Grappling Tips Newsletter

Never Satisfied!

2010-02-04T22:16:00.000-08:00

Today, at the gym, a young grappler asked me a question he'd obviously been wondering about for a long time.

"How long did it take until you had grappling all figured out?"

I told him that although I started grappling (in the context of Judo) almost 30 years ago, I still didn't have grappling all figured out...

"OK, OK," he replied, "but how long did it take until you were satisfied with your ability?"

"I'm still not satisfied with my ability" was my answer.

Now I wasn't just being coy or deliberately dense. I've been a black belt in BJJ for a while now, and have trained in lots of other grappling systems. But I really am not satisfied with my ability, nor do I have it all figured out. Nor should I be satisfied!

There is ALWAYS something to work on: whether it be incorporating a new technique into your arsenal, or refining a technique that has recently stopped working for you, or working on a weak part of your game.

In fact, I can guarantee that as long as you're still testing yourself on the mat with actual sparring you're always going to have strengths and weaknesses. Pick a random subset of your grappling skills - mount escapes, half guard sweeps and triangle choke entries for example - and it's inevitable that one of those areas is going to be less developed than the other areas.

Sometimes it's reassuring to beginners to know that grapplers, fighters and competitors at the highest level also deal with this! Marcelo Garcia has areas he's weak in (at least relative to the areas that he's great at). Rickson Gracie is better at some things than others. And some aspects of Georges St. Pierre's MMA game lag behind as well.

But always having something that you suck at (or - more correctly - suck at relative to your other skills) is a good thing - now you have something to work on! If you don't know what to work on in your grappling development, then take what you're worst at and work on that! (Often your fastest progress comes from working on your weakest link).

If you're entirely satisfied with your game, and if you don't have any areas that need refining, then you haven't actually reached perfection. You've just stopped growing.

Complacency is death!

Sleepwalking Through Your Sparring

2010-01-21T21:47:00.000-08:00

Back in my early teens, when I was infatuated with Kung Fu, I read a book purporting to describe about 50 supernatural abilities that Kung Fu masters could develop. Skills like levitation, or making your body impervious to weapons, or killing people with a poke of your fingertips...

Crazy stuff, I know! Even as a youngster I was fairly skeptical that any of this was true. The funny thing is that at least one of the skills in that book is actually quite feasible: the ability to defend yourself blindfolded. The magical Kung Fu book explained that blindfolded combat skills were the result of being able to sense your opponent's energy at a distance, and know exactly where he was and what he was going to do.

Doing this at a distance is far-fetched, but most good grapplers would be completely capable of continuing to spar if all the lights suddenly went out. And it's not anything mysterious.

It's simply that years on the mat create a high-level of touch-based sensitivity to your opponent's movements and positioning. Do this long enought and eventually you'll be able to close your eyes, hang onto an opponent's arm and have a pretty good idea what the rest of his body is doing.

Sparring with your eyes shut is actually a pretty good training method, especially if you're sparring with someone who is a lot less experienced than you. If you could completely dominate and crush your partner then neither of you will learn very much.

So what can you do instead? Some solutions to keep things interesting include limiting the techniques you're allowed to use, and also always starting in bad positions.

But you can also try keeping your eyes closed and just rolling. Flow through as many different positions and transitions as possible, trying to 'see' with your arms, your legs, and your body.

This gives your sparring partner a bit of an advantage, and simultaneously forces you to work on your sensitivity and body awareness.

Plus it impresses the heck out newbies...

Don't Be Shy

2010-01-21T21:44:00.001-08:00

This coming weekend I'm headed to Seattle to train at Erik Paulson's MMA and submission grappling seminar (hosted by Chris Clarke of www.nwkali.com).

If you're at seminar please introduce yourself; I always enjoy meeting my virtual friends in real life!

Successfully Dealing with Claustrophobia in Grappling

2010-01-11T11:03:00.000-08:00

Once upon a time I had an MRI.

For those of you who've never had this diagnostic procedure, you start by lying down on a narrow board. Then they slide you into a narrow hole within a gigantic donut-shaped machine. And then you lie there, very still, for a long time while the machine scans your body using a gigantic magnet.

Have you seen the movie Avatar? It's like the little pod from which the hero pilots his alien. Except the space inside the MRI is even smaller, and nobody has any furry blue tails.

After the procedure I chatted with the MRI technician. One thing she mentioned was that about 3 in 10 people have problems with claustrophobia in this machine, and about 1 in 10 people freak out and are unable to complete the procedure.

So if somewhere between 10% and 30% have problems with an MRI, then how many people have problems with claustrophobia in grappling? I'd guess it's roughly the same number...

I'm not claustrophobic myself, and so this topic was largely off my radar until I found out that a friend and fellow grappler used to struggle with claustrophobia on the mats. And then a reader contacted me with the the same problem. And then I found out that I had a SECOND training partner who was also claustrophobic.

I did a bit of googling, and found out that there wasn't too much sport specific advice on the topic. So I asked the Grapplearts readership for tips and advice on dealing with grappling-induced claustrophobia, and was stunned by how many other people face the same challenge (read the whole article on how to deal with claustrophobia in BJJ and grappling here).

But here's the cool part: BOTH of my claustrophobic training partners have tackled this problem head on. And mostly dealt with it. And both of them have done very well in high level grappling competition. And both of them competed successfully in MMA, each with 10 fights or more!

From all accounts, claustrophobia is a horrible feeling. But I've seen first-hand that it CAN be overcome.

Not everyone is claustrophobic, but it's fair to say that we ALL have our fears, challenges and perceived limitations. I'm proud to know these grapplers. They're an inspiration to me.

Old Time Grapplin'

2009-12-11T22:05:00.000-08:00

I'm a big fan of old Judo, Jiu-Jitsu and Catch Wrestling books. I have lots and lots of martial arts books, but some of the real jewels of my library are the Judo and wrestling books published in the 1920's to the 1960's. Not all are original - some are reprinted editions - but all offer very interesting historical perspectives on modern grappling.

There is just something special about seeing grapplers from long ago demonstrating techniques that are still used today on mats all over the world.

Fortunately the era of the internet means that we now have unprecedented access to the information of yesteryear.

For example, I just watched a super-cool video of what might be the earliest example of Japanese martial arts ever caught on film. Even though it's more than 100 years old, the very same throws are still used today in both Judo and Brazilian jiu-jitsu. (Well, the throws that haven't been banned, anyhow).

Once we move ahead from the early 1900's into the 1920's, 30's and 40's, it becomes a lot easier to find footage of the various forms of grappling.

For example, here's Tsunetane Oda showing a lot of moves that are still 100% relevant today. Unlike many of his contemporaries (and most modern Judoka) for whom Judo was mostly a standup sport, Oda apparently believed that Judo consisted of 50% standing work and 50% groundwork.

Another interesting source for old grappling footage is from the early British Jiu-jitsu community (which seems rather obsessed by women who could beat up men).

The 'Weaker Sex' Teaches Jiu-Jitsu Self Defense Tips
A demonstration of Ju-Jitsu from the 20's or 30's
More woman's ju-jitsu for self defense (I love the accent plus the bathing suit!)

Moving more into western grappling arts like wrestling, here's what an old time wrestling practice might have looked like:

And here's a catch wrestling match from 1903 (including the weirdest application of the guard I've ever seen):

Not all the internet resources are videos either. For example, an old and very-much-out-of-print book called "Higher Judo Groundwork" can be downloaded for free by clicking here.

If you study these books and videos you come to realize that most of the time when someone discovers something new in grappling it isn't really new, only new-to-them!

People have been rolling around on the ground for millenia, and there's only so many ways to flip someone over or to twist a limb to make your opponent say 'Uncle!'

I Only Got Tapped Out Twice!!

2009-11-23T21:58:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago I went to a training session with the goal of working on and experimenting with the so-called "Sao Paulo" guard pass. My plan for sparring this day was to start in my partner's closed guard, and then only use this one guard pass.

I spent the session training with one guy: a competitive brown belt who was about 15 lbs lighter than me. I'm heavier, stronger and more experienced. Should've been an easy sparring session, right?

Ummm, not so much...

That sparring session could be accurately described as long periods of deadlock, interrupted only by brief periods of him severely kicking my butt. After forty-five minutes he'd submitted me twice from his guard, swept me several times, and I HADN'T passed his guard once.

On my way home, though, I had a great big smile on my face. As far as I was concerned, the training session had been a great success!

You see, the previous time I'd worked with this same guard pass I'd had a hell of time surviving in the guard of a blue belt. 'Only' getting submitted two times this day by a brown belt was actually an improvement.

Furthermore, the fact that there were now long periods of stalemate meant that I was doing some things right. And my sparring partner told me that I'd actually been close to passing several times.

By the end of the sparring session I'd identified several sticking points in that guard pass - situations for which I had no good answers. These are times when the best thing you can do is go home, brainstorm for potential solutions and then test those solutions in sparring on another day.

So don't freak out about tapping out. Cut yourself some slack, especially if you're experimenting with a new technique, or tactic or strategy. If I can consider a training session successful despite getting tapped out multiple times by a lighter and lower-ranked grappler, then what are you worried about?

BJJ Wrist Injuries and My Guilty Conscience

2009-11-12T20:41:00.000-08:00

A bunch of people have recently emailed me, basically asking if I'm still alive. I haven't been sending out my normal volume of grappling tips and beginner lessons recently, and they want to know why!

You see, I've been working like mad on the Online Grappling Concepts course that I'm delivering at my new site, Grapplearts.tv. I'm really enjoying creating those lessons, but it takes a lot of time to write, film, edit and encode each weekly lesson. And the 15 to 25 page PDFs that accompanies each weekly lesson. And the occasional bonus video.

Anyway, that's the reason I haven't been posting quite as much recently. Thought you might want to know why!

But I HAVEN'T completely forgotten about you. That's why I want to talk about an easy way to prevent injury.

This tip comes from my heart, because I learned this lesson first hand when I injured my first BJJ teacher (and friend) Pshemek Drabchinsky.

Once upon a time we were grappling. I was on top and things seemed to be going well (this was unusual at the time because he was way more skilled than I). However on this day I almost had him pinned! Pshemek is one of those Daddy Long Legs kind of grapplers, and he was trying to put me back into his guard using his long, flexible and agile legs.

He was pushing on my hip with his hand to make enough room to bring his legs into play.

To thwart his defense I twisted my hips: this is one good option, because changing the angle of your body this way often collapses your opponent's arms.

Unfortunately this time I did it a little to abruptly and a little too fast.

The bottom man is stiff arming my hips
(over-exaggerated for clarity)...

...so I twist my hips to collapse his defense

There was pop!

And he gasped in pain.

His fingers had got caught on my body and when I twisted my hips he couldn't get his hand out in time. In effect I had applied a hard, uncontrolled wristlock on my training partner without meaning to do so. His wrist took more than a year to heal completely, and I felt bad about it the whole time.

There are eight small bones, and a lot of ligaments and nerves in the wrist. Unfortunately if something is broken in there, then the fractures is often missed by a non-specialist looking at an X ray. (So if you or someone you know severely injures the wrist, or if a nagging wrist injury just won't heal, then get hand specialist to take a look at you, and not just the regular ER doc...).

Anyway, I don't mean to scare you you, but I hope I've made my point that wrist injuries are not to be taken lightly.

If someone is pushing your body then go ahead and use the body twist to neutralize his arms. Just don't do it super-abruptly and with a lot of weight on his hands.

And if you're pushing from the bottom then be aware of the dangers. Be aware of the angles and positioning of your wrists and hands, and be ready to collapse your arms in before you get inadvertently wristlocked. Better to live and fight another day from the bottom of sidemount than have your training cut short by a hyperextended wrist.

Train safe, because as BJJ black belt David Meyer says, "Injury is the enemy!"

My 23 Year Nutritional Streak, Broken...

2009-11-01T14:28:00.000-08:00

I have this thing against Mc Donalds' Restaurants. It's partially the taste, partially the poor nutritional quality of the food, and partially because the multinational logo of "billions and billions served" drives me nuts.

And I've felt like this a long time. In fact, when I was 12 years old I made up my mind not to eat at Mc Donald's ever again.

I was a stubborn little tyke, and grew up to be a stubborn man. So I actually went for 23 years without eating any food from the golden arches. Not fries, not an ice cream, not a Big Mac.

I've only fallen off the wagon once since I made that decision as a pre-teen. And that happened six years ago when I was part of the emergency response to a flooded town zone. We were evacuating the citizens, setting up pumps, and wading around in cold, hip deep water for hours.

Eventually the fire chief showed up with food and - you guessed it - it was from Mc Donald's.

I was cold. I was starving. I ate the food.

My system survived the assault of the yellow arches, but now I've had to start my crusade from the beginning again. As a result I've been Mc Donald's free for six years now.

Now I'm not a saint when it comes to nutrition. I indulge in junk food occasionally. And anyone who knows me also knows that I couldn't resist dark chocolate if my life depended on it.

But in the final analysis, I think I'm fairly nutrition conscious. I do a pretty good job of eating healthy food, even a lot of organic food, at least most of the time.

In fact, I think that nutrition is one of the most neglected aspects of grappling training. This is ironic, because it's actually one of the training areas in which you have the most control. And the results are relatively immediate and altogether remarkable.

When it comes to performance you can't do much about your genetics. You got what you got from your parents, and now you're stuck with it (at least until gene-splicing technology takes a big jump forward).

You also may not have control over how often you train. Maybe hitting the mats twice a week is all you can get away with and not end up divorced.

And depending on your circumstances, you may not even have control over where you train and who you train with. if you live in a small town, for example, then your school may be the only show in town.

But nobody is forcing you to eat junk food, or to guzzle a giant soda, or to swing through the Mc Donald's drive through on a daily basis (except if you're in a flood zone).

Now there are a million miracle diets and eating plans out there. Each one of them claims to be the sole answer, and most of them contradict each other. But almost all experts agree on a few things, like:

sugar is bad for you,
excessive refined starches (flour, rice, etc) are bad for you,
deep-fried food is bad for you,
non-deep fried vegetables are good for you (and you should eat twice as many as you do now),
you should have a balanced diet with protein, carbohydrates and healthy fats,
you should drink lots of water,
you should have a source of Omega 3 fatty acids (like in fish oils),
you should eat (or drink) a mixture of carbohydrates and protein soon after you finish a workout,
etc.

I wouldn't be going on and on about this, if I didn't think that nutrition wasn't so damn important to athletic performance. In a sense, nutrition is the very cornerstone of athletic performance.

In fact, if you clean up your diet you'll be able to

train harder
recover faster
feel better
get injured less often
get sick less often
live longer

It amazes me how many people eat like crap and then spend hundreds of dollars on supplements. There are only a very few supplements that work, and even then good nutrition wins out over good supplements every single time.

If you're not getting the nutrients you need, and if you're not staying away from the bad stuff, then you'll never reach your true potential in this sport!

P.S. One cool (and free) resource on the subject of nutrition is Billy Hofacker's Ultimate Quick-Start Recipe Guide. Billy operates trainingformmafitness.com, and sends out a very informative training newsletter, so he understands the nutritional needs of grapplers.

Just click on the link below to download his recipe guide:

http://www.trainingformmafitness.com/support-files/ultimate-quick-start-recipe-guide.pdf

Then if you like what you get then go and sign up for his newsletter too!

The Exercise I Was Doing "All Wrong"

2009-10-26T23:05:00.001-07:00

In 2003 I released a DVD called "Dynamic Kneebars." Because it was (and still is) the only resource dedicated solely to the topic of kneebars - the king of the leglocks - it was a very successful, widely distributed video.

At the end of the DVD I have a short bonus section covering the five most useful weight training exercises to develop a killer kneebar. And it's no coincidence that the very first of those exercises is the barbell squat.

If you can only do one weightlifting exercise then it should probably be the squat - it's a great exercise for your legs, and the legs are so very important in jiu-jitsu and grappling. Also the squatting motion itself is a very sports-specific movement.

The squat also strengthens your torso, because your core muscles really have to work in order to stabilize the weight of the barbell on your shoulders.

Finally the squat strengthens your whole body. I've been told by more than one coach: "if you want to get a big bench press then you have to squat too." What they were talking about is the hormonal effects of squatting. Moving that much weight around has a strong metabolic and hormonal effect on your whole body, not just your legs.

The squat has been one of my cornerstone exercises since about 1996 or 1997. I was taught how to squat by a friend of mine who was a personal trainer. He took me under his weightlifting wing, making sure that my squat form was good so that I didn't hurt myself with this exercise.

So I was shocked when, a few years ago, a strength and conditioning coach first complimented me on the Dynamic Kneebars DVD, but then told me "you're doing your squat all wrong." At first I felt defensive. After all, I thought I had pretty good weightlifting form. I'd even put footage from one of my workouts onto a DVD, for Pete's sake!

When I dug a little bit deeper and quizzed him, it turned out that the specific thing I was 'doing wrong' was that I was squatting like a bodybuilder. You see, I'd been doing what's called a 'high bar back squat.' The high bar back squat is a whole body exercise, but the biggest driver is the quadriceps (the muscles on the front of the thighs).

This coach was advocating powerlifting squats for grappling and MMA conditioning. A powerlifting-style squat has the bar lower on the back, the legs wider, and sitting your butt backwards as opposed to bringing the knees forward.

A great review of the different squatting styles can be found here.

The net effect of these changes is to spread the effort out over your whole body, with a special emphasis on your posterior chain (the muscles on the BACK of your body).

After a little more research on the topic I decided to change things up and switch to a power-lifting style squat. I wanted to see how I felt with this style of lifting. I figured that if I didn't like the results I could always stop and go back to my regular squatting style.

The following article by Dave Tate really helped me when I made the transition to the powerlifting squat: "How to Squat 900 lbs."

Within a few months of trying out powerlifting squats I was hooked. My posterior chain got significantly stronger, and my knees and back felt great.

And I could squat a lot more weight!

Of course the two lifts are different exercises, and comparing the amounts of weight you can lift in both lifts against each other isn't really fair. It really is apples and oranges. Nevertheless it was exciting when my maximum two-rep lift shot up from 315 lbs to 405 lbs.

That's 90 extra pounds in 4 months, which is very significant (especially if you're 'supplementing' your training with growth hormone and steroids).

I'm not lifting quite that heavy right now, but I've pretty much stuck with the powerlifting style of squatting. My training time is limited, and by making the squat even more of a whole-body experience my workout becomes more efficient.

If you don't lift weights, I encourage you to start. Even once a week can have a significant effect on your body, especially when it comes to reducing injury. Try to get some qualified coaching, especially right at the beginning, so that you don't injure yourself with a rookie weightlifting mistake.

If you lift weights and don't squat then I think you're cheating yourself. You're missing out one of the best strength building exercises out there.

If you do bodybuilding style squats then I encourage you to try powerlifting squats and see how you feel. Once again, a little coaching here goes a long way towards ensuring an injury-free lifting career.

And finally, if you try powerlifting squats and you don't like them, that's OK. Go back to regular squatting and I won't think any less of you.

Any kind of squatting is (much) better than no squatting!

The Chimpass, aka the Sao Paulo, Tozi, or Wilson Reis Pass

2009-10-09T18:55:00.001-07:00

There's a relatively new, somewhat unorthodox guard pass that's become popular in the last year or so. Depending on who you talk to, it's called the "Sao Paulo Pass", the "Wilson Reis Pass", or the "Roberto Tozi pass".

The bad news is that I'm NOT an expert at this guard pass (yet). This means that I'm not the best person to break it down for you.

The good news is that there's a great explanation of this pass online by Justin 'ChimChim' Garcia. With tongue firmly planted in cheek he calls it the "ChimPass," but it's the exact same pass, with a few of his own adjustments:

Heres's part 1 of the Chimpass (www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMfKdjf0A2g)

and here's part 2 (www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQxCVjyVjlQ)

The funny thing is that I actually came across a complaint on the internet about the two videos I recommended above. Specifically, the person was complaining that it took Justin 17 and a half minutes to explain a single technique.

I hope that the complainant is a beginner, because that'd be a pretty silly statement if he or she had more than a couple of months of actual training...

To master a technique you have to rip it apart. You've got to understand all the little steps, adjustments and details that makes the technique work. Then you have to be able to verbalize and articulate what you do and why you do it.

From that perspective, taking 17 and a half minutes to teach a single technique is a GREAT thing. I wish that every technique I learned was shown to me with that level of detail.

P.S. If you want a different perspective on the same guard pass, check out this post on the dutchassasinbjj blog.

The Most Important Thing For Improving Your Grappling

2009-09-28T20:55:00.000-07:00

You know, I used to think that if I just learned enough ways to pass the guard, mastered enough submissions, memorized enough pin escapes, pick up enough guard sweeps, received enough tactics and just had enough techniques at my fingertips, then... someday... I would master the art of grappling.

Techniques, techniques, techniques! I was pretty sure that these were the critical things to learn. Well, guess what? When I look back on my grappling journey it's obvious that my greatest successes and most exciting breakthroughs all had one thing in common.

And it was never about learning a new technique.

Instead the biggest leaps forward were those suddent insights when, all of a sudden, you see that a whole bunch of different and seemingly unconnected techniques are just different expressions of the same underlying principle.

Some people call these 'ah ha' moments. The light goes on, something falls into place, and you can never look at something in quite the same way ever again.

Breakthrough moments like these have been on my mind a lot recently. (In fact this is the main reason I put together my online Grappling Concepts course. What I'm doing in that course is distilling my most important 'ah ha' moments in grappling, and passing them on to you.)

But regardless of whether you sign up for that course or not, today I want to talk to you about the power of concepts.

By the end of this email I want you to be convinced that concepts and principles are FAR more powerful than individual techniques. And that figuring out these concepts is the single best thing you can do to become a better grappler.

--------------------------------------------------------------
If a picture is worth a thousand words, then

A concept is worth a thousand techniques.
--------------------------------------------------------------

Why is concept-based learning so great when it comes to submission grappling and Brazilian jiu-jitsu? Here are five good reasons:

REASON #1: There are LOTS of techniques in grappling. Hundreds and hundreds of techniques.

You've got your bread and butter techniques. Then there are the techniques that are you use once in a while. And then there are the techniques that you'll never use yourself but that your opponents will try to use on you. There's no getting around it: you've GOT to learn a lot of techniques to get good at this grappling stuff. And that can seem overwhelming at times - memorizing all this can be hard work.

But guess what? Those hundreds and hundreds of techniques I was talking about - they're made up of thousands of little steps that make the difference between success and failure for each technique

But the good news is that there are a lot fewer concepts than techniques in grappling.

And it's much easier to remember a few core concepts than it is to remember hundreds of techniques with thousands of steps and details. Techniques are just applied concepts. A single concept can be applied to many different techniques, in different situations, and using different parts of your body.

REASON #2: A concept makes you understand WHY you have to do certain things in a specific order for a given technique to work properly. Concepts make sense of a technique, and it's a million times easier to remember things that makes sense.

A concept also makes the techniques you already know more powerful. Once you understand the underlying principles of the armbar, for example, then you'll also know how to tweak and adjust that submission for maximum effectiveness.

REASON #3: Another limitation of technique-based learning is that a specific technique applies only to a specific situation. And it's completely unreasonable to expect to know a different technique to deal with each and every situation you might end up in on the mats.

If you've done any sparring at all, then you know that two determined grapplers can end up in some downright weird situations. In these tangled positions each grappler will be wondering what the heck they should do next.

Unfortunately the 'dial-a-friend' option ISN'T available when you're in the middle of a grappling match. But most of the time you can figure out the right thing to do by apply the correct concepts. I know this, because going back to 'first principles' has saved my butt many times in sparring.

REASON #4: You can use the same concept in many different grappling arts.

Rules can change from art to art, but the laws of physics, anatomy and psychology stay the same. That means that the concepts you'll discover when you did a little deeper are much more universal than the techniques of any given art.

The same concept can apply in Brazilian jiu-jitsu AND submission grappling, With the gi AND in no-gi. In mixed martial arts AND in self defense. In Judo AND Sambo AND wrestling

REASON #5: Understanding the concepts of grappling allows you to adapt and even invent techniques on the fly.

Just think about music for a second. Understanding the principles and underlying rules of music allows a musician to improvise and create great sounding music. In exactly the same way, knowing the principles and underlying concepts of grappling allows you to adapt and innovate new techniques as needed, and even 'on the fly.'

This approach to the martial arts also frees you up to continue learning when your instructor isn't around. The most important thing my instructors did was TEACH ME HOW TO LEARN!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a day.
Teach him HOW to fish and you feed him for his whole life.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

You can probably tell that I really believe the number one thing you can do to improve your overall grappling is develop a 'conceptual' game.

So take a look at the vast number of grappling techniques and get serious about finding the universal themes, the underlying principles and the most important concepts that make those techniques 'tick'.

Eventually I hope you'll agree that a concept is worth a thousand techniques.

P.S. For a few more days only, a two week free trial of the Grappling Concepts course, plus a free DVD for all signups, is available at

===> http://www.grapplearts.tv

Killer Grip, and How To Get It!

2009-09-20T16:19:00.000-07:00

Stephan's note: this post is one of over 50 lessons in the Beginning BJJ eCourse. Sign up here to get your hands on the rest of the lessons for free.

My BJJ coach Marcus Soares believes that a really strong grip is one of the most important physical attributes for a BJJ fighter. Not surprisingly, Marcus's grip is crushingly strong. In fact, this is one of the first things his old training partners remember about him. One Brazilian coach told me "Oh my God, when he grabbed you that was it! At that point you just wanted to go do something else..."

Now wouldn't that be a nice attribute to have?

Obviously a strong grip helps with gi chokes, however it's also a huge asset even if you mostly do no-gi. There's nothing like clamping a vice-like mitt onto an opponent's wrist to get his attention in a hurry! But what if you've naturally got a weak grip? Should you give up the sport and take up ping-pong?

By now you've probably already guessed what I'm going to say here. Just because you suck at something doesn't mean that you shouldn't work on it. In this specific area I speak from personal experience here, because my own grip is decidedly non-superhuman...

If you suck at something you should probably double your efforts in that area. As Marc Denny told me, often your fastest progress comes from working your weakest areas.

There's a real art and science behind serious grip training. But what if you've decided to spend your few precious hours of spare time on the mat training BJJ rather than cranking out reps of forearm twists and other exercises in a gym ?

In that case check out my Youtube video with five grip training exercises I use while I'm on-the-go. Here's to the time when YOUR opponents will fear the power of your grip!

The Grappling Concepts Online Course

2009-09-18T21:43:00.000-07:00

I've been hard at work in 'the lab' cooking something up something new...

And now it's finally ready: the online 'Grappling Concepts' course.

This is a 26 week web-based course. Every week I'm sending participants a 15 minute to 30 minute video lesson tackling a fundamental grappling concept. The motto of the course is "If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a concept is worth a thousand techniques." (I toyed with the idea of calling the course '26,000 Techniques" but then came to my senses...)

The course material is very different from the regular old deluge-of-techniques type of DVD. And I'm also doing the marketing very differently as well.

In this era of over-hyped products I think the next evolution might be seeing exactly what you're getting, BEFORE you pay for it. I don't want to 'trick' anybody into joining the course - I'd much rather you try it out and see if it's for you.

If you like the material - great, I'll be glad to have you onboard! There's a very cool 'ethical bribe' waiting for you at the end of the course.

If you don't like it then that's also cool. Just let me know and I'll cancel your subscription right away. That's why the course billing doesn't start for 14 days (i.e. there's a free trial) and everybody gets a free DVD just for signing up. If you cancel, no problem, you still get to keep the DVD as my gift.

Here's the initial free DVD:

And here's the 'ethical bribe' you get if you complete the 26 weeks: the "Advanced Techniques and Tactics" 4 DVD Set.

For more information about the free DVD and the 14 day free trial please visit www.grapplearts.tv

A Video Tutorial on the X Guard

2009-09-16T10:37:00.000-07:00

I'm just drowning in email right now, because my new Grappling Concepts course has just launched. I've never seen a response this intense (maybe it's because of the limited number of DVDs available).

But before I get back to taking orders and answering emails, here's a link to an online video X Guard tutorial that I'm using to promote the Grappling Concepts Course

The Two WORST Martial Arts Techniques of All Time!

2009-09-13T20:45:00.000-07:00

Disclaimer: I've trained with some great teachers, getting tons of top-notch information from them. But my teachers are NOT AT ALL RESPONSIBLE for today's video!

You see, I've just posted a video about the two absolute WORST techniques that I've ever seen in almost 30 years of martial arts training!

Hope you enjoy watching it as much as I enjoyed making it. Please rate and comment on the video if you get the chance!

The 'Fundamental Five Guard Sweeps' from the de la Riva Guard

2009-09-13T11:43:00.000-07:00

Ricardo de la Riva is an incredibly nice and humble man, but don't let that fool you - this man is a BJJ legend. (I mean, how many people have a popular guard position named after them?)

De la Riva started training with Marcus Soares, and then continued under Carlson Gracie at the legendary Carlson Gracie Academy in Rio. He taught Rodrigo "Minotauro" Nogueira, and has had a long and illustrious competition career himself.

He is on the cutting edge of BJJ technology, and could show you fancy techniques until your brain ached and you begged for mercy.

So when I trained with him a while ago I had a seemingly strange question. I asked "what are the five most techniques techniques from the de la Riva Guard?" (I figured that this would be a great starting point for dissecting his elaborate and effective guard game.)

So he showed me his fundamental 5 moves. Then he let me photograph these techniques, step by step... And then he agreed to let me put them online for you guys.

So here are CLICK HERE for the five most important de la Riva Guard Sweeps, as taught by the man himself!

A Great Half Guard Resource!

2009-09-08T13:02:00.000-07:00

If you haven't seen this video yet then you're in for a treat!

Here Indrek Reiland and Jorgen Matsi take you through the Half Guard Position, covering the basics of both the top and the bottom position.

Not only do they show techniques, but they also share drills and, most importantly the underlying concepts of the half guard. Once you understand these concepts it will put the techniques into perspective and also make it much easier to remember them.
Production values aren't quite up to 'Speilbergian' standards, but the information they show you is top notch.

By the end of this video you should have a real solid head start on the Half Guard.

Since it's on Google Video, you can either watch the video on the site or download it to your computer for free. In fact, I'd recommend that you go and download it right away, just because you never know when a gem like this is going to disappear from the internet forever!

(If you want to download it to your computer first click here to go to the page on Google video, and then click on the "download video - iPod/PSP" link to the right of the video.)

Till later!

Stephan Kesting

P.S. Word's gotten out that I'm working on something new. I don't want to jinx things by talking about too early, but it's a BIG thing with some very exciting give-aways. Hopefully I'll be able to make a big announcement soon, and then things are going to get VERY interesting around here...

ESPN, I'm Sorry!

2009-09-08T12:56:00.000-07:00

I think I owe ESPN an official apology!

2 weeks ago I released my second-ever podcast and it shot up the charts, eventually making the Grapplearts Radio podcast the number four podcast for the entire sports section of iTunes.

The only podcasts ahead of me were three ESPN shows. For a few days I'm sure that the top executives at ESPN were getting a bit worried that I was going to knock them out of top place.

I mean they probably spend tens of thousands of dollars producing these podcasts. Then along comes some little upstart, talking about pajama wrestling of all things, and threatens to upset their apple cart!

I'm very sorry, I never meant to cause the upper level management of ESPN this much stress ;-)

(If you missed it the podcast can be accessed at
www.grapplearts.com/2009/08/bjj-submission-grappling-competition.htm)

BJJ & Submission Grappling Competition: Everything You Ever Wanted To Know!

2009-08-26T13:18:00.000-07:00

"Everything you ever wanted to know about Brazilian Jiu-jitsu competition but were afraid to ask!"

That's a strong statement, but it's almost even true. In my latest podcast I talk extensively with David Meyer, author of Training for Competition: Brazilian Jiu-jitsu and Submission Grappling.

We cover a TON of ground in this interview, ranging from why you might want to compete at all, to physical conditioning for competition, to specific strategies you can use against certain types of opponents.

This is one of the best interviews I've ever done. There is so much good information here that it'll be very useful for anyone who trains in BJJ or another grappling art, even if they don't compete.

And you can listen to the whole interview right here using the player embedded at the bottom of this post.

If you want to download future episodes of my podcasts and interviews automatically then click here to sign up for Grapplearts Radio in iTunes - it's completely free and totally simple.

Click the player below to listen to the whole 1 hour, 20 minute interview on BJJ and Submission Grappling Competition (or right click this link: http://media.libsyn.com/media/kesting/BJJ_Competition.mp3 and select "Save Link As..." to save the mp3 file to your computer)

Combining the Thai Clinch With The Double Leg Takedown

2009-08-23T22:19:00.000-07:00

Today's goodie is a report written by my online friend John Will, discussing how to combine the deadly Muay Thai clinch position with the double leg takedown (arguably the highest percentage takedown in MMA).

Mixed martial arts is all about mixing different fighing styles. Think of building a fight game that mixes Wanderlei Silva's deadly clinch 'em and knee 'em game with the super fast takedowns of Georges St. Pierre. That would be a TOUGH game to beat, wouldn't it?

Anyway, you can download that 5 page report on combining the Thai clinch with double leg takedown, completely for free, just by right-clicking and selecting "save" on the following link:

http://www.grapplearts.com/Clinch&MMATakedowns.pdf

And if you still want more material from John then check out what he has to say about the most important aspects of the double leg takedown.

I'm a BJJ Lab Rat Now!

2009-08-20T21:48:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I was part of the University scene. I finished up with that aspect of my life in 1992 and I've never seriously considered going back. But now I'm feeling a bit like Al Pacino in the Godfather movies: "just when I thought I was out, they DRAG me back in!"

Except I'm actually sort of enjoying it this time...

You see, I've been in touch with Dr. Bryan Hogeveen from the University of Alberta who is doing the first study on Brazilian Jiu-jitsu culture in North America. And he's picking my brain in a series of hour-long interviews, getting my views on grappling as a sport, a recreational activity and a martial art.

If I don't say anything too embarrassing I may eventually put those interviews out as a series of podcasts...

The cool thing is that Bryan (the guy who is doing the research) is not only a tenured professor of sociology, but he's also a BJJ practitioner himself. Heck, he even worked as a doorman at a bar in his undergraduate days, so he can't be all bad, right?

Well Bryan has also invited YOU to fill out a short online survey about your training and training philosophy. And it doesn't matter how long you've been training - he wants to hear from everybody.

If you're reading this then I assume that you agree that BJJ and grappling are pretty great. But compared to other combat sports like Judo, wrestling and boxing, there's been a lot LESS research into grappling. The better we understand our sport the more efficiently we can train and the faster we can improve.

I'm all about mixing physical training with a cerebral approach to grappling. If you have the time and inclination, then completing this short survey might get you thinking about aspects of your sport that you haven't thought about before.

Male grappler survey:
http://www.surveygizmo.com/s/104006/bjjsurvey

Female grappler survey

http://www.surveygizmo.com/s/104010/womeninbjj

OK, that's enough for now. The electrodes taped to my bald head are beginning to get itchy and I've got some levers to push...

Why I'm Training Like A (Strikeforce) Girl

2009-08-16T17:04:00.000-07:00

I had a great conditioning workout today, motivated by two entirely different things.

The first thing firing me up was watching a Christiane Cyborg conditioning session on Youtube. She was preparing for her recent fight in Strikeforce against Gina Carano. Love her or hate her, Ithink you'll agree that she's incredibly fit!

The second reason was that I've recently had less mat time than I would like (that's because I've been working day and night on a brand new, top secret, grappling-related project). It's ironic that when I'm focusing on creating material to help other people with their grappling, then I get too busy to concentrate on my own training...

But I know that soon I'll be able to start training a lot more, and I don't want to be completely out of shape when that happens! That's why, whenever I'm grappling less often than my normal routine, then I try to do some additional conditioning to
compensate.

Anyway, here was today's workout:

I started out with a brief jog, and then did four circuits of the following Cyborg-inspired exercises:

Tractor Tire Flips x 10 (this sucker weighs at least 300 lbs)
Plyo jumps up and down onto the tire x 10
Bodyweight squats x 20
Sledgehammer swings (hitting the tire) x 20\
Brief rest to catch my breath

Next came some aerobic work: 20 minutes on the Stairmaster, on a fairly constant 'rolling hills' setting.

This was followed by one warmup set and three working sets of the bench press

Next I knelt down in front of the cable machine, and did 20 kneeling one-handed cable pulldowns (2 sets per arm). This roughly resembles the motion of a one-armed chinup, but is a lot easier than that elite-level exercise.

Coming close to the end of the workout, I picked up some dumbells and did two sets of curl-and-press movements.

At the end of most of my workouts I usually do some abdominal, lower back and neck strengthening. Today was no different, so I did one set (not to failure) of each of the following exercises:

Back hyperextensions
Abdominal crunches
Neck harness work

As you can see, this was a hybrid between functional sports training, and more traditional weightlifting or bodybuilding style exercises.

Whenever I post something like this I usually get emails from people honestly trying to help me and concerned that I'm doing everything wrong... Either my workouts are "too long", or "too short," or have too much aerobic endurance stuff, or I need to do more sprints, or I need to add Olympic lifting or start doing isometric holds...

Am I doing the 100% optimal workout for grappling? Honestly, everybody has an opinion but nobody knows for sure.

My mantra when it comes to conditioning is that doing something is better than doing nothing!

So was this workout session better than sitting on my duff, watching TV and eating potato chips?

You bet!

Until next time...

Finishing the Rear Naked Choke

2009-08-05T20:48:00.000-07:00

Grappling is usually a refined and elegant martial art. But you can't always use sophistication and leverage to get what you want...

Let's look at question that was recently forwarded to me, and see why sometimes you need to go lowbrow!

Q: "I have a quick question on the Rear Naked Choke (RNC). I have come across a few guys who are excellent at tucking their chin well into the crook of my elbow when I'm trying to give them the RNC, and obviously it's not choking them because their chin is in the way. What's an effective way to get their chin up somehow after they have blocked my choke attempt."

A: When it comes to attacking from rear mount, the RNC is definitely one of your pieces of heavy artillery! Anytime you're on someone's back, you should be ready to slap it on. (Click here for a technical step-by-step breakdown of the Rear Naked Choke).

But dealing with the tucked chin defense can be difficult, particularly if your opponent is both strong and stubborn. Here are some answers to use in just that situation:

Head Push. Get the rear mount and push their head forward. They react by pushing back into you, so release the pressure and slip in the choke. This only works on beginners, but it's still a handy trick to know about!
Forehead Pull. Place your palm on his forehead and pull it straight backwards, exposing the neck. Then, maintaining the pull, shoot your OTHER hand across his throat and start working for the choke. (This works best when you're in belly-down rear mount).
Crossfacing. Say you're rear mounted and his chin is down. Drive your right fist and forearm across his face, forcing him to look to the left, and then drive your left arm into position across his throat. Sometimes you have to do this two or three times (left, right, left...) before you get the opening you need to attack the neck.
Nose Pressure. Some people advocate using putting the forearm just under the nose, and then raking it upwards to open up the space at the neck (ouch!).
Choke the Jaw. Maybe my favorite option is simply apply the RNC directly over the chin and squeeze. If you do this with consistent and sustained pressure you can pull his jaw back into his windpipe and choke him that way (it just takes a little longer). It's also painful, and often he'll lift his chin up to get the pressure off his jaw, giving you perfect access to his neck.

As you can see, some of the above options are leverage-based and others are pain-based. I'm not typically a fan of pain-based manipulations, but sometimes it's the right thing to do!

Just remember to save the pain-based stuff for competition. Or on people you really don't like. Or on really good friends (who'll forgive you). Please DON'T use it on the brand new guy who'll quit and never come back, or on someone who'll really take offense.

But even if you don't want to use the 'grinding' options yourself, you still need to know about them. Someone might try them on you, and if you've seen it before then you'll be prepared to deal with it.

Happy Rear Naked Choking!

Bring 'Em Back Alive: More On Recovering From Chokes

2009-07-30T16:51:00.000-07:00

The last blog post (Choke Recovery in Grappling) prompted some lively discussion and debate when I posted it on the Sherdog Grappling Forum and on MMA.tv. I also received a number of emails on the topic.

The most common question by far, was "what about lifting the unconscious person's legs up into the air to bring blood into their brain."

I've have seen the legs-in-the-air technique used to resuscitate unconscious grapplers. In fact, it's even been used on me (I was 12 years old and got knocked out by a Judo throw in the adult class. I awoke with my legs in the air and a whole bunch of very concerned faces looking down at me)!

But I didn't talk about it in my last newsletter for a simple reason - I've never seen any sort of research about the safety or efficacy of this resuscitation technique.

It seems fairly obvious that it 'should' bring more blood to the brain, and that it 'should' help people wake up faster. But that kind of thinking can be dangerous. Medical history is littered with techniques, procedures and drugs that 'should' have helped people, but instead caused grievous bodily harm.

A forum participant called "BJJ Medic" finally helped me out. He told me about some research on the so-called Trendelenburg postion. This head down, legs up position was used during and after World War 1 to help manage shock.

Recent research, however, indicates that this position does nothing to help with shock, and increases the risk of choking on your own tongue (which is, by the way, the most common cause for blocked airways in unconscious people). Click here to read The Myth of the Trendelenburg Position for yourself.

So until someone actually does proper research on the legs-in-the-air position, specifically with regard to waking up unconscious people, I'm NOT going to use it. The 'treatment' at this point only has risks, and no proven benefits.

BUT I SHOULD HAVE MENTIONED THIS

If someone is unconscious from a choke you should check to see if they're breathing. If they're not breathing, then either move them to the recovery position (3/4 prone) OR start rescue breathing. You should also check for a pulse, and if they don't have one, start CPR.

I think that every serious grappler or martial artist should have basic CPR and first aid training.

But even if you don't have the training to do rescue breathing and CPR, it's very important to be able to tell the 911 dispatcher "my buddy is unconscious but has a pulse and is breathing".

Choke Recovery in BJJ and Submission Grappling

2009-07-27T09:44:00.000-07:00

The first time I saw someone choked unconscious it scared the crap out of me. And it was made worse by the fact that it was a friend of mine...

It was many years ago at a local tournament. My friend was winning his match but got caught in a sneaky gi choke. He was (and still is) a stubborn bastard, so he refused to tap and passed out. He might have been out for about 10 seconds before anyone realized what was going on.

When the referee finally separated the two competitors, I could see my buddy lying flat on his back and he wasn't moving. From my position in the stands I couldn't even see if he was breathing.

But then it got even worse...

He started to snore REALLY loudly. We're talking horrible-keep-you-awake-from-the-next-room-sleep-apnea kind of snoring. Everyone at the tournament could hear it. Then, just to make things even more dramatic, he started convulsing a little bit, like he was having a small epileptic seizure.

Finally - to my infinite relief - he woke up, sat up and looked around sheepishly. Objectively he'd probably only been out for a total of 15 to 20 seconds (including the snoring and convulsing) but it sure seemed a lot longer than that to me at the time!

In fact this is a fairly normal sequence for someone who has been choked out. The snoring is normal. The mini-convulsions are to be expected. And they're going to be a bit light headed when they wake up.

Judo and BJJ coaches have different opions about what to do if someone gets choked out. The most common approach is to stand around and wait for the person to wake up. And this works just fine 99% of the time.

There are traditional judo resuscitation techniques (known as "kappo"). Kappo is an esoteric subject, and I don't know much about it. But I'll give you some guidance coming more from a western first aid point of view.

In first aid class I've been taught to roll unconscious people onto their side or into the 3/4 prone position (IMPORTANT: you only do this if you're sure that there's no neck or back injury). Being on the side helps drain fluids from the mouth and prevents the tongue from blocking the airway. And there are some Judo coaches who agree that this is a good idea.

I don't want to scare you with all this talk about unconscious people. Most accounts of chokes gone bad involve cops trying to restrain someone high on PCP by squeezing their neck with a billy club. Hopefully that's not happening at your club.

In fact, chokes and strangles are fairly safe.

The Kodokan, which is the central organizing body for Judo, has conducted studies on the safety of chokes ("shimewaza"). The results are encouraging: Judoka have been choking each other for more than 100 years without any reported fatalities.

Attacking the neck is part of submission grappling and BJJ. If you do this sport long enough then eventually someone will get choked out right in front of you. Now you know what to expect when that happens!