Although I take my own nutrition very seriously, I don’t normally get involved in the weight loss field – it’s just not my area of specialization (‘dammit Jim, I’m a grappler, not a nutritionist…’). But once in a while I can’t resist, so here’s a recent exchange I had with a loyal reader: Q: “Hey, [...]

Physical attributes are really important for Brazilian jiu-jitsu and submission grappling (a point further discussed in this article about physical attributes and BJJ). Being able to feel your opponent’s intent and react to it even before he moves (like when he’s trying to bridge his way out of your mount) requires sensitivity.  In fact, sensitivity [...]

==> A QUESTION <== “Do you think there’s much benefit to video taping myself in sparring sessions and then watching them later to try and pin point bad/good techniques, or stuff I need to work on?  One of my sparring partners argued that they are pretty pointless unless you get an instructor (or someone more [...]

A lot of people thought that Toby Imada’s triangle choke was the best MMA submission of 2009.  And they may be right – it was a stunning display of quick thinking and ‘sticktoitness’ on Toby’s part.  Here’s the clip of the match highlights including the spectacular submission: Last week I uploaded posted an article and [...]

There have been a lot of triangle chokes in MMA recently, including those used by Fabricio Werdum against Fedor Emelianenko, Chris Lytle against Matt Brown, and Brock Lesnar against Shane Carwin But the term ‘triangle choke’ can be used for several different submissions, and this can be confusing to the novice or intermediate-level grappler. So [...]

Krista Scott-Dixon is many things, including being friend of mine, a student of BJJ and the brains behind a great fitness website called Stumptuous.com. She is also a becoming a semi-regular contributor to Grapplearts.com.  In fact her latest great article starts like this: “I am often asked two questions by well-meaning male instructors: 1. How [...]

My friend Tony Blauer is a leader in the field of urban combatives.  He’s going to be hosting his annual Summer Camp in San Diego this year, so if the self defense aspect of martial arts is important to you I’d recommend checking it out! Download the flyer for the event by clicking here

The last time I hung out with Denis Kang we shot a series of short videos on MMA techniques. It’s rare to get an MMA fighter who wants to show you all his best techniques, but Denis is an awesome teacher as well as a great fighter.  That’s why I’ve received some great feedback about [...]

Last week I had a short but fun training session with my friend Ritchie doing what we call ‘flow sparring.’ The rules of flow sparring are very simple: you have to keep moving and you can’t use strength.  You can’t hold a position for more than a couple of seconds and you have to move, [...]

The Grappling Concepts Course is finally live again!! There’s no doubt in my mind that this is my very best instructional product; after all, it took an entire year of all-out work to create.  I really do think that it distills down 30 years of martial arts experience into something that can quickly make a [...]