Greetings,
Not much exciting to blog about except for this funny video that a new friend sent to me on Facebook. Enjoy this hilarious self-defense video!
Respectfully,
Larry, the LTrain
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Friday, August 7, 2009
Only Spider Man (And maybe BJ Penn) Can - Diatribe 1
Hi folks,
This here is a first for the BlindJits Blog in that I've enlisted the services of a guest writer for the blog. Meet my good friend Aaron Di Blasi. I met Aaron a few years ago while cross training in Taekwondo. A little bit about Aaron: Firstly, he's a great guy--one of the nicest most humblest Martial Artists that I've ever met. He's a 3rd degree black belt in Taekwondo and has cross trained in other disciplines. One of the most interesting things about Aaron is that he's approximately 6 feet tall, walks around at about 275 lbs, and he's arguably the most flexible individual who I've met in my life, bar none. He helped me tremendously a few years ago begin to increase my own overall flexibility and the results have worked wonders for me.
So why write about flexibility in the BlindJits blog? I've asked Aaron to contribute a few pieces on this important subject because it's often an overlooked aspect within many Jiu Jitsu Academies. While I don't feel that Gracie Jiu Jitsu technique is altogether dependent on flexibility, attaining and sustaining a minimal level of flexibility will minimize injuries, and enable one to get a little bit more out of their bodies than they might ordinarily expect to get.
I'm no expert on flexibility as a whole so defer to someone who is. Read on for Aaron's first installment introducing us to himself and to the art of becoming flexible. Stay tuned for more installments over the coming weeks.
Respectfully,
Larry, the LTrain
====================
"I’ll open by sincerely thanking the LTrain for allowing me the opportunity to write a piece for his blog. A couple of pieces actually, as it would be very difficult to cover a topic as dynamic as flexibility and stretching in a few simple paragraphs.
First let’s attack some basic questions. The most basic of which is, what makes me an expert in stretching and flexibility? I’m not. By any means. What I do have is a little over 10 years experience training in, fighting in, and preparing others for, both Traditional and Olympic Style Tae Kwon Do sparring matches. As many of my fellow MMA-heads will attest, from a pure competition perspective, Tae Kwon Do is probably one of, if not the most demanding martial art with regard to flexibility, for there’s just nothing else to fall back on. Either you can reach the target, or you can’t. If you can’t, then you can’t knock them out. Period. There’s just no way to play if you don’t have the flexibility. This is why Tae Kwon Do fighters have been forced to find answers where others might just be able to make up the difference in some other aspect of their game. (Shame on you if you know what I’m talking about…)
Which brings us to the game, which, if you’re reading this, is probably the single greatest self defense martial art on the planet, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (gi and no-gi), Vale Tudo, MMA, or all of the above. We’ll start by discussing how flexibility can improve these arts before we go into how we can improve flexibility.
With regard to the stand-up portion of Vale Tudo or MMA, the benefits of split flexibility are obvious, either you can kick your opponent in the head (without falling on your ass), or you can’t, but on the ground the benefits are so much more subtle. Mission Control anyone? I mention BJ Penn in the title of this piece because BJ, outside of being a great fighter, is also one of the few MMA fighters today that blends an actual flexibility routine into his everyday training. We’ve all seen it. BJ takes their back, throws his leg damn near over his head to trap his opponent’s arm in the body lock and then finishes with a rear naked choke, which his opponent, thanks to BJ’s flexibility, is now unable to escape.
When you saw that for the first time did you say to yourself “Damn, I’m gonna use that!”? I did. When you tried were you successful? Maybe you were, maybe you weren’t, maybe you had been doing that long before you saw BJ do it, but the question is, can you do it any freakin time you want? Probably not. Unless you’ve already been stretching for many years. Which brings us to flexibility training, and unfortunately, one too many paragraphs for a single blog entry.
Check out Diatribe 2 where we’ll discuss the various types of stretching and which are best suited to BJJ, Vale Tudo, and MMA competition training.
Until next time, thanks for reading!
Aaron Di Blasi
Master of Nothing. Student of Everything."
This here is a first for the BlindJits Blog in that I've enlisted the services of a guest writer for the blog. Meet my good friend Aaron Di Blasi. I met Aaron a few years ago while cross training in Taekwondo. A little bit about Aaron: Firstly, he's a great guy--one of the nicest most humblest Martial Artists that I've ever met. He's a 3rd degree black belt in Taekwondo and has cross trained in other disciplines. One of the most interesting things about Aaron is that he's approximately 6 feet tall, walks around at about 275 lbs, and he's arguably the most flexible individual who I've met in my life, bar none. He helped me tremendously a few years ago begin to increase my own overall flexibility and the results have worked wonders for me.
So why write about flexibility in the BlindJits blog? I've asked Aaron to contribute a few pieces on this important subject because it's often an overlooked aspect within many Jiu Jitsu Academies. While I don't feel that Gracie Jiu Jitsu technique is altogether dependent on flexibility, attaining and sustaining a minimal level of flexibility will minimize injuries, and enable one to get a little bit more out of their bodies than they might ordinarily expect to get.
I'm no expert on flexibility as a whole so defer to someone who is. Read on for Aaron's first installment introducing us to himself and to the art of becoming flexible. Stay tuned for more installments over the coming weeks.
Respectfully,
Larry, the LTrain
====================
"I’ll open by sincerely thanking the LTrain for allowing me the opportunity to write a piece for his blog. A couple of pieces actually, as it would be very difficult to cover a topic as dynamic as flexibility and stretching in a few simple paragraphs.
First let’s attack some basic questions. The most basic of which is, what makes me an expert in stretching and flexibility? I’m not. By any means. What I do have is a little over 10 years experience training in, fighting in, and preparing others for, both Traditional and Olympic Style Tae Kwon Do sparring matches. As many of my fellow MMA-heads will attest, from a pure competition perspective, Tae Kwon Do is probably one of, if not the most demanding martial art with regard to flexibility, for there’s just nothing else to fall back on. Either you can reach the target, or you can’t. If you can’t, then you can’t knock them out. Period. There’s just no way to play if you don’t have the flexibility. This is why Tae Kwon Do fighters have been forced to find answers where others might just be able to make up the difference in some other aspect of their game. (Shame on you if you know what I’m talking about…)
Which brings us to the game, which, if you’re reading this, is probably the single greatest self defense martial art on the planet, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (gi and no-gi), Vale Tudo, MMA, or all of the above. We’ll start by discussing how flexibility can improve these arts before we go into how we can improve flexibility.
With regard to the stand-up portion of Vale Tudo or MMA, the benefits of split flexibility are obvious, either you can kick your opponent in the head (without falling on your ass), or you can’t, but on the ground the benefits are so much more subtle. Mission Control anyone? I mention BJ Penn in the title of this piece because BJ, outside of being a great fighter, is also one of the few MMA fighters today that blends an actual flexibility routine into his everyday training. We’ve all seen it. BJ takes their back, throws his leg damn near over his head to trap his opponent’s arm in the body lock and then finishes with a rear naked choke, which his opponent, thanks to BJ’s flexibility, is now unable to escape.
When you saw that for the first time did you say to yourself “Damn, I’m gonna use that!”? I did. When you tried were you successful? Maybe you were, maybe you weren’t, maybe you had been doing that long before you saw BJ do it, but the question is, can you do it any freakin time you want? Probably not. Unless you’ve already been stretching for many years. Which brings us to flexibility training, and unfortunately, one too many paragraphs for a single blog entry.
Check out Diatribe 2 where we’ll discuss the various types of stretching and which are best suited to BJJ, Vale Tudo, and MMA competition training.
Until next time, thanks for reading!
Aaron Di Blasi
Master of Nothing. Student of Everything."
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Royler Gracie-David Adiv Youtube Channel
Hi folks,
I just came across this great resource on Youtube whereby the RGDA headquarters in New Jersey has set up a Youtube Channel for uploading video clips of Professor David Adiv instruction. Click to visit The RGDA YOutube Channel and check it out!
Respectfully Submitted By
Larry, the LTrain
I just came across this great resource on Youtube whereby the RGDA headquarters in New Jersey has set up a Youtube Channel for uploading video clips of Professor David Adiv instruction. Click to visit The RGDA YOutube Channel and check it out!
Respectfully Submitted By
Larry, the LTrain
"Which Ultimate Fighter Are You?"
I took a quiz on Facebook this morning: "Which Ultimate Fighter Are You?" The result is both hilarious and amusing considering that my Jiu Jitsu will never be 1/100th the skill level of BJ Penn. The actual quiz result is below, and I would agree that the characteristics in the quiz do describe me fairly well once the Jiu Jitsu skill levels are nullified--enjoy a good laugh, compliments of the LTrain.
"Larry took the Which Ultimate Fighter (UFC) are you? quiz and the result is B.J. "The Prodigy" Penn
If one word could describe you, it would be 'CHILL'. You are laid back and easy going. You love life and make no secret about it. When you're not hitting the beach or chilling, you train like a mad man. You are very competitive and you think that 'impossible is nothing'."
Respectfully Submitted by:
Larry, the LTrain
"Larry took the Which Ultimate Fighter (UFC) are you? quiz and the result is B.J. "The Prodigy" Penn
If one word could describe you, it would be 'CHILL'. You are laid back and easy going. You love life and make no secret about it. When you're not hitting the beach or chilling, you train like a mad man. You are very competitive and you think that 'impossible is nothing'."
Respectfully Submitted by:
Larry, the LTrain
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
The LTrain and Leglocks
Just when I’ve set my own personal record for not posting to my blog, I continue to outdo myself. A fair amount has occurred with my GJJ training since my last post almost a month ago. Before I get started, my short-term goal for the remainder of the summer is to train hard for the “Submissions only” tournament put on by the Ohio Grappling Challenge, September 5, 2009. When I spoke to Darren about this tournament, he mentioned that there are often fewer numbers of competitors who compete in such tournaments because the only way one can win a match is via a submission. I’m not sure about all of the rules yet, but from what I understand, there are no time limits, and I suppose after a while, if nobody gets submitted, the referee could possibly award the match to whomever has the most legitimate submission attempts? But I’m really not sure about the rules at this time. All I know is that such a tournament will really force me to think about “finishing” opponents, and I have a lot of things that I’m working on to refine my current submission skills and implement some new ones, for my goal is to submit people as fast as I can while getting off the mat with all of my limbs attached. It’s not a secret to those who know me that I really hate to “tap”, which has gotten me yelled at on more than one occasion by Darren.
A few weeks ago, I began to focus on hitting leglocks while “rolling”. I’ve drilled leglocks a fair amount over the past few years, primarily “no-Gi”, but got a “wild hair” a about a month ago to begin to open up with them. Primarily, I focus on the straight ankle lock followed by either the Knee-bar or heel-hook. I’ve been somewhat successful catching the straight ankle lock off the guard pass when my opponent tries to defend the knee drive pass, and have caught a few blue belts in the room with some pretty tight ankle locks. When I don’t finish this lock, it’s generally because I’m overanxious and wrap the leg too early with my guillotine part of my wrist too close to the guy’s calf. We’ve made a few adjustments with trapping the leg and not telegraphing this submission so much, for it’s a tight, fast leglock, to be sure.
Without the Gi, I’m catching the knee-bar from the butterfly guard on a number of occasions. I started drilling this a bit in early June. From butterfly guard, one breaks the guy’s posture and elevates him with his legs. He continues by kicking his leg through his opponents legs while keep the tension and the butterfly hook with his other leg. He’s then able to take the guy’s top leg and roll to a knee-bar. It’s definitely a leglock that I’ve begun to work quite a bit, and aim to make the transitions to finishing this submission much smoother.
I’ve always been nervous about drilling heel-hooks with my training partners as well as working them into a rolling session. I’m fearful of getting overanxious and really hurting a friend of mine, so while I’m playing around with the heel-hooks a bit, they don’t have the same priority for me as knee-bars and ankle locks.
Darren showed a rather clever, advanced toehold last night from the standing position where you secure the leg that you wish to toehold, summersault, and secure the person’s other leg either by figure-fouring your legs or by trapping the bottom leg with your leg and then by gripping the person’s toes with one hand while reaching under your wrist and grabbing your wrist with your other hand and turning the heel counterclockwise—the guy’s heel should be in the crook of your elbow of the hand that is grabbing the wrist. It’s really tight, and I bet it looks cooler than the actual skills necessary to execute such a move.
Lastly, I had an epiphany of sorts last night. Often when passing the guard, I have trouble opening the guard when I secure grips on the lapels by the armpits, hop up, and try to get my knee placed in the vicinity of my partner’s asscrack. I learned that especially with individuals who are somewhat tall, if I lengthen my body and really control the grips on the armpits when hopping up, it’s actually a bit easier to position the knee properly as well as ensure that my knee is over my foot for when I sit back to open the guard. This is something that I’ve heard before, but a light went on in my big cavern-like dome last night and it really made sense to me.
Respectfully:
Larry, The LTrain
A few weeks ago, I began to focus on hitting leglocks while “rolling”. I’ve drilled leglocks a fair amount over the past few years, primarily “no-Gi”, but got a “wild hair” a about a month ago to begin to open up with them. Primarily, I focus on the straight ankle lock followed by either the Knee-bar or heel-hook. I’ve been somewhat successful catching the straight ankle lock off the guard pass when my opponent tries to defend the knee drive pass, and have caught a few blue belts in the room with some pretty tight ankle locks. When I don’t finish this lock, it’s generally because I’m overanxious and wrap the leg too early with my guillotine part of my wrist too close to the guy’s calf. We’ve made a few adjustments with trapping the leg and not telegraphing this submission so much, for it’s a tight, fast leglock, to be sure.
Without the Gi, I’m catching the knee-bar from the butterfly guard on a number of occasions. I started drilling this a bit in early June. From butterfly guard, one breaks the guy’s posture and elevates him with his legs. He continues by kicking his leg through his opponents legs while keep the tension and the butterfly hook with his other leg. He’s then able to take the guy’s top leg and roll to a knee-bar. It’s definitely a leglock that I’ve begun to work quite a bit, and aim to make the transitions to finishing this submission much smoother.
I’ve always been nervous about drilling heel-hooks with my training partners as well as working them into a rolling session. I’m fearful of getting overanxious and really hurting a friend of mine, so while I’m playing around with the heel-hooks a bit, they don’t have the same priority for me as knee-bars and ankle locks.
Darren showed a rather clever, advanced toehold last night from the standing position where you secure the leg that you wish to toehold, summersault, and secure the person’s other leg either by figure-fouring your legs or by trapping the bottom leg with your leg and then by gripping the person’s toes with one hand while reaching under your wrist and grabbing your wrist with your other hand and turning the heel counterclockwise—the guy’s heel should be in the crook of your elbow of the hand that is grabbing the wrist. It’s really tight, and I bet it looks cooler than the actual skills necessary to execute such a move.
Lastly, I had an epiphany of sorts last night. Often when passing the guard, I have trouble opening the guard when I secure grips on the lapels by the armpits, hop up, and try to get my knee placed in the vicinity of my partner’s asscrack. I learned that especially with individuals who are somewhat tall, if I lengthen my body and really control the grips on the armpits when hopping up, it’s actually a bit easier to position the knee properly as well as ensure that my knee is over my foot for when I sit back to open the guard. This is something that I’ve heard before, but a light went on in my big cavern-like dome last night and it really made sense to me.
Respectfully:
Larry, The LTrain
Thursday, June 25, 2009
An Excellent Audio-Video Recap of This Year’s Mundials World Championships
Greetings,
I just received an e-mail about this video from my man, Caleb over at The FightWorks Podcast. It’s a video summary of the results of this year’s black belt championship matches held at this year’s Mundials World Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Tournament, June 7, 2009. Caleb does an awesome job providing audio commentary for these outcomes, and while the video cannot capture how it must have felt to have been in attendance, Caleb really did an excellent job bringing the results to life for me as a blind listener to this video. Check out the video below to watch the footage and listen to Caleb’s account of what happened during this action-packed event.
Respectfully,
Larry, the LTrain
I just received an e-mail about this video from my man, Caleb over at The FightWorks Podcast. It’s a video summary of the results of this year’s black belt championship matches held at this year’s Mundials World Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Tournament, June 7, 2009. Caleb does an awesome job providing audio commentary for these outcomes, and while the video cannot capture how it must have felt to have been in attendance, Caleb really did an excellent job bringing the results to life for me as a blind listener to this video. Check out the video below to watch the footage and listen to Caleb’s account of what happened during this action-packed event.
Respectfully,
Larry, the LTrain
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
A Rant about “McDojos” and Random Thoughts About Training
Last Monday Darren came to class all fired up about something, and waited for class to begin before telling us what was up. He, along with two other Team Evolution teammates, went to visit a “McDojo” before class on Cleveland’s West side that claimed to teach Jiu Jitsu. Now those of you who know me know that I have a lot of respect for traditional Martial Arts, and actually still train in them, for the conditioning and the attention to flexibility and focus has complimented my GJJ game. But one thing that I will never accept is when a “McDojo” dilutes the “Martial Science” that is Jiu Jitsu in an attempt to steal money from students who wish to learn “the gentle art”.
The leader of the “McDojo” had a blackbelt in some sort of martial art and was a blue belt in Jiu Jitsu although he wouldn’t tell Darren where he got it. Needless to say, Darren mounted him with ease and the guy didn’t escape. Either Darren’s a nice guy, I’m an asshole, or both statements may be true, for I would have tapped this guy out in front of his students and exposed him for the fraud that he is. He’s not alone. There are "pretenders" out there who are running Martial Arts academies who are trying to rake in the cash by offering their own brand of grappling and calling it Jiu Jitsu. I had my own “McDojo” experience when I was a 2nd stripe white belt. The “McDojo” owner was trying to brand his own flavor of grappling which has since fizzled, and he couldn’t even pass my white belt guard. The sad thing about these “McDojo” posers is that not only are they stealing money, but they’re teaching things that will get their students really hurt if they try to use them outside the “McDojo” in a real-life situation. I’ll never forget my own experience where the instructor was actually encouraging his students to try for submissions while they were mounted by someone!!!!
I’m all for cross training, and think it’s an awesome idea for traditional martial arts schools to provide Jiu Jitsu as part of their class offerings, but for God sakes, get a solid instructor in there to teach proper technique and principles? I mean, you don’t often see a great Jiu Jitsu fighter teach striking—rather, he defers to instructors whose expertise is striking and the student is best-served by this act of humility!
Enough ranting for this post….Training’s been going well—Andres showed a few more interesting sweeps from Spider Guard last Saturday that I’m beginning to implement when people begin to stand up in my guard. He also showed me a really cool set-up from a scissors sweep into a triangle choke that I’ve really come to like. “Basics” and “self-defense” are on the GJJ menu tonight, and I’ll keep you all posted if I pick up any interesting tidbits, details, etc.
Respectfully Submitted By:
Larry, the LTrain
The leader of the “McDojo” had a blackbelt in some sort of martial art and was a blue belt in Jiu Jitsu although he wouldn’t tell Darren where he got it. Needless to say, Darren mounted him with ease and the guy didn’t escape. Either Darren’s a nice guy, I’m an asshole, or both statements may be true, for I would have tapped this guy out in front of his students and exposed him for the fraud that he is. He’s not alone. There are "pretenders" out there who are running Martial Arts academies who are trying to rake in the cash by offering their own brand of grappling and calling it Jiu Jitsu. I had my own “McDojo” experience when I was a 2nd stripe white belt. The “McDojo” owner was trying to brand his own flavor of grappling which has since fizzled, and he couldn’t even pass my white belt guard. The sad thing about these “McDojo” posers is that not only are they stealing money, but they’re teaching things that will get their students really hurt if they try to use them outside the “McDojo” in a real-life situation. I’ll never forget my own experience where the instructor was actually encouraging his students to try for submissions while they were mounted by someone!!!!
I’m all for cross training, and think it’s an awesome idea for traditional martial arts schools to provide Jiu Jitsu as part of their class offerings, but for God sakes, get a solid instructor in there to teach proper technique and principles? I mean, you don’t often see a great Jiu Jitsu fighter teach striking—rather, he defers to instructors whose expertise is striking and the student is best-served by this act of humility!
Enough ranting for this post….Training’s been going well—Andres showed a few more interesting sweeps from Spider Guard last Saturday that I’m beginning to implement when people begin to stand up in my guard. He also showed me a really cool set-up from a scissors sweep into a triangle choke that I’ve really come to like. “Basics” and “self-defense” are on the GJJ menu tonight, and I’ll keep you all posted if I pick up any interesting tidbits, details, etc.
Respectfully Submitted By:
Larry, the LTrain
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