June 17, 2009
Another Reason Why BJJ is Better Than Boxing
A few days ago, while traveling, I made my way down to Dartmouth's Fitplus gym. That's where I participated in a BJJ class taught by 6th degree Carlson Gracie black belt, Alexandre Penao.Despite feeling slightly under the weather that evening I really enjoyed the training session. People often talk about the sense of camaraderie in the BJJ community. This is never more in evidence than when you walk into a new club and are welcomed on the mat as a brother-in-arms.
(And then your new friends try to choke you unconscious...).
One cool thing that happened that night is that Alexandre Penao showed us a technique that none of us had ever seen before.
It was a cool rolling choke against the turtle position. Then he showed us how to use that choke to set up an entry to the mount and choke the guy out from there. This second technique was also entirely new to me.
Now I've been doing BJJ a long time. And I've been practicing other grappling arts for even longer. But I hadn't seen this stuff before. Not in person. Not on Youtube. Not in my extensive library of books and DVDs.
But the funny thing is that in BJJ this happens ALL THE TIME! Someone is always dreaming up new ways to choke somebody out, twist them into a pretzel, or flip them overhead.
No matter what belt rank you are, so long as you continue training you'll accumulate new techniques, details and insights until the day you step off the mats for good.
We're very luck that our sport is rich enough to allow this kind of continued growth.
How often do you think that an elite level boxer goes into the gym and has someone show him a completely new punch? How about two completely new punches?
This just doesn't happen in boxing. Ever!
But in jiu-jitsu and submission grappling there's always something new to learn.
Keep on rolling
Stephan Kesting
Grapplearts.com
Labels: Brazilian jiu-jitsu, chokes, inspiration
bookmark this! del.icio.us | Digg it | reddit | Yahoo MyWeb | Google | StumbleUpon
February 09, 2009
Incorporating Other Martial Arts into BJJ
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. Since BJJ hit North America it has been infused with techniques and strategies from wrestling, judo, sambo, shootwrestling, etc. For the most part, these additions have made it a richer, more effective grappling system
But what about other, more obscure martial arts? Let's take aikido for example, an art that a someone once described as being only useful "for restraining aged professors, run amuck."
Predictably, I think that aikido CAN contribute something to BJJ and/or submission grappling. One of my favorite sneak attacks is a wristlock that comes straight out of the aikido repertoire (and I get everybody with it at least once).
And for proof that I'm not the only BJJ black belt who thinks that traditional Japanese martial arts can be applied in a ground grappling context, check out Roy Dean's "Art of the Wristlock" video.
And why stop there - what about Indonesian Silat? How about trying to adapt some techniques from Indian Vajramushti or from Mongolian jacket wrestling?
A long time ago I wrote about how I first learned the omo plata armlock from my Silat training. For a short time I thought that I was the only person using that technique in BJJ.
(You can tell that this is an old article because my training partner Vlado is still a purple belt in those technique photos...)
Well of course I soon found out that I was NOT the first person to use that armlock on the BJJ mat. In fact it was already an established technique with many different applications, ranging from submitting your opponent, to sweeping him, to setting up other submissions. My point is that I got a head start and an alternate perspective on this technique by trying to apply what I had learned in other martial arts.
Interestingly I recently published an article by John Will on the ancient Indian art of Vajramushti. Turns out that they ALSO use the armlock that we call omo plata (check out the photo to the right!)
The bottom line is that there are only so many ways to twist somebody into a pretzel to make them say "uncle." Over the millennia there have been hundreds of thousands of martial artists in other styles who have done some serious R&D on what works. Learning to grapple does involve a lot of self-discovery, of course, but you don't have to reinvent the wheel entirely on your own either.
Issac Newton once wrote "If I have seen farther it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." I encourage you to accelerate your own progress by standing on the shoulders of giants too. Just keep in mind that some of these useful giants are outside the art of BJJ!
bookmark this! del.icio.us | Digg it | reddit | Yahoo MyWeb | Google | StumbleUpon
In general, I find that most BJJ practitioners are relatively open minded when it comes to learning from other styles. Since BJJ hit North America it has been infused with techniques and strategies from wrestling, judo, sambo, shootwrestling, etc. For the most part, these additions have made it a richer, more effective grappling system
But what about other, more obscure martial arts? Let's take aikido for example, an art that a someone once described as being only useful "for restraining aged professors, run amuck."
Predictably, I think that aikido CAN contribute something to BJJ and/or submission grappling. One of my favorite sneak attacks is a wristlock that comes straight out of the aikido repertoire (and I get everybody with it at least once).
And for proof that I'm not the only BJJ black belt who thinks that traditional Japanese martial arts can be applied in a ground grappling context, check out Roy Dean's "Art of the Wristlock" video.
And why stop there - what about Indonesian Silat? How about trying to adapt some techniques from Indian Vajramushti or from Mongolian jacket wrestling?
A long time ago I wrote about how I first learned the omo plata armlock from my Silat training. For a short time I thought that I was the only person using that technique in BJJ.(You can tell that this is an old article because my training partner Vlado is still a purple belt in those technique photos...)
Well of course I soon found out that I was NOT the first person to use that armlock on the BJJ mat. In fact it was already an established technique with many different applications, ranging from submitting your opponent, to sweeping him, to setting up other submissions. My point is that I got a head start and an alternate perspective on this technique by trying to apply what I had learned in other martial arts.
Interestingly I recently published an article by John Will on the ancient Indian art of Vajramushti. Turns out that they ALSO use the armlock that we call omo plata (check out the photo to the right!)The bottom line is that there are only so many ways to twist somebody into a pretzel to make them say "uncle." Over the millennia there have been hundreds of thousands of martial artists in other styles who have done some serious R&D on what works. Learning to grapple does involve a lot of self-discovery, of course, but you don't have to reinvent the wheel entirely on your own either.
Issac Newton once wrote "If I have seen farther it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." I encourage you to accelerate your own progress by standing on the shoulders of giants too. Just keep in mind that some of these useful giants are outside the art of BJJ!
Labels: Grapplearts DVDs, inspiration, techniques, training
bookmark this! del.icio.us | Digg it | reddit | Yahoo MyWeb | Google | StumbleUpon
Harsh Quote of the Week
Well here we are, roughly 5 weeks after New Year's Eve and resolution-making season. Have you made progress on your goals? If not, then here is a harsh but great quote by Merlin Mann on getting your ass in gear:
"Somewhere, a sad obese man in pristine ASICS scarfs cookie dough over an unopened “Runner’s World”, complaining that he needs more tips"
bookmark this! del.icio.us | Digg it | reddit | Yahoo MyWeb | Google | StumbleUpon
"Somewhere, a sad obese man in pristine ASICS scarfs cookie dough over an unopened “Runner’s World”, complaining that he needs more tips"
Labels: inspiration, the mental aspect
bookmark this! del.icio.us | Digg it | reddit | Yahoo MyWeb | Google | StumbleUpon