MERRY CRIMBO EVERYONE

Spend your time off the mat wisely: with your loved ones! See you in 2010.

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Using Strength to Fuel Technique

How embarrassing! Every weekday morning I go to a shop at the station to buy some cottage cheese or yoghurt before taking the train to work. I usually pay by card and use the self-service checkouts for speed and today was no different. Only today no matter how many times I pressed on that damn ENTER button it wouldn't take the payment. I called the dude who works there and he did the same thing only this time it worked!

He then looked me up and down and said: "you have to press stronger, sir. "I couldn't restrain myself from laughing. I had a Grappling-Grasshopper moment at Sainsbury's!

Using strength had become such taboo that we sometimes refuse to use it in its rightful place: to fuel mechanically correct techniques. A perfectly executed triangle choke will still need that final squeeze to make it work. After you have blocked your partner's path and broken their posture, you will still need that final push to sweep them and of course, once you’ve scanned all your items, placed them in the collection area and put your visa card in the reader "you have to press stronger, sir."

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So what did YOU want for Xmas?

As Promised! Here is the latest list of Xmas wishes from the happy PTGs around the world. Many thanks for all your contributions and I hope Santa is reading. If he isn’t, feel free to pass this link to them. I have fetched the links to Amazon and a few shops that stock these products for you...

Books:

Saulo’s Book Jiu-jitsu University

BJ Penn’s gi book: Brazillian Jiu-Jitsu: The Closed Guard (Book of Knowledge)

BJ Penn’s MMA book: Mixed Martial Arts: The Book of Knowledge

MG's X-Guard Book: X-guard: For Brazilian Jiu-jitsu, No Gi Grappling, and Mixed Martial Arts

Dave Camarillo's Judo-BJJ integration Book: Guerilla Jiu-jitsu: Revolutionizing Brazilian Jiu-jitsu
The Grappler's Handbook: GI and No-GI Techniques: Mixed Martial Arts, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Submission Fighting by Jean Jacques Machado and Jay Zeballos!!!! This was a new one to me!

DVDs / Media:

The Gracie Academy Combatives DVDs:

http://www.gracieacademy.com/storeitem.asp?r=74960

Saulo’s Revolution DVDs:

These are the best investment I've ever made in BJJ / Grappling:

Series one:

Series two:

Saulo Ribeiro - Jiu-Jitsu Revolution Series 2, 6 Volume World Class Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Instruction For Sport Jiu-Jitsu and Tournament fighting

No Gi:

Magazines:

The best reviews are available here. There is no way I can top it.


Fight wear:

Evolution Fightwear: Evolution Fightwear long sleeve rash guard blue

Venum Fightwear:



Gi’s:

Atama, Adidas, Black Eagle, Faixa Rua, HCK, Koral, Vulkan

Enjoy and I wish you all the luck!

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Multi-dimensional Dialogues in BJJ / Grappling

People liken BJJ / Grappling to a lot of things and, with my current dabble in Buddhism in mind, I see it mostly as a form of dialogue. A physical conversation. But mark this subtle difference: I said dialogue, not argument.

The way I see it, my partner and I are not arguing different or opposing points. We couldn't be. The sweep and the guard pass are not two sides of the same coin. They both uphold the same fundamental priciples. The are one and the same. To paraphrase the Matrix: There is no coin!

Too far fetched? Lend me a minute. Imagine you are on top of your partner in scarf hold. You're holding on quite tight and they sense that so they bridge and roll you. Now you are under the reverse of exactly the same position. Now imagine that you are rolling in a zero gravity environment. That you are rolling in outer space. Do you see where I'm going with this? Under these circumstances top and bottom are useless or at least irrelevant references.

Now try the guard. Someone is in you closed guard. You are floating in this dark non-gravitational outer space we were talking about. If I postulated that in fact you are not holding someone in your guard but rather under your mount, could you prove me wrong? Of course not. It’s all the same.

So where am I going with this and how is it Relevant to the theme of this blog? Well what defines Part Time Grapplers? The time we dedicate to this beautiful sport of ours is a fraction of what the full timers do but we are greedy and what comparable results.

Here is a tip that will double your practice efficiency: Think of fundamentals outside the traditional gravity-based box. In other words, every time you drill a technique, concept or fundamental from the closed guard, also work it or at least think how it would work from the mount and vice versa. This is not completely strange to our thinking as we often emphasise high mount and high guard. Just relax your mind and you will see tonnes of other applications to this principle and watch your efficiency soar.

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