Last Wednesday morning was a really rough session for me and major source of bjj frustration.  I rolled with my instructor; it was a very very bad session for me (as it always is).  It seems he is beyond two steps ahead of me.

To be completely honest, it feels like he knows every thought and movement I am going to make even before I make them.  In addition, he has, what it seems like, an infinite amount of rebuttals for my weak attempts at offense.  Consequently, I am defending, to no avail, the entire time.

It is extremely taxing on my nervous system because I have to try to process so much at one time; many times I freeze when trying to evaluate all of the impending dangers as well as trying to mount some type of offense as well.  He is a master of jiu-jitsu after all.  My physical resilience is thoroughly tested.

Most of the time, my rolling experiences with the rest of my teammates are somewhat balanced.  Even if they beat me, and many times they do, the game is much more digestible.  I can evaluate my performance and make adjustments for the next time.

However, Wednesday morning was… different.  I rolled with one of our brown belts.  He killed me.  The manner in which he destructed me was very demoralizing.  He passed my guard at will with the SAME exact pass each time.  He moved on top of me with the SAME rhythm each time.  And, he submitted me with the SAME lock each and every time no less. [Read more…] about Resilience: How it Relates to your Journey

Shady competitors are now knee reaping themselves to get you disqualified!

This past weekend I traveled with my teammates to the 2012 IBJJF Master & Seniors Worlds Championship.  Although I wasn’t competing, I was pumped up because of the amount of work we put in to prepare ourselves for these tournaments is immense.  I was interested in seeing my teammates do well with our newest tournament prep tactics and skill building strategies.  The tournament got under way with our instructor taking silver via a razor thin ref’s decision in the final match of the masters lightweight division against Vitor “Shaolin” Ribeiro.

After a long break, one of our blue belts was up next.  The match started with his opponent jumping into full closed guard.  After a little monkeying around, Randy secured his grips to start working his stand up guard pass.  As he progresses through the pass, an opportunity presents itself and Randy, being the submission maniac that he is, went for the ankle lock.  His outside foot placement on the hip was within the gray area where it’s not definitely illegal, but it wasn’t 100% certifiably legal either.

His opponent was much more keen to the knee reaping rule, because, as he stood up to defend, he was staring at the referee telling him it was a knee reap.  The referee stood there watching not fully convinced, until the opponent forcefully moved Randy’s leg into the definitive red zone area for knee reaping.  At that point, [Read more…] about Knee Reaping Disqualification Tactics: A New Low Among Cheating BJJ Competitors

EDITOR’S NOTE:  AT THE TIME I WROTE THIS ARTICLE, IT WAS TO THE BEST OF MY KNOWLEDGE.  I NOW RESCIND THESE WORDS AND WITHDRAW ANY SUPPORT FOR THE TLI BANNER.  APPARENTLY, THERE WAS A REASON TO BE “HATING” AFTER ALL. 

Are you feeding your haters their hater fuel?

I wasn’t planning to make an update today.  But, I was forced to.  I was inspired by success.  While prepping for some personal training today, I saw Master Lloyd Irvin put up a hater fuel status update that brought a smile to my face: [Read more…] about Hater Fuel

Are you up to date on your bjj black belts?

For every Rafael Mendes and Rodolfo Viera, there are a number of BJJ Black Belts that get slept on.  They could go unnoticed for a number of reasons such as: their affiliation, bjj politics, not coming from a widely recognized academy, etc.  We have already seen one bjj fighter get completely ignored by the jiu jitsu media this last 2012 year.  He happened to be the first ever bjj fighter to win the double grandslam at any belt level.  Have you heard of this guy?  No?  Do you live under a rock?  Of course, I am talking about Keenan “The Cobra” Cornelius.  Although he destroyed his competition in all of the major tournaments in both his division and in the absolute (something that no one has EVER done before), the mainstream jiu jitsu media completely black balled him.  This blog post is not about him, but, coincidentally, about one of his bjj black belt teammates who has also gone under the radar despite being one of the most decorated american bjj black belts (10 IBJJF Medals this year alone) and currently ranked #8 among bjj black belts.

[Read more…] about BJJ Black Belts That Get Slept On Pt.1

This is not yet ANOTHER attempt at reporting exactly what happened last night with Renzo Gracie.  I will, however, briefly summarize it.  Renzo Gracie was about to be attacked by two men, he pretented to be drunk, and, when the time was right, he attacked them and defended himself successfully WHILE TWEETING ABOUT IT THE WHOLE TIME!

If you want to know the specific details you can read about it here.  Otherwise, we are going to assume you are familiar with the events of the night.  This post it just to congratulate Renzo Gracie for being a hero and a bad ass dude.  I hope this serves notice for people trying to mug others, that they should be more careful.  You never know what a stranger is carrying or what he knows.  What terrible bad luck when a couple of muggers stumble upon the beast of a man that is Renzo Gracie.  

[Read more…] about Renzo Gracie the Hero

If you are looking for a bjj training manual, BJ Penn is the former UFC Lightweight Champion, former UFC Welterweight Champion, and first american Jiu Jitsu World Champion.  He is also one of the most accomplished bjj practitioners competing in the sport of MMA.  In Brazilian Jiu Jitsu:  The Closed Guard BJJ Training Manual, Penn offers more than eighty bjj techniques that allow you to dominate while fighting off your back in both bjj competition and mixed martial arts although it is tailored to bjj due to the nature of techniques wearing the gi.

[Read more…] about BJ Penn BJJ Training Manual