Grappling Tips Newsletter

February 25, 2009

Combining Brazilian Jiu-jitsu, Wrestling and Striking in MMA Training

A few days ago I foolishly did a strength and conditioning workout late at night. I ALWAYS find it impossible to get to sleep right after strenuous training, so to relax I sat down on a treadmill and talked to a video camera.

I wanted to share something I've noticed that many of the top MMA fighters, coaches and schools have in common (and also how it applies to submission grappling and Brazilian jiu-jitsu training).

Here's an overview of the main points I discuss in the video.

Mixed martial art (MMA) training has three main areas:

Striking (typically boxing or kickboxing).
Takedowns and clinching (typically freestyle wrestling, Greco-Roman or judo).
Groundfighting (typically Brazilian jiu-jitsu).

To improve in MMA you have to train each of these areas individually AND blend them together.

Some people training in MMA just want to do full MMA sparring every time – but I think that’s a big mistake.

It’s my observation that most good MMA fighters, coaches and gyms combine everything all together (i.e. full MMA sparring) only a couple of times a week. Most of the time they SEPARATE the sparring into the different component areas.

By training the disciplines separately you:

Work on each discipline separately and find your weaknesses.
Improve the quality of your sparring partners.
Lessen the chance of injury.

This is also true for high level athletes training in other sports (in the video I talk specifically about baseball and the decathlon).

Grappling and BJJ are the same, in the sense that they require you to get good at different techniques, positions and strategies (e.g. guard passes, submission, pin escapes, submission defense, sidemount control, etc.).

Following the examples of mixed martial artists and other athletes, you should train each of these areas with targeted sparring, AND also mix everything together into free-form sparring sessions.

P.S. If you want to know the Youtube url for this video it's www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XBI6SnLwH8

Labels: Brazilian jiu-jitsu, MMA, training

permanent link to this article posted by Stephan @ 8:46 PM

February 18, 2009

Coming Back from a Training Layoff

Coming back to training after a layoff is a tricky thing. There is a real danger that you jump back into full intensity training and re-injure yourself right off the bat (especially if you've been gone for a while and/or are coming back from an injury).

No, you need to ease back into training. Give your body some time to 'remember' what it used to do and ramp up your intensity slowly.

I actually have some authority to dispense advice here, because I'm coming back from a training layoff myself.

Three months ago, in November, I was working like crazy on some new grappling instructional products. Filming, producing, editing, writing and quality control took up almost all my time. I trained, but not very much.

Two months ago I injured my chest. This interfered with most aspects of my training, and so I was only on the mats once or twice a week in December.

One and a half months ago - on New Year's Day no less - I was shocked to find out that I had a hernia (a direct inguinal hernia, to be precise). It didn't hurt, but I really didn't want to make it worse, and so I stopped ALL training and ALL conditioning until my surgery.

Three weeks ago I had surgery, during which they lined my abdominal wall with a prolene mesh. The recovery has gone well, and I've just been cleared to get back to strenuous physical actiivity

So I didn't train much for a couple of months, and then not at all for the last 6 weeks. I'm recovering from two injuries and one surgery. Should I just jump back into class and start training, hell bent for leather?

Obviously not.

I really, really want to get back to training, but I'll have to make haste slowly. It would really suck to have my repaired hernia explode again (or to injure myself somewhere else).

My back-to-the-mats program has consisted of two things so far:

Easy bodyweight exercises: pushups, pullups, squats, shrimping, hip heists, etc. Nothing too strenuous and certainly nothing to failure.
Non-competitive partner flow drills for repetition of basic grappling techniques. And I'm only using sane, in-control, and relatively light partners for this drilling.

I feel like a bit of a wimp going so light and easy, but there are three things I'm trying to do with this program. I'm trying to:

Get my body used to the physical strain of exercising again.
To recover a bit of timing and help my body to remember how to move like a grappler.
To test things out in a nice controlled environment. If either injury flares up again, I want that to happen in a controlled setting, and not with some bozo doing a flying knee-on-belly technique on me in sparring.

In another couple of days I'll start with some (light) sparring. And here I'm going to pick and choose my partners very carefully: lighter guys with self control only, thank you very much.

For once I'm taking my own advice, and it feels weird!

Labels: drills, Injuries, overtraining, training

permanent link to this article posted by Stephan @ 11:53 PM

February 11, 2009

Another Way to Get the BJJ Roadmap

I'm letting my readers know about a new idea I'm trying out for a few days.

Obviously times are tough economically and a lot of you have to watch your spending. On the other hand I've also heard from a lot of people who really want to get their hands on the new Roadmap for BJJ Package.

Therefore, for those of you on a budget, I want to make it easier to access this material and start improving your BJJ as soon as possible.

That's why I'm trying out a payment plan on a trial basis. Until the end of the trial period (midnight Friday 13th) For just four installments of $49.95 you can get the Roadmap for BJJ (and all the bonuses) shipped to you right away.

This installment plan is ONLY available on this one page, right here, and only until midnight February 13th (which is when I take it off the market and re-evaluate if I'm ever going to do this again).

permanent link to this article posted by Stephan @ 11:46 PM

Off to the Glue Factory?

Here's a question I received recently:

Q: "I'm 56 years old and in pretty good health except for a few old injuries. My question is whether it is it too late for me to start training in grappling without wrecking my body too badly? (I'm not interested in competition)."

A: I've actually addressed this topic quite often in the past few years (maybe that's because I'm turning 40 this summer).

In any case, my answer is a guarded 'Yes.' You can definitely start training and make progress, BUT it depends on a few critical factors:

You HAVE to be careful
You HAVE to go slow when you spar, and be ready to tap out when you get caught in submissions (or even awkward positions).
You HAVE to watch out for overtraining (also known as under-recovery)
You probably SHOULDN'T train at a school with a lot of young studs who all want to fight in the UFC
You might want to consider taking BJJ, not submission grappling. There is often a lot of testosterone and explosive movement in submission grappling, which tends to lead to worse injuries than the more controlled and methodical sparring in BJJ.

And here is some more reading that you might want to do before you start:

To balance all this out, keep in mind that you're still younger than my teacher (and inspiration) Dan Inosanto when he started Brazilian jiu-jitsu. And now he's a very respectable BJJ black belt...

Good Luck!

Labels: Injuries, older grapplers, overtraining, teachers, training

permanent link to this article posted by Stephan @ 11:34 PM

February 09, 2009

Incorporating Other Martial Arts into BJJ

One of the tenets of JKD is that one should keep an open mind with regard to other styles. After all, "absorb what is useful, reject what is useless" is a classic Bruce Lee quote.

In general, I find that most BJJ practitioners are relatively open minded when it comes to learning from other styles. Since BJJ hit North America it has been infused with techniques and strategies from wrestling, judo, sambo, shootwrestling, etc. For the most part, these additions have made it a richer, more effective grappling system

But what about other, more obscure martial arts? Let's take aikido for example, an art that a someone once described as being only useful "for restraining aged professors, run amuck."

Predictably, I think that aikido CAN contribute something to BJJ and/or submission grappling. One of my favorite sneak attacks is a wristlock that comes straight out of the aikido repertoire (and I get everybody with it at least once).

And for proof that I'm not the only BJJ black belt who thinks that traditional Japanese martial arts can be applied in a ground grappling context, check out Roy Dean's "Art of the Wristlock" video.

And why stop there - what about Indonesian Silat? How about trying to adapt some techniques from Indian Vajramushti or from Mongolian jacket wrestling?

A long time ago I wrote about how I first learned the omo plata armlock from my Silat training. For a short time I thought that I was the only person using that technique in BJJ.

(You can tell that this is an old article because my training partner Vlado is still a purple belt in those technique photos...)

Well of course I soon found out that I was NOT the first person to use that armlock on the BJJ mat. In fact it was already an established technique with many different applications, ranging from submitting your opponent, to sweeping him, to setting up other submissions. My point is that I got a head start and an alternate perspective on this technique by trying to apply what I had learned in other martial arts.

Interestingly I recently published an article by John Will on the ancient Indian art of Vajramushti. Turns out that they ALSO use the armlock that we call omo plata (check out the photo to the right!)

The bottom line is that there are only so many ways to twist somebody into a pretzel to make them say "uncle." Over the millennia there have been hundreds of thousands of martial artists in other styles who have done some serious R&D on what works. Learning to grapple does involve a lot of self-discovery, of course, but you don't have to reinvent the wheel entirely on your own either.

Issac Newton once wrote "If I have seen farther it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." I encourage you to accelerate your own progress by standing on the shoulders of giants too. Just keep in mind that some of these useful giants are outside the art of BJJ!

Labels: Grapplearts DVDs, inspiration, techniques, training

permanent link to this article posted by Stephan @ 3:07 PM

BJJ for MMA Interview Delayed

A few weeks ago I wrote how a friend of mine was going to train with Ricardo Liborio at American Top Team in Florida. Many of you sent in questions on the relationship between BJJ and MMA for Mr. Liborio. The plan was to publish that interview on Grapplearts.com

We HAVEN'T forgotten about your questions; due to circumstances beyond anyone's control this interview has been delayed. I'm going to make sure you get your answers from one of the living legends of BJJ, but it's just going to take a little bit longer than I was hoping for.

Thanks for the questions and sorry for the delay!

Labels: MMA, teachers

permanent link to this article posted by Stephan @ 3:02 PM

Harsh Quote of the Week

Well here we are, roughly 5 weeks after New Year's Eve and resolution-making season. Have you made progress on your goals? If not, then here is a harsh but great quote by Merlin Mann on getting your ass in gear:

"Somewhere, a sad obese man in pristine ASICS scarfs cookie dough over an unopened “Runner’s World”, complaining that he needs more tips"

Labels: inspiration, the mental aspect

permanent link to this article posted by Stephan @ 3:00 PM

February 03, 2009

Tips for Having a Great BJJ Private

Preamble: I recently talked about BJJ private classes gone bad. This tip is about how to make sure that that doesn't happen.

Training in a group setting under the watchful eye of your main instructor is a good thing. Hopefully he cares about your development as a grappler, knows where you've been and is helping you progress. (And if that's not the case then you should find a new school. Seriously).

However if your game has gotten stale, then a private class might be just what you need to break you out of your rut. Of course you can take a private with your main instructor. But sometimes taking a private from a different instructor can give you new insights. In extreme cases, it can even lead to having a major breakthrough for a technique, strategy or training method.

For the sake of this article, let's assume you're thinking about training with someone new. Maybe a famous BJJ competitor is coming through town on a seminar tour. Maybe you're traveling and discover that you're in the same city as a well-known instructor. Either way, before you plunk down your hard-earned cash you want to do a few things...

FIRST, TRY TO GATHER SOME INFORMATION!

If you don't already know the instructor, you want to do a bit of a background check first. You can ask your training partners if they've heard anything him, or you can post a question ("What Are Instructor X's Privates Like") on one of the big forums like MMA.tv or Sherdog. Just take the responses with a grain of salt, as some of the posters may have an axe to grind, whereas others may want to pump up their own (bad) instructor.

Keep in mind that you can get a pretty good sense of someone's teaching style from watching their instructional DVDs or Youtube clips (if they have them). The important thing is that his teaching style matches your learning style.

Here are some things you might want to find out before you reserve your slot.

Is there a specific format to his private classes? For example, is he open to questions?
Will he spar with you (or is that ALL he ever wants to do)?
If you're from another school or team, is this going to be a problem?
How much will it cost? Do you also need to sign up for his organization? Is it extra if you bring someone else to be your training partner?
Can you film the session? Most people will say no, because they don't want their material to end up on Youtube in an uncontrolled manner. Some instructors take it so far that they won't even allow you to take notes, which would be a deal-breaker for me.

THEN HAVE A PLAN

Have an idea of what you want to learn. What do you want to walk away with after the session?

My suggestion is to focus on a specific technique or area of your game. Let's take something as 'simple' as the armbar from the guard. If you're working with someone who really understands that technique you can easily spend an hour on it and not yet have covered all the principles, entries, counters and recounters.

Another approach I've used is to have a list of questions on different topics. I did this for my first private with Erik Paulson many years ago - I wanted his opinion on different leglocks, the application details of the rear naked choke, setting up shoots, etc. It made for a bit of a scattered session, but I came away with answers to a lot of questions that had been vexing me for a while. For this approach I like to write my list of questions down, just so I don't forget.

Don't be afraid to be specific. Asking "what can I do from butterfly guard when my opponent is keeping his elbows back" is a hundred times better than just going in there and just saying "show me some stuff because I need to work on everything."

WHAT TO COVER (AND WHAT NOT TO COVER)

Now I'll talk about something that's obvious in retrospect, but easy to screw up on.

Is this teacher known for certain techniques and positions? Is he an open guard wizard, for example? Does he have a killer clinch game? Can he hit leglocks from every known position? This is important to know, because you want to learn from the instructor's strengths, and not force him to teach from his weaknesses. (And yes, everyone has weaknesses).

Once I made a hash out of a private with a very good instructor by breaking this rule. At the time I was mostly working on my bottom game, so I had lots of questions for 'Instructor X' about the half guard, the half butterfly and the deep half guard (he was famous, so I figured he had to know the answers, right?).

Well 'Instructor X' showed me a lot of half guard stuff. The problem was that most of that material didn't 'click' for me in sparring later. It took a few months, but I eventually figured the problem - he was a top player and didn't like the half guard! He didn't want to disappoint me in the private and tried his best, but his answers lacked the depth, sophistication and perspective he would have been able to offer had he been teaching one of his strengths.

If we had stuck to passing the half guard I would have come away with tons of good stuff, I'm sure.

Finally, also try to figure out how YOU learn best. Do you need new techniques broken down verbally? Does a Q-and-A format work for you or do you just like to have material presented to you? How much repetition do you need to remember a new technique? Do you learn fastest if you physically feel someone doing it to you? Do you have to try something in sparring before you 'get it?"

You're paying the guy for his time and knowledge, but some of the responsibility comes back to you to make the most of your session.

Labels: classes, teachers

permanent link to this article posted by Stephan @ 11:12 AM

Condolences

On January 29th Helio Gracie passed away at the age of 95.

Without him and his sons this sport would not be where it is today.

My sincere condolences to his family, friends and students.

Labels: gracie, teachers

permanent link to this article posted by Stephan @ 11:05 AM