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

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!

2012 Off to a Good Start!

Last night was the first class of 2012 and it fell in line with number five on 2012 BJJ goals. With the school closed for 10 days due to remodeling, no one able to train, and a majority of us went on an eating binges, this class was an excellent wake up call. I know I tried to remove as many of the coconut cupcakes; my wife made to prevent them from falling into enemy hands.

We started class with some shrimp drills and then some arm bar drills from guard, but the class got even better after the drilling. We welcomed 4 visitors from Jiu Jitsu Nation,a Relson Gracie school, in Myrtle Beach, which is an hour or so away from Florence. These are some top-notch guys.

I missed the picture opportunity :(

The introductions allowed everyone to be able to catch their breath from the drills. Then we moved into the gauntlet of pass and defend, the next 30 minutes would be rough. The instruction given for the session was not submit or sweep the person in the guard, but to let them work technique to pass into side control. One thing I discovered doing this, that I need to work on my guard passing a lot this year. I might need to reassess this in the oncoming weeks; it could be the extra cupcakes making my techniques sloppy.

After pass and defend, it was open mat, and I wanted to roll with the visitors. I started my first roll with Josh, who is a seasoned blue belt and we went for two rounds at least. In those two rounds, I found myself on the receiving end of three collar chokes, but as I learned what not to do, I did manage to get him in side control for all of thirty seconds.

I shook his hand and thanked him for showing some errors I was making. The next training partner, Phil, was pretty intimidating to me as he sat there is brown A5 gi and his purple belt. I found out, that there was no need to be intimidated. Phil was an awesome training partner. We started rolling and I started getting submitted, once he would submit me, he would show me what happened and the submission technique. I certainly need to incorporate the two techniques he showed me. One was a submission called the “Stick Shift” and the other was arm pin called, “Hog Tie”. Both techniques were highly effective in leading me to tap.

A couple of rounds went by, and Phil ended the small submission clinic he had happening. I then went to Jeremiah, who is a veteran blue belt, and once again, the workshop was open. This was a spider guard and open guard sweep seminar. We only had the chance to roll one round, but it was a great experience to see how effective spider guard can be.

At the beginning of class, I did not want to train with these guys. Why did I not want to spar with them? I saw their belts with their years of experience and was gun shy on how I would have faired training with them. I knew if I rolled I would tap and I knew these guys were more skilled than myself, but I wanted to see what would happen or what the outcome would be. I wanted to see if I could pick up a few tricks or may be even survive a couple of minutes. I am glad these guys stopped by, training with them has set the tone for 2012. 

The training showed me something about Jiu Jitsu community and myself at the end of the day. We are all training partners and should learn from each other. I had an awesome time training with Jeremiah, Josh, Phil and JR(Who I did not get to roll with), thanks for the training and you guys are a class act.

2012 Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Goals and Quick Tips on How to Keep Them

With the New Year just around the corner, it is time to make those New Year resolutions. Most people are going to continue making the same resolutions about weight loss, financial stability, to quit smoking or drinking, to find love or maybe even learn a new language. These are some of the usual New Year resolutions, but I wanted to see if there have been many Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu resolutions set and what some of the examples were.

43things.com is a site where people can document things they would like to achieve as goals. I did a couple of quick searches for BJJ and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and this is the result of the inquiry: 

 64% of people want to start training or learn BJJ

25% of people want to earn the next belt ranking

6% want to Compete or win their division in tournament

"When setting a long-term goal, find the pace necessary to achieve it." Rickson Gracie

 Based on statistics and previous data I have found 78% of people never complete their resolution. That means, three out of those four people that wanted to learn/start Brazilian Jiu Jitsu will never do it. That is an eye-opening statistic!

I think people make these goals just like any other goal, just with broad vision and specifics. Many people rather deal in generalities than in specifics. Zig Ziglar says, “If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time.”

It is okay if you want to earn your next belt, which is an admirable goal to have. How would you go about achieving getting your next belt level? What are some steps to take to start training and learn Brazilian Jiu Jitsu?

Here are some quick tips to achieving your goals:

1)      Make them SMART Goals (Specific, Manageable, Attainable, Realistic, Trackable)

2)      Write them down-

         Studies show that you are 80% more likely to achieve your goals if you write

         them down

3)      Tell a friend-

    Who else to hold you accountable and keep you on track other than a friend?

4)      Post them up somewhere-

           This is just a reminder to keep you focused

5)      Set small goals to achieve the big ones

            Once you achieve some small goals you start to feel a sense of completion and

            Getting some momentum going your way

6)      Reward yourself

     When you achieve success, reward yourself with a magazine, CD, or whatever      you want.

Some of my goals this year:

1) Post at least one article and try my best to keep the blog updated

   I am hoping to do some interviews and product reviews for 2012

2) Achieve 200 hours of mat time ( that is at two times per week)

This is something that I think is achievable with my current schedule. It will give me the mat time that I so need.

3) Drill techniques 50 times each side

I am hoping to accomplish this on Sundays to improve my fundamentals

4) Compete in at least two tournaments

Uncertain how unstable the beginning of the year will be with my family, but

 I will definitely do some towards the end of the year. I was only able to compete in one tournament this year.

5) Visit at least a couple of schools in some different areas either for Seminars or just to train

This is something I have wanted to do for a couple months now,

Now that the baby is getting old enough to travel, am hoping I can hit up some during vacation

            6) Improve my note taking

          Get in the habit of taking notes and jotting down techniques. I do it but not all the time. 

7)  Try to get my Crossfit back on track

           That is one area of training I think that has helped my cardio and Jiu jitsu skills

8)  CLEAN my diet up!

           When I eat like crap, I roll like crap and have no energy. Before I fell off the wagon and went into a diet coma, I had a ton of energy and could roll several rounds and not worry about a break

9)  Take some private lessons
I think this will point out some errors I have been making

                
What are some of your goals for 2012? How do you plan on achieving them?