grappler blog

BJJ Expensive In Russia?

2012-01-19T04:02:00.000-08:00

Yes Guys, just another post about BJJ in Russia. This time, about prices.

Of course the BJJ as a sport is not really a commercial activity and you want the teachers to also make a living, teach privates, teach ordinary classes. Moscow is an expensive city if you want to hang out, go to nice restaurants and live nice.

Unfortunately in my view since BJJ is not yet mainstream and due to the lack of good quality and experienced teachers, the guys that do know their staff, they try to make money any way they can.

There are probably 3-4 good quality instructors in Moscow that can teach BJJ, I mean brown belt - black belt level and I think its a shame that some of them rather teach privates than give mass classes at a reasonable price.

I just think if you are paying 100 Euros per month for regular class, that should be enough. Of course if there was a gym in the city center, with good teaching, great facilties, what have you thats one thing. But when they charge you $30+ for one group class when the gym is located in the middle of nowhere, Christ, I dont care. Ridiculous. No wonder no one goes there.

The best guys out there, who want to teach and develop the sport really need to teach the masses and not just guys that can afford private lessons.

The BJJ student is the client. He has the right to choose whether to go to one school or another. If the price is high, the quality of facilities and instruction should be comparable.

Why do BJJ Schools dont post the price on the website?

Why do BJJ Teachers dont treat their students as clients and treat them in this way?

Why do BJJ Teachers feel some times that they are doing their students a favor by showing up to train them?

Why do sometimes schools feel no obligation to tell their students what is happening to the academy, why it is moving to another location and changing the schedule?

Why do they increase the price even though the quality of the service/product sometimes gets worse?

Some of the questions, I am sure many of us have others

ADCC 2011 HL Video

2012-01-11T22:32:00.000-08:00

Great event and thanks to Budovideos for streaming live. Unfortunately I could not come to Nottingham this time, but look forward to 2013!

The guys looked great. Its a shame Roger did not participate due to other committments I guess. I would also love to see some more MMA stars compete. Would be fun to see Brock Lesnar get submitted or Fedor Emelianenko. On the internet articles keep appearing that some of them may participate but it never happens.

Roger Gracie Talks About His Return to MMA and ADCC

2011-11-23T22:19:00.002-08:00

The greatest BJJ player ever talks about his return. Makes you understand why he is so great!

Fedor Grappling with Gegard Mousasi

2011-11-03T05:43:00.001-07:00

Watched the video below. Not impressed with Fedor's grappling skills at all here. Just seems that he has no concept of guard at all. I just think with those grappling skills, Monson will take his back and choke him. You just cant allow a guy like Monson pass the guard.

What Fedor just doesnt seem to be able to learn is that he needs to train properly now and he just cant get away with it just on pure natural talent. He looks out of shape but also he needs to train grappling with great grapplers. Gegard Mousasi is a great fighter, but his base is striking. He needs to be winning when rolling with BJJ black belts if he wants to fight in MMA on the highest level. Just giving your back the way he does and have ZERO guard retention ability is not a good way to go.

Blue Belt

2011-11-01T03:06:00.000-07:00

Wow, whoever got his blue belt in less than 12 months. I haven't really seen any good guys who have managed to reach a decent level in 12 months of training although it really depends on how much time you spend training.

I think 3 times a week for a year is not enough mat time though. It just takes longer to master and drill the fundamentals I think. Of course there are talented guys who have done Judo or Wrestling for years, but I think technique is very important as well.
In the end it is the instructors decision though. I have always been a fan of competitions though and if you can win there, you are on the right track.

For me it was a long road, lots of injuries and hard work, but so worth it in the end.

Fedor vs Monson Some Thoughts

2011-10-25T09:59:00.000-07:00

Fedor vs Monson is an interesting match. Both fighters have skills that they did not manage to perfect over the years which are obvious. Fedor has the stand up to take this fight but Monson is hard to knock out and his BJJ could be dangerous for Fedor.

Nevertheless, I think Fedor should be able to resist the ground game of the Snowman. Werdum and Big Foot were much bigger and really what Fedor has shown recently is really in my mind a decline in the will to fight and also physical abilities. His speed has declined somewhat. If you saw his fights in the past, he was ferocious on the attack, with each hand landing either devastating strikes or upper body takedowns.

More recently he was basically man-handled by Bigfoot and also Brett Rogers. He used to be able to escape many of those positions just on physical ability alone. Now really he has to work for it. He gets real tired more quickly and then cant display the same level of quality of technique on the ground as some of the BJJ black belts.

This fight could go either way but this time Fedor has learnt that the ground game is dangerous for him these days. He will try to knock out Monson standing as he did with his opponents in the recent fights and then be careful on the ground. If Monson does wrestle him to the grounnd though, I do believe that his ability to control and finish fights will be the decider. Looking forward to this one! Great fight for the Moscow MMA crowds and very good for the sport in Russia which is quickly gaining popularity.

Big Grapplers After ADCC 2011

2011-10-15T07:46:00.000-07:00

1. Rousimar Palhares - known as Toquinho is not only a quality UFC fighter but also a nasty grappler when it comes to ADCC rules events. His heel hooks are just plain scary and his aggressive grappling style is something of a warning to his opponents.

Even though he did not win anything, he sure showed he is a real grappling force today

2. Andre Galvao - he showed he is the best at the moment. No doubt his tactics are great as well.

3. Marcelo Garcia - still the best pound for pound grappler in the world, he showed after a tough 2009 ADCC that he still has what it takes to win, and win impressively.

The way he finished Vitor Estima and several other guys was just terrifyingly impressive. His technique is flawless and the x-guard/guillotine master is sure to reign supreme for probably many years to come

4. Rodolfo Viera - with Roger Gracie absent from the 2011 Mundials, Rodolfo has shown he is the new rising star in the sport. He still has a long way to adapt to grappling though, but I look forward to seeing how this guy will develop in the next few years

5. Rafael Mendes - if there is someone that consistently is better than his foes, its Rafael. He has this amazing ability to take the match to the positions where he has the edge and execute the advantage. Cobrinha is a great rival/

Pedro Duarte Nogueira Seminar

2011-10-15T01:54:00.001-07:00

The Pedro Duarte Nogueira Seminar in Moscow is now over. The 7-day event was truly a great experience and I think the whole of Moscow's bjj community truly enjoyed the experience.

Pedro is truly a master in jiu jitsu and I loved his techniques especially in the sweeps and the omoplata moves he showed us and hope to you some of them in the sparring soon.

Thank you to Sport Club Lion and its leaders for organizing the event.

BJJ as a Business?

2011-10-09T11:29:00.000-07:00

Just a thought that some people wonder about. Does bjj make sense as a business? Well, I have some experience in the business world and probably an say a few words in this regard.

Firstly what one has to consider is the investment that needs to be made. If you have a shabby one room academy somewhere in the basement with no changing rooms this is one type of project, a budget/economy project that will only attract certain people, willing to pay little and get little in terms of the quality of the facilities.

Of course one might say that the only thing that really matters is the quality of the teaching. In fact, it truly believe that the quality of the teaching is just a single element that makes up the product that is being offered.

The product itself has the following attributes:

1. Teaching - very important. Sometimes the teaching is done by a poor quality instructor which reduces the value. Progression will not be possible without quality tuition. A good academy will offer private lessons.

2. Service - you must be cared for. The teacher must take care of his students, answer their questions and add elements to enhance student learning and experience. Without this, students will not want to dedicate years from their life to learn the sport.

3. Facilities - good quality facilities allowing athletes to train, work out, wash and change are vital. If you have a conditioning room, even if it is not part of the academy, that is a plus.

4. Location. This one is key. The academy must be easy to reach, whether by car, walking or underground. If no one can find it, reach it, then no one will come.

5. Brand. A great instructor, a successful team that wins in competitions, this are just some of the requisites, a good academy has it's own sports gear, patch. Many join the global BJJ teams like Alliance or Gracie Barra. It is important to be in line with the international standard and now the latest in whatever your area of expertise happens to be.

6. Events and marketing. Seminars are one way to attract students from other academies. Once they see your academy, they make a choice whether to join. Marketing activities help attract a student base. It is the job of the academy instructors and owners to then retain students.

You have to find a balance between investing too much in facilities, marketing and staff and making money. If you find the delicate balance, then you will succeed. Building a bond with the students is extremely important too. Think through the numbers your business plan. Be conservative. Don't go all out and burn out. Take careful steps, start small, find another instructor to support you and then expand when you have a good base of students.

ADCC 2011

2011-09-29T02:57:00.000-07:00

Awesome event, certainly one of the coolest grappling events out there, really enjoyed watching it on Budovideos.com and its a real shame I couldnt make it to the event in person.

So many great fights, some performance dissapointments but also a lot of great guys displaying great skill. Its amazing to me that some guys like Xande Ribeiro that thrashed everone in 2009 now finds it more difficult. Is the level of grappling rising in the divisions? Well, Marcelo Garcia certainly showed that he is still the top dog in the middleweight divisions showing some incredible grappling prowess. I hope to see more of him.

Really a big shame Lucio Lagarto did not get further but the level of competition is extremely high.

A great thank you to Budovideos guys that have made the event available via the internet to so many jiu jitsu and grappling fans. Look forward to going to the next one in person!

UFC Lesnar vs Overeem - mega-fight for the fans

2011-09-08T03:19:00.000-07:00

Since Fedor vs Lesnar fight never happened thanks to M1 Global and Vadim Finkelstein, I think the greatest thing that could have happened is the upcoming fight between the newly signed Alistair Overeem and Brock Lesnar, two of the biggest and exciting fighters out there at the moment.

I think so many of us would love to see this fight and I have to say, Dana White did great this time making a real great fight happen for the fans. Its just a shame Fedor did not step up and deliver the same for the fans.

These two monsters are both huge and extremely strong and it would be interesting whether Lesnar would be able to deal with Overeem's striking ability, takedown defense and athleticism.

My favourite for the fight is Overeem. He is too technical, a great grappler, very big and has a good endurance. Anything can happen in a fight like this, but I think Alistair will make a fool out of Brock Lesnar this time.

For Brock, the key is the takedown and ground and pound. The classic. Alistair has a great takedown defense so he has to make sure to conserve energy.

Rasul Mirzaev - Black Tiger - Reality

2011-08-25T06:54:00.000-07:00

There is so much nonesense written on the internet around this incident, it made me want to add just my humble opinion regarding the situation.

The situation here in Moscow regarding many peoples from the Caucasus coming over has caused a lot of unhappiness among the general population. Many of the Dagestan and other country representatives behave extremely rudely and a bring many of their habits they were brought up with to Russia when they come to the country in order to make a living and have a new life. It is said to see so many migrants coming over and in groups terrorizing the general population.

However in this case, I can see a very simple story. Rasul Mirzaev, a very talented and successful athlete, sambo and mma fighter happened to be at the night club called Garazh last week. He happened to get into an argument with a guy that was mistreating his girlfriend.

How would you react if a guy 30cm taller than you and 100 pounds heavier along with his friends starts saying things to your girlfriend. Probably not very well. An accident happened. Rasul Mirzaev hit the guy, and he fell hitting his head against concrete. The situation happened thousands of time and Rasul was wrong to do so. He should have left, humbly like many other great fighters would have in his shoes, but he did not. He hit the guy, and he was wrong to do so. He should pay for this, I fully agree. The treatment Agafonov (the guy who got hit) received was not adequate and for some reason, not yet fully determined the guy dies. Is Mirzaev guilty for murder? Well, he is guilty in a way but did he mean to kill the guy? No, he did not. He is however responsible and should pay for assaulting.

I think there is nothing to be proud of what Rasul Mirzaev has done. An extremely good fighter, world sambo champion and undefeated MMA fighter with an unbeaten record of five straight wins. I met the guy on several occasions and he is probably one of the most talented fighters training in Russia currently.

Rasul Mirzaev is a fighter and an athlete. He had really nothing to do at a night club where drinking and drug abuse is the regular theme. He should have contained himself like the humble athletes before him.

What infuriates me however is when there is so much talk regarding MMA and martial arts. People, who know nothing about martial arts and hardly trained in any sport a day in their life say thing like "martial artists should be regulated, banned for life for misbehaviour" and that they are a danger to society in one way or another.
It is those people that hurt the sport, hurt the country. They dont know anything about MMA and give the sport a bad name because they somehow try to link it to crime by trying to associate it with rage. It is those people, who never heard about MMA, UFC or could not even say what the rules are in MMA, they talk in the news, talk to the press, and give our sport a bad name.

It is a great shame that this has to happen. Of course a fighter has to defend himself if he is threatened. Of course it is hard to control yourself when your family is being mistreated. MMA is a sport, and we all have to remember that the guys that study MMA, brazilian jiu jitsu and boxing, are some of the nicest people you will ever meet. Look at Fedor Emelianenko, Randy Couture and many others. These guys could not hurt anyone.

Yes there are exceptions. Jason Mayhem Miller was recently arrested, Rampage and others had some problems with the law, but we have to remember, movie stars have more issues with the law than MMA fighters. We would not put movie stars in cages, would we? for being dangerous? Then lets stop all the nonesense that just goes on and lets stop people who hardly know what MMA really is talking about MMA and their thoughts. If you don't like the violence in MMA, dont watch it. MMA is an adult sport that has developed over the last two decades. Many great athletes formed it and it has now all the regulation needed. Lets not make out MMA fighters as villains or criminals, its not right.

Russia is a country with many warriors, who gain medals in the olimpics, whether it is wrestling or boxing. Many of these people make mistakes just like people in other walks of life make their mistakes. Lets just be honest with ourselves and open minded with others, and lets hope the judges make the right decisions. It is a great shame Bellator lost such a fine fighter though.

Aikido and other stuff that does not work!

2011-08-21T12:38:00.000-07:00

One remark that I wanted to make. I have to say that it hurts me to watch some people spend so much time with some martial arts that just don't work at all. One can argue whether some martial art is more effective vs another one. This is fine. Boxing is a great sport and a true martial art. You can learn judo, wrestling and you can even just go and lift weights all day and do lots of cardio fitness. All this will make you stronger and will help you fight.

There are some martial arts representatives however that should just admit, it doesn't work at all. Maybe a little, but mainly a waste of time.
If you want to do movies, do spend your time learning some of this aikido and Kung Fu shit. Just accept it, it does not work in real life. Don't get fooled when you teacher tells you that it only works when you are on the street. On the street you will fall down and end up in side mount and not one kunf Fu teacher will know what to do from there, let's be realistic.

It hurts because I also for some time believed in this stuff. I did aikido, but also bjj and judo. It just shows that using my judo and bjj skills, I am able to fight any aikido black belt. Aikido just does not work. It looks good and it's great for general coordination, but if you want to gain real striking or grappling skill, learn wrestling, boxing, judo, bjj, muay Thai. Don't let them fool you.

Karate can give you a good striking background I admit. I don't doubt these guys. Some are very tough guys.

Think about what you want. Don't get fooled. Talk to people, and understand what you want.

For self defense if you have only a couple of weeks you want to devote, take some courses in self defense but for a lifetime of learning, learn some true martial arts.

Stay away from fake martial arts!

UFC 129 GSP vs Shields, ADCC 2011

2011-05-03T11:56:00.000-07:00

Generally an awesome show. Stayed up late to watch this one and it was definitely worth it.

Definitely expected Machida to win this one in devastating fashion and he did. Did NOT expect him to win via front kick of course but his striking is excellent and Randy Couture is known at least more recently to get knocked down I.e. By Lesnar and Nogueira.

Randy started great by you always expected there to be trouble from Machida and he was always looking for that opening.

Jose Aldo I am particularly impressed by though. This guy is really tough. There are fighters who are great but his time you see a fighter who is amazingly talented, great striking, but also can take a punch. The only thing that I did not see from Aldo is his attacking jiu jitsu. As a jiu jitsu fan myself, it was disappointing to see no real attacking jiu jitsu that is normally displayed by other jiu jitsu world champions like bj Penn, demian Maia and Ronaldo Jacare Souza, not to even mention Roger Gracie. Jose did nothing from is back especially at the end where he could have at least tried for an arm bar or triangle. If Werdum was in that position, you would see a very different scenario play out in round 5 I am sure of that.

I have to say lastly that GSP is as great as ever. I love a calculating fight and this one was definitely one like that. Jake was powerless to do anything really. His takedowns I guess could have been more desperate but when you try to wrestle a guy like GSP I think you just have to be 100 pounds heavier than him because otherwise he is not going down and if he does fall, he is jumping straight back up.

Another great show for the UFC!

By the way if you are looking forward to ADCC 2011, it looks like it is coming to Nottingham UK this September 27-28. This incredible event featuring the best grapplers all across the world will be held near Braulio Estima's academy in Birmingham. It is also possible that Brock Lesnar will participate and a match between him and Roger Gracie will be worth watching with front row seats no doubt.

GSP vs Jake Shields

2011-04-26T09:55:00.000-07:00

I am looking forward to this fight. GSP is doing all the right things to prepare for this fight. He is getting his jiu jitsu ready and is training with Braulio Estima and Roger Gracie, two bjj superstars. Roger has recently visited my club in Moscow, true champion, I thinknhe is going to do great in MMA.

I think he is a very smart fighter and does not underestimate Jake who has a very well balanced wrestling and jiu jitsu base. If Georges can keep this fight standing, he should be able to do whatever he wants. Taking down GSP is a huge problem. What GSP needs to remember is to avoid a ground fight. If he takes down Jake, then he needs to get up.

Jake's guard is not outstanding though. He has a great top game but I dont think that Jake will be able to submit GSP from the bottom. This is going to be a cool fight just to see who will be able to control the fight. Jake managed to control the much bigger Dan Henderson so it will be interesting to see what his game plan will be for this fight.

If GSP does get beyond Jake Shields, things are going to get interesting. There is really only Nick Diaz that will potentially be an interesting matchup for GSP. The other will be for sure a fantastic matchup against the much bigger Anderson Silva.

Even though Anderson Silva is such an outstanding fighter, I would just love to see how this fight will turn out. If GSP manages to avoid the dangerous striking of Silva, I still believe GSP could take down the middleweight champion and control the fight on the ground. GSP is extremely athletic and it would be interesting to see how he would try to deal with a much bigger and extremely skilled oponent.

Strikeforce purchased by UFC

2011-04-15T23:12:00.000-07:00

Strikeforce has been bought by the UFC already months ago but still we have not really seen how this acquisition is going tom play out for the fighters. I have been surprised to learn about Fedor still fighting for them after two losses on his record and being out of the Grand Prix.

Fedor vs Henderson I think will be an interesting match up as both have a potential to win this fight in my opinion. Henderson looked real good against the very dangerous Feijao and Fedor has all the skills he needs to take this fight since Henderson has really the same weakness which is the ground game. I don't think Fedor will submit Hendo and this fight will mostly be decided on the feet. It will be interesting whether Fedor will come in better shape and better prepared this time because his lack of technique in bjj which was compensated by outstanding natural ability has now been exposed.

The main Strikeforce events to now look out for though is the Grand Prix and the fights at light heavyweight. Solid fights like Werdum vs Overeem are going to happen and we all hope soon. I want also to see Mousasi fight again soon against Feijao or one of the top guys. The problem for him is that he has been fighting some weak competition or overrated competition and now he needs to take his career on to a new level if he wants to meet guys like Shogun and Jones in the ring. He also needs to get better at dealing with wrestlers. He is still getting taken down which he needs to avoid if he wants to meet guys like Jones and Evans and stand a decent chance. I think he has the potential but needs to be more aggressive and close the holes in his game.

Scott Coker needs to leverage the new marketing resource that the UFC has and also needs to make the fights happen. Too many delays and match making problems are just hurting the brand really.

Roger Gracie in Moscow 23-24 April 2011

2011-04-02T06:48:00.000-07:00

Dear All, on the 23-24 april 2011 Lion Sports Club, top BJJ academy in Russia ( Gracie Barra) will hold a seminar by Roger Gracie, one of the most accomplished BJJ players and grapplers in the world today. This is going to be an enormous event!

The cost is 3000 RUR for two days. 15:00 start.

I think there are going to be at least a hundred people at least at this event. BJJ is growing fast in Russia and it is a great privilege to see such an accomplished practitioner, a legend at the club.

I think there maybe some grading as well and I will be sure to make some great photos.

Fedor Emelianenko - Advertising Guy For BJJ in Russia

2011-02-18T06:18:00.001-08:00

Fedor's last fight yet again highlighted the champion's weaknesses on the ground. While many have claimed Fedor has outstanding ground game, it is clear that his skills to reach certain positions and defend against guard passers is weak.

I have first noticed this when I saw Ricardo Arona fight him. He was always great inside the guard, punching his way and through any opponent, but on his back, his only weapon's clearly were submissions rather than positional play. Yes he can through amazing armbars from his back, but when you are up against a high level bjj black belt, this just doesn't work. Fedor's guard got passed and then he got mounted by Silva, something Nogueira struggled to do but Arona showed early own.

Now every Russian is looking at Brazilian Jiu Jitsu differently. They see that you really need a complete ground game something that Judo and Sambo don't offer even on the highest level.

Diaz vs Cyborg

2011-01-30T11:53:00.001-08:00

Strikeforce puts on a great show quite often but this time I really enjoyed the fights. The BJJ level of the combatants and the Diaz vs Cyborg show was simply exceptional. Roger Gracie in particular was perfect in what he did this weekend. He took Trevor Prangley down, mounted him while preventing him to try to climb the cage to standing and then submitted him with a rear naked choke. One takedown, one submission attempt to seal the win in the first round. It was all jiu jitsu, the Gracie style.

The other fights were also nice. Jacare did well against a dangerous Lawler but you could see that on the ground Ronaldo could do anything he wanted. Takedowns were good as well.

Diaz I thought fought a smart fight but really I agree with the fans that he does need to fight some tougher opponents. There are plenty to choose from in fact in several nearby weight divisions if not his own. Dream has some good guys too.

Looking forward to Fedor vs Bigfoot Silva now. This is going to be for sure anthers solid event, plenty of other fights would love to see in action too including Mayhem who I think would have been a much more interesting fight for Jacare. King Mo and Gegard Mousasi need to return to the cage. Not sure who they would fight, but there are some choices.

Been rewatching Pride tapes, miss Ricardo Arona, he was real good!

Strikeforce World Heavyweight Grand Prix

2011-01-21T05:02:00.000-08:00

The new Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix that is about to begin on February 12 2011 with the Fedor vs Antonio Big Foot Silva event is one of the most exciting MMA events that is to take place this year. I think all of the fans are looking forward to this one.

Apart from perhaps Cain Velasquez vs Junior Dos Santos, for me the most exciting fights would be Fedor vs Overeem or anyone in the Grand Prix for that matter. Overeem is also a very exciting fighter and is going to attract a lot of attention going in to this fight with his exciting fighting style and dominant striking ability.

Well Done Scott Coker!

Vote BJJ Fighter of the Year 2010!

2011-01-16T12:53:00.000-08:00

The guys on the right hand side of this blog have accomplished a tremendous deal last year as we all know. Please vote who you think was the fighter of the year last year, another great year for brazilian jiu jitsu.

Fedor vs Silva

2011-01-16T12:40:00.000-08:00

Fedor Emelianenko is certainly an intriguing fighter to follow. Once
considered the greatest pound for pound fighter in the world,
following to the shocking loss to Fabricio Werdum, he is now looking
to return to the octagon and fight some of the best fighters out hhere
at heavyweight.

Antonio Silva in my opinion presents an interesting challenge for
Fedor. On the one hand Fedor has the chance to prove the world that he
still has what it takes to compete with the new generation of
fighters. On the other hand this fight is important for Fedor as a
second loss would really put him off his career track and out of the
Grand Prix.

Fedor in my opinion has all the skill necessary to win this fight. He
is just far more talented than Antonio Silva but technically on the
ground I still think Silva is technically more proficient. It would be
interesting to see Fedor on his back in this fight.

It looks to me that Fedor has learnt almost nothing if anything from
the loss to Werdum. While I see Anderson Silva training with Ronaldo
Jacare and GSP learning from Roger Gracie and Braulio Estima, Mr.
Emelianenko and his coaches clearly think they know it all when it
comes to he ground game. We shall have to see.

I saw a video of Barnett kind of defending Fedor a little, but really
what I think is that I have never seen Sambo fighters pass the guard
well for years. While he can punch from the guard for sure, passing is
clearly not his strongest area, and while he did escape all of those
submission attempts of Nogueira, Rodrigo was never at the level of say
Werdum or Arona on the ground. Arona by the way also had Fedor in some
serious trouble. Had Arona been allowed to punch Fedor from the mount,
I am not certain Fedor would have been able to win there.

This is going to be an exciting fight. I would love to see Fedor in
the second round of course, so let's hope he can indeed get passed
Silva. His conditioning needs to improve, he needs to find sparring
partners, and a new manager if you ask me. Good luck to him.

Guard players - a style that really stands out

2010-11-27T10:49:00.000-08:00

Guard players are one of the most dangerous jiu jitsu fighters and grapplers out there. You carry out a takedown but get caught in the guard of these people and once they lock that guard in it can be really tough. Even if you do get a chance to break the closed guard it can be extremely difficult to do anything from there before they recover the closed guard.

Some of the guard players can be boring of course. If a guard player does not have an aggressive guard, he may just wait and wait and wait for a mistake and so it sometimes can get boring. It's great to develop the passing though. If you can pass the guard of a great guard player, then your game is dally on the top level. Passing is an important element and being able to defend against a very tight guard player is vital.

I think what many guard players fail to do though is they focus too much on this one element at the expense of other parts of the game.
All they seem to do is to try to get to closed guard and then look for sweeps and submissions. Guard players can be really conservative or risk averse, so instead of taking a chance they rather not do anything and this can make some boring matches. I love to see an aggressive player not only able to play just classic guard but when I see a very effective butterfly guard, I am very pleased to see some awesome well rounded technique.

Draculino BJJ Training for iPad:2/5 for Drac iPad App!

2010-11-15T00:33:00.001-08:00

Got the iPad recently, great product well done Steve Jobs, but in terms of content for brazilian jiu jitsu and mixed martial arts, the UFC (they don't offer anything!!) and Apple should have done a lot more.

Basically there really is little content to actually choose from in my opinion. I downloaded the Draculino BJJ Training application with the video library for the blue belt that includes over 50 techniques to watch, but to be honest for the 23 pound sterling they charge, its not really worth it I think. If they want people to pay this much money for an app, not only does Draculino's teaching that has to be top notch (which it is) but the app itself must be awesome as a product.

There is basically only one feature which is the video library and the video quality and size was small and it seems like a product done in a rush that could have been done much better.

I did not see neither the technique search bar, nor the 3-angle video where you can see the technique demonstration and choose the angle. A lot to improve here. Training is fun, but if you pay money for a product, it should be high quality.

2/5 for Drac iPad app!

Ideal Academy for BJJ

2010-11-13T14:03:00.000-08:00

What would a perfect academy be if you could choose all the best traits and take away the problems? What do Academy owners do and what are they not doing and should? here is just a few things that I think that should be up there on the list:

1. Good instructors - this has got to be at the top of every list. A good teacher is really a big thing and actually it's hard to find a great teacher that can take you the whole way from white belt to world champion

2. Facilities - some may say that it doesn't matter where you train, but if your gym is not clean, the toilets are dirty, it's just not a place where people want to stay for very long. The academy is a second home and so it should be a good home for an athlete

3. Good environment. A great team, good sparring partners will take you the other half of the way to being a top class bjj player.

4. Location. Your club cannot be more than 2 hours away. You just can't travel there enough and stay for long enough unless this is your full time occupation.

5. Development - progress is important. If you don't make progress, you are wasting your time. The academy you train at should give you every opportunity to train with different people, learn from elite fighters in seminars, compete and much more.

6. Cross training can be very helpful whether you want to practice submission grappling or wrestling. The opportunities should be there to take you bjj to the place where you want it to be.

7. Conditioning. Many clubs believe that it is the responsibility of the bjj fighter to do the conditioning on his own time. I don't believe this is the right approach, it is the instructor that should be there to provide a programme for card and strength training needed.

What other things should be on the list? Something to think about.

Train As You Can For As Long As You Can

2010-11-11T01:30:00.000-08:00

Training I feel is the only way to become a great BJJ player. Romullo Barral is famous for training an enormous amount and is truly one of the most incredible BJJ players out there.

You have to put the mat hours no matter how productive your sessions may be. It was often that I said to myself that by studying 2-3 times per week in private sessions that it was thesame as 20 ordinary classes. While this may sometimes be true, you have to really do both I feel to improve.

Train with fighters that are better then you technically and weaker and practice different things. Practice what you are bad at. Over and over I practice now a few things that I am not good at. Butterfly guard, spider guard, open guard with one foot in. You basically have to practice the positions you are bad at.

Competing really helps though. By competing you really test yourself and at the same time learn from your mistakes. I went to a competition last weekend and have learnt a lot since then by going through my mistakes in a private class thereafter.

You benefit a lot from your losses and I think while you practice new moves on beginners, you definitely should train as much as you can with fighters that are better then you. You pick up new things and it gets your head working on how you should improve even though your ego may suffer.

Of course from time to time you do go and train with someone weaker and you feel good, but it is better to improve then just stall your progress.

Practice your techniques, don't just sparr. Share with you partners the techniques that you have learnt and they will share their moves that work for them. This exchange I think is very useful and you develop. Not always do you have a teacher at your side and everyone has a different game. There is a lot to learn in jiu jitsu, and the sky is the limit!

BJJ Rules

2010-10-30T05:26:00.000-07:00

There are many resources and blogs that talk about brazilian jiu jitsu on the internet. Thousands and thousands of articles have been well written on the subject. What surprises me however how little discussion there is about the BJJ Rules.

BJJ rules is an important subject for anyone looking to compete. In my school for example we focus a lot on leg locks which is not normally part of the ordinary syllabus for brazilian jiu jitsu white belts.

I think it would be excellent if there was someone that could run through the rules and especially I think the illegal moves for each belt category because sometimes it is not entirely clear.

There is a move that I am practicing right now which is sort of a triangle body lock from the back which allows me to get the submission by crushing the stomach of my opponent. I can't quite understand whether this is a legal or illegal move under BJJ rules.

I think in competition the rules are not explained all that well and we would all benefit from a good quality explanation of this on the internet by an authoratitive figure.

Strikeforce Heavy Weight Division - That Good?

2010-10-11T04:59:00.001-07:00

Everyone keeps saying that the Strikeforce HW division is becoming a real powerhouse and is the best in the world and specificly better then the UFC but is this really true?

Well, lets start with Fedor. Fedor, Fedor and Fedor has not fought much since he got triangle choked out in 69 seconds to Fabricio Werdum, a guy that went 2-2 in UFC and got fired. Well, it looks like he won't be fighting any time soon and certainly not before Q1 2011 when the negotiations are going to begin between Strikeforce and the weird guys from M1.

Next up is Barnett. He has talked and talked about how he could beat anyone at the UFC and now has signed with Strikeforce. The truth is and I agree with Dana White on this is that Josh does not really care about anyone but himself and the money. He will walk away from Strikeforce or the UFC if it suits him. The guy just doesn't care about anybody or anything and he feels absolutely no guilt about Affliction MMA going down in flames. Why would someone want to trust him it is unclear, a guy with a bunch of failed performance enhancing drug scandals.

After that you've got Werdum who I actually respect and Antonio Silva who has a real future in MMA as well. Both guys are great in my opinion but just won't make it to the big UFC stage because they don't speak english. Well, they've already fought but these guys are real, they will fight anyone any time.

Overeem or OBEREEM, the champion, the vicious striker with a guillotine choke that has sent even Vitor Belfot tapping out in Pride is the real deal. I'm really impressed with him and I think he will soon be moving over to the UFC once he accomplishes his dream in becoming the K1 champion this year. Dana White will sign this guy and I think Overeem will agree when he finds out that Fedor is too scared to fight him and Werdum is probably the last bout he will have left at Strikeforce.

Well, thats it guys. Lets not mention Kharitonov and Aleks Emelianenko. Both of these guys are really out of shape and should not be fighting in their condition. I hope they do join some good MMA team soon though.

Fedor fighting?

2010-10-08T06:10:00.001-07:00

I love the way Fedor and his management behave. First they react by wanting a rematch straight away. Then they realize that Werdum is not fighting and they challenge Overeem who they did not want to fight before and since Overeem is now busy (and they knew this and that is why they challenged him) they don't want to fight until next year.

Shit! what happended to fighting Antonio Silva, Josh Barnett or even Kharitonov?! Well, all of them are still strong opponents for Fedor and losing to one of these guys would send Fedor out of the top-10 rankings all together.

So what does M1 together with Fedor decide instead? Ah!! lets not fight until Q2 2011 and meanwhile just negotiate endlessly with Strikeforce. Now Scott Coker says to us (the fans) that Fedor is too busy to fight this year and that his schedule is full..... I'm luck WHAT!!!???? He is not fighting anybody, what is he doing? Last year he fought once, the year before he fought basically once since Arlovski was like in January.

I think basically the guy should either retire or fight. I think he still loves to shine like this unbeatable champion where as really his is a judo/sambo fighter with good but not elite ground game and heavy hands who is not in shape to fight anymore at the top level. The guy just needs to face it. Either you train properly with good sparring partners (take Roger Gracie and learn the triangle armbar setup) and compete 2-3 times per year as a real champion or you retire.

Fedor is an amazing fighter but this whole idea that he is still the greatest and that Sambo is the best is crazy. There are monsters out there like Brock Lesnar, like JDS, like Overeem and Werdum. These guys are at the very top now and for Fedor to go and say that Lesnar vs Carwin was a fight between two second-rate fighters is just stupid. Lesnar or Carwin have huge weapons against Fedor. If he thinks he can easily beat them, he just need to step up because talk is cheap and those guys are real dangerous, no one can deny that. Join UFC or Strikeforce. Right now Fedor belongs to neither. He works with M1.

Triangle-pass-counter sweep

2010-10-01T01:39:00.000-07:00

Attacking with the triangle is dangerous I find as it can often allow the guy on top to pass your guard. There are two ways of getting round this. One is just to put the knee inside and attempt to recover guard. This is not always easy to do of course but has worked for me in the past. Of course you are back to square one. It seems there is an alternative but not sure how easy this move is to carry it out. Will definitely have to practice this one next week. Check it out in the video below:

This counter just seems like a better way to go as you can essentially sweep your opponent and get a dominant position off of his attack. This is great!

Roger Gracie Sweep from Half Guard

2010-09-25T20:17:00.000-07:00

I first noticed this move that Roger does from half guard on the bottom watching him fight in the Worlds and then later on Youtube. I can see that against Marcelo Garcia and later against Bruno Bastos he used this exact sweep with great success. I guess it is just a matter of practice and perfecting your sweeps in the half guard. Having a couple of half guard sweeps that you know really well I think can mean the difference between winning and losing and what makes this sweep so good is that you don't recover guard like some of the other techniques you may have in the arsenal with this sweep but basically get side control on top which is a great place to be considering your opponent was about to pass your guard.

Very nice Oli. Thank you very much for the video!

UFC 119 - Review

2010-09-25T20:15:00.001-07:00

Awesome card. Excellent fighters.

Evan Dunham vs Sean Sherk = amazing fight!! Not sure about the decision but well done to both guys. Sean Sherk certainly has a great submission defense but Evan Dunham is a dangerous guy.

The Dolloway win was pretty cool I have to mention. Marcelo Garcia style guillotine choke looked outstanding. Clearly he is a promising fighter for the UFC.

Now Nogueira vs Ryan Bader upset me a bit. Nogueira technically I think won that fight. He landed more strikes and he was much more technical. I think he lost on only takedowns but many of them pretty much apart from the first one were not damaging in any way so I think the decision should have gone to Little Nog. Jon Jones would be an interesting matchup for Bader though. Would love to see this fight next.

The main event had Frank Mir scoring a KO with a knee to the head of Mirko. Mirko I think should give up on fighting now. There is nothing he has to offer any more. The fight looked like a sparring session really and although the win was decisive and Mirko still has a huge fan base I don't really see why he should continue with his career. He just doesn't seem to have the tools no more to compete at the highest level against guys like Frank Mir. He fought a smart fight but where he should be dominating is on the feet and it seems he does not have to offer the striking that he once devastated opponents with.

BJJ Grading and more news at Lion Sports Club

2010-09-25T06:56:00.001-07:00

Last month, the club held the first ever grading of BJJ practitioners in Russia by a Russian instructor. Leonid Gatovskiy (Gracie Barra Brown Belt) has for the first time awarded blue belts to four very dedicated students that were not able to go to Poland for the summer BJJ camp held there where the team was graded. A big congratulations to all the guys.

On more news from the club, the schedule has been changed to include many more additional classes in brazilian jiu jitsu as well as for the first time including separate classes for students who wish to practice grappling. For sure this will attract many more students to the club and I think it is only a matter of time before the club sets up an affiliate elsewhere in Moscow.

The club will also likely be holding a seminar later this year most likely with the possible visit of Draculino but this has not been confirmed yet. Vinicius Magalhães is one of the biggest names in BJJ and is a true legend of the sport. This will be a great honour for him to come to Russia to the only Gracie Barra school there so far.

Competition wise it will be exciting to see more competitions from the club to give the students a chance to test their skills in both gi and no-gi competitions against some of the best bjj, sambo, judo and submission grappling clubs in the country and from abroad. Hope to see this soon as well.

Jiu Jitsu - Don't Stop Training If You Can

2010-09-22T06:55:00.001-07:00

The one thing you need to do to get better I think is to be unstoppable and I don't mean unstoppable on the mats, no. You need to be unstoppable in you jiu jitsu attendance.

Jiu Jitsu is not about who is faster, stronger or any of that. It is really about how regularly you train, how attentive you are in class and how dedicated your our to your progress. Training is the only thing you need to do and in order to progress you just need to do the hours.

There is always something that is going to bother you whether it is your knee, shoulder, neck or something else. You just need to continue training and improving and one day you will get a little better.

I think of it in terms of 100 hours actually. Every one hundred hours you get a little better. You should of course try to take something away every class but every one hundred hours you should really see a little improvement, like a technique that you did not use much now becomes more usable or effective or you learn some new transition which you know like to incorporate in your game.

The first 100 hours you will see a lot of improvement and while the next 100 the improvement is not as dramatic, it is still there. You get tigher and crisper in certain positions and you learn new techniques. The other guys you are training with are also getting better and so it is difficult to see progress sometimes but it is there. Often you won't even know what level you are until you try to sparr with someone like a fresh blue belt only to find out that you as a white have the skill level to match him.

Explore the world of jiu jitsu and just try to make as much as you can out of every lesson. Try visiting a different academy for perspective, when you go on vacation take a private lesson and you just might begin to see things differently and this is the key to improvement.

The Feared Triangle Choke

2010-08-18T06:57:00.001-07:00

It seems the triangle choke will forever go down as one of the most lethal moves in MMA. A move that caught the great Fedor Emelianenko thanks to the crafty skills of the ADCC champion Fabricio Werdum.

It is the same move that saved Anderson Silva from losing his title in UFC 117 allowing him to come back from behind when defeat was only minutes away.

Lastly, you had to love the skill and precision with which Ryan Couture (son of Randy Couture) applied the move at Strikeforce Challengers on August 13. It was precise. He moved his hips, controlled the leg and applied the deadly hold by forcing the head down to tighten it further.

The triangle has proven to be a deadly move, almost impossible to escape once locked in, it is worth perfecting.

New Shoulder Injury

2010-08-16T03:55:00.001-07:00

Two weeks ago was training some BJJ moves. Sweeps from standing omoplata and knee bar from standing omoplata. Short training session actually, about an hour long due to severe weather conditions, namely smoke, over here in Moscow.

Came back after training with pain in my right shoulder which I had surgery on the year before. Hasn't recovered since. Still experiencing mild pain and really I've done almost everything I can. Giving the shoulder a lot of rest but for the moment very little progress.

Going to London this weekend and planning to see this doctor: http://www.londonorthopaedic.com/who-we-are/brian-cohen who will hopefully will be able to help me.

Just hope no surgery is required for this. I've only just a few months ago have got back in to training and now this. Extremely disappointing for me as I was planning to compete in the Grab and Pull tournament in Brighton this weekend as well.

Cuts in Judo

2010-07-22T00:28:00.001-07:00

On Tuesday this week, was training drop seonage and managed to get a cut right above my eyebrow. Quite deep cut actually, lots of blood everywhere. Don't even know how I managed to do it, but I collided with the head of my partner. I don't think this is a common thing to happen in Judo!

So anyway, got five stitches, now can't wash the wound for a few days. Not good, gonna miss training until mid next week I think. A real shame but if you don't get stitches for such a wound, I understand it does not heal well but with stitches it heals quickly. Never heard of anyone having such an injury in judo or bjj.

BJJ Person Profile

2010-07-21T05:18:00.001-07:00

- He does not care if he wins or loses, the only thing he does care is how he performs and absorbs technique

- He goes to training because he needs it, he wants to do it, he loves it, its automatic - he does not think about going to training, just does it

- He likes the community of the BJJ academy and his instructor inspires him to improve

- He spends all his free time or a lot of it thinking about BJJ, watching videos and other materials on the subject. Admiring BJJ heroes seems like an endless pursuit.

- He would love to compete in BJJ and test himself

- He never stops thinking about the next thing he wants to do in jiu jitsu

- Nothing can stop him from doing what he loves to do and nothing can upset him more than a serious injury

Flavio Canto

2010-07-13T03:17:00.001-07:00

-----A Brazilian Judoka with a good ground game, Flavio Canto tends to say he doesn’t differentiate between judo and Jiu-Jitsu in training. “They’re two sports with different rules,” he says. But they should be trained together as a whole, so the athlete will become well-rounded with finishes and takedowns. ---- GracieMag

A great judoka with a solid ground game is a dangerous gi player and I am a great fan of guys like Flavio Canto that are well rounded. Jiu jitsu and judo are so connected, that you in the end cannot fully master one without the other.

Check out the video below:

Flavio Canto wikipedia profile here

The Holy Trinity

2010-07-09T06:13:00.000-07:00

"The Holy Trinity" - the three greatest BJJ fighters of the decade - Roger Gracie, Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza and Marcelo Garcia. So outstanding are these guys that they are literally untouchable and head and shoulders above the rest. All three also have very different styles of jiu jitsu.

Roger Gracie is probably the greatest technician and fundamentals master, perhaps the best ever jiu jitsu fighter in the Gi but also an outstanding no-gi jiu jitsu practitioner. Roger has not been submitted for more than 10 years now.

Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza - an incredibly gifted athlete and a very well-rounded fighter, possessing not only amazing dynamic jiu jitsu but also high quality judo and no-gi takedowns. A true star destined for MMA success.

Marcelo Garcia - considered by some the greatest pound for pound no-gi submission specialist with three ADCC titles behind his belt and more to come.

Watch this video about Ronaldo Jacare's visit to the Beverly Hills academy I really enjoyed.

BJJ Game

2010-07-08T06:07:00.001-07:00

Brazilian jiu jitsu is my passion. I think what makes BJJ so great however is the rule set, the submission rather then position focus.

Having said that, I think one thing that many BJJ fighters ignore is the takedowns that Judo and Wrestling give. The takedowns give your game an edge but also teach you how to improve you game and the transitions. This is why Ronaldo Jacare Souza is such an amazing success.

Jacare is not only an amazingly talented jiu jitsu fighter, he is also incredibly well rounded as a martial artist. He comes from a Judo background but also has great wrestling takedowns and now with his striking reaching a new level, he is going to topple anyone on the middleweight Strikeforce arena.

It is therefore a shame for me to see that so few clubs even in the US where BJJ is so much more developed are offering wrestling or judo. I imagine it is tricky to find instructors that can teach both martial arts but you also have to remember that the greatest artists around are very technical in their Judo and many possess great wrestling.

My dream academy would certainly offer all three of these martial arts. All three fit naturally together and should be nurtured from day one. More time needs to be dedicated to master them, but then thats life.

Romulo Barral HL

2010-07-02T06:19:00.001-07:00

There is one guy that just seems to be getting better and better and that is Romullo Barral. His guard is simply outstanding with literally everyone apart from Roger having trouble dealing with it.

With the gi, Romullo I think is in the top-5 players in the world right now, pound for pound. His spider guard is incredible and his ability to pull a triangle on anyone just takes your breath away.

The thing is, I've seen Romullo close up in ADCC 2009 and he looks so much smaller then the guys he competes with. Xande Ribeiro looks huge by comparison and way more powerful and yet somehow Romullo manages to overcome these guys, even guys in the ultra heavyweight division when he competes. Amazing.

My Judo

2010-06-30T05:35:00.001-07:00

Although I am mainly a brazilian jiu jitsu practitioner, I am also a great fan of Judo which I started even before I found out about BJJ.

Both martial arts are really important to my training as I focus primarily on the gi game which I want to develop first.

Judo has been a great martial art to cross train in as I continue to develop my top takedowns and takedown defense. Although I still have a long way to go, after about two years of training, I feel I am gradually improving and can pull of a few moves that would give me the advantage in a BJJ match and I think also the element of surprise.

Judo I think is losing popularity nowadays but to me, it still has a lot to offer both in terms of improving my technique and also my physical conditioning.

To me it feels Judo has a different mental game though. BJJ guys tend to be more dedicated to the sport while Judo guys tend to be more focused on athleticism.

Just looking at the number of blogs and youtube videos there are for BJJ and Judo, you can make the conclusion and yet it is well known that there are probably ten times as many Judo practitioners as there are BJJ guys.

For me though, BJJ and Judo are a part of one whole. I don't care much about Judo rules but want my technique to dominate and this is where I want to achieve progress.

Judo blackbelts have a certain skill set which gives them success in certain aspects of the game and the goal I think is to take the best parts out.

Saulo Ribeiro is one elite BJJ player who basically took the core Judo techniques and adapted them to his game and has done very well and this is what I want to do and believe in.

Nevertheless I can understand the issues that some people have with Judo. The strange enough competition rules is the obvious flaw.

Just one example is the "standing up" rule that gives you an idea of how unrealistic Judo really is especially in newaza (groundwork). Basically the thing with it is if you are a BJJ guy and catch your opponent in an armbar or triangle, the guy can literally just stand up and as soon as both of his feet are on the ground, the referee can signal the end of the match.

Of course in reality it often takes some time to get the submission to take effect. The triangle choke in particular. Judo however does not allow you to fully apply the triangle choke if the guy is strong enough to get up to his feet which is not a difficult feat to accomplish considering it is not required to actually lift the guy off his back.

You may say then "why do Judo, especially groundwork if it is so unrealistic?". My thought is this. If you want to dominate Judo and Sambo guys like Rigan Machado and Rickson Gracie did in the 80s-90s, you need to be that good to be able to handle your opponent from standing and make sure that on the ground he has no chance and by that I mean no chance at all to even get his feet up. When you sink and armbar or triangle you should control your opponent and not allow him to do anything. BJJ gives you all the techniques required and it is just a matter of perfecting the techniques to such a level that you totally control your opponent on the ground.

Archetypes in BJJ

2010-06-30T05:00:00.001-07:00

Guys, I always thought that eventually someone will put together something like this.

Check it out here (very funny): http://www.kampfkunst-board.info/forum/f24/bjj-stereotypen-32554/

In fact I am pretty sure it covers all of us at least a little bit. For me, I feel sometimes like the "this is my first lesson guy" because I hate to answer the question "how long have you been doing BJJ".

When I started doing BJJ it was especially not great. I had two years of Judo experience already and so when I said I was new to BJJ and then submitted the guy with an arm-triangle or something, it was kind of like "by the way, I've done judo". But its not like you have to disclose your martial arts background to every partner who asks you just before a sparring match whether you have done BJJ before.

By the way, check this link out for some comedy :)

Jiu Jitsu Lifestyle

2010-06-29T00:47:00.000-07:00

Here is a short video series about jiu jitsu, the martial art that has taken over the life of so many people and transformed them. 600,000 now I understand are practicing the martial art and I think the number is growing fast.

Reasons Why Fedor Lost!

2010-06-28T08:07:00.001-07:00

Here are some of the primary reasons Fedor lost this fight however:

1. Fedor has never trained with decent sparring partners for grappling. Instead he trains in Stariy Oskol with Sambo guys that are nowhere near as technical as somebody like Fabricio Werdum. These guys don't have a guard as technical and as difficult to pass as Werdum's so I think this is part of the reason why Fedor got so confident there. What Fedor needs to do is something that is normal for many top fighters. Anderson Silva, GSP, BJ Penn, Machida and Lesnar all train with elite BJJ players and ADCC level grapplers. Fedor needs to leave Stariy Oskol and train with good sparring partners.

2. Training facilities and trainers. Fedor's conditioning may be decent but his coaches are part of the reason why he lost. Not many people know that Fedor was not made by his current trainers he has today in fact. They inheritted Fedor, the awesome machine that could dominate Pride. He now needs to consider whether he may really benefit from modern MMA training and coaches.

3. People around Fedor. Fedor has a lot of people around him who are there to get his money and use his fame. Starting from Rinat Layshev, Igor Petrukhin, Vadim Finkelstein and ending with a crazy guy they have over there who things sauna and "Banya" is training. They are extremely arrogant and talk so much shit it is unbelievable and thank god for Fedor people outside of Russia don't hear this crap. They were saying that Sambo is the best martial art in the world, Fedor is the best fighter in the world, and on and on. These guys are screwing with his training and his mind.

4. Religion and priests. We never knew Fedor like this but when priests start to accompany you to fights that is the worst sign you can have. "God wanted Fedor to lose?", if Fedor is not insane, he will be soon with these guys. I am telling you that those priests have been messing with Fedor's head for ages. Now Fedor has to go and prey instead of training. Good luck Fedor if you carry on like this.

5. Bring the wife. Fedor has not been taking fighting seriously for a few years now. He is told by his mates that he is unbeatable and that he can relax i gather. That is why he lost in Sambo last year - he did not train, and he was doing movies before the Arlovski fight that even his trainers started talking before being told to hush hush.

remember he got married just before the Rogers fight? Now he brings his fight to San Jose, bad sign.

Lastly, Fedor went in to MMA to make money for his family. This was a mean machine who was training with nasty guys like Volk Han. I think Fedor forgot where he came from and how hard he had to work to get there, who made Fedor. He should really look for outsiders to help him here. Speak to Mousasi and GSP, speak with guys that have accomplished something. Train with Roger Gracie.

Fedor has to do a lot of work before he goes in and fights again. The fact that they already want the next fight in September and that he will never leave M1 is a bad sign.

Five Top BJJ Players Getting Famous

2010-06-28T04:54:00.001-07:00

5. Pablo Popovitch

Hats off to the guy that beat Marcelo Garcia in the ADCC which is what he did in 2009. Pablo Popovitch, if you ever seen him fight, is an incredible grappler. Incredibly skilled, talented and powerful grappler that has been for years been overshadowed by the Marcelo Garcia phenomenon. Pablo really does deserve praise and someone to follow this year.

4. Braulio Estima - Gracie Barra is proud of its champions and Braulio Estima's performance last year has been more than impressive. Not only was he able to dominate everyone in his own division at ADCC 2009, he looked also unbeatable in the absolute taking gold thanks to his inverted triangle choke he does so well.

Braulio is a true champion and a very accomplished BJJ fighter having been BJJ champion many times before. Although for years outshined by guys like Xande and Ronaldo Jacare, Braulio is really showing his worth nowadays and will surely do well in mixed martial arts as well.

3. Demian Maia - there are few talents in BJJ who can make UFC fighters look like amatuers. This is what Demian can do literally playing with his opponents once the fight reaches the ground. Although Maia could not takedown Anderson Silva in his last fight, surely he has a great career ahead of him in the UFC once he improves his wrestling and striking.

2. Ronaldo Souza - Jacare is one of the most athletic and yet incredibly technical fighters. Having dominated the jiu jitsu and grappling scene for years, he turned to MMA with great success. Ronaldo is able to take down even the most versatile fighters with ease and once on the ground, they are helpless to resist him. His last fight against Villasenor in Strikeforce confirms this.

With his takedowns looking the better than most wrestlers and striking rapidly evolving, Ronaldo Souza will very soon be the middleweight Strikeforce champion. Good luck to him.

PS: Jake Shields I think got scared of how good Souza really is and has run off to the UFC.

1. Roger Gracie - when you look at what Roger Gracie has accomplished so far, he can't help giving credit to his achievements. He is the first fighter to win the BJJ Worlds Absolute 3 times and the only guy to submit all of his opponents in 2009 worlds by taking mount. He is also the only guy to submit all of his opponents in ADCC 2005 winning both his own weight and absolute. This guy is truly the greatest BJJ specialist ever and one of the best grappling stars in the world.

Roger is an extremely humble and hard working guy and is a great pleasure to see him compete. I just wish he fights MMA more.

I would personally also love to see him fight in Sambo just for fun, as Rigan Machado and Rickson did just to see how he would do. The rules are different but it would be interesting to see how BJJ vs Sambo does these days.

Jiu Jitsu Prevails: Fedor loses to Werdum

2010-06-26T21:29:00.001-07:00

How unbelievably arrogant were the M1 Global commentators in the Fedor vs Werdum Strikeforce show. The crap that comes out of the mouth of Finkelstein, Igor Petruhin and Rinat Layshev and their friends is unbelievable.

Propoganda message number 1: "Sambo is the best" - yeah they go on and on that Dana White nor any of the brazilian know what Sambo is. That Fedor can do anything he wants to a jiu jitsu fighter because he is the best in the world, no one can submit this guy, blah, blah blah. I think at some point even Fedor decided he could do his sambo tricks on Werdum.

Basically what happened was Fedor went in and forgot who he was dealing with. When he fought Nogueira he understood how dangerous Nogueira is from the guard. He was very cautious despite trying to GNP Nogueira.

This time however he tried to pass Werdum's guard with no respect for Fabricio's guard game and submission abilities. What happened, well, it turns out Sambo and Fedor are not invincible after all. I guess Fedor forgot the Arona fight and what happened there.

For some reason he decided he could do more than just land strikes from the guard. He tried to pass the guard and naturally Werdum landed a nice triangle choke. Vai Cavalo locked it in quick and real nice and once its locked, well, unless your name is Roger Gracie you are not getting out. That means even if your name is Fedor Emelianenko, you are still going to tap. That is what happened.

After that basically the guys commenting the Russian side of the show started to feel embaraced, embaraced that Fedor lost, embaraced by how little chance they gave Werdum and tried to explain that this was like an accident etc etc

The thing is though, these guys give so little respect to guys like Fabricio Werdum, who is just as much of a star in jiu jitsu as Fedor is in Sambo. Fabricio shook Fedor's hand and spoke about how much respect he has for Fedor.

The M1 team however do exactly the opposite. All they talk about is Fedor, Fedor, Fedor. That is a genius, a professor, the best fighter in the world, unbeatable and on and on and on. Not only do they not show any of the other fights in Russia but they don't even talk about Fabricio Werdum when he enters the arena.

I'm not even sure whether they actually know anything about Werdum. All they seemed to talk about when Werdum was entering the arena was that how little cheering there was.

Fedor, I think the guy is great but with all this crap around him and some of the crap that he believes in, he is wrong about some things. He got arrogant I think in this fight and gave too little respect for Werdum.

At the same time the problem is that these guys believe that Sambo gives you all the ground game that you need. BJJ on the ground is superior however and this has been proven. When did we ever see someone good from Sambo win the ADCC. Sambo is great for throws, but on the ground, it is simply not a complete art.

Now I am not saying Fedor can't win fights without jiu jitsu, but what I am saying is that if Fedor was as wise as his people say, he would train in proper facilities where he would benefit from being exposed to elite BJJ guys, elite Wrestlers etc. You can't just sit there in Stary Oskol and practice Sambo and Boxing all day long thinking this is all I have to know.

Guys from Greg Jackson's gym and many other top gyms in the US these days have a much better training programme then what Fedor could have.

Honestly how can one train for an ADCC champion without at least a BJJ specialist as a training partner. He should have gone to Roger Gracie's academy in London and practiced. He has no one to test him back in Stariy Oskol. I just hope Fedor steps down from whatever throne Finkelstein put him on and starts thinking about how to get better.

Of course he should listen to his coaches, but shit, they should have told him this ten years ago. They have the money, just not the will. They paid for it this time.

Buvaisar Saytiev Amazing Move Plus Wrestling in General

2010-06-24T07:23:00.001-07:00

When it comes to wrestling, I have great respect for the sport. Below is the video from one of the modern greats.

Saytiev is truly one of the greatest in the sport today and for him to pull off such amazing moves is just extraordinary. The guy started winning big in 1995 and is still at the top of his game.

Having never done freestyle wrestling myself I have to respect the sport having trained with some wrestlers in no-gi grappling at my academy. There takedown defense I particularly respect as well as their top control. These guys are very quick and well-conditioned and it just shows how great this sport is in producing powerful and agile athletes.

Sadly, while MMA has experienced a tremendous boost in growth and other sports like Judo and Sambo have benefitted from popularity and support from the authorities, others have been declining.

Taking a look at wrestling, I found this particularly to be the case. I was looking at the number of clubs available for adults in two major capitals of the world, London and Moscow and frankly I was amazed. Basically there is probably one or two clubs total per each of these cities where an adult can go and train wrestling which is aweful. I don't know what those federations are doing but certainly they are doing very little if anything at all to boost the number of clubs offering GrecoRoman and Freestyle wrestling.

There is a lot of discussion in fact to whether you can do wrestling from the adult age having never done it before. Some say you can't but I think this is a problem with the motivation schemes that some of the trainers especially in Russia have. The trainers do not want to take you unless they can make a champion out of you in five or ten years time. Of course if you are 25 or even 20, they can't and in this case they can't make any money or get any title themselves as a world-class trainer.

A similar thing goes on in Judo but thankfully there are so many Judo enthusiasts out there teaching the sport, it is growing immensely without any need to focus on elite athletes or money.

Frankly BJJ has an edge here. It is not troubled with all this necessary insurance or affiliation. Just look at Judo. If you have great skills and you are from abroad and just want to come over and compete at some local tournament, there is a whole lot of paperwork you have to deal with. Why do you have to be a member of the British Judo Association? If a guy breaks his neck, his BJA membership will not help him that is for sure.

BJJ is free from this, at least for now. The only crazy thing in this regard I have seen is that in the UK for the BJJ AbuDhabi Pro Trials you have to have an EU member passport which is absurd. So if you are Russian, Ukranian, Belarussian - you can't compete at all. Ridiculous.

Fedor vs Werdum on 26 June

2010-06-24T06:54:00.001-07:00

Many believe that Werdum does not have a chance against Fedor in this fight but having red some different perspectives, I have to agree with Fedor and Couture in saying that indeed Fabricio Werdum could be a dangerous opponent for Fedor, especially on the ground.

While I don't believe Vai Cavailo will be able to do anything to Fedor from the guard. Werdum needs to take Fedor down and pass his guard which I believe he will not have much of a problem doing.

The key will be to keep Fedor on the ground and go from submission to submission. I believe Werdum could try to either submit him from side control. After all we have seen Mark Hunt lock in that americana. Another possibility would be to take Fedor's back and try to submit him from there.

While many believe that Fedors ground fighting is incredible, I would have to disagree. Fedor is a great armbar specialist but talking about his positional ground game, I think it is nowhere near top-jiu jitsu level. Fedor had trouble passing Cro Cop's guard and Ricardo Arona showed that Fedor can be dominated on the ground with elite BJJ.

While it is a difficult to task to beat Fedor, I agree with Arona that this is the key for Werdum, to escape the danger standing and go for the takedowns. Fedor's KO power of course makes him exceptionally dangerous and I think no one can really predict what will happen.

I thing for sure though, Fedor is extremely quick and Werdum will have to be as quick in this fight to control and take advantage of his strengths.

Watched the Arona fight just now. I think this one really shows how many different holes Fedor has in the ground game. He does not really have a guard, could not stop Arona from passing it at all, trying to do this guillotine choke which clearly was not doing anything. He gave his back and got mounted so many times and if Arona could strike to the head from the mount, Fedor would have been in a lot of trouble here.

Arona's takedown's are probably on part with Werdum's so Werdum should use this strategy to gain a dominant position and work from there. This is a dangerous opponent for Fedor, maybe even as dangerous is Lesnar. I think people don't realise that Werdum cannot be submitted and the only way Fedor can win this I think is by keeping it standing and trying to KO Fabricio. Very excited about this fight.

Academy Life

2010-06-23T00:37:00.001-07:00

BJJ is a life long pursuit for sure. Of course the turnover in the academy is great at the beginner level but over time you develop a relationship with the core team in the academy.

What I want to say is that of course you must treat your team mates with the same respect that you also expect from your partners. It will take something like ten years to get your black belt before you might decide to setup your own academy and therefore you should develop a relationship with the guys and of course your instructor who will show you the way forward and help you achieve the progress that your seek.

Everyone is different of course. Most of us have a background in some martial art. At my academy where our instructor is very keen on no-gi grappling, there are many guys who have a background in Greco-roman wrestling or freestyle wrestling. These guys tend to be very hard working and also well conditioned and there are of course a lot of things that you can pick up from guys like this especially in the takedown department.

Since I train at a Gracie Barra academy in Russia, there are plenty of guys with a Judo and Sambo background. Since both of these martial arts are very closely interrelated, many have cross trained in both.

These guys have a lot of judo throwing experience and in the case of sambo pracitioners the thing to watch out is leg locks and in particular straight ankle locks and heel hooks.

Many BJJ guys, blue belt and below in other countries don't even come across leg locks until purple, but in Russia the situation is quite a bit different. You constantly have guys coming over to train or sparr who are extremely proficient in leg locks and therefore a part our training is devoted to leg locks and especially defense.

Jiu jitsu makes you comfortable from working from you back and I think that is what BJJ pracitioners should take advantage of of course.

The Academy is a place where you will spend many many thousands of hours training with your partners so it is good to make friends. This I think also helps motivate you to come. You come to meet your friends and practice the sport you love.

Strikeforce signs Kharitonov and Overeem

2010-06-22T05:33:00.001-07:00

Big news for Strikeforce that has come to my attention. I think I managed to miss this one last week. According to MMA Junkie, on the 17 June, Scott Coker announced that Valentijn Overeem and Sergei Kharitonov, two great Pride heavyweights have signed with Strikeforce.

I am thrilled about this of course, to see more competition in the Strikeforce Heavyweight division and more Russian representation at the top.

Sergei especially has been long considered one of the top heavyweights until recently and actually I have been surprised that it took so long. Now all they need is convince Ricardo Arona to return and this organization would be doing great.

Of course the key would be to focus on raising new talent of course but now they at least have a chance to test themselves against the top guys in the sport. With Fedor retiring, a new generation of fighters needs to come to Strikeforce in the heavyweight division.

Personally I would love to see several fights in this category now including Kharitonov vs Brett Rogers or Valentijn Overeem vs Bobby Lashley. It would be a great show if we got to see some of these big guys face each other.

As a jiu jitsu fan however for me it is always exciting to see some jiu jitsu talent in action and that is why I would love to see Jeff Monson and especially Ricardo Arona in the mix at Strikeforce. This is the place where they should be competing right now. For Arona, there are a few interesting matches at LHW including guys like Gegard Mousasi.

Kharitonov has a strong Sambo background though and his punching power is on par with Aleks Emelianenko, so I think its going to be interesting how he does in his first fight.

Strikeforce HW division I feel now has a lot of technical and powerful strikers and it would be great if apart from Fabricio Werdum there could be some more wrestlers/jiu jitsu players. I don't really count Bobby Lashley as I think he needs a few big career fights to prove he has what it takes to transition to MMA.

Training Regularly - Difficult to Do When You Don't Feel So Good

2010-06-21T03:50:00.001-07:00

Training regularly is the only way to achieve results in jiu jitsu and that is why I make every effort to come to training on time unless there is something extremely important that needs attending.

Sadly I caught the flu or some nasty infection that keeps reoccurring which is a real shame. Although I do everything possible it is just sad to miss training.

Well, at least Fedor vs Werdum Strikeforce event is coming up this weekend which always promises to be an exciting night. Since Fedor is fighting, the event will be on pay-per-view in Russia, something that never happens here since MMA is misunderstood by the majority of the public. BJJ vs Combat Sambo here we go, great fighters, poor commentary, I am looking forward to it!

The Triangle - Symbol of Jiu Jitsu

2010-06-18T07:24:00.001-07:00

Triangle is an extremely effective technique in both jiu jitsu and judo. The first time I tried it, I loved how effective it was provided you achieved the correct position. How wrong was I for thinking that I have mastered the technique after a year of training.

The triangle choke is perhaps one of the most effective and deadly techniques in jiu jitsu. It is the definition of a high percentage technique especially considering the fact that it is almost impossible to escape it once you have locked your opponent in its deadly trap.

The thing to note in the triangle is the detail and the variety. By detail I mean the amount of detail there is to the triangle choke. It is a vital submission to master but you have to be able to apply it perfectly, like second nature, with speed and precision, doing everything perfectly, moving the hips, locking in your opponent, using your hips and groin muscles to apply pressure, controlling the arm and apply pressure to the back of the head.

If you think that's all the detail to the basic triangle from the guard, you are mistaken. Not only you must master the basics but also understand how your opponent will try to escape and prevent this.

By variety I mean of course the number of situations and variations there are. The reverse triangle submission is a favourite move of Braulio Estima, the ADCC 2009 champion in the Absolute as well as multiple time BJJ World Champion.

You can apply the technique from the cross body (top and bottom), from the guard, from the mount and from the back. You can transition from one position to another and from the classic triangle to the reverse triangle as well as from other submission attempts back into the triangle.

The classic combo that I was taught at my academy was of course from the guard. First go for the armbar, then switch for the omoplata and then back to triangle then armbar. A great exercise where you practice controlling your opponent and transitioning from one effective submission to another. (among other things)

Please check out some of the youtube videos below that give a test of variety to the triangle choke.

Believe the Judo

2010-06-16T07:35:00.001-07:00

Those of us that love Judo and believe it is a strong martial art that can benefit your BJJ, here is a great demontration of the powerful Kouchi Gari through that can be used with devastating effect landing your opponent on his back in side control.

The important thing when you use your Judo against a BJJ guy from standing is that in the gi, there is little he can do to defend against your attacks. Knowing your grips and being able to surprise your opponent from standing gives you the edge and while some may try to pull guard, it is actually tough to do against an experienced Judoka who is also knowledgeable in BJJ.

In the end the fight will go to the ground and my base is still jiu jitsu but even if you consider the basic hip through and carry it out successfully delivering a clean through with full force on your opponent, very often you will full and stun him for at least a second that would give you a chance to start working your BJJ.

Judo groundwork is different and it is fair to say I think that although BJJ is more effective the reason why Judo have a different focus on the ground is simply the time constraint. It takes a while to pass the guard against an experienced grappler and although some of the jiu jitsu techniques are no doubt more effective, if you have less than a minute to do everything, you won't have time to be subtle and play for position as you would do in a jiu jitsu match.

Judo and BJJ

2010-06-15T06:11:00.001-07:00

I am a great fan of the judo game. I love working to gain a strong grip and take the opponent down and then work my jiu jitsu to find the submission.

There are many judo sceptics nowadays who say that you have to train wrestling, muay thai and bjj to be a complete fighter, but in my opinion unless you want to be a professional fighter in MMA then you should do what you love and have the passion for.

BJJ in the gi is a great art that teaches you all you have to know about ground work and working for the position before submission. I believe this is the most effective martial art for ground work and yet there is so much more in gi grappling than just ground fighting.

Takedowns make BJJ this great. Yes, you have freaks like Roger Gracie who lose the stand up game only to defeat each of his opponents, but you have to remember that all the great BJJ fighters like Roger Gracie, Ronaldo Jacare Souza, Saulo & Xande Ribeiro, Terere, Fabricio Werdum and many others are very good judo players and this is not a coincidence.

Getting taken down by a proficient Judo fighter can be demoralizing for one thing. If you have a strong Judo back ground you are immediately at an advantage over other guys. You can take them down at will and gain an attractive starting point from where you can work your jiu jitsu.

If you don't believe it, test yourself against a black belt in Judo or master Sambo practitioner. If you stand with these guys, it will take them less then a minute to through you to the ground so if you never trained in this, take a grip and fall down.

Your opponents however may not want to collapse or jump into guard and here you may find the difficulty. Failing to jump into guard you may already be at a disadvantage facing a judo player.

Practice both. There is a lot to learn from Judo players even though some of the techniques you may need to modify. Guys like Jacare were so successful because not only they had amazing BJJ but also they could hold their own standing.

Draculino Demonstration

2010-06-09T07:50:00.000-07:00

Draculino is an absolute legend in the BJJ World and one of the top names in Gracie Barra. His technique is flawless and learning from him is a real privlege for anyone.

Those of us that do not have the opportunity to train with him at Gracie Barra Texas can still enjoy his new instructional website or just take a look at some of the videos on youtube with him.

Here is one of the best technique demonstrations I was able to find on youtube. Draculino not only demontrates ground fighting techniques here but also shows the whole transition from standing to submission on the ground which I think is particularly valuable. The volume of techniques shown in this demo is also impressive.

I have to say I am doing well with the technique where you attempt the kimura from side control, trap the arm and then turn into taking the back. Draculio shows this technique in several of his videos and I have to say that this is a real high percentage move once you gain side control, so practice it and get better.

Wrestling, MMA, BJJ Near Me

2010-06-07T07:38:00.000-07:00

Ok, I have to say that it is extremely exciting to find out that there is a new MMA/BJJ/Wrestling club opening near me in the UK. (West Sussex)

Sounds like there is plenty of opportunities to improve wrestling, MMA and BJJ. I am more and more interested in improving my takedowns and for this I have really wanted to focus on my wrestling. This is a great opportunity therefore and I will definitely go there in september when I visit.

Just look at the top MMA guys out there that have been dominating the UFC. GSP, Rashad Evans, Brock Lesnar,,, then you have King Mo Lawal in Strikeforce. Just shows that if you have a great takedown, that is a really great start.

I'm really more focused on my Gi game but wrestling and leg takedowns are really important to me since I want to have the ability to take my opponent down at will. My jiu jitsu is rapidly evolving with training and this is something I have really wanted to improve.

Check the club website here

Wrestling goes extremely well with your BJJ and Judo especially if you are interested in grappling or no-gi. Free style wrestling improves your takedowns and takedown defense and I think a really strong, confident takedown can give you the edge that you really need in competition and you can at the very least get 2 points and demoralize your opponent a little bit.

Roger Gracie takes the absolute BJJ Worlds for the 3rd time!

2010-06-07T00:13:00.001-07:00

Roger Gracie is an incredible competitor. He always goes for the submission and his skills are god-like. The BJJ Worlds 2010 has confirmed this once again.

Check out the results here

Roger is simply unstoppable and now the greatest ever in jiu jitsu. Watch the clip below.

Taking the back is actually one of my favourite moves in BJJ as well. Its just such a great position to be in if you can maintain it and attack your opponent at the same time.

Roger is really the man and someone we should all be looking upto when it comes to BJJ. Some of the guys out there have really great takedowns and that Ricardo Demente guy is a real rising star it looks like. Roger is really head and shoulders above them all technique wise though. I am definitely going to visit his academies when I come to London next.

Brock Lesnar vs Shane Carwin

2010-06-06T23:01:00.000-07:00

July 3 2010 will be an important day for MMA that will determine who is the top dog in the heavyweight division in the UFC and in my opinion, in the world too. Shane Carwin will collide with Brock Lesnar in UFC 116 in the main event in one of the most anticipated bouts of the year.

Don't miss it. I know I won't and check out the trailer too. See below:

Official card

Main card
Heavyweight Championship bout: Brock Lesnar (c) vs Shane Carwin
Middleweight bout: Chris Leben vs. Yoshihiro Akiyama
Welterweight bout: Chris Lytle vs. Matt Brown
Light Heavyweight bout: Krzysztof Soszynski vs. Stephan Bonnar
Lightweight bout: George Sotiropoulos vs. Kurt Pellegrino

Preliminary card (Spike TV)
Heavyweight bout: Brendan Schaub vs. Chris Tuchscherer
Middleweight bout: Kendall Grove vs. Goran Reljic

Preliminary card
Middleweight bout: Gerald Harris vs. Dave Branch
Welterweight bout: Daniel Roberts vs. Julio Paulino
Heavyweight bout: Jon Madsen vs. Karlos Vemola

I really believe Shane Carwin is going to take this fight but he will need to use all the skill that he has. The fight for sure is going to end in a knock out and both of these guys have powerful hands.

What really Shane should do is to keep this fight standing, use some of his power striking when he breaks the clinch and take down Lesnar if possible.

If Lesnar takes this fight to the ground however, I think it would be better to stand up rather then go for any submission against him. I still think it would be possible to catch him but it would be risky as Lesnar can easily catch you on the ground with some power strikes to the head and he also has great control as we have seen in the last Frank Mir fight.

Wanderlei Silva is out with an injury last minute and has been replaced by Chris Leben.

Plenty of fireworks in the main event but the rest of the card is not exciting in my opinion unless you are a great fan of some of these other guys which I am not.

Ultimate Fighter TV Series

2010-06-06T10:19:00.001-07:00

I heard about the TV series for a while now but did not really get a chance to watch it. This weekend however I watched Season 1 and I have to say it is much better then I ever expected. The quality of the production is great and you get to see some fights with Kenny Florian, Diego Sanchez and Forrest Griffin before they became famous in the UFC. The coaches are Chuck Liddell and Randy Couture with Dana White regularly featuring so its pretty great. Really enjoyed it.

The show is entertaining most of the time. The beginning part, the build up to fights and the fights themselves I think are the most exciting. You get a little bit bored with their physical team exercises that have them compete and I would rather see them show some of their favourite moves, or see them sparring on the ground against someone famous.

I think there is so much that they can do to make this show interesting that they should do well for a long time.

Rio Sports Tour BJJ Camp - Girls Only

2010-06-03T10:31:00.001-07:00

Rio Sports Tour is constantly organizing new camps in Rio for training and now it looks like Leticia Ribeiro is running a camp there soon.

Check out the video below:

She truly is the one of the best female bjj players around today. I am sure some of us guys would love to go too of course! :)

Here is the link to the Rio Sports Tour website by the way : http://riosportstour.com/

I was thinking to come when I save up enough money but for a couple years I think I won't be able to visit. The previous camps I am sure have went very well looking at their testimonials so if you really do have a chance to go I am sure it is awesome. By the way, if you can, bring a friend or even a group. More fun that way for sure.

Fedor Next Fight Poll Closed!

2010-06-01T23:18:00.001-07:00

So it looks like after 85 votes we can really get a sense who the fans want Fedor to fight next. Everyone's impression has been confirmed.

I have the greatest respect for Fabricio Werdum. He is one of the jiu jitsu greats and his stand up is rapidly improving as we saw in the Antonio Silva fight.

Nevertheless, MMA is NOT jiu jitsu as many jiu jitsu guys would like to believe, and at this game Fedor who is ranked #1 in the world should be fighting someone in the top-5. His contract does not allow him to do so and some of the fans would like to see him fight at least a decent opponent.

I therefore took some top-10 heavyweights in the world and put together a poll to give us all a chance to see who really is the fighter that Fedor should face next.

My view of course is that he should fight the best. The UFC wants to sign Fedor and it is the organization that has the top fighters. Fedor cannot hope to stay at the top defending his record against barely top-10 opponents.

Alistair Overeem's display of skills against Brett Rogers was impressive but is he really a top-5 fighter? It looks like a portion of the fans will settle for second best and have Overeem vs Fedor but the fight that everyone really wants to see (apart from M1-Global) is Fedor vs Lesnar. Make it happen Vadim!

If Shane Carwin (undefeated) goes in and KOs Lesnar, we could have a new #1 ranked heavyweight very soon. A win over Werdum would prove little for Fedor on the other hand.

No Visa - No BJJ Comp

2010-06-01T00:56:00.001-07:00

I am sad to report that despite living for more than 10 years in the UK, I have missed the Gracie Invitational and Seni 2010 due to problems with issuing a VISA.

Its time to get rid of VISA's and let people that want to compete, do so. Not only are VISA's expensive, the UK and the EU just doesn't gain any additional security by having them. Time to have a competitive economy and attract people to live here, spend money and generate taxable income. There is not other way.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/10166837.stm

The Wristlock from the Closed Guard

2010-05-26T07:19:00.001-07:00

I am trying constantly to develop my game, selecting techniques that really work for me and practicing them in a competition setting.

When I look at techniques that I really want to use, I look for two kinds of factors. i) how much they put me at risk i.e. if I fail to carry out a technique, what will this lead to? will I get submitted myself if I fail? will I get mounted?

The reasons why I love the back grab from north south is because it is effective, it gives me plenty of choices and a chance to get another 4 points in a match. If I fail, I still have a decent chance securing the mount or at least the cross body.

ii) the second thing is of course how effective the technique is. Of course if you practice a single technique over and over, you will get better, but I prefer to have a set of techniques for every position which I are already well-practiced by me. You don't want to try a new technique in competition.

There are techniques which are more effective for you. I personally love going for the kimura, especially from the guard but also from cross body or north south. Very often I can recover my position from the kimura and there is very little I lose.

Now one technique that I recently been thinking about however is the wristlock from the guard. The closed guard is kind of a safe place to be if you are on the bottom as long as you can keep your opponent off balance and from passing your guard. There are some moves that really expose you while others are really safe.

Moves that I consider relatively safe and want to develop are things like the basic cross choke. You don't open your guard and if you can secure the under arm hold or a brabo choke, you are safe if your opponent powers out because you are still in guard and you start over trying something else.

To add to this one, I am thinking about the wristlock. Of course I think it takes a lot of practice but it is worth exploring. The opponent very often does not expect it and in many schools the wristlocks are very often overlooked.

At the same time wristlocks in the adult divisions are permitted from white belt level unlike leg locks for example so you can start developing wrist locks from your closed guard right from the beginning.

Scissor Sweep

2010-05-25T04:48:00.001-07:00

The scissor sweep is probably the first sweep from the guard that every beginner learns when he first comes to a bjj academy.

I have to say I love this move because it is so effective against most beginners and sometimes intermediate level guys.

Often of course it does not work perfectly since the guys often have a very good base and understand this move very well. Opponents that are heavy are of course good at using the opportunity to pass the guard.

The scissor sweep I understand is always criticized for being one of these moves that only works on beginners, but I think it is always worth exploring your opponents base and taking advantage when he is off balance to try to go for a submission like the triangle from there.

My personal favourite is kind of a modified scissor sweep where you try to push away your opponent's leg which he uses to stabilize himself. Alternatively you can underhook your own leg under his and take advantage to take him off balance to the other side. I have found that this one does not always work however.

If you have a great defensive guard then I think you should always be able to recover your guard if the move does not work and then go for something else.

The hip bump sweep and the flower are two alternative sweeps which I try to use but these are harder to implement in my personal experience. The hip bump depends on how tied up you are and you really need to find the timing. In a no-gi situation I have had better success with the hip bump becuase your opponent cannot control you as much and make sure your back remains on the ground.

So go for the scissor sweep first. If it does not work and your opponent keeps his base, look for the submission. Check out the armbar here http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=9042427621842584977#

If that fails recover back to closed guard and try something else.

Judo and jiu jitsu are similar I think in one thing. Both standing and on the ground, your opponent will proceed to try to defend against any technique you will do and therefore it is a combination of techniques and how well you can do it that is going to make the difference.

The scissor sweep on its own may not work but if this is your position from which you regularly work from, then you will practice regularly a combination of moves which will give you a game that will allow you to be prepared from any situation.

If you take the scissor sweep, all too often your opponent will try to defend by stabilizing his base and then trying to pass your guard. Consider how you would counter this situation and practice it over and over again.

One option could be to stay in control and proceed to pull your opponent into a loop choke as you can see below:

Too many times you see the loop choke being performed with rolling but this is a more simple variation which is more practical I think and has been performed successfully at a higher level. The key I understand is not to make the grip too deep as this will not allow you to gain the appropriate position to make the hold tight enough to submit your opponent.

Taking the Back

2010-05-25T02:23:00.001-07:00

Reaching the back mount is a really important part of my game. Position before submission is my moto as well and if you can pass the guard and then achieve back mount that really puts you in the lead for points.

The back mount for me is also a great position to be in terms of attack vs defense. You can continue looking for the submission and rest while your opponent is a bit demoralized. When you lose the position, very often you still achieve mount, which is a great place to be for a down-side scenario.

There are many ways of achieving back mount from a whole variety of positions: from cross body, guard, half guard... to name a few.

Below is a video that I have found on youtube with the new generation of Gracies demonstrating another variation of achieving back mount from the closed guard.

(well, it seems to me if you can't secure the arm at the last moment, this one maybe quite difficult to accomplish but a Gracie from the academy replied to my post on youtube that it can be done effectively so I will just have to practice it more and see) If I am not mistaken, Rener Gracie is demonstrating the technique in this video.

Taking the back is an important element of the positional game and in my opinion it is also worth thinking about how you can transition to the back from the half guard, perhaps one of the most common positions which you typically end up in, trying to defend so your guard is not passed.

Below is one of the best videos I have seen on this subject.

Of course the video also shows quite a few other ways to reverse the position and attack your opponent which need to be mastered. Right now I am working on trying out some of the Rigan Machado techniques he demonstrates in one of his DVD sets and really enjoying it.

As I train with guys that I close to my level in terms of technical knowledge of jiu jitsu, the more I see that I need to improve my technique and think about where the holes in my game are which I need to improve in order to win fights. Very often I actually find myself in the half guard either on the bottom struggling to defend or on top struggling to pass and this is what I am working on now. The gi game is so technical and allows you to use so many different techniques that it takes a lot of mat time to master but this is what everyone of us has to give in order to gain the knowledge and grow.

Check out the detail in transitioning to the back from half guard here from the Yamasaki BJJ school.

Lastly, Rubens Charles Cobrinha (4x BJJ World Champ) and Romero Jacare Cavalcante demonstrate how to take the back. Instructions from the greatest stars from Alliance

Finally I found this video as well about taking the back from the guard which looks very good. Taking the back from the guard is not an easy task when you are fighting against an experienced opponent with a good base but I think this one is doable if you can stay really tight and focus on not allowing the guy to get back upright.

For more on taking the back videos check here

Journey to Blue Belt

2010-05-25T00:34:00.001-07:00

The Blue Belt is the first grade in jiu jitsu and perhaps one of the most sought after. One of the first things white belts aim to get is not success in competition but the blue belt actually. Of course it is not the belt itself that people seek but the level of technical proficiency that the blue belt represents.

What I think is important however is to focus first on being a great white belt. First try to be the best white belt that you can be.

At the start of your journey you will tap and lose to everyone. Even white belts that have gone to a few classes, but with time this will change. The initial improvement in jiu jitsu can be very quick and soon you will tap newcomers to the sport with armbars and triangles yourself, passing their guard and mounting them since they do not even have a vague understanding of the concepts.

Once this stage has passed, there will be a group of guys that have been going to classes for several months now, all still white belts but already dedicated to develop the skills further.

You should focus on developing your technique and at some stage you see that your technique allows you to overcome these beginners who already know something about the basics of jiu jitsu.

Once you are regularly tapping many of the newcomers, its time to test yourself in competition. You may have six months or more experience on the mat nad this time you get to test yourself against similar white belts in a competition setting.

Winning in a division with 20 or so guys demonstrates that you are a quality white belt, that you have mastered well the techniques of jiu jitsu.

The last test at white belt once you have accomplished something in competition is to test yourself against bigger guys. At your academy you are bound to find guys that are bigger than you and are still at white belt. Choose some guys that maybe 15-20 pounds heavier than you and test your skills in this case.

You will be at a weight and size disadvantage but this is exactly what you want. You want to test not you strength or athletic ability but your jiu jitsu. If you can sweep several guys that are 20 pounds heavier than you, then this should tell you that your technique is working.

This is a way of progression that I see in jiu jitsu. It is based on where you are relative to fighters of the same grade. The more often you train, the faster you will progress and develop you defensive and attacking game.

UFC 116 - Terrible card apart from the main event

2010-05-21T06:04:00.001-07:00

They have got to be kidding us if they think we are going to pay for such a card. Brock Lesnar and Carwin everyone wants to see, but Wandy does not qualify for a co-main event. The rest of the fights are for the undercard. Seriously, well done to Scott Coker. Strikeforce does make better cards and the fights are far more exciting. No one wants this garbage.

Preliminary Bouts:

Jon Madsen vs. Karlos Vemola
Daniel Roberts vs. Julio Paulino
Julio Paulino vs. Daniel Roberts
Jacob Volkmann vs. Paul Kelly
Goran Reljic vs.Kendall Grove
Brendan Schaub vs. Chris Tuchscherer

Main Bouts:

Kurt Pellegrino vs. George Sotiropoulos
Krzysztof Soszynski vs. Stephan Bonnar
Matt Brown vs. Chris Lytle
Wanderlei Silva vs. Yoshihiro Akiyama
Shane Carwin (UFC Interim Heavyweight Champion) vs. Brock Lesnar (UFC Heavyweight Champion)

How long to get a BJJ Blue Belt?

2010-05-20T05:55:00.001-07:00

Brazilian jiu jitsu is a martial art that takes a lot of practice and a lot of dedication. Unlike many other martial arts where you go to a grading and just display some techniques, in jiu jitsu you really have to earn your belt with plenty of hours on the mat.

The more often you train the faster you will likely progress. With 2 sessions a week it will probably take you over two years to get it but if you train say 4-5 times a week, you progress will be much faster.

BJJ blue belts vary in skill level enormously. Some guys on the mat will be the newly graduated, 2-years into jiu jitsu guys with plenty of holes still to get rid of.
On the other hand there are some guys who have spent years and years as blue belts, perfecting their technique, competing regularly and training intensively in order to perfect the skills. Some of these guys may already be at a purple belt level but are still training and competing under blue.

Draculino talks a bit about this. When he was winning and competing with his blue belt, he was already beating brown belts in his academy and I think this just shows how varied the skills levels can be.

There are two other things I wanted to mention about promotion:

1. When you do get the next belt, especially blue belt, it becomes a time when all the white belts focus on you, focus on beating you. Yesterday I went to a different BJJ club and literally there were 30 or 35 white belts and no one else. I was the only blue belt there and since no one knew me, they all wanted to try sparring with me.

When you become blue belt, every white belt wants to try and win in sparring so I think it changes everything for you. When I was a white belt, I loved sparring with blue belts and submitting them. When I became the blue belt, I became the target of the white belts.

2. Competition: when you become a great white belt, this is the time for competition. Any time soon you are going to be promoted to blue belt and once you get the blue belt, its going to be much harder for you to compete because the blue belts competing have years and years of experience and likely far more technical skill than you at this point. So take your time with each belt, first enjoy sparring in class, sparring against guys your level now, above and below and once you feel that you are up for promotion again, go compete and prove your are great at the belt you are at before you go up!

Enjoy the belt you have and your time will eventually come when you will be promoted. In the end, it is your skills that matter so focus on perfecting them but investing in mat time.

Jiu Jitsu - Train More

2010-05-20T00:59:00.001-07:00

The thing with jiu jitsu is that the only way to get better is to train more. Training more though does not mean violently sparring with everyone in your gym three times a week and getting injured every other month.

The way to train is to train often, focus on technique and add weight training when possible. You want to train your cardio as much as possible but also you have got to focus on stay away from injury and on the mats practicing as much as possible.

When sparring, I think it is optimal to give it your 60% of strengh and effort. Focus on technique though. Look for openings and go for a better position. Look to take the back of your opponent, look for the submission but in any case control the fight.

The thing I hate the most is those crazy sparring fights when the whole fight is just scrambling from one position to the next. Avoid this. I enjoy the gi game. Securing some nice grips and working to pass the guard, but then also controlling the opponent and not letting him do what he wants.

When you see the big jiu jitsu guys at the worlds, you notice how calm and calculated they are. Speed is good but you want to focus on control and technique.

Fedor vs Werdum

2010-05-18T00:49:00.001-07:00

ground. The guy has really improved his striking since fighting Nogueira and on the ground I think he could really control the fight.

People keep saying that noone can submit Fedor and that Fedor can submit anyone, but really who has he submitted that was so amazing? Randelman, Coleman, Hong Man Choi, Sylvia ... all guys who are blue belts at best in BJJ.

Fedor is good on the ground, but when you have a guy on par with the skills of Ricardo Arona, you will see Werdum taking Fedor's back, taking mount and in these situations Fedor is going to use all his skills.

The other thing is that if you look at the photos, Fedor is not in the best shape of his life. He visibly is slower then three years ago and I think the Brett Rogers fight showed a lot of wholes where Werdum could play.

Fabricio is also taller and a very well conditioned fighter. He can go the full three rounds and unless Fedor pulls out another KO which I think would be hard to do, then the fight is going to the ground.

For Werdum, I can see him working on putting Fedor on his back and from there it could get really interesting.

There is so much media attention out ther about Fedor not fighting the top competition and they are right. Fighting Werdum is really a waste. If Fedor wants to fight two time a year, he has to fight only the best.

However looking at Fedor's conditioning and at Werdum's skill on the ground, I believe people are in for a surprise. I am going to really enjoy Fabricio both in striking and on the

Fedor is not really a guard player and I have always noticed that his ground game is very judo-like. He has excellent submissions but his positional game is not good. Fedor passes the guard mainly using his effective ground and pound but you could see that he has trouble taking the mount. (look at Cro Cop or Mark Hunt fights).

I think it is still a decent fight, just not for a fighter who is ranked #1 thats all. I think the poll supports my view.

Strikeforce Heavy Artillery - Great Success

2010-05-17T00:34:00.001-07:00

I don't think there is an event this year that can even compare itself with Strikeforce Heavy Artillery. The fight card was great, the action was great, the commentary was poor as tradition but then you can't have it all.

Overeem is a beast, he looks on top form, at his peak and Vadim should be even more afraid then he was before. They don't want him to fight Fedor because look at him. He made Brett Rogers look like a child.

Respect to Brett Rogers, but he really needs to get in the gym. He has been exposed as a novice and he really needs to get his wrestling going and submissions too. He seemed to just collapse and then on the ground he looked even worse. Hard training is the only way to get better.

Jacare is the new golden boy of Strikeforce and he really deserves to be. He is such a great talent but also a really hard worker. He is really getting those takedowns but also landing the accurate strikes.

Andrei Arlovski just does not look like himself anymore. He did look slow and not controlling the action at all. Antonio Silva was not threatened even for a minute there. Something needs to change.

I like Andrei, but all this stuff on youtube he does it is just over the top. You look the way he trains and then you look how Brock Lesnar trains. You can then see why Brock is the HW UFC Champion and Andrei is on the way down in Strikeforce.

Roger Gracie I enjoyed a lot in the cage. The guy basically didn't do much MMA preparation, just jiu jitsu but I loved the way he delivered those jabs on Kevin. In the end I would have loved to see some more ground work but still it was cool. Kevin did the right thing trying to avoid going to the ground but it was going to happen eventually.

Great event, thank you Scott Coker!

Shogun, is he one of the top pound for pound fighters?

2010-05-15T11:21:00.001-07:00

I think the thing is that MMA especially at the top level is extremely demanding and not only physically. Guys like Anderson Silva, GSP, Fedor and BJ Penn indeed have managed to accumulate great records but there are many explanations. There are so many factors are at work.

The important thing is that Shogun took the UFC LHW title. He is no doubt the number 1 light heavyweight in the world. The pound for pound rating has no value in reality. Shogun accomplished an enormous amount and will now make a lot of money for sure.

What is now interesting is how well his career is going to go. He has some very tough competition in his own division including Rashad Evans and Rampage coming up. Shogun does not need to use much jiu jitsu, striking will make the difference here. Couture I don't think is any threat either.

The really exciting fight that it would be really exciting to see is the fight with Anderson Silva. Shogun is one of the few that has the stand up to take Silva on. UFC should really make this fight happen.

Strikeforce Heavy Artillery Showcase for Brazilian Jiu Jitsu

2010-05-12T03:36:00.001-07:00

Wrestling has really done so well in the UFC, particularly with the dominance of powerful wrestlers in the heavyweight division, that some have even started to discount brazilian jiu jitsu in favor of boxing and wrestling.

This weekend we will have an opportunity to see some huge BJJ stars, demonstrating what they are capable of in the cage.

Firstly we will see Roger Gracie, perhaps the best grappler and jiu jitsu player ever, testing himself against the well-known but at the end of his career Kevin Randelman.

Roger will have to make sure he does not get knocked out by "the Monster" who is known to be a hard puncher, knocking out Mirko Cro Cop back in the days of Pride.

Nevertheless, it is certain that Kevin will be no match for Gracie on the ground. I can see Roger going for the RNC choke after taking the back or doing his classic armbar from the guard which he used to submit Ron Waterman.

The fight really puts Roger on the map in Strikeforce and I agree with observers who see Roger on a fast track to meet with Mousasi, Sobral and King Mo Lawal.

Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza, who is scheduled to meet the very tough Joey Villaseñor will likely be no less exciting and I can see this fighting being more competitive.

Joey has good hands and it will be a task for him to keep the alligator at bay which may be tough to do considering Souza's great takedown ability both from the top and bottom.

On the ground, there is no doubt that Jacare will dominate anyone in his division and I think it is only time before he comes in to face Henderson or Mayhem Miller.

One of the main reasons in fact for Jake Shields to leave the UFC right now is Ronaldo Jacare. Following the win over Henderson, Jake Shields is in a great bargaining position with the UFC. Better than every before.

At the same time in Strikeforce there is a high probability that Shields will lose. Having delivered a less than stellar performance against Miller, nearly getting submitted in the process, Jake Shields will most likely have difficulty delivering a win against Ronaldo Jacare. Jake is simply not at this level in grappling. He has great takedowns, but once he is on the ground, he will likely get submitted by a guy that has overwhelming technique from the top and bottom.

Watch the trailer below:

Shogun Rua Defeats Machida!

2010-05-09T13:42:00.001-07:00

Shogun is an incredible fighter. His jiu jitsu is great, he did amazing things in Pride and now he has taken the UFC belt after such a struggle with health.

Having gone through some ups and downs with health myself, I really see how well he has done and I see that he has put in a lot of work to get back in the ring. Mr. Anderson Silva should be the next opponent. Thats what everyone wants to see. Well done to him!

How Many Lessons a Week Does Your Academy Offer?

2010-05-06T07:28:00.001-07:00

A real issue I think for many training a bit more seriously in BJJ is how many sessions per week does you academy offer. My BJJ academy for example only offers 3 lessons per week which for some may be fine but for many this may not be enough.

Unless you are studying at a really big jiu jitsu academy which has five or more sessions per week, you may want to or have to cross train.

Right now I am cross training in Judo (2 sessions per week) in addition to my jiu jitsu/grappling (3 sessions per week). Three sessions a week is kind of the minimum I think if you want to progress reasonably fast and therefore I think this is a real issue for some of us.

What worries me is in fact that too many academies now look to satisfy not high level jiu jitsu fighters but MMA fans. They add boxing and muay thai instead of adding more hours for BJJ guys devoted to instruction. Unfortunately this is an issue. Some of the guys could devote more time to BJJ but the academy does not offer this and private lessons may be expensive or not convenient. This is I think a problem bearing in mind.

Devoted BJJ guys that want to grow need long sessions, lots of technical practice and sparring and more hours on the mats. Academies cannot afford to instead opt to offer other martial arts just because its suits better the demand. My opinion

Grappling Proves MMA Wrong

2010-05-04T00:07:00.001-07:00

While it has been virtually accepted that to win an MMA fight against the best you have to be a well-rounded fighter, today guys with great grappling continue to prove people wrong.

Grappling is a difficult and sophisticated art to master. The ADCC, the Abu Dhabi Submission Wrestling World Championships is the biggest event in the sport so far but it is clear that there are few who can deliver an all rounded game in grappling.

Grappling seems to have two crucial elements. The first is takedowns. Takedowns are critical in an MMA fight, but in grappling they can mean the difference between winning and losing against a strong jiu jitsu player. Freestyle wrestlers perhaps have the best takedowns in the sport. UFC fighters like Brock Lesnar, Velasquez, Matt Hughes, GSP and many others have shown that their ability to take down their opponents makes them superior fighters.

Jiu jitsu is the second part of grappling however. If you have great takedowns, you also need to pass the guard and submit your opponent. Most wrestlers who for the first time meet a jiu jitsu fighter struggle here. Jiu jitsu guys are phenomenal fighting from the guard and their amazing guard retention makes it difficult not only to escape every submission attempt but also to get anywhere from there.

Judo is a great takedown martial art but it is mainly a gi-focused art. Judo without the gi can be difficult to do when you have a freestyle wrestler facing you who is looking for a single or double leg.

Don't get me wrong. I am a great fan of the gi game and Judo, but to be successful in grappling you need to have a great takedown defense. You have to defend a single leg and counter yourself and I think Judo does not prepare you in this case.

Jake Shields is a great example of a guy that is not the king of grappling but has mastered it well enough to cause trouble for guys even as good as Dan Henderson. You can't submit Henderson but he has shown that you can consistently take him down, pass his guard and cause trouble. This is something that GSP has managed to do in his division as well.

Other guys like Frank Mir and even Shinya Aoki have shown the opposite. Their wrestling is poor and they try to rely on unorthodox and less effective takedowns . Once they are on the ground, they can do their magic, but without a good takedown they are not going to win the match against a great striker and here is the great flaw.

Jake Shields I think just proves how effective grappling is though. Dan Henderson was so much better at the strand up striking game but by setting up his takedowns and getting the fight to the ground Shields managed to defend his title against a guy that was highly favoured to win and who seemed a lot bigger and more powerful than him.

Taking the Back

2010-05-03T01:17:00.001-07:00

One of the major principles of brazilian jiu jitsu is position before submission. Your ability to take the back of your opponent from different positions can mean all the difference in sparring and competition.

There are so many ways of taking the back of your opponent and sometimes he may give his back to you especially if you have already mounted him, but most of the time you have to work to get it.

Below are some clips that I found on youtube on taking the back. The first one, taking the back from north south is a move that I think is fundamental to BJJ.

Now check out this video of a gi match between a judoka and Leo Viera (BJJ World Champ). Watch the beautiful back take by Viera 1:00.

Watch Mundials Live For Free

2010-04-17T00:34:00.001-07:00

Check it out. Budovideos.com give us the BJJ Worlds 2010 live. This is the most important jiu jitsu event of the year and you have to be there, watch it and experience it. More to follow

Blog Poll Results Review - Who Fedor Should Fight

2010-04-16T04:55:00.001-07:00

It looks like out of the 58 votes made so far, the result is obvious. Even though some of us truly believe that Fedor does not have to join the UFC and trade Vadim Finkelstein for Dana White, 50% of you believe Fedor should fight Brock Lesnar.

Brock Lesnar is the #2 fighter in the world. He is the UFC champion, champion of the organization that has four out of five top heavyweights in the world. Brock is also as many say a great big threat to Fedor and M1 Global/Vadim Finkelstein.

The second most popular vote is Alistair Overeem and I am not surprised. Overeem is in Strikeforce and wants to fight Fedor. He also challenges Fedor and says his management have been evading him. Why? Because they are genuinely worried Fedor may actually lose to this guy vs. Fabricio Werdum who most agree does not have the skill set to defeat Fedor.

If you try to be objective about this, the following logic clearly does not work. Vadim Finkelstein keeps saying that he would rather have Fedor fight Barnett then Overeem. Why? Because Overeem is a "steroid bully". But the argument breaks down when he says that he would rather have Fedor face Barnett. But Barnett can't fight in the US because of steroid abuse. It is very convenient also because this way Fedor can't fight neither Barnett or Overeem. Huh!

The truth is though, if Overeem is not a candidate, then Fedor will fight someone not in the top-10. Antonio Silva does not deserve to fight Fedor and there is no one else. All the top fighters are in the UFC and Fedor has to go there.

BJJ Belts

2010-04-15T01:06:00.001-07:00

For those that love jiu jitsu, belts are not so important I think. It takes time and hard work and eventually we may get there. Progress is the most important and if you are doing well on the mats, then you are getting better. If you are winning competitions in your category, this means you are training hard and are making progress. Belts themselves is just appreciation from your teacher I guess.

I like the statistic or guesstimate from the Draculino blog though:

"Of all the white belts that start 15-20% of those will make it to the blue belt.
Of that 15-20% that make it to blue, about 10% will stay until purple.
Those people that make it to purple, 15-20% will go on to brown.
If you make it brown most of those people reach the black belt."

So there you have it. If you take the lower figures, you get 15% x 10% x 15% = 0.2% make it to brown belt and probably black belt. So for every 1000 people that walk in to the gym and take some training, only 2 guys make it to brown or black belt. That just shows how much dedication is required.

BJJ Training Injuries

2010-04-15T00:56:00.001-07:00

When you start training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, you feel like you can sprint it. I am sure that some of us really can do it. I tried to do it myself. Training six-seven times a week will benefit your skills no doubt and there is nothing that will improve your technique more than mat time.

Neverthless I recommend to all to supplmenent your jiu jitsu with weight training and rest. Your body (at least mine) cannot take so much exercise without take risk of injury and injury can really hurt.

I had surgery on my shoulder. The total time away from training was about 10-11 months. If only I did more exercises and strengthened my shoulders, I feel that there was no need for this injury to happen in the first place.

If you are in pain, don't go training. Rest, take time off. If the pain stops, go to the gym and do some passive exercises to strengthen areas of your body. If you shoulder is in pain, the worst thing you can do to it is to go training and tear something in a sparring match. There is no need for this. If you have to train and the pain is minimal, train gently, focus on technique. If you have to do sparring, do it in a controlled manner, lose if you have to but don't use your strength.

There are some exercises like the omoplata and kimura that can get your shoulder injured if it was in pain before you even came to training. Be aware of this. Injury is something that can be avoided.

There are also some creams that I can recommend you use. They basically warm up the muscles of your body and help prevent injury.

The only person that can help prevent injury is you. Wear knee pads when training. I wear gum shield as well. You don't want to go to the dentist and it is expensive. It is no likely that you will hurt your teeth but it can happen.

Vadim Finkelstein and MMA

2010-04-14T23:22:00.000-07:00

There are many controversial personalities in the young sport of MMA that is only starting to evolve and is growing in many countries from USA to Japan and as far away from Brazil as Russia. Dana White and the UFC have secured their dominance in the US market and are now expanding abroad while the old Pride remains have risen to form the organization that is now known as Dream FC that features some of the old greats like Sakuraba and Yoshida as well as the new breed of fighters like Gegard Mousasi and Shinya Aoki.

Fedor Emelianenko is a phenomenon that appeared in the late Rings promotion fights and then exploded on to the Pride arena defeating the likes of Nogueira and Mirko Cro Cop among others in a colourful career that lasted between 2000-2005. Those were the years when Vadim Finkelstein took over the management of Fedor and the troubles really began to emerge.

Late into this part of Fedor's career it became clear that the talent of the Pride Heavyweight Champion is phenomenal but also that the team around hin are careful in selecting fights, often choosing to mix it with some weaker, one-dimensional and clearly underdog opponents. October 2005 marked the end of this part of the career and started to be a stage for Fedor's domination of underdog fighters who had no business fighting the best fighter in the world at the time. After the victory over Mirko that year, Fedor fought Zuluzhinho and later defeated Mark Coleman for the second time.

Pride was clearly in its final months of existance and it is understandable that a weaker opponent can sometimes be chosen to please the fans that may demand a show such as Zuluzhinho. There was no such popular support however for Zulu or Mark and therefore there was no logic to this fight.

If you take March 2006 Heavyweight Rankings, under Mirko and Nogueira there was Andrei Arlovski, Kharitonov, Aleks Emelianenko and Fabricio Werdum, all of which were great fighters that Fedor could have met. Instead he chose to fight Zuluzhinho and Mark Coleman.

In February 2007, the top ranked were again Fedor, Cro Cop and Nogueira but under them the positions changed. Josh Barnett, Tim Sylvia, Brandon Vera and Arlovski featured as the next best. Who did Fedor fight? He fought Mark Hunt and Matt Lindland. At the time MMA Ranks.com rated Hunt as #1 fighter in the Super Heavyweight Division that does not exist. Moreover Hunt did not achieve anything special to justify such a position in the rankings. Matt Lindland was a middleweight ranked number eight in the world. Hardly someone who should have been fighting against apparently the greatest heavyweight in the world.

The contrast is all the more visible when you look at the guys that Mirko Cro Cop fought during these two years. Firstly he defeated the highly rated Josh Barnett who featured #3 in the world in 2007 and thereafter signed with the UFC to face Eddie Sanchez and Gabriel Gonzaga.

Fedor's opponents the following years were no more impressive perhaps except Arlovski who still featured as a top fighter in the rankings. The win over Rogers, although impressive, was not a top-10 win, not nearly.

Vadim Finkelstein in this played a decisive role. His demands for co-promotion with Bodog left him unsatisfied and when Affliction came along, he took this as his moment to convert Fedor's image into cash flow for M1, which is what he did, but the scheme would not last.

The economics of co-promotion with M1 simply does not make any sense and while Fedor can be marketed to the US audiences with moderate success in Strikeforce, gap in the quality of opponents raises serious questions whether Fedor legitimately can be considered the number one heavyweight in the world not to mention pound best.

If Fedor and Vadim Finkelstein really want to fight, and make fights that the fans want to see, then they need to sign with the UFC. The best fighters are there and people don't want to see Werdum or Rogers fight Fedor. They want to see Lesnar vs Fedor badly. Thats what Vadim needs to give to the fans. Here is a link to the poll on who Fedor should fight next.

My Top 10 To Beat Fedor in MMA

2010-04-13T07:53:00.001-07:00

1. Brock Lesnar - the guy is too big and too fast. Lesnar will take Fedor down with ease and deliver damage that will be difficult to recover from. M1 are scared of this dude.

2. Shane Carwin - Fedor has fought none that have his style. Fedor fought Mark Coleman but I challenge anyone to say that Mark Coleman can be compared with Shane Carwin in anything other than wrestling abilities.

Carwin will push Fedor against the cage and knock him out within the first round. He is a walking nightmare for M1 Global

3. Junior Dos Santos. The heavyweight with nuclear charged hands that are faster than lightening. Junior Dos Santos is quick and is probably the best striker in the heavyweight division in the world. No one seems to be able to take this guy down.

4. Cain Velasquez. Cain is one of the most hungry MMA fighters of all time. He wants to take the guy down and beat him bad but also can stand and fight with anyone.

5. Lyota Machida - the guy has an awesome stand up. He has also fought at heavyweight and would no doubt give Fedor a lot of trouble.

6. Alistair Overeem. The guy fights weak fighters but is dangerous no doubt. Finkelstein is afraid of this steroid abuser. His face has more muscle than an average man has on his body.

7. Josh Barnett - tough, tough guy who has the tools to take on Fedor.

8. Frank Mir - arrogant but talented. On the ground, I would love to see this fight happen. Frank has little else going for him in the UFC. How about joining Strikeforce and testing himself against Fedor.

9. Roger Gracie - Roger is the greatest submission fighter and jiu jitsu player alive now. If Fedor had trouble against Arona, what would happen if he was to face the best ever.

10. Anderson Silva - he is tall. He cuts from 230. Time to see the idiot Spider face some real competition and make his legacy. I would love to see this fight.

Fedor Emelianenko Ranked Number Four Heavyweight in the World

2010-04-12T05:40:00.001-07:00

Fedor Emelianenko and his M1 friends have been picking fights for years. After a scare with Brett Rogers last November, we have not seen any action apart from endless renegotiating for more money and marketing.

At the end of the day, its not just whether you win or not, but who you fight. You can't just avoid fighting the best for five years and then say you are the best in the world. Hell, I could go and fight some people who have never trained a day in their life and win every time. That does not make me the best in the world.

Look at the poll I have running so far. We have 25 votes of which 60% are for Lesnar and only two votes for Fabricio Werdum. Now I am a huge Fabricio Werdum fan and I would rather see this fight than have Fedor do sparring in Stariy Oskol all summer, but beating Werdum does not make Fedor the best in the world.

You have to fight top-5 ranked fighters regularly to be called the best. I don't care if Fedor fights twice or even once a year. I don't like it but at the end of the day thats what he may want, but to say this crap that the guy is the best in the world when he fights guys like Werdum is still not good enough. Sherdog and other guys must realize this now and make an adjustment. The ratings must not be biased and we need to be fair to every fighter. There must be a fair system based on which a fighter is ranked at a certain spot. If he does not get so many points over a certain period but still wins the fights, he should be moved down.

Say Tim Sylvia was winning each fight but was fighting guys outside the top five all the time. Then you had guys like JDS, Carwin, Lesnar and Velsaquez all winning their fights. Tim Sylvia would still have been champion of UFC if he did not face tough guys like MIr and Fedor included. He stepped up and fought top-5 fighters.

M1-Global can shut up about Fedor being the best if he does not fight the best. When Sherdog and others do move Fedor down, this will benefit MMA enormously. M1 would realize that they cannot carry on the way they do marketing to fans over the world that they have the best fighter. They will have to make a deal. Everyone wants a deal. Dana White does. Vadim does not and this is the problem.

Sherdog Move Fedor Down!!!

SENI 2010 Promotional Videos

2010-04-09T00:53:00.000-07:00

Guys, SENI 2010 promises to be one of the most exciting events that you have to go to if you have a chance. Royce Gracie and Ronaldo Jacare will be there and many more. I am going to go to the Ronaldo Jacare seminar and compete in the Gracie Invatational as well. This is going to be a busy weekend for sure.

Strikeforce Nashville April 17 2010

2010-04-06T23:38:00.000-07:00

Whether you love or hate Strikeforce, there is one thing that one has to admit and that is that they put on great fights. Strikeforce Nashville is going to be one of the most spectacular shows this year with three championship bouts between some of the top rated fighters in the world.

Dan Henderson will have a chance to prove that he is one of the greatest still facing Jake Shields who has been on a winning streak for years, overcoming his opponents with great wrestling and jiu jitsu.

Shinya Aoki will face Gilbert Melendez and here again we will have to see how Aoki can take a well-rounded fighter with striking ability in Melendez. Aoki's judo takedowns and awesome bjj will however no doubt put Melendez in danger.

It is always exciting to see the great champion Gegard Mousasi in action especially against such an athletic and big mouthed US wrestler in Lawal. King Mo will have to show that he is not just a great wrestler with some striking skills but that he can deliver the real deal from all angles of the MMA game.

The bes part about the show of course is that it is actually free on CBS. Watch it live and enjoy the best fighters in the world go head to head.

Here is the trailer below:

Balancing Your Time

2010-04-06T01:34:00.001-07:00

When my Girlfriend/Wife/Partner insists that you make a choice between training 5 times a week or her what is a good way to break the bad news to her?

"Make her feel special when you do it. Let know that she is still the most special thing in your life but tell her you're doing it for her so that she gets the benefits of a tight and tort body, a man who can protect her should the need arise, and that the time you spend away from each other will only serve to show just how much you love her and that you can appreciate the time together more." - Gracie Barra UK Forum

The Fightworks Podcast guys have done really well to cover this subject. Here are some of the relevant links:

http://thefightworkspodcast.com/2009/04/19/161-the-mighty-significant-others-bjj-spouses/

http://thefightworkspodcast.com/2009/11/21/spouse-support-bjj/

Most of us face this problem during some point in your jiu jitsu career. Many of us find it difficult and frustrating, trying to explain why we have to train so much and develop all the time. BJJ is a demanding activity particularly in terms of time. Some of us train a lot but also have other things in life like a full time job and a family and it can be tricky to balance the three.

In my opinion you have to do your best to explain that this is an integral part of your life. The only way to fix the problem is to make compromises. You and your partner may have a lot in common but at the same time there are a lot of interesting things that you may want to do apart.

Both of you will have to make compromises. If you have to go to a competition while on holiday, then pick a good location and take her to the ballet which she would really enjoy too. If you have to go somewhere for BJJ reasons, if you have the option, choose a good location that she would like to visit, in Europe if you don't know they are Paris, Lisabon, Barcelona, London etc ( in this order).

ADCC 2009 in Barcelona was the kind of event which you could go with your family and enjoy the weather, the beach and the attractions. Something for everyone but at the same time you got to see guys like Robert Drysdale, Jacare and Marcelo Garcia in action.

Fedor No Longer Relevant

2010-04-05T06:25:00.001-07:00

Fedor no longer relevant among the top MMA heavyweights! Brock Lesnar #1, Shane Carwin #2, Junior Dos Santos #3 and Cain Velasquez. By deciding to fight fighters outside the top-5 for five years, he has made himself irrelevant in the MMA Heavyweight Division.

Strikeforce's Fabricio Werdum is the last real challenge for the fighter many called the best ever. Fedor could retire today and will probably be called the greatest MMA fighter ever but if he wants to be rated above the fighters mentioned above, he needs to fight top level talent who have both great striking skills and ground game.

The whole world is baffled by Fedor's willingness to stay with M1 Global and not sign with the UFC, an organization that has signed all the top talent that is around today with perhaps the only exception being Gegard Mousasi and Shinya Aoki.

The story with Gegard Mousasi and the visible interaction between Strikeforce and M1 has done a lot to expose Vadim Finkelstein and M1 Global. Many say that Dana White is the most hated personality in mixed martial arts. I strongly disagree. Both Fedor fans, Fedor haters and all the other fans in MMA unite under one flag. They want Fedor to sign with the UFC and they hate M1-Global and its head, Vadim "The Evil" Finkelstein AKA Frankenstein.

Gegard Mousasi is a great fighter who has been missled by the people around him. The most baffling story was him being paid I think like a total of $4000 for his work in the Fedor vs Rogers show. Amazing. You can see that he was not comfortable to discuss this on youtube and was angry with his managers.

Gegard signed up with Red Devil and M1 because he was interested to learn from the best fighter in the world, Fedor Emelianenko. But while he got the benefit of learning from Fedor's experience, he was also taken on by Vadim who knew how to extract the benefit from Mousasi while not paying him what he was due.

Appy Echteld (M1-Global) it turned out, appears to have lied to Gegard about the offer UFC proposed which led him to sign with Strikeforce. The refusal of M1 to give Mousasi a stake in the promotion, led him further away from the Russians and the lies and underpayment in the end pushed him to find another great fighter to learn from and get the true story about the UFC and what they are.

Gegard Mousasi turned to Georges St. Pierre to get his help and advice, not only in training but also in the management side. It is good timing that after spending time with GSP's camp and training with these guys, he decided to leave M1. No more brainwashing for fighters, its time to join the UFC to meet the best.

Who does Mousasi have left to fight after Lawal? The answer is Dan Henderson and then nobody. Even if he does not fight Hendo, it was not like Hendo was in the top-10 in the LHW division. Good choice to join the UFC then where you have Shogun, Machida, Rashad Evans and lots of other worthy competition with a diverse range of skills.

I think Gegard made the right decision. He went to the GSP camp, benefitted from the training and its true that Gegard really needs to develop his wrestling further. He also had a chance to hear the real story about what the UFC are and how they treat fighters. Fedor needs to listen and make a decision based on hearing both side and not one. If he fights for the fans, he should do what the fans want from him, which is to fight the best. Its getting ridiculous. Its like having Brazil national soccer team pick matches that they could easily win like playing soccer against India or maybe some small island. Great fighters need to be well paid for their hard training and work they put in but make fights that people want to see.

Check out the poll on who should Fedor fight and lets find out who the fans really want. Maybe Fedor will pay attention and I will send the result to Fedor's website.

Exercises for BJJ

2010-04-03T09:52:00.001-07:00

Martin Rooney is the expert in physical conditioning for BJJ. Here are some tips I have remembered from his BJJ radio interview. Martin publishes his articles in the GracieMag, so subscribe now.

Train the Neck
Back and front bridges and any other relevant exercises. The neck is critical as it is one of the focuses. The neck takes on a lot of pressure during training and you have to prepare for this. BJJ veterans know this well.

Pulling strength - chin-ups and pull-ups
Some of the least enjoyable exercises but also some of the most useful. Pulling is one of the most important strengths in jiu jitsu and you use these muscles all the time during sparring.

Abdominal muscles - train your stomach.

Use a medball, look at some of the exercises on the web. These are the crucial muscles you are using all the time. They are very important.

Groin muscles

Work on these for your guard. This exercise prevents injuries and develops these muscles. Roger Gracie trains these muscles.

Hamstring

If you play a lot of half guard, train some hamstring curls.

Train the upper body, lower body and then cardio. Without cardio you have nothing but all these are vital. Leave some time to heal but all of these exercises are important to help your BJJ conditioning.

Martin Rooney recommends at least three work outs a week but doing five works is ideal. My opinion is that you want to work three times a week well rather than doing a little five minute session at home. Do the 45 minute intense session, make it happen and then get out.

Check out Martin Rooney's book, "Training for Warriors: The Ultimate Mixed Martial Arts Workout" or look on the website http://www.trainingforwarriors.com/

Renzo Gracie Movie

2010-04-02T23:33:00.000-07:00

Alright guys, just heard on BJJ radio from Fightworks podcast about the Renzo Gracie movie. Renzo really is a great guy and although I have not seen the Renzo Gracie Legacy DVD, this is definitely something to buy if you are a jiu jitsu fan.

For those who have never heard of Renzo, check out the videos below. For those who don't know Renzo, he is one of the biggest BJJ legends today. Not only is he one of the most active members of the Gracie family promoting the sport, he is also an MMA veteran having competed both in the UFC and Pride and now looking to return to competition signing a six-fight deal with the UFC.

Renzo is fighting Matt Hughes, the UFC champion, in April at UFC 112 Invincible and this is a match that you really should not miss.

Renzo Gracie is also one of the most respected fighters and professors. Coming from Gracie Barra he is really doing a lot to promote BJJ. I saw him at ADCC 2009 myself! Also check out RenzoGracie.com

Grappling Open Moscow Competition in May 2010

2010-04-02T00:30:00.001-07:00

Lion Sports Club will hold an open grappling competition for all in Moscow, Russia in the middle of May this year. I understand there will be teams from across the country competing from a whole range of disciples including jiu jitsu, sambo, judo and wrestling.

Here is the link for more information: http://sportclublion.ru/portal2/component/content/article/19-introscroller/126-announce

More news to follow, stay here

Back to Training

2010-04-02T00:11:00.001-07:00

There is nothing more exciting and enjoyable than getting back into training after a long break. Myself, I have been out due to injury for over nine months and its been a real shame to miss so much training.

BJJ is not a rough sport and is good on your body if you take care. Judo I think is more rough and injuries can occur from standing in my opinion of course depending on your sparring partner.

One injury that I got in Judo was from a throw which made be land incorrectly and hit my head on the mat. That was some years ago but I think if you know how to breakfall it is not guaranteed what can happen if your partner does something different. Some throws can cause injury and I have seen it happen over and over again.

I enjoy training. Learning new techniques and getting myself fitter for competition. Hard training and light training are both great and actually have their advantages and disadvantages.

At some point I was training around 5-6 times a week and it is then that I got my shoulders injured. Slowly this deteriorated into more and more pain especially at night and in the morning when you can't sleep on either side.

I took some breaks to let it heal but it did not seem to do anything. I wait a week and then train and it is back to where I started. The more I trained the worse it got and it seemed like nothing can be done.

First of course I took a more conservative approach, physiotherapy, so pills they game me, hot water and compressors. Nothing like this helped.

After some injections did not help surgery turned out to be the only option. SLAP lesion was diagnosed and basically this put me out of training for another seven months unfortunately as it takes a lot of time to heal up and rehabilitation can last upto a year.

Certainly this is something you never wish that will happen again. After a few months I started to go to the local fitness gym. Training my back, stomach muscles and the shoulders of course. Unfortunately I also managed to catch mononucleosis, something Brock Lesnar actually got I understand which put me out of the sports world for another two months with severe fever and endless headeaches as well as a feeling of complete exhaustion.

Finally today I am back training. With my second training session behind me and the first sparring session for so long, I feel unfit but getting ready for Monday's session once some of the muscles I have no used for for so long have recovered.

Some pain is still there of course but you try to get over it and train with care. After all for me it is all about technique and learning to be a better jiu jitsu fighter and grappler.

It is great to be on the mats with the guys though. Sparring was great and I even had a chance to do some submissions myself as well as playing for positions. We are currently practicing for the upcoming no-gi contest and it is great to practice some takedowns for this that can really improve the stand up game and help you put your opponent on his back.

Watching a lot of tapes, I have really become a great fan of the wrestling part. I prefer to put my opponent on his back and pass his guard. If I can't I will play guard and I prefer to win the takedown and I believe I should be able to do this in most cases unless the guy has a strong wrestling background himself.

Jiu jitsu is truly a beautiful sport. Really enjoy it. Keep training and check out some of the fightworks podcasts on Itunes. Check it out.

Train Hard and Be Persistent

2010-03-31T23:50:00.001-07:00

Hard training and being persistent is important to grow in jiu jitsu. You cannot train 20 hours in one week and then not train for two weeks. You have to train regularly and focus on technique.

I believe time and time again that the guy with the better technique will always defeat the strong and bigger guy unless the weight difference is more than 15 pounds. 15 pounds does not make a big difference and even at 30 pounds, you can still defeat your opponents if your skills are substantially higher.

Focus on all the positions and my personal view is to grow from submission defense and into to getting skilled at winning a good position. Only once you can escape every submission of your opponent should you focus on winning good positions such as the side mount and the mount.

Once you can do this easily, then I believe you should focus on submitting your opponent yourself. This is the way Saulo suggests to progress. You can't just attack all the time but you should also be focused on having a good submission defense.

I think it is better to lose some of the positions but escape every submission then winning a bunch of positions and then get submitted several times in a row.

It takes many years to master bjj and you should not think about the time but the development. Focus on who you are fighting in training and practice with different people at your academy, people of different skill level, size and also style.

At my academy I think there are two major styles at work. Those that started from BJJ or from Judo, focus on playing the guard, on sweeps and passing the guard and on the mount.

Others however are very focused on leg locks and winning by submission without valuing the positions they achieve.

Both of these styles I believe I have to get used to and learn how to fight. I have to be able to escape any leg lock attempt they make and then pass their guard. Before trying any submission.

I try to be as relaxed as possible during sparring in my Academy. It does not make sense using strength as many say but I also try to be calm. I think about what submission my opponent is trying to do. As soon as he tries to secure the guillotine choke, I already have my chin down and my shoulder up to make sure he does not get it.

It does not make sense to use so much energy if you can wait, assess the situation, look for an opening in the opponents game and then take advantage of it at the precise moment when he makes the mistake.

I believe this is the essence of jiu jitsu. The youtube match between Bruno Bastos and Lagarto Rodriguez I think best illustrates my point. Rodriguez is calm, looking for the mistake and not spending energy trying to do some fancy techniques.

British Open

2010-03-31T23:04:00.001-07:00

Looks like the British Open held brought to all of us by the triple BJJ World Champion and ADCC 2009 Absolute Champion Braulio Estima in Birmingham.

Fightworks podcast discusses this one but in general I think the tournament shows that the sport is growing rapidly and I am sure in the coming years they may need to hold a three day or even four day event to get through all the matches.

Check out the results here: http://www.bjjbritishopen.com/results.html

Videos from BJJ Moscow Seminar Ze Radiola and Max Corvalho, 6-8.11.2009.

2010-03-30T00:52:00.000-07:00

Strikeforce Challengers 7 - Andre Galvao vs Luke Stewar

2010-03-29T00:28:00.000-07:00

Andre Galvao fighting at Strikeforce Challengers 7 and securing a narrow split decision victory of Luke Stewart, tough Ralph Gracie BJJ black belt himself. Still, I expected more from Andre in this fight.

Check out the videos below:

Strikeforce Heavy Artillery May 15

2010-03-25T01:22:00.000-07:00

Tickets on sale now for one of the most exciting MMA events in may featurying some of the best heavyweights in MMA outside of the UFC today including Alistair Overeem, Brett Rogers, Antonio Silva and Andrei the Pitbull Arlovski.

Roger Gracie is also making his Strikeforce debut on the card against Kevin "The Monster" Randelman which should also be an exciting and fun fight to watch.

Weight Training Exercises for the Shoulders

2010-03-24T23:49:00.001-07:00

There are many opinions on this subject. There a high level jiu jitsu players who do fine without spectacular strength and weight training. Good examples are Roger Gracie, Marcelo Garcia and Demian Maia. I am not saying they don't train conditioning but their exercises clearly are less strength oriented than you would expect.

On the other hand there are fighters that are extremely strong as well as technical. Jeff Monson is an obvious example and Pablo Popovitch (ADCC Champion 2009) is an awesome sight, but there are also guys like Xande Ribeiro and Ronaldo Jacare Souza, who you do not immediately notice how strong they are, but they are incredibly strong as well.

One of the most important areas of your body to exercise for BJJ I believe are the shoulders. As I have founded out through painful experience, during training you apply a lot of force on your shoulders and if the muscles are not strong enough to withstand this wearing effect, you end up with a variety of injuries over time. Weight training for the shoulders helps prevent this and below I add a youtube video with some exercises that I believe could be beneficial for these purposes.

Apart from these I do also recommend the resistance bands. There is a variety of exercises that you can select from here and I recommend it. There are many more exercises that you can do to strength both your arms and shoulders with these that you could not do with simple weights. Many wrestlers also train with these and you can even see Alexander Karelin the great Greco Roman Wrestling Champion using these for training.

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