Last week in Fundamentals, we learned:
1) Standing foot lock.
2) Mounted back choke.
3) Figure four foot lock.
Posted in Jiu Jitsu, tagged fundamentals, Gracie Jiu Jitsu on April 14, 2014| Leave a Comment »
Last week in Fundamentals, we learned:
1) Standing foot lock.
2) Mounted back choke.
3) Figure four foot lock.
Posted in Jiu Jitsu, tagged Advanced bjj, Gracie Jiu Jitsu on April 7, 2014| Leave a Comment »
This week in advanced class, we learned three moves:
1) How to do a guillotine choke from the side mount while using your own kimono lapel.
2) How to escape being pinned against a wall in a head lock and into an arm lock.
3) How to escape a standing double collar choke by executing a throw.
Posted in Jiu Jitsu, tagged blue belt, Gracie Jiu Jitsu, Head lock defense wide base, motorcycle accidents on March 28, 2014| Leave a Comment »
This week in fundamentals, we learned how to get out of a head lock when an attacker has a wide open stance. See picture. In fact, the bigger the attacker and the stronger the neck crank, the easier the take down. As in the picture, grab the hip of the attacker, the arm that was on the back, and the other hand hooks under the knee of the attacker. Next, swing the back foot through the attacker’s legs as far as possible, the other foot stays side by side the attacker’s foot, and the victim would end up in the side mounted position.
The school gave us a warning the other day. Motorcycles are dangerous and should be avoid. From our school, a purple belt died two months ago and another purple belt is in critical condition both from motorcycle accidents. They mentioned that even Master Helio Gracie, when he was nineteen, was in a serious motorcycle accident. The doctor wanted to amputate his leg but obviously didn’t. Motorcycles are dangerous.
Posted in Jiu Jitsu, tagged Gracie Jiu Jitsu, judo pin, judo tournament, nine pins, norm miller on March 23, 2014| Leave a Comment »
This month, we worked on pins in advance grappling. Control before submission.
Regarding pins, an event that changed my life. when I was ten in 1978, my first tournament, I won third place in the Chicago midwest regional judo tournament. My coach was Norm Miller of Wisconsin, a recognized U.S. National Judo Coach.. I did a quick osotio gari and used an arm and shoulder pin. I won on a thirty second pin, the one in the picture. He fought most of the pin. I rode it out. Unfortunately I lost a friendship that day. We were from the same school. He would beat me regularly at the dojo; however, that day, I defeated him in front of a thousand people. After that, he didn’t want to car pool. I was accused of cheating. I didn’t think of the consequences, not for a second. I was too young.
If in a street fight, depending on how well the fight was going, a person has options, to talk to the attacker, an escape, a decision to break a limb, or choke. Breaking someone’s arm, or any limb, has consequences; mostly negative, police, law suit, revenge.
I know a guy that had his arm broken while sparring. The arm breaking wasn’t intentional. Unfortunately, He no longer attends jiu jitsu. He was out of work for six months. He said he lost $60,000 in revenue. Every time I see him and we talked Jiu Jitsu, the arm incident would come up with a lot of anger. ” He never said he was sorry!!! I am coming back and I will get that guy!” That guy was on his mind daily, revenge. I remember reading a quote about anger. Anger was like holding onto a burning hot piece of coal in order to throw it at the enemy. In the end, the person that held onto anger hurt themselves more than the other guy.
Posted in Jiu Jitsu, tagged blue belt, bruised organ, Gracie Jiu Jitsu, jersey finger, white belt injury on March 15, 2014| Leave a Comment »
To be honest, I took the week off. At 45, I felt I needed to give myself some time to heal.
What happened? Two white belts did me in. While practicing the single collar grab, thumb down, I lost my balance, fell, and put my hand on the floor. The nervous practice partner stepped forward onto my hand, the heal of his foot came down on top of index finger. I heard a loud pop. I felt bleeding but no cut. Blood pooled under the nail of my index finger. Gui taped up the fingers and I finished the class. I didn’t go to the doctor. On the internet, I found the injury. It was called, jersey finger, the opposite of a mallet. The finger has been healing and no deformation. I went to class with the fingers taped up but on the third week, I wanted sometime out. I was having trouble typing. Not to worry, the finger has almost completely healed. Last week, a bouncer, while doing knee on bellie drill fell down hard and bruised an internal organ. Perhaps I need to do more exercises out side of class.
Sorry I am not trying to make a blog of aches and pains. It has been a long time since , I had a physical. Nevertheless, I eat very healthy and am very fit.. I want to make sure the veins and arteries are clear. I need to find a new doctor in my area.
Posted in Jiu Jitsu, tagged Gracie Jiu Jitsu, signs of aggression on March 10, 2014| 2 Comments »
This week in fundamentals, we had learned about signs of aggression. When a person yells at you, swears, clenches the teeth, sways with the shoulders, a closed fist, swaying finger, be prepared for violence. We worked on defensive strategies. How to talk to an aggressive person. Controlling the center. Getting distance. Self defense.
One thing that wasn’t covered was a surprise attack which comprises 60 % of attacks. I asked a Sheriff, a fellow student, what he thought. As soon as the eyes noticed the fist strike, if you’re so luck, raise the hands up to block the punch. The best scenario would be to survive the strike and go into defense mode. Common sense, don’t be a target. Knowing when to be in a state of self high alert. If traveling into a bad neighborhood, area, be more alert. Don’t be overly dressed. Don’t flash money.
Posted in Self Development, tagged divisive, Gracie Jiu Jitsu, harmful speech, Harsh, idle, Lies, ways to avoid harmful speech on March 3, 2014| Leave a Comment »
Words have power. They can do good, and they can cause harm. There is four types of harmful speech which should be removed from the mind, and refrained from doing..
Words spoken with the intent of misrepresenting the truth, Lies.
Words spoken with the intent of creating rifts, fights, between people, Divisive.
Words spoken with the intent of hurting another person’s feelings, Harsh.
Words spoken with no purposeful intent at all, Idle.
The four types of speech are: Lies, Divisive, Harsh, and Idle.
Of course this takes practice. Use jiu jitsu to become a better you. Before speaking, focus upon why do you want to speak. If what you want to say is a lie, divisive, harsh, or idle, don’t say it. If you can’t control what you say, how do you expect to control your mind? Jiu jitsu is about controling the self.
Remember, we can abstain from unsuitable conversation, even when we feel angry, by not saying anything when its not beneficial to say.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Gracie Jiu Jitsu, guard defense on February 18, 2014| Leave a Comment »
This week in advanced grappling, we worked on defense from the guard. Not escaping. Submission wasn’t even covered yet. During training I had a thought to myself. During a fight, you have to be able to take a punch, it’s not realistic to think that couldn’t happen. I didn’t mean engaging in give and take fighting. A mistake and a strike gets through the defense. More importantly, how to recover quickly and keep the defense up.
Posted in Jiu Jitsu, tagged Gracie Jiu Jitsu, low mount fist attack, upa defense on February 10, 2014| Leave a Comment »
This week in advanced grappling, we worked on defense from a fist attack while being low mounted and a defensive head lock.
Without escaping, we trained to remain calm in the uncomfortable position for the purpose of defense. Most untrained fighters think defense came mostly from arm blocks of the fist strikes while on the back; however, that would not be completely correct. Defense, while low mounted, was mainly with the hip which would raise into a bridge, the Upa defense. Remember, during the upa defense, once the hip was up, the hip stayed up. We worked on two drills: trapping the striking opponents arms behind the attackers back, and a head lock.