was the ground game. Sure judo and a bunch of jjj styles did it but lets be honest, only bjj payed as much attention to the ground as bjj. We move ahead to 2007 and its everywhere. BJJ is in all the cities and subgrappling has exploded as well. Now JJJ stylists are practicing on the ground much more than ever before and some are even offering classes and streams where all they do are ground work.

My school is a great point in case. Before mma they were solely a variant of standup self defense japanese styled jiujitsu with canadian flavour mixed with karate. After mma exploded they took a serious look at what they were doing and while they still offer the more traditional kata based karate and self defense jiujitsu, they also have seperate classes, infact, and entirely seperate "culture" devoted solely to kickboxing and groundwork. I know I'll never attend the jj or the karate side of the dojo, and many others are in that boat with me. We do kickboxing and subgrappling- ie- japanese jiujitsu traditional groundwork a la judo with alot of wrestling. The grappling coach devotes all his time to ground work, while hes not a bjj man he is damned good at what he does.

We do the triangle choke, omaplata (by another name), keylocks, straight armbars, leg locks, kneebars, ankle locks etc etc. We work on guard passes and sweeps, we work from the bottom constantly and are are always evolving. Now, given that Bjj is definately the major reason this is being done (that and shooto), my question is- How long will the BJJ camp be able to claim exclusive rights to being THE GROUND GAME of CHOICE?

How long till it all pretty much looks the same?

-bamboo

Please tell me what you think.
Original Poster: NeverMan
Forum: Grappling & Jiu-Jitsu
Posted On: 04-08-2007, 16:19

Orginal Post: NeverMan: OK, so I recently moved from DC to Newark, DE for school. I was attending a Danzan-Ryu school in DC who did Randori on a regular basis. I really liked the instructor and the students. I paid $65 a month for 3 classes/wk on a non-contract basis.

Now, I realize that I'm not going to find anything nearly that good in Newark, DE, money and contract wise but:

I went to a BJJ class last night (since there are no real JJJ dojos in site, as I would prefer to do that but BJJ is better than nothing). The dojo is run by an Allen Sachetti. Here is the website: Sachetti's Martial Arts

It looks as though, from local competitions, that he has good students (they win often in comparison to other local schools) and therefore must have good instruction. He trained under Rickson Gracie and his listed as such under this website: Rickson Gracie - The Martial Arts Encyclopedia
although I believe he is now a brown belt, via the "instructor" page on his website.

He also offers Filipino Dumpag and MT.

OK, here's the rub:

For BJJ or FD or MT, by themselves (3-4 classes/wk) it's $145/month. For everything (almost unlimited classes) it's $185/month. I say unlimited because he has 2 different BJJ teams and they go on different days of the week (1: MWF, 2:TuThF). ALSO, he wants a 12 month obligation (12 month contract).

I'm not use to paying that kind of money and I certainly don't like obligations. I'm married, that's enough obligation for me.

Please, let me know what you think.

ALSO, here are some other places I am planning on checking out. If you have something to say about these places that would be great, thanks:

Tai Kai - Brazilin Jui-Jitsu - News

Wilmington Jiu Jitsu

Silvio Braga Jiu-Jitsu

Rio Jiu Jitsu - Delaware Jiu Jitsu

I'm going to check out all of these places before I decide to do anything, so let me know what you think.

Thanks in advance.

Training with a BJJ Blackbelt
Original Poster: admin
Forum: Grappling & Jiu-Jitsu
Posted On: 03-08-2007, 19:24

Orginal Post: admin: So I've been training or taking private lessons from a BJJ Blackbelt: Luigi E. Mondelli - Best Way BJJ / ATT. He is a PanAm champion, and fighting in Worlds soon at Super Heavy. Which happens to be my weight class too, so it's a really cool fit.

Its funny how training with certain people can truly humble you. I am a blackbelt in Kobukai Ju-Jitsu, which is Japanese Ju-Jitsu, mixed with BJJ, and wrestling. It's a awesome, awesome art! Makes you really well rounded. I consider myself a good grappler, with some decent experience. But fighting this dude.... just makes you feel like to biggest NOOB ever!

Most big guys have great top game, and very weak bottom game (this is my problem), but his bottom game is his bread and butter.

2 weeks ago, we spent 2 hours just on the scissor sweep, and the knee across the body guard. The scissor sweep and that position are probably my favorite bottom position. I feel comfortable there. And spending 2 hours just on that, and learning so many variations and key points, was amazing! Especially working it for gi and no-gi. Working different hand positions, working on elements for MMA.

Last week, we did open guard, mostly butterfly guard, and seated guard. A lot of sweeps, and working different angles. Defending the pass, etc.

One of the key points he has made, and I guess I should have known or thought about this already are the angles used in guard. And where your body position should be. When he is attacking, he is mostly on a 45 degree angle. Never flat. Always "poised".

Eventually I want to start taking some pictures or something, and eventually post them here. It is truly a great opportunity.

My ONLY problem is that I invited Oz to come too. That fucking guy is getting too good! I was taking these lessons just so I could keep up with him! :)

Sportjujutsu Rules
Original Poster: DokanDojo
Forum: Grappling & Jiu-Jitsu
Posted On: 03-08-2007, 12:40

Orginal Post: DokanDojo: Hi Forum Members,
Our style of jujutsu has Dokan Kumite as its official fighting system. It is an Ippon Shobu-system with knockdown rules.
Is their any other jujutsu organization competing under knockdown/fullcontact rules?

Ask Bushi:
Original Poster: Bushi
Forum: Grappling & Jiu-Jitsu
Posted On: 30-07-2007, 15:43

Orginal Post: Bushi: [quote=bamboo 
My question- How do attack someone thats constantly "shrimping" from standup. What would be a sound strategy? I ask this from a grappling standpoint, no strikes.


-bamboo[/quote 

I assume you mean passing their open guard (their down, you are up). I will give you suggestions for both gi and no-gi.



The key to attacking someone who is extremely mobile in their guard is controlling their hips. This can be done in a variety of ways. I usually control their legs by either pressuring them into the mat, elevating them to where their hips are off the ground or a combination of the two. This is the guiding principle when dealing with the guard period.

That being said, here is a suggestion for each.

GI: I establish a cross grip (ex. my right hand on their right leg)on their pants leg (about six inches below the knee). My other hand (left in this example) establishes a grip on their sleeve (just below the wrist, their right hand). Once this is established, I step to that side at about a 45 and jerk them into the air (like whipping the dust out of a rug) This causes their hips (via their right leg) to be elevated and thus immobile while I step in to go knee on stomach (my right knee). They settle with me in knee on stomach. I can then establish side control or attack with subs.

No-Gi: The above example can work no-gi, but it will be more difficult and the grips change to the ankle and wrist. Here is a better one.

When attacking the no-gi open guard, it is better to up the speed and athletic factor due to how slick things are. If my opponent keeps shrimping away, I will pin his down knee to the mat (my left hand pushes down on the inside of his right knee) thus immobilizing his hip as I dive in (while sprawling on top of the downed leg) and under hook his other leg (my right under his left) If I sprawl hard while penduluming (to my left) keeping his hips immobilized, I will pass his guard. Once I am 90 degrees to him and past the legs and my ear is on his hip bone (my left ear) I can realese the hand pressing on the leg (my left) and under hook his head to settle the position.


On a side note, during a scramble no-gi where the guy is shrimping away and re-establishing guard, try sneaking your near knee in to knee on stomach (KOS) as a quick blocker to him getting his legs back in. It is almost always there and most do not utilize it. You will probably not get to establish KOS fully since its no-gi, but it will block his hips enough for you to establish the pass.

Try that and good luck.

Goal Setting
Original Poster: Martial-Arts-Blogs
Forum: Grappling & Jiu-Jitsu
Posted On: 18-07-2007, 19:07

Orginal Post: Martial-Arts-Blogs: I have too many goals at the moment. Maybe one of them should be to have fewer goals.
Here’s the grand list:
- Improve my conditioning, endurance and strength.
- Focus on generating momentum from my core and using my entire body in unison.
- Train transitions instead of just static positions.
- Train combinations instead of isolated techniques.
- Be fully committed to my movements, transitions and techniques.
- Drill the crazy scrambles until I can come out on top (literally or figuratively).
- Work on my takedowns and wrestling skills.
- Get a mean armdrag from standing, even left-handed.
- Use the duck under and Russian 2-on-1 in combination with the armdrag.
- Fight to come to my knees and stand up more, especially from under side control.
- Make wrestling sit-outs instinctual.
- Acquire better base and balance, especially while passing.
- Develop supernaturally heavy hips for passing guard.
- Build an aggressive guard passing game from standing and knees.
- Improve my standing guard breaks from good posture and safety position (AKA stalling posture).
- Make the Margarida my money pass.
- Fight for underhooks more from everywhere.
- Finally get a decent underhook-take-the-back half guard game.
- Also work on the out-the-back-door deep half guard.
- Refine my core game as I continue to expand it by incorporating new strategies, positions and techniques.
- Revisit things I thought didn’t suit me before and see if they do now.
- Spot bad habits and eliminate them.
- Be aggressive.
- Compete in the next Pan Ams.
I could think of a few more, and I’m always coming up with more, but that’s always true. So many spinning plates to keep up.
That’s awful lot of goals. There’s no way of working on them all at once without losing direction. Part of handling that will be consolidating them and seeing which ones fall under the same theme so I can address them collectively.
But I think another part of the solution is to pick certain goals and give myself an assignment to work on them for a certain amount of time. This is to keep me on track, focused on a limited number of goals, so I can progress through each of them in an orderly way rather than jumping around and never devoting enough time and energy to any single one.
From the next two months, for better or worse, I will work on:
- Traditional and deep half guard with the underhook.
- Standing passes and the Margarida in particular.
How I’ll do it:
- Drill these any chance I have, such as at open mat and before and after class.
- Do progressive resistance isolation drilling/sparring of each.
- Pull half guard all the time. Switch to half guard from my other guards.
- Always stand to pass.
Setting these specific goals doesn’t preclude several of my other more general ones, such as getting the underhook more, always trying to come on top, staying aggressive, etc. These broad goals apply to the specific ones.
[URL="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?a=GB2UlLTT" [IMG http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?i=GB2UlLTT[/IMG </img>[/URL  [URL="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?a=IRdQVKEl" [IMG http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?i=IRdQVKEl[/IMG </img>[/URL  [URL="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?a=eBGIL1Kw" [IMG http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?i=eBGIL1Kw[/IMG </img>[/URL 

Jeff’s Half Guard Sweeps
Original Poster: Martial-Arts-Blogs
Forum: Grappling & Jiu-Jitsu
Posted On: 13-07-2007, 09:48

Orginal Post: Martial-Arts-Blogs: Back in the days of MMALibrary.com, Jeff Rockwell had put up a series of half guard sweeps. He taught starting from a sitting guard and diving in deep as a counter to combat base. I’ve used my internet sleuthing to recover them so I could add them to my notes here. I’m currently focusing on half guard and want to work on these.
It’s all Jeff below:
Sweep #1

I got the first of these from watching Shaolin Ribero and the last two from watching the Noguiera brothers in the last Pride. When you put them all together, it is a formidable series of sweeps and reversals, I’ve been having a lot of success with them recently. While the main place I’ve been applying them is vs. Combat Base (knee up inside guard), there are LOTS of places to aquire this position from, ie. escaping mount, escaping quarter mount, escaping backmount, etc.
[IMG http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1433/794860603_f52ac9c290.jpg[/IMG 
Alright, here I am facing an opponent who has taken a “Combat Base” posture (knee up inside my guard), to defend against standard attacks. As you can see, I am sitting up, not laying flat on my back, and my right hand is on the ground for base. My left hand checks his shoulder to moniter his movement. In this picture, there is a lot of space between his knee and his butt for me to work with; however, even if there is only a few inches of space, I have still found this entry to work.
[IMG http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1203/794861949_b5557eb5ee.jpg[/IMG 
My right leg is going to shoot inside the space between his right leg and his butt. Sometimes I will momentarily grab his right leg with my left hand to hold it in place. Here I am starting to dive my right leg in between his right calf and his butt. It is important that I dive DEEPLY, no half-hearted moves here. My right hand leaves its based-out position and follows my right leg…
[IMG http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1344/795740916_a3d71ba36e.jpg[/IMG 
…also diving between his legs, and coming to rest as an underhook beneath his left leg. Even if he is sitting his weight back on his left leg, it is hard for him to resist this, as I am rocking all my bodyweight up underneath him.
[IMG http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1038/795740550_38c240ad66.jpg[/IMG 
This is the “Seated Half Guard” starting position. My head should be tight against his left hip, and I am so far under his body that we are almost facing the same direction. My ankles are crossed and my legs are squeezing to control his right leg.
Here is an important detail: if at any time, he is able to put his right knee down on the ground, I simply put my left knee in front of his right hip and back out into a normal half-guard position. I don’t want to stay crunched up under him if his knee goes down, as he will be able to crossface me and kill my game. The knee in front is pretty easy to get here, though, so if you have a good normal half-guard game, this will won’t be too much of a concern.
Now for the first sweep, this is a really nice one. My left hand stays tight to my body, and reaches for his right ankle.
[IMG http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1229/795742600_e85e4fdcec.jpg[/IMG 
Now I rock back to get some momentum, then rock forward and extend my left leg and lever forward, pushing on the top of his right thigh with my left hamstring, while pulling on his right ankle with my left hand.
[IMG http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1119/794862583_adf36e4f3c.jpg[/IMG 
I follow him up, keeping control of both legs…
[IMG http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1182/795741902_2ffc31c19e.jpg[/IMG 
…as I start to sprawl downward, underhooking his left thigh with my right arm and overhooking his right thigh with my left arm…
[IMG http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1038/794861643_8b28b49f97.jpg[/IMG 
..and capturing his right ankle with with the crook of my right knee. Keeping the under/over grip, I lean to a 45 degreee angle, keeping tight control of his hips, and extend my hips for the kneebar submission. If he bends his leg to avoid the tap, I get an easy guard pass.
Sweep #2

You can see this sweep attempted several times in the Pride fight where Rogerio Noguierra faces Shogun Rua. Though Shogun counters by repeatedly standing and running out of it, I have found it very effective. Enjoy!
[IMG http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1014/795866638_b240f1bc5f.jpg[/IMG 
So you have attemped sweep number one from the initial sitting half guard position, but you aren’t able to grab his foot. So instead of underhooking his left leg, my right arm now underhooks his RIGHT leg, and my left arm joins it. Both hands are clasped together palm to palm over top of his right leg. This is a weird position at first, but there is not too much the top guy can do to you here. He can’t put much weight on you, can’t attack your arms, your legs, or your neck. The Noguierra brothers have used this position successfully in MMA, but I haven’t tried it in that scenario myself. I wouldn’t want to stay here long if someone was punching me in the face, but that’s just me. It does seem that it keeps the guy pretty off balance, not much power in his punches if you keep rocking. In any case…
[IMG http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1080/794987311_be74153f31.jpg[/IMG 
…my first direction is out the back door. I have a lot of control over his leg here, and I rock my body hard to my left…
[IMG http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1128/794987007_ab13de3fc3.jpg[/IMG 
…extending my legs as I bring his weight forward and pop my head out from under his leg…
[IMG http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1142/795867594_745320de2d.jpg[/IMG 
…coming out the back door like so.
[IMG http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1098/795867960_8847665292.jpg[/IMG 
If the opponent stays low, I look to block his left knee with my right hand, come to either back control or side control. Shogun showed us that this can be countered by standing up and twisting out of it, though, so be ready to follow with a single or double leg if he stands.
Sweep #3

The last sweep in this series. For now.
[IMG http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1328/795894478_70b43fc187.jpg[/IMG 
Here I have acquired the same position at the start of the previous sweep, and I am rocking my body hard to my left, attempting to come out the back door.
[IMG http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1399/795014139_ea5cb84581.jpg[/IMG 
My opponent knows my intentions, however, and sits his weight down hard back toward his butt to counter.
[IMG http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1349/795894744_01e7336986.jpg[/IMG 
Keeping my arms gripped tight on his leg, I twist back to my right, following his momentum and turning upward…
[IMG http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1136/795894850_fc1a32df15.jpg[/IMG 
..to finish with a “single leg” type reversal. Minotauro hit this nicely in the first exchange of the Pride fight with the Polish judo champ.
[IMG http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1187/795895074_f1ccc7930a.jpg[/IMG 
Like many of the other sweeps so far, it leaves you in perfect position to once again hit the over/under - kneebar submission/guard pass.
[URL="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?a=lXNfUzwt" [IMG http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?i=lXNfUzwt[/IMG </img>[/URL  [URL="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?a=5TeTeGfU" [IMG http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?i=5TeTeGfU[/IMG </img>[/URL  [URL="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?a=Io4ONcgI" [IMG http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?i=Io4ONcgI[/IMG </img>[/URL 

Brabo Choke Homework: Trigger Position
Original Poster: Martial-Arts-Blogs
Forum: Grappling & Jiu-Jitsu
Posted On: 29-06-2007, 04:26

Orginal Post: Martial-Arts-Blogs: The time I want to show how I’ve redefined the trigger position for myself and what this means to how I’m getting the choke.
For the longest time, I thought of the brabo as only being available when they underhooked me. This is how it’s taught from half guard and when they escape side control. So the trigger position I came up with was “they underhook, I whizzer”, but that didn’t seem complete to me. As I learned more and more setups from all kinds of positions, I kept looking for aspects of the choke that stay true regardless of the particular setup. They didn’t always need to underhook me. In fact, it’s even better when they don’t since then I can skip crossing their arm. So what am I really looking for?
Last week I got together to train with a friend. Normally I restrict myself to a few techniques, since I know I can go nuts and pull out a bunch of moves and have a lot of fun and learn nothing. But on a whim, I decided to run myself through an inventory of every brabo choke setup I know. Not to drill each one, but to refresh myself on all the ones I knew. To my surprise, rather than getting lost in techniques, I started consolidating my knowledge. The different setups started blending together and I saw how to take from one and apply it to another. The next day I was hitting brabos from all kinds of positions I normally never tried, since my arms were just finding the grips on their own.
When I sat down and thought about it, I realized my arm was automatically going for this trigger position:
[IMG http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1159/635599440_639f4b0f0f.jpg[/IMG 
My arm reaches through their armpit and grabs behind their neck. Them underhooking me is definitely one way to get there but far from the only way.
This is good news, since people are already afraid of underhooking me, and now I don’t really care since I can work towards the choke without them feeding my the arm.
Side Control Armdrag

Let’s look at how this bears out in action. You can make them give you the trigger position even if they don’t underhook.
[IMG http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1240/634739881_1f47eda635.jpg[/IMG 
I’m in side control. They have their arms in good posture and aren’t trying to get the underhook to escape.
[IMG http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1087/634740175_800351fedb.jpg[/IMG 
I give them some room to turn into me but they still don’t want to escape that way. Instead they are framing my neck and pushing away. My hand slides across their chest and grabs their triceps just above the elbow. I want their hand resting in the crook of my elbow, so we’re actually sharing a mutual grip. This traps their hand so they can’t circle their arm out.
[IMG http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1284/635603506_b81106ef22.jpg[/IMG 
I drag their arm across, crossing their elbow over their chest. I pull them to me slightly to turn their shoulder up. Then I lay my chest on their arm and use my chin to trap it. Keep control of the elbow since they’ll be fighting to pull it back or circle their arm out.
[IMG http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1164/635603652_8902fe68a3.jpg[/IMG 
I keep pulling their arm to me as I swim and uppercut my other arm through to the “new” trigger position.
[IMG http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1016/634740543_9c261d1801.jpg[/IMG 
I pull my arm out then shove their elbow in with my palm. They may try to swing their arm over their head to escape, so I need to make sure I keep their arm trapped with my chest and head in the moment when I let go to switch my grips. Once I’m shoving their arm in, I give myself enough room to put their arm on their neck (since it’s going to be up by their face at first), then I lay my chest on it again once it’s in place.
[IMG http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1098/635603990_e75add30c3.jpg[/IMG 
From here I simply close the choke and do the usual to finish.
You can do similar sets by grabbing their wrists or their sleeves and dragging their arm across. I’ve also been using this from half guard when they are afraid to underhook.
[URL="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?a=JelCULsk" [IMG http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?i=JelCULsk[/IMG </img>[/URL  [URL="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?a=UO23jNFi" [IMG http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?i=UO23jNFi[/IMG </img>[/URL  [URL="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?a=VcFHkGfk" [IMG http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?i=VcFHkGfk[/IMG </img>[/URL 

Royce Is A Steroid Monkey!!!
Original Poster: bamboo
Forum: Grappling & Jiu-Jitsu
Posted On: 28-06-2007, 01:31

Orginal Post: bamboo: Gracie Fails Drug Test, Suspended

BWAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHHA!!!!

I have nothing against him other than his media image as a macho man ego maniac, this is just sad.

-bamboo

Brabo Choke Homework: Crossing the Arm
Original Poster: Martial-Arts-Blogs
Forum: Grappling & Jiu-Jitsu
Posted On: 27-06-2007, 22:25

Orginal Post: Martial-Arts-Blogs: The next point to cover is how to deal with their underhooking arm.
Like in the triangle, you want to cross their arm. Also like the triangle, it’s not completely necessary, but it’s best form, the cleanest technique and makes for the smoothest finish. They can use that arm to create a little space (so their shoulder doesn’t squash into their neck), or they can do [URL="http://www.martialfighter.com/165/jeffs-brabo-choke-counter/" Jeff’s escape[/URL  of throwing the elbow back and grabbing their leg and kicking out.
I’ll show how I prevent those escapes while adjusting the choke even deeper.
[IMG http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1368/635601992_c8b7397740.jpg[/IMG 
Here you see them trying to escape with an underhook, grabbing my leg as they come up for a takedown. The hand on my leg is my problem, so I’ve got to kill it somehow.
Sprawling
[IMG http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1311/635602122_1d24e3d091.jpg[/IMG 
A simple and natural reaction is to sprawl like you would to defend a takedown. Throw your legs back and drop your hips to the floor. You may need to turn your hips from side to side and bounce a little to shake their arm off. Stay on your toes and drive in to put pressure on their triceps with your chest to help crush their arm and prevent them from reaching up (and maintaining their grip).
You can finish from the sprawl too, but I’ve found you’re more likely to just crush their neck without choking them. As you’ll see, there’s still more adjusting you can do for a cleaner choke, and other finishing positions give you better pressure for the blood choke.
Mule Kick
[IMG http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1216/634738883_4117390d2d.jpg[/IMG 
The problem I have with sprawling is that people can often hold on to my pants even with their arm stretched out. Or I’ll break their grip, but they get it again as I come back to my knees. This is why I prefer to do a mule kick. I switch my legs so the knee near their head is on the ground, then I kick my foot to the sky. I’ll keep kicking and shaking and lifting my leg until I feel their grip break and their arm fall between my legs. Put you chest on the back of their arm to press it down.
[IMG http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1018/635602390_e7806e6047.jpg[/IMG 
After I’ve broken their grip one way or another, I’ll come back to my knees, trapping their arm between them.
Try walking slightly towards their head, but not all the way to north-south. Changing this angle between your bodies will let you reach your choking arm deeper since you’re not stretching it so far. The reason we didn’t do this earlier is because it gives them a better angle to get to their knees, but that’s less of a threat now that they don’t have the underhook any more.
Take this moment to adjust and tighten your grips again; there is now usually an inch or two of space around their neck that you can close up now that the arm is crossed. Drop your shoulder, uppercut, wiggle deeper.
You can finish fairly well from here by crunching them into you, pressing your elbow in like you want their head to meet their belly, and dropping your shoulder to the mat.
But I like to take it even further since I’m going to sit-out to finish.
[IMG http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1028/634739331_cda1545d5e.jpg[/IMG 
I step up with my leg near their hips to give myself space.
[IMG http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1084/634739535_159364763c.jpg[/IMG 
Then I step in with my other leg, putting my knee up past their elbow, so my thigh is pressing on the back of their arm. Their arm is now crossed all the way to the other side of my body. I may even take a second here to adjust my grips even a little deeper.
[IMG http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1392/635602930_bdaf2c996a.jpg[/IMG 
Now when I sit into them, my body (ribs, stomach, hips, thigh, knee, something) is blocking their elbow and pressing their arm across their neck. My top foot comes to their hip to prevent them from getting up. I keep scooting my hips into them, dropping my shoulder to the ground, twisting my upper body and squeezing the choke.
The “best” time to cross the arm is when you’ve got the figure-four grip, since it’s the most secure. But you can do these steps while you’ve still got other ones. It depends on what they are defending. If they are blocking your next grip in the progression, start trying to cross their arm. Either you get that or they switch to defending it and you go back to working your grips. The idea is to be aware of your multiple goals and work towards each one, intelligently switching from one to the other so they’re trying to catch up.
[URL="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?a=jU5rpAyk" [IMG http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?i=jU5rpAyk[/IMG </img>[/URL  [URL="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?a=A3Y2gAW6" [IMG http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?i=A3Y2gAW6[/IMG </img>[/URL  [URL="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?a=3YewLYqQ" [IMG http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?i=3YewLYqQ[/IMG </img>[/URL 

Brabo Choke Homework: Progressive Grips
Original Poster: Martial-Arts-Blogs
Forum: Grappling & Jiu-Jitsu
Posted On: 27-06-2007, 19:37

Orginal Post: Martial-Arts-Blogs: More notes from my brabo choke homework.
Thinking Like It’s a Triangle

This may seem obvious to you, but it took me a while think of the brabo as a triangle choke. Yeah, I knew literally that it’s an arm triangle — that’s not what I mean. I had a “just slap it on” attitude towards it, where I’d give up if I didn’t hit it in one shot, which isn’t how I think about the triangle choke with the legs. With that move, I know to be patient while I work towards my ultimate goal, fixing several points at once: maintaining position, breaking their posture, getting the correct angle, getting the proper contact with their neck, working to close the full figure-four, crossing their arm, etc. You have multiple simultaneous objectives, and which one you’re working on changes depending on its importance and how well they’re defending it.
Once I started looking at the brabo along similar lines, it started clicking more and my success rate with it has gone way up. The main points I fleshed out were 1) how to get the arm triangle tight using progressive grips, 2) how to cross their arm and 3) how to apply finishing pressure.
First, I want to go over the idea of using a series of grips to work towards tightening and closing the final choke.
I’m big on giving people credit if they gave me ideas or teach me. I didn’t come up with any of these grips, but I did collect them from scattered resources and put them together. If you’re been following my brabo choke homework, you know the usual suspects for my inspiration/plagarism, so I don’t feel like re-re-recrediting them again here. It gets tiring to have to keep citing sources, but it’s a habit since people go “HURR RIGAN DID THAT FIRST” if I don’t. Or if I do. Doesn’t really make a difference.
Anyway.
Let’s start off. Assume we’re joining a brabo already in progress. They are trying to escape side control with an underhook, and I’ve whizzered my arm in for the brabo.
Notice how I lay my head on them like I’m listening to their shoulder. This helps me drop my shoulder and reach deeper. I want to get my hand all the way to the back of their neck. If I don’t have my whole fist seeing the light of day, I won’t be able to get the choke.
An important detail you’ll see in the photos below is how I keep pressure and weight on them so they can’t get to their elbow. They need to post on that elbow before they can get up. While I want them turned on their side enough to exposure their head and arm, I don’t want them to turn to all fours, since they have a better chance of taking me down or escaping then.
Progressive Grips

You hopefully won’t need to use all of these grips to get the choke. You can usually skip ahead if you’ve got good timing and are quick, but I think the best way to approach a subject like this is to work from worst cases scenarios. Some of these grips are stronger than others, but each has its time and use. Each grip has the purpose of cranking their head in and bending their neck (or at least prevent them from straightening it any further).
Pulling the Head
[IMG http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1228/634736451_cc35b00d80.jpg[/IMG 
[IMG http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1088/634737339_ef12cf2419.jpg[/IMG 
This is one of the weaker grips but it’s also often one of the easiest to grab right away, particularly if you already had a crossface. It’s not very good for forcing their head in, but it’ll prevent them from stretching away too far. It’s also useful for maintaining control and contact if they start trying to bring their knee into your hips and stretch you out (like in z-guard) since you can reach farther with it.
Stuffing the Head
[IMG http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1229/635600086_05b6d9425e.jpg[/IMG 
[IMG http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1298/635600902_a4316bb25d.jpg[/IMG 
By rotating your palm on the back of their head, you can switch to one of the strongest grips. Shove their head in like you’re trying to stuff it down to their hips. You can really cram their head in with this one.
Trog showed me how he was taught to use this grip to pass half guard by sprawling until their legs open and walking around. I can understand why, since it feels to me like the most pressure on the neck.
Darce Grip
[IMG http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1155/634736713_bc0b4b3cb5.jpg[/IMG 
[IMG http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1286/634737591_72d9801f0d.jpg[/IMG 
Keeping constant pressure, slide from your palm to pushing with your wrist and grab a palm-to-palm grip. This is the famous D’arce grip. It offers a lot of control without being tiring to maintain. Scissor your forearms together and pinch your elbows. Pull their head towards you like you’re trying to shuck it under you.
Short Man’s Brabo
[IMG http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1009/635600420_594823a536.jpg[/IMG 
[IMG http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1397/635601140_7faa4c6e96.jpg[/IMG 
From the darce, you can shoot your outside arm through and grab your wrist and forearm. Keep your elbow in tight so you don’t give them room to pop their head out. You can use this to crank their head in as you slide your hand up your forearm towards your biceps. You can also use your outside hand to grab their shoulder and prevent them from getting up or (if they do get to their elbow) grabbing their triceps and breaking it down so they fall on their side again.
Shove and Uppercut
[IMG http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1184/635600524_1f6394334e.jpg[/IMG 
One of my goals is to get the crook of my elbow tight to their adam’s apple and my forearm along the side of their neck. It’ll neck crank them more if I don’t get that deep since it’ll just be my forearm crushing their throat or muscles.
As I’m progressing through all of these grips, I am constantly trying to shove my choking arm deeper and deeper. The motion is like doing an uppercut as I drop my shoulder. You can see this in the above photo. I’m doing it while I shove the back of the head. This is my favorite time to uppercut since I feel I can get really deep, but you can do it (to greater and lesser degrees) while holding any other grip. Try to do it any time you can, but the best times are right as and right after you’ve cranked their head in. In the moment it takes from them to try to straighten out again, you can shove and wiggle your arm through a little more.
Finishing Grip
[IMG http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1220/634737243_a5d9cd128f.jpg[/IMG 
[IMG http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1130/635601256_6eadfd2aab.jpg[/IMG 
Once you’ve got your choking arm deep enough, you should be able to put your wrist in the crook of your elbow. Your palm and fingers should actually reach around to the back of your triceps. If you’re only just grabbing your biceps with your hand, you’re more likely to have the grip break or slip off, and you can actually hurt your fingers. It also probably means you didn’t get the choke tight enough.
Your outside hand reaches up and grabs their top shoulder as high as it can. My personal trick for making sure I’m doing this right is to try to bring my hand up until I can put my chin on it. Doubt the chin really helps but it feels proper.
That’s it for now. The next point I’ll go over crossing the arm.
[URL="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?a=uQllhIcQ" [IMG http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?i=uQllhIcQ[/IMG </img>[/URL  [URL="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?a=bCfARAOs" [IMG http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?i=bCfARAOs[/IMG </img>[/URL  [URL="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?a=Gs9WhZZ4" [IMG http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?i=Gs9WhZZ4[/IMG </img>[/URL 

Standing Up, Sitting Out and Brabo Chokes
Original Poster: Martial-Arts-Blogs
Forum: Grappling & Jiu-Jitsu
Posted On: 21-06-2007, 13:22

Orginal Post: Martial-Arts-Blogs: A recent ankle injury has caused me to change the focus of my game. The main areas I’m working on are standing from guard and snapping down to the front headlock then doing brabo chokes. I’ve also been working on the wrestler’s sit-out simply because it’s a skill I’ve never really developed and figured now would be a good time. Below are the drills I’ve been doing to train these skills.
Most of these are warm-ups and introduction stage drills. I’m putting together more that add resistance for the isolation stage. I’ve got a couple interesting ideas for how to create some intense but highly specific drills (like fighting to get back to your feet when they’re hugging both legs, either after a double leg or while passing guard). But this is what I put together for a quick training session so I didn’t make it too tiring.
Standing Up

When I started working on the guillotines, I watched a bunch of submission highlight reels (101 Submissions, Grappling All-Stars, youtube, etc.) to see how people set them up. One of the main ways I saw was standing up from guard. Which is only too obvious, since one of the main points of any guillotine is getting your head higher than their head.
I’ve also been giving standing up from guard a lot of thought lately for a couple more reasons. I’ve got an offer to teach women’s self defense, and this is what I feel would be one of the most important skills to teach. And unfortunately, I almost broke my ankle so playing guard hurts more than getting up and trying to run someone over.
The last and main reason is one I took from my own performance. I noticed that on the days when I feel more “on”, when my game is really working and I’m in the cliched “zone”, I tend to be doing something with my guard that I don’t always do. It happened on the days I got my blue belt and purple belt and when I’m feeling really ready before a tournament. It takes sparring with Eduardo to bring it out in me, since no one else makes me work it like he does. It’s simply that I stop playing a “pull them in” guard and start trying to shove and stand up (or at least come to my knees), especially to counter their guard passes. I didn’t spot this for a long while, since it was something that came out when I switched over to automatic for a hard match. Recently I sat down and really thought about what I do differently that makes such a big difference and this is what I pin-pointed. Now I’m purposely drilling this to take advantage of it.
Snake move to sitting up
This is a simple move that’s a close cousin of a normal shrimp. The main difference is that the first thing you do is get up on your elbow and hand. When you escape my hips with your elbow or arm posted like this, you end sitting up. This move is the base for every move to follow, since it trains you to 1) get up on your elbow and hand, 2) escape your hips and 3) sit up when you’re flat on your back.
[INDENT Source: The Guard by Joe Moreira, p. 12-13.
[/INDENT Snake move to knees
Start doing the last movement, but end by posting on your hand and opposite foot so you can lift your hips and swing your leg under, coming to your knees. It’s like a miniature stand up in base, but you can do it more explosively since you’re jumping to your knees or sprawling.
[INDENT Source: The Guard by Joe Moreira, p. 169.
[/INDENT Snake move to standing up in base
Starting with the first move again, this time when you sit up, finish by doing a full technical stand up in base. It’s really two moves (snake move and technical stand-up) but you’re stringing them together.
[INDENT Source: The Guard by Joe Moreira, p. 210.
[/INDENT Standing up from closed guard vs good posture
They have good posture in your closed guard. Get to your elbow and sit up. Grab their opposite shoulder with your other hand and frame across their neck. Get up on your hand. Shove them back and threaten sitting up into them. Do a technical stand-up in base. Drive in and shove their head down into a front headlock and sprawl on them.
[INDENT Source: MMA Book of Knowledge by BJ Penn, p. 184-185.
[/INDENT Standing up from closed guard vs stalling posture
They are in safety position (head down in your chest, arms hugging your sides, elbows caging your hips). Shove the back of their head so their face goes down to the ground on whichever side they are looking. Sit up and get on your elbow. Escape your hips. Pull your bottom leg out until you can stand up in base. Keep their head pinned to the mat. Drive in, snapdown, front headlock, etc.
[INDENT Source: MMA Book of Knowledge by BJ Penn, p. 196-197. Kenny Florian MMA/No-gi Seminar DVD.
[/INDENT Standing up from butterfly guard with underhook
You have butterfly guard with underhooks. Start setting up a hook sweep to one side. Kick out their knee on that side. When they stumble and try to regain their balance, post your hand and stand-up. You’ll likely end up in a dog fight position (with them whizzering you) but you can get to a front headlock if you try for it.
[INDENT Source: MMA Book of Knowledge by BJ Penn, p. 221-222.
[/INDENT Standing up from butterfly guard with overhook
They get an underhook, meaning you get an overhook. Wrap their arm tightly. Grab their opposite wrist. Scoot out to the side of their overhooked arm. When they drive in to flatten you out, post back on your hand, scoot even further to the side and try to whizzer their face into the floor. Put a lot of pressure on their shoulder and use this to pivot as you jump to your knees. The front headlock and guillotines and brabos are all sitting right there once you’re up.
[INDENT Source: Matt Thornton shows a guillotine similar to this in FJKD3, The A.P.E. Guard.
[/INDENT Standing up from butterfly guard with guillotine
They grab your legs/ankles to start passing. You wrap their head for a guillotine. They let go of your feet and grab your arm to protect their neck. Keeping a grip on their chin, you post back on your other hand and jump to your knees for a front headlock.
[INDENT Source: Mayhem Miller on subfighter.com ([URL="http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5464899077666099198" watch video here[/URL ).
[/INDENT If you’re doing MMA and want to strike instead of grapple, all of these can easily end with you backing away to standing instead of staying in close contact.
Sit-outs

I’ve always had an aversion to wrestler’s sit-outs for some reason. Probably the “wrestler’s” bit. But I recently saw two applications of it that made me yearn to do it correctly. First, I watched Bill The Grill teach a brabo that he catches in transition as he’s sitting out from under a front headlock. It was just too cool and I had to try it, but I know I need a decent basic sit-out before I can add the fancy part. The second incident was seeing Thiago Tavares use a sit-out to take Jason Black’s back after getting sprawled while shooting for a double leg in the last Fight Night Live. So I’ve decided to give it a fresh look and put in serious drilling. I figured if I was going to take any move from a UFC, it might as well be a basic wrestling skill instead of the gimmicks most people like.
Solo sit-outs
This is a fairly common drill. Start on all fours. Get on your hands and feet with your butt up. Sit through, putting your opposite foot where your hand is and your hand where you foot used to be. Then spin over again and come back to all fours. Do this for 1-2 minutes, switching from side to side as you please.
[INDENT Source: Passing the Guard by Ed Beneville. Grappling Drills by Stephan Kesting.
[/INDENT Slides
Squat down on your hands and feet. Slide your leg across, posting with your hand and lifting your other arm in the air. Go back and forth quickly, like you’re a Russian dancer.
[INDENT Source: Passing the Guard by Ed Beneville. Grappling Drills by Stephan Kesting.
[/INDENT Slides down the mat
The same movement as before but you hop forward before each slide, so you’re traveling forward down the mat.
Sit-outs (arm spin to front headlock)
There are many different ways to do the wrester’s sit-out, depending on how they’re holding you and what you want to do with it. For my purposely, I want to work on one that ends with me in the front headlock. In Paragon Jiu-Jitsu: Secrets of Our Success, Bill the Grill teaches one that feels the more natural to me. The key detail he added was the idea of spinning around their arm as you sit out. It gave me a central point to rotate around, which smoothed out the move. Before, I was sitting out then flipping over in two motions, instead of spinning smoothly the whole way through.
Front Headlock, Sideride and Brabo/Darce

Almost of the preceding drills end with you in the front headlock. This is because my goal is to get guillotines and brabo chokes. But before getting to the submissions, I like to flesh out the position. One that’s done, we can work on the chokes.
Spin drill
Your partner turtles up tight. You sprawl on him with your arms behind your back. You run around in circles, switching directions, turning your upper body on its side, walking different ways. The goal is constant movement while keeping all of your weight and pressure focused on to his back.
Spin-behind drill with darce grip
In Grappling Drills, Kesting teaches a drill where you start in a sprawl position on someone, then spin to sideride and grab the harness, then spin all the way around their front to get it again on the other side. I took that idea and applied it to the darce grip. It goes like this:
1. They’re on all fours. You get a front headlock.
2. Spin to sideride. As you spin, switch to a gable grip, shoot your arm deeper under their armpit and bring your forearm behind their head.
3. You’re now in the darce position. Keep your head on their back, like you want to listen to their shoulder.
4. Release your grip. Start spinning to the far side, getting a front headlock as you move around.
5. Spin to the darce grip on the other side.
6. Repeat steps 2-6.
The trick is understanding which side to spin to depending on how you have the front headlock (which arm is trapped) and being able to switch this back and forth as you go side to side.
Darce from sideride
The darce to brabo like you already know how to do. Lately I’ve been putting more attention on fine tuning grips, adjusting and finishing. Maybe I’ll talk about that later.
Like I said at the start, I have more drills to add and create. For example, another natural extension of this is working on sprawling, since they’ll often try to take you down as you stand up or once you’re in the front headlock. You’ll hear about them later.
[URL="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?a=AneFDcCq" [IMG http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?i=AneFDcCq[/IMG </img>[/URL  [URL="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?a=uZGdBlIU" [IMG http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?i=uZGdBlIU[/IMG </img>[/URL  [URL="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?a=5vyawCW8" [IMG http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?i=5vyawCW8[/IMG </img>[/URL 

Which school
Original Poster: bamboo
Forum: Grappling & Jiu-Jitsu
Posted On: 15-06-2007, 17:33

Orginal Post: bamboo: [FONT=book antiqua,palatino While jogging this evevning I had this question running through my head: [/FONT 
[FONT=book antiqua,palatino Do I join a mcdojo with a decent subgrappling program or pay through the nose to a hardcore BJJ gym?[/FONT 
The mcdojo is close to the house, has alot of people and the schedule is perfect for me, infact its as if I pencilled in the class times myself. They have blue and purple bjj teachers, a nidan judoka and a huge student base. The price is average and the location and gas consumption are perfect.
The hardcore place has a Brown at least one purple and is affiliated under a gracie. The price is insane and its on the other side of town. They also have muay thai and I believe a MMA team.
I know it seems obvious to go for number two but what I'm really looking for is something to supplement what I'm already doing. I want to learn and I want to roll with good people and theres no gauruntee I won't get that at the mcdojo but then I'm torn as I don't want to support a mcdojo, but at the same time I don't think I should be feeding the insane price machine that are gracie schools. That leaves just as bad a taste in my mouth as attending a mcdojo.
[/SIZE 
[SIZE=3 -bamboo
[/SIZE 
[SIZE=3 

Jeff Taking the Back from Mount
Original Poster: Martial-Arts-Blogs
Forum: Grappling & Jiu-Jitsu
Posted On: 14-06-2007, 20:07

Orginal Post: Martial-Arts-Blogs: From Jeff Rockwell:
[msembed 2034176126[/msembed 
[INDENT Very simple, but very effective against an opponent who doesn’t frame his top arm properly when performing an elbow escape.
[/INDENT  [URL="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?a=QLLlxO1L" [IMG http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?i=QLLlxO1L[/IMG </img>[/URL  [URL="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?a=aJFYeBDE" [IMG http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?i=aJFYeBDE[/IMG </img>[/URL  [URL="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?a=7tDv5ZT0" [IMG http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?i=7tDv5ZT0[/IMG </img>[/URL 

Jeff’s Brabo Choke Counter
Original Poster: Martial-Arts-Blogs
Forum: Grappling & Jiu-Jitsu
Posted On: 14-06-2007, 20:07

Orginal Post: Martial-Arts-Blogs: From Jeff Rockwell:
[msembed 2034165888[/msembed 
[INDENT Escape from brabo choke in half guard and side control.
[/INDENT  [URL="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?a=kSZ3xohS" [IMG http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?i=kSZ3xohS[/IMG </img>[/URL  [URL="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?a=LG2oZQ9A" [IMG http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?i=LG2oZQ9A[/IMG </img>[/URL  [URL="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?a=v3Skus19" [IMG http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?i=v3Skus19[/IMG </img>[/URL 

Jorge’s Half Guard
Original Poster: Martial-Arts-Blogs
Forum: Grappling & Jiu-Jitsu
Posted On: 14-06-2007, 20:07

Orginal Post: Martial-Arts-Blogs: From Leo Kirby:
Jorge Vidal is one of the instructors at our gym. He is a De La Riva black belt and a great competitor. He recently lost in the Pan Ams to my other instructor, Edson Diniz, who went on to lose in the finals to Marcelo Garcia. It was pretty impressive to me that two friends and training partners competed against each other when you hear all of the stories about guys from the same gym avoiding each other in competition. They had a great match. Jorge gave Edson fits for most of the match with his half guard game until Edson caught him in a bow and arrow choke from behind near the end of the match.
Jorge has the best half guard of anyone I have ever wrestled. When I roll with Jorge I feel like I am constantly surfing, trying to keep my balance and avoid being swept. Jorge will roll you, sweep you, or take your back from half guard all of the time.
He was nice enough to let me film a couple of clips. The first clip shows how Jorge elevates your hips, keeps them elevated and then plays his game. I think this is the most important part of his half guard game: keeping the opponent’s hips elevated.

The second clip shows a back roll that Jorge gets all of the time. He will force your hand to the other side of his head, then do the back roll or come out to take your back. Once again, note how he elevates the opponent’s hips by gripping the pant leg and lifting it slightly before doing the roll.

[URL="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?a=wiewXGd5" [IMG http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?i=wiewXGd5[/IMG </img>[/URL  [URL="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?a=H1dUxD7X" [IMG http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?i=H1dUxD7X[/IMG </img>[/URL  [URL="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?a=F39pKx6h" [IMG http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?i=F39pKx6h[/IMG </img>[/URL 

Drilling Isn’t A Four Letter Word
Original Poster: Martial-Arts-Blogs
Forum: Grappling & Jiu-Jitsu
Posted On: 14-06-2007, 20:07

Orginal Post: Martial-Arts-Blogs: It’s almost a curse word. It’s the worst part of class, next to warm-ups. You may wish you could skip it and get on to the fun stuff.
Yet drilling is a necessary and important aspect of learning, regardless of how loved it is. You’ve got to build muscle memory somehow.
The disdain for drilling likely comes from what it entails: repetition. To some, this might as well be a synonym for “boring”. And that’s what it is when you approach it as a chore, instead of a valuable tool for improving.
If you drill like a robot, you’ll no doubt find it dull. You’ve got to invest thought into the activity to truly benefit. While I can’t promise it’ll make drilling any more fun, I think I can give helpful advice on how to make it more meaningful.
These are the questions I ask myself when drilling to keep my mind active.
Hips Always

The hips are king. Practically every technique and skill in BJJ (or any sport or physical activity) is built around the hips. You can never go wrong by analyzing what your hips are doing.
You may be surprised to find how many moves come down to the hips. A collar choke or a guillotine may seem to be all in the arms, but the setups don’t work and real leverage doesn’t come until you know how and where to use your hips.
Examples
[INDENT  Is my hip movement smooth enough?
Is my hip placement correct?
Did I rotate my hips far enough?
Are my hips heavy enough?
[/INDENT  Gross Motor Skills

Moving outwards from the core, you can look at the next largest elements of the technique: what are your limbs is doing?
Try paying attention to each limb individually, making sure it plays its role to the fullest. Look at them altogether and see if they’re working in sync. Tie this into the last point and see if and how each limb contributes to your hip movement.
Examples
[INDENT What is my left arm doing? My right?
What is my left leg doing? My right?
Did I move each in the proper sequence?
Which limbs are moving my hips?
[/INDENT  Posture and Grips

Closely related to your hips and limbs are your posture and grips. They are the other defining characteristics of a position and its techniques.
Make sure you’re starting in proper posture. Make sure you’re grabbing the right spots at the right times.
Examples
[INDENT Am I in proper posture?
Are my neck, back and hips in proper alignment?
Should my back be straight or bent?
Where does each hand go?
[/INDENT  Underlying Concepts

Every technique is built on fundamental principles. Once you grasp the technique, you can try to reverse engineer it. What is the most basic reason it works? Use what you learned earlier by analyzing the hip and limb movement, etc. to reflect on this. Try to reduce it to its essence.
Look at the physics involved. Think of the technique in terms of patterns and flows of movements. Think of it in terms of space, weight, supports and levers.
Look at the anatomy involved. Why did you use each part of your body the way you did? Why did you manipulate his body like that?
Look at the strategy involved. What was the advantage of what you did? What was the disadvantage?
If the moves you’re learning form a series, look for unifying principles between them. How does this move relate to the last?
Examples
[INDENT How does this sweep attack their base and posture?
How does this armlock compare to others ones?
Crossing their arm makes them extremely vulnerable.
A guard pass is when my hips pass the line of their hips.
[/INDENT  Finer Points

With all of the major components of the technique down, it’s time to develop your attention to detail. Accuracy in seemingly minor details can make the difference between “okay” and “highly skilled”.
Refine your understanding of the technique. Make mental notes of the little things. Try to spot something you missed before. Discover nuances.
Examples
[INDENT I should grip just above the elbow, but no higher or lower.
My posture is stronger if I turn my elbows in.
I actually make it harder if I escape my hips too far.
Do I like claw or pistol grip more for this?
[/INDENT  What If?

Once you’ve got the mechanics down, and if you have time, try asking what if? and troubleshooting the technique.
It can be just as valuable to know how not to do a move. By “breaking” it and observing what happens, you can gain greater insight into the technique.
Try doing a repetition where you purposely leave out a step or don’t do it as well as you should have. Compare this with a properly done one.
What if there are several equally valid ways to do a move? Test each and see what you find.
Examples
[INDENT What happens if I don’t rotate my hips enough?
What if I’m lazy with this leg?
What if I grip over here instead?
What if I do this first?
[/INDENT  Perfect Practice Makes Perfect

Consciously try to improve each repetition. Make each one better than the last. Don’t be happy with a sloppy technique. Seek perfection.
This can take a lot of self-discipline. You’ve simply got to stick to it. It may not be the most exciting part of training, but it can be very rewarding, and I think you’ll find it’s worth it in the long run.
That Said…

No amount of static drilling will make you good by itself. You’ll eventually reach a point where you won’t be benefiting as much as you could, and it’s time to move on.
The problem most people run here is having their beautiful technique falls out the window as soon as they spar, which is why my next piece will be on bridging the gap between drilling and sparring.
[URL="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?a=dYs3zrvq" [IMG http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?i=dYs3zrvq[/IMG </img>[/URL  [URL="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?a=gIsBwnVU" [IMG http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?i=gIsBwnVU[/IMG </img>[/URL  [URL="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?a=G46sKwSP" [IMG http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?i=G46sKwSP[/IMG </img>[/URL 

How Much Do You Really Need?
Original Poster: Martial-Arts-Blogs
Forum: Grappling & Jiu-Jitsu
Posted On: 14-06-2007, 20:07

Orginal Post: Martial-Arts-Blogs: The draw of this journal has been its constant tutorials and techniques. Some of you may have been disappointed lately, with the frequency of updates slowing down and fewer tutorials being put up.
As you may have figured out, this journal is largely a reflection of my personal interests. I only share techniques I use, and I only talk from my experience. So as my focuses change, so too does the direction of my journal.
Maybe I’m merely acting out the [URL="http://aliveness101.blogspot.com/2007/02/exploring-map.html" predestined mindset that befalls all purple belts[/URL , where I look back on my time as a blue belt and see how wrongheaded I was for collecting techniques instead of refining them. But lately, I’ve been [URL="http://bjj-australia.blogspot.com/2005/10/take-another-look.html" returning to “old” techniques[/URL , [URL="http://bjj-australia.blogspot.com/2005/10/10-percenters.html" working over all the details[/URL , and [URL="http://bjj-australia.blogspot.com/2005/10/potency-huge-secret-seriously.html" trying to increase their potency[/URL .
And it’s been one of the best things I’ve done in a long time.
Perhaps because of this, I’ve been worried about what people are actually doing with all of the information on this journal. My concern is that they’re getting lost in the euphoria of learning new techniques, or that they’re just collecting techniques for the sake of collecting them, but not putting in the work needed to improve their game or effectively incorporate new moves.
Because of this, I think it’s time to bring more attention to how to learn, not just what to learn.
I confess. I consume inordinately large amounts of BJJ information and techniques: dozens upon dozens of books, DVDs, magazines, blogs, forums, online tutorials and more. This is in addition to regular instruction. Its my nature to dig into a subject, compile research and compare data from different sources.
Do I recommend this for everyone? No.
For most, this is a sure way to suffer from [URL="http://feliciaoh.blogspot.com/2007/02/information-overload.html" information overload[/URL .
The only way I can handle this much intake is by balancing it against an equal amount of mat time. I train 5-7 days per week (including open mat), get to class early and often close up for the night. This isn’t to brag, but to give you a point of reference for comparison.
The average person with commitments like a full-time job, a family, bills, a social life, etc., gets in 2-3 classes per week. For them, sinking as much time, effort and thought into BJJ as I do isn’t possible (or advised). Should they also try to squeeze in watching and reading instructionals?
I’ll bet that if you’re going to regular classes under a qualified instructor (which, alas, not all of you are), you don’t really need much else. It’s nice and can be pretty helpful, but it’s not going to make or break you.
The best grapplers I know personally hardly study outside of normal classes (if they do at all). I suspect the vast majority of elite competitors don’t watch too many instructionals either. They all just put their heart into training and have superb teachers.
Even with all my extra mat time, I reach a point of “information saturation” where seeing more techniques won’t mean anything. There was a time when I could sit and watch an entire “BJJ A-to-Z” style instructional. These days I am only interested in ones on specific topics and techniques ([URL="http://www.martialfighter.com/tag/brabo-choke" lately the brabo choke[/URL ).
The real value of instructionals to me is in troubleshooting and exploring certain aspects in depth. They can supplement your instructor but they cannot replace him.
I’ve talked with Eduardo, my instructor, about the abundance of BJJ media we have today. While he thinks it is for the best, he also feels something is now missing because of it. What he said stuck with me and I’ve given it a lot of thought.
When he first started, the instructor was only source of knowledge. This made you value each individual class and technique. You committed yourself to learning every move, since you couldn’t simply look it up again later; each lesson was invaluable since you couldn’t get it anywhere else.
Today, someone can go to class and be taught a move, and instead of [URL="http://bjj-australia.blogspot.com/2007/04/on-tapping-chunking-down-taking.html" taking ownership of it[/URL , he can think “Oh, I’ve seen this already” or “I’ll just watch this again later.” Their overexposure to techniques makes them mentally lazy. They see a fundamental move and find it mundane. Nevermind that they’re terrible at it — it’s just not as cool as the stuff they see online.
The point is not that instructionals are bad. Sometimes you honestly do need to review books and videos, and by being able to draw from multiple sources, students are less likely to have their instructor abuse his status. There may be topics that your instructor doesn’t address enough for your liking. The lesson is to be judicious in how you use these resources.
Let’s take a quick look at an ideal way to learn a new technique:
You are taught a technique and drill it. If you’re lucky enough to have a good teacher, you’re give a chance to isolate it with positional sparring. Or you may need to show initiative and try it in sparring.
[URL="http://bjj-australia.blogspot.com/2005/10/first-step-of-taking-ownership.html" What’s important is you go for it[/URL , regardless of whether or not you succeed. No matter how clumsy your attempt may have been, you thought of it and tried it. This plants the seed in your mind. The next time it comes up, you’ll think a little quicker and do it a little smoother. Repeat this enough times and suddenly you’ve got skill.
Now let’s see how misusing instructionals can pervert this process:
You find some interesting techniques in a book or online. You glance them over and make a note to try later. At class, you’ve got your attention split between what is being taught in front of you and the half-forgotten tutorials floating around in your head. When sparring comes, you drop whatever the day’s lesson was and fumble to piece together something else entirely.
Add to this the potential for the tutorial to be by an awful instructor, or to have been shot poorly, or it being a crumby gimmick. Why ruin your own learning process for it?
Again, don’t misinterpret this to mean that you shouldn’t try material from outside your school — I’m all for that. Some of my favorite moves are ones I picked up from the internet, magazines and DVDs (again, like the brabo).
What I am saying is you need to be smart about how you do it. Spoiling a class for yourself just so you can go for the clichéd “Newest Technique from Brazil” is a waste of time and money, to say the least. There are better ways to learn these moves.
Personally, I set aside the material I want to learn and wait until I have extra time, such as an open mat, to work it over. Then I try to approach it in an orderly fashion. I have to avoid indulging myself by testing out a ton of new moves. That can be a lot of fun, but it doesn’t actually improve my performance. I’ve got to have the self-discipline to properly drill each technique and limit myself to a reasonable number.
I’ll go into specifics of how I learn these techniques at a later date. For now, it’s enough that you’re thinking about this in a general sense. The topic of how to learn is an important one that deserves careful thought.
Ask yourself if your performance is improving by collecting instructionals and techniques or if you’re just gathering clutter.
[URL="http://www.martialfighter.com/contact/" Feel free to send me your answers.[/URL 
[URL="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?a=Vqek8uou" [IMG http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?i=Vqek8uou[/IMG </img>[/URL  [URL="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?a=ZSdBXxrV" [IMG http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?i=ZSdBXxrV[/IMG </img>[/URL  [URL="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?a=RTtvScrO" [IMG http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?i=RTtvScrO[/IMG </img>[/URL 

Anatomy of No-gi Chokes
Original Poster: Martial-Arts-Blogs
Forum: Grappling & Jiu-Jitsu
Posted On: 14-06-2007, 20:07

Orginal Post: Martial-Arts-Blogs: Over the last several months of focusing on no-gi chokes, I have tried to tie them together by finding fundamentals that apply to the wide range of techniques and situations. Here are the fruits of my labor.
[INDENT Note: By no-gi chokes, I’m specifically referring to front chokes like the guillotine. For the sake of clarity, we’ll consider the rear naked choke and arm triangle to be in a different category.
Some chokes, like the brabo, blur this distinction, but its mechanics are more easily taught when split up this way.
[/INDENT  When I first approached this subject, what surprised me was how many different ways something as “basic” as a guillotine is done. Shouldn’t it be as easy as “grab head, crank”? Yet it seemed that everyone had their own unique version, with a particular grip they like, a certain spot on their arm that does the choking, how they applied finishing pressure, and so on. Was one way better than another, and which should I use?
Rather than overwhelming myself with a mountain of seemingly disassociated techniques, I’ve tried to catalog them so I can compare their similarities and differences. From this, I’ve then tried to distill the key ingredients and find a common thread.
I owe Jon Gunnar for sharing this first simple but important lesson with me. Two basic mechanics hold true for every guillotine or no-gi choke from the front:

• The crown of their skull is forced down.
  
• Your arm is raised up into their neck.

The first point could also be described as bending their neck forward (towards 90 degrees) or making their chin touch their chest. These all describe the same situation. The crown of the skull is the spot with the best leverage to do this, so I phrased it that way.
(These rules also hold true for many gi chokes, with the collar taking the place of the arm, such as Batata’s loop chokes, but we’re sticking with no-gi for now.)
Look over all front chokes and you’ll find these mechanics in action to greater or lesser degrees. The guillotine and its variants, the anaconda, brabo and darce all work off these two forces.
Knowing this, we can examine how to achieve these effects.
Depending on the type of choke, different parts of your anatomy presses on the back of their head:

• Forearm, such as with a darce grip.
  
• Upper arm and biceps.
  
• Armpit and pectoral muscle.
  
• Chest or the ribs just below the sternum.
  
• The back of your leg for the drop guillotine.

A range of spots on your (and their) arm can apply pressure to the neck:

• Hands and thumbs, as in the ten finger guillotine.
  
• Wrist.
  
• Blade of forearm.
  
• Forearm and biceps at crook of elbow.
  
• Their own shoulder or biceps.

This diagram illustrates most of these:
[URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/aesopian/477935613/" [IMG http://farm1.static.flickr.com/212/477935613_3cf7746840.jpg[/IMG [/URL 
Armed with the concept of primary leverages and an inventory of the anatomy used to achieve them, we can see why so many variations exist and hopefully see which works best for yourself.
Why does Pequeno do his guillotine differently than Renzo? Why does Minotauro get the anaconda while Shinya Aoki does the brabo in the same situation? Why can the brabo be finished from so many positions and by spinning in almost any direction?
Per what we covered above, I chalk up all of these differences to personal preference based on body type and personality. They each fulfill the same two points, regardless of the specifics. In that sense, as long as it works, one isn’t any better than any other.
So how do you find what works best for you? As with everything, experiment.
Speaking from my experience, through drilling and sparring, I’ve picked out the ten finger, the brabo and the drop guillotine as my favorites. They just suited my build and fit into the rest of my game the best.
[URL="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?a=B94tlELb" [IMG http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?i=B94tlELb[/IMG </img>[/URL  [URL="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?a=e6XLPc1l" [IMG http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?i=e6XLPc1l[/IMG </img>[/URL  [URL="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?a=sTVj1MBJ" [IMG http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?i=sTVj1MBJ[/IMG </img>[/URL 

I Am Still Alive
Original Poster: Martial-Arts-Blogs
Forum: Grappling & Jiu-Jitsu
Posted On: 14-06-2007, 20:07

Orginal Post: Martial-Arts-Blogs: Some of you have been worried about me. You’ll be happy to hear that I didn’t die or abandon this journal — I simply got a job.
Thankfully that is coming to an end soon, and I’ll be back on here again with more techniques and articles (and hopefully footage, whenever I get a video camera).
In the mean time, I thought you may be interested in hearing what my other interests are outside of jiu-jitsu. And even if you’re not, indulge me this one actual “blog” post about my personal life.
Since I last wrote…
I’ve been researching cognitive sciences, particularly disorders like [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosopagnosia" prosopagnosia[/URL , [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synesthesia" synesthesia[/URL , [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paralysis" sleep paralysis[/URL , [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autism" autism[/URL , [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autistic_savant" savantism[/URL , and [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feral_child" feral children[/URL . Thank the Discovery Channel, [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Peek" Kim Peek[/URL , [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Tammet" Daniel Tammet[/URL , [URL="http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.11/blind.html" Wired magazine[/URL  and Carl Sagan for turning me on to those.
I’ve been playing around with [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%B6bius_strip" Möbius strips[/URL , [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klein_bottle" Klein bottles[/URL , the [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_dimension" forth dimension[/URL  and [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_10_dimensions%3F" ten spatial dimensions[/URL . This all started because I use one-sided loops to entertain bored kids.
I’ve been trying to wrap my head around [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_mechanics" Newtonian[/URL  and [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_mechanics" quantum physics[/URL , the [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_spectrum" electromagnetic spectrum[/URL , the [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncertainty_principle" uncertainty principle[/URL , and the [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_relativity" theory of relativity[/URL . It struck me that I should probably try to understand the largest advancements in science of the past century.
I’ve been studying [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution" evolution[/URL , [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_selection" natural selection[/URL  and [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetics" genetics[/URL  for the same reason.
I finished [URL="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0316346624?ie=UTF8&tag=aesostotaawes-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0316346624" The Tipping Point[/URL [IMG http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=aesostotaawes-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0316346624[/IMG  and [URL="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0316010669?ie=UTF8&tag=aesostotaawes-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0316010669" Blink[/URL [IMG http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=aesostotaawes-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0316010669[/IMG  by [URL="http://gladwell.typepad.com/gladwellcom/" Malcolm Gladwell[/URL . The first explores how social trends and ideas suddenly spread and become popular. The second looks into rapid cognition and snap judgments. I felt The Tipping Point was the better book, but Blink has its good moments too.
I read [URL="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0061234001?ie=UTF8&tag=aesostotaawes-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0061234001" Freakonomics[/URL [IMG http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=aesostotaawes-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0061234001[/IMG  by Steven D. Levitt. I never realized statistical analysis could be so fun. Or that sumo wrestlers cheat.
I am nearing the end of [URL="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469?ie=UTF8&tag=aesostotaawes-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0345409469" The Demon-Haunted World[/URL [IMG http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=aesostotaawes-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0345409469[/IMG  by Carl Sagan and look forward to reading more of his works, such as [URL="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345379187?ie=UTF8&tag=aesostotaawes-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0345379187" Billions & Billions[/URL [IMG http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=aesostotaawes-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0345379187[/IMG .
I may or not finish [URL="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1401302378?ie=UTF8&tag=aesostotaawes-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1401302378" The Long Tail[/URL [IMG http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=aesostotaawes-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1401302378[/IMG  by Chris Anderson. [URL="http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.10/tail.html" The original Wired article was probably enough.[/URL 
Gladwell, Levitt and Anderson form part of a circle of authors that reciprocate quotes for the covers of each others’ books. The next in their “clique” I want to check out is Jared Diamond, author of [URL="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393061310?ie=UTF8&tag=aesostotaawes-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0393061310" Guns, Germs, and Steel[/URL [IMG http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=aesostotaawes-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0393061310[/IMG  and [URL="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0143036556?ie=UTF8&tag=aesostotaawes-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0143036556" Collapse[/URL [IMG http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=aesostotaawes-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0143036556[/IMG .
I received copies of [URL="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0465069908?ie=UTF8&tag=aesostotaawes-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0465069908" River Out of Eden[/URL [IMG http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=aesostotaawes-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0465069908[/IMG  by Richard Dawkins, [URL="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0465053130?ie=UTF8&tag=aesostotaawes-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0465053130" The Origin of Humankind[/URL [IMG http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=aesostotaawes-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0465053130[/IMG  by Richard Leaky and [URL="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0812928881?ie=UTF8&tag=aesostotaawes-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0812928881" The Way Life Works[/URL [IMG http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=aesostotaawes-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0812928881[/IMG  by Mahlon Hoagland.
I just began [URL="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/038526108X?ie=UTF8&tag=aesostotaawes-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=038526108X" Science Matters[/URL [IMG http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=aesostotaawes-20&l=as2&o=1&a=038526108X[/IMG  by Robert M. Hazen. Set a crash course for psuedointellectuality.
I was halfway through [URL="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/038533348X?ie=UTF8&tag=aesostotaawes-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=038533348X" Cat’s Cradle[/URL [IMG http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=aesostotaawes-20&l=as2&o=1&a=038533348X[/IMG  when Kurt Vonnegut passed away.
I read [URL="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1594482225?ie=UTF8&tag=aesostotaawes-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1594482225" The Areas of My Expertise[/URL [IMG http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=aesostotaawes-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1594482225[/IMG  by John Hodgman in my quest for COMPLETE WORLD KNOWLEDGE and hobo names.
I’ve been listening to [URL="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0009R1T7M?ie=UTF8&tag=aesostotaawes-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B0009R1T7M" Illinois[/URL [IMG http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=aesostotaawes-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B0009R1T7M[/IMG  by Sufjan Stevens and [URL="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000NJLYSK?ie=UTF8&tag=aesostotaawes-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B000NJLYSK" 23[/URL [IMG http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=aesostotaawes-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B000NJLYSK[/IMG  by Blonde Redhead.
I beat [URL="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0009UBR3A?ie=UTF8&tag=aesostotaawes-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B0009UBR3A" Legend of Zelda: The Twilight Princess[/URL [IMG http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=aesostotaawes-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B0009UBR3A[/IMG .
I finally got into Lost, and I’m looking forward to Heroes starting again.
I’ll get back to the regularly scheduled jiu-jitsu updates soon.
[URL="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?a=aUwH1aUe" [IMG http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?i=aUwH1aUe[/IMG </img>[/URL  [URL="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?a=auO2uSNR" [IMG http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?i=auO2uSNR[/IMG </img>[/URL  [URL="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?a=5ozr4FEd" [IMG http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?i=5ozr4FEd[/IMG </img>[/URL 

Brabo Choke Homework: Baret Yoshida
Original Poster: Martial-Arts-Blogs
Forum: Grappling & Jiu-Jitsu
Posted On: 14-06-2007, 20:07

Orginal Post: Martial-Arts-Blogs: Next on my roster for brabo choke analysis is Baret Yoshida.
Let’s get straight to the footage. What he shows is similar to the multitude of videos I’ve already posted, but he does a few things differently that I like.
Brabo Choke from [URL="http://www.budovideos.com/shop/customer/product.php?productid=22136" Principles of the Art of Submission[/URL  by Baret Yoshida
[ytembed wPC1hYKMD4o[/ytembed 
(If you have the book that goes with this DVD, check out how he does technique 34 in it. It should be the same as the video above, but he does a different one, more like Christian’s from reverse scarf hold or Bjoern’s setup from where you wrap the near arm and head then circle to the other side.)
[URL="http://www.martialfighter.com/144/brabo-choke-homework-shinya-aoki/" Shinya Aoki[/URL  teaches a similar cross knee pass to brabo choke in [URL="http://www.budovideos.com/shop/customer/product.php?productid=22605" his instructional[/URL .
Combining this pass and the brabo choke makes perfect sense, since one of the most common counters is for the person on bottom to get the underhook and try to come to their knees, which puts you in position to get the choke.
A detail I particularly like is how Baret teaches that, when you take the first step towards them, to block their elbow with your knee. This crosses their arm even more and traps it. As with all triangles, the more you can cross their arm the better.
You can see Baret getting this exact setup in sparring:
Footage of Baret Yoshida rolling from [URL="http://www.budovideos.com/shop/customer/product.php?productid=22883" his DVD set[/URL 
[ytembed v9zu7SpYNzY[/ytembed 
I’ll gloss over the beginning since it’s not what I’m interested in: Baret starts in the clinch, shoots for a single and gets the takedown and spends some time in the guard.
What I’m paying attention to is when he stands in their open guard. He shoots his knee over their legs to pass and slide into side control.
As he lands, Baret wraps their head with his right arm when they turn on their side and shoots his left arm into place for the brabo.
He quickly switches between a series of grips, adjusting with each one to get tighter and tighter. He goes from palm to palm, to grabbing his wrist, grabbing higher on his forearm and then grabbing his biceps. It only takes a second, but I think each of these grips are important.
With his arms snug, he sits out and throws his left leg over their hips to finish.
Yet more brabo homework to come. Next I’ll be going over how to adjust to get a tight choke (and not a neck crank) and cross their arm.
[URL="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?a=5cOjU1gC" [IMG http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?i=5cOjU1gC[/IMG </img>[/URL  [URL="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?a=kQxkTEEN" [IMG http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?i=kQxkTEEN[/IMG </img>[/URL  [URL="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?a=NjhfYyXU" [IMG http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?i=NjhfYyXU[/IMG </img>[/URL 

Brabo Choke Homework: Jeff Glover
Original Poster: Martial-Arts-Blogs
Forum: Grappling & Jiu-Jitsu
Posted On: 14-06-2007, 20:07

Orginal Post: Martial-Arts-Blogs: Continuing the brabo choke theme, I’d like to go over another aspect of this technique.
In the [URL="http://www.martialfighter.com/144/brabo-choke-homework-shinya-aoki/" Shinya Aoki footage[/URL  I analyzed previously, we saw how he sat out and ran himself “under side control” to apply the choke, but he ultimately finished it from the top.
Sprawling to finish it is fine. It’s the most common way it’s taught, and in some cases, like when you’re stuck in half guard, the best way to do it. But what I want to focus on is switching your base and running towards them to get the submission instead.
I have footage of a Jeff Glover match that illustrates this perfectly. It’s fast, so you may want to watch it a couple times. If only we had slow motion replay.
Jeff Glover in Grappling All-Stars
[ytembed OkUdzBnsmNQ[/ytembed 
Jeff armdrags into a single leg then swings his leg and sits to take them down.
With both of them down, Jeff quickly gets an underhook and comes to his knees, controlling their near leg, preventing them from getting up too.
Jeff drives into side control and gets a crossface as his opponent struggles to block him. They reach across with both hands and shove Jeff’s hips to try to keep him away.
Jeff shoots his left hand under the out-stretched arm and around the head, grabbing the back of the neck. His right arm goes behind the head and he grabs his own biceps.
Jeff switches his hips to get in position to finish the brabo, but his opponent tries to catch him in half or full guard. Jeff “hides” his legs, bending them and keeping them hooked so he can slip and circle them out. At one point, Jeff almost takes mount when his opponent tries to trap his legs but can’t.
“Hiding” the legs like this is a skill in itself. Being able to do this is also useful when passing guard and avoiding half guard and butterfly hooks.
Jeff eventually settles back into side control and stretches his legs back to untangle them. He switches his base again and walks in a circle towards his opponent. His opponent comes to his knees but is still forced to submit to the choke.
You also see this point illustrated in the sample technique for [URL="http://www.budovideos.com/shop/customer/product.php?productid=24119" Paragon Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu: Secrets of our Success[/URL :
[ytembed QJPWlW-Harw[/ytembed 
What I find interesting is how it doesn’t seem to matter which side you go to. Jeff traps the same arm in both videos, but runs to opposite sides to finish.
Likewise, at 2:18 of this [URL="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unbSfDatgEY" Grapplers of Japan[/URL  highlight, you can see Shinya in the same position as his first clip, but he sits out to the opposite side. It has a dramatic effect, forcing his opponent to do a full front flip.
The reason that both ways work is that they have the same final result: forcing the head down into the chest. If you can do this, even from the bottom, you can get the choke.
I learned the brabo choke a while ago but kept dropping it since I never liked how often it neck cranked people instead of choking them. I’d get the tap and ask “Was that a choke or a neck crank?” The answer was usually “Oww, neck crank” or “Neck crank with a little choke”. It was rare to hear “Just a choke.”
It wasn’t until I watched [URL="http://www.aesopian.com/132/jeffs-no-gi-chokes/" Jeff Rockwell’s no-gi chokes instructional[/URL  where he shows sitting into them to finish that I decided to give the brabo another try.
After a little practice and testing with this method, I found the answer had changed to “Wow, solid choke” almost every time. I also cleared up a few other details that contributed to this (which I’ll cover later), but the main change was in how I finished it.
More brabo choke homework to come.
[URL="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?a=bNgInEGH" [IMG http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?i=bNgInEGH[/IMG </img>[/URL  [URL="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?a=tsLiTsKK" [IMG http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?i=tsLiTsKK[/IMG </img>[/URL  [URL="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?a=tsBjMRPF" [IMG http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?i=tsBjMRPF[/IMG </img>[/URL 

Brabo Choke Homework: Shinya Aoki
Original Poster: Martial-Arts-Blogs
Forum: Grappling & Jiu-Jitsu
Posted On: 14-06-2007, 20:07

Orginal Post: Martial-Arts-Blogs: Like [URL="http://www.grappling.de/" Bjoern[/URL , it was Shinya Aoki that inspired me to work on the brabo choke again. [URL="http://www.budovideos.com/shop/customer/product.php?productid=22605" His instructional[/URL  has my favorite material on the move, and I don’t even speak Japanese. He has very clean technique so it’s easy to follow, and language isn’t a factor in the competition footage.
One of the matches shown on this DVD contains a wealth of information on the brabo, but you’ve got to watch it closely. It’s easy to overlook since it’s a short match, lasting little over a minute.
I was going to include this in the [URL="http://www.martialfighter.com/143/brabo-choke-homework/" large collection of brabo choke material[/URL  I compiled, but I didn’t want it to get lost in that mass of data.
Thanks to the magic of youtube, we can breakdown the match together:
Shinya Aoki vs Pedro Akira in Campeonato Japones 2005
[ytembed UBgMIoDGU4M[/ytembed 
Aoki leads off with a beautiful takedown that lands him in knee-on-belly. He holds this for a few moments before Pedro gets on his side and starts turning to his knees.
The moment Aoki feels he’s losing knee-on-belly, he jumps into position to get a front headlock as Pedro rolls to his hands and knees. He shoots his right arm under the armpit and around the head and closes the arm triangle before Pedro has a chance to go for a takedown or pull guard.
The initial grip isn’t as deep as he wants it, so Aoki keeps adjusting it, pushing his choking arm deeper and grabbing his sleeve to climb his hand up his biceps. With his free hand, he grabs the fabric on Pedro’s back and uses this to cinch it tighter.
After the referee fixes a gi across his face, Pedro tries to pull butterfly guard but Aoki sprawls so his weight keeps Pedro bent over and unable to sit into it.
This next sequence is what really interests me.
After adjusting his grip a little more, Aoki tries to use it to force Pedro to fall to his back. Because he has a free arm on that side, Pedro posts and resists, staying on his knees. Aoki uses the struggle to wiggle his grip a little tighter.
Feeling Pedro won’t go down, Aoki switches his base and starts running around as if he wants to pull himself under side control. At one point he is flat on his back with Pedro on top of him. But with the arm triangle still locked, this just forces Pedro’s head down into his chest, creating the pressure the choke needs to work.
Aoki keeps switching between sitting out and running himself under and getting back to his knees a few times. Pedro is scrambling to survive the choke and find a way out.
Feeling that Pedro has lost his balance trying to resist, Aoki hops to his knees one last time and again tries to force Pedro to his back. This time it works.
He finishes the submission by squeezing the choke and sprawling into it from a position somewhere between side control and north-south.
For one and half minute match, I picked up several valuable lessons:
- Being ready and able to shoot the arm deep and lock the arm triangle from the front headlock.
- Taking the time to adjust the grip until it’s where you want it. Using gi grips to cinch it tighter.
- Sprawling to prevent guard pulling. This is useful for the front headlock and guillotines in general.
- Switching between forcing them down and sitting out and running “under side control” to get the choke.
More brabo choke analysis to come.
[URL="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?a=F2qYb3pi" [IMG http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?i=F2qYb3pi[/IMG </img>[/URL  [URL="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?a=JzYJzJy0" [IMG http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?i=JzYJzJy0[/IMG </img>[/URL  [URL="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?a=FfQcSBSf" [IMG http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/aesopian?i=FfQcSBSf[/IMG </img>[/URL 

BTT UK @ Seni, Gracie Invitaional 2007
Original Poster: zefff
Forum: Grappling & Jiu-Jitsu
Posted On: 24-05-2007, 14:38

Orginal Post: zefff: It was a great outing for Ze Marcello Top Team white belts, so I will post the vids here as I find them on the net.

[URL="http://img261.imageshack.us/my.php?image=laefbf6d962bfc40cd18d6ajx4.jpg" [IMG http://img261.imageshack.us/img261/7015/laefbf6d962bfc40cd18d6ajx4.th.jpg[/IMG [/URL 

1) Siju wins 93kgs+ opener by choke [URL http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7H5GoSpwn5E[/URL 

2) Siju win by triangle http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xy-H322-BAs

3) Jignesh wins Rooster weight final [URL http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2wZErAZC1Y[/URL