Rodrigo Antunes Seminar 3/23/12

This past weekend was one of the biggest days at Swampfox BJJ. We were fortunate enough to have a world renowned Royler Gracie 4th degree black belt, Rodrigo Antunes. Rodrigo helps train some of the best in the world from Anderson Silva to the Nogueira brothers. Rodrigo befriended my friend Mark in Brazil this past January, when he was attending the Royler Gracie Jiu Jitsu Camp. Rodrigo helped organize the camp and be a guide to the campers around the Rio de Janeiro area. The friendship lasted after the camp and resulted in Rodrigo visiting our school to share his knowledge and love for Jiu Jitsu.

This was the very first seminar at our academy and we were all very excited to have Rodrigo visit and teach. He was kind enough to get off the plane from Brazil and come in and teach Thursday night class. His energy and passion about Jiu Jitsu was immediately felt and transferred over to the class.

During his instruction on Thursday night, he went over a series of techniques that linked together. The series he showed began from a grip break, to a takedown, to a side mount variation, and then ended in a submission. It was great series and to see all the techniques come together in the end, reminded me of seeing a completed puzzle after I put all the pieces together.

Friday was a day of private lessons and seminar at night. One of my 2012 Goals was to take some private lessons. Rodrigo was definitely full of energy as I stepped into the academy for my private lesson Friday Afternoon. He had just finished up a lesson and was eating some Acai
berries.

I will not discuss in detail the techniques shown in the private lesson, as it will be a lot to cover. Based off of my questions, he showed to side control escapes, knee-on-belly escapes, and some areas to improve gaps in my submission attempts. It was very beneficial to have this one on one time, and break down each technique. The hour lesson flew by rather quickly,and then it was time for the seminar.

During the seminar, he explained that Jiu Jitsu consists of self defense and sport techniques and he wanted to give of small pieces of each world.

We started off with some simple self defense techniques that focused on using the aggressors energy towards you to initiate and finish the technique.
We did some wrist locks, wrist locks to takedown, and a series of different style guillotines. Overall,very interesting techniques and very effective.

The message of using your opponent's energy carried over to the sport techniques. We went over a series of submissions attacking a defending opponent while in turtle, to some very energy efficient guard breaks and passing techniques.

This seminar was interesting because it pointed out the use of energy efficient techniques using your opponent's momentum and movements against them. Rodrigo's experience and energy
allowed him to show us techniques that countered our own classmates
strong submissions. It was a true honor to see the techniques he developed as he was placed in dangerous situations.

This was a big event for our academy and I was honored to be a part of it. Thanks to Mark and Rodrigo for such a great experience.

Rodrigo Antunes and the Swampfox BJJ Crew

Escaping side control and taking back during private lesson

Rodrigo rolling with some classmates

Rolling with the "Beast" Edwards

Never laugh during self defense

Combat Club Classic Road Trip and Results

This past weekend 5 of us piled into my Honda Pilot and headed up to Jacksonville,NC for the first Combat Club Classic submission only tournament. After a 3 1/2 hour ride we arrived at the middle school.

We all made weight classes we were shooting for. Even Zach, the ambitious 15 yr old, managed to be in the < 225 class by ditching his phone and wallet.

We arrived way to early, in hopes of letting Zach compete in the teens. The combined weight of both teens competing in the division did not even equal Zach's weight. So no teen competition for us, and the waiting continued until one o'clock.

Blake, Russell, and Zach got called to the mats at the same time since they were in separate weight classes and white belts. Mike B and I frantically set up cameras and divided up coaching responsibilities.

Russell's match was first out of the three. This being his first tournament, I was pretty sure his nerves would play into the match. He did unexpectedly well for his time. He controlled his opponent, ended up in mount, but got caught with a triangle after a grueling eight minutes.

Blake's match in his first tournament experience did not fair so well. His opponent an apparent Judo practitioner kept trying to set up a Uchi mata. After screaming for Blake to jump guard to avoid the throw, he ended up in kesa-gatame and he put his arm in the wrong location and his opponent caught him in an arm bar. It was still an awesome experience for Blake competing for the first time.

Zach is the only one out of the five of us that placed third. He won his first match rather quickly, he had a perfectly executed scissor sweep, which led to him catching his opponent with an Ezekial choke. He ended up losing his next match to a Kimura after a hard fought battle of back and forth. To be 15 years old and compete at the level he did against older opponents he
is going to be a beast in the next couple of years.

The only downside of the tournament proceedings was the long wait in between the white and blue belt matches. It was almost three o'clock before the first blue belt match started.

Mike B. drew a white belt fighting up in divisions with six years MMA/ no gi training. It was an epic battle and Mike threw his entire arsenal at him. There were countless triangles and arm bars
attempted and defended. It was a back and forth battle, finally there was a scramble resulting in Mike being caught in an arm bar. It was a good match to watch and made me realize how important having a good strong base and defenses could prolong the length of the match.

Now moving on to your's truly. I drew a white belt that was fighting up in the blue belt as well. When I stepped on the mats, I was not nervous at all. It was the most calm I had ever been during a tournament. The match started and I immediately grabbed a deep cross collar grip and gripped his sleeve, I was looking to try and setup a take down. He did nothing to defend or try and break my grips, so I decided to try to set up a cross collar choke, I let go of his gi sleeve and planted my hand deep in the opposite collar. I had the cross collar choke set up, all I had to do was pull him into my guard and finish the choke. When I went to pull guard, I failed miserably and he stepped around and caught me in an armbar. I think my match almost lasted thirty seconds.

I was disappointed in my performance. I was the only one to blame. I trained as hard as I could, and I ended up beating myself.

All around it was a super fun time with the guys from the academy, the tournament officials were great, and the atmosphere was awesome. The only area that needed improvement was the down time between divisions.

I am hoping for a better showing during the next tournament on April 14th. Keep training and thanks to the Combat Club in Jacksonville,NC for tournament.

Are you Teaching or Training in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu?

I have trained a countless number of people in my job over the years in many different areas, but I have never taught anyone. I never knew there was a difference between the two until last Saturday when I taught the kids BJJ class.

So what are the fundamental differences between training and teaching?

Definitions of Teaching:
• To impart skill or knowledge
• To Instruct
• To Guide the Studies of ……

Definitions of Training:
• To make proficient by instruction and practice
• To give the discipline and instruction, drill, practice, etc., designed to impart proficiency or efficiency.
• To get oneself into condition for an athletic performance through exercise, diet, practice, etc.

During class on Saturday, I demonstrated a technique and explained the theory behind the technique and then the class will drill the move to commit it to muscle memory. I gave instruction to each of the students if they were not doing the movement correctly. Sounds like a normal class?

In my mind, the wheels were turning, and I was able to see the technique differently. By teaching it, I was able to slow the technique down and see the errors I was making when I was drilling it. I was not putting my foot in the right location to trap my opponent’s foot tighter. And I had my grip wrong when breaking down his elbow for the trap and roll. I probably drilled the trap and roll mount escape well over two hundred, who knows the actual repetitions, but it has been a lot.

This is when I realized there is a difference between teaching and training Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. I was able to drill and break the technique down at the same time; it was the best of both worlds to me.

I started thinking about the drilling of moves, instead of seeing how fast I can get a repetition to finish. I need to start invoking the “Quality over Quantity” rule. I need to teach myself the move first and then drill it. Before I would just go into drilling the move and rarely would I slow down to think of the steps. It is amazing to me that I have been able to retain as much as I have. There should be an equal balance between the two in the end.

I know there are several instructors, students and even actual teachers that read my ramblings. What is everyone’s thought on developing an instructional mindset while drilling or training?

How to Bake a Really Tasty BJJ Cake

I was reading a Royce Gracie Interview done by Sport360. One point of the interview stuck with me. Here, is a snippet of the interview:

When asked about the teaching methods and the talent he has seen in UAE as a regular visitor to the MMA Contender Gym in Dubai, Gracie said: “There is no such thing as good students and bad students but there are good teachers and bad teachers. My instructors are good teachers and if you have discipline you will learn martial arts. Talent is everywhere, but discipline is what will get you to a high level”

What is the discipline necessary to achieve the higher level? What makes up that discipline?

I am reminded of one my Japanese co-workers analogies about attacking a big project. He compared a big project to baking a cake, all the smaller tasks that make up the project are considered the ingredients, the specifications, drawings, or the plans are the directions to baking the cake. I began to think of discipline as the cake, but I just needed to figure out the ingredients that made up the result, the cake.

Here, is a shopping list of ingredients:

• Motivation- what motivates you to train? What keeps you going to class? To be able to protect yourself, losing weight, competing, or the experience of doing something you love. This is one area that makes up discipline.

• Routine- Developing a routine will help you stay on track. If you develop a routine of going to class and training, you will find yourself more apt to go. Once you get into a solid routine, you can deviate from time to time.

• Inspiration-Find someone who inspires you to keep training. It could be your instructor, a training partner, or a famous practitioner, Andre Galvao, Marcelo Garcia, etc. It is the person you would look to for advice or someone you model your training after.

• Goals-Discipline is nothing without goals. They are one of the main ingredients. Sit down with some paper and write them out. In the book I am currently reading The 10X Rule, author Grant Cadone states, that writing your goals down once a year is not worth doing one time a year. He recommends writing them daily and set the goals high. “People’s failure to think big enough usually means they will never act big enough, often enough, or persistently enough.”

• Visualization-You have to figure out what you want in the end and see it. In the latest issue of Jiu-Jitsu Magazine, there is an article that discusses how 2011 ADCC Champion, Andre Galvoa, visualizes his matches and his hand being raised in victory at the end of a match. I have to say it must work, he typically dominates his division and is considered one of the top competitors in the world.

Once you combine all these ingredients you still will have mess that you need to some sense of. This is where the recipe, directions or your plan comes into action. This is no miracle formula for instant success; you have to follow your plan, you have to preheat and bake the ingredients. It is going to take time to develop your plan of action and it will take some time before you see the results. You can typically taste the results of the cake in about forty-five minutes, but for your discipline to taste great it will probably take you several months before you start to see results. I knew I had to have the discipline to train or to excel, but I never thought about what discipline was made up of. After analyzing the ingredients, I think I have a better understanding of the hard work necessary to be disciplined.

Now you can have your Discipline and eat it too!

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Blog Survey

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey, the world's leading questionnaire tool.

2012 Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Vacation Plan

I don't know why, but I am super pumped about my vacation this July 4th.

Typically the wife and I will disappear for the week on a camping trip or visit somewhere out of state. This year I have managed to negotiate with her, for me and Mike B. to go train in Florida for two days!

Two days you say?Where am I training? I am still working out the details and arrangements, but looks like we are going to train at Robson Moura's academy in Tampa,FL.

Are you planning any BJJ training vacations? If so what are your plans?

Master Relson Gracie Seminar 1/25/12

I had only briefly read different articles and watched some youtube videos of Master Relson since starting Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu a year ago. Never did I think I would get the chance to train with such a legend. So when Ben Rhodes, Owner/Instructor, CrossRhodes BJJ invited me to the event, I knew this maybe my only chance to learn from such a legend and innovator. My friend Mark and I took the two-hour trek to Bluffton, SC to attend this seminar.

The seminar started at 6:00pm, and I believe all thirty attendees were eager to begin at 5:30. We were waiting for Relson to arrive at the academy, and suddenly he arrived in the parking lot. My heart was pounding; I have never met anyone of his caliper, much less trained with them. It would only get better….

Master Relson began his seminar by choosing me to be his training partner. I was nervous and immediately broke out in a sweat. He took us through his philosophies on Street Jiu-Jitsu versus Competition Jiu Jitsu. Since his Jiu-Jitsu is deeply rooted in self-defense, he began the seminar with the basics of defending from attacking opponent and then moved into some counters. The instructions of the techniques were so simple, that the moves were easily repeatable during drilling. We covered sweeps and throws, because like Relson said, “When someone gets thrown to the ground it can break bones and end the fight earlier.” All the standing techniques were done individually with one motion, but when strung together it could end badly for an attacker.

Moving to attacks and defense for a grounded opponent was rather interesting; I had trouble with one technique he was showing so he grabbed another partner. He showed us how to block and attack, with head butts and strikes, while in the guard. This was a little more technical to me than the standup. Wrapping up the self-defense portion of the seminar, Relson stated, “That if we apply those techniques, effectively and efficiently, that no one could beat us on the street.”

The competition based techniques revolved around knee-on-belly defense; this was interesting to see how he defended knee on belly attacks and his counter moves.He showed some technical errors on why you should not use the collar has a grip for knee on belly. He also demonstrated a series of chokes to use on an opponent that is defending against the knee on belly mount.

A Total Summary:

This was a two-hour seminar, on a Wednesday night, two hours from my house. I debated for a month on whether not I should go, I decided to attend, and I am glad I did. This seminar opened up my mind to the difference and effectiveness of Street Jiu jitsu and Competition Jiu jits. Master Relson’s instruction of techniques is amazing he breaks down the moves and explains it with such detail it becomes easy. Once you realize the simplicity of the technique, you then realize how effective it can be when used. Also, if Master Relson uses you as a training partner, do not be as nervous as I was. I was so nervous I could not even hardly perform the instruction he was given.

Relson stated that he had 23 seminars in 22 days. If you can make it to any of these seminars to learn from a master instructor and practitioner of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, I would advise you do so. You will never forget the experience!