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6 Mat Tips to Improve Your Closed Guard Defense! Part 1
Here's the magic question: If I said that I could provide you with 6 simple tips that could make your closed guard defense more threatening to your opponents, would you be interested?
If you're a grappling nut like I am (and at this stage in your grappling journey, you need to accept the fact that you are), the answer is yes and these tips were made just for you!
6 Mat Tips to Improve Your Closed Guard Attacks! Part 2
If I said that I could provide you with 6 simple tips that could make your closed guard more threatening to your opponents, would you be interested? If you're a grappling nut like I am, the answer is yes! But I have to warn you, the tips that I'm going to provide you aren't anything profound like discovering a cure for the common cold. And yet while these tips may seem basic, they could mean the difference in you controlling and submitting your opponent or justwaiting for your guard to break down before you get hammered.
6 Mat Tips to Improve Your Closed Guard Attacks!
If I said that I could provide you with 6 simple tips that could make your closed guard more threatening to your opponents, would you be interested? If you're a grappling nut like I am, the answer is yes! But I have to warn you, the tips that I'm going to provide you aren't anything profound like discovering a cure for the common cold. And yet while these tips may seem basic, they could mean the difference in you controlling and submitting your opponent or justwaiting for your guard to break down before you get hammered.
Magic Pill Transform You From Mat Bum to Grappling Machine in 7 Days!
Imagine that you're just relaxing one day after a frustrating training session where it seemed that nothing that you tried on the mat worked and you pick up a copy of the latest grappling magazine to make you forget the sound thrashing you just received. And while you're looking through the magazine, you just happen to see this ad: "Amazing New Magic Pill Transforms Mat Bums into Grappling Machines in Just 7 Days!"
Should You Have Sympathy For The Sandbagger?
Imagine that you’ve been grappling for about 9 months and have been considering competing in your first tournament in the beginner division at the next tournament in your area. Initially, you’re somewhat apprehensive about competing ecause you’re not sure if your skill level will be good enough for you to represent yourself and your school well. Fortunately, your instructor encourages you to give it a try since it’s just a beginner division and there will be other guys in the division just like you that are new to grappling.
Instructor or Forum Buddies: Who Teaches You?
Let me tell you a story about Grappler X that decides to join a grappling gym after looking at a few MMA fights and a few episodes of TUF. After doing some research and finding the best school in the area (which is where every newbie wants to train), he makes his decision and joins the team.
After a few lessons, Grappler X isn't too satisfied with his progression rate and decides that he needs something else to make him better. He's tired of getting submitted in class and isn't
doing all the fancy moves that he's seen on cable, DVDs, and in the magazines.
Do You REALLY Know How to Learn From Instructional Videos and DVDs?
Here's a question for you. With the number of grappling instructional videos and DVDs that are on the market these days to help the typical grappler expand their technical expertise, why is there so little (or no) information on a method to study these training materials to get the maximum benefit? Initially, I didn't see there was a need to know how to study instructional or that there was an approach to studying them. That was until I took note of how I study them and how I've benefited tremendously since implementing my approach as opposed to the days when I just threw an instructional DVD into the player and watched it until I'd had enough for one day.
What's On Your "Grappling Blame Wheel?"
Are you familiar with the term, "The Blame Wheel?" It's a business term that describes how people to create a blame association pattern to rationalize and justify poor performance and failing to achieve objectives and goals. And if you need a visual description of the Blame Wheel and how it works, think about the big spinning wheel that they use on the game show, "Wheel of Fortune", that has dollar amounts around the wheel and contestants spin the wheel to determine what dollar amounts each letter will have.
Does Your Grappling Training Think Outside The Box?
The other day, I was having a conversation with one of my students and he wanted to know what gave me the idea of using a folding chair to demonstrate and teach the proper posture for the "Bullfighter" Guard Pass (as he saw in on the OG Clinic DVD) since he had never seen anyone use furniture to teach a grappling concept before. I told him the reason I was able to use the chair to successfully teach the concept of proper body placement and weight distribution was based solely on the fact that no one ever told me that I couldn't use a folding chair to teach my students.
What Do OGs And NY Giants Have In Common?
The Super Bowl: the crown jewel of the National Football League has come and gone. And with the conclusion of the Super Bowl, "experts" get to stand around and congratulate themselves for being right by picking the champion or try to rationalize why they were wrong. And with this year's Super Bowl, so many of those "experts" had to explain why they were wrong. This year's game was supposed to be the coronation of a champion (New England Patriots) after having completed the perfect season with a 19-0 record. And though it would've been a historical moment to see that achievement and a great story to write and talk about for years to come, that happy ending left out the underdog New York Giants and how they felt about "having no chance to win" this game. And I sat there watching the Giants celebrate their victory, I couldn't help but notice the similarities between the NY Giants and OGs.
What Did You Learn From Your Year-in-Review?
As I looked back over 2007 during my "year-in-review", I realized that 2007 was a really big growth year for me. Through my successes and a WHOLE LOT of failures, I learned a bunch of stuff that made me a better instructor, coach, and human being. I took a lot of steps with "blind faith" and, on most occasions, came out of the situation in good shape. Unfortunately, there were some occasions where "blind faith" led me off a cliff and I had to pay the price for not knowing the cliff was there.
New Year's Resolutions or New Year's Lies?
Another year has come and gone. And with the ending of a year, the upcoming year is filled with promise of the wonderful things could occur in our lives. This forces people to create their annual "wish list" of the changes they're going to make in their lives, most commonly known as the New Year's resolution. Empowered with their resolutions, people charge into January filled with energy, enthusiasm, and determination to make that year the best ever in their lives.
Jumping Guard - Valuable Technique or Hiding Flaws (Part 2)?
If you have 5 minutes that you can spare during or at the end of a class, then you have time to drill takedowns. I know for a fact that you can drill at least 10 takedowns in less than a 5 minute period (provided that you're not goofing off and stay focused during the drill).
Jumping Guard - Valuable Technique or Hiding Flaws?
Another weekend has come and gone. And with the closing of another weekend, another set of grappling tournaments have concluded. And even though those tournaments are in different locations throughout the world, they have things in common: competitors that are willing to take the challenge by going out to test their skills against one another (which is very admirable of them). They also have something else that I don't understand...competitors that lack any takedown skills.
Do Winners Whine After An Embarassing Loss?
Let me say for the record that in professional football, I'm a Washington Redskins Fan. And last week, the Redskins had to play a game against the New England Patriots. Now, what made this game so important was the fact that the Redskins' Defense was ranked in the top 5 for the entire NFL and the talk around DC was that the Patriots hadn't played a top-ranked defense this year. So, the town was set to see the Patriots take their first loss of the year at the hand of the Redskins. What ended up happening was a Redskins' beatdown from the Patriots by the score of 52-7.
Is it Possible to Do Submission Grappling Without Getting Injured?
Is it possible to be a grappler and train injury free? By some reactions that I've received in the past, many tend to think that grappling "injury-free" is very possible. Some grapplers like to believe that most injuries could be avoided if training partners were more considerate and less competitive while training.
Are You Helping to Build a Championship School?
What responsibility does a student have for the success of his training environment? Is the student just responsible for showing up to train, writing a check each month and then going home? Or is the student responsible for the development of the championship attitude at the school and their teammates into top-notch grapplers (and people)?
Are You Too Advanced to Learn the Basics?
Here are some questions for you: are you too much of an advanced grappler to learn the basics? If your school has a basics class, do you attend it occasionally or have you "outgrown" the class? And what about seminars, would you be offended if you attended a seminar and the host taught techniques that you already "know", even though you can't finish anyone with it during live sparring? Would you be mad if you paid for a private lesson, allowed the instructor to recommend a technique for your game, and the instructor showed you different setups to apply a paintbrush?
5 Lessons My Big Toe Reminded Me Of This Week!
I hurt the big toe on my right foot a few weeks ago. In fact, I think I even mentioned it during one of my previous ezines about how I hurt it and how I was going to do the right thing by having it checked out with the doctor and allowing it time to rest and recover so that I could resume my training. Well, that was the intent...I think...because it weeks later and it's hurting more now that it did when I initially hurt it!
Is Not Sparring During a Private Lesson a Rip-Off?
I read a thread on a grappling forum from a grappler about taking a private lesson that wanted to know if he was getting the maximum benefit from the private lesson since the instructor wouldn't spar with him during the lesson. And as the thread started to grow, most of the posts took the position that taking a private lesson without having the opportunity to spar with the instructor wasn't that different from taking a regular class and a rip-off.