Taking care of the gear

One question that did not immediately arise for me is how to properly take care of your gear. I did not really think about it when I had a cheap judogi which was wripped in all sorts of places with holes in the chest and ripped under the armpits.

Lately I have been taking my judo/bjj much more seriously and have added some decent gear to my list of kit.

My kit list:

1. 2 Mizuno Gis. One I have just go delivered an Ichiban, and the other is a hard and very nice Mizuno Gi the model of which I am uncertain.

2. Dax Mosquito Gi, a heavy and rough gi, very tough material.

Both were very expensive setting me back $150+ except the Ichiban Mizuno which I got from www.judogis.co.uk for 95 pounds. (havent tried this one yet)

3. Knee and shin pads - I actually bought two sets of each on the Internet by mistake.

4. Earguards

5. Venum Rashguard


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How to clean your GI

I take Mizuno Gi Care Instructions here:

Caring for your Gi will ensure its longetivity and your hygeine.

• do not use chlorine bleaches when washing
• use a small amount of mild laundry detergents along with an non evasive anti-bacterial additive
• wash the gi separately
• never leave your gi in your bag after the training session
• Use lukewarm water of no more than 30 degree C
• Do not use drying machines, let it hang and dry itself
  

How to clean your Rashguard

Wash rash guards inside-out in cold water, delicate cycles with no bleach additives. This will ensure that the fabric does not fray or tear.
To dry, you can tumble dry using the air setting on your dryer. Using any heat is not recommended.

Earguards

Here it is probably optimal to hand-wash them with soap to maintain some level of hygeine.

They are normally very robust, so washing them regularly won't do any harm.

Pads

Throwing these from time to time in the washing machine does the trick. They should dry on their own.

Yoga for jiu jitsu

Okay, I decided to try out Yoga for one class a week on Saturday (starting 7th of March) , right before my regular sparring session in BJJ. Read and heard from other guys that Yoga helps condition your body for bjj.

The articles I have found on the subject say that many of the top BJJ fighters do practice Yoga including as great a fighters as Rickson Gracie and Wallid Ismail. Just this fact says a lot. On the other hand I have not seen Yoga to be studied as an integral part of jiu jitsu. It does help improve but some other arts like Judo are more commonly practiced at BJJ academies than Yoga. So I don't think everyone does it, but quite a few pay close attention to this area.

I have found this interesting article on the subject: Yoga for Jiu Jitsu

My opinion of the idea so far that it does help but in the same way as doing weight training helps cross-country running. It is good but may not be the most effective activity out there especially given that all training sessions include quite a bit of streching.

I think on relevance from what I have seen ginastica natural sounds like a more relevant activity but unavailable for me and probably many other jiu jitsu players. In order of relevance perhaps becoming a great bjj player would mean you need to practice a lot of bjj, judo, ginastica natural and only lastly yoga. Weight training I consider somewhere between ginastica natural and yoga because at the end of the day I think with weight training you spend a lot of your time improving muscle strength where you don't need as much of it. Relevant finger and arm strength you can develop via gi sparring easily without the need to do long workouts at the gym as helpful as they are.

Injuries in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Judo

Ok, here we go, injuries I have received in order of painfulness from training in BJJ and Judo.

1. Broken nose - I even quite judo for a while because of this one. After all looks are important.

2. Head concussion - training with people that can't do safe judo throws and one purpose carry them out dangerously really annoy me. My injury was from a drop seonage. The guy did it wrong and I ended up falling on my head rather then breakfalling on my side. (hurt like hell!)

3. Cauliflower ear - nasty problem that I wear an earguard for every training session. Make sure you do to!

4. Knee bruises - thats not too bad but ever since I started wearing knee pads, walking on your knees exercise got a lot nicer. Also when I accidently fall on one knee during judo randori, I don't have to walk home with a dark bruise on the knee after training.

5. Chipped teeth - I sometimes train using a mouthguard. I find it a little embarrassing even as nobody wears it apart from me in the club.

6. Mat burns - happens all the time. Not fun, but not a real problem. Girls dont like them.

7. Swollen and bruised fingers and finger joints - painful but I dont know of any way to avoid these (apart from not training, but that is not an option! :) )

8. Accidental (or semi-accidental) groin strike - happened, but very rare. Thankfully there are few people you can train with to get this one.

9. Hyper extended ankle from straight ankle lock - dont try to resist leglocks, they are PAINFULL!

10. Black eye - got this one from kneeing myself during stand-up grappling work. Not great when you turn up to work the next day. (the other thing is you will get tired from being asked - "so did you get in a fight with somebody man?")

Bonus injury (I have one more which did not fit in my ten injuries!) - injured big toe from having it stuck in between training mats. Nasty one especially because it takes ages for it to heal up. I am really careful not to get it hurt again.

Sounds like a ton of injuries. My personal opinion is that standup randori leads to far more injuries. You are far more likely to get injured sparring from standup then doing some light sparring with friends on the ground. There are fewer things that can happen.

I have also missed two big ones. One is more serious: ribs can be injured or you can even break the. That one must stop people from training for a really long time or really hard sparring. Never had any experience here and frankly find it hard to believe how you can do this.

The other big one is shoulder injury. Right now both of my shoulders are in pain after each training session. Its not something that will stop you from training but it does cause discomfort so it is worth while to take care and warm-up properly. Those omoplata's do cause this so take care!

Please see related link on my shoulder injury here

Leglocks

Leglocks are great. They just increase your arsenal of submission moves and at the same time help develop the jiu jitsu game further, taking it to a new level.

I have to say that I know only a few moves at the moment and I guess this is partly because leglocks tend to be a more advanced area of focus. Judo does not allow them at all, while Sambo perhaps overemphasizes them, at least in some classes.

That said, if you are roughly aware of them, you can evade them and dominate using just judo newaza techniques.

When I think about the effectiveness of leglocks and their importance in jiu jitsu, I think of Mauricio Shogun Rua's fight against Kevin Randelman. Shogun is a brazilian jiu jitsu black belt and really knows his leglocks. Randelman was caught by Rua and simply did not do anything. An amazing fight in my opinion, proving that leglocks are a crucial part of mma, grappling and even street fighting.

For the moment, I am not comfortable doing leglocks because I have not had enough practice. I tap out quickly as soon as one is performed correctly on me and it feels that if I do go for a leglock in a sparring match, the fight may end in a draw with both me and my opponent competing who is more resistant to pain. It just seems that most of the time, my opponent will also be able to get me in a leg lock as soon as I go for one. I will surely need to work on this further.

I am also thinking of buying some instructional DVD materials on the subject. The number of leglocks available is incredible and I think knowing 5-6 well would be very helpful. There are plenty of materials out there worth taking a look at.

Headgear for bjj and judo (ear guards)

Now, quite a natural question arises if you read my previous blog is what ear guard to use for bjj and judo.

In fact there are quite a few options available and thankfully earguards dont cost a lot. For $20-$50, you should be able to buy the one you need on the Internet. Amazon.com sells quite a few but the one I have so far enjoyed the most is from dragonbleu.fr called Cliff Keen Tornado Headgear.

In the past, I used the adidas Adistrike Earguard which was good for me as well but the Cliff Keen Tornado Headgear ear guard has those adjustable straps which make a much tighter, more secure fit that helps protect my ears far better against cauliflower.

The other thing about the Tornado ear guard is that the sides are made from soft plastic while the Adidas one has hard plastic. (at least the one I purchased, it did say for wrestling for sure)

This probably does not matter for you wearing it, but may be not so comfortable for your partner. (i had a couple of guys point this out, to the point that they said that it is not for grappling/wrestling but for another sport)

I also ordered on amazon.com an ear guard called "Ultra Soft Earguard-adult" sold by GRECCOGEAR. Still waiting for it to be delivered. Will sure to let you know what i think about it.

I have also noticed something about the "Judo Head Mask/Professional" being sold on the Black Eagle website. There is no way that ear guard can protect you against cauliflower ear properly. Yes, it does help, but it wont help prevent entirely cauliflower ear especially if you already have it. It looks expensive at 61.22 pounds compared to other options available and it is not clear what are you getting for the extra money.

Cauliflower ear in bjj and judo

I never even heard of cauliflower ear, until i got a bit more serious with my training. For those that don't know what it is:

"Cauliflower ear (also hematoma auris or perichondrial hematoma) is a condition most common among amateur wrestlers, rugby players, mixed martial artists, and grapplers. If the external portion of the ear suffers a blow, a blood clot or other fluid may collect under the perichondrium. This separates the cartilage from the overlying perichondrium that is its source of nutrients, causing the cartilage to die. This leads to a formation of fibrous tissue in the overlying skin. When this happens, the outer ear becomes permanently swollen and deformed, resembling a cauliflower." - Wikipedia

This kind of crap happens to pretty much everyone involved in bjj and judo at some point but these are not the only sports where people get them. Boxing, rugby and a bunch of other activities where there is physical contact typically have to deal with cauliflower ear.

Headlocks and pretty much any kind of rough contact with the ear can cause this. Randy Couture, a famous wrestler and MMA fighter who you can see above has a bad case of cauliflower ear. The picture basically shows what can happen when it is untreated. The only thing that really can be done to help prevent it is using an ear guard.

First lets look at the reasons to avoid cauliflower ear:

1. IT SCARES PEOPLE AND LOOKS UGLY

I think this really is the #1 reason not to have it. Some say that guys look tough with cauliflower ear and some women are in fact attracted to this. For some its like a "badge of honor"! I would however not recommend it. At the end of the day, its way better to keep your ears the way they are. Your new girlfriend may not appreciate it as much as the old one.

For girls of course it is far worse. Certainly no guy in my opinion would ever appreciate cauliflower ear. Something to look into though. I wonder what do all the top female bjj players do about this. Do they really wear headgear all the time? Of course competitions in bjj do not allow ear guards which means many will still get it.

If you've got a really bad case of cauliflower ear that is easily noticeable, then this will certainly be a problem with the employer. Imagine going to an interview with huge swollen ears! It just makes you look nasty and why would your company want a nasty looking guy working with its clients. This just makes you less desirable.

2. HEARING LOSS

If you didn’t care much about the first one, the second one is a reason to wear an ear guard. The swelling can occur in different parts of the ear, and if it does occur near your ear hole and swells heavily, you may struggle to hear (not only from your bjj instructor but everywhere else! :)
If untreated, the ear will deform, then swell, then deform again and this will go on and on. In addition to that you may also run the risk of ear infection. The swollen skin may be less resistant to germs. The ear being continuously hit will also cause pain - putting a hat on, washing your head.. pretty much anything.

And yes, if you go to the doctor quick enough, he may drain most of the blood out. If you wait, you can do cosmetic surgery which is going to be very expensive. In any case, I think i have just mentioned another couple of reasons why cauliflower ear sucks.

3. NO MUSIC

Cant really enjoy listening to music with your ipod! Well. I think that’s small but also not great.
The other thing, don’t do it yourself. You really run the risk of screwing your ear up even worse. Infection is one reason not to do it. If you didn’t go to the doctor right away, just buy yourself an ear guard or head guard for wrestling and use it all the time.

Personal Experience: this is a really nasty thing to have guys... and does not look good at all! You walk around with screwed-up ears. You feel pain when somebody grabs your head or if its really bad when just somebody hugs you and makes contact with your ear.

I drained once each of my ears and wear the ear guard every time I train now with no exceptions. Once you get cauliflower ear, you seem to keep getting it more and more. Draining also did not do much for the second time I did it because I think too much time went before the ear got drained. It dried up and so there wasn’t much blood to drain.

The annoying thing is also that the ear fills up back with blood afterwards so if you haven’t got time to go to the doctor and keep draining ears all the time then just wear the head guard.

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The only way to prevent cauliflower ear is to use protective head gear. Please see my post about head gear and ear guards here.

A brief note on Instructional DVDs

One of the most useful materials I have found very helpful in aiding my progression in terms of

technical abilities are instructional dvds. Unlike books, they are easier to digest for me and are excellent in serving the purpose of enriching the technique list of any bjj fighter.

I am able to go over and over again, the techniques that are shown on the DVD at a convenient time. The teaching is excellent. For example one of my favourite DVDs I have is Saulo Ribeiro's Jiu Jitsu Revolution DVD set. I have returned to it time and time again. The more I learnt the art, the deeper my understanding became of Saulo's teachings and this DVD has improved my game tremendously. ( and still is) I mean every time I watch one of the DVDs in this set, I pick out some small detail, some aspect that will improve my game in a certain area.

I first became interested in instructional DVD when I started doing Judo after a long break. I felt that I could significantly improve my newaza (ground work) game by just enriching my arsenal of moves. This enabled me to catch up with a lot of the guys at my club relatively quickly. I trained more than them and I watched bjj and judo instructional dvds (for breakfast! :) )

The one thing I have always thought about doing in terms of approach to progressing is learning a new technique a day. If I can learn 4-5 new teachniques every week and also have time to revise the existing ones, the pace at which I am learning is relatively rapid for a non-professional sports person. I only training in the evening after work and on saturdays, so I can never expect to progress as fast as someone who does judo/bjj full-time, but I think as a casual martial artist, who trains at least 3-4 times a week, you can expect to achieve good results by focusing on what you need to know and not just leave the process of development entirely to the teacher's discretion. I think total teacher discretion is only good if you have one teacher who works on a one-on-one basis with you to develop your grappling skill. In a normal class with ten or more students, the teacher simply cannot commit to any one student.

Anyway, instruction dvds are great. You have to continuously practice each move you see with a partner, but if you do add the extra effort before or after the training session, it is extremely beneficial.

Clubs in Moscow, Russia for Judo and BJJ

Please see updated article here: click link 

For those looking to do some training in Moscow, I decided to write a little about this. When I first thought to do some Judo training, I was very surprised by how difficult it is to find a decent club where you can train at a time convenient for you.

Of course, as anyone else, I started googling for likely suspects on the Internet. What I was surprised to see that actually there are under-5 decent judo club websites devoted to Judo in the whole of Moscow and near Moscow region. None of these are in the centre of Moscow, and the majority require you to take a bus once the underground stops being available for the rest of the journey. The reason for this is that many of the dense populated areas are outside the city centre and given the extremely high property and rent prices, this is where they locate.

I would add that not only do their websites dont work, but it typically is just a phone number which when you call:

90% of the time: no answer!

5% of the time: the person that you start talking to doesnt know anything about the club, times etc

and finally! 5% of the time: you actually are lucky enough to speak to somebody, but more often that not you find out that what was written on the Internet has changed, there is no training etc etc

It is better to call though, because if you do turn up and dont call, you run a danger that nobody will be there and no one will know anything about this.

The other thing I thought really deserves a mention are facilities. When I lived in the UK and trained there for judo, the one thing I never thought was worth complaining about are the facilities. Normally clubs use fitness clubs which allow people to practice judo without purchasing a fitness club membership which normally is considerably more expensive.

In Moscow however, this is different. Having reviewed all possible websites, there are no serious clubs that use fitness centre facilities. By "serious" I mean that many of the fitness centre courses have 1-hour long sessions, once or twice a week which is not nearly enough to learn anything really about jiu jitsu or judo.

Instead, most clubs use state owned facilities whether these belong to a school, police, sport stadium etc. The fact is though that unless these facilities have been redone with private money, they tend to be dreadful, with no showers, changing rooms etc.

Now the places I normally go to but that of course does not mean that there arent other great places to visit.

For Judo:

1. Moscow Kodokan 7:00-8:30pm Mondays and Fridays. The address is Chistoprudniy Bulvar 14.

Good facilities and very nice teacher. Lessons are focused much more on sparring rather then on technique. There is also far more newaza (groundwork) than is normally, with 3-4 randori fights as part of the session.

Again, they dont have a website, but it is a good school and there are plenty of other martial arts classes in the same building including Aikido, Karate, Wushu, Sambo etc as well as Yoga. The owner is an ex-world champion judoka Sergei Kosorotov, a very well known figure.

The Sambo that is practiced here is combat Sambo. Most of the students are beginners but the teacher is very good. Sometimes we judokas spar against sambokas for practice.

Here is a RUTUBE link about the club

Here is a link to their latest websites - Moscow Budokan is another option here taught by Kosorotov himself, not sure if I am a fan of his teaching methods though, a bit controversial:

http://www.budo-sport.ru/

2. Shabolovka. Mitnaya street 42/44. (tel. 236-03-66 )

This is a state facility where facilities are not to a high standard at all (I mean if you don't mind water from melting snow dripping from the roof on to your head while you train, then go here).

Nevertheless, this is a very spacious place to train and the teaching is very good, highly technique-focused. Training is monday, wednesday and Friday in the evening starting at 8:30 pm. Also morning lessons are available 8:00 am to 9:30 am on Mondays and Fridays.


This one is included in the Russian Judo Federation website list at www. judo.ru

Many of the data there is clearly out of date however. The other website to check is www.judo-moscow.ru but the situation with their list is just the same.

I used visit these guys on Tuesdays and Thursdays and was very satisfied here until the instructor had to leave and the group was moved to the present schedule.

It seems like this place is more for higher level guys and girls who are still in their teens and train during the day. It really does feel like noone owns this facility when you get there. In the video you can get a sense of what the club is like.


3. Dmitriy Nosov School. (940-72-89)

A number of locations available and I have heard some good things about this club. Please take a look at the website for more information here

The Nosov club offers several classes in three different locations and I understand Dmitriy himself actually sometimes teaches the celebrity class near Tverskaya.

They are also doing quite a lot to motivate their guys organizing interclub competitions and also awarding grades unlike all the other schools that don't do this for casual adult fans.

As you can see from the video, the club is growing quickly and they are organizing gradings and competitions which is a lot more than many others are doing at this point.

4. Several Others - here are a few links to some other places where you can practice Judo

http://judoforall.ru/bronnaya-sloboda.html - four clubs including Shabolovka with time table, instructor details and address. I am going to visit Bronnaya Sloboda club soon, to find out more.

http://oneginclub.ru/docs/242/ - this is my fitness club but I am pretty sure there are maybe only 2-3 fitness clubs in Moscow that offer Judo so if you are looking to casually try the sport out and also be a member of a fitness club, this could be the place to go. Situated in the centre of Moscow, it is also much more convenient compared to may other choices. Not great club for serious Judo/BJJ player as the classes are mainly for beginners.

Brazilian Jiu Jisu

Now, I have much to say about BJJ in Russia but I will leave this for my next blog. What I will do is just give contact details of the only 2 clubs I know in Moscow:

1. Lion Sport Club: http://sportclublion.ru. Krilatskoye Metro Station

This is the only Gracie Barra official school in Russia with a brown belt teacher, Leonid Gatovskiy (highest ranked in Russia). Very good facilities - changing room, showers and weights room included.

Lion Sports Club is a fast growing gym in Moscow and I think in a few years will produce some very strong athletes both in BJJ and MMA. The new training schedule is here: http://sportclublion.ru/portal2/sport-club-jiu-jitsu-muay-thai-dates-trenings

Good teaching and quite a bit of emphasis on no-gi training, MMA and standup than is usually the case.

Muay Thai boxing classes are also available at the gym as well as mixed martial arts.

If you want a really solid BJJ and grappling teacher, I would say this is the club to go to. It is certainly the largest BJJ-focused club in Russia regularly organizing open grappling tournaments that gathered in the past more than 100 competitors from all over Moscow and beyond.

Leonid Gatovskiy himself is an outstanding grappler and BJJ player and has competed in many tournaments in Russia and abroad taking gold in each one. He is also a black belt in traditional jiu jitsu.

Daud Adaev is a purple belt there and is a supporting instructor.

The club also annually travels to Poland for a jiu jitsu training camp under the Gracie Barra Draculino banner.



I think if you live in the area, this is a good place for BJJ and Judo for kids. Currently the club offers both Judo for kids and Jiu jitsu/Combat Sambo for teens. The instructors are very professional so anyone considering which club to join should certainly consider Lion.

The cost is a bit higher then most other clubs but the facilities and the teaching quality is worth it.

Click here to see the facebook page of the club.

Also would like to mention that for the first time this year, Leonid Gatovskiy has promoted himself four of his students to blue belt. It is always great to see promotions of these four guys who have really earned their new grades. Well Done Guys!

2. Capoeira Club at metro Baumanskaya. (Axe Capoeira) Please visit: www.axecapoeira.ru
The club is located on police premises.

Very poor facilities and the teaching is a bit of mix between bjj, sambo and judo. For a beginner however still a good start since all the techniques are relevant. For me this one was very convenient, so also worth it.

The teacher is a blue belt in BJJ, but a lot of the teaching is done by experienced Sambo practitioners. I have found these lessons were extremely useful as I had a chance to revise some of the common leglocks that can be useful.

3. Capoeira Camara Moscow - this club I have not been to but the teacher is the Sambo guy from Axe Capoeira. Here is the link

These guys also appear to be located at Baumanskaya offering 4 lessons a week in the evenings. For those who live in the area I guess another option for BJJ.

I think its great that this blog exists and this is one of the most visited web pages by foreigners who come to Moscow and are looking for a club to train. So many major cities in the world it is hard to find an english website that gives this, so for Moscow, I decided to make this myself and welcome people to train. Russian Judo Federation sucks, so I guess we have to do their work for them.

A great group of guys have setup mmablog.ru so I attach the link to their club list as well as I think it maybe helpful http://mmablog.ru/content/zaly

PS: thank you very much and please let me know if any of the information here is not accurate and of course if you have anything to add, feel free

Academies and the way they train

Now I have visited a few schools here and there in both Judo and BJJ. For me I think it is exciting training in different schools at the same time. You get to see how different people are doing, how they are doing in terms of their training regimen and find out news about what is happening in the club.

Currently I visit 3 clubs regularly. My base club at the moment is a BJJ academy, where I try to train 4 times a week (monday, wednesday, friday and saturday), although saturday is just sparring really which is also good in a way since you get to really relax and just practice the moves you have learnt during that week. The other club I visit normally once a week is a judo club (either Tuesday or Thursday) where I practice throws from standing. It is for beginners and they focus very thoroughly on a single throw which is then used as a base around which several exercises are performed. I value standing technique a lot even though I feel my progression in this area is far slower then ground fighting.

The other club that I sometimes visit at the expense of bjj is a traditional Kodokan-style (rather than sport) judo club where there is a lot of sparring. I used to train there regularly and the teacher is nice to work with. The reason why I kind of left is that we do not practice enough technique and a lot of the techniques which we do practice are the same, so it does not feel like I am growing in terms of my abilities and knowledge. This club only has 2 training sessions a week, so many of the members there are very casual and therefore it only makes sense for me to carry on practicing there in combination with some training elsewhere.

It seems like a lot but of course with work and sometimes injuries I miss training sessions!!

Training sessions themselves also differ quite widely and in particular the warmups. Some are really focused on spending a tremendous amounts on warming up. Running around the map and performing, sometimes a little strange exercises such as for example moving on knees across the mat which feels like something out of Aikido with little application in real sport-like grappling. (Well at least I have never seen anybody move on his knees in a judo or bjj match) On the other hand for general coordination I accept that it adds certain benefit. I just feel that long warmups are often done at the expense of practicing techniques. I think formal warmups with the teacher should be a short affair while students should warmup when they arrive to the dojo/academy prior to the start of the class.

Anyway these are some of my thoughts on the subject. Certainly interested in much opinion on the subject.

Yesterday's bjj lesson

Yesterday worked on some throws in the last BJJ class. Koshi Guruma, Ippon Seonage and the hip throw. Got really annoyed. Was practicing with a guy about same size as me. Probably 180-182cm tall and 75-85kg. Seemed like a striker-type but also a strong judoka.

Spent the first half hour on cardio warm-up. Then started doing exercises for strengthening the neck. It is the one where you use your hands to push against the head of your partner. But this guy was really aggressive. I was ok with that for a while but then we started doing throws.

What really annoyed me was not how hard he actually threw. yes, ok, it was explosive and he did fall on me quite hard. But it was ok, he is not heavy enough and did not really do any damage. What was really annoying was he was doing each of the throws over the head. kind of falling forward and right over the head which is dangerous because i can end up on my neck. Even the teacher said it was dangerous, and later I read on the Internet that in sambo you are specifically not allowed to do this. I dont know about judo (should ask my teacher next lesson!)

Does anybody know? What do you do if the guy is carrying out the throw in a dangerous way?

My BJJ teacher basically said that nothing really can be done. All he said that I should not resist and make sure I press my head forward. I dont understand how exactly is that going to help me? Interested if anybody has any ideas about this.

Also a while back. Maybe half a year ago, my partner unintentionally dropped me directly on my head doing (INCORRECTLY!) drop ippon seonage. What can be done to make sure you dont hurt yourself?

I mean I know you breakfall, but that is not enough. I see a lot of people getting hurt in the sport and actually had an accident where I fell on my face. Probably broken my nose as a result. Lots of blood. Gave up training for a while at the time. You can hurt your wrist or break something, so it is better to just try to breakfall.