Jiu jitsu is the gentle art right? I mean you snap peoples arms in half and choke them unconscious until they wet themselves. That has to be gentle! Lets face it Jiu Jitsu can be  brutal when it needs to be, but lately I have been focusing on the gentle aspect in certain positions. This way of thinking has transferred over from mount to knee on belly for me. I’m a light guy so my mount has never been crushing. At first I would always get bucked off and people would escape. I couldn’t figure out how to be heavy enough to pin someone down. I started seeing other small guys have success with the mount because they knew when to stay tight and when to loosen up. After studying this for some time I started to apply as much weight and contact as I could to someone until they started their escape, then I would loosen up and sort of float until they settled back down. I think this works because it plays off the same principal of most things in Jiu Jitsu you need to connect your hips to their hips. By staying loose and floating, I’m disconnecting my hips from theirs at the moment they need that connection. Once they complete their escape attempt I connect again. This has transferred over well to my knee on belly.  With knee on belly I normally grip their collar under their head and my other hand grips their pant leg. This way I can pull up and apply pressure to them when I need to, but also at the same time when they start an escape I can use these hands to post on the mat. When I post on the mat I can float because my weight isn’t 100% on my knee which is connected to their hips. It’s a new concept of small person Jiu Jitsu that I’m starting to play with and I would love to hear everyone’s thoughts on it.

Ok so the Skirmish was this past Sunday, and the past few nights I have been working hard on the highlight video. There is a ton more footage because we had a few more people compete and several people filming, so I was pretty pumped about that. To sum up how we did in one word…slaughter comes to mind. We brought a lot of hungry wolves to the Maine Skirmish and we feasted. Over all we had around 8 trophies, 1 title belt, and an assortment of other medals. It was a true display of some classic Jiu-Jitsu. Before this competition I set a personal goal not for medals, but to take a step closer to being able to compete without nerves. In that respect I think I did well. We got there really early and I felt I could have fallen asleep in the bleachers I was so relaxed. When it came time to step on the mat, I did have a bit of butterflies in my stomach, but no where near the Freestyle Grappling Open kind. I had a total of 3 matches. My first I won by armbar 1 min 30 seconds into the match. The second I also won by armbar, this time 1 min 3 seconds into the match, virtually the same move and set up. My final match things didn’t go my way. I pulled guard and felt I could sub my opponent the same as I did to the 2 before him, but he got my right arm pinned behind my back in a very awkward position. I tried to defend his pass with one hand because the other was held behind me, but I couldn’t. He passed into side and then kept cranking the arm behind my back and I ended up having to tap before I busted something. It’s a hard match to describe, but the videos will be up on youtube soon. I encourage you all to subscribe to my Youtube channel for those videos and the unveiling of the Skirmish HL video as well!

Today is going to be a day of rest. A calm before the storm so to speak. This seems to be what I do the day before a competition…nothing. As I mentioned before I’m not super pumped for this competition, but it should be good growth for me in terms of experience. We have a significant number of people competing this time which is awesome. I love watching other people compete and catch the bug. You can always see peoples game jump several levels after they compete. I think it refocuses some people, and helps them fill in holes they may not have noticed otherwise. One great thing is I don’t have to cut any weight for this one so I’m hoping I feel stronger this time. Bri isn’t competing this time because of the lack of girls so she is going to get as much footage and pics as she can. I’ll make sure to post them all again. Stay tuned.

FGO 2009 Second Match

Recently I came across an amazing podcast about Bjj. It has over 600k listeners so I think I’m a little late finding it, but it’s well worth the hour spent listening to it every Sunday. They cover all types of news related to Bjj and often have in depth interviews with Jiu-Jitsu stars and legends (this week it’s Silvio Braga) . Jiu jitsu is way more then just an activity that I do 3 times a week. It really is a way of life, and the more time spent doing it, the more it spills over into other aspects of the day to day. So check it out, I highly recommend it and its free! The FightWorks Podcast