The Relson Gracie crew at Nationals 2010. I'm fourth-in from the upper right.
It was a ton a fun. Although not everyone took home medals (many did), everyone faught hard. It was also great to see new faces associated with Relson Gracie in the state due to the growth and success of Denver Jiu Jitsu and Relson Gracie Academy in Littleton. Rodrigo Salazar and Steve Hordinski seem to be doing great things at these schools, respectively.
I was scheduled for two brackets, but due to a scheduling snafu or miscommunication, I missed my first bracket, so I only competed in Adult Blue Belt. I fought hard but did not do as well as I would have hoped.
Like last time I competed, however, I’m very motivited to work on and improve my Jiu Jitsu. I’m eager to train and will likely be competing in the next local tournament in the area.
Anyhow, my loss was to a competitor named Gianni Tanza from Easton Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, and I wanted to give a shout-out to Gianni. Gianni was an incredibly gracious and polite winner and competitor. Gianni not only offered genuine compliments on my effort, he also went well out of the way to shake the hands of my coaches. I was already enjoying my day, but Gianni’s sportsmanship made it that much better.
Gianni, If you ever find this post from Googling your name or something, send me an email and let’s get a beer.
A few of months ago an instructor at Boulder Grappling said this to me:
“Go for the top. Everyone can fight from the bottom.”
These words helped my game grow to a new level relatively quickly.
I think there is a point in many people’s training (well, mine at least) where the novelty of playing on your back becomes comfortable. There is something really interesting about being on your back or shoulders and still having some control over your opponent (when you are in open guard or a similar position). For lack of better words, it’s just cool.
But soon enough, as you fight higher belts or people around you improve, it gets harder and harder to play open guard successfully. It’s possible, but it takes time – years, according to people and instructors I’ve talked to.
Anyhow, when I really internalized the advice to fight harder for a top, dominant position, I felt it helped my game change in a positive, good way (full disclosure: I still play open guard every now and then – but it’s no longer a central strategy at this point in my Jiu Jitsu career). I began to get to dominant positions more frequently – which led, naturally, to more submissions from dominant positions.
I felt it was a good “kernel” of knowledge, shared at just the right time, to help me grow in my game.
Last week Boulder Grappling Academy (BGA) announced we would get the honor to train with Phil Cardella in the form of a seminar at BGA’s facilities in Boulder this upcoming Tuesday (I do now know if the seminar is open to the public).
Phil is a very distinguished Relson Gracie black belt and MMA fighter from Austin, Texas, with impressive grappling credentials. Phil is a key part of Relson Gracie Austin Assocation, one of the most successful – and established – Relson Gracie schools anywhere.
This is great timing for a lot of us at BGA because many of us are competing in an upcoming local tournament – the 2010 Fight To Win Nationals, held at the University of Denver in July.
I am excited to welcome Phil and feel very honored he will be at the academy here in Boulder.
I have been thinking about transitions from side control recently – especially techniques where you capture an arm or limb on the way. I think it’s a great way to get into an even better attacking position. I wish I was better at it.
I like the transaction at the beginning of this video, which is side-control to armbar. He is able to capture the arm at the start of the move – and by using his weight and body leverage – set up a slick armbar attack.
I’m not a medical professional. But when I’m foolish enough not to wear my headgear when grappling and my ears get sore, I’ll almost always ice my ears when I get home.
It seems to help. The few times my ears have taken a beating I’ll take an anti-inflammatory, put some ice in a bag, and just chill (pun intended). It does make them feel better.
The reason for the warning at the beginning of be blog post is that I don’t have the true “medical expertise” to authoritatively say that it does actually help. But in other injuries, blood flow is increased to the area and swelling occurs. In these injuries it is possible for the body part to swell too much, resulting in further damage. Icing the area reduces blood flow to the swollen area and helps the healing process.
In cauliflower ear, blood collects in the ear, and separates the cartilage. When I ice my ear I like to pretend the ice reduces the likelihood of clots and blood collecting. And honestly, it feels really good after your ears have taken a beating. At the very least it’s a way to reduce pain.
This week I’ve been getting more and more excited about tonight’s Strikeforce event as days went by. Strikeforce‘s “Heavy Artillery” features two prominent names in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu – Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza and Roger Gracie – as well as an exciting main event: Alistair Overeem vs. Brett Rogers. It sounds like a great event for just about anyone interested in MMA and Jiu Jitsu.
But today one of Strikeforce’s major shortcomings is becoming evident to me in a very real way: I can’t find a place to watch the fights.
“Heavy Artillery” is showing on Showtime, a premium cable network, which is similar to HBO in case you are not familiar with it. But most (all?) bars in town don’t seem to carry Showtime. My friend said it best as we where trying, earlier today, to find a place to watch it: “this seems like such a stupid problem to have.”
As of writing this, I have just under five hours to solve this problem or me and my friends will be making other plans this evening. I’m definitely interested in the event so I hope something uncovers itself.
When it comes to the general population I’m about average in height and weight – when it comes to where I train, however, I’m normally one of the smaller persons at the gym.
Naturally, it seems most people want to smash up and grind on a smaller person when sparring. I like experimenting with guard against larger people – I feel it’s one of the ways I can fight larger people on more equal terms. Naturally, against larger, stronger opponents, it’s hard to land submissions like armbars or kimuras from guard. I’ll try to set up a sweep with the hopes that a limb will make itself susceptible for a submission. But sweeping larger opponents is hard.
I found this video on Reddit about the topic, produced by grapplearts.com. I’m more and more interested in strategies for smaller people, so was excited to find the video.
Recently I have been thinking about mental engagement when training Jiu Jitsu. I’ve also been recollecting on my experiences up to this point of training; I have been training for about a year and have a new belt from a recent promotion. It’s been an enjoyable, good road, and I’ve had consistent and strong attendance.
But that’s the rub.
When I am truly honest I feel there have been some classes this past year where I took “getting better” for granted. During these classes I thought of improvement as an automatic process and something that does not take much mental effort. I am in class, I thought, so surely I’ll improve.
I have noticed when I am not mentally engaged in class I don’t get much better – or at least, I improve at a much slower rate. I believe most people – most of the time – are the same. When I refer to “mental engagement” I am talking about concentrating when the instructor demonstrates, taking repetitions seriously, asking questions – doing whatever you need to do to get everything out of it.
In contrast, the default mental state I think we often find ourselves in while training is something I’ll call “autopilot”. In “autopilot”, you are are still in there and participating, but the mental engagement isn’t at as high of a level. Being in “autopilot” is not necessarily a waste of time; you are still putting time on the mat, you still gain muscle memory and toughness, you just don’t learn as much as if you were engaged. I don’t not think there is anything necessarily wrong with attending class with this level in engagement. It’s still a workout and you are still helping your fellow classmates. And as mentioned, it is still time on the mat.
In fact, one of the realities for anyone who cannot train full time and/or has a full life outside of the sport (e.g., the stresses of career, travel, kids, bills, school) is that it is often difficult to consistently be fully engaged mentally in class, every class. We are all human, after all.
Still, after thinking about this I have decided to take mental engagement more seriously. I’m going to focus on being consistently present and more mentally engaged during classes. Hopefully – and perhaps somewhat ironically – I’ll improve at a faster rate.
I'm a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) fanatic and blogger. Currently a blue belt under Relson Gracie, this is where I share insights, stories and reviews related to the sport and martial art of Jiu Jitsu. I train in Colorado at Boulder Grappling Academy and Louisville Grappling Academy. Contact me at ryanpeterson DOT me **AT** gmail DOT com
My BJJ Tweets
New #bjj blog post: a personal recap of the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu tournament I competed in this weekend: http://bit.ly/bLUD6a4 days ago
On my way to Denver to weigh-in for my Brazilian Jiu Jitsu tournament tomorrow. 6 days ago
This week I’ve been getting more and more excited about tonight’s Strikeforce event as days went by. 
I'm a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) fanatic and blogger. Currently a blue belt under Relson Gracie, this is where I share insights, stories and reviews related to the sport and martial art of Jiu Jitsu. I train in Colorado at 