Kodokan Throwing Techniques (Nagewaza)

What’s more exciting than watching a Judo master throw his opponent? We all know how devastating a good judo throw can be, one could even argue that when properly executed a judo throw can be a fight ender.

As jiu jitsu practitioners we’re often accused of not having a good stand-up game. Across the internet you often read people lamenting “how can you win a fight if you can’t even get your opponent to the ground?”.

I disagree with this. I believe that as long as you start most of your rolls from a standing position, you’ll be in good shape in terms of perfecting your take down skills.

Throw in some judo throws combined with some wrestling and you can become exceptionally effective at taking down an opponent.

Check out this video demonstrating 67 throwing techniques with variations:

 

Also check out the video “Real World Judo: Hit Harder with a Throw” (included with an Amazon Prime subscription if you have that):

real-world-judo

4 Fighting Styles Every Fighter Should Know

“Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing.” – Robert E. Howard

“How much can you know about yourself if you’ve never been in a fight?” – Tyler Durden, Fight Club

Most of us will never be put in a situation to have to defend ourselves in our adult life. Fights are typically relegated to the school yard, or the college bar, but at a certain point life changes and the appeal of throwing fists in polite society loses it’s luster.

Still, this doesn’t relieve us of the responsibility of knowing how to defend ourselves, our loved ones, and those who can’t defend themselves. The chances of needing to get into a physical altercation are generally pretty slim, but it’s better to be a “warrior in a garden than a gardener in a war”.

Learning how to fight is a great way to boost confidence. Knowing you can throw a punch, and take a punch if necessary, can take the anxiety out of any adversarial exchange. There’s evidence that people who know how to fight tend to avoid confrontation just on the basis that they know they don’t need to prove themselves.

There’s also evidence that the more confidence you exude, the less likely you are to be a target of violent crime. Most criminals commit crimes of opportunity. They want the most return on their efforts with the least amount of resistance and risk . How you carry yourself could very well make the difference when a criminal is looking for their next mark.

With the plethora of fighting styles available to learn, which ones should you choose to dive into? There are traditional martial arts such as Karate and Kung Fu, grappling styles, striking styles, and subdivisions in each.

Here are the four fighting styles I think are the most important and effective. Each of these fighting styles has proven themselves to be invaluable in mixed martial arts events. Their effectiveness has been battle tested by their practitioners through countless hours of sparring and refinement.

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Why Women Should Train Jiu Jitsu

At our Jiu Jitsu academy we have a women’s program that was started a couple of years ago. It was created as a way to help women overcome the discomfort of training in a co-ed environment. One of the instructor’s at our academy is a female, and she thought it would be worth experimenting with a women’s-only program to see if there would be any interest in getting more women to train jiu jitsu. And there certainly was. That part of the school is now thriving. You can read about it here: Girls-in-Gis: The Power of Healing.

I’ve heard from a few women that have trained jiu jitsu that there is an initial discomfort to get over in training with guys. There’s the obvious gender difference that is a barrier for some women to get past, but there’s also the size difference. It’s physically demanding to train when you’re first starting jiu jitsu, and if you’re a woman starting out who has to train with guys much larger than them then I could see how it could be difficult to do the moves, at least in the beginning. Jiu jitsu was designed so that a smaller, weaker person can overcome someone larger and stronger, but when you’re first learning the techniques you don’t know how to apply the proper leverage yet, so you’re not going to be defeating size and strength from day one.

There are many reasons why women may feel uncomfortable training jiu jitsu with guys, I’m not a woman so I won’t claim to know truly what it feels like but a quick web search shows many articles that address this topic. The organization “Girls in Gis” was created to help women train together in a friendly environment. They host events all around the United States through their ambassador program and we are very fortunate to have a Girls in Gis event at our school. Girls in Gis also has a scholarship program to help offset the costs associated with learning jiu jitsu.  If you check out the testimonials on their site you’ll see that Girls in Gis have had a positive influence on many women’s jiu jitsu journey.

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How to Start a Jiu Jitsu Blog with WordPress

Blogging about Jiu Jitsu has become one of my favorite things to do. I’ve stated in other areas of this blog that I started it as a way for me to keep track of all the internet links I was finding, and all the stuff I was learning on my jiu jitsu journey. It’s evolved to be more than that at this point though. It’s truly become a labor of love.

Anytime I learn something new that I think could help my jiu jitsu I try to document it here. Whether it’s a new way of eating, a different way of working out, details about moves that I hadn’t known before, or just sharing cool videos I found online, I write that stuff in this blog. This blog has become like an online jiu jitsu diary, that I get to share with all of you.

In addition to being a good way to catalog information about jiu jitsu, blogging can also earn a little extra cash, through affiliate links or advertising fees. It does cost a little bit of money to run a blog, so if it’s possible to recoup some of those fees via affiliate links it certainly helps to keep the blog running.

It’s pretty interesting to read some of the income reports listed on other blogs. The amount of money that blogs can earn varies wildly, but here are some fun figures from some of the more popular blogs:

Monthly Income Reports of Popular Blogs

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