tallgeese

3/21 7 mile hike/run interval training. Not much on the agenda for tomorrow if my weight continues to track well.

3/20 2 miles on the treadmill.

I agree with this assumption. However, I'm not willing to give up position to attempt to remove them from the picture. As long as I maintain position, this will either a) present the chance due to position, or b) keep him from hurting me due to my position. Either is fine with me AND does not give the bad guy the opportunity in either case to get his goals accomplished. Position is always better than an attack that might compromise the position, regardless of the setting.

3/18 Drilled sweep from X guard, arm bar from X guard, and knee bar from X guard. 40 min open mat. Drilled guard breaks and passes. Standing game. Spider guard attacks. Passing/maintaining half guard. Competition pace. Feeling good before taking off for the Pans tomorrow.

For the record, I like this a lot. It does go back to my previous post as well. I love the sequence, it starts with sweep. A fundamental grappling skill. The cheating isn't on the end of beating the grappling, it's in the final control phase AFTER grappling skill has countered poor position.

Lots of good points have been made so I won't rehash them point by point. However, there is some merit to digging into a couple of examples. First up, the eye gouge always sounds like a great weapon. It's much harder to make happen than it is to say. For one thing, if the bad guy has any ground training at all he's postured back, making the eye gouge hard. Or attempting to stand and pass, making it even harder. Another, how often you really practice driving thumbs into people's eyes? While in guard? Probably not often. Now, how often can you practice at high tempo attacking from the guard while under fire of punches? Pretty often if you do it right. This is important. I can train high tempo, with normal jiu jitsu skills and mma striking without too much risk of injury. I can't gouge eyes. Now, if I get good reps at one thing that is shown practically to work, that's (to me) much more reliable in the street than hypothetical attacks. Besides, when having shots rained down on you the primary concern quickly becomes breaking posture and locking the bad guy down in a control posture. Not attempting to strike him back. It's body mechanics and position. Once you move to the ground it's everything and drives the tactical decision making process. On that note, we move to the second part of this. When you start talking about tying up hands holding things to the ground and striking, you start talking about removing your ability to maintain base and stay on top. Again, we go to positional decision making. It's far more important to stay in a position of dominance than strike. If you maintain position, you can do anything you want- in time. But posture is everything. You might have to sacrifice some tactics due to the fact that they don't prioritize base. I'm not holding out that BJJ is the ultimate are or anything. Although I do think it is really effective speaking from a LE aspect. I just think that there is a pretty big misconception that there is a way to "cheat" around grappling. The fact is, the best way to overcome grappling is to become versed in grappling.

3/17 Drilled guard breaks and passes. Free roll. 60 min.

Honestly, probably not too much different. Largely because I've trained to use certain tactics from those positions and those tactics tend to work. Why transition to a hypothetical skill set that I haven't practiced full go from time to time when I have a tried and true, perfectly effective set on hand? If we breakdown what you've asked about: Guard Half Guard Mount and Rear Mount let's first take out the bottom of these out of the equation. Excepting, perhaps the guard (and it's a bit of special case) all of these positions if you are on the bottom mean you're in trouble (even the guard). You don't need to be "cheating" to get out. You need to execute good escapes. All of these are legal. There's no leverage from the bottom to aid you, what ever method of striking out you want to use. Next up, the top. Why, if I have established dominant position, should I have to look past anything outlawed by the ruleset you mention. With a good mount, punching someone into unconsciousness is pretty good in it's own right. There might be some exception with the rear mount, because you could drop strikes directly to the back of the head and C-spine. But that deviation is minor in its "cheat" factor I would think. Are there other tactics that would produce results? I'm sure. But why tinker with success. Good position is key. Then easy to execute tactics that work. And finally, training and proof that they do work. We've seen all this demoed by the UFC and other outlets.

I wouldn't stress it. Some schools just don't put that much emphasis on rankings. IT varies so much from school to school it's hard to tell.

I'm going with yes. Largely due to the fact I've been training in something since longer than a lot of the people I'm on the mat with these days have been alive. On a more serious note, I've got the opportunity to go to the dan grades in two arts closing in on another within a couple of years, competed in multiple venues, and had detailed to cursory exposure to multiple other arts. I've gotten to pressure test tactics in full contact comps and my job has allowed me to do this under live conditions. This does not mean I'm the best at anything? Of course not, I train with guys every day better than me in fact. It just means I've had good chances to train, and utilize thru legal means, those skills. That experience. Now, on the flip side, experience is a moving target. Have I experienced a camp for a professional fight? No. World Championship pressure? No. Owning a school and worrying about keeping it open? No. So there's plenty I haven't done. My experienced can be useful to people looking for certain things. I would not be "experienced" enough for others with different goals. It depends.

3/16 Free roll drills: Takedowns/ Pulling Guard Breaking closed guard Break and pass open guard Passing half and deep half Finally free roll. 60 min total. Awesome tourney prep work.

Thank you all! Very much appreciated.

3/15 Drilled standing guard break and pass. Choke variant. 30 min free roll. Competition pace. 10 min live drill on standing guard break.

On a slight aside, please be careful using pressure points as part of your roll doing BJJ. It's not an accepted part of the art and will really irritate people that you're rolling with if you go to start trying them during the roll. It's perceived as disrespectful and being rude. If you're in a study group of your own and everyone is on board with inculusion, it's a bit of a different story. However, in normal practice it's a bit of a no-no. Yes, they can cause discomfort. Yes, they will cause your partner to move. However, the element of body control is so highly stressed in BJJ and positions so solid at high levels, they rarely effect change in high-level rolling. If you are on the good side this control, there's no need to use them, you can utilize any of the accepted attacking methods from BJJ itself very successfully. If you are on the inferior side of this position, then you're not in a good enough position to make them useful. Your leverage is minimal and you are in a much better position be hurt than do hurting. That said, as in all things, experiment and find what's working for you. Just don't do it in normal open mat situations.

3/14 20 min of bodyweight cals. All I could fit in with the busy travel day.

3/13 3 mile run

Thanks everyone! I appreciate the feedback. Feel free to use the article, sensei8, I'd be honored.

3/12 1.75 miles on the treadmill Abs' Bench Rows Legs

3/11 1.5 miles, 1 mile of intervals squat overhead pull ups abs

This post was originally published as an article in a dedicated KarateForums.com Articles section, which is no longer online. After the section was closed, this article was most to the most appropriate forum in our community. The question comes up fairly frequently: What's the best way to train at home for my martial arts? It's a good question and if you're committed to supplementing your training at home and have the proper goals in mind while designing your space, you can make great strides while away from the gym. In this article, we'll talk about setting aside space for training in your home and then stocking it to get done what you need, from the basics of function to a fully tricked out home gym. Let me preface this all by putting out a disclaimer: there is no replacement for qualified instruction. All of the training outside the club I've ever done, or recommended, has been in addition to, and following the training parameters of, actual class time in arts. You're not teaching yourself here, you're sharpening skills your coach has given you to work on. As you advance, you'll find ways to improve your game or link things together in a new manner, but focus initially on just putting in more reps of what you're working in class. A space at home can give you many more reps of practice than you'll get at the gym alone if you're willing to put in the time. Lastly on this note, I train at home because I can't get away to the gym every night or at convenient hours of class time. If I could do that, I would and would have a pool table or something instead. You should be using your home gym as a supplement to, not a replacement for, going to train at your gym. How to Decide What You Need There are a couple of questions to deal with once you decide to train at home in addition to time at the gym. First, what exactly do you want to get done in this space you're creating? Do you just want to cross train for sport specific movements or actually work on your art? The answer to this will start to tell you how much space you'll have to set aside in your home for the project and what equipment you'll need to stock it with. Second, how much space do I have to commit to this effort? This will drastically affect your answers to question one. You might have to compromise on your goals to make the two meet. Once you find where these two intersect, you'll have a realistic starting point. I will say this about making the two meet: If you really want to train at home, do not attempt to make this space multi-functional. The idea of moving a sofa to practice might sound fine when you're planning, but will seem an insurmountable obstacle when you're deciding if you can squeeze in a workout before bed. So if that leaves you with just a corner to dedicate rather than a whole room, work accordingly. You'll actually get more use out of properly designed small space than a poorly envisioned larger one. Where Should You Put Your Training Space? After designing my space in everything from my first apartment to my home now and everything in between plus helping a friend or two along the way, I get asked occasionally what the best place to set up a spot is. The easy answer is to go back to the first two questions and see where they intersect. Now find that space in your home. That's the best spot. I've used spare bedrooms, garages, basements, even a large mud room. The same goes for the how much space you'll need, get an answer to each question that fits with the other and you have your answer. Someone who wants to spar regularly with friends in this space will need much more than someone who wants to hit a heavy bag every night. That being said, I do have a couple of recommendations after a few goes at this. First, I try to stay out of garage space. If you live anywhere near or above the Mason-Dixon Line, it gets cold in the winter. Real cold. This will greatly inhibit your desire to work out. Second, you'll have to leave your car or cars outside. Depending on the situation, this might not set well with a significant other that has to deal with your obsession. On the flip side, they have a lot of space and you can do about any sort of modifications you want to them. However, they are subject to environmental changes and the needs to share space with vehicles make them less than ideal to me. Stay out of spaces that are heavy traffic, especially if you have multiple roommates. I learned this from my mud room experience. Any foot traffic through the middle of the workout will make it less than ideal not to mention it will make it less likely that you'll do it. Sure it sounds easy to just stop and start, but nothing will be more counter-productive to your bag routine like chatting between rounds for 20 minutes about your roommate's class project. Personally, the best space I've found is the basement facility, followed by a spare room. Either will give you your own space to set up without outside influence to your specs. This will mean that you get more out of it. Plus both are generally climate controlled to a degree so you won't have to scrape the frost off your floor space before training. Designing Your Space How much space will you need to dedicate out of either? Let's look at what you want to do. If you're out of a striking art, it might be that all you need is space for a heavy bag, or as a second choice a freestanding bag and some room for foot work. This will mean very little dedicated space in the grand scheme of things. You can even dedicate less if you want to mount a makawari or two at separate heights to work off of and cut angles in relation to. This kind of set up, basic as it is, is relatively cheap and can be done in very little space. My personal preference for makawari training is two striking surfaces, about a foot and a half to two feet long. One set at head/throat height and the second knee/quad height. I build these out of two by fours covered by two to three layers of blue camping pad. I tape them down with duct tape. This makes them padded and durable and easily rebuilt after much striking and breakdown. I lag bolt the each to a stud then cover the bolding with pad as well. This configuration gives you a lot of striking area to work with and tactics to employ. When used with angle work it becomes very useful in developing a trapping game. A little more dedicated space will get you room to do drill work. This way you can step off line and work combos, do stance work, or work shadow boxing in the air. Again, this can pay dividends in rep time and cardio conditioning. To expand further, if you're out of a karate based art, get enough space to perform the largest kata in the style without resetting or worrying about running into anything. If you can, I recommend that as a starting point, if you have the space to work with. Now you can work the foundational aspects of your style, plus have room to do floor drills. Add in the heavy bag and makawari mounted in the space and you're ready to work. Think vertical in your space as well. Do you plan on working any throws? Or spin weapons of any length? If so, are you going to be able to do them without raking your friend's feet across the ceiling or blowing lights up with sticks? This might be beyond your ability to deal with as it's kind of a fixed variable. However, if it's close and matters that much to you, don't forget that you can always rip out a drop ceiling to accommodate. Personally, I'd delegate work on those things to the classroom only. There's plenty of stuff to work other than things that might mean major demolition to your home. If it's a weapons issue, switch to short items for home work. Now is the time to pull out the sticks and knives. Now we're talking about a space ideally that will accommodate a kata without being tight that has a bag hanging in one corner (or a freestanding one there instead) and a makawari mounted nearby. That's pretty functional for most people. Floor Covering Assuming we're talking about a room sized space, either in the basement or a spare room, we need to deal with floor covering. It's likely that there is already carpet down in any finished or semi-finished room. That will do for many karate based arts, especially for home work. If you have an unfinished basement you could work out in shoes all the time, which is functional and cheap or get carpet remnants from a store for very little money to put down. If you take the extra step, the base level padding will give you some cushion as you work. If you go this route, it should be uniform across your area. No need to twist an ankle doing kata due to a drop off in the middle of your workout space. Matting is another option that is excellent, although much more expensive, for floor covering. Personally, I'll try to make this happen every time based on the arts I'm into. Again, if you're in a karate art with no ground work and minimal throwing, I wouldn't worry. However, if you're in anything that puts people on the floor regularly or do MMA or BJJ, the mats will pretty much become mandatory. Even if I'm not having anyone over to work out with, I'll do roll work, break falls, and no end of shrimping or hip drills on my off days. If you're in a similar situation, you'll need them or, in all likelihood, you won't work you sport's specific movements enough. If you are in one of the arts that make mats nearly a requirement, you'll want to think about the wall your surface meets as well. Nothing can wreck a day like slamming your foot into a wall during a roll without anything to cushion it. If you don't have spare matting to cover the wall in, I'd use the cheap puzzle mats that most sporting goods stores sell to put under weight equipment. Velcro will secure this to most surfaces. As to where to get mats, there are plenty of online sources. Like I said, this is expensive. However, keeping an eye out for high schools that are getting rid of any sort of matting (wrestling or folding) can make this very cheap. Before getting my wrestling mat, I used old gymnastic mats, that were being replaced, from a gymnastic center. These covered my floor for free for years. Now, they are on my walls via Velcro while my wrestling mats are on the floor. It's an excellent set-up; if somewhat time consuming to put together on a budget. The Luxury Items Now you've got a space large enough to do what you need, matted on the floor and surrounding walls with enough equipment to cover the basics of solo training. From this, you've got more than enough to drill supplemental work at home. If you're here, you're lucky. Past this, we're talking sheer luxury items. If you've got a heavy bag (or substitute), you don't need much more. However, given space, I'd add a double ended striking bag for some variety, possibly an upper cut or other specialty bag. If your art focuses around trapping exercises, a Wing Chun dummy might not be a bad luxury addition to the arsenal. If you do grappling arts, a dummy to work on is nice as well. If you're on the mat at an academy three or more nights a week, it's probably more trouble than it's worth. However, it's beneficial when drilling new movements and conditioning. You can always buy a high dollar option, or have some fun and build one based on the many plans available for free online. I cobbled mine together off of about three different sets to get it to do what I wanted and spent less than fifty bucks on it by the time I was done begging, stealing and borrowing. At some point, if you're doing circuit type conditioning out of your space, you'll want to invest in both a medicine ball and Swiss ball. These simple and relatively inexpensive items will give you the ability to work sport specific conditioning movement in your private studio. Solo training is now pretty much sewed up. But you know if you put this much time into you place you're going to invite your friends over to train. Given this, it makes sense to have some stuff lying around to train with. Keeping your sparring gear nearby is handy, plus a set of focus mitts and MT pads. Now you can start training partner work. Additionally, I keep a chest pad in the area as well. This lets you set up some great mitt work in conjunction with the pads given the chance. Add your choice of weapons and a place to store all this stuff and you're in business. The sky, and your budget, is really the limit for what you can keep around to use for training when you get a partner. Just remember, you don't need to sink a ton of money into this sort of stuff. This is your accessory training facility. Plus, martial artists tend to collect this stuff as they go. In a couple of years your storage area will be full no matter what you set out to do. Home fitness facilities, cardio and weight, are beyond the scope of this article. However, if you have them or are planning on having them, keep them in proximity of your martial arts space if possible. This will let you link up conditioning drills much easier. Personalize It Lastly, there are the little touches that make it your own. I can't survive a workout without music. I think it might be a federal law actually. So a CD player or spot to stream your favorite station is key. I keep some mellow alternative stuff to roll to, some metal to MMA and spar to, and the mandatory "Rocky" soundtrack to lift with. It will give your space some flair and make it more enjoyable to work out. A flag or two on the wall if it's your thing makes the space feel like a gym. Have some fun with this; it will make you want to go drill. Functionally, think about keeping a video camera around. This lets you get good footage of your skills and keeps you honest. A computer handy to download said footage to and watch is pretty nice as well. Plus this set-up lets you record new stuff your buddies might show you so you can review or keep workout sequences recorded so you don't lose them to your memory. Once you've got a grasp of your art, it will also give you the ability to scour the internet for all things related to your art. New tactics, drills, techniques, etc. Being able to work on these while watching them, or in conjunction with reviewing them, is a great tool (gone are the days of the TV and VCR). Again, this should not be your primary learning theater, but an accessory, and in the case of internet research, only done after you have a good base of knowledge. The video and laptop are the only things in my workout area that pull double duty. I just can't justify committing high dollar items like that to my workouts. On a last note, a low-tech dry erase board hung nearby will help you keep track of goals, daily workouts and more. It's cheap and handy. I Have a Great Space, Now How Do I Use It? Now you have your super cool space. How does one go about using it? Believe it or not, the question comes up. There's all sorts of answers, maybe a better way to phrase it would be: How does one maximize this space? First up, decide what you want out of your time. Is it skill building, cardio, sport specific work? This will guide you on how to set up a workout for the day. Designing workout protocols is beyond the scope of the article, but taking the time to actually build a system based on your goals rather than just walking into your home area and starting to move will be well worth the research time. If you have the equipment we've talked about or something similar and an imagination, you can put together no end of workouts. I keep a spreadsheet going so I can quickly pull up daily work if I need to. This will keep your time focused so you're making the most of it. Lastly, once you have your space, use it. Have fun with the process of creating your training area. You'll learn a lot just taking the time thinking about your goals and piecing it together. Then enjoy training there. Remember, if you even spend 20 minutes in it, three times per week, it's like another class of reps each week. I think most people will agree that this will radically effect your progress in a positive manner. Good luck and have fun.

I can see that translate much easier, xo. In fact, planning a course of training is something that we're all guilty of not doing a good enough job of in jits usually. Open mat is fun, free roll is fun. But we don't often enough take time to really sort out: -what new that we need to work on -what's not working for us that we know well enough -what my A game is and how do I sharpen it Then, once identifed, we have to match that with the people we're partnered with on the open mat. Against whites and blues, I'll work the last couple of weeks material, espicially if it's new to me. That way I'm really forcing myself to expand. With purples, I spend a lot of time in spots and techniques that I have experience with, but I'm not hitting with the consistancy that I should be. Also, the new material I now work against whites and blues I move to purples as well. Once I get to other browns, I spend a lot of time sorting out specifics surprisingly and sharpening techinque. It's more mellow, more back and forth working out details. Once I get with the black belts, unless I'm really working something specific (or moving something up the food chain that I'm now hitting consistently on purples), it's time to work my A game and sharpen that tool. I will make sure and continue to filter in new material as it's ready, but not before. It's just guidelines, but that's how I usually think about my training sessions in open mat and "game plan" my improvement. You'll need to adjust, of course, for your situation and comfort level, but you get the idea. Going in with a handful of things in mind to work is good. Don't be afraid to stop the roll, go back, and see where things get wrong for a movement. Also, start from negative positions and work from there. And let people go back to having you there when you get out. You'll be surprised how much you can learn this way. A last couple of points, 1) NEVER get used to just doing the same handful of tactics over and over again because everything else lands you in a bad spot. You'll never expand your game. Keep trying all your new stuff, do it until you can't help but get it into your game. Who cares how long, or how many botched attempts it takes. 2) Don't assume that open mat means you have to start free rolling immediately. Take some reps to review the days material, and last weeks. Hit it perfectly a few times to keep it in your head. Then move into free roll. It's a great way to keep learning the material. Maybe not as much fun, but more effective training. Just some thoughts on the subject. Hope it's helpful.

3/9 Drilled guard recovery from side mount. Kimura sweep from bottom side. Finish with arm bar from guard recovery to tie in to last week. 40 min free roll. Competition pace thru. Really having good luck translating technique to speed right now.

This. I get it, more exposure of the art is usually a good thing, but Wastelander is exactly right, no one but people like us could even tell the difference anyway. Fewer would care. And it would only air at 3 am in in every time zone in the world. It's hard enough to catch TKD or Judo now. Imagine trying to find that "other fighting" event on the schedule. I love BJJ. I'd love to see it as an Olympic sport I guess, but in reality would anyone in the public care about the difference between it and judo? I'm not sure it's worth the exchange. Same for karate.

Personally, I don't use written game planning of any sort. It's just not how I learn/ operate on the mats. I'm not saying it's not valid, just that it doesn't work for me. There are, again just for me, too many moving parts of a roll to ever account for everything that I might need to do in a single match. I kinda play the artist card on this one and work with the flow. Now, I will have a general strategy outlined in my head, particularly for tournaments. For instance: Jump guard Sweep Solidify Top Work to Sub. This has, with variable tools within those major points depending on where I've been feeling strong, been my general game plan for about a year now. Prior to that I've been thru takedown phases (where all I managed to do was get to bad spots and get hurt), and work for sub from guards phases (still not off the table). It's a pattern that's worked well for me. But they are guidelines only. I'll take what I get easiest based on the flow. The tools I use within each objective will depend on the movements the opponent gives me and I can initiate based on what he and I are creating together. Try not to limit what you're training will allow you to create given the moment. However, whatever learning model works best for you should be used. That's the great thing about jiu jitsu, it's your journey open to your creativity, artistry, and imagination.

3/7 15 min eyes closed flow roll work against a full resistor. 30 min hard competition rolls. Shoulder rehab.