Everything I've muttered
11 June 08 » Wobbly
One, my knee is somewhat wobbly at the moment. It has improved a lot since I injured it last Friday. If this doesn't improve much more, I shall go to my Doc and see what he says.
Two, another wobbly thing I have now noticed involves BJJ people generally of higher belts. These guys and girls always keep their opponent off balance. They usually always have a handful of limb or cloth and will be in a seeminly awkward position tipping to and fro to see where best to sweep their opponent. Keep an eye out for this and try and use it as you roll. It makes sense to do this, becuase it could mean you are never in a bad place for long and will be pressuring the opponent with constant weight changes and threatening to sweep them.
Three, not wobbly, but Gracie Humaita have finsihed 2nd at the 2008 World BJJ comp. Very good work from the guys and girls (Girls took top spot in team I think).
08 Mar 08 » Self Defence
Gracie Jiu Jitsu and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is separated by one main difference. The Gracie's always had in mind that Jiu Jitsu was primarily designed for self defence. So the first seminar I had in the States was taken by Royce on self defence. We, Ed and I actually turned up late to this so missed a move or two, but we soon began set defences to set attacks, I understand that this "may not be realistic" but if drilled and the attack occured as practiced then that's one less thing to worry about.Anyway, we went moves like defending a punch, front bear hugs and so on, in fact we covered nothing I didn't have in my book Self Defence by Royce and Charles, the difference is actually training in them with the black belts telling you how to do it properly rather than trying to figure stuff out from pictures. It makes a lot of difference and shows there is no substitue for a good teacher in a lesson at the gym. The self defence moved onto "how to defend a gun pointed into your chest" scenario. The Americans seemed to love this move and we duly spent 20 minutes on this, I couldn't relate to the need for this technique, I've yet to see a gun in my face in this country.
Speaking with Ralek later, we get his, and I guess and American/Brazilian, view on UK cops not carrying guns or knowing Jitsu Jitsu, American's teach police, FBI, army etc with Jiu Jitsu programs,and a concluding statement he made is "you guys have balls".
Back to the self defence, I noticed that Ralek always walked around with his hands on his lapels, I thought he was just acting tough, but it does make some sense, he trains and teaches with his brother and father at Gracie Academy in Torrence, California, and they have a strong bias towards self defence. By puting his hands on the lapels, they are always in a ready position to cover the face and/or to attack from, the equivent of when Royce was saying rub you hands together near your chest like its cold, it makes you look like your nervous, but in reality, your getting ready to defend and attack without giving away your intent.
As a wrap up to this self defence topic, I am intending to practice some of the moves with the guys who want to do it, it's a fun way to train and may even be used on day, when a gun is in my chest, and I'm crazy enough to fight back.
05 Mar 08 » A Brief Synopsis
Is the use of the word synopsis in the title correct? I'm not a English teacher so I guess it doesn't me too much.
Eddie and I arrived on Thursday and had an evening and morning to chill. Training began on Friday with Royce's seminar on self defence, what seperates Gracie Jiu Jitsu from Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Saturday morning was MMA seminar with Rodrigo, then later in the day the invite only sparring session for blues, purples, browns and blacks followed by Royce's promotions. Then on the Sunday, Royler taught a Gi seminar to wrap up the weekend. Obviously it was a fun weekend where I learnt much and got to hang out with the Gracies. On a last note, Ralek is a monster.
03 Mar 08 » Back From USA Training
Got back this morning from training with the Gracies in the States, lots of good training, qute a bit to wirte about, but I spent more time trianing than taking pics, well that does make sense right? I'll begin posting more later. I need some sleep before training tonight (and using my super secret special moves!).
24 Feb 08 » MMA in General
First off, the idea of Quality and Quantity, which is more important? I don't want a big argument on everything this can apply to, so I'm going to relate it to fighters. In this respect, if only one of the two choices is possible, then I would chose to have quality, that is I would rather have a quality fighter on my team with real skills rather than lots of below average or poor fighters representing me.
My reasoning? I've seen a fight event where there were loads of fighters from one team on the card, but none of them showed any skill or real fighting technique, and not surprsiingly they all proceeded to lose. Now, let's consider what the consequences of that are. You now have a team who all lost, so morale will be low, and maybe even cause some to give up fighting. For the team as a whole, outsiders may look at them for an easy fight because the team is known to have lots of fighters but not many of them are any good in the cage or ring. Would you go train at a gym full of losers?
I fknow I'm crap at MMA, I am so rubbish at standup you have to see it to believe someone can be so bad. And during MMA class today, I saw how I fight. Like an old school grainy Gracie challange video, I threw a few dodgy, leg kicks and jabs bfore, shooting in for a double leg, which I thought I was quite good at. Admitedly, I ate a weak shots to the body during this, but by sticking, the opponent gives the space to complete the takedown. Once there, I would pass immediately to any dominant, position, secure that, then keep active with body and head shots, until a submission present itself, or maybe just pound away with stirkes. Anyway, like I said, the way I fight is just like a the old school challenge matches, takedown and dominant on the ground with little or no striking. I would get beaten silly in a modern mma fight.
Fiinally, well done to Bloodline amateur fighter Sean Folan, his now 2-0 arfter winning via rear naked choke at FCFN5
22Feb 08 » BJJ In Washington D.C.
I have been lucky enough to bag myself a trip to the States to train with Royler, Royce, Rodrigo and Ralek Gracie next weekend, training Gi, No-Gi, and MMA I think. I'll be travelling with RGDA-UK instructor Eddie Kone and I think that I will be one of the least experienced students there (on a side note, got two stripes on my blue belt now, woohoo, no pressure). Using that to my advantage means I will be training with a lot of people that are better than me, and the fastest and best way to improve is to train with people that are better than you. They pick out your mistakes and force you to be inch perfect or be punished. So what better opportunity can there be to improve in such a short space of time?
In other news, On Saturday 23rd, Bloodline Fight Team amateur fighter Sean Folan will be competing in his second fight at Full Contact Fight Night in Portsmouth, the best of luck to him from me and no doubt all of RGDA-UK.
15 Feb 08 » Rolling With A Dummy
Foreword - Mostly aimed at white belts.
Learning BJJ is a long and hard process. I'm sure everyone who trains will say how important it is that we get to roll at the end. We will also stress how technique is more important than strength and everyone in the world will agree that technique improves with drilling.
Drilling techniques covers the first portion of all our (RGDA-UK's) lessons. Going through both new and old techniques on a compliant opponent. What I mean is that if we are practising, say, how to mount from side control, it doesn't help when the guy being mounted decides to turtle up eveytime you go for mount. Or lets say simply practising a collar choke and the chokee decides to defend his neck like it's the finals of the mundials and refuses to be choked. What this person is doing is hindering the progress of the person trying to learn the technique. You create a situation that requires a different manouverand that isn't on the day's list of things to do.
To progress in BJJ you need a partner who will act like a dummy, setting up the perfect situation for the technique, maybe giving a bit more space if the practisee is struggling. This helps you drill the technique as needs be and then you attack and defend at full pelt in the sparring.
Of course, for more experienced BJJ'ers training with each other there will naturally be smaller gaps to work with, but you will see that they give only what is needed for the technique to be finished and won't do something to force them into doing something completly different. So the moral, help your training partner with the technique and save the improvisation for sparring.
Did this post make sense? I pictured it would be easier to write about this topic. Also I have some good stuff coming up in the near future that should make interesting reading.
08 Jan 08 » Judo Vs. BJJ
The title is only part of the story, the judo guy was easily over 100 kilos and standing 6'2" or more and as you may know Ed's a tiny 65kg. Let me wind this story back.
I was invited as part of a small entourage to travel to Kent somewhere to teach at an upcoming Kent branch of RGDA. The trip was hard on a fully laden Clio trying to keep up with two Mercs. But once there is was obvious the gym was very well kitted. Among all the students there for the taster day was the aforementioned Judo guy. He's a 3rd Dan training Olympic level judo with Neil Adams I believe.
To warm up, we got everyone sparring lightly, he picked on a very novice white belt from Carlson Tonbridge and promtly gave him a bloody nose, quite uncalled for really. Well training happens blah, blah, blah and we get to the sparring session at the end. After the Judo guy gets a rest, he approached Eddie to have a go, in hindsight you can easily see he just wanted to squash Eddie and show how great judo is and how rubbish BJJ is. The roll starts and judo guy starts grunting and shouting as he puts everything in, Ed has seen past his charade and is skillfully squishing him before sinking in his first choke. They continue again and the shouting and grunting continues as Ed dishes out platefuls of squish and squash, (remember its on a guy as good as twice his size), I watch on, and I am informed that all Ed's students that travelled from London and were sparring, then transitioned to a dominant position to watch the rest of the challenge. Lost of domination later, and they end up at the edge of the mat. Ed Shuffles back and and points at his spot egging the judo guy to continue in the middle. Judo guy, doesn't speak. He shakes he heads, shakes his hands and struggles to catch his breath. It's over and the judo guy has just embaressed himself in front of everyone present.
Now what I find stupid about this situatuation is why Judo guy had the urge to go all out against a BJJ brown belt. Surely he knows about BJJ, how it isn't something that should be messed with, even way back when Helio fought Kimura et al. Did he really think he could bully someone half his size. Does he not know how hard it is to get a black belt in BJJ? He does now.
The fight is supposed to be caught on camera. When I get a copy, I'll upload it for analysis/laughs.
21 Dec 07 » Newton's Third Law
"For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction."
In Jiu Jitsu this isn't true. At least not for us doing Royler's style. If someone is going full bore with all their strenght. We do not. There just isn't a need for it. And so with this, I find that I am usually a very passive fighter. I wait for counters, and if its not perfect, I will either with up a submission attempt, or even a good position. At training last night though, I was feeling energised and became far more attacking, not not using brute strength, but trying to anticipate the moves of my opponent, and working from one move to another before the other guy knew what was going on. This was taxing on my brain, and although I didn't feel tired, I felt the effects of fast thinking. Er. thats about it, so the moral...don't use strength to overcome weaknesses in your technique, plan ahead, set up submissions two, three moves ahead. Flow into another submisison if you fail with your current attempt.
Merry Xmas 2007 from Shukie
03 Dec 07 » Well Done and Wassa Blue?
A belated well done to Brad and Sean for their first MMA wins. I'd like to say, in a thick New York accent, it was awesome! I won't spoil the method of victory, you can watch it for yourself. Cos's fight never kicked off becuase of a late pull out due to injury, so lots of training for nothing for him unfortunately. His back in training now though and no doubt will be working towards his next fight.
Brad
Sean
The second topic. What does it take to be a blue belt?
A lot of new BJJ guys want their blue belts. For sure I think this is ok, they just want to be better at jiu jitsu right? In my training, there became a point where I began to fear getting a blue belt, I started to think, I am no where near good enough for one.
For the new guys, if you want a blue belt, theres no way other than to train hard and just get better at jiu jitsu. There isn't a set number of moves that you need to know to get your blue belt, but saying that, you do have to know enough moves to cover your arse, to defend, escape, recover, sweep and finish the fight given the chance. A blue belt should have the right attitude, you need to be willing to and be able to help the newer guys some of the time. You should not be worried about tapping, in fact I would recommend putting yourself in bad positiions to practive new moves to help you escape.
There are some more pointers, but I can't think of them now.
If you are new and you are wanting to get your blue belt, just keep training and it will come, obvious clues to when you deserve one include when you start submitting others, no longer get submitted when going toe to toe, and getting stripes on your belt showing your progress.
A last note, if you have been training six months, don't keep asking for your blue, in such a short time frame, unless you are BJ Penn, or maybe at a push, are a black belt judo guy/girl, you'll be lucky to get a second stripe on an otherwise pristine belt. If I had to quantify a time period for a blue belt, I would say one and a half to two years. Any less and I don't think you could have the amount of actual experience of rolling needed, irrespective of the million or so moves you know.
For an ending, does that mean I don't fufil my own blue belt criteria?
19 Nov 07 » To Gi Or Not To Gi
Up until the Rodrigo Gracie seminar, it had been a long time since the Gi came off and I rolled against others in submission wrestling. During the seminar, I was shown some nifty moves I still continually try to use, then at the end of class had the opportunity to roll without a gi on since sometime last year. Then a couple of Saturdays ago, in Colchester, I refined a few more techniques and once again got to roll with others no-gi. Then tonight, at the end of class, I was amongst a few helping out our NHB fighters with their ground game, and thus working no-gi.
This to me is a massive increase in the amount of no-gi work. I find that no-gi is a different beast to BJJ, you tend to stall less, moves become quicker, and in general, yes, it is less technical. But that's like saying Angelina Jolie isn't as stunning as Keira Knightley. They both just are!
Do I want to do more submission wrestling then? The answer, no with a but, yes with an if. I don't want to do too much incase I get bored/annoyed with it and also so that my technique doesn't change too much from the way it was developed.
11 November 07 » Roooaar!
Muchos long time-o I know but straight into the post.
I travelled to Colchester yesternoon to help with a no-gi seminar Eddie Kone was taking. It was refreshing to see Ed teaching from a different side of the curtain, theres a subtle difference between this and his regular teaching, and during this session, I was also able to notice the difference in seminars between Ed and Daivd, against the Rodrigo, Royce and Rolker ones. There is much more flowing and detail in the techniques shown and it doesn't have to be flash to be good.
The more interesting part, especially for the three of us helping Ed, was the rolling at rhe end, we were all itching to roll with these people who trained in a different style of Jiu Jitsu. The most notable difference was their use of speed and strength to little result. There were all huffing and puffing, red in the dace, and sweating profusely after the first roll.
The mats used in the gym also make a big difference to training. The gym at the Uni, were the Tatami judo mats. They are very nice indeed, but they are very slippery. That leads to sloppy techniques when escaping because I felt the tendency to just swing and slip out of positions rather than bridging, elbow escaping etc.
Technique wise, there is also a difference, it shows when you have someone like with a high skill level teaching plenty of options for every postion. In two rolls, I was met with alot of guillotine and anaconda attempts that missed the actual choke. Even when I gave them the neck to finish.
So trying not to sound too big headed/egotisitcal or whatever synonym best suits this situation, all the guys and girls at RGDA train at a higher level, there is an obvious advantage to correct training and training with a good teacher. I would like to see how the guys and girls at Essex Uni improve in the future and also go help at other Eddie Kone seminars.
20 Aug 07 » Plan of attack
Over the coming few months, maybe even years I will be adopting a new training method. I intend to pick a technique that I am weak with and during sparring ask my first one or two would be opponents to help me refine the techniques rather than just going at it. By using this I am hoping to improve my skill at executing these moves without the need for thinking, second nature as it's called. For the next few fights I will then work on the said technique against fighting opponents and thus further improve. Hopefully.
It seems I'm on an almost methodical plan of improvement, but that can't be a bad thing can it?
14 Aug 07 » Life as a Blue Belt
Many out there know what it's like, loads have forgotten what it was like and a growing number wonder what it will be like. Life as a blue belt, ultimately feels the same. The greatest benefit this has given me is the impetus to train harder and hopefully help me improve more. This is most noticeable during the sparring, I find myself pushing myself to a higher level to see what I can offer against the blues and above, and to try some flashier stuff against the newer guys.
The thing I've been working on most is my sweeps, when given the chance, I dive into an appropriate postion then try and remember the individual placements of limbs and leverage to pull them off. Unfortunately, it doesn't come out well a lot of the time, and I just end up giving the opponent a decent position past my guard. Against the white belts that's OK, I can recover to some sort of guard or attempt a different sweep. Against the better guys in the club, I get punished for trying!
With this simple post I would also like to give out some advice to new BJJ'ers. BJJ is NOT a tradition martial art. It does not have 150 super-secret-special-moves that only the greatest grandmaster has engraved into his mind. New BJJ'ers get frustrated with the basics of passing the guard. There is no uber move that you can do to make the other guy open his legs and let you pass. He (or she) knows a similar-ish number of guard passes as you and, unless they are a high belt, will usually stick to the basic ones they use day in day out. If you find youself against someone with strong legs and can't pass their guard. It's because they don't want you to. Letting you pass means putting him in a worse off position. So if you can't pass someone's guard, pull guard instead. I know I did.
09 Jul 07 » The Belt That Got The Blues
Some month and a half since my last post here, nothing that special has taken place, training as per usual with the usual crowd at RGDA-UK. One noteworthy mention is when a Tradational Ju Jitsu guy came along to train, also reported on Meerkat's Blog. Now I'm sure I've seen this guy before and he kind of confirms that by asking where Remus is all the time.
Back to the story, He turns up the early beginners class on Monday a couple of weeks back, and unforuntely Ed was running late and wouldn't make it until the last 20 or so mintues, being in my GI I wanted to train so I went through some simple mount escapes and keylocks from the mount. Doing the technique section of the drill I was given my first warning about the Trad JJ guy, he asked what could be done when someone defends the armbar, I say "you could move to a wrist lock" he's eyes lit up and he immediately asked how (oh why didn't I see the signs?).
When Ed arrives there was enough time to show a few other moves before he suggests Trad JJ and I spar as the second class starts filtering in. Being an easy going person when it comes to sparring, I go easy on the guy and give him some space (turns out to be far too much) and give up positions like my back and maily take the fight on my back. I let him go for an armbar to practice my Roly-Roly escape (don't know its proper name), but a lack of practice means I am struggling with it, lucky for me the armbar was NEVER on, but the guy releases it, and many people thought I tapped. That did not feel good at all. Afterwards Ed explained to me that I gave him far too much space and let him utilise the opportunities too much and helped me with my conenction with oppnonents, (I'm taking aboard this advice and will now roll harder against everyone good or bad).
Come Friday's lesson, Eddie let us know he couldn't make it because he was running a seminar and refereeing at the BJJ cup in Romania with our RGDA cousins Tudor at Absoluto. Lo and behold Trad JJ guy returns for a second going, and when I see him enter the door, I knew I wanted to spar with him again, just for the simple fact to show him who's boss!
At the end of the lesson, the rolling begins, I catch glimpses of him struggling against the blues as he mixes his unique style of massive strenght and wrist lock attempts from any and every postions including right at the start, as we begin on our knees, all those that sparred with him before me gave him advice not to do that because it opens him for sweeps and other attacks. Then my turn arrives
I have it set in my mind that I will go harder and not give up any positions, but definately not hurt him, its just not gravy to do that. Trying to grab his collar at the begininng results in wirst lock attempts, sitting there waiting for him to attack results in wrist lock attempts, so I go about what I know, pushing the game but not forcing anything I catch him with two armbars, countering his wristlocks, collar choke him from the back, taking his back from a wrist lock and the best triangle I have ever pulled off, not sure where that came from, the BJJ fairy or something. This was by far my most dominating win, four submissions in five minutes is a new record for me.
Now I did not write this to say that Tradiational Ju Jitsu is rubbish. That is not the case, tradational martial arts are a whole different world to modern ones like BJJ. They have their merits in different areas. I just wanted to say that either this guy wanted to try out his skills on a group of "modern" Jiu Jitsu guys are he was here to pinch ideas to go back and teach him class. If its the former than it proves in a gi grappling match, BJJ wins hands down, if its the later, I hope his club realises what he is doing that learning techniques he "mastered" in 2 hours makes him a mcdojo.
In reference to the title of this post, I got my blue belt, promoted by Royce Gracie at his seminar, many people say bad things like you get one with the entrance fee, but this guy has a countless number of stripes on his black belt so what he says more or less goes and to think you know more about BJJ would be wrong. In celebration of this event, I have ordered a new blue Ultra Lite Gi and belt from Sirius and look forward to receiving it, they replied quickly to emails about sizing and wot-not even on a Saturday and Sunday. I'll let you know what I think about the gi.
Long post over.
22 May 07 » RGDA-UK Seni 07 BJJ Matches
Mut Chalmers Round 1 Heavy 94.3KG
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7H5GoSpwn5E
Remus Ciobanu Round 1 Super Heavy 100.5KG
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhtxv2QbolM
Remus Ciobanu Round 2 Super Heavy 100.5KG
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mnoLEIolZ8
Remus Ciobanu Semi Final Super Heavy 100.5KG
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bg6PS1urn8
Remus Ciobanu Final Super Heavy 100.5KG
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4j9CZYYnag
19 May 07 » Well Done Mut and Remus
Visting Day One of Seni 07, RGDA UK had good Saturday at Seni 07 today. With Mut Chalmers entered into the Heavy 94.30kg White Belt at BJJ. He fought a great fight and unfortunately lost via choke to the eventual weight class winner.
A surprise late addition was RGDA-UK MMA fighter Remus Ciobanu. Regsitering a few hours before the start of the competition he was unable to fight at his chosen weight (Heavy 94.30Kg White) because that was already filled up with competitors. He was offered by the hosts to fight in the category above (Super heavy 100.50kg White Belt). Accepting this without a second thought, and needing to have one more fight than the other competitors, Remus, submitted two and won on points twice to claim the Super Heavy White Belt title.
Well done to both fighters, Im sure RGDA-UK had the best champions/entrants ratio. And maybe next year there will be more competitors represent the club.
Other things worth mentioning: Pedro Bassa executing a move we learnt in training the day before causing some weird deja vu-moment, certain people excited to finally get photos taken with Roger Gracie and Braulio Estima, and lastly watching a Georgian former champion arm-wrestler wrestle his way back to a win with his oversized wrists and forearms.
P.S. YouTube videos of the video coming soon!
Mut Rd 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7H5GoSpwn5E
Remus Rd 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhtxv2QbolM
Remus Round 2
< a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mnoLEIolZ8">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mnoLEIolZ8
02 May 07 » Bandwagon-is Jumper-Onto-Er
Tuesday's RGDA-UK lessons are unique because you can choose to do either BJJ or MMA and more likely than not both will be running at the same time.
Whilst deliberating at the beginning whether I want to pound someone or roll about like a melon, a guy walks and states that he "wants to do UFC type fighting". Ok, so the MMA world is getting bigger this guy has obviously watched all or bits of UFC 70 and wants to join in. Then he goes on to say that he "wants to do his own work, hitting bags and pads." This lets the others within earshot know instantly that this guy thinks he has what it takes to be an MMA fighter, (though he cannot distinguish between UFC, the organisation, and MMA/NHB, the type of fighting). He also wants a place to "train" and probably thinks Jiu-Jitsu is gay and useless and that he'll never be taken down.
I think the guy was politely turned away with "members can use the facility of this gym freely, all is costs is so and so". But it would also have been nice to see him take part in the lesson to see what MMA/NHB really is about.
25 April 07 » What Do You See In The Mirror?
David Adiv is not only good at BJJ. He has many words of wisdom he is more than happy to pass on. One piece I pick up on hereis, what do you see when you look in the mirror?
Everyone looks in the mirror and admires bits they like and bits they don't. But next time you look in a mirror, be more critical about what each part actaully means to you.
If you have a large belly. You obviously need to eat less and exercise more. But that also means when side mounting someone you will have to adjust your body in such a way it doesn't affect the control.
Do you have a long neck? That's bad news. you'll have to shrug your shoulders more to avoid being choked. Someone with a short neck would be perfect.
Think about yourself in this way and your jiu jitsu would improve and adapt to suit your body type better.
03 April 07 » Hercules Bigger Brother
Time for another rehab pace training session on Monday and 10 minutes before the class starts, Gigantor, the larger brother of Hercules* sidesteps through the door onto the mats. Now this guy is around 6' 5" and weighs 116KG (18st) of packed muscle. This is by far the largest guy I have ever seen. He would look in his element at the World Stongest Man comps, and films like 300 and Glaldiator. Luckily for those that trained and sparred with him, he had never trained in ground fighting before, not even knowing the rear naked choke, he was polite enough to ask the rules of the game as he rolled. And apparently he was surprisingly light footed.
It would be nice to have this guy back at training to get the techniques perfect and learn to beat guys twice the size of trees. If he chooses to do MMA, I feel sorry for his training partner.
*Gigantor isn't his real name, nor is he the brother of Hercules, to my knowledge, also don't tell him for I fear he may crush me.
25 Mar 07 » Saulo Ribeiro 2
With a few extra hours each week away from training letting my ankle recover, I proceeded to improve My BJJ skills through YouTube and other online resources. Rifling through the thousands of videos based on BJJ and ones from McDojo's and complete twats, I found clips from Saulo Ribeiro's [quite] new Saulo Ribeiro Jiu Jitsu Revolution 2.
There is possible visit from Saulo himself at RGDA-UK for a seminar in the not too distant future and with that I will be studying the six avaliable clips to get a headstart on the others at the club. The clips are:
Beginning Takedowns
Clock Choke Escape
Running Escape
Scissor Sweep Variation
Kickback Pass
The X Pass
21 Mar 07 » New Submission
I told you all last time we were a bunch of softies, well it seems I am the softiest of all. Right at the beginning of warmup, as we begin a jog around the mats, barely into the second lap, the soft pink mats applied a vicious takedown that incorporated some sort of ankle lock submission. I promptly collapsed and rolled clutching my ankle a la Italian footballers (or Chelsea players).
Now two days since that injury I reckon this injury will put me out at least a week further. And with a David Adiv Seminar coming up in about four weeks, I'll be taking it easy on my ankle to increase my chances of attending fully fit.
*Begins own attempt at physiotherapy on ankle*
14 Mar 07 » Soft Mats
Turns out that us lot at RGDA-UK are a bunch of soft wimps. When we had our first lesson at one of the new locations, in this case KO Clapton, one of the first thing everyone commented on were the soft mats laid down. Everyone of us thought that was a massive improvement, and allowed the possiblity of slamming people like in the WWE, not that we do.
Having seen what one KO gym has to offer, I can't wait for the KO Wapping to be properly equipped for us BJJers. It's supposed to be so good that we would fall in love with it.
One negative of the new gyms though is that it seems monkey running is back...
12 Mar 07 » 10K Clash
Sunday evening at the Hackney Empire and collected backstage are 32 of the best submission wrestlers in Europe, US and Brazil. Not a likely location to see the likes of Braulio Estima, Rafeal Lovato Jr. and Jeff Monson compete while Roger Gracie and Mike Bisping watch on.
Braulio Estima breezed through his group, submitting all three opponents with a traingle, an armbar and an Rnc. Group two was won by American Rafael Lovato Jr. Submitting two opponents and winning the group final on a judges decision after 2-2 on the scorecard. Setting up the Estima, Lovato Jr. Semi.
Group three had the second favourite Jeff The Snowman Monson and RGDA's own Sami Berik, Berik was the least experienced fighter there and did well to last the way he did. A lesser man would have needed changes of underwear backstage and paramedics on standby. Monson eventually won this group, using his weight and strength to force two submissions and then win the group final by takedown then becoming a non moving monolith. Group four was a group with some big people. With Leo Negao coming through to have a rematch with Jeff Monson in hte semis.
In the semis Braulio submitted Lovato Jr. with relative ease it seemed, and Jeff Monson played his rock game with Leo winning again on points. This brought on the final most people expected. Braulio v Jeff. Braulio worked from the beginning attemping to roll into guard, losing a point. Monson wasn't going to play the grappling game though. Shooting a takedown and scoring the points, he again became a rock and Braulio worked hard to find sweeps and submissions. Alas, just like trying to tap out Ayres Rock, the monolith eventally won, to a disappointed crowd. Now Jeff Monson does have good Jiu Jitsu. He's a brown belt I understand, but he's strategies are boring. Someone needs to find a way to negate him and then maybe we'll get some more decent fights next year.
05 Mar 07 » Gi vs. No-Gi
The last session at RGDA finished with no-gi sparring. And this was a whole different world to the Gi stuff I've been doing. The skills requred are slightly different, enough so that being good at Gi stuff doesn't automatically convert to being good without the pyjamas.
With the club now expanding to three locations, at KO gyms, and Eddie Kone now looking to teach full time. I'm looking to do some more no-gi stuff should I be called up to the 10K ground clash or ADCC in the future. This new timetables also allow for the possibility of training 5-7 days a week for 4+ hours. Blue/Purple/Black belt here I come.
26 Feb 07 » UK v France MMA
There's big things in the air for RGDA and the Bloodline Fight Team. At training today was Leo Negao again, doing his pre-fright training with the assitance of Eddie Kone and the RGDA team. During his workout, he also taught a few BJJ moves to the rest of us in return.
Leo Negao has also organised a new MMA event as a part of his Fight First Club. The event, UK vs France 'Final Destination' will be Pride Style ring and the toughest rules yet seen in MMA in the UK.
Reading through the press release not only are there fighters from RGDA UK/Bloodline (Sami, Raf, Alex, Serge, and maybe Big Adam as well), but other top clubs in the UK and France.
The show takes place on Friday 23rd March 2007 in the luxurious Porchester Hall, London and headlining the show will be Sami Berilk v Aldrdric Cassata, Leo Negao v Charles Andrade, and Henrique Santana V Ismael Grid and none other than Ian 'The Machine' Freeman as MC.
Guys and girls it's time to get your tickets.
17 Feb 07 » Poor Old Boxing
On Saturday night, I flicked over to ITV to see who was boxing and caught two short rounds before seeing Audley Harrison get KO'd to a well placed left hander from his opponent Sprott (no idea what his first name is).
It was then that I noticed what the stupid commentators were reeling off in their excitement. One said, who needs all that cage stuff/rubbish when boxing is the best there is, or something along those lines. He's main argument for why heavyweight boxing was more exciting than mma, was that one punch can change everything.
That is a really weak point, if we compare it to heavywieght mma. Fedor and Crocop are showing that not only can one punch change the game, but so can left high kicks, ground and pound, and well excecuted submissions. Knockouts may look impressive, but to land one punch on the button takes a large dose of luck. Whereas, a takedown followed by ground and pound, or a submission takes skill and control.
Boxing shouldn't try to compete with MMA, if it wants to improve it's stature, it needs the heavyweights to lose weight, no one likes to see those slow moving slow punching boxers holding onto each other to catch their breath. There should be a low upper limit to heavyweights and the will become more exciting, fight should then look more like old Tyson fights or Rocky v Clubber Lang in Rocky 3. I'll stop myself here now.
10 Feb 07 » BJJ Seminars
I have fresh news about RGDA UK exclusive seminars this coming year. It seems that in the near future we will be hosting seminars with David Adiv, 2 stripe Royler black belt and co-founder of RGDA, Royce Gracie, 3 time UFC champ back in the day and UFC hall of famer, Royler Gracie, the other co-founder of RGDA and the most technical of the Gracies, Saulo Ribeiro, 8 time world BJJ champion and apparently teacher of a mean half guard. This will be a wonderful opportunity for them to meet me in the flesh and share some of their secrets.
On top of that the competitior list for the 10k clash is now availiable. For those who don't know about this, the 10k Ground Clash is a knockout grappling tornament where the winner takes home £10,000. Names confirmed in this event include Braulio Estima, the current European Champion, Leo Negao, an original Carlson Black Belt who was nice enough to pop into RGDA recently (no way did he look in his 40's), and Rafael Lovato Junior, SRJJA's representative, who'll be looking to rematch with Braulio for his loss in the European's open weight. Oddly, on the card, Eddie Kone and Sami Berik are only listed as reserve fighters. I hope the organisers soon figure out what they are missing and inlcude the RGDA UK and Bloodline reps.
Happy Rolling.
31 Jan 07 » MMA and fake MMA
There I am browsing YouTube to find MMA fights, in particular, recent Cage Rage fights. Then I stumble upon the utter tripe that the web has to offer. Uploaded amongst fights from the likes of Babalu, Rob Broughton and our very own Sami Berik I find the rubbish posted by the yoof of today who have seen one too many UFC event (usually UFC because they don't know what Pride, Cage Rage, K-1 etc. are) and think they are Chuck Liddell or Anderson Silva. The first one to crop up had a bunch of skinny kids with mma gloves (God knows what they're doing with them) in an overgrown field with a tarpaulin laid on top, They then proceed to streetfight, with swinging fists and running flying kicks (their version of MMA). There is no skill and clearly none of them have ever had any training of any kind ever. They continue thumping away until one cries mercy. And the "bout" is "won".
It's nice to see that MMA is getting a larger audience, but a consequence of that is that people watch it and think they know how to fight and go around arranging these matches to show how "good their skills are". I find that disgusting and it is this which causes bad press for MMA. A little knowledge is more dangerous that no knowledge at all. And so in these streetfights, people get badly injured, go hospital, the press picks up on this and blames MMA. ARGGGGHHH. I'm getting frustrated just writing about it.
I would like to see these "fighters" go to any MMA club and mouth off like they often do, so they can feel how stupid they really are.
I'm going on again and making no sense now. Time to take a chill pill.
29 Jan 07 » CSS Style Like Kinda
I'm currently toying with myspace. Yes, it seems I may well be signing up (properly), like the other millions that have done it.
Of more interest is the chance to express people's own creative and emotional side in the layout and design they choose. Anyone who has ever been the the aforementioned site will know that there is no shortage of utterly useless and ugly layouts that reverberate the old skool style websites where people thought, "lots of good things must make a website uber good!" No it doesn't.
So I'm still playing about with the CSS myspace allows users to incorporate to make their page unique. Until I have one I can be proud of, or at least isn't garish, I will be anonymous in the myspace arena.
Reading over this, I realised this was a pointless addition.
21 Jan 07 » MMA Class
It's Sunday morning*. Mountain bikers are chruning up the forest, runners pounding the pavement, gangs are hanging around corners. Me, I drive down to the gym and start my first MMA class at RGDA-UK. Arriving, I finish my Red Bull and wait for the rest of the class to arrive and the instruction to begin.
When warmup begins, I fear I will gas and throw up, but warm up kept at warm up levels. The class continued after this with pad work, punches, kicks and knees, with emphasis made that its not the regular stuff and that MMA requires different techniques to those of boxing, and muay thai. Again, I work to my best, but keeping a reasonable pace so that I could finish the class. This strained my weak arms and legs, its been a while since I've done any real standup work. Following this were some easy takedown drills, where I managed to use a "Seoi Otoshi" (Googled that) thats a throw where u slide between the other guys legs. That certainly made me feel good.The class then transition into grappling MMA style with rabbit punches and the like. I ended up sparring with Ed and again, although he went incredibly easy on me, I failed to move an inch and couldn't get in any hammerfists etc. Eventually, I had to give up and began taking photos of the action. Most of which was of Shane, who wants the fame and fortune that comes with having his face plastered over the net. I also got some technique shots at the end for the RGDA UK site. So look out for them.If you haven't tried it give it a go, it will build other parts of your game, you get to meet the other members of RGDA and you become aerobically fitter.
*What's morning to me, is more like almost afternoon to regular people
18 Jan 07 » The Lure of MySpace
Everyone knows about MySpace and with over 100 million accounts it would seem half the world has an account there. The social networking site is not just for friends to catch up with each other and leave comments, but for many it is a way of getting free PR. Celebrities, wannabe celebrities, music bands and artists aand clubs and societies.
The big question in my opinion is, "do I join?" Should I be one of the 100,000,000+ users that use the site multiple times a day, reading coments, leaving comments, adding slideshows, watching slideshows, adding more friends. The answer, is althought not no, its going to be later at the most. There is simply no need for me to be there is there?
One last point. How many people know "Tom"?
13 Jan 07 » So you think you took my back
The last BJJ session I had was one of those that stand out from the rest. Why? It was a great lesson of turtle escapes and sweeps that make the opponent think they have the advantage. These I feel are very advanced moves. Ones that are usually performed on me by the others and not the other way round. But now that I know them, I'll be looking to incorporate them into my ever expanding library of moves.
Friday's lesson also had a lot of promotions. Many recieved stripes on their belts, inclunding me and my first. But the biggest congratulations go to Merlitta, Shane and Rolf for getting their blues. Well done everyone.
The last bit of news is the impending re-release of the RGDA-UK website. Something that I've been working on to help the club in return. Check it out sometime.
06 Jan 07 » Last Training Session
I began last night's sparring session with a fellow white belt, though far more experienced, and had a good time, being able to use what I knew to escape and counter many moves. The best moment came when I was in the other guy's side control and he was leaning a lot. I raised my legs and wrapped then around his head and arm and BAM! I was in a position to lock on a triangle, albeit from a different angle. (It's hard to describe, but imagine pulling a triangle choke on someone who has side control on you and you may have an idea. Maybe it's called the reverse triangle or something?) However, although I knew I could complete the triangle and choke the guy, I had never seen one from that angle and I didn't even know which leg should have been crossed over which. I attempted pulling my legs closed one way with my arms and I felt him escaping, so I changed to cross my less the other way, again to no avail. All the time my opponent was struggling away trying to escape. So being unsuccessful I went back and pulled guard.
The next two sparring partners went up in difficulty, both blue belts. Again, I felt I showed good compusure, countering traingle and armbar attempts and doing my best to pull guard and avoid being mounted, losing side control and worse of all giving my back, whch inevitably happened, and I ended up being choked the same way by both blue belts. The increase in skill of these opponents meant I subconsiously used more strength to tackle their skill. It's not a good idea to do this, but I couldn't control it.
Last on my list was the top dog, brown belt Eddie. Sparring with this guy is like trying to choke an oddly shaped boulder. Impossible. I could tell he was going really easy on me. But I struggled in everything. At one point he turtled up for me, I went for a seatbelt hold and reached for a collar for a choke attempt. Whilst thinking about how I was going to execute this move, I was swept and he had side control. Me, I still had the collar and was thinking I still had the choke. A few seconds later, the tunnel vision cleared and I realised he had side mont and my arm was in a dangerous place. There were times when Ed could have easily closed an armlock and to let me know he gives the arm a shake as if to say, I'm about to break this arm baby, do something...., and i do my best to retract it to a safe place. My visions of being a natural grappler faded very quickly. Talking about the strength I had to use. With Eddie, I was fighting like I was in the finals of the World Strongest Man competition, all to no avail though. The skill difference made me feel like I had no grappling experience at all.
All's good though. Skill like that only comes with practice and someday, I may be almost as good as that.
On a side note, I am currently creating a new look RGDA-UK website. The completed site should be up within a week. so check back often to admire something I can do resonably well.
02 Jan 07 » Re-cap
I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Year's. I for one did and was pleased to see so many faces from the past, old friends and new people alike. 2006 was a great year for me, and as things go, 2007 will no doubt get better, so all you people out there better make it good for me!
In other news, NYE was another good time for MMA, with the UFC, Pride and K-1 holding their own competitions. One fight in particular I would like to comment on is Royler Gracie's fight on the K-1 Dynamite card against Japanese fighter Hideo Tokoro. With Eddie Kone flying out to help with preparations, as well as other RGDA reps, I was rooting for Royler (42) to show Hideo (30) that he is still a top dog in MMA.
The fight had rarely had any standup exchanges and with that in mind, I would have to say Hideo had the upper hand, though not by much, really only becuase he caught a surprise jumping knee on Royler. The match was therefore mostly on the canvas, and there, Royler's skill really shone through. Royler kept on working his postions to attack from and when in a poor position, rectified them easily with his smooth techniques. There was one point in the second round when both fighters were stood up, when I thought it should have continued, Royler had Hideo in his guard and was working punches into Hideo's face. At the very end of the fight, Royler finished strongly with Hideo almost in a triangle and punching away from there before the final bell went. After three rounds, Hideo won by unanimous decision, (Hometown loyalty and patriotism must have swayed this decision as can be understood by any home v away matches) which did not reflect the complete fight. Congratulations to Hideo, he did very well and showed very good grappling skills in the fight and is no doubt still a great fighter.
Lastly, train hard for your Pride debut Sami, Gomi looked very strong in his NYE matchup!
23 Dec 06 » Insider Information & The Crazy Guy
Being a member of the illustrious RGDA, information always gets passed through from the people at the top, such as the Gracies, to the people at the very bottom, that's me. An example of this is that I knew Royler would be fighting on New Year's Eve before this information was made public. And so, with continued partipation at the club, so comes the slow tide of information. The question now, is what do I do with this information? If I posted it up, it would be spreading rumours. If this was a trading floor and I used it to my advantage, that would be trading on inside information and therefore illegal. If I was working in the Government, this would be treason and and akin to being a double agent. So with much regret to my loyal readers, if any at all, I have to withold any information I get until either it goes public, or I get permission to be the writer of the exclusive material.
Changing the tone of things now, I recently discovered something quite disturbing. All around us, at any time, and with no warning, The Crazy Guy, will make his apperance. In the world of BJJ, The Crazy Guy appears quite often. It starts of normally enough. Let's say two people sparring away, then all of a sudden, one guys pulls the De La Riva guard, the other person thinks, "what on Earth is going on?", s/he, then struggles for a while, trying to understand where they are, and what can be done. The futility of their efforts only causes further frustration. And that is when The Crazy Guy appears, you can see him arriving, first, the pupils dilate, eyes widen, he looks left, then right, then around again, before finally focusing back on the target. The Crazy Guy is now in the house. What ensues cannot be predicted, but you can expect a mix of flailing limbs, major weight shifts and lack of technique. Ultimately The Crazy Guy will disappear but not after he too is schooled in the De La Riva guard. Why? Because technique will overcome all.
Have a Merry Christmas. Good luck to Royler at K-1 Dynamite, and have a nice trip to Japan Ed.
21 Dec 06 » Now Fighting Like Marcelo
Today I've completed watching the "Marcelo Garcia Series 2 - Winning Techniques of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu" instructionals and wow thats some advanced stuff in there. All the techniques are well laid out and repeated multiple times with varying speed and angles to provide easier undestanding. However, it's all very advanced stuff, not really something a white belt can use effectively. The X-guard is a wonderful technique, but I haven't even master the closed guard yet. The arm drags are useful and I hope to use them more to displace my opponents and maybe even taking their back. I also picked up some small techniques to help with submissions and again I'll be hoping to use them to ease the route to submission. This is a high quality production and if you have the cash to spare or are computer savvy, it's a good instructional to learn some advanced moves from.
With that series finished, I'm off to find a copy of Saulo Ribeiro's gi instructional, Saulo Ribeiro Jiu-Jitsu Revolution. With Saulo being a student of Royler Gracie, It would be like learning from a black belt version of Eddie Kone [or a 3 stripe version or Royler] on DVD over the holidays. It's also worth mentioning Saulo's achievements include: 6 time World BJJ Champion2 time Brazil National Champion
2 time Rio De Janiero State BJJ Champion
2 time ADCC Champion
2 time Arnold-Gracie Champion
So as you can see, he's almost as good as me then...
13 Dec 06 » RGDA-UK
I noticed that I haven't actually given the details of the club I go to, It's in the East End of London, in Bethnal Green, very close to the Mile End/Whitechapel area with the closest Tube station being Bethnal Green around 3 minutes from the gym. Run by Eddie Kone and Patrick Roberts
Club: JKO Gym
Pundersons Gardens
Bethnal Green
E2
Brazilian Jiu Jitsu/Gi
Mondays and Fridays 7.30PM - 9.00PM
Submission Grappling/No-Gi
Wednesday 7.30PM - 9.00PM
MMA training
Sundays 12.00PM - 2.00PM
There are also Thai Boxing classes available on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and children's classes in kickboxing and jiu jitsu. I'll refrain from putting up the phone numbers and email address to prevent spam. If your interested, email me and I'll pass on the details. Alternatively, you can visit the RGDA-UK website. A map of the location can be found here.
12 Dec 06 » Marcelo Garcia Instructionals
Marcelo Garcia. Easily one of the big names in jiu jitsu and submission grappling, holding five world championship titles in BJJ and two time ADCC champion in his weight division. So, his DVD's must contain some good stuff that even I can learn. Granted, my basics are still poor, but there can be no harm in expanding my horizons, even if I may not pull off the moves, I at least learn of them so I can watch out for, and defend them. Anyways, he has two submisson grappling instructionals; Marcelo Garcia Series 1 - Winning Techniques of Submission Grappling and Marcelo Garcia Series 2 - Winning Techniques of Submission Grappling, imaginatively named as you can see. But I'm going to concentrate on the Gi stuff with Marcelo Garcia Series 2 - Winning Techniques of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. This contains 6 volumes, covering 1. The X Guard, 2. Arm Drags, 3. Advanced Sweeps, 4. Advanced Guard Passing, 5. Taking The Back, 6. Advanced Submissions. It isn't cheap, Groundfighter.com sell the box sets for $150 and mmauniverse charge a whopping £24.99 for each volume. thats £150 per set! (Thankfully, through the internet. Such products can be had for much cheaper. I've already said too much.) So I'll try to enjoy these, and am already planning the next instructional series to obtain, which will probably be Saulo Ribeiro's Jiu-Jitsu Revolution.
05 Dec 06 » Darwinism
Darwin said something about surivial of the fittest and the need to evolve and those that do, subsequently survive. The evolution of the half guard is a good example of darwinism in the brazilian jiu jitsu world. Apparently in past, the half guard was not really treated as a useful position for either side and used for transition into other positions. Forward a few years and the half guard has changed to become a dominant position for those you know how to exploit it into sweeps, escapes, and submissions. The DVD instructional market now contains a good number of dedicated DVD's to utilising the half guard. A free example can be found at Google Video. At around 90 minutes I haven't had the time to watch it yet though.
Another point for all to remember. Technique is better then strength. "BJJ was made for a 140lb man" Eddie Kone Dec 06. With that in mind I decided to spar with the "monster" known only as Adam's brother. This guy is about only 5'5"ish but 205lbs+. I knew I couldn't beat him in a game of strenght and wanted to use it as a chance to use good technique. Unfortunately, my technique isn't drilled well enough yet. And I ended up tapping a few times to avoid weird submissions, in my defence they weren't BJJ submissions, more his weight catching parts of my body and causing uncomfortable positions where I thought an injury would occur if I carried on. Eventually, I managed a nice sweep from guard, having him mounted, I based out and weathered a short hurricane of strength trying to escape from beneath me. With him giving it up, he went to cross choke me whilst mounted, extending his arms out to me, I don't think he knew he couldn't choke me from that position, and by extending his arms like that he would be open for an armbar. Alas, before the armbar commance could travel down my nerves to my motor neurons, the timer went and once more Shukie is defeated by the clock. I look forward to sparring with the guy known as Adam's brother again, working with someone who is bigger and stronger forces proper technique and proper technique will win.P.S. I have noticed I ramble on and there is no real structure to my writings.
04 Dec 06 » NORAD and Santa
The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) is based in Cheyenne Mountain and is responsible for tracking aerospace activity over North America. Around Christmas time, Father Christmas/Santa Claus or whatever variation you wish to call him, will enter that airspace to deliver presents to children in North America on his global tour. Now, NORAD has been tracking Santa since 1955. And if you would like to track him over the festive period, go to www.noradsanta.org. NORAD will take calls from all the citizens of the world to satisfy their need t oknow where Santa is.
01 Dec 06 » Not BJJ But Good Nonetheless
Like the title says, this isn't BJJ, but judo's ground game, called newaza. In this highlight are some nice submissions. It's good to see how jodoka's (is that what they're called) methods of attack are. And maybe use some of their strategies in my ground work as surprise attacks. Watch out for a nice cartwheel escape, dude that gets choked till he looks like a zombie and weird choke by JPN fighter with funky hairdo.
30 Nov 06 » Pushing The Boundaries
I'm not sure how long the sparring sessions are at the end of our BJJ lesson but they do feel short. However in those few minutes I often have to tapp out multiple times. What does that mean? Am I really that bad? Probably. But there must be no shame in that though. I believe I can last the whole nine yards of every sparring session for the rest of my life without tapping, but that would mean I don't push the limits and try sweeps, passes and submissions. If I stay in one postion simply defending it gets boring and nothing will be learnt. Instead, by trying out moves from the BJJ library in a real-time environment, you can slowly refine the techniques even if the first 1000 times you try result in failure. Each time you attempt something different, at least you know you have that move and that eventually, in that one moment of clarity, you will pull it off and submit that black belt.
21 Nov 06 » Climbing Brazilian Jiu Jitsu
Is there a link between climbing and BJJ? Let's take a non-scientific, non-logical, totally biased look at it.
Climbing is an excellent sport to create grips stronger than loctite. This is beneficial to BJJ beacuse it would allow that eagle grip to hold onto the lapels, wirsts, ankles whatever, with so much power the opponent would have to rip their kimono, or break off a body part to release it. Being more specific now, the grip for crimps would be great for those monkey grips on sleeves, slopers would help with those friction grips on shoulders and backs. And single finger holds? Well with power like that you could spar using only one finger.
Climbing is a technical sport, following a route will require thinking of the moves you will be doing in order to reach the end. Surprise, surprise, BJJ is technical too, like climbing, powering through to the end can work, but when you have power and no technique, you will soon hit a plateau and advance no further.
Climbing on overhangs, where you end up upside down, must be great training for pulling guard on someone who refuses to go down, being able to work whilst holding youself up like a bat requires a lot of strenght and where better to train that than negotiating the roof of a boldering room?
Other similarilties between the two include:
1. Crash mats, though only if bouldering
2. Skinny people who are impossibly stong
3. Both good for self defence, i.e. climb up a building or cliff to escape that crazed axe wielding lunatic.
In conclusion. I have deduced that climbing MAY help BJJ. In any case, where are my shoes and chalkbag...I feel the need for some ascending.
14 Nov 06 » Lazy Ear
I learnt something quite interesting last night. In BJJ cauliflower ears are regarded as lazy ears. This is to say that the ear that becomes cauliflowerated is on your lazy side, the side that is usually on the floor, causing it to rub often, hence it being called lazy. In other news, Sami Berik of Bloodline fight team was in a tough Cage Rage Contenders fight on Sunday, having fought through three tough rounds with Andre Winner before having the fight stopped against him with a TKO. Get well soon Sami. On the same card was Sergei Ussanov also from Bloodline, he fought Andrew Bennett of the Elite Fighting Systems (?). This fight ended in a controversial no contest after Sergei connected a lovely kick to Bennett's kidney area, Bennett continued for a while and then collapsed, claiming the kick was to the groin, after failing to get back up, the match was called as a no contest. What a shambles. It would appear that Bennett feigned a low blow to protect his pride and save face for his supposedly elite team for what would have been a big loss for them. Oh well, let's hope that's a black mark against them in the UK fighting community for such a cowardly act.
07 Nov 06 » Injuries in BJJ
I really don't like injuries. Last night in training, I held onto a kimura longer than I should have and had my thumb crushed inwards, leaving me with a badly sprained or lightly fractured thumb and life without an opposible thumb is hard work. Thankfully all the injuries I've had since starting BJJ have been slight. Mat burns, bruises, occasional elbows and knees to the face, and a couple of sprains. The big scary injury that occurs to grapplers though, is cauliflower ears. This is due to excess friction on the ears, i.e. forcing your head out of guillotines and headlocks, eventually causing the cartilage to die and you end up looking like an extra from Star Trek. Recently, my ears have begun to hurt and it can be difficult to sleep on. I don't have any weird lumps or bumps on my ears but it sure as hell has got me scared. It may be time for me to invest in some, rather attractive NCAA wrestling style, ear guards. Any suggestions?
04 Nov 06 » Rolker Gracie Seminar
Last night I went to my first Gracie seminar. It was run by 5th degree black belt Rolker Gracie on an - almost - European tour at RGDA's Bethnal Green HQ. Through the three hours we covered quite a few techniques, guard pass defences, a couple of sweeps, and some simple submissions that work off one another to provide options.With a David Adiv seminar hopefully coming up in December and on top of that a Royce, Royler, Rolker trio super-seminar sometime next year, RGDA won't be short on superstar quality.
22 Spet 06 » I Am Bored
Star Date, one one one, two one, oh seventy eleven. I am bored. So check out Dialekt.co.uk and Scientific to kill some time.
11 Sept 06 » Great, I Bust My Thumb
Excellent news, I go and bust a thumb, so note to everyone you cannot prevent someone falling on top of you with only your thumb, it ends in a bad sprain, or maybe even borken bones. At least I'll know for next time.
30 Aug 06 » No-Gi Lesson
We mistakenly arrive at a No-Gi session at RGDA Bethnal Green Headquaters, it turns out to be alot tougher with no time for rest. I'd like to continue this when I can afford to, until then, it's back to regular BJJ without a kimono.
21 Aug 06 » Starting BJJ
Joined the world of BJJ today, as Chris (a mate of mine) and I go to our first class at RGDA-UK. It's run by Eddie Kone, the sole RGDA representative in the UK and took place at Wanstead Leisure Centre (Headquaters are in Bethnal Green though). For our first class, we were examining the traingle choke applying it through various methods and going through the correct steps. The lesson finished with short sparring sessions and it was here where I realised that my cardio was not enough to get me through the techniques of those in the know. I was getting submitted 3 or four times with each sparring partner, be it a triangle choke, arm bar or other undefined killer moves. After a much needed shower at home, I notice that the lesson had left its scars on me. Bruises run the lenght of my inner upper arm and dotted around my forearms to prove how much of a beating I took in a game where no punches or kicks were thrown.
19 Aug 06 » Who Was That Eddie?
I forgot to mention Eddie there is a BJJ instructor, I'm looking to join his club and become one badass grappler.
18 Aug 06 » Eddie Kone Highlight
I'm gonna add a youTube thing now. I wonder how it goes...
11 Aug 06 » Live It Is
A quick one. Welcome to the new live www.shukie.com. Nice one.
31 Jul 06 » Quoting System
I've now incoroprated some quotations over there on the right hand side. It is my opinion that it's a nice addition.
21 Jul 06 » Light Speed Ahead
Isn't it wonderful how you get things done when you put your head down to it, well all is complete, just need to think of some more content for this maze.
20 Jul 06 » I've (Re-)Started As I Mean To Go On
With Windows Vista running underneath me, it's time to make the big push....I have a new modified template and am busy at work incorporating a new database. Go me.
01 Jul 06 » Update On The Situation
A small push and much frustration means this still isn't going anywhere fast. Does anyone want to pay me to do this? I hope it gets better soon.
06 Jun 06 » Yawn Goes I
The development has ceased, I just can't be bothered, who knows maybe you want to re-design this for me. But wait. You can't see this 'cos I haven't posted it yet. Oh how cruel...
31 May 06 » How Contrary To The Past
Interesting isn't it how things can go from boring one minute to interesting the next week, something sparked in me and I jumped back onto the designing bandwagon, lets hope this all goes well and maintains momentum
21 May 06 » The Bland World
Is that how you spell bland (B-L-A-N-D) ? Oh well, no ones going to tell me, and I can't be bothered to find out. As for this place, it's slowly boring me into not continuing (sp), so whether it goes live or not in the future is in the hands of the "Idle-God".
12 May 06 » As The Clock Keeps Ticking
I've slowly been adding to this, thought it cannot be read as yet, becuase it's being developed, I never-the-less continue to expand and create on the content and detail.
05 May 06 » Where Is This Going?
It makes you wonder how all this can sometimes work. So as a result of wonderment, I continue to create.