This is an interesting video from the Valentes Brothers that discusses Gracie Jiu Jitsu. Both brothers trained under Helio Gracie from a very young age and produce videos which covers topics on the history of Gracie Jiu Jitsu which are often not covered by modern sport BJJ academies. http://www.graciemiami.com/ subscribe on their you tube account https://www.youtube.com/user/ValenteBrothersTV?feature=watch    

Light warm up. Picture from last competition Throw of the day was the double leg takedown. The variation demonstrated was the technique where you do NOT drop your knee on the mats. Why? Because you cannot drop your knee on hard concrete just in case you decide to power double someone in the streets. Then we did some basic guard passes. How to break the guard on your knees, then pass with the bullfighter guard pass (known as Toreando) and the reliable knee slicer. Why the name of bull fighter? "That means you can then start to move their legs in several directions. Side to side will set you up for perhaps the most simple version of what is known as the toreador or 'bullfighter' pass (also called the toreana, toreada, toreando and matador, among other names. Google tells me the Portuguese for bullfighter is in fact 'toureiro'). The reason it has that name is because in this context, your opponent is the bull: your aim is to turn their legs ...

Hate or like it, it is a topic that leave no one sitting in the fences. What do you think of butt scooting? No longer realistic for fighting due to possible stomps to the head or neck injuries due to vigorous sprawls on your inverted guard. Check out this inverted neck scooting with a sick inverted Triangle   Andris Brunovskis vs Christopher Broudnax 

The terminology Gi stand for training in the Kimono/gi.  To train in a gi or nogi is always a controversial topic that get debated in grappling forums in the internet. To understand its relevance and impact, one needs to look at the origin of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. To start with. we will never know what exactly what was taught by Maeda to Carlos Gracie back in 1914! All we know is that Carlos only trained 3 years under Maeda and went on to open his Gracie Jiu Jitsu Academy in Rio later on. So to start with, you have the Gracie Jiu Jitsu as the main lineage from Maeda as the most famous and successful school in Brazil. Maeda also taught others Brazilians as well. In fact, you have the lineage of Fadda which is Jiu Jitsu as well. Unsurprisingly, the Judo Federation of Brasil also claim Maeda as their pioneer. The reason is simple: Jiu Jitsu and Judo was the same thing back then. In Brazil, they love training in Gi. I don't think you will find an academy t...

Light warm up and stretches to ease back into training after last weekend competition. We work on Uchimata as our primary throw.   I like Uchimata a lot especially because you can use it to counter leg grab such as single leg. Uchimata seems to be difficult to finish as you can have to hop around on one leg forcing your opponent to lose balance. Such hop around is known the Ken Ken. I read that Ken Ken was supposed to be Can Can. You need to watch French Can Can at the Moulin Rouge to understand the analogy. If you are tired of doing the hop around, you can switch to Ko Uchi Gari or Tai Otoshi. Uchimata to Ko Uchi     Ko Uchi to Uchimata to see the difference        I prefer Ko Uchi Gari over the dreaded Tai Otoshi. The reason being that Tai Otoshi is usually applied with massive leg strike to uke knee instead of just blocking uke ankle. http://judoinfo.com/images/animations/blue/taiotoshi.htm ...

While I am Fiji for the 40th reunion of my high school I decided to visit the South Pacific Judo Centre in Nabua. This gym is run by the Takayawa family and has produced many international level judo players. Training was hard in the heat and humidity and I was a little scared when I saw the climbing ropes hanging from the ceiling as I had seen a high school squad in Japan go up and down the rips for 10 minutes for warm up. In the end we didn't use them but we did do; Warm up exercises Uchi komi Moving uchi komi ending with a throw 4 rounds of newaza 5 rounds of tachiwaza That was really enough for me, but I'll be back on Thursday.

Luan Ellery White belt under 96kg 1st fight.

The event was held at the Trust Stadium in Henderson, Auckland. It was by far the biggest competition held in NZ in terms of participating competitors. We are talking about 180 competitors. The event over run over 4 mats areas. First were 4 black belts competing. Then the brown belts division was disputed in 3 matches. The purple division had 23 matches split over 5 weight categories The blue belt division had 49 matches split over 6 weight categories. The  white belt division had 97 matches split over 6 weight categories. Some of the lighter weight in the white belt division had 5 pages of draws. Who ever won such division has to fight at least 5 times! So it was a long day for the competitors and the hard working officials that did a great job. The prices were great.  2 x Samsung Galaxy SIII 16 GB Mobile and some rolling mats for the winners of black belt and brown belts division. The kids also has some remote control helicopters and many raffles ...

Arm bar Light warm up, we did roll flow to open our game  and test techniques that we usually do not use when we roll full on. Topic of the day was Questions and Answers. Every 6 weeks, we like to ask the students what type of questions they have so you can address their issues on a more detailed and specific appproach. see below some you tube videos that are relevant to the questions. Training concluded with situational rolling from guard. Roll call for the competition: stu, serge, luan, mark and Jose. Tomorrow is your last day to register   see below details http://nzgrappler.co.nz/bjj-gi-tournament-registration/ BJJ Gi Tournament with IBJJF Scoring Registration ends 11:59pm Thursday 15th August ( REGISTER ONLINE ) This is your last chance to register for this NZ Grappler's first ever Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Gi touranment 17-18 August 2013. Registration is $60 for Adults and $50 for kids. The deadl...

Quick warm up.  Epsom best looking BJJ instructor Couple of drills for countering the sprawl. Topic of the day was the mount. best position in BJJ (4 points). I also found a really good video from www.aesopian.com which covers the technical stand up from the guard. It is a topic which I covered couple of weeks in the past. You do not have to be playing guard all the time. Especially in a fight, you are better off getting up instead of being at the bottom. Even in a competition, your opponent is running the clock as he is leading by points, get up.

We take our Jiu Jitsu very seriously!   Light warm up. Topic of the day was focused on competition training. Takedowns and guard pass drills. Guard Pass techniques for the beginners.       Ezechiel Chokes for intermediates.           Guard Pass rolling. Then our usual 5 minutes sparring (2 minutes stand up, 3 minutes ground). 

nice arm bar Thursday 01 August Training: as we are getting closer to the competition,  we are adapting our classes to prepare ourselves. Each person drilled their favourites take downs. We discussed IBJJF rules. see link for more details.  http://ibjjf.org/referees/rules/ Then the students sparred competition points for 3 minutes. They also took turn referring as well. This is the link to register for the competition.http://nzgrappler.co.nz/upcoming-tournaments/ Don't bother cutting weight unless you are within 1 kilo. Also weight in will be in the morning without the gi.  Up to 50 kg, 60, 66, 74, 84, 96, 120and over 120.         GI UNIT Aynone pulling guard? Triangle Stu supervising webber referring

Kimura is one of the most devastating submissions. I love it especially because it gives me control and can be used to GI and NOGI. Just the name itself is an awesome story. It was named after Judoka Masahiko Kimura who broke Helio Gracie shoulder during a challenge match in 1949 (64 year ago) using a reverse ude-garame. In Judo, this submission is known as reverse ude-garame. In catch wrestling, it is known as reverse keylock or chicken wing/double wrist locks. Please see below this excellent demonstration from Roy Dean as he explains the difference level of skills and application of the Kimura submission.