This past Wednesday I had the chance to train with BJJ black belt Alexey Cruz down in Portland Maine. He teaches out of the Choi Institute of Martial Arts and Science. Alexey is a 3rd degree Jiu Jitsu black belt under De La Riva. He also is the one who puts on the Freestyle Grappling Open Tournaments every year. I was super excited to get a chance to train with him and his guys. I think we had a total of 6 people from The Foundry make the almost 2 hour drive. Call it a Foundry field trip if you will. Alexey showed some sweet half guard stuff, mostly passing it, but also a few submissions thrown in. I rolled with 3 of his blue belts, all of them were really skilled and seemed like all around nice guys. At first I was playing super defensive, feeling like if I went for submissions it would not be respectful. I’m not sure where that feeling came from, but I think my logic was, well this is their house and I am just a guest. No one likes to tap to a guest. After a few mins though this feeling passed and it was really awesome to roll with new people. I think we will be making more trips down there to visit from time to time and I am looking forward to it. Do any of you make trips to visit others schools regularly? If so do you see a jump in your game?

A friend of mine, we will call him “Chief” has started up a podcast and I was lucky enough to make it on episode one as a guest. We talk about video games, movies, Valentines Day, and of course Jiu Jitsu came up. Be sure and show some support and check out my sexy voice! The Weekend Pregame

Alright it’s that time again. Last time I posted a move I had been working on, I got great responses back from everyone. Thanks to all of you because you have really made that move so much tighter with all of your pointers. This time I would like to share a guard pass that I have been working on. So far it is my number 2 guard pass I use in Jiu Jitsu. I would like to ask everyone to again comment with their tips or on anything that I could add or should be careful of. If there are any Youtube videos out there that are the same as this pass, please send them my way for me to study. Thanks again everyone and I hope you enjoy.

Lately I have come to an understanding. Now first let me remind you all, that I’m not a big guy. I’m about 155 and 5’8 at the most. With that said, I have come to a realization lately when rolling with bigger people. It’s a battle of inches in Jiu Jitsu, but even more so when your opponent has some extra pounds over you. Let me explain a bit more. A perfect example of this was a while back when I was a white belt there was a bigger person that would always give me troubles when we would roll. He would get a hold of one of my sleeves and I would find myself trying to play my guard with only one arm for the entire match. I realize now with a bigger person sometimes I don’t get the chance to regain that inch that was taken from me, or in that case a limb. Now when I roll with bigger opponents I really try to focus on not allowing them to get that inch to begin with, and I roll with the mind set that I won’t have a chance to regain anything that has been taken from me. Now don’t get this confused, I don’t mean in any way that I roll harder or more aggressive. That couldn’t be farther from what I am trying to say. If anything it forces me to think about what my opponent is doing and not just what I am trying to do. Why are they going for that grip? What are they going to do if they get it. How am I going to keep them from getting it? I guess this is something to think about next time you roll if this concept is new to anyone out there. This really helps me deal with a bigger more aggressive opponent in Jiu Jitsu.