Category Archives: Miscellaneous
To celebrate my upcoming 40th birthday I’m organizing and hosting a great big grappling get-together. Grapplecamp will be in Vancouver BC on Saturday July 11th and Sunday July 12th. (more…)
MMA and BJJ Podcasts
Getting stuck in traffic is a fact of life when you live in a big city, and usually it’s a giant waste of time. For the last couple of years, though, I’ve been using a secret weapon that makes my time in the car much more enjoyable – downloadable podcasts. (more…)
A Lifetime of Learning
At my recent seminar on Unorthodox Positions I thought that I would be doing all the teaching, and that the students would be doing all the learning. Well I was wrong…
One of the things I taught was a cool entry into the north-south choke from the offside kesa gatame position. (more…)
Offside Kesa Gatame has an Judo Name
OK, it’s official. The collective intelligence of the Grapplearts readership is awesome.
Thousands of people people receive my newsletters, and many more read my articles on the website, via RSS feeds, etc. If we all got together and combined our knowledge we’d make Rickson Gracie look like a three-stripe white belt. (more…)
Coming back to training after a layoff is a tricky thing. There is a real danger that you jump back into full intensity training and re-injure yourself right off the bat (especially if you’ve been gone for a while and/or are coming back from an injury). (more…)
One of the tenets of JKD is that one should keep an open mind with regard to other styles. After all, “absorb what is useful, reject what is useless” is a classic Bruce Lee quote.
In general, I find that most BJJ practitioners are relatively open minded when it comes to learning from other styles. (more…)
Tips for Having a Great BJJ Private
Preamble: I recently talked about BJJ private classes gone bad. This tip is about how to make sure that that doesn’t happen.
Training in a group setting under the watchful eye of your main instructor is a good thing. (more…)
Condolences
On January 29th, 2009, Helio Gracie passed away at the age of 95. Without him and his sons this sport would not be where it is today.
Private Lesson Horror Stories
I’m a believer in taking private lessons with instructors, especially those that you don’t get to train with on a regular basis. And I’ve taken my share of privates; some were great, but others were real stinkers. (more…)
Here’s how the book Ninja, Clan of Death got me started on my martial arts journey. And how a crayon-written black mail note failed to get me into Judo class. And which teachers have been my biggest influences. And how I finally transitioned into the grappling arts. (more…)
I like going to seminars, but I find it frustrating when I can’t remember everything that the instructor taught. The way I think of it, the seminar costs a certain amount of money and the instructor covered a certain number of techniques. (more…)
By: Donald F. Walter, Jr.
12/8/03
Part 2: An Overview of the Conflict between the States’ Police Power and Personal Liberties
Mixed Martial Arts: Ultimate Sport, or Ultimately Illegal? Part 1 of 3.
By guest author Donald F. Walter, Jr.
Published 12/8/03
Part 1: A Brief History of MMA
(more…)
I post a lot of articles on this site, but I also have no problem ‘stealing’ good material from other people (provided I can get their permission, of course)!
I recently added a new article to the Grapplearts library (more…)
Learn to Crush the Bug
A large part of jiu-jitsu is using your weight to immobilize your opponent; “crushing the bug” as it is sometimes referred to. When done properly, the application of your body weight from the top position can be enough to submit your opponent by making it impossible for him to breath. (more…)
One of the worst organized MMA shows I ever saw was a small local show, back in 1996. Before I talk about that particular show though, I have to set the stage: UFC 9 had just happened. (more…)
Jiu-jitsu, a Game of Inches
One of my favorite expressions is that “jiu-jitsu is a game of inches”. Sometimes a whole match can be decided by the battle to move your hand one inch forward. (more…)
Slumps Vs. Plateaus
Acquiring new skill sets and polishing your existing skills is the very essence of training. When everything is working properly and you’re surfing up the learning curve it is an exhilarating process. (more…)
Short & Long Term Problem Solving
Grappling is problem solving, and part of improving in Brazilian jiu-jitsu is maintaining enough awareness during sparring to figure out precisely what your problems are.
Let me explain… (more…)
Last weekend I had the pleasure of learning from Dan Inosanto at a seminar. As he often does, he stressed the importance of adapting techniques to make them work for you, regardless of whether those techniques are Filipino stick disarms, Jun Fan kickboxing or BJJ submissions. (more…)
The Art of the Tap
Stephan’s note: The following tip is courtesy of Roy Dean, who is a black belt in BJJ under Roy Harris, as well as a third degree black belt in Seibukan Jujutsu. Today he shares with us a refreshingly different perspective from the ‘thug-jitsu’ that has become the norm at many schools. (more…)
Senior Jiu-jitsu
Stephan’s note: todays’s tip is brought to you a guest columnist, my friend Don Whitefield (www.jiujitsulife.com). Not only does he offer good advice for older BJJ players, but if young punks were to adopt some of the advice I guarantee they’d get better faster… (more…)
The Simplest Way to Avoid Injury
Several years ago I found myself waiting for a Jean Jacques Machado seminar to start: I was sitting on the mat, watching people train, and chatting with a friend. Jean Jacques, the jiu-jitsu superstar, strolled over to us and told me something that I think about almost every time I train. (more…)
A Call for Photos
One of the more popular destinations on Grapplearts.com is the featured photo page, which shows action photos of people training, sparring, and competing in submission grappling, MMA, Judo, BJJ and other grappling sports. Here’s how you can take part…
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