April 23, 2010
Judo Books
Long time readers won't be surprised when I say that you can learn a lot by studying the techniques used by grapplers of the past (check out my post on old-time grappling). Rules change and sports evolve, but body mechanics stay the same. There are, after all, only a limited number of ways to twist someone's arm to make them say 'Uncle!'
Back before DVDs people wrote books. The problem is that many of the best old Judo books are now out of print. And those of us who have hard copies of these books would rather lose a kidney than lend out an impossible-to-find original copy!
A reader of this blog recently told me about that a generally great website - Judoinfo.com - has a page of links where you can download digital versions of rare old Judo books for free.
Some of these books are more than 100 years old, from the era where the boundaries between Judo and classical Japanese Ju-Jutsu were fairly blurry. (Imagine Judo with leglocks - it used to exist!)
Have fun browsing throught these books, seeing both how the art has evolved and also how things have stayed the same.
bookmark this! del.icio.us | Digg it | reddit | Yahoo MyWeb | Google | StumbleUpon
Back before DVDs people wrote books. The problem is that many of the best old Judo books are now out of print. And those of us who have hard copies of these books would rather lose a kidney than lend out an impossible-to-find original copy!
A reader of this blog recently told me about that a generally great website - Judoinfo.com - has a page of links where you can download digital versions of rare old Judo books for free.
Some of these books are more than 100 years old, from the era where the boundaries between Judo and classical Japanese Ju-Jutsu were fairly blurry. (Imagine Judo with leglocks - it used to exist!)
Have fun browsing throught these books, seeing both how the art has evolved and also how things have stayed the same.
Labels: books, japanese ju-jutsu, judo
bookmark this! del.icio.us | Digg it | reddit | Yahoo MyWeb | Google | StumbleUpon
April 12, 2010
Tips for Female Grapplers
Recently I've received a flood of emails from women and smaller men, wanting to know how to deal with larger, stronger opponents.
The thing is that - at 200+ lbs myself - I'm NOT the best person to address these questions. Of course I've had to deal with a few huge steroid monsters who outweighed me by 100+ lbs, but those were the exception, not the rule.
So my solution was to draft the ever-eloquent grappler Krista Scott-Dixon from Stumptuous.com. Weighing in at a massive 113 lbs Krista deals with larger stronger opponents almost every time she steps onto the mat. And to figure out how to survive and thrive on the mats despite this inequality she's picked the brains of some of the best smaller grapplers in the business!
Over the last couple of days Krista has put together a really good piece called Tips for Female Grapplers for you. It's got tips, techniques, principles and lots of practical advice for the smaller grapplers among us. I really enjoyed it, and I'm sure you will too!
Labels: bjj, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, submission grappling, women
bookmark this! del.icio.us | Digg it | reddit | Yahoo MyWeb | Google | StumbleUpon
April 04, 2010
BJJ Training in Brazil
Have you ever wanted to go and train in the homeland of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu?
An former training partner of mine recently shared his experiences of training BJJ in Brazil at the Carlson Gracie Academy in Rio de Janeiro, including some of the differences in training styles between typical North American schools and Brazilian schools. Check out the article - it's pretty inspiring!
bookmark this! del.icio.us | Digg it | reddit | Yahoo MyWeb | Google | StumbleUpon
An former training partner of mine recently shared his experiences of training BJJ in Brazil at the Carlson Gracie Academy in Rio de Janeiro, including some of the differences in training styles between typical North American schools and Brazilian schools. Check out the article - it's pretty inspiring!
Labels: bjj, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, Carlson Gracie, Rio de Janeiro
bookmark this! del.icio.us | Digg it | reddit | Yahoo MyWeb | Google | StumbleUpon