Team:

The following is a very good message, courtesy of instructor Roy Dean. Internalize it and turn into action on the mat; apply it to your own game!

Jiu means flexible, yielding. Jitsu is technique. Soft techniques, yielding techniques. Gentle arts and ways. So it says. So they say.

But the reality of effectiveness is much different than the theory. It is not gentle during application. Beginning students use all their strength just to survive. Every minute of every match is a full force effort. The concepts of relaxation and flow are merely words at this stage. It requires many hours of practice to feel what’s going on in the give and take of randori.

Flowing is allowing a situation to unfold, and gently guiding it along the way. Direct opposition of force can work temporarily, but this requires large amounts of energy. The flame of a beginner burns brightly, quickly, and without a clear purpose. There is a pacing that needs to be learned, a cycle, a rhythm, an ebb and flow. Jiu-jitsu teaches you this. It is a method of conserving energy, then magnifying the effect of your efforts through distraction, angles, timing, and leverage.

“Flow with the go,” as Rickson said. “Push when pulled, pull when pushed,” advised Kano. Add your force to their force. But the timing of this is tricky. People don’t push or pull for very long. It’s a small window of opportunity to slip into. It takes a while to feel the window open and learn to pass through it. At higher levels, you have to learn to put the pressure on, and know where to push them so their response is a push back. The push you’ve been waiting for.

Don’t try to move your partner. Move yourself in relation to your partner. Take what your partner gives you. Flow. Sometimes you can encourage your partner to want to give the submission to you. Threaten the choke and allow him to expose his arm. If he gives you his arm, take his arm. Don’t force yourself into another position just because you wanted the choke. Once you see the armlock, capitalize on the situation.

Even if you didn’t want it, make it the best armlock you’ve ever done. Crisp timing. A sharp lockdown with the legs. Wrap his wrist with the bend of your arm and shoot your hips high. Feel him tap and release the hold. Respond quickly to what your partner signals. It’s good practice for the real world.

Bring that flow into your life. And the responsiveness. Blend with forces greater than yourself. Accept your situations. Work with them. Position them.

This life is something we can steer, but not stop. So relax.

Save your strength.

Flow with the go.

Team:

Wanted to let you know that several new people will be joining us on the mats at Spencer County beginning next week. Bluegrass Martial Arts will be ending its formal jiu-jitsu program this Saturday, and it's jiu-jitsu students will start class with us on Monday.

Many of you have trained with several of their students in the past, but let us be the first to say we welcome you all to our family and can't wait to train with everyone!

Instructors Chip and Brian will also be joining us on the mats. I don't have to tell you what an asset they're going to be to our school and the high level of technical ability they possess and are able to pass on to each of you.

In addition, I wanted to share the attached video with you all. It's inspirational, and shows the power to make a positive change and improve your life if you dedicate yourself and stick to a goal.



See you all on the mat -- tomorrow night!

Team:

During my journey into Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, I have come across several principles and pieces of advice which have greatly accelerated my progress. I often find myself wondering just how much further ahead I would be today if I had known of them at the start of my training. It is for this reason that I try to ensure that the beginners I teach are aware of them at the start of their jiu-jitsu journey.

The tips below are the ones I feel are most significant for the beginner.

Leave your ego at the door

Your ego can be a great (if not the greatest) hindrance to your progress as a grappler. As a beginner you will tap often. Nobody likes to submit in front of the other students and spectators at their academy. Acknowledge that it is your ego that causes this discomfort and then do everything you can to overcome it.

Accept the fact that you will be dominated and beaten regularly during the initial stages of your training and embrace it as part of the process. The time will come when you are the one causing the others to submit, but before then you will need to pay your dues. But remember that you should not be doing jiu-jitsu to learn to dominate people and prove that you are the toughest guy around. You should be doing it to learn about yourself.

Try this as an exercise in gaining control of your ego: Make it your mission to be tapped fifteen times at your next class. Bizarrely, this will actually make you a better fighter. Firstly, because you will come to not fear tapping anymore, you will begin to relax a lot more during your sparring.

As we know, there is direct correlation between how relaxed you are and how quickly you will learn. Secondly, by letting opponents put you in compromising situations and submissions you will quickly become familiar with them. This familiarity will ensure that you are more composed and hence more likely to escape if and when you are faced with these situations during competition.

Focus on the basics

When you begin training it may be overwhelming trying to memorize and incorporate all the techniques you are presented with into your game. There is something you must understand and that is that you do not need a thousand different moves to be good at jiu-jitsu. There are so many grapplers out there who can demonstrate hundreds and hundreds of techniques as well as the counters to them and even the re-counters to those.

Most of these guys cannot put even a fraction of this technical knowledge into practice against a resisting and determined opponent. A technique only becomes a skill once you can use it successfully in a fight. As Bruce Lee said, "I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times." Replace 'kicks' with 'armlocks' or 'chokes' and the same holds true for grappling.

After 10 years of training I still find myself coming back to the most basic movements and techniques and trying to refine and tweak them to reflexive proficiency. As a beginner you should take a handful of simple things and work on them until they are part of you.

Focus on the high percentage, fundamental moves such as the elbow escape motion and the bridge. This will ensure that you lay a solid foundation for your entire game.

Work on the things you find difficult

I'll say it again...work on the things you find difficult! After many years of training it will be more difficult to break bad habits and correct weakness you have developed. If you are intelligent, you will not allow the these negative tendencies to take hold when you start training. Over-specialization breeds weakness. If you are a someone who loves to fight from the top and has no bottom game, sooner or later in class or competition you will meet someone who you cannot dominate from the top and your lack of ability on the bottom will cost you.If something is difficult for you, make it your focus.

For example, if you hate playing from the guard, make it your number one priority during training. Try to get your opponent into your guard whenever possible and work from there. If you are diligent and can accept that you will have your guard passed many times in the beginning (leave your ego at the door), soon your guard will become strong. This applies to all positions and techniques.

I hope you learned something. As always, we would very much like to hear from your own experiences.

See you on the mat!

Team:

Here's some good information about the upcoming 2008 No-Gi World Championships, courtesy of Gracie Magazine:

No Gi Worlds: brimming with aces

The caliber of competitor signed up calls attention for the for the black belt No-Gi Jiu-Jitsu Worlds, which is about to see its second event next weekend, in California, and had sign-ups concluded this Saturday.

The event, which grew by 20% in relation to the number to sign up last year, saw an even greater rise in the level of competitor, even though that cannot be quantified. There are aces at all weights and from a wide range of different academies. From young revelations to veterans. We bring you some of the names as an appetizer for what is to come, with complete coverage on GRACIEMAG.com.

Current world champion team in the gi, Alliance comes in with Rubens Cobrinha, Lucas Lepri, Jeff Glover, Bill Cooper and Tarsis Humphreys, among others.

Gracie Barra responds with a team composed of Gregor Gracie, Roberto Tussa, Fábio Leopoldo, Carlos Holanda, Bruno Mamute, Igor Gracie, Vinicius Draculino and co.

Saulo Ribeiro brings in his own team, along with Paulo Guillobel.

Current absolute champion Jeff Monson is coming back to defend his title.
Recently formed from a branch of Brasa, Check Mat is bringing in such names as Lucas Leite, Bruno Frazatto and Rodrigo Cavaca and Ranieri.

For MMA fans, Hermes Franca will be showing his face, as well as his colleague from the UFC, Joe Stevenson, who will dispute among the brown belts, and he is coming off a submission win over Gleison Tibau at the beginning of July.

Defending last year’s title as well is Pablo Popovitch, who is signed up in the hard to digest medium heavyweight category (last year he took the lightweight).

Antonio Braga Neto, Theodoro Canal, Bruno Bastos, Caio Terra and Roberto Cyborg also figure on the list, which also includes the surprise name of Baret Yoshida, veteran finalist from the ADCC.

Other veterans (going even farther back than Baret) in the competition: Roberto Godói, Lloyd Irvin, Jorge Pereira, and his student Wander Braga.

Did we forget anyone? We may very well have, but the aforementioned list is bound to bring excitement at any event. Stay tuned.