The traditional class structure of doing a warmup, learning a couple of new techniques, and followed by sparring is NOT an efficient way to learn jiu-jitsu. We can do much better if we use insights from research on coaching and learning. Today's guest is Cal MacDonald, a BJJ black belt and competitor who has dedicated himself to developing his teaching and coaching skills to the highest … [Read more...]
Classes
A Training Plan to Improve Your Jiu-Jitsu Skills
This is BIG! I’ve been studying Jiu-Jitsu since the late 1980’s and have trained at many different schools and with hundreds of different instructors. Recently I've been working on a new instructional with BJJ black belt Cal MacDonald, and I'm just SO impressed with what he's put together. His 8-volume instructional called BJJ Foundations covers the exact techniques and movements that … [Read more...]
Please Call Me Stephan, not ‘Professor’ or ‘Sifu’ or ‘Sensei’ or ‘Guru’ or ‘Master’ or ‘Shihan’ or ‘Kru’ or ‘Sabom’ Or ‘Kwisatz Haderach’
People mean well when they address me with an honorific but please call me Stephan, and not 'Professor' or 'Sifu' or 'Sensei' or 'Guru' or 'Master' or 'Shihan' or 'Kru' or 'Sabom' Or 'Kwisatz Haderach'... I don't like these honorifics because there's an inherent danger when lofty titles are used to amplify an already reflexive obedience towards a person. And this is especially true in a … [Read more...]
BJJ Training Pods
APRIL 18 2021 UPDATE (Originally published August 5th, 2020): With the advances in vaccination I believe there is a role for 'vaccinated training pods' to exist in the BJJ landscape. Essentially these are small groups of fully vaccinated people who are willing to accept the much smaller risk posed by training with other vaccinated people rather than training out in general population. This … [Read more...]
10 Pieces of Advice for BJJ White Belts
A Guest Article, by Rhett Burch There are many articles for BJJ beginners, but not many of them are written by a purple belt. I figured I'd share my thoughts since it wasn't long ago when I was white belt. The following things have helped me tremendously as a beginner. 1) Relax And Breathe First, is relax. Almost every BJJ beginner moves like a terrified animal initially. Practicing … [Read more...]
Self Defense vs MMA with John Hackleman
The intersection of MMA and self defense has always been interesting to me, so I was thrilled to have a chat with John 'the Pitmaster' Hackleman recently. John is well known for coaching Chuck Liddell to the UFC light-heavyweight title, but he has mentored many other successful MMA fighters as well. But despite his success as an MMA coach the reason he started training martial arts was very … [Read more...]
Podcast Episode 141 – The Steep Learning Curve Blues in BJJ
I was recently dragged through the waves, under the water and then lifted up into the air while trying to figure out the sport of kiteboarding, and figured out that there is one hell of a learning curve in that sport! But many sports and activities worth doing have that same initial hump - a difficult learning curve that makes most people drop out. Ultimately if it were easy to do then … [Read more...]
12 BJJ Black Belts Give Their Best Tips for Starting BJJ {Video and Podcast}
Today you're going to get 12 BJJ black belts give their best tips, strategies and advice for people just starting out in Brazilian jiu-jitsu. White belts looking for help getting started and organising their training will really benefit from watching this. Although there are a few themes the fascinating thing is how diverse the advice is. There is no one path, no one BJJ tip to rule them all, … [Read more...]
Podcast Episode 125: Reilly Bodycomb on Sambo, Leglocks, MMA, Jiu-Jitsu and No Gi Grappling
I loved doing this interview with Reilly Bodycomb. Reilly is a Russian sambo and leglock expert who has competed in a TON of different rulesets including BJJ, no gi submission grappling, MMA, Russian Sambo, and Chinese San Shou. He is the Pan-American Sport SAMBO Champion (2016), USA Sport SAMBO Champion (2016), Dutch Combat SAMBO Champion (2016), recently competed in Japan and is a BJJ black … [Read more...]
The 5 Steps to Training A New Technique
Most of the videos I post online are from my main Youtube channel which focusses quite heavily on BJJ, no gi jiu-jitsu, MMA and other forms of grappling. But what a lot of people don't know is that I also have a second youtube channel called 'Self Defense Tutorials' which - as the title might imply - focuses more on self defense and martial arts training. Here is one of the videos from that … [Read more...]
Should You Train When You’re Really Tired?
I recently came back from Europe and felt just clobbered by the 9 hour time difference the next day (being wide awake from 2 am onwards didn't help either). But I was really missing jiu-jitsu, so I made sure to get in a training session while stumbling from task to task. Was it an epic workout with 110% intensity? Not so much... It was a very controlled roll, focussing on just a few … [Read more...]
Are You Willing to Go Back to White Belt?
Most people training in the martial arts have a goal to achieve the mythical black belt. "When I finally wrap that black belt around my waist", the narrative goes, "THEN life will be good, my wife, kids and dog will all love me, and I'll never look stupid on the mats again." Ummmm, back up just a second... A good black belt frequently has to go back to being a white belt, and deliberately … [Read more...]
On Starting Sparring from the Knees…
A reader writes: Hi Stephan, I've been doing BJJ for about 6 months and am wondering if you have any advice about what to do when you're starting on the knees? I find that most wrestling-style takedowns are very difficult to do from the knees, especially because my opponents are really good at sprawling. And if I get my grips then inevitably my opponent also gets his grips and the whole … [Read more...]
Tips for Recovering from a BJJ Injury and Getting Back to Training
Unfortunately injuries are just part of the game. Now hopefully they'll be minor injuries and you'll recover from them quickly, but regardless, getting back to training after recuperating from an injury is always a tricky business. In the video below I give some of my best tips about exactly how your return to the mats should be structured. This is advice I've learned the hard way - for the … [Read more...]
How to Get Kicked Out of Your BJJ Club
by Jeff Meszaros So, you've been training at the same jiu-jitsu club for a while now and you've decided it's not for you. You've given it very careful consideration and concluded that it's time to move on to another club or quit altogether. But you don't want anyone to call you "a quitter" so instead of quitting, you've decided to take the high road and get kicked out. But how can you do … [Read more...]
Who Should You Mostly Be Sparring With To Improve The Fastest?
Who should you spend most of your time on the mats training with and sparring against? One of my martial arts mentors, Dan Inosanto, said it best; "You make your fastest progress when you're sparring people just a little bit better or a little bit worse than you." This makes a lot of sense. Imagine you're a new blue belt and you' only ever train with high level brown belts and black … [Read more...]
What Techniques Do You Need to Know for Your Blue Belt
Brazilian jiu-jitsu is a relatively disorganised and highly variable sport. This is most evident when you start looking at belt promotion requirements. The belts in BJJ go white, blue, purple, brown and black, with the first four belts typically having 4 stripes each and the black belt having 10 degrees. However the number of degrees in a black belt is getting way ahead of ourselves, … [Read more...]
Podcast EP25: BJJ Beginner Tips Interview and Podcast
In this Grapplearts interview I talk to BJJ Black Belt Ritchie Yip, focusing on tips that BJJ beginners need to know. But sometimes the conversation goes a little off track! To listen to this conversation you could press play on the embedded audio player below, but then you might miss out on future episodes, wouldn’t you? So the best thing to do is to subscribe to The Strenuous Life Podcast … [Read more...]
The Two Biggest Benefits of Training Martial Arts
Funny story... I was passing through the downtown core of a major North American city a few years ago. I had 40 minutes to kill, so I went for a walk and quickly came across a martial arts club I had heard about but never set foot in. So into the club I went, to check it out and introduce myself. I was immediately struck by two contrasting impressions... The first thing I noticed were … [Read more...]
How to Incorporate a New Technique into Your Arsenal
Incorporating a new move into your sparring and competition repertoire can be tricky. Too many people go and and try their nifty new technique on everybody right away, hoping that it will work at least some of the time. But this may not actually be the best way to do it. In fact, this scattershot method, and not having a concrete plan for rolling out new moves, can even be … [Read more...]