tallgeese

Honestly, I've neglected my stand up pretty bad for a few years now at least in my core art. I did a stint in Muay Thai for a bit to combat this, but like everyone has said, time is a factor. BJJ pretty much took over my life when I found it so I've been pretty focused on it. Now at the fact I run a school centered on it. It makes it hard to break the Kempo out frequently. Now, I get time on my feet doing Kali weekly, but even that is only once per week and most of the time there's a weapon in my hand. I love my core art, and it's gotten me out of a few scrapes on the job. I also acknowledge that I spend less and less time doing as time goes by. Will I get it back? Maybe. After the demands of the job lessen. Or I back off of BJJ so much. Or move to running the school full time (not even in the cards- I love my day job) Or something else changes.

Thank you for everything you've brought to the staff and the forums, Heidi. You've been a fantastic moderator and I'm glad to hear that you'll still be here as a member. It wouldn't be the same with out you.

Welcome aboard!

Welcome to KF!

First let's make certain we're discussing apples to apples. Are we discussing a training environment or actual fighting? If it's training, slow is critical to learning the mechanics of a movement. Now, if we're talking about taking a tool we understand and employing it during a fight I rarely see slow being functional. When it's time to put a tool to work, under stress and for high stakes, it has to be first and more. To make this happen, speed is a critical attribute. This is driven by physiological factors and proper, efficient movement. Now, timing is a different issue. Timing dictates where I will place a full speed strike in the tempo of the contest. I might need to range back from a strike that is already ahead of me on timing. There is no speed that will catch up if I'm behind the effect of the strike. If I range, wait for it to pass its threat threshold, and then initiate that timing, not speed. I will still execute that strike at full speed, just on a timing beat that is advantageous to me, not my opponent. This is something I didn't fully understand until studying the FMAs in a bit of depth. But timing and speed, while they work and in hand, are not the same thing. Timing may be manipulated, but speed is pretty much alway mandatory once the decision to attack has been made.

Great question. First up, for those on FB, here's a link to the video of the event from my wall: https://www.facebook.com/elizabeth.mogdansknezevic/videos/10155297878844025/?pnref=story So in short, I was really happy that the bout went as well as it did and I had a great time. I ended up losing 8 minutes in to a heel hook. So it didn't go my way, but there were some great moments for me as well. Coming back into it after a multi-year lay off from competition it was probably better than I should have done. The stand up went just like I'd hoped. I was able to maintain footing and force the guard pull on his end. His guard was tough, as expected and I was able to keep posture and frustrate some of his go to movements. All good. On the down side here, I was a bit passive on the pass but I kept reading sweep at each effort. Still, should have worked it harder. At minute 8 or so he is able to get me moving. I knew there was no way I wanted a skilled guy like him taking position so I shrimped hard and force some movement. I took some ground here and threatened a reverse heel hook but he cleared it well and we started scrambling. I tried a knee bar that go shut down early and we rolled up on each others legs. I started for a straight ankle lock and he beat me to the punch with the heel hook. I liked how I was able to move in this sequence, but I know that it's a strength of his and not mine. I should have tried to get my knees clear and get to a neutral position rather than keep playing a game that I knew he was superior at. So, some big learning points. That said, he is a killer, and I was very happy to go the distance I did with him. Not to mention, the intensity and volume I put into this camp threw my jiu jitsu ahead by far more than the five weeks I spent getting ready. That's great as well. Finally, I'm excited again. I think we all go thru phases where we get complacent. I had been there for awhile. This really got me enthused to be on the mat again. For that, more than anything else, I'm grateful. Bob had asked if I'd compete again. Probably. But I think I'll do some smaller venue stuff for a bit. Lower key tournaments, etc. But, I'm certainly glad I did it.

Indeed!

Happy birthday!

Welcome aboard! Good luck in finding a place and keep us posted!

The worst acute was broken ribs The worst lingering was a fractured schaphoid bone in my wrist that still gives me problems (non-unioin fracture.) It always seems like I'm dealing with tendentious somewhere plus an elbow that got hyperextended last year in an arm bar just won't go away. Well, that's 44 and training for you.

Our latest recap covers one of the most critical elements of a closed guard game, the scissors sweep. Not only is this important for attaining position, its fundamentals allow for setting up attacking sequences. Yet its one often improperly executed. Check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17wdH198o_o&t=11s How is everyones success rate with this sweep? What attacks do you follow with? Why?

Thanks! I'll keep you posted!

Thanks. It's night before, which makes for a bit more cushion, but I'm within a pound on either side each morning. It's making me feel really happy. I hate sucking weight.

I would tell them to have fun. It's a marathon, not a sprint. Treat it as such. Life gets in the way sometimes, don't beat yourself up. Learn to love the art, and above all, have fun.

It's a great thing you're doing here. I hear what you're saying about rule sets. It can be a mess. The best bet it to start training now to adapt to the specific rules. Even if you don't love them. This will let you game the comp and with 4 months you'll be able to make significant strides. With some experience at this you'll be surprise at how easy it become. Good luck and keep us posted. I think you are spot on as well about why you should compete it possible. It sets a great example- win, lose, or draw- for your students. Particularly if don't have a history of doing so. We had a LT. at work once who was put in charge of the SWAT team without prior experience. We were skeptical to say the least. The guy went out, sent himself to SWAT school, Basic Sniper, and Negotiator school as well as came out to jump in training with frequently. Just so he could set in a command post and flight control the whole thing. He was revered among us all. Don't underestimate the message you send your students by dong this. Pushing yourself outside your comfort zone is a good thing. And, as TJ says, have fun along the way.

I had set a goal at the outset, when I started BJJ full time, to compete at each rank. That really held true with me doing a bulk of my time during blue and purple belt, I was super active during that time. I got to a few comps at white and brown as well so I had check the box until now. So, I just wanted to make certain that I did one that counted at black belt before I couldn't hold up to a training camp anymore. It was a good card and a chance to take a good match. Solid post, all around, and I do completely understand!! How prepared are you for this, and what have you done, training wise, to prepare for this?? Will you also compete with each earned Dan rank in the future, as well?? Will you, at this up and coming tournament, be in similar Dan rank division or higher, and if higher, how much higher might your opponent be?? Great questions. I'm feeling really good actually. I went into a camp for this match 6 weeks out, which is pretty standard for me. I'd do a couple extra when it was MMA...and younger. It's been good. I started pushing the clock up and intensity incrementally from day one. In addition to rolling I broke into more positional drilling at comp pace also. The biggest thing I did was start really working my stand up. We touch take downs once each cycle thru the curriculum, like a lot of schools. It's by far my weakest link. One of our sister schools has guys that are stellar takedown guys. I got with them immediately and put together a plan and started to work it live every night for multiple rounds. Mainly controlling to the best guard pull I could, then sharpening a couple takedowns from there after watching tape of my opponent. Drilling endless series of arm drags and Russians, then executing them in rounds, has really elevated me on this front Next we focused on drilling positions he's good at, his favorites we see in video again and again. Getting a handle on intercepting the movements early to counter and breaking out of worst case situation with them. Then we put in filler rolls between those to work my strengths and get them tighter. Still at high time and intensity. Lastly, I put more mat time on the schedule in prep. I roll 4 days per week as it is. I added a fifth to get all this done in. With that, I've had to cycle intensity and focus of the camp thru the week. It's the only way I can physically keep up without breaking down. So Mon will be a hard nigh all around. Tues I'll back off and drill hard, but have fewer rolls. On Wed I'm back at a hard pace with full on comp level rolls. Thurs I don't roll. I'm off the mats altogether and focus on other conditioning. Friday is a killer night but not a lot of rolling. All drilling at a pace that makes we want to die. Saturday I go roll. That it, just roll. I drop the time on the clock to normal levels and just enjoy the day of jiu jitsu without making it like work. Out side of jits, I've stayed on the weights. My opponent is a strong dude and I don't want to come up short. I've been lucky in that I've been in the weight room a lot the last year so it's really just about keeping at it. I do so much cardio at my camp I don't do a ton of road work. One, I hate it. Second, my weight is spot on. That's a good feeling. I've usually been in a spot of cutting a few pounds, this time around I'm literally walking around at fight weight. This couldn't make me happier. For people who have had to cut weight you know that sometimes you're focusing so much on that the fight skills become almost secondary. This time I'm completely focused on the training. It's been probably the best camp of my life. That said, the guy is good. Really good. Anything can happen in high level jiu jitsu. But I'm a way better fighter now than I was 5 weeks ago. I could lose in the first 30 seconds and my jiu jitsu game would still be light years ahead of where it was. Aside from an elbow tweak and sore ribs from carrying pressure for specific rounds, I've managed to come thru healthy, which is way better than my last camp for the Pans when I trained myself into a knee brace. Next week will be all about peaking and recovering completely from the camp so I can go in fresh. My opponent is a 1 stripe black belt and has been for a bit. That means he's got about 3 years on me at BB level. That's a lot of time and, more importantly, experience at rolling at this level in competition. That said, it's a good match. He rolls much like I do. Very methodical. It's a pace I can keep up with. I have serious trouble with the wrestler types that move constantly for 10 minutes. We might not turn in the most exciting fight of the night, but it will be the most technically sound. I'm sure of that. I'm not sure about competing as I get each stripe. Right now I'm conflicted. I'm excited about competing again because of this, but I'm ready to be done with camp at the same time. We'll see

I had set a goal at the outset, when I started BJJ full time, to compete at each rank. That really held true with me doing a bulk of my time during blue and purple belt, I was super active during that time. I got to a few comps at white and brown as well so I had check the box until now. So, I just wanted to make certain that I did one that counted at black belt before I couldn't hold up to a training camp anymore. It was a good card and a chance to take a good match.

It's been about five years since I competed in the Pans. I was a brown belt at the time, pretty new at it, and it was the last major competition I had done. I competed a ton and blue and purple belt, but it just got tiresome and I had lost interest in that facet of jiu jitsu. Fast forward to now. I'm back! I'll be headlining a local level pro jiu jitsu event in May. Here's the link: https://www.facebook.com/events/292720587815510/ It's actually pretty exciting and my camp to date has been solid. My weight is on point early and I feel like it's been the best run up to a comp ever. I'll keep everyone posted on how it goes. It feels like I've walked away from competition every few years (from karate tournaments, to shoot fighting, to MMA, to jiu jitsu) and always come back. So, here we go, one more time.

Just a bit late but Happy Birthday!

Congrats!

This particular article has been making the rounds on social media of late pretty heavily. It's largely an obtuse sales pitch for this individuals canned program to LE. That said, the article does bring up some good points for discussion and has generated lots of controversy on both MA and LE pages I'm on. Take a look: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-martial-arts-professionals-do-make-good-law-trainers-terrell Now, after trying to article point by point positions on several threads, I broke down and posted my thoughts on the article and subject material. I put it out here to generate discussion, pros and cons, and stimulate thought. I'm always so much more impressed with the level of discourse here than anywhere else MA gets discussed on the web. So, here was by reply to the article: This article has dominated my newsfeed for the last couple of days and judging by the amount of times I've had to respond to different aspects of it on groups I'm just going to address and be done. Given that this year marks by 28th year in the martial arts and my 12th on the job, I'd like to think that I speak from a point of view that is relatively unique to the subject. First, let's be clear, this article we are all talking about is a sales pitch. A well intentioned and informed sales pitch, but a sales pitch none the less. Keep that in mind, but the points brought up are valid. Now, let's start by saying that I think any martial art taken from any instructor is a good thing for any cop. Why? One, you might (MIGHT- depending on which art and why you're doing it) learn some skills that will be useful. What's even better is that they are physically active and making themselves more resilient; harder to beat. Even a cop who solely lifts weights is FAR better off than one who power lifts half a dozen donuts each morning. This, more than anything else it probably the greatest asset to an officer individually doing the martial arts. Confidence can be a secondary, but this can also work against an officer. More than once my personal hubris on these matters have led me to circumstances that probably were best to be avoided. This is at an individual officer level and it's how new tactics should be brought into the profession. By LE officers with specific training who can integrate these into existing policy, case law, and needs. It's that last part of the paragraph that we need to focus on as we move to the next part of this. There is way more at issue with police use of force than simple execution of technique. This is where outside instructors teaching wholesale control tactics protocol and systems can lead to poor or even disastrous results. LE use of force is driven by 4th Amendment issues, defining case law, department policy and procedure, as well as emerging threads and threats in given, specific geographical locations. This is far beyond the scope of a martial arts instructor with no background in LE. So, while I think individual officer taking martial arts is a good thing (because they have the background to integrate and sort based on experience and training as well as ever changing trends) I think that wholesale instruction of cops by individuals with no background is a horrible idea. All of this must be in context. First, we must contextualize tactics vs. UoF law. Muay Thai is one of the single (if not the) single greatest, most effective and brutal striking arts known to man. If every solution a cop comes to drives from the eight limbs then we are going to run into issues. Basing a CT program around striking only will be problematic. 90 percent of hand on cop work comes down to control. Not pummeling to a bloody pulp. Now, we get to the 10 percent of the time that the fight is on and great bodily harm is at stake. Does MT come into play then? it sure could. A cop will understand the line that this represents and how to integrate. They can articulate immediate vs. potential threat and the Graham vs. Conner factors that make this an acceptable course of action. Often, outside instructors will have no concept of this. So should we all study grappling arts since cop work is so control based? Well, there are great things to learn there that can help, but it's not the answer in it's entirety either. How about RBSD people? Well, JKD or Krav may be a great option for a woman leaving a mall who gets attacked in the parking lot; however, the first time a cop eye gouges someone without some signifigant totality of the circumstances there will be lawsuits. Well earned ones. But it's effective?! Yes. And outside the bounds of UoF law and protocol. Clearly there are tools that cops can learn from martial artist. However, wholesale instruction to officers at large needs to be specific to the job, with experience in the field, and a grasp of the underpinning legal, physiological, and psychological issues. LE officers tasked to train officers also have an understanding of what it is we are actually doing. This is lost on almost every instructor I know. The reality of what human aggression looks like, moves, changes, and goes up and down the scale of seriousness is something that people who have not been exposed to it do not understand. How many martial arts instructors have been there, routinely, over and over again, for years at a time? "Had to use my skills once when I was bouncing and another to de-escalate at a bar." Awesome. For a lot of beat cops that's called Friday night. Repeat for the weekend. Now for the next 20 years of your life. The experience this builds is unsurmountable by theory. So, in closing, should be partner with talent martial arts instructors to learn new skills? Yes. Totally. And there are some incredibly talented ones I've trained with and been in awe of who freely share information and pointedly tell you to take it back and see how it works with what you do. They are fantastic. Diana , I'm looking at you here! Thank you. Should martial arts instructors be given duties at Academies, and oversee in-service training whole scale? No. Once tactical information is sharpened it should fall to cops to integrate it into a useable format that dovetails with current methods. This means that they need to make sure it works, unarmed, to pistol, to rifle and everything in a cohesive package with body armor and full duty gear on with minimal differences in overall body mechanics. All the while, it must be vetted against policy and law. Again, there's not that many martial arts instructors that can do all of this. Can there be exceptions? I'm certain, but they are so few and far between that we shouldn't set policy and precedent on it. There, my full views on the matter. I'm just posting this every time someone on a group asks my opinion from now on. Whew. So, there's the complete (minus a self edit on my part) reply to the article and it's assertions. That said, I open the floor for opinion. What does everyone else think?

So cool! This is what I did in my former life pre-cop! I spent about 6 years out of college being a trainer before moving to LE.

Cop as well.

I agree! Awesome!

Athletes of any endeavor will wear out their body far quicker than non-athletes. This is just the way of it. Even moving correctly will eventually wear. Now, add in incidental contact that is so common in the arts and it's easy to even accelerate that wear. The key is to manage that as best as possible. DOn't put yourself in positions to push past your envelope as you age. Do some strengthening on the side to keep your joints supported. Stretch a bit or do yoga for flexibility. These sorts of things go along way to minimizing damage over the years.