Grappling Tips Newsletter

September 08, 2009

ESPN, I'm Sorry!

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)

Labels: Brazilian jiu-jitsu, competition, podcasts

permanent link to this article posted by Stephan @ 12:56 PM

August 26, 2009

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

"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)

Labels: Brazilian jiu-jitsu, competition, podcasts, self defense, submission grappling, the mental aspect, training

permanent link to this article posted by Stephan @ 1:18 PM

June 30, 2009

Do You Have Competition Questions?

David Meyer has a ton of credentials, but for now I'm only going to mention three of them:

He's a BJJ Black Belt under the Machado brothers,
He's got a very solid record in BJJ and in submission grappling competition, and
He's the author of one of my favorite new books, "Training for Competition: Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Submission Grappling."

Sometime in July of 2009 I'm hoping to interview David and pick his brain on the topic of competition. I want to get his take on the very best tournament strategies and tactics, advice on how to prepare for competition and reasons why one should compete at all.

If all goes well I'll broadcast this interview on the next Grapplearts Radio Podcast.

Now I got a LOT of feedback about how informative my first podcast (the Jon Chaimberg interview) was, and how intelligent my questions were.

I had to laugh, of course, because a lot of those questions came directly from my readers - you guys! (Thanks again to everyone who sent me those questions).

So now I'm going to open up the process once again and ask does anyone has questions about any aspect of competition? If you want your competition questions answered by the man who quite literally wrote the book on the topic, then go to the contact link and send 'em in soon.

I can't guarantee that I'll use every single question, but I'll do my very best!

Labels: Brazilian jiu-jitsu, competition, interviews, podcasts

permanent link to this article posted by Stephan @ 10:22 PM

June 27, 2009

The Very First Time I Used the Logsplitter Sweep...

Check out this video, which shows the very first time I stumbled across the 'logsplitter' position. it was a complete fluke, but it still won me the match and a silver medal.

Then read on to find out what happened AFTER that competition...

Cool, huh? This is a guard variation I now use all the time because it offers both sweeping options and submission options. The best part is that nobody has any clue of what to do when they're caught in it.

But I didn't become competent in this position right away. In fact it took about a year for me to start working on it, and that was only because I received an email out of the blue from someone who had also been experimenting with it.

Click here for the whole story - including pictures and more video.

Labels: butterfly guard, competition, half guard, leglocks

permanent link to this article posted by Stephan @ 8:59 PM

March 22, 2009

The Reverse Mount; Another Unorthodox BJJ Position

Stephan Kesting teaching the "Reverse Mount" position
at a recent seminar on Unorthodox Positions and Attacks

The first time I saw the Reverse Mount I was at an Erik Paulson seminar. My reaction was something like "yeah, right...."

I honestly thought that Erik had run out of high percentage things to teach and was now just making stuff up.

Knowing Erik though, I really shouldn't have doubted him...

As soon as I used the reverse mount in sparring I realized that my opponent had no clue about what to do. In addition, the pressure on his diaphragm turned out to be quite intense, making it hard for him to breath.

This is an application of choking your opponent's diaphragm instead of his neck.

Difficulty breathing = panic = doing something stupid = easy submission! I finished my partner with a submission and that was the beginning of a beautiful relationship.

After that I started using it fairly regularly. I even won the a BJJ tournament with it: I started in North South, jumped up and forward to get to Reverse Mount, and then sunk in a kneebar (a breakdown of that finish, and a video of it, made it into my Dynamic Kneebars DVD).

It's funny, before you identify something as a position it just looks like a wacky tangle of legs and arms. You think to yourself "how could I ever end up in that silly position?"

But after you isolate it and give it a name you start seeing it much more often. Grapplers may not mean to end up there, but they do anyway.

And you see this position even at the highest levels: I remember watching two top ranked fighters in Pride end up in this position and stalemate there for what seemed like hours (in reality it was probably only a few minutes).

It's so unusual that the vast majority of people trapped on the bottom have no idea how to escape from here or even what kind of submissions to expect

(To my loyal readers I'll spill the beans and tell you that most of the attacks from here involve leglocks, but don't tell anyone...)

Knowing how to apply a few so-called 'specialty' positions can be an absolute ace up your sleeve!

Labels: competition, leglocks, positions, teachers, unorthodox strategies

permanent link to this article posted by Stephan @ 11:18 PM

Offside Kesa Gatame has an Judo Name

OK, it's official. The collective intelligence of the Grapplearts readership is awesome.

About 5,000 people receive these newsletters, and many more read it 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.

A few days ago I talked about one of my favorite unorthodox positions: Offside Kesa Gatame. I also said that, to the best of my knowledge, there aren't any formal names for this position

Well Chris Beaver from Canada and Pierre Henry from Belgium both wrote in to tell me that Judo DOES have a name for this position, namely: "Makura Kesa Gatame."

The funny thing is that, before I wrote the article in question, I'd asked about 5 Judo black belts if they'd ever seen that position and they all said no.

After I got those two emails I did some additional research and found out that there are a couple of variations of Makura Kesa Gatame. One of those variations is very similar to what I call Offside Kesa Gatame.

It's a bit of a digression, but one thing to keep in mind is that while some Judo players may use this as a PINNING position, knowledge of the submission potential of this position will be more rare. In Judo the pin itself can win the match, so why risk going for a position and losing the position.

(Back when I did Judo going for a submission from a good pinning position in competition would have been considered insane).

I've often said that we should look beyond the borders of our own specific martial arts for additional information. Chris and Pierre helped me do just that!

Thanks!

Labels: competition, judo, positions, unorthodox strategies

permanent link to this article posted by Stephan @ 11:09 PM

January 17, 2009

The Wrestler (and Tips for Competition)

Some people are natural born competitors. Like Mickey Rourke's character in "The Wrestler" they love the limelight, the roar of the crowd and putting it all on the line...

... and the rest of us tend to have more of a love-hate relationship with competition.

I was recently asked if I had any good tips for people wanting to enter their first competition.

I do. In fact I have TWO tips:

First, remember to breathe. Breathing is more important than almost everything else, because if you get really excited you'll probably start holding your breath. If you hold your breath you'll either gas out or pass out. Neither is pretty.

Longtime readers will recall a previous post in which an anonymous grappler could roll forever with advanced people but quickly gassed out when rolling with newbies. We eventually diagnosed this as a breathing problem, which led to both the solution and a surprise tournament victory.

Second, go and read the article about competition tips by Jason Scully that I've just added to the Grapplearts reading list. He's put together a great list of tips that should help you on the big day. Even more importantly, he has a great attitude about tournament competition.

So if you decide to do it, happy competing. Hope you learn lots!
Stephan Kesting

P.S. At the risk of getting way off topic, "The Wrestler" has probably moved into my top five movies list, so definitely think about it the next time you're going to see a movie after training.

P.P.S. As always, please feel free to forward this to any aspiring competitors that you know. The link specifically to this tip is:
www.grapplearts.com/2009/01/some-people-are-natural-born.htm

Labels: competition, the mental aspect

permanent link to this article posted by Stephan @ 12:15 AM