The latest mutterings...
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.