I taught Chris a basic Darce Choke tonight after open mat, and told him I was going to regret teaching him that choke. Chris is already a top notch grappler due to his strong wrestling background. I'm certain that after he works with his new choke a bit, he'll be snapping that thing on right and left. And it's pretty safe to assume, I'll be one of his victims. He's tough enough for me to handle as it is, so as his arsenal of submissions grows so does his dangerousness. Of course, I was only joking, because that's the nature of this business. I teach people how to beat me up every class. I use Chris as an example, but it's true for every one of my students. I've always said that my goal is to make my students better than me.
When I teach a purple belt, like Jerad, a new technique, and I can see that glimmer in his eye and that little smile he gets, I know I'm going to have to be working overtime to counter him on that move next time. Everyone keeps getting craftier and wiser and I ain't getting any younger, so I have to stay smart and continually improve my game. As everyone gets better, this forces everyone else to get better as well.
This is how it goes for everyone. Don't horde your knowledge. Share your secrets, your counters, your defenses. This forces you to get better. Show your training partner that mistake they made that allowed you to apply the submission. Show them how to defend the armbar you keep getting on them.
Don't think of it like you're giving away your secrets. I've been giving away my secrets for years and I still do just fine.
8/30/10
Share Your Knowledge
8/29/10
Patriot Day Motorcycle Ride
Sensei Brian Gorman has organized a motorcycle ride on Patriot Day, Saturday, Sept. 11th. Weather permitting, any SRSBK member who is interested in joining us on our ride is welcome to join us. We'll be meeting at the dojo at 10:00 am and heading to Bulldogs Bar & Grill in Murdock for an 11:00 am meal. If you don't have a motorcycle, you're still welcome to drive a car out with us.
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Saturday Night Fight!
A quick video of pictures from Darren Brown of our fighters from TCF Select 2 this past Saturday. Congrats to all three of our fighters on their victories in the cage!
Super Saturday!
By now most of you know that Saturday, August 28, 2010 was a very good date for Roseberry's Martial Arts. But, in case you have not heard or seen anything over the last 12 hours, here is a quick recap of our Super Saturday.
David Kluthe competed in Best of the Best BJJ Tourney in Omaha and took home gold in his nogi division. He was able to rack up two triangle chokes on his way to 1st place!
Aaron Hogg made his MMA Debut at TriState Cage Fighting's Select 2. After an exhausting 2 rounds Aaron was able to put his ground game together and scored a Triangle of his own with a little over a minute to go in the 3rd round!
Tate Wright received submission of the night at TCF Select 2 when he successfully put his opponent in a Gogo Plata in round 2!
Finally, Rob Bieber is the new TCF Welter Weight Champion after he tapped his opponent in the 2nd round via Rear Naked Choke!
It was indeed an amazing day for our Dojo and all competitors represented with honor and passion. Congratulations to all who took to the mat this weekend!
Warning! Do not attempt anything contained in this post.
These stunts were performed by a professional on a closed course. Because situations like these will never arise in real life, please do not attempt to duplicate them, you might die..JPG)
So, once again I made the annual pilgrimage to Sturgis, SD for Bike Rally Week. As usual the trip was filled with adventure and lots of good stories. Ty and I motored in to Sturgis about mid afternoon, giving us time to check things out and find a place to park our bikes and pitch our tents in town. By early evening, we strolled over to the Loud American Roadhouse, where an old friend of mine works during the rally week. We ordered up our beers and my friend let us know there was no charge. When we ordered our second round, again, my friend comped the drinks. As it turned out, he comped our beers all night! This was great of course, except I'm not a big drinker at all, so I was basically drunk after the first beer. We had a great night with our street-side seats, listening to the band and meeting lots of people..JPG)
By closing time I was ready to crash. We stumbled back to our tents and I crawled in, ready for a good night's sleep. Ty had other plans, however. First he started shaking my tent and taunting me. I would yell out, "knock it off, Ty! Go to bed. This went on for about a minute. Then he started reaching inside my tent and was hitting the top of my head. Every time he would reach in, and I would say knock it off, I was thinking, the next time he reaches in, I'm going to come out of this tent and kick his ass.
It was the strangest thing I've done in a long time, but I finally had enough of Ty's taunting, so I crawled out of my tent and proceeded to wrap him up and slip on a rear naked choke. Ty's a former college football player and still works out, so he's no slouch. He fought with every ounce of energy he had until he realized there was no escape and gave up.
I think he must have thought I was just lucky because as soon as I let go and started back for my tent, he grabbed me from behind and started to slip on a choke. The first thing that came out of my mouth, in a low, calm voice, "tell me you didn't just try to choke me out." I slipped out and top mounted him. I did everything I could think of to make it the most painful, frustrating and annoying experience for him. When he had nothing left, I put on a key lock and started slowly cranking on his arm. I continued to slowly tighten it up and was telling him I didn't want to hurt him, and that he should give up. I took the arm to the limit, but he still wouldn't tap. He finally asked what was going to happen if he didn't tap and I said his arm would break, so he finally tapped. Thankfully, Ty had enough for one night and went to sleep.
The next morning, I saw that my clothes were covered in dirt and grass stains, and one of my tent poles was busted. I asked Ty how his arm was doing and he said it was a little sore. Obviously this was not one of my finer moments, and probably why I don't drink alcohol. But all in all, there was a good lesson to be learned. If you ever find yourself in a drunken brawl and are using Jiu-Jitsu to win the fight, go for the rear naked choke. I'm not talking about a respiratory choke where there's pressure on a windpipe. Just your basic vascular choke so as not to do any permanent damage. Drunk people don't feel the pain and aren't thinking rationally enough to know that if they don't submit, their arm will break or tendons will tear.
8/27/10
Muscles and Spazzes
A couple of years ago, I wrote an article, The Psychology of Jiu-Jitsu. It got re-posted on a couple of other blogs and social network sites, but I had nearly forgotten about it. That is until I received an email from Brian Alleman, a four-stripe blue belt under Renato Tavares.
I thought his email made a lot of sense and was worth sharing, so asked Brian for permission to post it here.
"Hey I just read your article on the psychology of BJJ from a couple years ago. It was a great article that hit some really good points. I just thought I would add my $0.02. I think that in the early psychological stages of learning BJJ there are two types of students: Muscles and Spazzes. Muscles tend to be the naturally athletic guys who always excelled at sports where being stronger/faster than your opponent (football, wrestling, etc); while Spazzes tend to be guys (like me) who don't really have an athletic background but got interested in BJJ because they wanted a fun way to exercise and also an intellectual challenge. In the end I think it is better to be a Spaz than a Muscle. Being a Spaz is mostly a mental thing, you've never really been in anything even remotely resembling a grappling match so when you have a guy on top of you, your brain just yells "FREAK OUT!" But Muscles are falling back on a lifetime of experience where forcing an opponent with superior strength has always worked. For a Spaz it's a matter of gaining experience to quiet the mind to stay calm and focused. Meanwhile Muscles are doing what they have always done that led success in other sports, so dammit why isn't it working now?!
Secondly, I think that the big jump between the upper early/lower mid-level stages and the upper mid-level/advanced stages is when a student stops trying to learn techniques. Instead they want to know why and how sweeps and positions work, they want to learn the theories. Instead of seeking to learn a new butterfly sweep they want to know about controlling an opponent's weight and creating a dead angle. Once a student can start to master these ideas they don't need to learn a technique in order to know it. Instead they find themselves in a position and realize "hey wait a sec, if I put my foot here and get an overhook I've got a dead angle!" Next thing you know...SWEEP! This leads to the ability to adapt and improvise, and that is key to being competitive against high level guys.
Anyway those are my thoughts!"
8/26/10
Will Teach BJJ for Food and Shelter!
Fellow blogger and BJJ practitioner extraordinaire, Christian Graugart, has recently set out on the BJJ adventure of a lifetime...a trip around the world to train, teach and compete. I've been reading his regular blog for a year or so, Zhoozhitzu do Graugardo, where he openly shares his BJJ experiences and teachings. Christian is from Copenhagen, Denmark, but he fits right in no matter where he finds himself.
I received an email from Christian the other day. He has started a new blog, BJJ Globetrotter, specifically to document his travels. Check it out and follow his journey.
For me, it's kind of like something that I've thought about doing (leaving everything behind and traveling the world), but will honestly never be able to do it.
8/25/10
The True Power of Jiu-Jitsu
Earlier this month, I spent a week teaching defensive tactics at work. It was part of our yearly requirement to maintain proficiency. We've offered a few "ground fighting" classes in the past, and for the past few years I've been conducting a four hour introductory ground fighting classes to all the newbies, but this was the first time it has been a mandatory training requirement. I could probably write volumes just about the bureaucratic mumbo jumbo of trying to get Jiu-Jitsu into our regular program of instruction, but I'll stick to the gentle art that is Jiu-Jitsu.
There's nothing quite like having prisoners for students, those who are only present because they were ordered to attend. Nearly every session started with one or two giving me their laundry list of ailments. Most everyone had a preconceived notion that my class was going to produce of pile of injured bodies, so consequently, the attitudes were already set in place before they even showed up. Then there were the concerns about the close body contact, and on and on and on. Needless to say, I had a few hurdles to get over.
So, one by one, after each session, I was pleased to hear the confessions about how the class wasn't anything like what they thought it was going to be. For the most part, I was able to open their minds and change attitudes about ground fighting.
After one session, one of the guys was interested in grappling, but nobody else wanted to test their mettle against him. I could tell he was eager to fight. After all, he had just been through a ground fighting class and was all pumped up and ready to go, so I decided to roll with him.
He was half my age and bigger than me, but I don't think he fully understood the power of Jiu-Jitsu until after he got choked out in about 2 1/2 minutes. I asked him if he wanted to go again, and he gave me that all too familiar glazed over look that told me he was completely exhausted. However, he reluctantly accepted. We started with him on top, pinning me in side-control. As soon as I mounted him, all of the fight went out of him.
Rather than leaving the class demoralized and depleted, all he could talk about was Jiu-Jitsu and how could he learn it.
I know it's not fair to ball up unsuspecting challengers, but sometimes it's the best way to demonstrate the true power of Jiu-Jitsu. If I'm in the mood, I'll share another story about a recent encounter I had on my Sturgis trip.
8/24/10
FNG's
While it's nice to have such a plethora of purple belts, it's the flow of new blood into the dojo that keeps it growing. So I am really happy to see that we continue to build a strong Jiu-Jitsu class with many dedicated up-and-coming students. As we share our love and knowledge of Jiu-Jitsu with you, our own knowledge and love for it grows. I want to thank you for choosing Roseberry's, and welcome you to the family.
8/16/10
My Debut!!!!!!
With my official MMA Debut less than 2 weeks away I wanted to get something off my chest. I wanted all my Roseberry Dojo brothers and sisters whom have taken time to prepare me both physically and mentally for this fight to know that I am eternally grateful for EVERYTHING! It seems like not long ago I walked into Roseberry's and knew nothing. Some days I still feel like I know nothing, I am always being challenged and I am amazed at what everyone brings to the table. I don't like to make promises too often, but this time I will make an exception. I promise to go into this fight, fight this fight, and come out of this fight representing Roseberry's Dojo. All the honor and etiquette we have learned from Shihan and our Senseis will be represented that night.
Just a quick reminder about the fight:
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