Lesson Plan for 2013-11-27: Lightning Round

Tonight is a favorite class of mine. No, not zombie rolls. Lightning round. I am going to go through each student and answer any fundamentals question you have. Need to know how to maintain side control and attack at the same time? Maybe you can’t figure out why you get swept so much or can’t […]

Lesson Plan for 2013-11-25: Self Defense

As most of you know, I am an almost pure sports jiu-jitsu practitioner. It’s not because I don’t value the self defense aspects of jiu-jitsu; it’s because I will spend infinitely more time as a sports jiu-jitsu practitioner than as someone who is defending himself in a fight. I don’t put myself in positions where […]

Royce and Impact

Last night I went to a Royce Gracie jiu-jitsu seminar in Scranton. There was no formal lineup or group warmup; we were all sitting there stretching and warming up individually to get prepared for the 6PM start time, and Royce was chatting and stretching. All of a sudden, he stands up with someone else and […]

Lesson Plan for 2013-11-18: Closed Guard Sweeps

I realized a few days ago that my wife’s dog Gracie is always trying to sweep me. The dog rolls on her back, dares me to get close, then pushes with her hind legs, and pulls with her front legs. She might have a name with pedigree, but she has the fatal flaw that a […]

The Dream of Jiu-Jitsu

I was chatting with a friend earlier, and I made an off the cuff remark that knowing jiu-jitsu has been like finally buying the Corvette you wanted as a teenager. When I was a kid, I saw the tiny ads in the back of magazines for Judo books, and I thought it would be so […]

Lesson Plan for 2013-11-13: Defending Back Takes

On Monday I taught how to deal with different stages of someone trying to get side control. James Briggs immediately used that knowledge during open mat and made himself twice as hard for me to establish side control. It’s a great class when I am forced to wonder if it was a good idea to […]

Lesson Plan for 2013-11-03: Taking the Back

We have a lot of guys competing this upcoming weekend on the 9th. I know you are all going to give it everything you’ve got. I want to give you guys some extra incentive. Everyone who brings home a gold for the team is going to get a free 1/2 hour private lesson from me. […]