Chokes: The two common principles

I have taught (and practiced) various choking techniques in the last few weeks and have found that I have been asked similar questions each time. In order to explain I have found myself talking about the principles that all chokes have in common.

Broadly I think that there are two main principles that all chokes have in common, this are not specific things such as “grip here” or “squeeze there”, but rather principles that make choking techniques effective in application. I am a big believer in learning through principles and concepts as out lined in a previous post titled “Technique:Principle vs Preference”. The two principles involved in choking are:

1. Removing the slack.

2. Applying pressure.

Just like Jiu Jitsu....

I have been using an analogy recently of the hangman, like the ones you see in movies about the

“Wild West”. When the guilty party (or innocent party for that matter, not judging…) is lead up the steps to the gallows they follow the same two stage process. Firstly the hangman fits the noose around his/her neck and then they pull it tight to remove any slack. This is the first principle, the second principle of applying pressure isn’t done by the hangman, but by gravity. The hangm
an (hanger) drops the trapdoor and the condemned party (hangee) falls down. Their own body weight under the force of gravity applying the deadly pressure.

So to apply this analogy to actual grappling technique I thought I would talk about two different choking techniques and how the principles are applied in each case. I will discuss the Guillotine from guard and the Rear Naked Choke from back control. While these two techniques are very similar in the process of removing slack, the pressure is applied in a different way for each.

1.       Removing the slack – in both cases the slack is taken from each choke by ensuring that the choking arm reaches as far around the neck as possible. So in the case of the rear naked choke the elbow should be in front of (or as close to as your arm length permits) the adams apple and your hand behind the shoulder or neck of your partner. As opposed to having your forearm across the neck as you would in a “neck crush” or “trachea choke” (I can be seen teaching an entry to this grip here). When it comes to the guillotine opinions vary, but I like to reach my arm as far around the neck as I can, so that elbow is essentially in front of the adams apple like the rear naked choke. As opposed to the variation where the bone of the forearm is applied to the front of the neck, which I tend to find is too loose and allows your partner the option to move a little. In both cases (and that of all chokes) the tighter the choke is in the setup the more effect the application of pressure will have.

Marcelo Garcia applying the famous "Marcelo-tine"

The arms have no slack and the body expands.

2.       Applying Pressure – The means used to apply pressure varies from choke to choke, but many techniques share similar methods. I chose to talk about rear naked choke and guillotine because they each represent one of the two most commons methods. In the case of the guillotine choke, once the slack is removed the pressure is applied with the body weight. By driving our hips deep underneath our partner (and passing a leg high over their back to prevent escape) we effectively “hang” our weight from out partner. This pulls them into the choke and makes it mechanically hard to posture back up. The same basic principle applies to almost all chokes from the guard as you are under then person, so in a prime position to hand your weight off them. Think of triangle from guard and cross lapel choke from guard as two other examples. The rear naked choke is done using a constriction of the body. It can also use gravity if your partner is facedown, but primarily it is done through constriction. By this I mean that once the arms are locked in with zero slack the choke is completed by expanding the body (by breathing in) which removes space and forces your partner into the choke. The same principle applies, to Annacondas, Darce/Brabo, Head/Arm, North/South and many others.

In summary when I observe a student having trouble with a choke in rolling 90% of the time it is because for one reason or another they haven’t been able to remove all of the slack before they attack. So even if they do apply pressure correctly the will still require a great deal of strength to complete the technique as the will need to compensate for the slackness of the initial choke.

Have fun on the Mat.

Art of BJJ Blog

A few months ago my academy was privileged to have two guests from France, Marie-Laure Kocher and Florian Grasso were on a training holiday and foudn us through the BJJ Globetrotters network. I was very please tohave them as guests on our mat for 2 weeks and enjoyed their company very much.

Marie has written a great blog of her travels and on training BJJ as a woman. I would recommend it, it can be read in either French or English. Marie wrote a lovely review of our academy which can be found here.

Marie also asked me to demonstrate a technique to be included in the post, I demonstrated my alternative version to the harness grip from Back Control.

I have embedded the youtube video below.




I love to have guests on my mat, particularly people who are travelling, I always enjoy the universal language of Jiu Jitsu and want to do my best to encourage it.

Have fun on the mat.

Are BJJ Belt Rankings subjective? Yes. They are...

This article is a good read regarding ranking in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, it could be interesting for those who are unfamiliar with BJJ and don't have a lot of understanding of the process or those who train in BJJ, but have questions.

I certainly remember having thoughts about my rank and its legitimacy when I was awarded my purple belt and shortly afterwards I rolled Clancy Roberts, one of my first coaches, who was still a purple at the time (although he was awarded his brown belt the next day).

I remember saying to Clancy that I didn't feel comfortable wearing the same rank as him as he had been a purple when I was a white and had also had a huge impact on my development in BJJ. Clancy just laughed and said "if your coach thought you deserved the rank then you deserve it, no one can take that away from you." That comment was typically accurate and succinct and I know agree with it wholly. My feeling is that a promotion is subjective, but that is appropriate as the measure of progress varies from individual to individual.

Anyway instead of me writing about it, I will just post this article as it was written better than anything I would be likely to write.

Check the article out here.

http://eliknight.wordpress.com/2013/11/06/who-deserves-a-belt/

Thinking & Jiu Jitsu

One of the things I love about Jiu Jitsu and specifically coaching Jiu Jitsu is the thought process. Jiu Jitsu lends itself to all kinds of ponderings and reflection when training, developing technique or analysing your game, but I particularly like the process of thinking about technique in order to best deliver training. I like to start by thinking of a concept that will be both rewarding and pertinent at the same time and then to join the dots between the movements themselves and the desired outcomes of the class. I believe a good class should cover at least a few of the following; improve the skills of practitioners, develop new skills in practitioners, improve understanding of practitioners and improve the thought process of the practitioners. I think that if you can cover at least two of those in a class then you are on the right track when coaching and planning a good lesson is key to that.

Recently I have enjoyed the challenge I set myself of planning 3 sessions based on the parrallels between Gi and No-Gi training (as opposed to the differences which some people tend to focus on). I have always been of the opinion that the differences between the 2 are slight, they are usually more about preference than principle, at least that is the ideal situation. In fact I watched a video on youtube recently that was of an interview with Jean Jacques Machado, in it when discussing his entry and success in the early ADCC events he said that competing without the gi wasn't particularly new to him because in Brazil the hotter summer months meant no gi training. At the time they didn't specify a difference between Gi and No-Gi, they just called it Jiu Jitsu and made the call based on the weather (I have inserted the video below, the comments on No Gi are from about 6:28, but it is all worth a watch).



So when planning my lessons on the similarities between Gi and No-Gi training and technique I wanted to be sure that what I taught would be techniques and concepts that would be applicable in both worlds. Over the course of 3 lessons I intended to show that:

1. In some cases the same strategic concept, but with slight technical variation could apply,
2. In other cases that different techniques, but based on the same physical movements could be used
3. And in other cases virtually identical techniques could be used.

For point 1, I for both gi and no gi I taught a version of a butterfly hooks sweep with an overhook, where instead of taking away the opponents post you threaten a choke. This gave the opponent the choice of defending the choke or posting to defend the sweep, but not both. With the Gi the choke was an overhook cross lapel choke and in No-Gi it was an arm in guilotine. So slightly different movements, but the same strategic concept.

In Point 2 I dealt with both countering an underhook escape from sidecontrol and attacking from a sprawl. For theescape counter with the gi I used the gi tail to set up a cross lapel with the overhook and with no gi setup a Brabo/Darce choke. From the sprawl I rolled under for a loop choke with the gi and in the no gi I rolled under for a Brabo/Darce.

Point 3 I taught both the arm bar from the guard and a pendulum sweep from the arm drag both of which had subtley different grips, but these were preference and the techniques were still the same.

The fun part of planning these classes was thinking about techniques to show these three points, but also that are practical for everyday grappling. The idea was that students would be exposed to ideas they didn't know but were fundamental (or for the more experienced have the chance to drill and refine these important movements) all while still being exposed to the ideas on Gi and No-Gi technique and strategy.

Jiu Jitsu is fun, whether you are training, competing, coaching or all three, and the fun doesn't stop when you are off the mat, if you let yourself get creative.

Have fun on the mat.

Blue Belt

There are probably dozens if not hundreds of posts on the internet about the meaning of the belt system in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, or the requirements for each belt level or similar. They all do a great job of providing a picture of what a belt means. So I don't think there is any necessity for me to go into great detail going over the same ground.

However, I have been thinking about the Blue Belt a bit recently and in some ways I think it is the most important one. It may be just due to my own experience, but I recall a time in Tasmania when blue belts in BJJ were as rare as hen's teeth and it was a monumental task to get to the Blue Belt level (it took me the best part of 6 years to get there). I believed that this was a common BJJ feeling and by and large that is the case, although I have seen some schools in more populated states where the Blue Belt isn't quite given the same regard.

Now that a lot of those original Blue Belts are Black Belts and Brown Belts and there are many Purples and even more Blues in some ways the Blue Belt may have lost some sense of importance in Tasmania. I can't really say for sure because it has been a long time since I was a white belt looking up to the lofty heights of blue belt. It is my hope though, that the Blue Belt is still considered as high an achievement as I viewed it, because frankly I still view it that way.

As a coach I have seen many prospective students walk through the academy door, but only a very small minority are able to put in the work to develop sufficient technique, develop their bodies and develop sufficient character to reach the level of Blue Belt. So when a student puts in the effort to get to the Blue Belt level I see it as a huge and special achievement.

The reason that I have had Blue Belts on my mind of late is that last night I had the pleasure of awarding my first Blue Belt, to my student Tim Nissink. Tim, has trained with me and my coach Adam Newton for the last few years and has shown exceptional character and perseverance in that time. I am very proud of him and was very proud to promote Tim to Blue Belt.

Technique: Principle vs Preference

Over the last few months of teaching both classes and one on one sessions i have found myself saying one thing a lot. I have been showing my students how to break down the techniques i have been teaching into principles and preferences.
This has become something of a habit due to the frequency that phrases like "but Joe Bloggs does it this way" or "Joe Bloggs told me to use this grip" are used by students when a technique is taught. I recall as a white belt that i got information from a lot of sources (youtube started towards the end of this time) and i often asked those same questions. Looking back i wish i had just practiced what i was taught because i would probably have learnt more and wouldn't have wasted my coaches time. However, i didn't and now it is my turn to answer the same questions.
What i have learned, though is that every technique has a core principle that is universal regardless of who is doing it (in fact i would go so far as to say if the principle differs between two versions of a technique then you are dealing with 2 distinct, albeit similar, techniques), but that personal preferences can allow for variations in how it is applied.
A great example of this can be seen in the side control escape to guard. It is one of the first techniques that most of us learn and is taught with a lot of variation from coach to coach. As an example just a few versions of the job of the outside arm in this escape are as follows:

1. It reaches across your body towards your hip so that it can form a frame on your opponents hip or establish an underhook.

Jeremy Arel of greatgrappling.com

2. The forearm braces under the jaw of your opponent to create a frame for your escape.

Kurt Osiander of Ralph Gracie Jiu Jitsu

3. You use your arm to reach across your opponents head in order to interfere with their posture.

Henry Akins of Dynamix Martial Arts

Like i said that was just three variants on just one limb, there are many more i can think of and they all have merit depending on the circumstances. However none of these are the core principles of the technique. The core principles that are constant in all the successful variants of this escape are:

1. Creating space through a bridging movement.
2. Maintaining that space by creating some sort of frame or posture.
3. Hip escaping away from your opponent and inserting a knee.
4. Straightening up and establishing a guard.

All successful versions of this technique contain these principles despite having almost infinite variations of the "preferences".
When i teach now i try to explain to my students what part is a fundamental principle and what is a variation, for 2 reasons. The first is to help them realise that even if it isn't identical to the one that they originally learnt it isn't "wrong" and the second is to let them know that they are still getting benefit from training the technique even if they don't consider it to suit "their game" at that stage.
My philosophy now is to try anything that is taught to me, not second guess it straight away. I just wish someone had of explained the difference between principle and preference to me sooner so that i wouldn't have taken so many years to get the philosophy right.
Have fun on the mat.

Happy in a new club.

So after a tumultuous few months I am really happy to be officially in a new club. I am training under my long time coach Adam Newton in his new club Maromba South . This club has one of the best atmosphere's that I have been involved in for a long time. Without deviating too much into a shameless plug, it is I think the best place to train Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in Hobart and the Eastern Shore and is composed of people who focus on helping each other grow. In addition Maromba South has a network of like minded clubs around Tassie through it's involvement with the Tasmanian Federation of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. We are also affiliated with a Launceston based club BJJ TAZ/Maromba with whom we share training and friendship and have an open door policy with each other.

It is no secret that the world of BJJ (and all martial arts) can sometimes be effected by "politics", which is I believe, often just a word for rudeness. I have certainly been the subject of this before and I am pleased though to say that the core group that make up Maromba South are friendly and welcoming, everything that a club should be.


My coach, Adam has decided to affiliate and train with Thiago Stefanutti of Maromba Academy Australia, I am very pleased about this as Thiago is a great coach who has shown generosity and genuine care for his students and also has a great sense of humour. I am pleased to call Thiago a coach and a friend.

So basically I am really happy to train in a family friendly environment where the focus is on your own development and where there is room for eveyone's goals to be met, not just an elite few. Between my training partners, my coach Adam and our head coach Thiago, I feel like I am in really good hands....

Adam (my coach), Thiago (head coach) and Me......

European BJJ

Just thought I would share a few links to some blogs and pages that I like...

These pages belong to Christian Graugart and Martin Aedma respectively who are in my opinoin two of the best minds in Jiu Jitsu in Europe, this is both to do with their games and skills as well as their personal philosophies.


First is Christian Graugart, who can be found on either of the 2 links below. Christian is a great grappler from Copenhagen, Denmark and is the now famous "BJJ Globetrotter". In addition to his dedication to Jiu Jitsu I really his philosophy on no politics, this is exemplified by the global team that he has set up, "The BJJ Globetrotters", their value system is basically everything I am behind (just written more articulately, not bad for a guy with english as a second language).

 












Well worth checking out...
http://www.bjjglobetrotter.com/
http://www.shogunhq.com/


Second is Martin Aedma, a BJJ Black Belt and true pioneer from Estonia. Martin is a strong competitor who seems to truly believe in the integration of Jiu Jitsu, Judo and Wrestling, he has even coined the phrase "Wrest-Jitsu" to describe his concepts, this is a concept that I try to instill in my classes as well. Martin has a blog that has some great breakdowns of everything from passes, to sweeps, to chokes, I really have gotten a lot from it.

Check it out here.
http://martinaedma.bjj.ee/


Lastly here is a great vid that Christian created of Martin demonstrating his pressure passing called "Estonian Guard Passes from Hell".



Both cool guys and have a lot to teach....

Training Trip

I have just gotten back from training trip to Melbourne, Australia. I was privileged to train with 4 of the best BJJ black belts in Australia, Lachy Giles, Alex Santos, Dave Hart and John Simon.

All of these men taught me some great new concepts and gave more of themselves than just time.

I spent time learning the latest in guard technique as well as solid passing. In particular I have learnt a lot about berimbolo, single leg x guard, de la Riva, and reverse de la Riva. I also learnt done great concepts for dealing with both open and closed guards.

I can't recommend these guys highly enough and I am sure you will agree if you goo and train with them. When you are next in Melbourne make sure you call into renegade MMA, Melbourne martial arts or dominance MMA.

What really matters?

What is important in BJJ Training?

The more time you spend training in a martial art, the more opinions and thoughts seem to emerge amongst your peers on what is really important. In Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, there are as wide a variety of these opinions as any other. I find myself thinking again and again though, “how much of it really matters?”

One of the topics that seems to generate the strongest opinions in my gym is what side of the body the ranking tab of a BJJ belt should sit. Opinions are divided and often forcefully argued on this subject, at this point I should probably mention that not everybody in my school even has a ranking tab on their belt still manage to attach stripes to their belt without a problem.

The opinion that I lean more and more toward is that it really doesn’t matter what side of their body the stripes are on. In my case I have never had my arm bar work more effectively one way or the other, and I have never had better resilience to the bow and arrow choke one way or the other. The only factor involved that matters in my opinion is practice.

Mind you, I still hear a lot of views on this (often quite aggressively) from some of the more forceful members of the academy, usually to the tune of “the belt must be be worn with the tab on the left side because that is how (insert famous gracie name here) did it”. After hearing this for the millionth time I thought perhaps I should look into it. My initial thought was to google some grandmasters and see what they do, but I thought better of that and thought I would try to prove my point that it really doesn’t matter.

With that in mind I have assembled some pictures of notable BJJ practitioners below with the ranking bars on either side.

First of all here is Masters Alvero Barretto and Oswaldo Fadda with Grand Master Helio Gracie, as youcan see both Barretto and Fadda are wearing their bars on the left and Helio has his on the right.

These next too images show Master Fadda and Grand Master Helio wearing their belts the opposite way from the picture above.

 

Below is two images of Carlson Sr one with the bar tothe left nad one to the right.

 

My opinion after seeing that all of these Masters of our Art don't care one way or the other is that maybe we shouldn't either. Perhaps like them we should all focus on what is important and that is training and more importantly improving.

Just my thoughts...


I have thought that today (the 25th of July 2013) might be a good day for an update to this article. As this whole discussion was originally based on the way Rickson supposedly wore his belt, I have found a pic of Rickson wearing his belt with the rank tab on both the left and the right.

Rickson with the tab on the left

Rickson awarding the Red and Black Belt to Jean Jacques Machado, tab on the right.

And look at this collection of Gracies, tabs left, tabs right, it is chaos....

A big honour....

So as the picture shows, my long time coach Adam Newton at Hybrid Training Centre honoured me by awarding me with my brown belt tonight, for those of you who don't know what that means, it is a big thing.....



I first tried out BJJ in about February of 2001 and tapped to Pete Rogers' Side Control (pressure to the solar plexus), I stuck with BJJ ever since then and still tap a lot.

So after nearly 11 years, 3 clubs, 2 cities, one marriage, 2 kids, 1 gold, a few silver and several bronze medals (as well as lots of taps), 1 full shoulder reco, 1 full grade 3 LCL rupture, 2 broken fingers, several popped elbows, various black eyes, many coaches, many students, a few tantrums and 100s of new friendships, I have finally reached brown belt. BJJ is definitely a life's persuit....

Thanks everyone for being in my life and contributing to my experience.

Another year, another stripe...

So a bit of perspective... I was promoted to my 2nd brown stripe last, my first came in august 2010. It's a good perspective for those expecting a new rank or belt every few months, short answer the longer you train the longer the road becomes.

If i keep grading at the same rate I'll get my brown in May 2013, and i reckon that is great imagine what i will have learnt by then?!

twice the father...

Hi Everyone, Just thought I'd let you all know my 2nd son Evan was born today... he is huge Amanda and I are really proud!

Waiting...

Today my wife is 3 days overdue with our second child... waiting can be pretty hard, but I know we are going to have another little champion. Nearly 3 years ago we waited 13 days past our due date for our first born and now we are waiting again... the wait though, I know will be worth it!

One Step Forward

Bit of a surprise,

Tonight on the mat Adam surprised me by awarding me my first brown stripe, one closer to brown belt. Wasn't expecting that, so now I guess it is time to really step up!

Of course just to remind me of why I train and what BJJ is all about one of our white belts tapped me with a cradle choke tonight, that really makes me happy.

Fun times...

GnP

It turns out that playing guard is harder to do when your opponent is striking....

I was just working towards an armbar that would have made Sergio Penha proud and then... BOOOMMM!!! my opponent was out, what an escape!

2010 Inter Gracie Championship

I recently competed in a Submission Wrestling Tournament in Sydney. I got a silver medal in the Light Heavy weight division. It was a great day, I have included a clip here of one of my bouts. I was paying particular attention to the clinch aspect in this amtch as I have been doing a light of private training on my wrestling and judo recently. I also got to showcase my leg lock game as well which was a lot of fun.

What do we take from comp performances?

Well in recent times I have had a few comps where I have a had some successes. The great thing about competing is that you are forced to work under maximum pressure your margin for error is greatly reduced. In addition the pressure makes it very difficult to think clearly so that you can usually only pull off things that you have done enough reps of to really concrete into your game.

Usually after I roll I am able to recall the bout and what went well and what didn't, I find it harder to do in comps though because of the pressure that I mentioned. When I am able to picture certain things that happen in comp bouts through I can usually be pretty happy that I must have a good understanding of any of the moves that I had success with. For example in the recent 2009 Tasmanian Champions Cup I finished matches with, among other things: a Triangle/Arm bar combination, a Clock Choke and various Figure 4 arm locks. I also pulled off a few half guard sweeps, an X Guard sweep and a Hooks Guard Pass I have been working on. Whilst I am not the best in the world at any of these techniques, I am happy to know that they are hard wired enough to work for me even under pressure.


What do I learn from this defeat to Jim Reid? Even if you tap you still sometimes go to sleep.

Anyway the two most recent comps I have been in are:

The Hybrid "No-Gi" grappling tournament in Sep 2009 in which I came third in the heavy weight division.

The 2009 Tasmanian Champions Cup in which I came third in the Purple Belt division (open weight) and won all fights in the team event, my team of 6 also won the event. - As a side note the winner of the Purple Belt Division was my good friend Jim Reid, who was awarded his Brown Belt shortly after the comp by his coaches Mario Yokoyama and Adriano Magnani of Gracie Oceania. Congratulations Jim, really well deserved!

The next comp will be another Hybrid No Gi comp in Feb 2010, hopefully I can place at that one as well, but if not I am sure it will be a good development for me at least.

Anyway I am off, keep on grappling and stay safe.

Paddy and Daddy

Here is a recent pic of me and my son Paddy, he seems to have inherited my awesome thighs (thick, but apparently dangerous to be triangled by...), so much so that I had to have his Grandma make him a new pair of gi pants as the Fuji ones appear to have been designed for a thinner leg.

Purple from John Will... 'Nuff Said