Jiu-Jitsu & Back to Work

Well, classes have resumed at my college and I’m teaching again. It has been hard re-adjusting to working after vacationing for 3 1/2 months. I know, poor me…
I made it to BJJ once this week as I am getting used to my new schedule. However, on the night I did go I had a good time. We reviewed how to [...]

Judo Baby!!!!

I started my transition to the night classes this week. There was about 18 people attending class, which is a lot more than what I am used to in the morning classes. I came when everyone was running laps and I joined in. After running laps we shrimped and then stretched. I noticed that there is also a tendency toward longer and [...]

Seminar with Luiz Palhares

I am exhausted! I attended my first BJJ seminar, ever….
It was an eye-opening experience for me and it was an honor being around one of the legends of the martial art. Professor Luiz Palhares is a black belt (6th degree) and was awarded his black belt by Rickson Gracie. He originally trained under Rolls and later [...]

Rolling with Smaller, Faster Guys who are also Strong

Yesterday we worked on a cross-elbow sweep from the guard. Then we worked on establishing the Kimura when the person recognizes the sweep and holds their base by planting their hand. We followed that up with a Guillotine if the person grabs your back.
We also worked on a an Eddie Bravo move where you can [...]

Week Round-Up.. Aug 4th – 8th, 2008

Earlier this week we worked on rolling out of a guard pass back to guard. We practiced re-obtaining guard after the opponent moves both legs to one side and after they open the guard and slide over for a knee pass. This was the exact technique I wanted to work on and [...]

Outstanding News: Black Belt Magazine published my Article

Great News!! This weekend I found out that Black Belt Magazine published an article (September/2008) I wrote concerning exploratory research I conducted on what percentage of “fights” actually go to the ground. I bumped into a forum on the net where people I never heard of were having in-depth discussions about me and the article and it was surreal.
After I went [...]

BJJ: It’s a Family Thing….

I signed my nephews up for BJJ classes so they will be attending most Saturdays. Today Smiley had them run at least 7 minutes of laps around the academy followed by shrimping. They still haven’t learned to pace themselves yet and were gasping for air after the third minute.
After the warmup they worked on half-guard [...]

Cartwheels and Airplane Taps

Big K led class again this Wednesday. I am posting late so all I can remember from the technique portion is learning how to achieve the Twister from controlling the back. As a big guy, I had to modify it a bit. Big K told me I should perform the butterfly stretch more often to [...]