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Posts Tagged ‘Gracie Jiu Jitsu’

Blue Belt Week 95, October 11, 2013 Equaniminity, Alertness, and Readiness

Posted in Jiu Jitsu, tagged , , , , , , , , on October 14, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Jiu jitsu doesn’t just train the body, it also trains the mind.   Training the mind takes many years of consistent practice.

Last Friday, Pedro jr. talked about the mental states of a true warrior,  equanimity, alertness, and readiness.

Equanimity means mental calmness under stress.  Equanimity also means maintaining mental stability, not over celebrating, nor be overcome with grief; ideally in the center.  If the mind entered an extreme emotion, the mind should quickly try to get back to center.   A palm tree, flexible in a hurricane.

Alertness.  In my own words, perception of reality, freeing the mind of chatter and distraction.   Clearly observing the opponent in front of you.  Observing the environment your in.  In an attack situation, being able to evaluating the options based upon immediate observation.  Sparring, knowledging what the arms and legs are doing.

Readiness. Train.Train..Train… Repetition equals muscle memory.

There are ways outside of jiu jitsu where you can improve your mental states.  Equanimity,  alertness, and readiness can be developed by consistent yoga practice.  Yoga means union of the mind and body.   Finding the right yoga studio is a problem.  Stay away from big gyms that treat yoga like an aerobics class. That I don’t recommend.   I recommend the study of the eight levels of yoga called The Eight Limbs. If the yoga studio never heard of this, eight limbs, don’t return. Find another place. Meditation classes can also be helpful to jiu jitsu students.  Finding a good meditation teacher isn’t easy as well. I recommend the study of the Eight Fold Path of Buddha. It’s really scientific and not religious. It’s similar to the eight limbs. Neither the eight limbs nor the eight fold path will contradict your beliefs but improve it. I’m not going to give more information because it’s something you need to research and worthwhile. Maybe your ready or maybe not? Take the time to see for yourself.

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Blue Belt Week 94, October 5, 2013, Breaking the Fall

Posted in Jiu Jitsu, tagged , , on October 6, 2013| Leave a Comment »

helio challenge throw 2013As I was reviewing advanced moves with a four striped white belt, he told me that he learned a new throw, without any thought, quick speed, and to my complete surprise, I was fully in the air and then crashing on to the mat. As taught, I slapped the mat at the right time. Got up and moved on to another technique.

Getting a good throw feels good, but getting thrown hard and getting up uninjured was a thrill.

This week, in the advanced class, I let myself get thrown five times so as to practice break fall techniques.

Disclaimer, I don’t recommend anyone to be thrown without FULLY knowing how to break a fall.

New students should be tested before taking the throwing class. An instructor should make a new student before class show them a standing side fall, forward, and back break fall.

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Blue Belt Week 93, September 27, 2013 Single Collar Grab Defense

Posted in Jiu Jitsu, tagged , , , on September 23, 2013| Leave a Comment »

This week I learned again the Single Collar Grab Defense.

What is the Single Collar Grab Defense?  First of all, this is when the attacker grabs the collar, or shirt, of a victim, but with their elbow bent.  The attacker’s other hand is ready to strike the victim.  This is a bully type attack.  The defense is almost a surprise.   As the attacker grabs the victim shirt, the victim steps wide and across the attacker  while grabbing the shirt grip hand and slapping up the elbow.  The victim’s elbow is tight to the body so that the attacker cannot push the arm down.   Once you step behind, keep hold of the elbow and twist the hand to the shoulder, It is a lot easier to demonstrate than write.

This lesson, when I first learned it,  was the beginning of an awareness that grabbing someone was a bad idea.  All people should be respected.   I started thinking differently about how to conduct myself if I were to become angry.  Grabbing someone is grounds for a fight and could lead to serious injury.

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Blue Belt Week 92, September 20, 2013 Standing Foot Lock

Posted in Jiu Jitsu, tagged , , , , on September 23, 2013| Leave a Comment »

This week we reviewed the standing foot lock.  I like foot attacks because these attacks are a surprise to most opponents,. It should be noted that this attack is banned in the MMA and sport jiu jitsu.

So what is the standing foot lock?  First of all,  the opponent is on their back with legs up in a defensive position called gungoha , in English, sea saw position.   The floor position is a defensive move so as to ward off being mounted and also one can kick the knee of an attacker. This is when you catch the foot of an opponent while standing. The foot is held  in a kimura grip close to the ankle and over the foot arch.  You look over the shoulder and twist  to break the foot.  It is important to pin down the opponents other leg with the knee so as not to get kicked.

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Blue Belt Week 91, September 13, 2013 Closed Guard

Posted in Jiu Jitsu, tagged , , , on September 17, 2013| Leave a Comment »

This week, we reviewed the closed guard. While the attacker is in the closed guard, it is very difficult to be knocked out, or passed into a side or full mount. The closed guard is mostly a defensive move. However, in a street fight or mma, you could strike the ear. The technique is as follows: start on back, one hand holds the back of the neck and the other arm wraps around outside the bicep, the wrapping arm hand can grab the opponents inside collar. Tuck head in. Legs are locked around the opponents waist/lower back.

While in the guard, you could defend against strikes. However, the main objective is defense and to burn the attackers energy as much as possible.

The higher the belt rank the more they are thinking on passing the guard. It is not a good idea to allow any opponent to remain postured up while your legs are locked for too long. As a jiu jitsu player, How do I break posture and get them into the closed guard? So, the objective is to break posture. Grab the top of the hands quickly, with power pull the hands apart while PULLING down with the legs into the closed guard. Basically grip fighting.

If the opponent stacks you while the legs are locked, swim the arms, and put the attacker in the closed guard.

I

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Blue Belt Week 90, September 6, 2013

Posted in Jiu Jitsu, tagged , , , , , on September 8, 2013| 2 Comments »

bjj SamuraiWhat is important is the goal, purple belt.  That is what I keep telling my self.  I miss a class or a week because of sickness, family, injury etc.  Organize my thoughts, heal up, fight back the fear, and get back on the path. Stop thinking. One step after the next.

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Blue Belt Week 89, August 30, 2013

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on September 4, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Fall back from the guard or pedalada?

A few weeks ago, I watched a video from Tosh.0, a comedy show, of a street fight between a kick boxer and a guy with no fight experience.  See link.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYSJWm90YQw    When ever I see a street fight on the news or else where, I like to look at the video to see how a jiu jitsu fighter would handle the attack.

We worked on the fall back from the guard this week, or another way of saying, how to throw an attacker back if they are standing over you.  As the practice attacker, a mistake I was making was standing too far back which would have made a real fall back from the guard difficult.  The attacker must be standing near the arm pits so that the ankles could be easily monkey gripped while the knees push forward on the attackers body which would cause the attacker to fall back.

Back to the video, the inexperienced guy was kicked in the face and was laying in the road, he needed to get to the gungoha position, or in English, sea saw position, a defensive position while on the back.   However, the attacker was actively pursing the defender whom was slightly stunned.  At one point, the attacker looked like he was going to mount the defender but ended up standing over the fallen guy.  I don’t think a throw back from the guard was possible.  I think a jiu jitsu fighter would have tried multiple kicks to the groin/stomach, in bjj, it’s called a pedalada, and then would have try to get back on the feet.   Also, note, the attacker was holding the guy’s arm, there was a possibility of an arm bar.

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Blue Belt Week 87, August 16, 2013 Medical Insurance / The Helio Gracie Tournament in October

Posted in Jiu Jitsu, tagged , , , , on August 19, 2013| Leave a Comment »

If you don’t have medical insurance, should you be doing jiu jitsu?  I would say probably not a good idea.

As I was paying the bills, I noticed that I had accidentally skipped a month on my health insurance premium because the premium was double than normal.  I checked my records. I had skipped a payment.   Oddly enough, I didn’t receive any notice in the mail warning that I would be kicked out.   If a big claim happened, a bad injury, the insurance company could deny the claim because the premium wasn’t on time.  I quickly mailed in the payment.   I wondered how did that happen?  It was a mistake on their side and I got side tracked on my side.

Going to the hospital in the United States is expensive.  An emergency room is an expensive place. Over night stay is expensive.  An ambulance ride could be in the thousands of dollars.   My next high priority will be to get the health insurance premium on automatic payment.

I think I am ready to return to training.  After two weeks, I don’t have any throat pain.   For sure, I will be a lot more protective of my neck. I will be a lot more conscious of tighten my neck when anyone practices a choke and to protect the neck, chin down.  One good thing about my injury, I did learn some anatomy of the neck.

The Helio Gracie Tournament is coming in October in honor of Helio’s birthday.  There is no sparring.  Basically, its technique demostration so I will be loading up on the fundamental classes in preparation.

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Blue Belt Week 86, August 10, 2013 Clock Choke Injury

Posted in Jiu Jitsu, tagged , , , , , on August 10, 2013| 1 Comment »

Be careful with the clock choke, a.k.a., the baseball choke.  It was the last series of chokes from the back we reviewed in the advanced grappling class on Tuesday morning.   The slack of my gi laid incorrectly diagonally across my Adam’s apple.  I was on all fours, table top, while the choke partner was hanging on my side, shoulder in, facing the opposite direction.  As I stated earlier, the choke wasn’t working because of the position of gi slack diagonally across my Adam’s apple.  I had 165 pounds of pressure on my Adam’s apple for 10 seconds and no choke.  Class ended.

As I drove away in my car,  the pain started.  I knew something was wrong.  I was having trouble swallowing and my voice had changed.  Perhaps the Adam’s apple was jammed into my vocal cords.   If my condition didn’t improve by the next day, I would go to the emergency room.   My condition did improved and has slowly improved everyday.  From the internet, the injury could take up two weeks to heal.

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Blue Belt Week 85, August 3, 2013. Fine Tuning the Mata Leon

Posted in Jiu Jitsu, tagged , , , , , on August 1, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Fine tuning the Mata Leon. If you want to get a good mata leon choke, make sure your choke arm is deep and the elbow of your arm lines up with your opponents chin and underneath. The choke arm makes a v shape. Once you have that, grab your bicep. With the free hand, monkey grip the back of the opponent’s head. Before, I did the Mata Leon by placing the back of my hand on the opponent’s head. That was bad technique. When the opponent is being choked, they will reach, grab, for the hands in desperation. If the hand, on the neck is cupped, then they have nothing to grab. Squeeze. Beware the opponent, may get off a punch but will soon be knocked out.

Changing topic a bit, I also learned a new throw, Kouchi gari, another tool for the arsenal. I also learned how to escape the classical judo pin. The classical judo pin was a side mount, one wrapped arm under the elbow and wrapped head with the legs scissor kicked in front. Ironically, with a 30 second pin, I had won third place in the Midwest Regional Judo Tournament in Chicago in the late 70s. I was amazed how easy it was to escape the classic judo pin.

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