Archives for 2016

Flow Jitsu Review

By Ruben Avila · August 22, 2016 · @RubenEAvila

Flow Jitsu Review – BJJ Instructional

I’ll begin this review by stating that as I’ve gotten deeper into my study of Jiu-Jitsu, I have started to become more and more attracted to instructionals that talk more about strategy, principals, and choices. This is not to say that I don’t enjoy the specific mechanics of the newest inverted reverse worm guard berimbolo. However, at some point, I think it’s imperative to understand the principals beyond an intellectual level into a subconsciously physical level.

What I like about Flow Jitsu, is that while Mike has some creative iterations of techniques we already know, he talks about the principals of the technique, as he learned it, and how his new expression of them is a personal choice for a specific outcome that fits into his game. So, even if I never use any of the techniques in this instructional, I have added a new dimension to the decision making framework that is building my Jiu-Jitsu. Don’t trip though, I am a fan of the wizardry and will definitely be using a choke or two from his arsenal. You’ll likely see it on my instagram when I can find an eager uke. 😉

From a bird’s eye view, Mike takes a hip-bump sweep and takes you through an array of sweeps and finishes. He shows you how to branch of the hip-bump sweep to finish from guard, the mount, and the back. The big lesson to take from this instructional is his approach to linking techniques. You know that tip that nearly every bjj blog/article maintains is the key to earn your purple belt? Well, this is a very good representation of how to do so in a very methodical manner.

Content & Organization

The digital download is broken down into the following sections.

Module 1 – Outside Kimura / Double Wrist Lock Sweep

Module 2 – Inside Kimura / Double Wrist Lock Sweep

Module 3 – Kimura / Double Wrist Lock Sweep Counters

Module 4 – Linking Your Sweeps & Setups

Module 5 – Setting up the Americana / Key Lock

Module 6 – Americana / Key Lock to Gift Wrap aka Peek A Boo

Production Quality

The quality of the video and audio are top notch. In 2016, you have no excuses for putting out crappy quality. Flow Jitsu uses mostly one angle with sporadic zooming in and extra angles when appropriate, but it does not insist on multiples angles where it is not helpful.

My only criticism is that the digital download is essentially one long video. Bookmarking certain parts or moving between modules is cumbersome, because you have to scroll the video until you see a recognizable frame.

Lecture Style

We can all relate to the cliche of the bjj instructional that starts with, and is frequently interrupted by a, “okay guys.” In their defense, I can barely communicate Jiu-Jitsu concepts in English and they’re doing it in a language that is foreign to them. But, we still make make fun of them, because we are jerks of course. Anyway, on the spectrum of concise to verbose, Mike leans much more to concise communication. This is my preference, as time is money. Mike will sporadically elaborate on a concept here and there, such as “angular momentum” in order to illustrate a point, but he doesn’t waste your time with stories of his luta livre days.

This is no talking heads type of instructional. He speaks as he demonstrates.

Who Should Buy This?

I wouldn’t advise a white belt to buy this instructional. You have bigger fish to fry. I think this instructional is perfect for the mid-level blue belt all the way to the rookie brown belt. For the rookies, this instructional does provide some good techniques, and, likely, a new expression of something you should already be pretty familiar with. For the gray beards, you can enjoy looking into the mind and game of someone who is more experienced than you, but is still enjoys experimenting and creating nuances within his game.

Watching this instructional gave me ideas to branch off on my own, as well as some nifty tricks to try when rolling. Mike has an arsenal of tricky setups and variations to keep you entertained for a while.

If you like his content on instagram, you’ll definitely want to buy this.

Closing Thoughts

If you follow Mike on instagram, you know that he preaches the concept of flow. And, in this instructional, he practices what he preaches and teaches you how to do it too. His theory on angular momentum, while not entirely new, is explained in a way that makes perfect sense and prompts some thought about other avenues in which you can insert that line of thinking. I enjoyed this instructional both for the techniques, but also for the principles that he stresses. I believe the best Jiu-Jitsu is adaptive and responsive; this is a good representation of that.

Other Reviews:

Where & How to Buy

Buy it here and use ruben10 as your promotional code to get 10% off.

Anthony Bourdain On BJJ

By Ruben Avila · March 28, 2016 · @RubenEAvila

I do it because it’s hard. Because it’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done. And because it never ends. Every day presents me with a series of problems that I spend the rest of the day thinking about how I might solve — or at least chip away at. Next day same. And the day after that.

— Anthony Bourdain

I do it because it’s hard. Because it’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done. And because it never ends. Every day presents me with a series of problems that I spend the rest of the day thinking about how I might solve — or at least chip away at. Next day same. And the day after that.Click To Tweet

Review: The Oss Box

By Ruben Avila · February 15, 2016 · @RubenEAvila

What is The OSS Box?

The OSS Box is a service that sends you a monthly package of goods relating to, or useful for, grappling athletes.

From their about page:

I started The OSS Box as a way to get awesome products into the hands of subscribers like you. The BJJ community is a tight community on it’s own, so our idea is to have The OSS Box serve as a gateway for our subscribers to be introduced to companies and products that will benefit them on and off the mats.

I am a BJJ fanatic myself. I have been training for almost two years now and am blue belt. I have a background in Judo and Wrestling as well. I live, breath, and train BJJ every waking moment. I can truly say that BJJ changed my life for the better.

By offering amazing items in our monthly subscription boxes, I’m hoping that BJJ can become more a part of your everyday, training and life.

What do you get?

You get an assortment of curated items from a variety of companies. One of the pros of subscribing to the OSS Box is that you’ll get hooked up with products that you might not ever be aware of. Specifically speaking, they incorporate the following into each box:

Apparel
Edible Goods
Supplements
Hygiene Products
Accessories

https://www.instagram.com/p/BB0pwFFCgaP/

Here is what I received in my December box:

“Just Roll” Shirt from BJJ Tees $14.99
Vanilla Cream Protein Powder from EAS Brand Retail Price Unknown
“Holy Jolly” Bar of Soap from Soap-A-Licious $6.99
GoStak Portable Containers from Blender Bottle $12.99
EnergIce Electrolyte Icy Pop from EnergIce ~$2.00

Here is what I received in my January box:

“Keep Calm and Pass Guard” Shirt from Martial Arts Tees $19.99
Belt Rank Key Fob by Ohana Paracord $7.00
EnergIce Electrolye Icy Pop from EnergIce ~$2.00
Mixed Berry Protein Powder from Designer Whey Retail Price Unknown
Healing Solve by Joshua Tree $1.50
Tea Tree/Mint Body Wash by Joshua Tree $6.00
“Stakk’D” Caffeine Blend by Please Mix Responsibly ~$4.00

I fucking LOVE the GoStak. So versatility, much awesome.

How often do you get it?

The OSS Box delivers every month near the end of the month. Just like that.

What do you pay?

That will depend on how often you’d want to be billed.

If you want to be billed every month, you’ll pay $24.95.

If you want to be billed quarterly, you’ll pay $70.95 (which equals $23.65 a month).

This price point is on par with similar services.

Who should get the OSS Box and is it worth it?

I think The OSS Box is great in two situations (that I can think of).

The first situation in which I would recommend The OSS Box subscription is if you are a BJJ player who has identified a lack of bjj apparel in your wardrobe and want to remedy that. Each month, you’ll get a new piece to add to your wardrobe. That’s an immediate and obvious way to fix that situation, and you’ll be styling on people all day errday without having to go and actively look for stuff to buy. Additionally, you’ll be getting the clothes at a nicely discounted price point. Win win, if you ask me.

The second situation I think would be perfect for a subscription is if you’re looking to give someone a gift that happens to train Jiu-Jitsu. In this case, they’d get an assortment of BJJ products and you get to look like an awesome person.

Third bonus scenario: do you remember what it was like to be a child upon waking up on Christmas? Do you miss that feeling there buddy? I bet you do. Can you see where I’m going with this? In case you can’t, The OSS Box can provide those feels. Every. Single. Month. #HollaIfYaHearMe

Of course, there may be other scenarios in which you’d want to subscribe to The OSS Box, but those two come to mind off the top of my head.

Each of the boxes I received had more monetary retail value than the subscription price. Conservatively speaking, each box had at least $40 of goods in retail prices. If you were to factor in how much you’d pay in shipping for each of these items alone, you’d save another $25 or so (assuming, on average, about five bucks per product for shipping). So, roughly speaking, twenty five bucks spent to receive sixty five worth of stuffs is pretty reasonable. Wouldn’t you say?

If you have any other questions, check out their FAQ page.

Use “TheArtist20” to get 20% off your first package!

BJJ Brown Belt aka Faixa Marrom

By Ruben Avila · January 25, 2016 · @RubenEAvila

brown belt in jiu-jitsu — A man who works with his hands is a laborer; a man who works with his hands and his brain is a craftsman; but a man who works with his hands and his brain and his heart is an artist. – Louis Nizer

Saturday, December 5th I was promoted to brown belt.

It’s taken quite a while for me to sit down and finish this post for many reasons, but, on the bright side, I think it’s helped provide me more time to reflect on the emotions surrounding this achievement at the heraldry of our academy’s winter promotions.

It was a borderline bizarre experience for me to ascend to the rank of brown belt. One belt away from the end, which is, ironically, consistently referred to as the beginning.

What the fuck.

REALLY?

I digress…

I took a keen interest in the martial arts since I was but a wee bit lad.

It’s pretty common for most boys to develop an affinity for martial arts movies and the like. Something about innate male behavior or some such, perhaps. Even still, growing up through childhood, pre-adolescence, and through adolescence, I didn’t actually think I would ever become a martial artist.

If I’m being honest, I feel weird describing myself as a martial artist. Although to be fair, I feel weird describing myself in any manner at all, except handsome AF.

I kid, I kid.

Yet, here I am today. A martial artist. One rank away from becoming a black belt. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. A very long, tumultuous, painful tunnel filled with highs and lows and what not, I tell you.

What a ride it’s been.

My goodness, how things have changed on and off the mats from the beginning. It’s pretty fascinating to ponder the periods in your life and how they coincide with each belt rank. For me, it is, anyway.

A lot has changed from when I was promoted to purple belt.

And, that’s just one rank to the next. C’est la vie, I suppose.

Frequently Asked Questions:

What Does it Mean to be a BJJ Brown Belt?

A BJJ brown belt is the penultimate rank in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and last of the colored belts. It is fair to say that a brown belt in BJJ is commonly perceived as an advanced Jiu-Jitsuoka (or Jiu Jiteiro).

At this level of rank, one should be able to express technique with an unconscious competence.

That is, your body can react without you thinking. To the layman, or person who doesn’t train in the martial arts, that may sound cooky to you. But, if I had to try to illustrate it for you, I would say, you know those “scare punch” videos you see on YouTube?

Well, that’s an immediate yet unconscious reaction.

Similarly, a brown belt in BJJ should have a number of techniques that have been etched into his brain through a combination of in-numerous repetitions and live sparring, and some of these techniques have become so deeply integrated into this person’s brain that he can access them without actively thinking about it.

Would a BJJ brown belt win any and all street fights he entered? I would hesitate to say yes with absolute certainty, but people would be surprised what is possible. Like Ryan Hall eloquently said, “In Jiu-Jitsu, people don’t think it be what it be. But, it do.”

Against an untrained individual, a brown belt could end a confrontation swiftly and without damage (if they wanted to) even if the person was bigger and stronger. More importantly, though, by the time someone reaches brown belt, they should no longer be attached to any superficial need to prove their might and should avoid a physical confrontation as much as possible.

'In Jiu-Jitsu people don't think it be what it be. But, it do.' - Ryan HallClick To Tweet

How Long Does it Take to Get a Brown Belt in BJJ?

The amount of training time required to reach the rank of brown belt typically dwarfs that of other traditional martial arts in pursuit of their respective similar rank. In BJJ there is no black belt for kids like other programs out there. The ranks are clear, few, and difficult to attain.

From what I’ve gleaned, it appears that each promotion is about two to two and a half years for the average person that trains consistently. It is said, on average, it takes ten years to reach the rank of black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Your mileage may vary.

For me, actual training time on the mats, it has been about six years more or less.

If we’re talking about calendar time elapsed from my first day of training until now, it would be eight years.

Yeah, I took a couple of long breaks. I know.

How Long Does it Take to go From Purple Belt to Brown Belt?

At the point receiving my purple belt, I had 128 check-ins to my academy on Foursquare. I’ve been pretty consistent checking in; although, I might have missed some here and there sporadically and I didn’t check in twice when I would train more than once a day. Lastly, this won’t show how many times I’ve visited other academies. I’m too lazy to look that up. But, the day of my brown belt promotion, I had 441 check-ins at my academy.

That’s a difference of 313.

So, looking at it exclusively from a quantifiable standpoint, I had at least 313 training sessions in my transition from purple belt to brown belt.

Conservatively speaking, I put in over 600 hours of mat time to promote to brown belt from purple belt.

However, for a small period of time, I was training all day. In fact, for a period of time, I was doing the morning class, teaching the kids class, doing the pm class, and staying for comp team training thereafter. And a random Judo class, here and there, I would do in between teaching the kids class and doing the adult training class during that period.

Is that a lot? I don’t know. Given that there are 365 days in a year, 313 doesn’t seem like a lot.

Chronologically Speaking:

June 2013 Promoted to Purple Belt
December 2013 – Competed in the first tournament as a purple belt (Bronze Medal)
Early January 2014 – Separated Shoulder (off the mats for weeks)
March 2014 – Back to Light Training
Early April 2014 – Back to Normal Training
Late April 2014 – ACL/MCL Injury (completely off the mats for months)
October 2014 – Back to Very Light Training
December 2014 – Back to Normal Training (modifications made)
January 2015 – San Francisco IBJJF Open (Division Gold, Absolute Silver)
December 2015 – Promoted to Brown Belt

For those of you purple belts that want to explore the transition to brown belt, Roy Harris has some great thoughts on the transition from purple belt to brown belt. I think it’s a good read. However, that’s his perspective. And, I’ve come to learn, there’s more than one way to skin the cat. You or your instructor may not necessarily agree with him.

What Was Your Jiu-Jitsu Brown Belt Test or Exam?

Most BJJ academies do not test, but I am aware that some do. Ultimately, it’s up to the instructor’s discretion to decide whether testing is something he’ll want to do. However, at our academy, we do not do any formal testing. I’ve rolled with my instructor 99.9999999999999% of my training days.

And If I happened to go to training twice a day, guess what shawty, I rolled with my instructor twice.

The universe conspired against me a handful of times where I rolled with him three times in one day. I don’t know about y’all, but we only do ten-minute rounds.

Yeah…

Real hustlaz. All day. Just me. By myself. On the mats. Held down. Belt on my waist. Grimaced face. All day. Not a game. Guard passed. By myself. All of a sudden, woke up. Went back to sleep. Took a nap. You ever go night night!?!?

Sorry, last promotion post, I referenced Chappelle. This time, Hart gets the nod.

Anyway, if I am arriving at any line of reasoning is that my instructor gauges progress by rolling with us directly, watching our rolls with our training partners, and, for those that compete, assessing competition performance.

What are the IBJJF Requirements to Promote to Brown Belt?

Finally, an easy question.

You must be at least 18 years old.
You must have spent a year and a half, minimum, at purple belt.

You’re a Brown Belt Now so, What Now?

I have no illusions that I’ll be a world class elite top brown belt. If I am being honest, I don’t have any desire to make the sacrifices it takes to make that happen.

I know what it takes.

I’ve witnessed my instructor put in the work; he is the epitome of diligence towards skill acquisition, refinement, and overall progression.

For a very short period of my relatively short training history, I even lived it. People don’t understand what the elite do to get where they are. Besides the obvious physical demands, there is a lot of monotony in the life of a “full time” bjj athlete. There’s a lot of sacrifice.

So much sacrifice.

It’s not for everybody, but, if you ever have the opportunity to try it for a while, I suggest you give it a go. It’s a wonderful experience to learn about yourself, as well as mold parts of your character that otherwise wouldn’t be challenged. Although short lived, I had a blast living it up truth be told.

I’m in uncharted territory now, as I don’t currently have any goals at brown belt (not long term at least). At blue, I had a lot of goals (maybe too many). At purple, I definitely had goals. Right now, I’m spread too thin between all of my responsibilities. I’ve developed an endearment towards minimalism. As less is more, it may be time to take a step back and reassess everything.

Time to evaluate what matters most and put all my time and effort into that. My health matters a lot to me, exercise is necessary for optimum health, so BJJ fits right into that. 😉

Truthfully, I just want to enjoy this journey for what it is.

I want to be more present in every class, more appreciative of my training partners, more welcoming to new students, more mindful in my analysis of the art, get lost in every round, and, well.. you get the idea.

If there’s anything in my mind right now, that is akin to a goal, I’d like to see how I could join, and, maybe, add a little of my perspective into the global perception of Jiu-Jitsu and the Martial Arts at large.

How I did regarding my Purple Belt goals:

Improve my wrestling – Check. Still mediocre, but much improved.
Improve my judo – Fail. Did not attend the classes or put in the work.
Improve economy of movement – Check. Huge improvements in this.
Master the purple belt curriculum – Fail. Too much stuff. Not enough work.
Curate an individual style – Eh. Not sure on this one.
Learning how to teach bjj – Work in progress.

I’ve also had the long-term goal of winning a gold medal as well as medaling in an absolute division. I was able to knock two birds with one stone coming back from the big knee injury. I was quite proud for a brief moment until I rolled with my teammates the following Monday and had my ass handed to me.

Thanks for keeping me grounded, guys. Haha.

Well, that’s it. I’m quite exhausted from pondering all of this and putting the proverbial pen to the pad. By now, if you’re still reading this, you’re probably sick of me too.

I don’t blame you. But, thanks for reading. Really, I mean it.

Thank you.