Someone else's blog

Here is a fantastic blogpost by Andreh Anderson, a BJJ black belt under Rey Diogo. Andreh is a very cool dude, and this post is what I have been preaching to whoever is willing to listen since I have been back from Brazil four years ago. Very well articulated.

Cecil says check it out:

http://andrehbjj.blogspot.com/2009/07/sparring-time-in-brazil.html

yoga words of wisdom

I have been doing yoga (specifically, Bikram Yoga also referred to as "hot" yoga) for a while now. I have been enjoying it, and I think it has given me some really nice benefits beyond flexibility. It has helped my breathing, and it has helped my knee that had surgery on it become noticeably stronger. I like the class as well because since it is done in a heated and humid room (the temp is around 102 and the humidity is around 60%), it helps flush stuff out of your system through immense sweating.

There are some interesting phrases and terms used on a regular basis too. I would like to pass on a few that I think have some carry over to other things in life, like martial arts..

The first one is something Bikram writes in one of his books. He says "You do not do yoga, you try to do yoga, and in the trying is where you receive the benefits." I really like this, because it takes the pressure off in trying to live up to a certain standard as the only way to "succeed". Just in doing it you succeed. How many times do we forget this in our other activities? I know that I myself am sometimes overly hard on myself when I get tapped in jiu-jitsu, or get punched too often in stand up sparring. I am really trying to just learn to enjoy the benefits no matter what the external indicators are telling me.

The second one is that none of the teachers EVER refer to doing yoga as "training" or "working out". It is ALWAYS just practice. You do your practice. You enjoy your daily practice. You practice your yoga. Again, the pressure of living up to your ideal of forcing yourself to train like a maniac is left behind. You just do the practice, and enjoy it. Something else I am trying to remember to follow when I put on the gi, or the boxing gloves.

And finally, this one from Bikram. "Give 100% of yourself to every posture. It does not matter how much of the posture you do, just how much you put into it. If you can only do 10% of the posture, but you are doing it with 100% focus, effort, and intention, you will get 100% of the benefits." This is probably my favorite, because it emphasizes that you are not in competition with anyone, only with yourself. If you give your all when you do something, you are winning. For example, if you are sparring someone and they are completely dominating you, as long as you are trying your best, you will get better. It might take you longer than the guy next to you, but that is irrelevant. All that matters, is that YOU WILL improve.

Anyway, I hope you can take away something useful from this. I am trying to!

BJJ pet peeves, part 2

Okay, so here is another thing that ticks me off involving BJJ.

Why does everyone who watches one UFC think he knows everything about BJJ? Or, why does anyone who has seen a BJJ DVD, or taken a seminar, or surfs the 'net, thinks they have seen and experienced EVERYTHING there is in BJJ, and can make absolute pronouncements?

Let me tell you, I have been doing BJJ for a while now, and I have been fortunate to have constant contact with a world class coach, as well as have had the good fortune of training in a number of gyms with other great coaches. I also have the good fortune to have a couple of close friends who are as experienced whose brains I get to pick. And with all that, I am still learning new aspects of BJJ. There are so many things I "knew" as a blubelt that I know now was wrong. Just last night, I learned a variation on a Brabo choke that explained why I was only having about a 30% percent success rate with Brabos. Even great players like my coach Megaton, or Royler Gracie never says "this is the fact about this". They, with all their knowledge and experience will say this is what they think, but never make it dogma.

And yet, keyboard warriors seem to have no problem saying the opposite "This is the way it is, no ifs, ands, or buts".

Interesting contrast in perspectives to me.

Judo

The more I am delving into Judo and working it, the more I think it is a hugely important piece of the combat puzzle that is missed by the majority of people. I am also thinking it might be MORE important for "street self-defense" than western wrestling. Why? Because I have not been able to find too many examples of street fights where the participants were shirtless, wearing speedos, or nude!

It is a simple fact that clothing/cloth will be available and/or involved in a self-defense altercation. Ignoring the advantages that can give you is short-sighted and foolish, in my opinion.

Father's Day

I have a tough time on Father's Day.

On the one hand, I love being a dad. There is nothing better in my life than my two kids. They have made me a better person (far better than I would have been without them) and they bring me such joy. Even when I am writing a huge check for another semester tuition for my daughter, or when my son does another dumb boy move, I thank God everyday for having my kids in my life. My heart is much lighter because of my being a dad.

On the other hand, my own father is no longer here (it will be 9 years this coming October). Growing up, especially as a teenager, I butted heads with him constantly. As a young adult, I wanted to be my own man and go my own way. It wasn't until I reached some measure of maturity that I realized my Dad was a far better man than I could ever hope to be, and if I could be half the man he was, I would be a successful human being. The problem is, soon after I finally had that realization, he was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Fortunately, there was nothing left unsaid between us when he passed away, but the pain of not having him around still leaves an empty spot in my heart. It is not easy to go through a Father's Day without wiping a lot of tears.

So, what is my solution? I don't have the foggiest idea. Every year I just stumble through, concentrating on the joy of being with my kids.

Sorry, no great insight, just something I had to get off my chest.

no media bias here

Check this out:

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-analysis20-2009may20,0,5578614.story


So the voters of California rejected massive tax hikes. and the completely fair, totally unbiased, and without ANY personal axe to grind major newspaper says public ballot voting is a problem. Not massive spending, not a government who can't put their case for more taxes in a better way, and not runaway special interests. No, that can't possibly be a problem, just a democratic process that allows the average person a say in what their government does.

Right, no media bias there. If Fox News had wrote this, every left leaning journalist and media critic or blogger would have attacked them. But it is okay for a liberal paper to write such crap.

The grass is not always greener.....

Next time you feel things are a little tough in your life, contemplate this story:

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/arizonaliving/articles/2009/04/28/20090428orphan0413.html

BJJ pet peeves, part 1

Today I want to talk about one of the things that bug me in BJJ. In this case, it is the guy who is so afraid to lose, that he spends all of his energy on holding on for dear life.

You know the type. The guy who hugs your neck with a death grip so you can't posture up to begin passing his guard. Or the guy who clamps on to you inside your guard with no attempt at passing, just trying to not get swept or submitted.


Listen to a piece of advice from an old and broken, but experienced, BJJ practitioner. Unless you are a super athlete like Michael Jordan who is magic with any physical action you do, or someone who is able to train on the mat 8 hours a day, 7 days a week; what causes growth in your performance is LOSING! Nothing on Earth shows you the path to improvement or how to overcome your mistakes by actually experiencing failure. Every session on the mat should provide you with the clues you need to get better. You only get that by opening up and trying something. You might fail at it, but that is fine. Remember why you failed, and try to fix it.

There is no magic moment where a perfect move will suddenly appear, unless YOU have made it appear.

I have seen a lot of guys on the mat. The bottom line with those everyday guys (not the super athlete or the guy who is able to do nothing but train, but those of us who have to deal with the real world) who improve is that they ALL experienced failure, but kept plugging away and kept trying stuff that failed. That other guy who never opens himself up? Yeah, he gets to say "oh, so-and-so didn't tap me" but he also never figures out why he is a blue belt after 4 years.

Don't be that way. Ditch the ego, try to accomplish a positive goal on the mat, and have a light heart. BJJ is fun. Let it be so.

No Time

"I just don't have time to train"

I hear this all the time. People say this as an excuse not to do some kind of strength or conditioning work, or why they don't train martial arts, or why they take pain killers to deal with back or knee aches.

It's complete crap. What people mean is, I am not willing to give up some leisure time. Everyone has some time to train. No exceptions. Don't believe me? Record your daily activity in a log for one week. Be accurate and honest. I guarantee I can find some time.

Now, that time might have to come from somewhere else. For example, instead of watching the latest episode of Family Guy (I know, I like that show too, but sacrifices have to be made). Or, instead of going to the sports bar on Sunday to watch the NFL EVERY week, you use that time to do something constructive. I have yet to meet someone, even the busiest businessman, who truly has no time. Maybe Mother Theresa. But before you throw that out as an example, ask yourself "Am I really comparing myself to Mother Theresa?"

The other aspect to this is that training time does not have to be some long marathon session. Consistent daily training of short duration will go farther than occasional long efforts done inconsistently.

One of my bread and butter training sessions is the couple of minutes every morning that I have to wait while my shower water heats up. Instead of standing there motionless, I shadowbox in front of my mirror. It is a great way to wake my body up, and it is valid training time. Now, two minutes doesn't sound like much, but think about it. Two minutes a day = 14 minutes a week = 56 minutes a month. That is almost an extra hour EVERY month of solid training. It does not interfere in anything else, and I can do it no matter how hectic my schedule is. What could you do with an extra hour?

I have other times and sessions that are similar. But rather than telling you what they are, I challenge you to find the time in your own life that you can do this. Without a doubt, I know you can do it. It just takes a little thought and the willpower to implement it.

Don't be like the other sheeple out there. Take responsibility for your life and do something constructive.

thieves in the martial arts

A good buddy of mine gave me a hard time (in a joking manner) recently about how most of my blog posts in the past few months have been me ranting and raging at someone or something that ticked me off. He was right. Making me angry is a good method of making me write here. I told myself that I would try to be a little more positive. I really meant it.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of total scumbags are there. And sometimes, they push me too far.

Case in point. I think intellectual thievery is abhorrent. Unfortunately, it is also rampant in martial arts. I can't police the world, but I can call out those people who do it when it strikes closer to home. So, I will do so now.

There is a new trend of people teaching MMA or Combatives who recognize that boxing is a key to fighting, but they don't have the experience to coach it. Nor do they have the intellectual honesty to try to learn it well from a legitimate source. So they steal the creation of someone better and smarter than themselves and pass it on as their own. There are many people out there who have stolen CM Boxing methods but try to call it something else. Here are a couple of terms they try to substitute for CM - "high guard boxing", "cover & fend", "MMA Shell defense". Everyone of these terms is a direct rip-off.

To be clear, I am not saying that only CM has a "shell" or "cage" structure. There are different boxing and Muay Thai techniques that are similar. But there are certain terms describing CM that are proprietary and have never been used before CM. Terms such as hunchback, dive jab, sinking into the pelvis, etc. If you want to disagree, show me where these terms were used in a fighting context before Rodney King and Matt Thornton introduced CM to the general public in 2002. I am confident such citations won't be found.

But there are people out there, some really well known, who are thieves who have knowingly stolen material that does not belong to them. They use these terms, teach direct CM concepts and principles, but call it anything but CM.

One of these is a world famous martial artist from Australia who has DVD's out where he teaches his "MMA Shell" using words like hunchback stance, yet never mentions Rodney King or CM. It just so happens that I was physically present when this person learned CM directly from Rodney. I also sparred with him and know for a fact his stand up skill was rudimentary. Yet 18 momths later, he produces a DVD set that he charges a very high price for that features his ideas of stand up striking. And he does not have the simple decency to give credit where it is due. What a turd.

Another guy is an "authority" on combatives in the UK. Magazines and websites in the UK always feature him as a cutting edge instructor and street fighting expert who spends a lot of time researching. This ass has written articles on how great CM is and what a genius Rodney King is. Yet when he publishes a book, he shows CM boxing but renames it "cover & fend" and NEVER mentions Rodney's name. And, after the book came out, along with a companion DVD, he has tried to diminish any mention of Rodney. He has even hid and edited the article on his website. Even worse, I know for a fact that he was invited numerous times to come free of charge to a number of Rodney's seminars in the UK and he NEVER responded. Not only is he a thief, he is lazy as well.

There are also a couple of people who Rodney has kicked out of his organization who never actually fulfilled their commitment to actually train in person with him, but still try to cash in on CM. There are a couple in Australia and one in the UK (Coventry). They couldn't do the work to actually learn, but want to be seen as "sensei". They might just be the worst of the bunch.

I don't see how any of these people sleep at night. In my opinion, they are complete scumbags. And if any of them have a problem with me writing this, they are more than welcome to confront me on it. Just be ready for that confrontation to be videoed, and the results then posted on youtube for the world to see.

I doubt any of them will man up.

my attempt to help Hollywood

Sometimes it helps to be outside of a problem to find an answer. Case in point is today's USA Today. There was an article in the Life section about certain movies not finding an audience (or, in simpler words, they tanked at the box office). In an attempt to do my part in helping the nation's economy, I will offer some insights that might help the movie studios.

Essentially, what the article talked about was how the nine major recent studio releases that dealt with the War on Terror/Iraq all failed miserably. There is a lot of hand wringing and sweating going on inside the studios with executives trying to find out why. Let's look at this. What did they have in common?

1) all directed by successful and critically acclaimed directors
2) all had major movie stars in main roles
3) all backed by major studios so they all had plenty of publicity to get the word out
4) all were, for the most part, critically praised.

But all of that is standard Hollywood. The failure can't be laid there. So what else did they all have as a common thread? Oh yeah, they all, WITHOUT EXCEPTION, all had an obvious anti-U.S. bias! Every single one of these movies (Stop Loss, Body of Lies, In the Valley of Ellah, Redacted, etc....) had as an underlying theme how horrible, stupid, corrupt, greedy, murderous, and on and on the U.S. and it's actions were. The government is evil, the military is evil, the intelligence agencies are evil, the individual citizens are either evil or stupid or selfish. There is no possibility that any action taken by the United States can be for any moral reasons. The single one of these movies that made some money (though not a profit) was The Kingdom, and it was the most pro-U.S. movie (even though the overall tone was of a negative bent)! And these movie executives actually can't figure out why the movies tanked? OMG.

Look Mr. Executive. Whether the general public is against the Iraq war, or is tired of President Bush, it does not automatically follow that the public thinks we as a nation are inherently evil. The people might want out of Iraq, but they place no blame on the military. It is not Vietnam where returning servicemen are called baby-killers. And the people of this country believe that our collective hearts are in the right place. The next time you green light a movie dealing with terrorism or Iraq, you might want to check to see if the director and/or writer actually likes this country or do they follow the Michael Moore/Oliver Stone school of thought. If it is the latter, you might want to plan your excuses now, because the movie will lose money. Guaranteed.

Just a word of warning.

"don't got the ground in a fight" part 1

"Don't go to the ground in a real fight."

A boatload of "fighting experts/reality based combat authorities" spout this crap all the time. They desperately try to justify why they don't train any form of grappling.

But I have a question for anyone who says this in the future. Before they say it, they need to describe how they will keep themselves from going to the ground, especially when they find themselves up against someone with a modicum of grappling knowledge. Not just the techniques, but how they plan to train it. Because that is integral to the process. Technique without practice is just mental masturbation.

In case they don't get my point, I will clarify. If you don't regularly train against someone who can take you down, and honestly tries to do it, YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO KEEP IT STANDING. I could care less what magical art or system you practice (WW2 combatives, aikido, systema, silat, etc...). The proof will always be in the pudding.

Anybody I train, or anybody I respect in the martial art world will have no problem producing ON DEMAND. Bring a top notch wrestler to my gym? Cool, I or any of my guys will perform at any time. Not only that we will do it, but even more importantly, WE HAVE ALREADY DONE IT, ON NUMEROUS OCCASIONS! **note - I did not say we will succeed every time. What I am saying is we are willing to test ourselves or our theories on a constant basis against someone who is honestly trying to make us fail. My point is that we do not pontificate without performance - end sidenote ** I find it quite funny that the critics of grappling for the "street" can't produce any evidence that they can say the same. I have seen a lot of internet forum threads and blog posts from silat people, for example, how their stuff is so lethal on the ground and it is so devastating to grapplers, but NEVER a piece of video footage actually showing them accomplishing these magnificent feats. You don't have to have a silat player enter the UFC, but it should be mandatory when one of these super-fighters denigrate MMA/BJJ, that they need to have visual proof to back that up. I won't hold my breath waiting for them to put their money where their mouths are. That would require some integrity.

the concept of "tapping out"

As many of my blog posts are, this one is inspired by an exceptionally insipid internet forum thread. I know that I should let these things go, but sometimes they just rumble around my brain, gradually making me crazy. In order to keep my sanity, I have to write. Rather than get drawn into the thread in question, and get into a long debate that will fall on deaf ears anyway, I would prefer to do my mental relief therapy here.

The gist of this thread was, of course, another endless "don't go to the ground in a fight" pontifications. The author of it is a fat, out of shape, self-proclaimed fighting authority who has never publicly got on a mat and proven his asinine theories in front of unattached third party judges. He much prefers selling 75 cents of paracord for $15 as a "tactical" knife holder. Yeah, here is someone who is up on real world combat. Uh huh.

Anyway, there are a number of idiocies espoused on that thread, but there is one I really want to point out because it really shows how this particular person has NEVER, EVER actually trained BJJ with a reputable coach.

Here is the actual quote so no one can accuse me of lying - "but I think the concentration should be on doing damage and getting up as fast as you can, not using both hands to squeeze a choke or locking a joint instead of breaking it."

What a complete doofus. This is equivalent to saying that shooting at paper targets is dumb because you should shoot at people!

Look dumbass. Since it is blindingly obvious you have no idea of what BJJ entails, I will enlighten you. You lock a joint IN TRAINING so you don't injure your partner! It is not the end move! Do you really think an armbar or a kimura is to hold somebody? It is a break moron. You allow your partner to tap out so you can keep training. You don't actually injure the joint, because you will soon run out of people willing to get on the mat with you.

Also, the above comment also implies that a choke is some long and involved time consuming process. Sorry, again he shows his ignorance. A well executed choke will work in about 3-4 SECONDS. About the same amount of time it would take to get up and move far enough away to create some space. If you are "squeezing" it and it is taking longer, it means you have done it wrong. This is not my opinion, it is FACT. Don't believe it? Good, come to my coaches BJJ gym anytime you want. There are 20 -30 guys on the mat at any given time who would love to demo a choke on you.

One piece of advice. Seek out a qualified, reputable, experienced BJJ coach and actually LISTEN to what he has to say. You will look a lot less stupid.

the greatest mass produced candy bar EVER

http://www.thechocolatereview.net/2007/04/28/nestle-peanut-butter-kit-kat-chunky/


If you ever get the chance to try one, DO NOT PASS IT UP.

I am addicted to these. Thank God I don't live in the UK or I would weigh about 400 lbs.

oops (warning - political commentary - read at your own peril)

I rarely use this blog to make political comments, mostly because I think all politicians are scum.

However, on occasion, a politician does something so heinous I have to point it out.

Barak Obama has put out a campaign ad mocking John McCain for being computer illiterate. Now, aside from being a cheap and negative shot by someone who supposedly was above that kind of thing, it was also stupid.

The reason McCain is not Mr. Computer is because he can't be! Why? Due to the severe wounds from torture he incurred as a POW! According to a Boston Globe newspaper article from 2000 :

McCain's severe war injuries prevent him from combing his hair, typing on a keyboard, or tying his shoes.


Nice going Obama campaign. Yeah, you are all about the politics of change. Go on, pull the other one.

using "dirty moves" against a grappler

The following is an answer to a ongoing debate I had through email/IMing. It revolved around the other person's contention that "dirty moves" (i.e. eye gouges, biting, skin ripping, etc...) were a good weapon to use in a fight against a superior grappler who has taken you down and is controlling you so well that you are unable to escape using "regular" moves. It is my experience that the people who think these moves are consistently successful in a grappling situation are the people who NEVER step foot on a grappling mat to actually see firsthand what they are talking about. I feel strongly that not only is it stupid to try "dirty moves", it is a general waste of training time. Here I try to outline why.


In a superficial way, I agree with your point, XXXXX. However, overall, I think it is wrong on two levels. First, I think there is an implication here that as soon as the "dirty" fighter launches his dirty move(s), the non-dirty fighter panics and loses all sense of what he was doing before. In your example of the BG taking you down, putting you in cross side, and holding your there because he is a superior ground fighter, your shredder scenario works only if the BG completely ignores what he has been successful with already, which I find hard to believe. Why would he lose all control at the first sign of pain? After all, he is already so much better than the other guy and is totally dominant. A wussy with a low tolerance of pain he is probably not. And if he isn't a wuss, AND is already completely dominating the situation, shouldn't he be able to make adjustments along the way? If he can't, then he probably is not the superior fighter, and in that case, the dirty moves are probably not needed in the first place because you can most likely escape using "non-dirty" techniques.

Also, and I might be thinking too personally here, but I know that if I am controlling someone in a fight so much so that their only hope of escape is taking it off-road (to use Paul Sharp's fantastic phrase) and they do so, a few thoughts will quickly go through my head:

1) "Oh, so we are moving to more of a lethal force level?" – where maybe I was operating under the idea this was just a "fist-fight", you just told me you considered it more, so I can now act appropriately.

2) "Oh yeah, I can do that too" – even if I didn't spend a lot of time training those moves, and they wouldn't come out under stress as long as it was ME doing the decision making, I am quite sure that anyone who was good enough to be in control at the stage would easily be able to have the brain switch over to "copying". In this case, as my opponent tries to eye gouge me, I defend it, and then undoubtedly the battle computer in my head will fire off the command to "go ahead and do the same thing back". Unfortunately for my opponent, I am actually the one that is in the position to throw continuous dirty moves, and he is going to be able do absolutely nothing about it. Is that really, truly a good thing for him to give me that idea?

Variations on this has happened countless times in training/sparring. For example, I am not a big leg lock guy. I have seen too many injuries result from them to spend a lot of time training them so it irritates me if there is no agreement beforehand to use them. But if it happens that my partner does try it and after I defend it, almost every time I think "okay, your turn" and do it back to them EVEN THOUGH IT IS NOT A BIG PART OF MY ARSENAL. If I am a good enough grappler, adding something like that is not difficult, which I am sure you know well. My general point here is that if I am so good that the only way the other guy can escape is to go off-road, I probably have the ability to adjust to what he does as well as the ability to improvise, BUT I CAN DO IT FROM A SUPERIOR POSITION!

I am used to literally hundreds and hundreds of hours of trying to control and submit guys at or near my same technical level who many times out class me physically (bigger, stronger, faster, younger, better cardio, less injured, etc..). I think - no, I know I can because I do so on a regular basis - I can probably handle a second or two of pain while I adjust to maintain my dominance.

The second way I have problems with your idea/point is in this regard and I think it speaks to an even more important overall point on why I think training these kind of moves are a general waste. I think to a large degree, not being able to use dirty moves because I have not trained them is moot. In everything I do in straight BJJ, I am working my counters to dirty moves. The things I need to do to control a position, sweep, take the back, or slap on a submission are the EXACT SAME THINGS I need to do to handle dirty moves. Again, using your example of the BG taking top control in cross-side, unless he is clueless at that point, which makes NO SENSE, he will be looking to move to the next phase. If he is controlling you so well, he most likely has control over your head and /or shoulders, has immediate control over one of your arms, most likely has put your other arm in a situation where it is neutralized, and has blocked your ability to move your hips very well. Where is the ability for you to apply dirty moves uninterrupted? I just don't see it. As soon as you move to apply an eye gouge for instance, he will treat it as any other hand motion and adjust. Whether he thinks you are going for the eye gouge, or just trying to make space for an escape does not matter. The top guy can easily treat it as one and the same and shut you down.

I witnessed my BJJ coach roll with a very well known and successful JKD instructor. After being completely tortured for a few rounds, the JKD instructor talked about maybe using "dirty moves" as counters (he was well known for advocating biting/pinching/gouging type moves as a counter to BJJ). My BJJ coach kind of scoffed at it, which irritated the JKD guy. So, my instructor said go ahead and use them. They proceeded to roll again, and my coach DID NOT DO ONE THING DIFFERENT. And the results were the same. The JKD guy was humiliated. He never got the chance to use his cool moves because the delivery system to apply them effectively are the same delivery systems that work without the "street moves". Basically, if I do what I am supposed to do on the ground, there are very few windows of vulnerability open, even if I don't train it regularly.

play vs. training

As I reflect on this year's CM trainer's clinic this past May, it has helped me crystallize some thoughts that have been drifting around in my head for a while now.

After years of training in environments and with people that, to put it nicely, were less than ethically optimal, and now train almost exclusively in a fun and playful environment and with people who are decent human beings, I have come to the realization that all improvements in my personal game are directly proportional to how much fun I am having when I train.

Looking back at the days when I was so desperate to become a bad ass, and worked so hard at it that I was generally miserable, I wonder why I kept plugging along (probably has to do with the fact I am not particularly intelligent). I was always down on myself, and I always compared myself to others who I deemed "better". It was an experience that was the exact opposite of fun.

And now when I train, I don't really care what others think of me - do they think I am a walking mountain of bad ass-ness? - now, I only care what my wife and kids think of me. Now when I train, I don't really think of it as "training" - it is, to steal Rodney King's idea, just PLAY. I go out and play with my friends, the same way I did as a kid. It just so happens that instead of playing cowboys and indians, we are punching each other or slapping on a choke. BUT, the underlying spirit of those games of cowboys and indians is there on the mat with me.

So, to everyone who I have played with the past couple of years, THANK YOU. And I look forward to more play as we go along.

a new name

Bear with me here, because I am having a stream of consciousness moment.

I have been thinking lately that MMA as a descriptive term has become fairly specific. I feel that it does, and perhaps should only, refer to the actual SPORT and those who are training for it.

It seems to me that when you use the term to describe a more general application such as self-defense or as an art done by someone who has no desire to step into the cage or ring, you run the risk of defusing the usefulness of said term. Maybe, for those people, another way of describing the art should be found.

What should it be? I don't know. Maybe NHB (no holds barred)? After all, the was the original acronym, and it is pretty descriptive, and still has the connection to MMA. Of course, that connection might be too strong and it defeats the purpose.

I like Vale Tudo, but again, it still generally refers to the original semi-sport application.

Maybe MFA (mixed fighting arts) or MCA (mixed combat arts). Again, a connection with MMA that suggests the same training methodologies and principles, but with a slightly different emphasis.

Who knows. I have a 30-40 minute commute to work both ways, 5 days a week, so I have sometimes have too much time to contemplate odd thoughts like this.

Yes, I am a total geek. I have come to terms with that.

MMA: bad for the street?

Okay, after ANOTHER person saying how MMA is a sport that will lead to bad things if you try to use it in the street, I have had enough.

This time it was an email newsletter that for the umpteenth time spouted the same garbage about how using MMA ground-oriented tactics will lead to getting your head kicked in by your opponents friends. Rather than deal with the asinine logic of it, let me agree with him for a moment and ask a question.

First, let's ignore the fact that this line of thinking has to assume that you are ALWAYS alone with no one to EVER back you up.
Second, let's forget that this assumes that you will be focused on only the guy you are fighting and will NEVER look around.
Third, let's also assume that this taking someone down and choking them out will require a lot of time (totally contrary to the experience of anyone who has ever done this against an opponent inexperienced at ground fighting- usually the choke takes less than 5 seconds, plenty of time to disengage and deal with others - but I digress).
Fourth, let's also assume that the MMA guy will ONLY go to the ground, totally ignoring the fact that the ENTIRE POINT of MMA is to have some modicum of functionality in all ranges - striking, clinch, as well as ground, and more importantly, no MMAer ever goes into a fight or sparring "knowing" what he is going to do - situations such as your opponent stuffing your takedown and negating your ground game leads to a well rounded fighter who uses the tactics that best handle that given moment in time - something MMA critics, because they refuse to step on the mat are incapable of handling.

Let us ignore all those points for just a minute and let me ask a simple question. Is there ANYONE out there who can provide a DOCUMENTED example of an MMA practitioner getting his head stomped in that was a DIRECT result of his tactics? And not just the typical BS story - "I heard on the internet one time about some guy in Texas" - let's have names, dates, exact circumstances. I, for one, can provide a number of provable situations where the opposite happened, i.e. the MMAer survived because of his tactics. MMA has been around long enough that if the doubters are right, there should be, somewhere in the universe, such an example of failure.

If you have it, send it to me, and I will publicly say I am wrong. Until such time, I will continue to say that those people who say these kind of things about MMA are looking desperately for an excuse not to do the work, because they know they will look like a little bitch tapping out and their egos (especially those of the well known "combat authorities") can't deal with it.

Congrats Luka

I wanted to say congratulations to one of my BJJ coaches, Luka Dias. Luka is a black belt and the wife of my main coach, Megaton. She is a close family friend, a terrific person, and a great BJJer.

At the Pan-Ams this previous weekend, she took the gold medals in both her weight class as well as the absolute. In the absolute, she avenged her loss at the Mundials by beating the current world champ in what most people are calling the best match of the entire tournament. She also officially now holds more gold medals than any other woman in the history of the Pan-Ams!

Way to go Luka!