August 2018 - BJJ Mat Rat

Gracie Breakdown 4 Part Survival Seminar Series

I’ve been watching these videos today and getting a lot out of them. Ryron and Rener Gracie go in depth into concepts about defense, escapes, control and submission. What I like about these videos is they talk about jiu jitsu concepts rather than just demoing moves. Moves are great, but I find that I learn best when I can see the bigger picture through a concept based approach. There’s a lot to unpack in these videos, and I’m just getting into them so I can’t speak much about them yet, but wanted to share them here in case others would find them valuable as well.

Defend:

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The 80/20 Principle for Jiu Jitsu – Review

I recently finished reading “The 80/20 Principle: The Secret to Success by Achieving More with Less” by Richard Koch, and I’ve been giving a lot of thought to how I can apply that principle to my daily routine. In the book Koch posits that the 80/20 principle (first put forth by Vilfredo Pareto to describe the distribution of wealth in society) can actually be applied across many different domains in life. Essentially the maxim indicates that 80% of value is produced by 20% of the effort you put in. What this boils down to is that apparently we all tend to waste a lot of time on minutiae of detail but could achieve more by paying attention to the correct pieces of detail, and end up with more free time as a bonus.

As time management is one of my greatest challenges (I’m sure I’m not alone in this), I’m very interested in finding out if the 80/20 principle properly applied can bring me more free time. If I think about how this applies to jiu jitsu I can break it down by determining what techniques or principles would lead to the greatest results, in the quickest amount of time.

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Henry Akins Seminar – Columbus OH – Side Control Escapes

Yesterday I attended my third seminar with Henry Akins, this one being at Relson Gracie Jiu Jitsu in Columbus Ohio, and it was just as mind blowing as all the rest have been. If you’ve never been to a seminar with Henry Akins you need to put it on your to-do list, asap. Every time I’ve attended his seminars I’ve come away with concepts that immediately improved the efficiency of my jiu jitsu. I always find myself thinking “I can’t believe I haven’t thought of doing it this way before” when he shows a detail, because the simplicity and efficiency of the movement that he teaches makes it seem like the move was always intended to be done this particular way. Ask anybody that attends these seminars and they will tell you the same. There are many “Eureka!” moments.

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Foot Scoop Single to Leg Drag Pass

Another great video from John Lawrence, owner and head instructor at Hurricane Jiu Jitsu. In this video he covers some details of how to chain together a single leg take down to a leg drag pass. He points out some important aspects in regards to handling possible strikes during the pass.

Fighting Off The Wall

Brick Wall Last night at class we spent most of the evening working on stand-up self defense tactics. In jiu jitsu we tend to spend most of our time fighting on the ground, either off our backs or with our weight distributed on our partner. Anytime I work on stand-up I’m reminded of how different the strength and cardio requirements are. It gets even harder when you’re standing up and pinned against the wall. And harder still when you get taken down, pinned against the wall, with your partners full weight on you and your trying to stand back up.

We started the class with out typical warm-up of hip escapes, and then quickly transitioned into pummeling drills. These drills switched to pummeling “sparring”. After warm-up we started our wall work. One person would stand with their back against the wall, the other would stand in front of them, with double underhooks and attempt to keep them pinned there. The person on the wall had the job of getting at least one underhook, and spinning their partner so that they were against the wall. Back and forth we went with that drill.
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Prof. Jorge Pereira – Spider Guard Pass to Armbar

Jorge Pereira is a coral belt under Rickson Gracie. He is originally from Rio de Janeiro and has competed in many jiu jitsu and Vale Tudo matches. His best quote was spoken after a particulary tough fight with Alessandro Stefano, “A warrior doesn’t bleed, his honor overflows”.

In this video Pereira shows an awesome guard pass straight into an armbar. This move is a great example efficiency and effectiveness:

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Top Jiu Jitsu Blogs – 2018

I spend a fair amount of time surfing the web for jiu jitsu related content. I’m always looking for jiu jitsu blogs that are informative, funny and entertaining. There’s no shortage of jiu jitsu related material on the internet, but I’ve found myself going to the same resources time and time again. As this blog (bjjmatrat.com) serves as a place for me to list resources that I plan on re-visiting in the future, I thought I would compile a list of jiu jitsu blogs that I like to read so that I can quickly reference them when I need to.

Since I’m always looking out for good jiu jitsu content, I’ll update this list as I find new stuff. If you have any suggestions about jiu jitsu blogs not listed here let me know in the comments so can check them out.

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Jiu Jitsu University – Review

If you’re anything like me (and approximately 100% of other jiu jitsu practitioners) you’re always on the lookout for details to improve your game. YouTube is a great place to go, but I also like to do a deep dive through reading, and Jiu Jitsu University by Saulo Ribeiro offers a lot to learn.

Saulo Ribeiro has a black belt in Jiu Jitsu, Judo and has fought (and won) in MMA. He has won the World Jiu Jitsu Championship five times, and competed in Metamoris 4, where his match against Rodrigo Medeiros ended in a draw. He is co-owner (with his brother Xande Ribeiro) and instructor at The University of Jiu Jitsu which boasts over 50 affiliates world-wide.

Ribeiro’s book “Jiu Jitsu University” divides techniques by belt rank. He spends some time in the introduction describing what he believes to be the goal of each of the belts in jiu jitsu. I found this insight to be very helpful, understanding what a seasoned black belt thinks the focus of a particular belt should be serves to construct a road map in my mind of what to work on in my particular rank.

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