Thursday, January 31, 2008

Homework Assignment

Back in early December I came across the 5 questions of BJJ on the Aliveness Blog. I emailed everyone these questions and set it as a homework assignment. I completed the exercise myself and after some murmurs from the students back then I assumed it had suffered a natural death. But to my great suprise talk of the assignment has resurfaced this week with hand written responses needing to be typed up by unwilling family members and then handed in whilst a completed version also turned up in my Inbox today. I reviewed the answers and sent it back to the author with comments as well as a copy of my answers. There are no right answers nor is there anything to be lost by completing this task. But if you take the time there is much to be gained. Hope to see more completed assignments soon.

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

An example of top control....


After last nites class here is an example of some top control movement. Christian calls his method Five Swords (or Katanas) which is basically either controlling the head or one of four limbs consecutively. Follow the link here for a detailed description from his blog.

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Gomi V Penn ROTR 4 Oct 2003


Heres one from the archives....two of the best lightweights ever.

GSP HL Clip The future of MMA

Back in the day when I was reading Bruce Lee books he used to talk about a fighter who could fight at all ranges and change his style to suit his opponent, well IMHO this guy is it. GSP has all the tools. This is a recent HL clip which includes his two losses and most recent wins over Matt Hughes.

Monday, January 28, 2008

Fedor V Choi


This fight occured back on NYE and is all about the spectacle and freak factor rather than a competitive contest, but still that Korean is one big boy coming in at 7'2 or 218cm and 352lbs or160kg. Watching Fedor armbar this monster is priceless, his whole body is wrapped around this guys arm. Fedor is still my hero. Not sure what I'll do if he ever fights Randy, I wont know who to support.

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Friday, January 25, 2008

Fight of the Century?

Fedor and Randy recently met for a photo shoot in LA for the Affliction MMA clothing brand, now there is a fight worth watching if it ever happens.

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Hooks in Guard With Underhooks


Here is a position we were working on last nite. From here we worked on a way to get an arm across, trapping the the head and arm, and sweeping as well as taking the back from this position. In this clip John Will (I know, I know...) explains how to maintain this position which can buy you time to set up the moves we worked on. He goes on to explain how to push your opponent back bringing you back to more of a standard seated guard. I like to keep a record of the stuff we train and post relevant material and this one was the best match.

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Begin with an end in mind....

Last Saturday we looked at set-ups for 4 fundamental submissions; Armbar, Omoplata, Kimura and Triangle. And rather than spoon feeding these entries I asked each student to choose a single submission and work on 5 entries themselves from different positions. This kind of problem solving has real value in terms of expanding your understanding of the game. It creates triggers in the students mind and gives you a go to move when under pressure, it also allows the student to work within thier own skill set and develop their own tactics and strategies. What I found most interesting is that when we finally did some sparring at the end and just allowed these four submissions only, every single person changed thier usual gameplan significantly. Just by beginning with an end in mind it focused attention and energy right down to the most basic level and just rather than taken what was there or going with the flow having only four options placed a much greater emphasis on getting it right under pressure. Also it created a goal when previously there wasnt one, when a position was reached there was only four choices. Decisions were much easier to make. After watching this effect I decided that we need to use this type of scenario based training more regularily to extend beyond existing comfort zones. Thats what I love about BJJ its all in the set-ups, entries and transitions and anything that helps develop skills in these areas is gold as a teacher.

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

American Top Team (ATT) MMA Training Vid



Always like watching vids of other academies and seeing their training ideas and facilities, this the ATT camp in Florida. This is a great clip with high level fighters and an amazing facility including mats, bags, round timers and cages. Would be great to build a gym like this one day. ATT is where Marcelo Garcia has recently decided to base himself for his MMA training in the states and he can be seen training in this footage.

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Nike "No Excuses" Commercial



Get your arse on the mat and train today! Thanks to JB Will blog for the clip.