BJJ Journal - 5/5/2011

So this is my first Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) entry. It will be much like my Judo Journal only the topic is Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

Today I did a lunchtime class. It was me, Nate, Ray, and our instructor Morgan. Morgan is a 2 stripe brown belt I am currently a 3 stripe white, Ray is a 2 stripe white, and Nate is in his second class so no stripes yet.

At this point I am training for my first BJJ tournament on Saturday so Morgan was nice enough to help me work on some things, mainly what to do when I have pulled half guard.

The first thing we drilled from half guard is correct posture. I do not want my back flat on the mat, ever, and especially not when using half guard. This means my body is always to one side.

The next very important step is to get the under hook. This means that if my arm is on the outside of my opponents arm (think over the shoulder) I need to change to have my arm under his arm (like hugging under the arm pit). To achieve this I need to move my arm inside and under my opponent placing my hand in front of me on the ground (remember, i am on my side so my hand would be in front of my body.). Next I need to work my hand back out and under his arm. This can be tied in with the next part of the escape to make some space.

Next I need to get up on my elbow on posted up on my hand. Also remember that if I am unable to get the under hook I can start working to get up on my elbow/hand and often times this will open the door to let my hand sneak under for the under hook.

Once in this position there are options. I can either pull my head out and go to my knees or I can pull my opponent onto his back and let his weight pull me up into side control. Which way to go depends mostly on what he is giving me.

If he is staying low on me I want to slip my head out. It is important that I leave my same side hook in as I come up. Basically I use my under hook to pull my head through and then I sit up and I am already in a great harness position.

The other option is if my opponent is up high on me. This means that his center of gravity is closer to my torso than my hips. If so I can grab with my under hook and pull him toward his back. I will let his arm stay behind my head so that when he starts to roll over he takes me with him. On the way up I want to slip my hook out and I am in a great position for side control, knee on stomach, and possibly even mount.

We trained a few variations as well. One was the same as the other two up until you are posted out on your hand. The move involved shooting an arm under your opponents knee (the knee furthest from you) and basically do the last variation I discussed only while lifting and controlling the leg as well.

I rolled around with both Nate and Ray and was able to pull these off while rolling and it felt great. I really appreciate Morgan working with me on what I feel is a great big hole in my game. I worked a lot on side control escapes a few weeks back and while I am far from perfect at it I at least feel like I have some idea of what I am doing when put in side control and when I pull half guard.

Basically, the top game is the easy part, I just don't want to get stuck on bottom so I have been working it every chance I get!

Thanks to everyone for helping me get ready for my first tournament!

Judo Journal - 4/27/2011

Today I did a lunchtime class. Sensei Keith instructed. Others in attendance were Nate, Jim, and Andrew.

We practiced a combo from Kouchi Gari to Ouchi Gari to Osoto gari. We also worked on Kesa Gatame and escapes from Kesa Gatame

I have been working on the replacement step in between Kouchi and Ouchi Gari to really close the distance and allow my big reap to go deep enough. I am also working on kazushi and feel that I am not able to ever get proper kazushi. I also discovered that Judo guys don't tend to like to take the back when I do a Drop Seoinagi and I plan on using this move in my next tournament to get it to the ground if I feel like the other guy is much better than me on the feet.

Do not attempt Osoto Gari on big guys or they will do it to you. I learned this from Andrew today during randori. Andrew is a very tall guy and I went for Osoto Gari on him and he ended up doing it to me. I landed cleanly on my back for ippon. I feel that when I am going to Kouchi and Ouchi gari I cannot close the gap but that I can with Osoto Gari but then I get thrown. I also feel like my attempts to get my opponents balance off are not really doing anything. I need to work with sensei to see what I am doing wrong. I mean I am trying to get the kazuhi but every time I try to get the "crunch" on someone I get stopped and nothing comes of it.

Sensei also opened up arm bars today. Up to this point in Judo Keith has said "NO arm bars unless he taught them to us." Today he said that I could start going for them. Whether this was just for this class or from here on out is yet to be seen. As for getting an arm bar today I did not but I did get to see just how well my arm bar defense is against Andrew. He was going for the arm bar Keith had showed him earlier and it was very easy to defend. I stacked him and took his back and we stood up after I could not sink in a choke.

I also noticed that the only reason Jim isn't throwing me all of the time is that I out weigh him by quite a bit. I am pretty sure if we were at the same weight he would give me flying lessons.

Basically, standing up in Judo I feel like a fish out of water and when it goes to the ground I feel like the shark. I am loving what I am learning even though the learning is slow. I am excited for class next Monday and tomorrow Nate and I start a daytime BJJ class at my school Mile High Gracie Jiu-Jitsu. Now Nate will get an idea of why I do so well once the match is on the ground.

Ralek Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Seminar 12/7/2010 - Mile High Gracie Jiu-Jitsu

Left: Me and Ralek.

Last night I was privileged enough to learn Gracie Jiu-Jitsu from Helio Gracie descendant Ralek Gracie. The son of Rorion Gracie, nephew of Royce Gracie, and grandson of the great Helio is 24 years old and trains out of the Gracie Academy Headquarters in Torrence California. Ralek has a 3-0 Mixed Martial Arts record with wins over the likes of Kasushi Sakuraba and has fought in K-1 Hero's and Dream fight organizations. He is on an incredibly high and elite level of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu and I am honored to have attended the seminar.

Please keep in mind, I am a white belt that has trained off and on due to injury for about a year. If some of what he taught seems elementary this is just my take on things. I assure you, the guy is GOOD.

Ralek started by breaking down a simple mount escape, the trap and roll. Basically, when someone has you mounted the idea is to trap one of their arms, trap the same side leg, bump up with your hips and roll toward the direction of the limbs you have trapped. The fact that you have trapped their arm and leg on one side means that they are unable to "post out" or stop themselves from being rolled onto their back, allowing you to take away their dominant positio while you take an advantageous position. This is a seemingly simple move that anyone with a few hours of Jiu-Jitsu should know and that many know does not work every time. Ralek took the time to break down the move in a very precise fashion and explained how with more practice and better technique it can be an extremely effective move.

A few tips I learned about the bump and roll from Ralek:

1) When trapping the leg place your foot on top of their foot. Also, bring the elbow of the arm that is controlling their elbow to your knee. This traps your opponents leg completely so they have very little chance of using their leg to post out.

2) When bridging bridge as far as you can with your non trapping foot on the ground and when you are at the top of your bridge turn your hips. Bridging is basically arching your back upward. If you are trapping the left arm/left leg you will bridge upward and to the left all while using your right foot to push off the mat hard. Before I just kind of bumped up and rolled into my opponents guard, if it worked, if not I was back on my back or my opponent was now fighting for my back. Now I have learned to bridge hard and regardless of the outcome if I turn my hips to go to my knees at the top of my bridge I can escape most of the time.

3) Often times your opponent is struggling to keep their position and ends up nearly getting to your back, which is bad. To remedy this, once you have turned your hips and your knees are on the mat just sit up and you will be in their guard.

So those were a few touch up tips that Ralek taught us and I am very glad to now know. He was emphasizing that he only learned after years of rolling with his brothers and family that the trap and roll is a highly effective move and there is a lot more to it than meets the eye. Learn the technique inside and out. He showed us ways to bait your opponent into compromising their base and use their reaction to dictate how you use the trap and roll escape. While many go to the elbow escape immediately after a failed trap and roll Ralek says don't give up that easy. Keep perfecting the technique and you will be using the elbow escape as a back up less and less and having more and more successful trap and roll escapes. This was easily my favorite part of the seminar.

I may post more but for now I wanter to jot down some of the seminar more for my own records than anything.

I also wanted to say that Ralek was extremely patient, kind, and helpful. He hung out after the seminar and shook hands, chatted with people, and took pictures with us.

This was a great seminar and if Ralek is in town I suggest you do your best to get him to do a seminar!

Shopping for the Right MMA Backpack

As you move forward in Martial Arts you inevitably will accumulate a lot of gear and I am no different. I would consider the amount of gear that I have acquired as "light" but it is still a lot of stuff and I was looking for a way to store it and transport it all easily. After doing some searching and research I came up with a few choices of a good gear bag for all of my stuff. What were my criteria for a "good" gear bag? Glad you asked...

Mobility - At this time I do not own a car so mobility is very important. This pretty much means a traditional duffel bag is out. I may ride the bus, get a ride with my coach, or ride my bike for any given training session. I also will usually be leaving from work. This brings up one key point in my search - I am looking for a backpack and not a duffel bag.

Durability - I am willing to shell out a few extra bucks for the right bag, but that bag better be tough. The bag is going to need to survive everything from dirty soaking wet gi's to inclement weather and everything in between.

Storage - If possible I wanted to find a bag that would fit all of my gear if needed. In a perfect world this bag would not only serve as something to transport my gear in but store my gear as well. This means that the bag should be able to hold at least one heavy gi, heavy boxing gloves, some compression shorts, light MMA gloves, MMA shorts, as well as have storage for smaller things like tape and hand wraps and wet storage for my soaking wet gear after a training session. I would hate to go through all of the trouble of finding a great bag only to ruin it after a few sweaty training sessions. I also would love it if when at home my MMA gear can live in the bag at all times.

So those are my 3 main criteria. I am looking for a Backpack that holds a ton and is super durable. It should exist, right?

A few honorable mention criteria, these are criteria that are not deal breakers but would be nice in a tiebreaker: Style and additional functionality. Basically, if two bags have all identical features but one looks cooler/does more, I have to go with that bag.

I found 3 potential bags, each with pros and cons. I am going to list them from least favorite to favorite, the final bag being what I purchased and why. I will provide links to the bags at MMAWharehouse.com as it is the only site that I found that has all 3 bags and the site I ordered from.

So, on to the bags...

Bad Boy Gi Backpack - Around $50

This bag is super cool. Made from the same sturdy material a Bad Boy Gi is made out of and made to hold, you guessed it, a gi. I have never owned anything from Bad Boy but know people who do and as far as I know they have never had any complaints. The bag looks durable, mobile, and pretty cool, but does it have the storage I am looking for? Going by the pictures I see, not even close.

While this bag would be great if all I did was train Jiu Jitsu and all I needed was storage for my kimono, this bag would easily be my choice but going off of my criteria, this bag lacks the storage that I am looking for. While this may be the coolest looking bag of the group, it is far from cool enough to make up for a lack of storage. This still looks like a great bag, just not for me at this point in time.

This bag can be found at MMAWharehouse.com

Jaco Convertible Equipment Bag - Around $120

This bag is pretty sweet. When I initially started my search I was looking for a duffel bag with shoulder straps and this is pretty much it. Great storage, good mobility, and it looks durable to me but only time would tell. This bag also meets one of my bonus criteria, it looks pretty damn cool.

There is one major feature that sets this bag apart from the rest: It is a convertible. Yeah, this backpack turns into a duffel bag complete with a duffel bag shoulder strap and tons of storage - very cool. This would be great for days when I need a light backpack or other days, possibly a tournament, where I need a bag that I can fill to the brim full of equipment, water, change of clothes and whatever I may need for the day.

While this bag looks terrific, and I almost bought it, I ended going up with a bag that did all that this bag does and more.

This looks like a great bag and can be found at MMAWharehouse.com.

This brings us to our winner....

Datsusara Battlepack 02 - Around $100

I can't tell you how close I was to buying the Jaco bag, which by the way would have probably not been a bad choice. I mean, I did one last search, just to see what else was out there, and I stumbled onto this piece of awesomeness - the Datsusara Battlepack 02.

This is like the Swiss Army Knife of backpacks. Features include too many pouches to mention, laptop storage, external storage, media player storage, super durable hemp construction, all kinds of general storage, sternum strap and hideaway hip strap, included "nasty bag", straps for add-ons and a ton more. I mean, this bag meets all main criteria, bonus criteria and much much more.

Let's look at the criteria and see how this bag does:

Mobility - Yeah, it is a backpack. I have yet to receive the bag but I am expecting it to be pretty large but that is okay, I wanted storage. More room means bigger bag. The strap construction looks similar to a bag I have now and love and with the hideaway waist strap and sternum strap this thing is ready to go on a hike or bike ride any time.

Durability - This bag is constructed of hemp canvas which according to the manufacturer is highly durable and anti microbial, an added bonus. It is military spec (whatever that means) and just looks rugged. As with anything, durability will be measured over time but this bag looks like it is built right.

Storage - This thing will hold two gi's. One external, one internal. External storage (super cool) can come in useful for wet stinky gear as well and just look cool the rest of the time. While holding the two gi's it can fit my large boxing gloves, small MMA gloves, training shorts, compression shorts and a TON more. This bag might have more storage than the Jaco without being convertible. Sweet.

Bonus Criteria - This bag meets both - good looks and tons of added functionality. While this bag may have taken last place in the looks department it still is not a bad looking bag and as far as additional features, this bag takes the cake. Included nasty bag (for wet clothing), external storage, tons of pouches, removable logos, hideaway waist straps etc... See of those weird little loops all over the bag? Those are for add-ons that can clip onto the bag. Everything from extra pouches to canteens to medical kits can be attached to this bag so not only is it already loaded with features you can also add more as you please! This bag has more features than I ever thought a bag could have. This was the kicker with this bag that propelled it above the Jaco as my choice - it meets all criteria and then some.

The bag can be found at MMAWharehouse.com.

and Datsusara even posted a video walkthrough on YouTube that really sold me on this bag (I will post the vid later).

So needless to say I am glad I shopped around a bit. While I am sure the Jaco would have been fine the Datsusara Battlepack just had everything I wanted and a ton more. It is a super cool looking bag with a tactical influence that really hit the mark as far as what I was looking for. Tons of storage, great mobility, built to last and a ton of added features with a sleek black on black color scheme. I ordered the bag yesterday and am expecting it soon. I will have to post some pics and reactions but I am pretty sure I will be happy with this bag.