JiuJitsuNation

I find all of this interesting and I'm actually sold emotionally on several points made. However my suv gets 12 miles to the gallon, I highly enjoy driving it (without a seatbelt) and the world is going to continue on it's course and as long as people are involved.... good or bad is simply YOUR perception. P.S. I wear my seatbelt on the interstate or two lane highways.

Yeah I thought the running up and putting the gun to the suspects head and trying to take them down at the same time was poor technique. But agree with the officers actions.

I'm trying to understand exactly what the kids are getting out of having their parents help them? Personally I want the parents out of my way all together. They hinder the process more than anything.

YES SIR!!!!!

Awesome!

In 1917 Carlos Gracie watched his first Judo demonstration and then decided he wanted to train. The first Gracie Academy was established in 1925. There are many disarming techniques as well as attacks using weapons in Gracie Jiu Jitsu. Is it the main focus? No. But training with one of the old guys is much different than training with someone who is on fire right now in the sport of BJJ. Sport has a way of accelerating a styles evolution, in every instance for the worse. Although sport may strengthen an art in an area it always creates a weakness of equal proportions. What makes GJJ/BJJ effective is that it's a grappling art for one and two the way it is trained. To say that BJJ is more sporty and athletic is only a glimpse into the world of BJJ. Any style that doesn't encourage good health and making the body better... well maybe they are just a business and not a source of solid, well rounded information about a lifestyle. BJJ/GJJ is a lifestyle, as should every martial way be.

Everyone's reality is different. It doesn't make since regardless however to attempt to exchange blows with someone much larger. You also have to take into account reach. If two people are the same height and reach but one is 60 pounds heavier I don't necessarily see this as a disadvantage. If the lighter individual is well versed in boxing I can see speed and skill being more of the deciding factor. Being of above average height and weight with over 8000 hours of experience, my reality may be very different than yours. With that being said I have seen countless 150lb BJJ practitioners run all over big cats with no problems and yet seen those same guys run into trouble because of size. Depends a lot on the athletic abilities of all involved. Seems certain variables tip the scales more than others but all weigh in none the less.

All else being equal then size will always be an advantage. The best thing to do is to understand firstly that you must maintain a proper base and posture. Second you have to understand what your opponents grips mean to you. Isolate the fundamentals, drill keeping your posture and base while your partner attempts to break you down or close the gap between you. Keep your hands off the mat and on your partner. Hands on the mat in closed guard is a no no. Post on them and use your hands to walk your posture back up. If they have a grip that is hindering you, then you need to learn some effective grip breaking techniques. There are many drills to work. This should give you a start. I'm no word smith. I'm better at expressing myself on the mats but I hope this helps. Looking forward to some of the other guys responses. I learn a great deal on here myself.

I think that there is a hole in pretty much everyone's guard game, and it is a pretty low percentage in which you see most fighters get finished in someone's guard. Submissions only make up a certain percentage of wins in mma. But many submission wins actually come from the guard.

Our fears are exaggerated by pharmaceutical companies, insurance companies, t.v.,etc. There are many cultures that view death differently than we do in the U.S. I wouldn't suggest that because the energy that makes your heart beat never dissipate and moves on to others things is suggestive of a god being responsible for it. And it's our idea of god that says he/she is just. There are many things that happen on this planet that more than suggest otherwise. Just so we are being politically correct. It seems many belief systems could be dragged into this. There are many cultures that believe there is no shame in getting sick and dying. But in the U.S. we are bombarded with advertisements for any little ailment. Someone please correct me if i'm wrong but I believe we are the only country that drugs are advertised on t.v. Almost half the commercials I see in one slot are for some type of drug. Playing off of our fears.

Yes sir!!

Seems to me deep half guard and it's many variations is not an area every school delves in. There are so many options between half, butterfly and x guard and they flow seamlessly together. Often the cons with one are answered with a simple transition to one of the others. All of which flow nicely into spider/open/de la hiva which flow back to closed and then in reverse. The guard is one of the most interesting and forever evolving pieces in BJJ. I love the endless amount of play and learning one can get from this area of grappling.

Correction on previous post: Master Sauer!!

Did you see the video of Professor Sauer vs. the bodybuilder?

This is very much the case. As a white belt (0 to 2 years of training), the guard is usually used simply to keep a person from getting around you. They fight hard to keep the feet locked and rarely attack efficiently from the position. Blue belts (1 to 3 years of training) usually do a better job of attacking from the closed guard, but get lost once the guard is open and lose focus. They tend to see different guards as separate. Purple belts (3 to 6 years of training) begin to start seeing the bigger picture. They realize that they can open up, get the grip they need and go back to guard. This understanding causes them to become much more efficient at attacking from the position. Brown Belts (6 to 10 years of training) start to apply the bigger picture. The various guard positions flow into one another, setting up techniques and applying defenses with good timing. Black Belts (9 + years of training) are even more smooth in their transitions and finish their submissions/sweeps/escape attempts at a higher percentage. In addition, they begin to solve more problems on their own, without the need of someone to guide them through every technique variation. Excellent!

This is more my reasoning for placing it into a defensive category, simply because it is the easiest guard to defend(passing, etc.) from. I can certainly see if we were to attempt to categorize these positions, how it could be misleading. As a competitor I won the vast majority of my matches from my back all the up to brown. Then it was like a switch came on. Brown and black and the more than 90 percent of my matches are won on top, often while standing. I have and teach a very active closed guard. It looks like we all use closed for the same reasons. I would expect this as our lineage is tightly knit.

You must have watched GSP jab Koschecks eye out! lol

My instructor, Luiz Palhares Introduce us to yours.

Replace guard and escape to knees are the first to escapes and preventative techniques you learn from side control. The gross movement and muscle memory are developed on a daily basis in drills. Ten years later I am still perfecting this. Once you can transition with a high level player on top of you regardless of size I'd say you have a grasp of the basics. Ten years and I feel I am finally getting a grasp of the basics.

Is this is for safety reason since BJJ involves immediate physical contact with a partner? If you teach students first with attacks, I could see students injuring their training partners because they haven't learned the limits of the human joints. I notice that more experienced players often easing up on partners even before they tap. They tend to ease into a lock rather than snap into it with full force. It has more to do with live training. An example would be a student looking over at me once class is done and it's time to roll and asking "What does he need to work on?" (referring to a beginner) My answer is "he needs to learn how to tap." So you work on whatever you want to and hunt the submissions you want work and make them tap a lot. There is a world to be learned from this process. A new student will learn transitions, positions and submissions and is free to apply them during live training. But the natural process is to at first be tapped a lot! So many things are learned in those precious minutes on the mat. Professor Pedro Sauer says it better than I.

I can see and absolutely agree with you. Master Palhares "Close your guard man. Closed guard is the only guard you cannot pass, must make open first." I look at it as defensive in the respect that you have way more control without being as active. I totally agree with it being more so for the beginner and offensive for the advanced individual. I use each guard for different situations and body types. for example: Closed guard: to slow down faster and smaller opponents. Butterfly, X, and deep half guard to neutralize larger pressuring opponents. Spider to create space and or utilize space created by my opponent. I'm hoping this conversation will shed some light on the guard. So everyone please jump in.

Ah HA! Yes intercept the hand, the guard pass, the position........

All very true. For example we are taught to replace guard from side control. However the best time to use this technique is not once they have side control but instead as they are in the transition to side control. When you move I move(If I'm the one a step behind).

Weight can tip the scales. I have a training partner who is 55 or so pounds heavier then me, about 265 or 270. He is also freakishly strong for HIS size. It makes things very difficult. My whole strategy is to be faster than him and create good angles to defend my guard. Once he is past I am almost certainly submitted. It's like having a moving statues on you. He just has zero give and basically I feel like a child. Every decision is crucial. His best friend is slightly lighter and not as stronger but still way stronger and heavier than I. These are my favorite training partners.

Very good! Hypertension is generally a result of water retention and there are many cause's of that in itself. The extra water causes pressure inside the body to increase making the heart work harder all resulting in higher blood pressure. Any exercise will be beneficial to a degree. Sweating will remove some salts from the body aiding in less water retained. At least this is my understanding.