I believe it was Erik Paulson who said that older grapplers should focus on gi based grappling compared to no-gi since it was a slower and less explosive game.

I’ve been keeping this in mind as I look for clubs to train at. I’m getting up there in age and the plan is to continue into my forties and so forth. Would you agree that this is the wiser approach?

Thanks again,
Bob.

A: Hi Bob,

First of all, if Erik said something like that, take his advice!  That man’s a freaking genius!

My own perspective is this: when it comes to training without injury as an older grappler a lot depends on the school, your instructor and how crazy your training partners are.

If you’re trying to hang with a bunch of testosterone-soaked, steroid-amplified, MMA-wannabes then you’re gonna get hurt, plain and simple.

On the other hand, if you’ve got a bunch of respectful, careful training partners then you CAN train no-gi without too much risk.

In general it’s the head instructor who sets the tone.  The club will have a very different flavor depending on the example the instructor sets on the mats, and what kind of behavior he tolerates and/or encourages among his students.

Now, as a very general rule, people who train with the gi tend to be a little more analytical and move a little less explosively in sparring than those who train no-gi. There are a million exceptions of course, but it’s amazing how often this ends up being the case.

Two pieces of parting advice for you:

1, Read these articles about training in grappling as you get older, and

2, Go and check out a lot of schools and see if that whole gi vs. no-gi thing applies in your area. Listen to your gut on this one.

Good luck with your training

Stephan Kesting
www.grapplearts.com

Q:

I’ve been having problems with the triangle choke. I have rather thick, maybe even short, legs and I just can’t lock it in. I always seem to only be able to get my foot half way up my calf, then no more.

Are there tips or tricks or anything to help me, because I would hate to admit that the triangle choke is unavailable to me and many others.

Thank you,
Jeremy

A: Hi Jeremy,

The quick answer is that in your situation you can sometimes create more room for your legs to lock properly by positioning your body at an angle instead of remaining straight-on to your opponent.

Say you’ve got his head and right arm trapped between your legs…

If you’ve got super-long legs like Antonio Rodrigo Nogueria (in the photo above) then you can stay right in front of your opponent and still apply the triangle choke.

But if you’ve got shorter legs, try this.  Istead of staying in a straight line to your opponent bring your head and your upper torso to your right, so that you’re lying just in front of his left knee.

Angling your body like this sometimes helps create more room to lock your legs up correctly.  It can make the difference between success and failure in borderline cases…

But I’m not going to lie to you -  like any technique, there definitely ARE limits to the usefulness of this particular choke.  And you’re 100% correct that the triangle choke is a lot harder to do if your legs are short.  And the situation is made even worse if you’ve got muscular or ‘thick’ legs because now there’s even less room to work with.

Physical attributes such as leg length, flexibility, speed, strength, build, hand size, etc. DO affect which techniques will work best for you.

But it’s not all bad…

The same physical attributes that make the triangle choke difficult could give you a wickedly powerful kneebar, for example.  I discussed this concept in more detail in this blog post: Brazilian Jiu-jitsu and physical attributes.

And a final word of advice for short legged grapplers…

Keep in mind that almost every triangle choke situation can be converted into an omoplata. That means that you can still use all those cool triangle choke setups your instructor is showing you!  Just get to the general position and then be prepared to bail out and switch to the omoplata if you can’t get the triangle to work correctly for you.

To get you started, here’s a primer on how to do the omoplata armlock.

Here’s something different: in November of 2011 I answered questions from my newsletter readers (sign up for free here) on the first ever Grapplearts Q & A Podcast.

Find out how how to taper for competition, what to do when you’re getting crushed all the time, what to do when your wrestling coach wants you to stop doing BJJ, and how to remember all these bloody techniques…

You can listen to, or download the audio by doing one of the following:

1. Hit play in the middle of the black bar (the audio player link) at the bottom of this list, and/or

2. Right click on this link and select ‘save as’ to download the mp3 file to your computer, and/or

3. Subscribe to the Grapplearts Podcast in iTunes (and also listen to previous audio interviews).

Wait for it, wait for it… A black bar with a play button should appear right below this text in just a second or two…

One of the things that he asked me was “what are the most common mistakes that first-time competitors make?”

BJJ tournaments in general, and ESPECIALLY your first competition, are likely to be a little bit chaotic.  So it’s a little hard to make generalizations about what you might run into…

But in a way, this chaos is the whole point!

Not knowing what you’re about to face, but going out and doing it anyway, is a relatively safe way to field-test your skills.

And, strangely enough, there are even self-defense benefits from competing!

(I can just see the angry emails arriving from ‘reality-based’ practitioners saying that tournaments have nothing to do with self defense. But they’re wrong.  Competition can teach you to successfully surf the giant adrenaline wave coming with facing new challenges in unfamiliar settings. And these fear-management skills can definitely help keep your wits about you when things get hairy in the street.)

So then, what are the most common errors I see?

TOP COMPETITION ERROR NUMBER ONE

The most common error is getting so stressed out that you hold your breath for most of the match.

I’ve written quite extensively about this in the past, so I’m going to keep the discussion of this error short…

Suffice it to say that holding the breath is really, really common for first-time competitors.

And this inevitably leads to total exhaustion, and not even coming close to performing up to your potential (which always sucks).

Read this article for the story of how one grappler overcame his tendency to hold his breath on the mats (it wasn’t in competition, but it’s still totally relevant nonetheless):

www.grapplearts.com/Blog/2004/10/breathing-oxygen-and-exhaustion/

TOP COMPETITION ERROR NUMBER TWO

The next most common mistake I’ve seen is waiting around all day and not hydrating or feeding yourself properly.

In a way, this is understandable…

You’re nervous, you don’t know exactly when you’re going to be called up for your division, and you DON’T want to have a full stomach when you start your match.

But being undernourished and dehydrated really doesn’t set you up for success!

Dehydration reduces your strength, your endurance, makes your heart work harder, etc.

And not having eaten enough also makes you listless and just plain grumpy…

And these problems are even worse if you’ve cut weight before the tournament. (If you’re going to cut weight then make sure you get the kinks out of the system by  doing a trial run BEFORE the tournament.  You shouldn’t be doing anything new, unusual or untried on the big day, just in case it all goes terribly wrong.)

To prevent the tournament blahs drink regularly and eat small, easy to digest mini-meals at spaced-out intervals throughout the day.

Experiment with different foods you might be eating on tournament day by trying them out before the big day, in your regular training sessions.

For example, through trial and error I found that a single piece of whole-grain toast with almond butter sustains me for a couple hours of training but is also light enough that I’m not going to throw up if someone puts their knee on my belly…

So that works for me, but experiment until you find something that works for you!

TOP COMPETITION ERROR NUMBER THREE

The third most common error I see is tournament newbies putting way, way, waaaaaay too much pressure on themselves.

They’re afraid of what their teacher and classmates will think if they lose their match…

Or they’re worried about letting down their team…

Or they just don’t want to look stupid…

Listen to me!  If it’s your first tournament then IT REALLY DOESN’T MATTER IF YOU WIN OR LOSE!

Honestly, I promise that the sun will still rise tomorrow morning…

… and that if you keep training you’ll eventually earn your blue belt promotion…

… and that your team and teacher will be just fine if you lose.

As I write this I am also waving my magic jiu-jitsu wand which utterly, completely absolves you from carrying the weight of the world upon your shoulders if/when you decide to go compete.

Really, a tournament is best viewed as a learning experience, so go and learn a LOT.  And if you happen to do well, then so much the better.

But you’re a newbie so nobody expects a world class performance from you anyhow.  So what better time to get out there and make all your stupid mistakes?

Preparing for competition is a pretty huge topic, and I’ve really just scraped the surface here…

If you want to have another perspective check out this list of 18 competition tips by Grapplearts guest author Jason Scully:

www.grapplearts.com/bjj-grappling-competition-tips.html 

It’s a very exciting day! For the past few months I’ve been working like crazy to get my new DVD series finished.

In this series I’m collaborating with my friend, and former teammate, Emily Kwok.

She’s one of the best known competitive grapplers out there! For a lot of different reasons.

First of all, she’s one hell of a competitor.

Emily is not only a Brazilian Jiu-jitsu world champion, she’s also won amateur and professional MMA fights, and just two weeks ago she won a gold medal in the Pan Am No Gi Championships in the Absolute (no weight limit) division!  So when she tells you that something works you can really believe her.

Secondly, she’s got an impeccable pedigree. Emily has learned from many of the very best instructors in the world, and is currently training and working with Marcelo Garcia.

(Marcelo is, of course, a 5 time BJJ world champion and 4 time no-gi ADCC champion. But he’s also been an absolute terror in the Absolute division, regularly facing and submitting much larger world-class opponents.)

Third, and most importantly, Emily is a born teacher. And this is the real reason I decided to work with her. She’s got a real knack for being able to break down and teach techniques in a way that makes them easy to learn and quick to implement.

After we decided to work together, Emily and I spent months criss-crossing the continent to talk strategy, do research, plan the script, and film the material.

And once we filmed the material, I locked myself into a dark room with my editor to take the footage and create the actual DVDs. (It’s true! My friends and training partners haven’t seen me for a month.)

And then today, at last, I got the master copies from my editor. I gave them a final once-over and then went to the courier.

Tomorrow morning my duplicator will have them in his hands and begin working on the final product! (The only thing I’m worried about is that most DVD duplication facilities are already working at full capacity to prepare their Xmas stockpiles. Hopefully the wait isn’t too long, and they’re able to produce the quantities I want.)

If everything goes well this series should be available in mid to early November!

So, what’s the topic of these DVDs? Hopefully the title will give you a hint…

This 5 DVD series is called “How to Defeat the Bigger Stronger Opponent!”

And that’s EXACTLY what they’re about.

The DVDs are filled to the brim with techniques, strategies, tactics, training methods and drills to give you an unfair advantage when you’re smaller than the person you’re grappling.

The idea for this series actually came from you guys.

You see I get asked hundreds of questions via emails, Facebook, etc. every week. And the most common question – hands down – is what to do when facing a bigger stronger person.

This is a totally valid concern!

Being pinned and smothered on the ground by a Goliath is no fun at all. In fact, even a weight difference of 10 or 20 pounds can allow a bigger person to simply use their natural strength, size and weight advantage to crush and overpower you.

I do my best to answer these questions, but the fact that I’m 6′ 1″ and 215 lbs means that I’m not the ideal poster boy for teaching this topic. Which is ironic, because even I get worried about running into people bigger than myself (and am glad to have a few tricks up my sleeve to handle that situation when it happens).

Anyway, this image problem is why I first started thinking about collaborating with someone. And when I heard what Emily was up to, and saw how she was basically reverse-engineering Marcelo Garcia’s game, I knew I had work with her.

Her game is tailor-made for dealing with larger stronger opponents. After all, the vast majority of her training partners are bigger than she is.  And she’s proved her techniques work in the absolute divisions of some of the toughest tournaments around.

The basic premise of the DVDs is that size does matter, but that there ARE specific, concrete things you can do to compensate for size.

With the right techniques and strategies it is absolutely possible to successfully hold your ground against bigger, stronger opponents. And with the right leverage-based techniques you can even go on the offensive and bring the fight to them!

Whether you’re male or female, these DVDs are going to show you exactly how to do that.

I’ve been doing martial arts a long time. And produced a ton of videos and instructional materials.

I can honestly say that this is one of the very best DVD series I have ever seen.

And I hope that in early to mid November, when it comes out, you’ll like it too!

P.S.  You can see some of behind-the-scenes pics of the filming and editing process on the Grapplearts Facebook Page

*** Post edited November 3rd, 2011: Please note that these DVDs are now available for shipping!  Click here for more details and ordering information ***

It’s fun though, and I’m 100% sure that doing this will be worth the effort.  We’re going to bring you a ton of material that has never been seen before (a big statement, I know, but it’s true!).

Anyway, to give you something to read in the interim let’s continue right along on the the merry rampage through some of my most popular articles…

(I think this one is #5 in the series of ten that I highlighted.)

So if you missed it the first time around, here’s a blog post, complete with pictures, showing you exactly how to make an very affordable and ultra portable grappling mat.

That’s a long time!

And the fact that it takes this long is both a good thing and a bad thing…

It’s good because you probably won’t get bored of the the art.  Grappling skills are deep, rich and complex.  If you finally master one thing you’ll soon discover that there’s yet another area for you to work on.

You can pretty much continue to learn forever!

But the fact that you’ll be training for years also means that it’s inevitable that your training will get interrupted at some point…

Maybe you’ll get injured, maybe your job will occasionally get in the way of your training, or maybe family issues will require your undivided attention for a while.

Your training will have its peaks and valleys.  Sometimes you’ll train more and sometimes less.  And sometimes you won’t be able to train at all, which can be maddening for a hard-core grappler!

But there ARE things you can do to keep your head in the game – and even improve – during the times when you can’t physically get on the mat.

To help you out when this happens, here are some concrete tips, tricks and advice to survive a training layoff

Or if you would prefer a direct link, here you go!
www.grapplearts.com/Blog/2011/07/how-to-survive-training-layoffs-from-grappling/

Take heart and take care
Stephan Kesting

Emily is a BJJ black belt who has trained with some of the best people in the world.  And she’s been very successful at the highest levels of competition in BJJ, Submission Grappling and Women’s MMA.

We haven’t finished the editing the DVDs yet, but you can see some quick pictures taken during filming by clicking here.  It’s a Facebook link but you DON’T need to be signed up or logged into Facebook to see it:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.378068794966.55245.23809659966&type=1

And while we’re on the topic of Emily, she did a fantastic interview with me a couple of months ago which you can access as an audio file or a full transcript by clicking here:

http://www.grapplearts.com/A-Womans-Journey-in-Brazilian-Jiu-Jitsu.php

(What I didn’t say on that post is that the topic of getting out of submissions is really near and dear to my heart just now, because it ties in well with a really cool product I’m getting ready to release.  But more about that another day…)

Anyway, here’s something that a lot of people don’t realize about countering or defending submissions:  there are at least three distinct timings you can use

1, You can shut down a submission early, or preemptively.  Let’s say that you’re using your guard and your opponent starts going for an ankle lock.  He encircles your ankle with his arm, and you can see what’s coming, but he hasn’t  You rotate your leg (the right way, of course) and your foot pops out before you’re ever in any real danger.

This is an early escape, BEFORE he applies the lock.  If you have a choice then shutting down a submission early, before it ever really gets started, is definitely the best way to go!

2, You can escape as your opponent is applying the submission. Back to the ankle lock: let’s say that he’s locked it on and is falling backwards.  If you can ‘hitch a ride’ and get to the top as he falls back and then squish him like a bug, then you’ve just countered it DURING the attack.

Escaping submissions as they’re being applied is the most under-utilized timing, but it can be very useful.  It’s just so much easier to do it now rather than during the next stage (i.e. when it’s fully locked on).

3, Finally  you can do a late, or AFTER THE FACT escape.  These aren’t as easy or as high percentage as escaping before or during, but you still need to know them.

Back to the ankle lock for sec; let’s say that he falls all the way back into a good position, gets on his side, starts arching, etc.  At this point you might be trying to uncross his legs and escape your hips out sideways, or (if it’s legal) apply a heel hook to one of his legs, etc.  Last minute, hail mary type of stuff

So there you go; I’ve just tripled what you need to know!  You might’ve thought you only needed one good counter to the triangle choke, the spinning armbar or the inside-out, upside-down, cross-collar Jehoshaphat choke.  But now you know that you actually need to learn THREE defenses, early, middle and late.

That’s why I just filmed five tricks to stop that from happening ever again!  Now if you’re new to BJJ then this might seem like a picky little area of sidemount to concentrate on.  But if you’ve been around the game for a while then you’ll know that the devil is in the details…

Check out the video here, I think it’ll be very useful!

As always, subscribe to my Youtube channel so you don’t miss any future videos, and feel free to use the ‘like’ button and leave comments!