Fitness, Grappling, Jiu Jitsu, Judo

The Sylvio Behring Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Purple Belt Nerves (What You Fail To Be)

This Article comes from Nuclearchainsaw » Jiu Jitsu and Judo
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Well, if you’re an avid reader of this blog, you should know that John Valentine and I are testing in front of Master Sylvio Behring for our purple belts on April 29th.  Sylvio once told me in a seminar that before a fight he was “always nervous never scared.”  I’m scared.

That’s the weird thing – I don’t have to fight anyone.  Roll?  Yes, fight? No.  Here’s the thing, and I’m sure every blue belt ready for promotion feels this way….it’s a PURPLE BELT.  For those unfamiliar, it takes roughly a year or so for blue if you’re decent.  Purple can take anywhere from 3 to 6 years with no experience…that’s fighting for 5 hours a week for over 1,000 days.   In other words, to fail after 3 years would devestate me, and I’m not going to let that happen, no way.  Am I nervous?  Yes.  Scared?  Absolutely.  To me, it’s like training for the olympics and falling just short or winning gold.  To lose would be devestation, to pass would be elation.

When I got my blue belt I noticed that more people wanted to roll with me just to say they beat a blue belt…understandable, I did the same when I was a white belt.  But purple is different.   I started BJJ at Hidden Valley MMA in November of 2009.  My goal was to get a stripe on my white belt.  3 months later, I got one, and it was awesome.  My friends thought “big fuckin’ whoop”.  Again, to me, it was progress.  It was passing the first round cuts of high school baseball.  It was to say that I had potential, nothing more and to wait for the second round.

The second round involved getting my Judo green belt.  It was nice, but I loved the ground from the second I had “potential”…I wanted a blue belt.  I wanted the ten dollar blue thing to hold up my pants.  I wanted superiority and I wanted to be known.  In October of 2010 I got it under Master Sylvio, and Professor Mike Hermosillo.  Thus, the “target” was on my back.  I had the blue belt reputation to uphold, and suddenly that anxiousness turned into a feeling of whether or not I could actually live up to it…call it a reality check.  Did I get submitted by white belts?  Yes, all the time.  It’s not to say that I wasn’t worthy to hold the belt, but only that I had the “fundamentals of Behring BJJ” in my book.  I did, so losing didn’t bother me.  Mike always told me, “If you don’t tap during rolling, you’re doing something wrong.”  I tapped, as they say, “early and often”.

But a month from now, John and I test together for purple.  Purple was so far out of my goals when I started that it has become the little gold head that Indiana Jones was trying to steal in The Temple of Doom.  If I knew how to spell “paraphamilia”, it’d be that.

Over the years Mike has been kind enough to let me teach, and has made me a technical man, and I listen to him and do what he says.  I’ve fallen into a submissive when I roll.   I trust his words and I do it and I win.  Because of that, people in the gym look up to me and they almost expect me to win.  It’s weight to carry, especially knowing that I’m not as good as they think.  That being said, to fail a test in front of students would absolutely destroy me.  For Sylvio to be unimpressed at my progression would embarrass Mike and humiliate me.  I’m absolutely afraid of failing, even though I think that the promotion would be near impossible to fuck up at this point, I’m like Indy with the gold head…I’m blowing my fingers, estimating the weight, and I’m nervous until the moment I switch the weighted sandbag with the head….the moment I enter the “expert” ranks as some sites say.

I will be a purple belt, and I will impress, and if not given the opportunity to speak after, I’ll tell myself that I’m a product of everyone at the gym.  Maybe I’m blowing it out of proportion but my life hasn’t been kind to me, and this is what I have, and I’m throwing myself into it – but John and I aren’t the only ones….

Julie Winter is a 6 month trainee and amateur MMA fighter out of HVMMA.  She puts in 20 hours a week minimum at the gym.  She’s ready.  I talked to her tonight, she’s nervous.  She’s worried about quitting after her fight, and she’ll probably be pissed at me for mentioning that, but it reminds me of May of 2010…..my own 6-month point.  It’s a cycle.  She’ll be incredible and like everyone else, she needs support, and HVMMA does that.  Mike doesn’t let people quit…maybe that’s why being promoted there matters so much – Mike makes you what you thought you’d fail to be.

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Fitness, Grappling, Jiu Jitsu, Judo

The Finer Points And Tips For The Triangle Choke (Sankaku Jime)

This Article comes from Nuclearchainsaw » Jiu Jitsu and Judo
To see the full original article click here

BJJ on an enormous crossword puzzle

The triangle is one of those chokes in Judo and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu that everyone loves…unless you’re caught in it and you try desperately to “answer the phone” before taking an ill-planned nap.  There are many reasons to love the triangle…putting someone to sleep…the minimal effort it takes to choke…the ability to look down and watch what you’re doing to someone as they flail like a fish out of water…all good reasons.  BUT there are certain tips that I’ve been picking up on over the last couple of years that may help out some beginning students when applying the triangle-sleepy-time-chokey-choke…all directions are from the position of the illustration (right leg over shoulders):

#1 GET TO 90 DEGREES (CLOSE THE BACK-GAP)

See the blue guy and the pink…I guess - girl up there?  I’m using that position as a reference.  Right now she is at zero degrees to her target…note her right computer-generated leg across Mr. Blue’s shoulders – this is correct.  The thing is, most people try the triangle without that leg across the shoulders…mainly because they don’t get to 90 degrees before throwing it up there.  Here’s an example:

Stand facing a desk about waist high…now pick up your right leg and try to lay your leg across your body flat on the desk in front of you with the outside of your knee and ankle both touching the surface…you know, it the shape of the triangle…hurts like a mother doesn’t it?

NOW, try that same thing butleanyour upper body to the right…easier huh? 

So its the same principal – in order to get that right leg across the shoulders, you have to move your upper body to the right.  This, in turn will keep your leg more on top of their shoulders when you bring your body back to zero degrees (the position of that robot-chick up there).

#2 GET YOUR HIPS UP

Look at pink alien’s hips – they’re off the ground.  Once that leg is across the shoulder, your next order of business is to hump their face…so to speak.  Shoot your hips up to their face and pull down with that leg you just got across the shoulders.  Nice and tight…like your mom in college (burrrrnnn)

#3 PULL THE ARM ACROSS

In regards to the man in the blue hue…His right arm is going aross his face – you want this.  Sure, the pink thing is holding the back of his head, but equally as effective would be to hold the blue guy’s right arm across his own face and your hips.  What this does is bring his shoulder up to his neck cutting off blood flow to that crucial carotid artery.  Remember when instructed on how to escape the triangle you heard “answer the phone”?  Well, answering the phone is getting that shoulder off of your neck…ipso-facto, pulling the arm across should sink it in…plus it’s hard to answer anything if they have a hold of your arm…unless you’re trying to answer Freddy Krueger’s questions in person (get it?  you have to be asleep for that…burrrnnn).

#4 GET THAT OTHER LEG OVER AND TOE-UP

Your left leg now goes over your right ankle and you come back to zero degrees…this shit should be tight…but here’s how to make it tighter…when your left leg comes over your right, usually a flailing opponent will loosen the hold up a bit.  This is where you point your right toes up. What this does is bring your legs and knees closer together.  Think of your foot as a lever that brings everything together…which brings us to the most important:

#5 SQEEZE THE MUTHA-FUGGIN KNEES

When you get the triangle and you’re ready to have someone pass out between your legs like your mom after college (burrrn), squeeze your knees together…that’s where the choke is and a lot of people miss that.  Remember the shoulder you pulled across?  Well squeezing the knees shoves that in deeper and shoves the other carotid into your right thigh…this is the point where it feels like your head is going to explode when caught in it. 

Sure, there are variations, this is just a list of tips that helped me, and can maybe help you.  My personal favorite isn’t grabbing the head, but keeping the arm across my body using my right hand and using my left to hold their head down with my forearm and grab the outside of my right knee with my left hand and squeezing harder than a constipated John Candy.  Result – awesome, and like a constipated actor, I don’t poop.

Filed under: Jiu Jitsu and Judo

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