• Kama Jiu Jitsu
  Run by Ryan Young this is the YouTube channel for Kama Jiu Jitsu, and focuses on promoting jiu jitsu as Rickson Gracie taught i.
• Chewjitsu
  The Vlog of Nick “Chewy” Albin, focusing on technique and directly answering viewers questions.
• Bernardo Faria BJJ
  The YouTube channel of world champion and BJJ Fanatics co-founder Bernardo Faria.
• BJJ Fanatics
  This channel features interviews and content from the world’s leading jiu jitsu practitioners.
• Globetrotters in Action
  Featuring video of seminars around the world.
• SBG Portland BJJ and MMA Videos
  The YouTube channel of jiu jitsu black belt Matt Thornton.
• Priit Mihkelson (Jitsvulcan)
  Content from the “Jitsvulcan” and globetrotter, Priit Mihkelson.
• McDojo Life
  Funny videos and breakdowns of fake martial arts. Helping to promote awareness of bullshido.
• Hard 2 Hurt
  Featuring instructional content from “Icy” Mike, focusing on mixed martial arts and street defense.
• Roy Dean
  The personal YouTube channel of Roy Dean, a black belt in Judo, Aikido, Japanese Jiu Jitsu and Brazilin Jiu Jitsu.
• Gracie Breakdown
  Rener and Ryron’s channel, grandsons of Helio Gracie.
• Tristar Gym
  The channel of Firas Zahibi, featuring analysis, Q and A, and instruction.
• Gracie Schwarzwald Jiu-Jitsu
  Video content from Roy Marsh, black belt under Royce Gracie.
• Kurt Osiander Move of the Week
  Kurt Osiander needs no introduction…. GO TRAIN!
• Hurricane Jiu Jitsu
  Video channel of John Lawrence, owner of Hurricane Jiu Jitsu.

The post Top Jiu Jitsu YouTube Channels – 2019 appeared first on BJJ Mat Rat.

• BJJ Eastern Europe
  This is one of the more well known jiu jitsu blogs on the web. Plenty of great content to peruse.
• BJJ Spot
  This site is full of news, technique and gear reviews from around the web.
• Jiu Jitsu Times
  This blog is a great mix of posting up-to-date jiu jitsu news, and funny jiu jitsu videos. I recommend following them on Facebook if you want to keep your feed interesting.
• BJJ After 40
  This is the jiu jitsu blog of Mike Bidwell, a jiu jitsu black belt who spent 13 years at brown belt, and uses his story of going through that grind as an inspiration to the rest of us who are struggling through jiu  jitsu. He often has interesting, creative moves to share as well.
• On The Mat
  This blog hosts a robust listing of articles and videos. I can browse around here for hours.
• Jiu Jitsu Brotherhood
  This is the blog of Nic Gregoriades, author of The Black Belt Blueprint, creator of a variety of DVDs, and perhaps the most mellow personality in jiu jitsu. Always insightful to hear what he has to say on jiu jitsu and yoga.
• Chewjitsu
  I really enjoy this blog. It’s run by Nick “Chewy” Albin, and he’s probably one of the most positive jiu jitsu content creators on the web. He has a lot of good inspirational material for people coming up through the ranks of jiu jitsu.
• Bishop BJJ
  This one is probably a little more serious and literary than the other blogs listed here. Good to dive into this blog when you’re looking for a little more of a deep read.
• BJJ Globetrotters
  Basically what it sounds like. Globetrotting jiu jitsu practitioners.  Be sure to check out their “Story” page to read up on what these guys are all about.
• Grapplearts
  Stephan Kesting was one of the first people I discovered online when I began jiu jitsu. I signed up for his newsletters, subscribed to his YouTube channel and followed him on Facebook. Lots of good material here.
• Submission Shark – The community portion of this site shares stories of jiu jitsu practitioners and how jiu jitsu has improved their lives. Very inspiring to read.
• BJJ For Women
  Jiu jitsu blog focused on women who practice this sport.
• Girls in Gis
  Girls in Gis is an organization that promotes women specific training around the United States. Check out their blog for more information.

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There are no shortage of Facebook pages, Twitter feeds and Instagram personalities creating and sharing memes.

But there are also plenty of funny jiu jitsu YouTube channels, and social media pages that create quality, funny videos.

Here are some of the funniest:

Enter The Dojo Show – Master Ken’s YouTube channel. Though not strictly a “Jiu Jitsu” site, Master Ken does feature jiu jitsu in plenty of his videos so I’ll include it. These are some of the best produced and funniest videos in the martials arts community.

McDojo Life – McDojo Life is dedicated to exposing nonsense martial arts. They share videos of martial arts techniques that clearly have no real-world application. McDojo Life has an Instagram account and YouTube channel but my favorite way to consume their content is via their Facebook page.

John Salter MMA – John Salter MMA’s YouTube channel is famous for their funny promo and instructional videos.

Kit Dale – Kite Dale is a world class jiu jitsu competitor, and actor. He posts quality humorous jiu jitsu videos, and also plenty of non-humorous technical instructional videos.

Kurt Osiander – Kurt Osiander needs no introduction. He is well-known for producing the weekly “Move of the Week” video series, where he shows killer technique with a sense of humor.

Jean Machado – Jean Machado’s YouTube channel is full of funny comedy sketches centered around jiu jitsu.

Mr. Jiu Jitsu – This Facebook page is the public persona of Michael Mihas, where he shares funny videos and memes. Mixed in with the humor are short, inspirational videos typically filmed from his car, and all worth checking out.

Those are the funniest jiu jitsu sites I’ve found. If you know of any others let me know in the comments.

The post The Top Funniest Jiu Jitsu Sites appeared first on BJJ Mat Rat.

This seminar we focused on the rear naked choke. We spent a little time in the beginning of the seminar after our warm up talking about how to control our partner when we have back control. Haueter spoke about the importance of controlling our partner’s hips by pushing our hips right against their tail bone and using our legs to keep their hips pulled back into ours and to the ground. We spent some time with our partner trying to escape while we attempted to hold them in place. It was pretty amazing how much control we had this way, without even really needing to use our arms that much to control their upper body. Typically we’re taught to get a seat belt grip to maintain control but by controlling their hips with our legs we didn’t seem to need that grip to maintain control.

Once we had a grasp on how to control our opponent with minimal use of our arms we moved on to getting the rear naked choke. Haueter showed us how to move our arm in a similar fashion as cracking a whip to get it past our partners shoulders far enough to comfortably wrap our arm around their neck and into a proper choking position.  Understanding how to move our upper back and arm in the correct manner to get the appropriate distance to wrap the choke was a light bulb moment. We didn’t focus a whole lot on finishing the choke, as once it’s locked in it finishes pretty quickly anyways, but we did talk about how to break our partners grips when they are grabbing our arm trying to defend the choke, how to use our other arm to replace our choking arm to get a choke from the other side when one arm isn’t doing the trick and how to transition from the rear naked choke, to a bow and arrow choke, and from there into an arm bar if needed.

Along with the technique Haueter cracked plenty of jokes, and generally made the seminar fun and exciting. If you’ve seen any of his stuff on YouTube you know he’s a funny guy, and his seminars are interlaced with plenty of fun stories and jokes.

During the seminar I was fortunate enough to be paired up with a black belt from a neighboring school (Tony Reel from Gracie Orwell Ohio), and he was helping me get some of the finer details of the techniques as well as adding some details himself. I’m always grateful of the opportunity to work directly with black belts, as they seem to have a way to quickly fix any problem areas I’m having.

All in all it was a great seminar. I’m looking forward to the seeing Haueter the next time he comes into town.

The post Chris Haueter Seminar January 2019 appeared first on BJJ Mat Rat.

Leglocks: Enter the System by John Danaher  – This highly anticipated DVD series was finally released, and it is a treasure trove of information. We’ve been working through the system at our school and each lesson is a game changer.

Discipline Equals Freedom Gi from Origin – Jock Willink teamed up with Origin to create this lightweight, super tough gi. It looks as great as it performs.

Mastering Jiu Jitsu by Renzo Gracie and John Danaher – Two legends put their heads together to write this thesis on understanding the nature of jiu jitsu. They take you through all the phases of a fight and teach you to win from any position.

Travis Stevens 14 DVD Bundle – Travis Stevens is a Judo Olympic competitor, and a black belt in Jiu Jitsu under John Danaher and Renzo Gracie. Pick up his DVD bundle to learn all this tips.

Jiu Jitsu Cell Phone Case – With Jiu Jitsu becoming more popular by the day even cell phone case makers are producing some quality accessories. Choose from these cases to protect your phone.

Jiu Jitsu Hoodies – Stay warm in these choice jiu jitsu hoodies. There’s an ever growing variety of hoodies available.

Subscriptions to Gallerr – Choose from the many modules available from Gallerr.com to sharpen your jiu jitsu skills.

Membership to Henry Akins’ online “Mind Blown Jiu Jitsu” club – A Rickson Gracie black belt, Henry Akins is prolific teacher of the art. Akins is constantly adding new content to the members only area of his site. Membership not only grants you access to his online content, but also gets you into his private FaceBook group where Henry is easily accessible for answering questions.

Acai Recipes Cookbook – Need I say more?

Protein Gift Box – A box chock-full of protein from MuscleBox.com.

Jiu Jitsu License Plate Frame – Better than a bumper sticker, a license plate frame is a great way to decorate your ride with your love of the gentle art.

Some other gift ideas that can’t really be linked to might include a private lesson with a local black belt, a month’s training paid for, covering a competition entry fee, or just a good old fashioned gift card to your online outlet of choice.

Happy shopping!

The post Jiu Jitsu Holiday Gift Guide 2018 appeared first on BJJ Mat Rat.

The seminar was broken up into Gi and No-Gi. The first hour and a half was Gi. We learned a variety of techniques, mostly centered around attacks from the closed guard. Pereira believes the closed guard is better than an open guard for self defense, and the focus of this seminar was Vale Tudo so we only did techniques that would work if strikes were involved. He showed us a cool way to get the cross collar choke when your partner is trying to hold your arms down, and a nasty armbar/triangle combination. He also showed a simple and efficient way to set up an armbar from the closed guard without having to hip out or change position all that much.

The second hour and a half was dedicated to No-Gi. Most of what we worked on in this half was from the feet. He emphasized the importance of working with strikes, and we did some drills where we pushed our opponent around the mat and tried to maintain connection with them at all times, drilled some slap/block defense, and even did some multi-attacker slap/block drills. We learned a pretty crazy throw and an explosive guard break.

Jorge Pereira’s main emphasis was on the fighting aspect of jiu jitsu, and everything we learned was for fighting rather than anything that may work in competition but could leave you vulnerable in a street fight. As with any good seminar the real value was in the small details of the techniques that are hard to describe but become clear when the instructor works with you to perfect it. It was a really valuable seminar and I can’t wait to try some of this stuff on the mats.

The post Jorge Pereira Seminar appeared first on BJJ Mat Rat.

Yesterday we spent 3 hours going over side control escapes. The emphasis was centered around the fight for the underhook during the guard pass. Henry is adamant about not letting the guard passer get the underhook, because it makes it easier for them to flatten you out that way (though he does have some tricks for getting out once you’re flattened out as well).  We worked mostly from the position of being on our side while getting passed, and never allowing the passer to get us onto our backs.

Henry doesn’t think you should use your arms to frame out while being passed. He made a very good point that framing with your arms makes you more susceptible to being pinned to the ground, as your arms make a connection point for the passer to push his weight into you. Additionally he showed how easily the frames could be beat just by the passer changing angles. Instead he recommended immediately getting to your side when your guard is beat and to begin defending against the underhook, which then positions you to get up to your knees, and from that point there are a variety of techniques to employ.

We got a nice surprise near the end of class when Henry and Robin Gieseler (Robin is the main instructor at Relson Gracie Ohio, you can check out his videos at his school’s YouTube channel here) got into a discussion about what they thought students (including themselves) should focus on in jiu jitsu, and what might be missing from the standard practice, all of this centered around the practical self-defense application of jiu jitsu rather than a sports based focus. It was a real treat to hear the insights both of these guys had in this regard.

In addition to traveling and doing seminars Henry also has an online course called the “Mind Blown Club” which you can sign up for at his site “Hidden Jiu Jitsu“. I subscribe to this course and can say that it is an amazing resource. He often records his seminars, and then breaks apart the videos into the individual techniques and posts them on his site. It’s really cool to be able to go to these videos and reference what was taught in the seminar, especially since it’s hard to really remember all the details without this video reference. If you become a member then you also get access to a private Facebook group that connects you with other members, and enables you to ask Henry questions directly. It’s a very helpful resource and community.

Any time Henry comes to town I’ll be there. I really believe in the efficiency of his technique, and his stuff is a great supplement to my regular training.

The post Henry Akins Seminar – Columbus OH – Side Control Escapes appeared first on BJJ Mat Rat.

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.

• Jiu Jitsu Times
  This blog is a great mix of posting up-to-date jiu jitsu news, and funny jiu jitsu videos. I recommend following them on Facebook if you want to keep your feed interesting.
• BJJ After 40
  This is the jiu jitsu blog of Mike Bidwell, a jiu jitsu black belt who spent 13 years at brown belt, and uses his story of going through that grind as an inspiration to the rest of us who are struggling through jiu  jitsu. He often has interesting, creative moves to share as well.
• On The Mat
  This blog hosts a robust listing of articles and videos. I can browse around here for hours.
• Jiu Jitsu Brotherhood
  This is the blog of Nic Gregoriades, author of The Black Belt Blueprint, creator of a variety of DVDs, and perhaps the most mellow personality in jiu jitsu. Always insightful to hear what he has to say on jiu jitsu and yoga.
• Chewjitsu
  I really enjoy this blog. It’s run by Nick “Chewy” Albin, and he’s probably one of the most positive jiu jitsu content creators on the web. He has a lot of good inspirational material for people coming up through the ranks of jiu jitsu.
• Bishop BJJ
  This one is probably a little more serious and literary than the other blogs listed here. Good to dive into this blog when you’re looking for a little more of a deep read.
• BJJ Globetrotters
  Basically what it sounds like. Globetrotting jiu jitsu practitioners.  Be sure to check out their “Story” page to read up on what these guys are all about.
• Grapplearts
  Stephan Kesting was one of the first people I discovered online when I began jiu jitsu. I signed up for his newsletters, subscribed to his YouTube channel and followed him on Facebook. Lots of good material here.
• Submission Shark – The community portion of this site shares stories of jiu jitsu practitioners and how jiu jitsu has improved their lives. Very inspiring to read.

Like I was saying before, I’m always on the hunt for more jiu jitsu related content, so if you know of anything really great I’d appreciate hearing about it in the comments.

The post Top Jiu Jitsu Blogs – 2018 appeared first on BJJ Mat Rat.

I’m looking forward to attending the next F2W tournament in Pittsburgh.

Fight to Win Promotions

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