el-peligroso

Apparently Machida and Silva didn't know anything about the front kick until Steven Seagal taught them it. haha. Anyway, go take a look at the first few UFCs with Royce Gracie and you'll see that he used the front kick a few times before taking his opponent down.

Drastic weight cuts are dumb in my opinion. I never did them when I was competing in kickboxing and muay thai. I would just fight at the weight I was comfortable at and back then I was fighting at around 140-150lbs.

Wow! I used to think that Chuck Norris was a huge joke but as time goes on I keep finding out that he has some legitimate credentials.

LOL - I've seen girls do some pretty acrobatic stuff and run pretty fast in heels. Although, I used to be a bouncer in strip clubs and night clubs back in the day so I've seen some stuff . . . haha

My girlfriend who just moved to a different city had to find a new place to train and she told me that it's a lot different than where I train at which happens to be where she started. The new place she is at is a bit strict. The head instructor is a 3rd degree black belt in BJJ, 4th degree black belt in karate, Kru in Muay Thai and a black belt in Judo. He runs his place very much like a karate dojo. Lots of bowing, no drinking water during class, you can only wear white gi's and he doesn't let males and females grapple together.

It all depends on how your opponent lands.

That's a rather broad sweeping generalisation. There is Japanese jujutsu and there is Japanese jujutsu. Most of the stuff I see displayed under the banner of JJJ is no more than poorly practiced Judo. If however you are fortunate enough to be exposed to some of the koryu systems - you might revise your thinking. Some of the ground work found in Araki-ryu for example is devastatingly effective. It's sole purpose is to arrest or seriously maim / kill someone. In many systems (Takenuchi-ryu, Araki-ryu and Sosuishi-ryu) hand to hand Jujutsu is practiced but the core of their grappling is done so using a 'sho-to' or short blade (this sort of grappling is referred to as Kogusoku). K. If any of this were true then there would be plenty of JJJ practitioners a run for their money at BJJ tournaments and that is just not the case. Pardon the pun but even a lot of Judo black belts can't even roll with blue belts at BJJ tournaments.

That's a rather broad sweeping generalisation. There is Japanese jujutsu and there is Japanese jujutsu. Most of the stuff I see displayed under the banner of JJJ is no more than poorly practiced Judo. If however you are fortunate enough to be exposed to some of the koryu systems - you might revise your thinking. Some of the ground work found in Araki-ryu for example is devastatingly effective. It's sole purpose is to arrest or seriously maim / kill someone. In many systems (Takenuchi-ryu, Araki-ryu and Sosuishi-ryu) hand to hand Jujutsu is practiced but the core of their grappling is done so using a 'sho-to' or short blade (this sort of grappling is referred to as Kogusoku). K. It may be a broad generalization but it's also an accurate one. I've been exposed to a few jjj systems and all have been less than impressive with underwhelming instructors. Most of the problem lies in their lack of live rolling and full contact. In my experience a blue belt in bjj tends to submit a jjj Black belt several times in a single training session. There may be exceptions. It they're far from the rule In regards to "deadly" techniques that's a bogus argument as well- all techniques are deadly if followed through on. A choke hold is about as deadly as they come- and ironically as safe as they come too. It's just a question of time. It'd be less appropriate to label jjj techniques as deadly and more appropriately to label them as "exotic" Have you trained in Araki-ryu? I haven't, so its still labeled as "generic JJJ" in my mind. I quick google-fu reinforced that. Have any videos you could link or demonstrations or techniques? I just googled it and didn't find anything special about it.

The traditional Gracie Jiu Jitsu curriculum doesn't have people doing free sparring until they're blue belts. Ever wonder why schools have "white belt" and "blue belt" classes but never any "purple, brown, and black" classes? It refers to the techniques being shown. In Gracie Jiu Jitsu, all white belt classes were your basic self defense- everything you'll see in Helios book, Royler, Renzo, etc. In this sense if you did do live rolling, you did so from a positional sense (i.e. escape a headlock, mount/cross side positions, etc.). Once a student was able to shown they could proficiently perform all of the self defense curriculum, they were promoted to blue belt. What we regard as a "normal" BJJ class are actually the blue belt classes, where technique is practiced from any number of positions and then live rolling at the end (you're practicing jiu jitsu vs jiu jitsu if you will). As competitions grew to become popular, many schools disregarded the self defense part of the white belt class and just brought people right in the door and had them rolling from the get go. I like this myself (I think most of us do) but the other approach tends to be good for people who actually want to learn the self defense aspect of BJJ That approach wouldn't be too good for business these days. People want to start rolling right away and I think that is good because it weeds out the ego maniacs from the jump.

That's a rather broad sweeping generalisation. There is Japanese jujutsu and there is Japanese jujutsu. Most of the stuff I see displayed under the banner of JJJ is no more than poorly practiced Judo. If however you are fortunate enough to be exposed to some of the koryu systems - you might revise your thinking. Some of the ground work found in Araki-ryu for example is devastatingly effective. It's sole purpose is to arrest or seriously maim / kill someone. In many systems (Takenuchi-ryu, Araki-ryu and Sosuishi-ryu) hand to hand Jujutsu is practiced but the core of their grappling is done so using a 'sho-to' or short blade (this sort of grappling is referred to as Kogusoku). K. It may be a broad generalization but it's also an accurate one. I've been exposed to a few jjj systems and all have been less than impressive with underwhelming instructors. Most of the problem lies in their lack of live rolling and full contact. In my experience a blue belt in bjj tends to submit a jjj Black belt several times in a single training session. There may be exceptions. It they're far from the rule In regards to "deadly" techniques that's a bogus argument as well- all techniques are deadly if followed through on. A choke hold is about as deadly as they come- and ironically as safe as they come too. It's just a question of time. It'd be less appropriate to label jjj techniques as deadly and more appropriately to label them as "exotic" Couldn't have said it better myself.

Yes, and any good JJJ school should be teaching ground work-its all in there! Yes, however all the groundwork in JJJ schools is very dated and wouldn't work against someone who is proficient in BJJ.

Nope. They're boring fighters.

My BJJ school is pretty laid back. We call our instructor by his first name. We don't have to bow on to the mat (although I do out of habit from the Japanese Jiu-jitsu days). Before we roll, we just do a high-five followed by a fist bump. After class we line up, bow out and then shake every ones hand. It's laid back and I prefer it that way. After all, I am paying a membership fee there.

TOP TEN makes the THE BEST headgear. I've had the same white headgear since 2001 and it's awesome. TOP TEN makes some pretty good 10 oz competition gloves as well. Rival makes great 18 oz training gloves.

"Leadership Programs" are just another way to generate revenue for school owners and to have higher coloured belts teaching classes so the head instructor can relax in his office.

Sounds like a belt factory to me. Do yourself a favour and just go buy yourself a black belt for $10. It will be a lot cheaper.

Everyone has seen this one so I won't even post the link. My favourite Martial Arts video has to be the old Kung Fu "Master" who claimed to be able to knock people out without even touching them. He also put up $5000 for any challenger who could be him. So this pancrase guy challenged him and savagely beat him. I feel bad for the kung fu guy but hey, that's life.

I actually shed a tear when I found out that Ali died back in June.

To be honest, I don't really fear anything. Not now doing Martial Arts recreationally or in the past competitively. It has never been a life or death thing for me so what should I be afraid for?

I find that I have a pretty good workout the day after drinking a few pints of Guiness

I have a black belt in Japanese Jiu-jitsu. The main difference between JJJ and BJJ is that JJJ only works on people that don't know anything.

They didn't let you start rolling until you earned your second stripe?

A lot of BJJ gyms promote students without a formal test. Your instructor just watches your progress and when he or she feels that you're ready then you get striped or moved up in belt rank. I think that is the best way. Formal gradings are just a cash grab anyway.

As for my old belts jujutsu belts, I got rid of them except for my black belt which is in the corner of my closet. I even got rid of all my old trophies and medals.

I was skinny back in the day so a lot of my old Jujutsu gi's, kickboxing pants and muay thai shorts wouldn't fit me anymore. I have slowly got rid of them as I increased muscle mass. I still have an old Judo gi that I used in Jujutsu class. I tried wearing it in BJJ class but I kept getting choked out because it was so baggy. I made shorts out of the pants that I wear during no-gi class and I use the gi top for chin ups.