12 Feb/Mar 2013

CAN MULTI-VITAMINS CHANGE YOUR GAME?

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NUTRITION, CONDITION, TECHNIQUE, SUBMIT

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JIU-HJNIQUE! TEC

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N W O D G N I O G DA ROUSEY RON

E R E H T U O Y G N I K A T IS

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Cham d l r o W e m 27-Ti RANJA A L O T A REN Tells All!

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ad B g n i k a e r B lover Break’s Jeff G rce Choke ’A D e h T n Dow

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E M I T W SHO Defend A Punch From Anywhere r with Javie Vazquez

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MAEGEDS JACM KED P

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FEB/MAR 2013 / ISSUE 12 • JIUJITSUMAG.COM

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CONTENTS Feb-Mar 2013 // Issue 12 :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: REGULARS EDITORIAL

08 10 20 24 44 48 84 102 106

Extra Benefits

CHECK-IN What’s New?

GRUB Dietary Proteins

SUPPLEMENTS Multi-Vitamins

WHO IS? Blayne Barlow

SPOTLIGHT Kristina Barlaan

TECHNIQUES BJJ FOR MMA

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Defend the Punch with Javier Vazquez

REVERSE HIP ESCAPE Kevin Howell Opens a Whole New World

D’ARCE BREAK DOWN Jeff Glover Breaks It Down

STRENGTH & CONDITION WARM UP

28

Myofacial Release

24 FEATURES RONDA ROUSEY

52 62 80

Takes You Down With Judo

BROTHERS IN ARMS Influential Jiu-Jitsu Siblings

THE ONE AND ONLY Renato Laranja

MIND GAMES Gustavo Dantas Helps You Find Victory

MEDIC Age and Injuries

SUCCESS Change is Good

66 You’ve got to make that face to finish.

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ON THE COVER Rowdy Ronda Rousey shows us the Judo moves that won her Olympic hardware and lLaunched her rising MMA career. Photo: Jason Boulanger

RONDA ROUSEY

TAKE DOWN

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Ronda Rousey Shows The Moves That Got Her Where She Is Today

Z E U Q Z A V JAVIER 32

MEDIC:

AGE & INJURIES

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Javie’s got his eye on you!

MA M R O F J BJ

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editorial

NEW FOUND BENEFIT

rom talking to fellow jiu-jitsu players, along with my own personal experience, we’re all aware of the many benefits that come from taking up the gentle art. The most obvious benefits are the ones we notice first. Depending on your overall fitness level when you started rolling, you’ve probably seen an improvement in your body. Maybe your jeans fit a little better after the first few months, or you had more energy, or more flexibility. These days, getting to roll becomes a huge stress reliever for me; on days I don’t get to roll, my general wellbeing is definitely diminished. It’s been almost five years since my first roll and just the other day I realized a benefit that I’ve never noticed before. Recently, I’ve been trying to put more emphasis on the move, counter move, and anticipation aspect of my sparring on the mats. You know how it goes, when you’re rolling and maybe in a bad position, you have to run through the possible scenarios in your mind in the blink of an eye. It’s the constant chess match that is jiu-jitsu. One or two seconds too long and you’re either passed out or holding a busted joint. This analytical and predictive process we go through is like a muscle. The more you exercise it, the stronger it gets. Well this muscle, once developed, not only becomes an invaluable tool in jiu-jitsu, but also is one that I’ve recently discovered is at my disposal off the mats. I was recently in a negotiation and I found myself predicting my counterpart’s response before I had even said anything of substance. Based on what I imagined his response would be, I changed my approach to end up with the result I was looking for. Through a few back and forth rounds of verbal sparring, and predicting his responses along the way, we came to an agreement that was very much the result I was looking for. Maybe I’ve done this in the past subconsciously, but this recent revelation has me pretty excited!

Now that I know this skill exists outside of jiu-jitsu, I’m finding myself looking to use it more and more often. I’m not one to argue politics, just because it’s usually futile (and those who disagree with me are always wrong), but this recent political season allowed me with plenty of opportunities to try things out. Now, how many arguments I might have won or lost is a separate debate on its own, but using this tactic of anticipating and directing a response is pretty fun, and sometimes useful. I wouldn’t recommend using it all the time; some might see it as being “manipulative,” especially in your personal relationships (unless used for good). So, the next time you find yourself in a debate of sorts, take note to see if you find yourself using your jiu-jitsu skills off the mats.

TEN TIMES THE FUN I’ve got some really big news I’ve been anxious to share with you, our loyal readers! I’m happy to announce that from here on out you can expect 10 issues of Jiu-Jitsu Magazine a year, up from our original bi-monthly format. We couldn’t do this without you, our readers. You’ve made us the newsstand’s leading jiu-jitsu magazine. We’ll do our best every issue to continue to produce the best magazine we possibly can. This issue you’re holding is the Feb/Mar edition. This issue and the one in August/ September will be two-month issues, with the rest being single month issues. Expect a new issue every 5 to 6 weeks. Current subscribers, or anyone who recently subscribed at the 6-issue rates, don’t worry!

We’ve got you covered! If you signed up for a year or two, you’ll get a year or two no matter how many issues that includes. Check out the details in this issue’s News section. I’m so excited about this increase in frequency. It means more opportunity for us to share the art we love with more people than ever before.

Thank You!

Mike Velez Editor & Publisher mikev@jiujitsumag.com

EDITIORIAL STAFF Editor & Publisher Mike Velez Associate Editor Deb Blyth Contributing Authors Seymour Yang, Jeremy Reid, Lucas Dyer, Dr. John Park, Dan Faggella, Kenny Johnson, Andre Borges, Hywel Teague ART & PHOTOGRAPHY Art Director Dave Palacios Contributing Photographers Jason Boulanger, John Cooper Kenny Jewel, Mike Lee, Mike Calimbas, Kristen Mendes PRODUCTION /ADVERTISING Production Director Paula Fountain Advertising Sales Mike Velez Circulation Manager Tom Ferruggia CHANGE OF ADDRESS & SUBSCRIPTIONS Phone: 1.877.834.3552 ext. 227 Web: jiujitsumag.com ADVERTISING /SALES INFO Available upon request, Contact: Jiu-Jitsu Magazine PO Box 2405 Chino Hills, CA 91709 ph: 1.877.834.3552 ext. 221 fax: 909.591.1251 NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL NEWSSTAND DISTRIBUTION The Curtis Circulation Company Jiu-Jitsu Magazine (ISSN 2157-6173) is a publication of Recon Media Inc., PO Box 2405 Chino Hills, CA 91709; Phone: 877.834.3552; Fax: 909.517.1601email: info@jiujitsumag.com. Subscription rates are $37.99 for 10 issues (1 year), $57.99 per year Canada, and $87.99 per year for foreign airmail. All rights reserved, The entire contents are copyright 2013 Recon Media Inc, and may not be reproduced in any manner in whole or in part without written permission from the publisher.

The views and the opinions of the writers and advertisers are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of Recon Media Inc., the Publisher, or the editorial staff. The Publisher assumes no responsibilities for advertising claims, errors, and omissions.

Some of the techniques described in this magazine can be dangerous. Always practice safe procedures and use common sense. Recon Media Inc., and the Publisher can not be held responsible from any injuries or damage caused by these techniques. Perform at your own risk.

We owe it all to you!

Jiu-Jitsu magazine is published 10 times per year. Application to mail at Periodicals Postage rate is pending at Chino, CA and at additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send address changes to Jiu-Jitsu Magazine PO Box 2405, Chino HIlls, CA 91709.

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Roll Frequently, Read Jiu-Jitsu Magazine Printed in the U.S.A

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JACARE MARCELO 5 FIGHT CONTRACT MMAfighting.com is reporting that jiu-jitsu legend Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza (5-time IBJJF Mundials champion – 2 absolute BB) has signed a new 5-fight deal with Forza, LLC. Forza is the parent company of Strikeforce, which has ceased operation. Forza is a subsidiary of Zuffa LLC, parent company of the UFC, and the expectation is that Jacare will move over to the UFC with this deal in place. Jacare is regarded as having one of the strongest jiu-jitsu games in all of MMA. His professional MMA record is an impressive 16-3, and 1 No Contest. He’s scheduled to fight Ed Herman at the final Strikeforce event on January 12th. We look forward to watching Jacare’s future success in MMA. www.ufc.com

REOPENS

After dealing with a devastating flood that shut down Marcelo Garcia’s home academy in New York City, and having to relocate again after Hurricane Sandy, Marcelo Garcia New York has re-opened with a much larger, and even nicer new academy. The new academy is at 250 W. 26th in NYC. The new school has 3,000 square feet of Zebra Mats. The crew was up until 2AM the night before opening day to put the mats down. The new academy was as clean as could be and ready to go with their first class, hosting almost 100 students for their inaugural roll. MG in Action, Marcelo’s online academy, never skipped a beat, providing online curriculum to students around the world. JJM went to New York to visit Marcelo back in the summer and as back luck would have it, it was just days after the flood. We’re planning another trip soon and will be providing you with some amazing technique from Marcelo at the new academy. Be on the look out. Check out video from their opening day at: http://youtu.be/T-8wclsplig www.mginaction.com

We’re going back to NYC!

photo: JOHN RICARD

Marcelo’s first roll at the new pad!

photo: JOHN COOPER

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photos via: BJJ KUMITE FACEBOOK PAGE

BJJ KUMITE Recently, Master Lloyd Irvin invited some of the world’s top brown belts to his jiu-jitsu compound in Maryland. Competitors took part in the grueling submission only, no time limit, invitational tournament, with the winner getting the opportunity to face off against Team Lloyd Irvin phenom brown belt Keenan Cornelius.

At least, that was the original plan.

At the last minute, it was announced that Keenan would be part of the overall tournament. The matches will be released as a reality show online. It’s already taken place, and your guess is as good as ours as to who won. Episodes are being released now. Competitors include: Keenan Cornelius (TEAM LLOYD IRVIN – USA), Sean Roberts (RALPH GRACIE – USA), Thomas Oyarzun (ALLIANCE – SWITZERLAND), Victor Santos Silverio (GF TEAM – BRAZIL), Garry Tonon (OCEAN COUNTY BJJ – USA), Ilke Bulut (ICON BJJ – TURKEY), Daniel Tsatsos (NOVA UNIAO – CANADA), AJ Agazarm (GRACIE BARRA – USA), Eduardo Salazar (BRASA – MEXICO), Luca Anacoreta (AETEMA JJ – ITALY), AJ Sousa (AVENGERS – USA), Darragh O’Conaill (RIBEIRO JJ – IRELAND), and Luke Costello (BRAULIO ESTIMA BJJ). Be sure to check it out at: www.thebjjkumite.com

TEN TIMES THE FUN! If you read that blowhard, Mike Velez’ editorial, then you know that JJM is now published 10 times a year! That’s right! You’re going to get more of what you love. Current subscribers don’t worry, your subscription will not expire until the issue date directly above your name on your mailing label. If you recently subscribed at the old rates then you’re in good shape, but if you haven’t yet, no worries, Jiu-Jitsu Magazine is still the best deal around with a one year (10-issue) subscription for only $37.99 a year! That’s just $3.99 an issue. That’s a better price than it was before! And if you step up and show your commitment to the cause now, we’ll hook you up with one of our new JJM 2.0 T-shirts shown here!

Turn to page 51 for all the details or go to www.jiujitsumag.com to sign up now!!!

nutrition condition technique submit

Final shirt design might change a bit.

BACK DETAIL FRONT

BACK

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WJJ Expo Returns

It’s official! The World Jiu-Jitsu Expo will return this year to Long Beach, California for it’s second annual run. Last year’s event was considered a success and this year promoter Renzo Gracie has some big things planned. The event will take place over two days instead of just one. Along with brand exhibitions, there will be Q&A sessions, photo exhibits, free seminars, and a tournament with yet to be announced superfights. Mark your calendar now, it’s set for October 19th and 20th at the Long Beach Convention Center. www.worldjiujitsuexpo.com

ERRATA photo: JOHN COOPER

In our last issue we found a couple mistakes after it was too late. The article on attacking the turtle with Kenny Johnson was shot by Mike Lee. We missed giving him proper photo credit on that one. Sorry Mike!

And in our coverage of Metamoris we mistakenly said that Jeff Glover tapped out Caio Terra at the World Jiu-Jitsu Expo.

Jeff won on points, not by submission.

photo: JOHN COOPER

New Threads And Styles from CTRL

I like your styles.

CTRL is a pure jiu-jitsu brand that just recently released their newest collection of T’s. Along with the new shirts, Blayne Barlow, president of CTRL Industries announced ‘GRYPP STYLES.’ It’s a new project that Blayne’s had in the works for a while. The intent is to take his apparel line in a slightly different direction than CTRL Industries.

With CTRL, you almost certainly have to possess a knowledge of jiu-jitsu and what it’s about to understand the designs. With GRYPP they plan to make it a little more universal. Blayne says, “I have a huge love for the Street Wear style, so it will be influenced by that. We will keep design style simple as we have with CTRL. It is going to be a sports brand, and may expand in different directions while staying rooted in BJJ.” As with CTRL, the designs could take on a life of their own, and fall into their own style groove as CTRL did. Look out for GRYPP STYLES to make waves in 2013 with this new project! www.ctrlindustries.com

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GET YOUR READ ON Two new books were recently released that are sure to become jiu-jitsu best sellers: PUTTING THE PIECES TOGETHER Truths You Learn AFTER You Get Your Butt Kicked!

By Carlos Machado 144 pages This is an easy to read book made up of words of wisdom that Master Carlos Machado calls, “messages in a bottle.” It’s a collection of inspirational messages that he’s learned in his decades of life and jiu-jitsu. In case you’re not aware, Carlos Machado is an 8th degree red and black belt who taught Chuck Norris jiu-jitsu and is credited as the “father” of Brazilian jiu-jitsu in Texas. The messages range from topics on dealing with challenges and defeat, to embracing priorities, and so much more. Here are a few of our favorites from the book: “Losing a battle is temporary for those with determination. It is only when they lose their resolve that defeat becomes permanent.”

“If you learn one thing about Jiu-Jitsu, it is that the more you learn, the more there is to be learned.

The possibilities are so vast that you will need several lifetimes in order to acquire it all. However, by that time, more will be added. In the end, Jiu-Jitsu never ceases, it just transforms itself.”

“True friends are few and rare. Through their honesty, they help us see what we have and what we are missing. They choose to tell us what is true, not what pleases us. Their words can even be harsh, yet their intentions will always be sincere.”

The book can be found at Amazon.com or at www.rcjshop.com.

THE BRAZILIAN JIU JITSU GLOBE TROTTER The True Story of a Frantic, 140 Day Long Around-The-World Trip To Train Brazilian Jiu Jitsu

Many, many words to live by.

By Christian Graugart 486 Pages

This is definitely a substantial read, but one you won’t be able to put down.

The book is an account of Christian’s journey around the world, including 21 different countries and 6 states. The inspiration for his journey came after a training partner committed suicide. Christian felt obligated to do something with his life. From that point forward he started his own gym, dedicated almost all of his time to jiu-jitsu and began an adventure that would change everything. We’re not quite half way done with the book, but as soon as we’re finished, look for a more complete review in a future issue. You can check out the book at: www.bjjglobetrotter.com or at Amazon.com

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WIN This Gi!

Who is Enson Inoue you ask?

He’s the Japanese American MMA star that’s a former Shooto Champion, Pride fighter, and jiu-jitsu black belt. Known for representing his jiu-jitsu roots during his fight walk outs his uniquely patched up gi became a celebrity in it’s own right.

Tatami Fight Wear is paying homage to Enson with their “Enson Inoue Spirit of Japan” limited edition kimono. It’s a fully featured top-of-the-line gi that we’re currently working on a full review of in the Gear Lab. But you could win an A3 of your own! All you have to do is email us your best photo representing Jiu-Jitsu Magazine, could be our decals, our shirts, our magazine, anything just represent! Email a descent sized jpeg to Feedback@jiujitsumag.com, put “Enson” in the subject line. The deadline is March 5th 2013. We’ll pick our favorite and most creative entry and hook them up with an Enson Inoue gi of their own from our friends at Tatami Fight Wear. Do it now, just like this guy! www.tatamifightwear.com

FUJI KASSEN GI

So far that cat’s in the lead for the gi.

Fuji, one of the most popular gi brands on the market has a new pearl weave gi that’s IBJJF approved and designed with extreme comfort in mind with the Kassen Gi. Now these aren’t pajamas, but they’re pretty darn comfortable. The pearl weave gi has reinforcements where you’d expect, patches on the shoulders, label, pant leg, and cuff, a super thick yet legal collar, reinforced double twill pants, and is available in white, blue, and black. In sizes from A1 up to A6 for you big guys! The price is only $139, not bad for what you get. fujisports.com

SPEAKS What’s the best advice, applicable to jiu-jitsu, you’ve ever received?

Jason Smith Keep your opponent close, and your arms closer.

Adam Carr The guard is your mother.

And if you ever feel uncomfortable or unsure, don’t be afraid to run home to mommy. From instructor Adam “Padre” Miller JayLo Supa Lucha My father grew up in a rough town and got in many altercations.

Since I was a boy he always told me, “EVERY PART OF YOUR BODY IS A WEAPON”.... Those words always stuck to me. Now that I practice jiu- jitsu, it really has that much more meaning.

JohnMichael Quesinberry Kaleikini Be comfortable no matter what position you find yourself in, and find a way to make your opponent uncomfortable at the same time.

Joshua Ross Ketry Make mistakes often, in practice.

Joon Lee The best guard is right guard.

Use it and your teammates will thank you.

Jesse Davies GPSGrips Pressure Space Alberto Muñoz Don’t fear a guy who knows thousand of techniques. But a guy who masters one...

Cody Wilson The only way to learn how to win, is to accept that you must first learn how to lose.

Kris Gadsden Less Chat more Mat

Brandon Harmatiuk Rock smashes scissors, paper covers rock, scissors cut paper. Water renders paper useless, rusts scissors, and will erode rock over time. BE WATER!

Jason Renfrow You give them an inch and they will take a mile, stay tight!

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DIETARY PROTEIN Eating Your Way To Proper Protein, Even When You Don’t Eat Meat.

words: LUCAS DYER - CERTIFIED AND LICENSED SPORTS NUTRITIONIST For more info on Lucas visit www.FITTnutrition.com or email at lucasdyer@fittnutrition.com

What Protein Should I be Taking and How Much?

Somebody needs to spend more time on the calves.

People often ask me for my opinion on what I think the best protein is and how much of it they should take. Unfortunately, the answer to this question is not short. There is a wealth of information surrounding this topic and a lot of it depends on lifestyle, to include your daily activities, nutritional needs, and goals. Depending on the gym or dojo where you train, you may have heard that the human body cannot digest more than 45 grams of protein in one serving, meaning that a certain amount will go to waste because the body cannot process this much protein at one time. This is a very controversial issue in which nutritionists tend to be split down the middle. Consider this, there are two questions which need to be asked: 1) How much protein can the digestive system physically absorb into the bloodstream? and 2) How much protein can your body utilize? Your body can actually absorb 90% to 95% of the protein you take in, unless you have some type of digestive problem, but if your body doesn’t need it, it’s a waste. You must determine how much protein your body can utilize and then gauge your intake from there. A good rule for estimating your daily protein requirements is taking lean body weight (in pounds) X the need factor = daily protein requirement (in grams). The need factors range from .5 (sedentary, no sports training) to 1.1 (heavy weight trainer, athlete doing “2-a-days” training). A supplement company’s outstanding marketing efforts may convince you to drink 42 grams of protein per shake, three times a day, but even though your body will absorb this protein, it may not utilize that much. Keep in mind your muscle growth is not limited by the amount of protein you can DIGEST or ABSORB. Your muscle growth IS LIMITED by the amount of protein that your body can utilize for protein synthesis. You really don’t need 42 grams of protein per meal to keep your protein synthesis humming along. Any protein that your body can’t use for growth will be shuttled into a process where it is broken down, called deamination, meaning the nitrogen is removed from the molecule and it becomes a carbon skeleton used in energy pathways. If you are trying to lose weight, there are benefits from eating extra protein because protein helps to suppress the appetite.

It is a widely debated topic, so bottom line is, your body can digest and absorb almost all of the protein you take in without a problem. But your muscles can only do so much with protein, as the muscle growth process is RARELY, if ever limited by the amount of protein we consume. Almost all of us can easily get enough protein for maximum muscle growth without the need for eating 42 grams of protein several times throughout the day.

Lean Body Weight x Need Factor = Protein Required

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Biological Value (BV)

The second part of this whole equation is, “what is the best protein?” Well, that depends on where you are getting your protein from and why you need it. No matter what is written, it is most likely going to be based on the consumers’ needs and preferences. In order to explain which protein is the best, you need to know about the bioavailability, or biological value (BV). For most of us, that terminology is not as important as the purpose. The BV is essentially the efficiency in which protein supplies the essential amounts of amino acids to the body and the ability of food proteins to deposit nitrogen into the muscles.

In other words, you need to know that among the different types of proteins out there (whey, soy, casein, egg…), your body and digestive systems absorb some protein better than others, just as certain sources will provide a higher amino acid profile.

To help clear up the protein fog, the following list describes which proteins have the highest BV, where they are higher, the better quality of protein. Whey protein isolates and nonisolates have a BV of (100 to 157), Egg whites/dairy (77 to 118), raw whey - meaning all casein has been removed (104), fish (83), chicken (79), casein (77), rice (74) and soy, peanuts, and beans (74 and below). Typically, the protein you choose will usually come down to your personal preferences and needs.

REAL QUICKAMINO ACIDS

Now, let’s talk quickly about amino acids. Protein is made up of essential amino acids and non-essential amino acids. Non-essential amino acids can be manufactured by our bodies, whereas essential amino acids are proteins that cannot be manufactured by our bodies, so we must supplement this type of amino acids with food and/or supplements.

Are You A Vegetarian or Vegan… Now What?

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Beans, beans the magical fruit - the more you eat the more you toot.

Simply because you don’t eat meat, poultry, or fish does not mean you cannot get all the protein you need in order to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Often vegetarians and vegans are asked, “Where do you get your protein?” The question implies that protein only comes from animal products. Soy is a very popular source of protein for vegetarians and vegans because it provides the amino acids needed to stay healthy. However, based on the biological value of soy (74 and below), legumes and beans, choosing this lifestyle could cause you to miss out on proteins that are more easily absorbed by the body.

Remember that the biological value of protein is essentially the efficiency in which protein supplies the essential amounts of amino acids to the body and the ability of food proteins to deposit nitrogen into the muscles. Since nitrogen retention is the key to anabolism, a high BV protein is required in order to better biosynthesize muscle. To fulfill the protein requirement from sources other than meat and dairy, vegetarians and vegans can consume soy beans, legumes, nuts, seeds, and green vegetables. When eating this way, I suggest combining your protein with a complex carbohydrate such as brown rice, whole wheat, or any whole grain for a more balanced meal. Fruit, such as cantaloupe, avocado (yes this is a fruit!), watermelon, coconut, and bananas are also good options to help add protein to your diet. Vegetables that are higher in protein per serving are asparagus, broccoli, brussels sprouts, and tomatoes. Of course there are others, but these each have approximately 2 to 3 grams of protein per serving.

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Are We Missing

ANYTHING IN OUR DIETS? When you choose not to consume animal protein, you will be deficient in several nutrients. Of the six classes of nutrients (protein, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins, minerals, and water), you will be lacking protein, vitamin B-12, zinc, iron, and calcium. This does not mean that you only get these from eating animal proteins. It simply means that extra work is required in obtaining them.

PROTEIN: Different types of

protein are made up of different amino acids. In order to create a protein that can be assimilated into the human body as tissue, you must consume foods that contain complementary chains of amino acids. As discussed, soy, legumes, and beans are three types of food that have proteins, but not complete proteins. Soy protein can be digested efficiently - enough to match what animal protein yields.

Just keep in mind that soy isn’t the answer to a vegetarian/vegan diet.

It shouldn’t be relied upon as a main source of protein.

ZINC: Whereas non-vegetarian diets seem to enhance the absorption of zinc; vegetarian/ vegan diets do the exact opposite – they inhibit it. You can overcome this by consuming more foods that contain zinc, such as soybeans, cashews, and sunflower seeds, while reducing your intake of inhibitors by washing vegetables and grains.

is the most easily absorbed. The iron found in plants is difficult to absorb, but cooking tends to break these interactions and increase iron availability. You should do two things to increase your blood-iron levels: 1) consume more plant iron; and 2) avoid absorption inhibitors such as tea, coffee, and fiber. Some iron-rich foods are poor sources of the mineral because other compounds render it non-absorbable.

is important to limit the intake of certain foods that are high in oxalate, which inhibit calcium absorption. Such foods are spinach, beet greens, and swiss chard as the main calcium foods. Again, a good multi-vitamin will help.

VITAMIN B-12: Many vegetarians/

Popeye’s also got some damn strong grips.

vegans lack vitamin B-12 because it does not exist naturally in any nonanimal forms. You should seek out vitamin B-12 fortified foods, such as certain soy milks and cereals or in a multi-vitamin to supplement what they lack.

CALCIUM:

Vegetarians/vegans can easily consume an adequate amount of calcium without any dietary additions, however, it IRON: Plant sources contain a

significant amount of iron, but in non-heme form. Heme iron is primarily found in red meats and

IT’S UP TO YOU WHAT YOU PUT IN YOUR BODY!

S

o, to recap, make sure to consume high quality protein in order to maximize the effects of protein. Regardless of what you choose, protein is one of the most important nutrients required for muscle growth and development. There is no question that when it comes to high protein foods, meat products top the list. However, there are always alternatives. This is not meant to discourage people from becoming vegetarians or vegans, but instead to encourage them to spend time planning a healthy approach to their vegetarian diet before starting it. Surprising to many, fruits and vegetables contain several grams of protein, and when combined with complex carbohydrates, this can make for great meals that supply the nutrients required by the body on a daily basis. Eat healthy, eat clean, and eat often.

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supplements

MULTIVITAMINS words: JEREMY REID M.S. ED, CSC, CISSN

HIS MONTH WE WILL TAKE A LOOK AT MULTIVITAMIN SUPPLEMENTS. “Take your vitamins!” From our Flintstone chewables when we were kids, all the way to today, I am sure we have all heard that. Multivitamins are probably the most popular and commonly taken supplement on the market today. While they can be very beneficial, most of us don’t even understand what they really are. We’ve just heard from countless sources to make sure and take them daily. So, we all know we should be taking them, but do we really know why or even what to look for in a good multivitamin?

I think I would be safe in assuming most of us just grab a bottle of them at whatever store we’re at without much thought.

Well, I put some thought into that process for you, and hopefully, it will help you understand what to look for in a good, quality multivitamin.

Which chewables were your childhood favorites?

Vitamins AND MINERALS

I know we call it a multivitamin, but it’s really a multivitamin/multi-mineral supplement. Generally, minerals get lumped in with vitamins, however they are different, and the mineral content of your “multivitamin” can play a huge factor in its performance. So, what exactly are vitamins and minerals and what do they do?

Vitamins are essential organic compounds that serve to regulate metabolic processes, energy synthesis, neurological processes, and prevent destruction of cells. Minerals are essential inorganic elements necessary for a host of metabolic processes. They serve as structure for tissue, important components of enzymes and hormones, and regulators of metabolic and neural control. Can you tell the difference? If you can’t, don’t worry about it - it really doesn’t matter anyway (at least for our purposes). Basically, what you need to know is that they are both extremely important for our bodies to function normally and efficiently; therefore, you should make sure your “multivitamin” is really a multivitamin/ multi-mineral.

Why Take it?

This is the big question, but the answer seems to be a little confusing and somewhat controversial. Some argue there is very little to no benefit in taking a multivitamin, while others argue numerous amazing health benefits. Like most things, the truth seems to lie somewhere in the middle. First things first, like I have always told you, no supplement is a replacement for a sound diet. Secondly, while some things work and are beneficial, nothing is a miracle. The biggest discrepancy seems to stem from the large inconsistency in individual diets. Basically, an individual with a poor diet containing numerous deficiencies will likely benefit more than an individual with a sound diet containing very little insufficiencies. This presents a big problem, since the effectiveness of a multivitamin will be directly related to each individual’s diet.

Yet, another complication comes in the fact that each individual’s diet can vary day to day.

If this is so complicated, and a multivitamin’s effectiveness changes from person to person and day to day, then why even bother to take one? The answer is actually quite simple; think of it as your nutrient insurance policy. Basically, it will ensure you get all the nutrients you need every day. Let’s say yesterday you were short on Vitamin D and Vitamin K, but today you were short on Vitamin B6 and Vitamin C; your multivitamin will cover each of those deficiencies on respective days. A good multivitamin can safeguard your daily diet and prevent deficiencies.

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WHAT TO LOOK FOR Not all multivitamins are created equal. While almost all brands will have the basic ingredients, they will not always have them in the same amounts or form. This can be extremely important for a number of reasons. Vitamins are split into two categories, fat soluble and water soluble. Fat soluble vitamins are stored, and therefore, excessive intake may result in toxicity. On the other hand, excessive intake of water soluble vitamins will be cleared in the urine. Each vitamin and mineral also has something called an optimal daily intake index. This is the specific range that each vitamin and mineral should be consumed for maximum benefit. Vitamins and minerals are also designed to work together, but only in the right proportions. In order for a vitamin or mineral to get into your system, it needs to be in its most absorbable form. These are all important factors to consider when choosing your multivitamin. It also helps to explain the vast number and types of multivitamin supplements. Ok, so a lot goes into choosing a good multivitamin, but where should you start? I have included a table that contains, what are considered, the 26 “essential” ingredients and their optimal daily intake index. This should be your start to picking out a good multivitamin. Try to find a multivitamin that matches these ingredients and numbers as closely as possible and you will be on your way to a good multivitamin.

QUALITY

liquids?” you ask. Aren’t they the best because they digest faster? This may be true, but the time difference is only about 30 minutes. Not enough time to make a considerable difference. Faster is also not always better; your body can only absorb a certain amount of some vitamins in a given amount of time. Slower absorption times may actually be more beneficial. However, a liquid form may be beneficial for certain individuals with digestive issues, as the faster absorption may offset incomplete breakdown of tablets due to digestive problems.

Although delivery methods may make a difference, they are not as important as the other factors when picking your multivitamin.

CAPSUL

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The consensus here was Flinstones, with Spiderman in a close second.

The next step in putting together your multivitamin is determining the quality of it. This can be a chore since supplements are not highly regulated. However, there are some things to look for. These include form of the vitamins and minerals, delivery system, potency of ingredients, and overall quality of the brand.

One of the easiest ways to tell is the quality of the brand. There are two important things to look for on the label of the product. The first is “third party tested.” This basically just states that an independent agency tests the supplement to confirm the ingredients and that the amounts are consistent with the label. The next thing to look for is a seal saying, “GMP certified.” GMP stands for “good manufacturing process,” and is simply a certification stating that the company follows strict quality control guidelines in their manufacturing processes. If you find a brand with these two components, you are on a good track for a quality supplement. I also always recommend going with “pharmaceutical grade” ingredients whenever possible, as they generally have the highest potency. Also, as a general rule, natural or organic

forms of vitamins and minerals are better than synthetic versions. Now, here is where I get a little scientific and fancy on you (and you thought you were gonna get through an entire article without me getting scientific). To ensure the best multivitamin possible, you want to get the vitamins and minerals in their most absorbable forms. These are amino acid chelates and citrates, organic acid complexes, and mixed carotenoids.

Try to pick these versions over the less absorbed forms, such as carbonates, sulfates, and oxides.

These will produce the greatest bioavailability in the body. The last thing to think about is the delivery form. Should you go with tablets, capsules, packets, powders, or liquids? Well, there really is no one right answer; it really depends on the person. You may have heard that tablets don’t breakdown and that they just get passed through with little to no absorption. This may be true with very poor quality tablets, but more often than not, it is usually due to a problem with the individual’s digestive health than the tablets themselves. The majority of reputable companies spend a lot of time ensuring the tablets’ breakdown and therefore, shouldn’t be a concern. One thing to watch out for with tablets is the “one-a-days” or others that come in one small convenient easy to swallow tablet. To fit everything in one tiny little tablet, the company usually has to make some compromises. This may be with vitamin forms, the amounts, and/or the potency. This is why I would recommend the “packets.”

While they may not be convenient, with GEL numerous large pills, it is often because they are using better forms in the right amounts and have a high potency.

TABLET “But what about

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supplements

OPTIMAL DAILY INTAKE #

VITAMIN

DOSAGE

1

Vitamin A

5000IU

2

Vitamin B1 (Thiamine)

5mg

3

Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin)

5mg

4

Vitamin B3

22mg

5

Vitamin B5 (Pantothenic acid)

15mg

6

Vitamin B6 (Pyridoxine)

5mg

7

Vitamin B7 (Biotin)

350mg

8

Vitamin B9 (Folic Acid)

400µg

9

Vitamin B12 (Cobalamins)

12µg

10

Vitamin C

200mg

11

Vitamin D3 (Cholecalciferol)

800IU

12

Vitamin E

60IU

13

Vitamin K2 (Menaquinone)

150µg

#

MINERAL

DOSAGE

14

Calcium

1300mg

15

Chloride

3400mg

16

Chrominum

120µg

17

Copper

2mg

18

Iodine

150µg

19

Iron

15mg

20

Magnesium

420mg

21

Manganese

2.3mg

22

Molybdenum

75µg

23

Phosphorus

1250mg

24

Selenium

80µg

25

Vanadium

75µg

26

Zinc

15mgv

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SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS These are the basics of what to look for in a quality multivitamin. If you follow these steps, you should have a great multivitamin supplement.

However, there are some special populations and circumstances that can play a part in an individual’s multivitamin needs. This is why there are different formulations and versions of most multivitamins. Females, especially female athletes, need more iron than males and often are deficient in calcium as well. Therefore, females should look for a multivitamin with added iron and calcium. Another option, and sometimes an easier one, is just adding individual iron and calcium supplements. On the other hand, senior men actually need very little iron and can benefit from extra Vitamin B12 and Vitamin D, as they tend to be deficient in those areas. As men age, their ability to absorb Vitamin B12 from food decreases, and thus, adding extra with a supplement can be very beneficial. Again, you may want to try and find a multivitamin with these special needs or simply add extra individual B12 and D.

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Multivitamin Timing A common question regarding multivitamin supplementation is what is the best time to take your multivitamin; with or without a meal?

Morning or Night? We have been trying to answer these questions for quite some time now and there still isn't really a consensus on what exactly is correct. There isn't really any right answer. While people will argue that there is a certain "best" time for absorption, there really isn't any scientific data supporting any of them. It really comes down to personal preference. One thing that I will note is that it should be taken with food, or shortly after a meal. As I mentioned, some vitamins are fat soluble and require fat to be properly absorbed and transported; thus, consuming them while there is some fat present is a good idea. I would also recommend taking them around the same time everyday.

But other than that, there really is no set rules or best time to take your multivitamin. Just be sure to take it everyday.

CONCLUSION A

good, high quality multivitamin can be a great supplement to add to your supplement regimen. However, remember, a multivitamin will not replace a good sound diet. Each individual’s multivitamin needs will change based on their day to day diets. Try picking your multivitamin supplement in conjunction with your diet. For example, if you have a good diet, with lots of fruits and vegetables, you may not need the best multivitamin on the market, maybe just pick a good one as your backup plan.

However, if you do not consume a lot of fruits and vegetables, and know your diet is not your strong point, then you might want to spring for a great and exceptionally high quality multivitamin.

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WARM-UP

MYOFASCIAL RELEASE words & photos: JEREMY REID

HHH THE FOAM ROLLER, IT SEEMS TO BE POPPING UP ALL OVER THE PLACE LATELY. Just about every time I go into a gym or jiu-jitsu school I can count on seeing someone using a foam roller.

At first, I was excited since foam rollers are a great piece of equipment and can aid significantly with recovery and performance. However, the more I observed this the more I started to realize most people are not really sure what exactly they do and/or how to use them properly. I tend to see two types of strategies or techniques. The first is what I like to call the “magical mystical” technique. This involves lying flat on a foam roller with very little movement, as if it is some magic crystal with secret healing powers where simply making contact with it will relieve you of all your pain. The second technique is what I refer to as the “toddler tantrum” technique. This is where you flail around on the foam roller going through all kinds of crazy positions rapidly flipping over and back in what I can only guess is an attempt to “hit the entire body.” I am not pointing this out in an attempt to make fun of anyone (although I may occasionally chuckle to myself slightly); I merely want to ensure everyone is getting the full benefit out of using a foam roller.

Before we can use foam rollers properly, we must first understand exactly what we are trying to accomplish with them.

Foam rollers are designed and utilized based on the concepts of trigger points and self-myofascial release. I know these are big fancy words, but it’s important to understand the basics of them to get the full benefit of foam rollers.

trigger points

Who doesn’t want a release?

S

o what exactly is a trigger point? While the truly hardcore scientists still argue about what they are and the different types, the technical definition is: hyperirritable spots in skeletal muscle that are associated with palpable nodules in taut bands of muscle fibers. Basically, they are what most people commonly refer to as “knots” in the muscle. While some areas are more common than others, trigger points can and do occur in all areas of the body. Trigger points can be caused by a number of factors, including acute or chronic muscle overload, activation by other trigger points, disease, psychological distress, homeostatic imbalances, or direct trauma. However, they are most commonly a result of overworked and injured muscles. When a muscle contracts, thousands of individual muscle fibers lock on to one another and pull each other, leading to a shortened or contracted muscle.

If a muscle becomes injured or overworked, parts of these fibers lose their ability to detach from one another and are thus permanently shortened. Now a section of the muscle is shortened and bulged, causing an overstretching or “pulling” action on the rest of the muscle and the tendon, resulting in pain and stress on the joint with increased risk for injury. The bulge also blocks blood flow in the muscle causing an oxygen deficit and a buildup of waste products, leading to further pain, inflammation, and decreased performance. Over time, this cycle repeats itself, leading to more trigger points compounding these problems. Preventing and alleviating these trigger points are critical in maintaining performance and preventing injuries.

FASCICLE

Structure of Skeletal Muscle

MUSCLE FIBER

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ATHLETIC BODY CARE

SELF-MYOFASCIAL RELEASE Self-myofascial release is essentially what we are trying to accomplish with the foam roller. It is a form of soft tissue therapy used to treat trigger points and the resulting pain and restriction of motion that uses continual palpatory feedback to achieve release of myofascial tissues. The benefits include relaxing contracted muscles, increasing circulation and lymphatic drainage, and stimulating the stretch reflex of muscles and overlying fascia. The general principle behind myofascial release is to apply pressure to the trigger point and surrounding fascia for a continous amount of time to “release” the trigger point and elongate the muscle fibers back to their normal length.

Myofascial release is essentially an advanced form of massage generally done by an experienced practitioner. The “self ” in self-myofascial release is exactly what you think; you are basically attempting to perform myofascial release on yourself through a use of gravity and some tools (foam roller). The most important part of this to remember is the “release” part. That is the entire point and goal of this technique: to get the trigger point to “release.” Pressure must be applied until we feel the release of the trigger point.

How to

FOAM ROLL

So, foam rolling is essentially self-myofascial release, attempting to alleviate and eliminate trigger points inside the body. But to effectively accomplish this, we must ensure we are foam rolling properly. The two most common problems when people foam roll are either not targeting trigger points (magical mystical technique) and/or not applying pressure for enough time (toddler tantrum technique). Foam rolling properly should be uncomfortable. You must find your trigger points and apply DIRECT and CONSTANT pressure. Your trigger points will be very tender and hard (trust me - you will know them when you find them). Once you find your trigger point, roll until foam roller is directly applying pressure.

Maintain the direct pressure until you feel the “release.” The knot should either go away or shrink in size. Repeat this process until the trigger point is gone or no longer responding to the pressure. Proceed to the next trigger point and repeat, continuing through all the trigger points you can find.

These are the basics of foam rolling and self-myofascial release. They are advanced forms and if you are dealing with a chronic issue and/or serious pain you may want to look into more advanced techniques. I have included some of the most common trigger point sites and foam rolling exercises to hit them. However, remember trigger points can and do occur all over the body. A foam roller may not be the best tool to reach some of these. There are a few other tools you can use to reach these hard to reach places and/or use to reach those deep trigger points that will not completely release from the foam roller. These include, tennis balls, field hockey balls, golf balls, pvc pipe, as well as specific tools sold specifically for myofascial release. The harder the object is, the deeper it will reach and thus, more uncomfortable it will be. Experiment to find which work the best for you.

EXERCISES HAMSTRING: Start sitting with the foam roller under both legs, between your knees and hips. Lift your hips off the ground so all your weight is on the foam roller. Slowly roll up and down your hamstrings until you find a trigger point. Keep direct pressure on the trigger point until it releases. Repeat for every trigger point you find in your hamstrings.

ABDUCTORS: Turn on your side with your bottom leg straight, contacting the foam roller on the outside of your hip. Your top leg will be bent, with your foot planted on the ground. Keeping all your weight on your bottom leg, slowly roll down the outside of your thigh until you find a trigger point.

Keep direct pressure on the trigger point until it releases. Repeat for every trigger point you find. Repeat on the opposite side.

Rollin before or after you roll.

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WARM-UP

ADDUCTORS: Lie face down with one knee bent and pointed away from your body. Place the foam roller on the inside part of your thigh on your bent leg. Shift all your weight over your bent leg. Slowly roll along your inner thigh until you find a trigger point. Apply direct pressure until the trigger point releases. Repeat for every trigger point you find.

Repeat on the opposite side.

1

UPPER BACK: Lie on your back with the foam roller under your shoulder blades. Plant your feet and bridge your hips off the ground, so all your weight is over the foam roller. Slowly roll up and down your back until you find a trigger point. Apply direct pressure until the trigger point releases. Repeat for every trigger point you can find.

1 2 2

HIP FLEXORS:

If you haven’t tried this you really need to. Feels great!

Lie face down with the foam roller under your hips, on front of your thighs. Shift all your weight so they are over the foam roller. Slowly roll up and down the front of your thighs until you find a trigger point. Apply direct pressure until the trigger point releases. Repeat for every trigger point you can find.

GLUTES: Sit on the foam roller

with it directly under your hips and bend on your glutes. With one leg planted, on the your opposite leg and place your ankle your over roll ly Slow leg. ed plant the of knee y glutes until you find a trigger point. Appl releases. point r trigge the until ure press t direc find.

Repeat for every trigger point you can side. site oppo the on at Repe

This Column is Powered by Athletic Body Care:

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technique

JIU-JITSU FOR MMA OR SELF-DEFENSE WITH

JAVIER VAZQUEZ words: MIKE VELEZ | photos: JASON BOULANGER

’VE YET TO MEET ANYONE WHO DIDN’T EXPERIENCE AN OVERALL INCREASE IN CONFIDENCE WHEN BEGINNING TO PRACTICE JIU-JITSU. Jiu-jitsu has so many benefits, as you know, but the confidence that comes with the increased knowledge of how to defend yourself is unmistakable. But the jiu-jitsu most of us practice doesn’t take into account that our opponent could be an assailant looking to do more harm than a collar choke; he could be looking to rain down fists onto our skulls. One man who’s been on both ends of that exchange is former WEC and UFC lightweight and featherweight fighter, Javier Vazquez. Not only is Javier a decorated MMA fighter, but he’s also a 3rd degree Gracie Jiu-Jitsu black belt who teaches a very unique style of jiu-jitsu at his school in Rancho Cucamonga, CA. Javier’s students are taught to always be aware of, and to defend, the punch. During the production of this article I had the pleasure of rolling with Javier for about 30 minutes. Within the first few seconds he brought to my attention how quickly and easily I was exposed to getting punched in the head. It was definitely an eye opening experience, as you’ll soon see. What Javier showed us for this article can be used as jiu-jitsu for MMA, or in a self-defense situation. These simple adjustments (realizing a punch might have your name on it) have me looking at my jiu-jitsu a little differently. After reading this article, pay attention the next time you roll; use the tips Javier’s about to show you and implement them as often as possible. Should you ever need to use your jiu-jitsu on the street, being able to flip on the “punch awareness switch” will greatly increase your odds of avoiding them.

It’s Showtime!

INSIDE CONTROL IS EVERYTHING

W

HETHER YOU’RE ON TOP OR ON THE BOTTOM, YOU WANT INSIDE CONTROL WITH YOUR ARMS. If you’re on top, you want to control the guy on the bottom by the biceps. If you’re on the bottom, you don’t want to let the other guy gain control of your arms. Instead, you want to swim your arms in to get that inside control. This is, by far, the most important aspect of any sort of street fight or MMA bout. It’s so important, you must be persistent and never give up this control, no matter what.

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THE BASIC SWIM The other guy’s in your guard, but he has inside control of your arms.

Step 1 Wrap your right hand around the back of the other guy’s head. When controlling the head, keep the blade of your forearm against his neck and shoulder, and tuck your upper arm and elbow against your rib cage to help protect your ribs from strikes. Next, bump your hips up to posture him back slightly.

Step 2 Bumping your hips up will create a slight amount of space between your opponent’s body and arm to swim your left arm in between his body and left arm. As soon as your arm gets through, drop your hips and pull him in tight to you. At this point, you’ll have your left arm inside of his right arm. This will allow you to punch his head and defend his strikes.

Step 3 If your opponent looks to get his left arm free and get your right hand off of his head, then switch control of his head to your left hand. Swim your right hand back inside his left. As soon as you get your arm inside, tuck your right arm against his arm to control it.

Step 5

If he attempts to throw the right hand, defend with your left by swimming your arm in and then tucking it against your body when you trap his arm.

Step 4 As soon as you have inside control, tuck your head close against his on the side opposite the arm you’re using to control his head. This will help protect you from being struck with his arm on that same side. Use your arm to defend the strike if he attempts to throw it.

KEY POINTS One key to defending the strike coming from the same side, is that you’re controlling your opponent’s arm with the position of your forearm. By putting your forearm against his shoulder, your arm is inhibiting his ability to throw a punch with any sort of power. You’re shortening the length of his throw.

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Get the inside scoop.

The second you forget that you must keep an inside position on the arms, you’re in trouble. Don’t forget, and don’t give up on gaining and keeping this inside position.

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technique

AROUND THE WORLD If your opponent’s got his head close to your chest and he’s controlling both of your biceps, perform the following:

You can place both feet on the hips

Step 1 Circle both your arms up toward your head and circle one hand over and across your body to capture the meaty outside edge of his hand with yours.

Step 2 With your left hand holding his left hand, pull the outside of his hand up toward you, rotating his arm inward, his thumb turning down. While doing this, squeeze your left arm against your body with his right arm trapped between your body and arm. His arm is stuck there because he was earlier attempting to control your left bicep.

Step 4 Now, bring your feet against his hips so that your thighs are tucked against the back of his arms. At this point he’s trapped. He can’t back his arms out because you’ve got your feet on his hips, you’re pressuring against his arms, and you’ve got control of both of them.

Step 5

KEY POINTS

Step 3 Reach your right arm over his left arm and grab onto the back of his neck with your right hand.

Keep your forearm against his shoulder and your elbow tucked in to capture his left arm against your body.

or you can bring one leg up high across his back. This should be on the same side that you’re using to control his hand. If he pulls back on the arm, which is on the side with head control, switch gears and bring your left hand to the back of his neck and block with your right hand.

If he draws his right hand back to throw a punch, angle towards him by hipping out to your left. Once he throws that right, bring your hips back and your left foot up to your right knee and hold to form a triangle. At this point you’re in range to drop rights and lefts to his head.

If, from this position,

he attempts to throw a body shot with his left hand, as soon as he brings the left hand back to throw the punch, place your right hand to his bicep to block for a moment. This will allow you to bring your right knee up and trap his left arm against your shin.

Grab his left wrist with your right hand, and then bring your left foot up to your knee to close a triangle. Angle your body to your left hand side to avoid danger and maintain better control.

These triangles you’re forming

are not for the purpose of completing a choke, but to control the arms so that you can throw punches on his head.

Bring the pain.

At this point you can bring the pain with an elbow to the head or fist strikes.

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technique

THE DANGER ZONE

Just as in a boxing match, combat on the ground is all about controlling the distance. You’re safest when your opponent is either right up against you, or far away. The distance in the middle is what Javier calls, “the danger zone.” If your opponent wants to come in close, pull him in closer, if he wants to back away, push him away further. The idea is to keep yourself out of his danger zone.

DANGER ZONE

SAFE ZONE

SAFE ZONE

BLOCK AND CLINCH FROM DISTANCE If your opponent wants to stay close to you then use the controls you’ve just been shown, if he wants to push away, let him. In fact, help him back away.

Step 2 Step 1 If your opponent pushes off you, then instead of maintaining a closed guard, open your guard and bring your knees up and in front of you, between the two of you.

Step 3

Step 5

“Negative, Ghost Rider, the pattern is full.”

On the side that he threw the punch, circle your arm over for a whizzer control of that arm, and control his other arm at the bicep.

If he’s driving into you and there’s a connection between your legs and his body, keep your hands and arms inside near your face, and head for protection. If he throws a punch, block and hip out to that side allowing his body to fall into you.

Wrap your legs around him, close your guard, and go back to controlling his head, as in one of the earlier techniques.

Step 4 Kick your left leg out and bring your hips back to and in front of your opponent.

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UP-KICKS FROM THE GUARD As in the earlier example, if your opponent is putting pressure against your legs, getting ready to throw a punch, here’s what to do.

If he’s backing away and there’s a gap between your legs and him, it’s a perfect set up to do some severe damage.

Step 1 In a live combat situation you’re not getting any points for a sweep, so the first option is to cause damage, at least enough to defuse the threat. In this case, the most valuable weapon you have in this circumstance (if you find yourself on your back) is an up-kick. Pull one leg back and kick up into his face. Whenever you can pull a leg up and out think, “kick to the head.”

Step 2 When he’s leaning forward and has his body against your legs, reach your hands down to grab his wrists. This will typically cause him to pull away. When he does this, it will give you enough separation to pull a leg out, bring your foot back, and kick through to his face.

Step 4 Let’s say he puts a hand up to defend the strikes. Grab that arm at the wrist, hip up and drag his arm across your body.

Step 3

Step 5

Whether you connect or don’t, don’t let go of his wrists. Instead, pull him forward, get one leg outside of an arm, and he collapses into a triangle so that you can pummel him with strikes to the head.

his neck then Bring your left hand behind ping his arm. trap n, dow k bac s hip drop your

Step 6

Step 8

Place your left foot on his right hip and push against him to walk yourself back and away a bit.

Next, bring your left leg up and over your left ankle and lock down the triangle and choke him out.

There’s that pesky cord again.

Step 7 With your right leg over his left shoulder, bring it down and across his back, then grab your own shin with your left arm, holding him into you so that he can’t posture up.

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technique

MOUNTED Step 1 You’re being mounted again, fight for that inside position on the arms, which is very important.

Once you have it, posture up and clinch to pull him down into you.

Step 2 With your right arm, clinch him into you nice and tight. Bring his head to your right side as well. He’ll look to throw a strike on you with his right hand.

Step 3

Step 4

In order to throw that strike he’ll need to pull his right arm back. As soon as he does, grab his right hand with your left and force it across his back to your awaiting right hand. Once you have control of his arm across his back, don’t give it up, tighten your grip like a vice!

Now, hold his right triceps tight into his body with your left hand, minimizing the chances of him escaping that arm. Pull your elbow in to your side and hold his own elbow close to his body.

Step 6

Getting that arm is going to be a little harder than it looks.

Step 5

Drop your left knee to your left side.

Doing this traps his right leg, keeping him from basing out when you go to sweep.

Step 7 Don’t let go of that arm, hold onto it. Bring your head over to the other side of his head; go from being on the right side of his head to his left. Keep an eye on his left hand. If you see him attempt to throw a strike, let go of his right arm that you have trapped behind his back, and block that left from making contact with your head.

If you had to let go of his right arm, your left knee will be against his upper arm to keep him from getting it free.

With your right foot down on the ground, bridge to your left, sweeping him over to your left until he’s on his back and you’re on top. Once on top, use your left hand to pressure his right leg down far enough so that you can bring your left knee above and over his right leg, clearing it for an eventual mount.

KEY POINTS What about a head butt? If you’re mounted, as long as you have inside control of his arms, you’re pretty much protected from a strike or elbow, but that leaves you open to a head butt. In order to eliminate this threat, keep your head tight against his, tuck your chin into his shoulders or traps. If he pulls his head away, go with it.

In a jiu-jitsu match, or quite possibly on the street, if you have control of his arm across his back, you can dislocate that shoulder, or get a tap, by keeping his arm tucked to his body and pulling his wrist up towards his head.

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technique

Step 8 Slide your left hand and arm behind his neck, and at the same time, bring your right leg out from between his and move to a full mount.

Step 9 Once you get to full mount, if his arm is still behind his back, you can simply pressure down on his right shoulder and he’s stuck, it will not be possible for him to escape that right arm out. In this case you can strike with your right hand. If he brings his left hand up to defend the punch, you can then grab it and go for an Americana.

DEFENDING A PUNCH FROM KNEE ON BELLY In any situation, having somebody’s knee on your stomach, with his weight behind it on top of you is not good.

You might know how to escape or sweep in a jiu-jitsu tournament, but how about if he’s looking to give you some free dental work?

Step 1

You’re on your ba ck, and he’s on top wi th knee on belly. M ore than likely he’s go ing to throw the fist with the most impact and hold you in place with the closest arm. In this case, Javier’s lookin g at his attacker’s lef t for the punch.

Step 2 This technique is all about timing, so as soon as you see the punch being pulled back, turn with everything you’ve got away from the punch.

When someone’s throwing that punch they have to commit to the last spot they saw your head.

They won’t be able to follow you because they’ll be off balance.

Not an ideal situation, but better than having a knee on your belly.

Step 3

Once the punch has been thrown, square back up to your attacker and strike with an up-kick or defend until you can get up, or go to another technique

KEY POINTS There’s some risk on this one, if he fakes

a punch you may give up your back if he’s quick to recognize what you’re doing.

Because up-kicks to the head are illegal in MMA events,

many people don’t train them, but for selfdefense the up-kick to the head is one of your most valuable weapons.

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technique

THE WORLD’S EASIEST SWEEP This is a technique that can be used in MMA, selfdefense, or in sport jiu-jitsu. It’s simple, as the name implies.

Step 1 is on his knees. You and your opponent You’re on your back opponent gives r knees in and your manage to bring you lding his wrists ho ce. Maybe you’re you any amount of spa se. break loo and he pushes off to

Step 2

To train with Javier or learn more about his system go to www.graciejiujitsurancho.com.

As soon as there’s a gap, bring one of your feet to his chest and push him away. In a self-defense or MMA situation do it as hard as you can.

Step 3 Once he’s on his back, go to a technical lift to get to your feet and evaluate the situation.

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Who is

BLAYNE PRESIDENT AND CHIEF ARTIST AT CTRL INDUSTRIES words & photos: MIKE VELEZ

OW DID YOU DISCOVER JIU-JITSU? I USED TO HANG OUT A LOT WITH A HANDFUL OF BROTHERS AND COUSINS. We were a tight unit. My cousin went away to the Navy, and came back on leave one summer showing us these UFC VHS tapes (old school!). Royce was destroying all comers, and I thought it was amazing. In my mind I was like, “This skinny Brazilian dude is killing all these monsters with only knowledge of technique and leverage?” It was amazing to see. Where we lived at the time, we didn’t have jiu-jitsu nearby. So, we copied Royce’s moves, and rolled in the living room pretty often.

I guess Royce was indirectly our first instructor. I learned that rug-burns aren’t fun! Haha! Really, we did spend many, many hours training on that floor. It was very crude technique, and we thought we understood it. We did actually get a decent grasp of rolling, and move application, but it was when I stepped foot in an actual jiu-jitsu academy that my eyes were opened to how much attention to detail goes into the simplest moves. But I’ve been hooked since way back, and even more so when I realized how much I don’t know.

Been on a mission for knowledge ever since.

STATS

Blayne’s a fan of old school hip-hop.

Name: Blayne Barlow Belt: Purple Age: 29 Location: Phoenix, AZ Rolling Since: 1997 I Roll: Whenever

When did you get the idea for CTRL? I don’t

know the exact moment, but I was doing a lot of design for other companies. I guess I always had these ideas in my head about what I thought was cool to me, and how I thought I would design something if I had the chance. I have always thought about these things. Well, my wife was ill with a lung virus, and lost her job due to hospital stays and being so weak from the illness. Her job was a large source of our income. It was tough…a tough time, but I tried to find a positive side to

it all. I thought I was doing so much work for others that maybe it would be a good time to take a run at it for ourselves. It was a strange set of circumstances that led to its creation, but thanks to God, and all the experience I gained from working part-time in the industry, I was able to create something good from what happened.

That’s what spawned the idea. At the end of the day, I have a real passion for jiu-jitsu, and I’m happy about where we now stand!

them for $3, and $5 for two turtles in one piece.

Yeah, I’ve been into drawing and art forever. My mom was awesome and always showed pride and encouraged me. She bought me supplies and sketch pads (thanks Mom).

Have you always been artistic? Man, I was drawing since first grade. I didn’t know I could draw, but I had a friend who was always drawing in my class and I was amazed at what he was doing. He was drawing helicopters, and he was so detail oriented. He was shading, and adding the landing rails. I don’t think that’s normal for a first grader! But I started playing with it myself, and started drawing Ninja Turtles. I realized I was pretty OK with it, and the kids liked them a lot.

They started buying my drawings. I was selling

How did you feel when you had your first sale? It was awesome! I had the shirts printed

What was your first product? Actually, it was

three products at once. It was a Rio Fight Club Shirt, Ohana First, and Signature tees. Printed all three at once. Very first products.

and I went to the AZ State Tournament in 2011.

I had the tees in a bag and was just asking my friends and people I knew from the events if they wanted to buy some cool BJJ/Fight tees. They were stoked, partly because they liked them, and also because they knew me and wanted to support my endeavors. It was a special time. It made me feel that maybe I can do something great with this.

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What’s your best jiu-jitsu tip? Haha, I am

super intricate rugs. I even helped them. Out on “The Rez” my grandma has sheep, so we would shear them, then take the wool and help clean out all the debris. Then she spun it into yarn, and she would dye the yarn with natural plant dyes from the area, and finally weave it into rugs. Imagine this all happening before your eyes! It was a normal sight for us then, but now I realize how special that process is to witness. Anyway, those same patterns and designs are popular in today’s fashion. I took something I grew up around and something that’s currently popular and created this gi design! It’s gotten a lot of great feedback.

It’s a piece of myself wrapped into that one. I want people to know how special this design is, where my inspiration for this gi came from, and where those beautiful patterns come from. I really appreciate the love people show towards it.

What’s been your best seller? For shirts, it’s

What’s been your proudest moment professionally? It’s hard to say, it seems like

What’s your favorite creation? Hmm. I

have many. I think lately it’s the GroundSquad gi. I took some of my heritage (Navajo) and sprinkled it into the design. I grew up watching my grandma, aunts, and big sister weaving these

I’ve seen some pretty cool pics of some big names wearing your gear. Who are some of the people you’ve seen? There are so many.

Guys Like Renzo, Ryron, and Rener Gracie, Relson Gracie, Caio Terra, Ben Henderson, Romulo Barral, Cobrinha, Tussa, and a whole slew of other BJJ Bosses. That’s one of the coolest things to see!!

What’s next for Blayne Barlow and CTRL Industries? We are working on a new co-brand

that’s dropping soon. It’s gonna be so cool. You will probably see that project real soon! We will continue to focus on growth for CTRL, and pumping out that fresh gear that everyone loves.

Look out for lots of new stuff dropping soon!

What’s been the best advice you’ve ever received? I have received so many tips over

the years, but one of the best was from Relson Gracie. I wasn’t even looking for this tip. It was after a seminar with him and I looked at his ears and asked him why they aren’t messed up. He told me, “You crazy? My ears aren’t messed up because I never let anyone grab my head and control it. They don’t get close enough to rub my ears.” It was like an epiphany for me.

Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers? Yes, number one, I want to

thank God, for He makes all things possible. I really want to say thanks to all of our supporters.

I love to see the pics of our gear being used, the mentions, the comments, etc...every little ounce of support we get is appreciated. It’s so cool to be involved in this industry surrounded by so many great folks. Thanks to our athletes who pour themselves into this art we all love. Thanks JJMAG for the opportunity to share a little about ourselves with your readers!! If anyone wants to know more about us they can find us on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. They can also visit our website at: www.ctrlindustries.com

Who Is - CTRL Industries.indd 2

He’s never told us directly, but we just know.

there is always a new one. I think when we started working with Renzo, and he would take pictures rocking our gear and sharing them on Twitter. I don’t know him personally, but he knows I’m a Relson Team Member. Those two are real tight, so Renzo showed us love from the Jump. He is an amazing dude, and I came up watching his epic battles in the ring. To have him sporting our gear was something I couldn’t have thought would be happening so soon. It’s like if a kid is a huge Jordan fan growing up, and the same situation occurs. That’s who Renzo is to me. He is a major figure in BJJ/MMA. There are many other proud moments, that’s just one.

the “I’m not a player, I just train a lot…” 90’s kids know where that idea came from. For gis, the top seller is “The Rook.” I think that one was a groundbreaker in a lot of ways. People always make the connection between chess and BJJ, but no one ever took the link and made it into a gi. I think that’s why it is so popular.

hardly someone I consider worthy of giving a tip to anyone, but I would say to the people two things: 1. It’s cliché, but let your ego go. It seems like sometimes you absolutely have to win that roll, so you clam up, you avoid the sub, you stifle the action, because it’s everything to you to not get tapped. Instead, open up your game, and get tapped out in the process (even by a lower belt).

If you aren’t tapping, you aren’t learning. 2. Enjoy the time you spend on the mat. Enjoy that feeling of putting on a fresh, clean gi, only to get it dirty in the hard training. Enjoy the camaraderie shared with those sweating out the hard work with you. Enjoy it, because eventually there will be a day when you’ve stuck with it long enough that all the effort culminates into receiving that coveted black belt. You’ll never get there if you don’t enjoy the training. I am not even to black yet, but I can picture a day where I will be there with my Instructor, and he ties that belt on my waist. It’s a dream for me.

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spotlight

KRISTINA BARLAAN EARNS PROPS AND INSPIRES US

“I Want To Say a Little Something That’s Long Overdue…The Disrespect To Women Has Got To Be Through…To All The Mothers And Sisters And The Wives And Friends…I Want To Offer My Love And Respect To The End…” lyrics from Sure Shot, Beastie Boys words: DEB BLYTH

Deb is very proud of her running theme in this article.

IT TAKES TWO

On the other side of the Arizona-based jiu-jitsu powerhouse couple (Gustavo Dantas being on one side of it), is Gustavo’s bubbly fiancé Kristina Barlaan. Kristina is the creator of Inspire and Petite Inspire (the all-female Arizona jiu-jitsu open mat events), and a newly promoted brown belt, which she received after winning double gold at the recent IBJJF Fall Open as a purple belt. She was the 2010 Pan Champion and Rio Int’l Open Champion – she placed 3rd in the absolute at both events; she is a 7x American National Champion (3 gi and 4 no-gi), and a 3x Phoenix Open Champion (2 at weight and 1 at absolute), to name a few of her many accomplishments. She’s armed with a warm and sunny personality, but when she’s on the mats, she’s “strictly business.” Before her competitions, a visible intensity replaces Kristina’s magnetic smile and her will to win is apparent. Kristina rolls with a high level of flexibility, fluidity, coordination, and athleticism as she plays her finely tuned open guard game. Although Kristina uses her closed guard when she wants to play it safe, she employs her open guard the majority of the time to get the job done. “My open guard typically consists of four to five different types of guards that I rotate through, depending on what my opponent is giving me,” Kristina says, “If they block one, I’m already on to the next. If they

change positions, I change again. I pretty much just throw a whole bunch of different stuff out there knowing that eventually one will work.”

PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS

At 26, Kristina has been training in jiu-jitsu for 5 years. She started at 21 under Cesar Gracie, but before that, she was a dancer...a B-Girl to be exact. “I started dancing at 5,” she says, “I did Filipino folk dancing, ballet, jazz, and contemporary. I didn’t compete, but I took classes and specialized in theater performance from 5-15. I stopped doing ballet because I was told there was no future in it - no way to make money or become a professional. It deflated me, but I still really liked dancing, so I picked up hip-hop and breaking. I always wanted to be a break girl as a kid.” Don’t call it “breakdancing” Kristina warns. “That’s like training in jiu-jitsu and saying you train MMA,” she admonishes. Interestingly, Kristina says that breaking is a lifestyle, similar to jiu-jitsu. And like jiu-jitsu, it requires a lot of skills, coordination, time sequence, and training if you’re going to be successful. Sound familiar?

THE MOTTO

“There are four elements of hip-hop,” Kristina says of the breaking lifestyle, “The first is the DJ. He provides the music, the beat. Without him, nothing else exists. From there you have the MC. He’s the voice of hip-hop. Then you have the b-boy or the b-girl, which is the physical movement of dance. Lastly, you have the graffiti artist. His artwork is supposed to be a representation of the music. He marks his territory and completely immerses himself in the scene and the culture, and paints his feelings about it. Hiphop came from the streets of New York. People felt like they could build happiness just from those four things. ‘I need a beat and shoes on my feet… all I want to do is dance.’ It changed the way you ate, dressed, and the way you felt, just like jiu-jitsu, but they had no federation or organization of the sport. These were the first competitions I ever did.

I competed as a b-girl.”

REPRESENTIN’

Kristina competed at many b-boy competitions and tournaments. They held battles and exhibition matches, which were like superfights, and sometimes she and her crew were paid by promoters to compete at them. “We’d fit like seven people in my little Honda Civic and drive six hours to competitions,” she laughs, “It was

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crew vs. crew. My crew was called DSD1, which was Down Since Day 1. They scouted me, which was a big deal.” One day Kristina was at, what she calls, “the Worlds of b-boying,” which took place on the Queen Mary, in where else, but Long Beach, CA. “People came from all over the world to compete,” she says, “It was my 18th birthday and my first time going to Long Beach. I heard there was a girl who was talking sh*t about me, so I called her out for a battle…well, actually, everyone else called her out for me! There were thousands of people walking around. The music was playing all around us and I’m walking with my crew and she‘s walking with hers…my crew told me, ‘you need to battle her now!’ They started pushing me, and a circle formed around us. She and I caught eye contact and we said, ‘Ok, let’s go!’ She was trying out a new move to make a name for herself. I was known for my “blow ups,” which are moves that you do that make the crowd cheer. When the crowd cheers they use these hand gestures, which are called, ‘giving props,’ and they look a lot like the Pope giving his blessing to the crowd.”

In fact, back in 2004, Pope John Paul II did actually give his blessing to a group of breakers

FIGHT THE POWER

Kristina was becoming so well known in the primarily male, breaking world that she was invited by a Chicago promoter to take part in an exhibition match. It was an all-expenses paid trip, plus payment for her time, which was a very big deal for a b-girl back then. However, her boyfriend, who was emotionally and mentally abusive,

repeatedly assured her that she wasn’t good enough to go. His words finally stuck. “He told me not to go to Chicago because I would just make a fool of myself,” she reflects back, “He said I wasn’t as good as I used to be, and that even if I practiced hard, I would never win. So, I didn’t go, and I started stepping away from the scene altogether. I wasn’t motivated anymore. I eventually stopped dancing.”

Kristina started attending college to become a Vet Tech and by chance ended up with a teacher whose cousin taught Krav Maga. In her last class, he came in to teach it to the students. It was the first time Kristina experienced punching and kicking. “It felt absolutely amazing,” she says, “I always wanted to take kickboxing, but my mom wouldn’t let me do martial arts as a kid.” One day, she and her boyfriend saw an advertisement for a restaurant on TV and decided to try it out. When they got there, all she saw was the Cesar Gracie Academy next door. “We went in and they had Muay Thai and jiu-jitsu,” she says, “I punched a bag for about 30 minutes and loved it.”

IT WAS A GOOD DAY

Kristina trained in Muay Thai at Cesar’s academy for a year before she started jiu-jitsu. Her flexibility was apparent to all. She could even pop her shoulder in and out of socket. One day, her coach, Dan Black said, “Hey Cesar, check this out!” He put Kristina in a kimura. She had no idea what he

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Do you know what it is?

IF IT’S DOPE, IT GETS THE POPE

who danced for him, saying, “For this creative hard work, I bless you from my heart.” The battle ensued between Kristina and the other girl, and the winner was declared by who got the most props. “At one point, she couldn’t respond to my moves anymore, so I won,” Kristina says, “It was a blow up battle…who could pull the most tricks out of their bag, and I did. Everyone was going crazy for my stuff. The biggest diss in breaking is when you do a move, right when they’re doing their move. She did her “air chair,” but at the same time I did a “threaded air chair” and the crowd went crazy and started yelling, ‘IT’S OVER! IT’S OVER (as an aside, this girl’s boyfriend, who was also a part of that crew, is now an Eddie Bravo student)!’” Kristina and her crew won a lot of competitions and traveled all over the west coast while she was still in high school. “I was really succeeding and making a name for myself until I met a b-boy who became my boyfriend,” she says.

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SPOTLIGHT was doing, but thought, “Oh, he’s chicken winging me!” “I popped my shoulder out of socket and brought it all the way around,” she laughs, “Cesar got a twinkle in his eye and said, ‘Hey why don’t you try this move?’ And Dan yelled out, ‘NO! She’s my student! You aren’t going to show her any jiu-jitsu!’” Dan, who was a blue belt at the time, showed her a triangle and a few other basic moves, and then Cesar asked her if she wanted to roll with a girl who was doing jiu-jitsu. “I didn’t really like it at first,” Kristina says, “It was no gi and I felt like I was flailing around. I knew it was about leverage, but it didn’t make sense to me.” A year had passed when she finally watched a gi class taught by multi-time world champion Caio Terra, and decided to take a class with him. “That was it,” she says, “I was hooked. It made more sense to me. I loved the gi.”

PLAY AT YOUR OWN RISK

In the meantime, Kristina’s abusive boyfriend was wearing her down. She was trying to build her self-esteem up through jiu-jitsu, and he was constantly tearing it back down. He was a vampire, sucking the life out of her. “He didn’t want me to train and would tell me I wasn’t any good,” she says, “I had pretty low self-esteem at the time, and thought I was nothing without him. But I finally got sick of it and broke up with him. There was no more fighting, no more relationship, and no more anxiety. I just went to jiu-jitsu and trained.” Kristina began working at Cesar’s academy, teaching a stretching class and cleaning the gym. She traveled to Stockton every now and then to train with Nick and Nate Diaz.

They trained mostly no gi, so she learned rubber guard and go go plata techniques. “Cesar was the first one to show me those things,” she says, “He would pull me aside and give me little privates.

He would go out of his way to help me. Caio also tried to get everyone to competition level. No one really aspired to that level before then.”

We’re glad it’s not raining men.

G.R.I.N.D (GET READY IT’S A NEW DAY)

In 2008, when Kristina was 21, she was dating someone new, but discovered that he was seeing someone else, and she was just “the girl on the side.” As many do in this age of technology, Kristina took to her MySpace page (remember, it was 2008!) to air out her feelings. She typed “crushed” on her status. Gustavo Dantas, whom she’d never met, but who was her friend online, wrote to her asking if she was ok. She was surprised by the contact and told him the story.

They began conversing about their mutual hard times. He was going through his divorce and he missed his son. They messaged back and forth for about an hour and eventually, over time, exchanged numbers. When they finally spoke on

the phone, they were both completely infatuated with each other. She flew to Arizona to meet him six weeks later. Neither one of them wanted to part after that, and they both cried when they did. “He really went out of his way to try to make me happy and he still does,” she says, “I just knew he was the guy.” Six months later she moved to Arizona to be with him. They’ve been together ever since, living together, training together, working together, supporting each other, and building a huge, flourishing Arizona jiu-jitsu community together.

answer period where women can ask any questions they have related to jiu-jitsu and discuss their feelings about their individual experiences in the art. After that comes a raffle! “We give away Fighter Tech supplements, Fenom Kimonos products, CTRL goods, Gustavo gives free entry to tournaments, and Aggro Brand gives away tees and tanks,” Kristina says, “We try to make it a really good experience for everyone.” Kristina herself designs Inspire-related shirts for Aggro Brand to give to each student. The seminar ends with everyone sparring for about an hour.

THE SHOW GOES ON

WATCH ME SHINE

Since then, Kristina has experienced much happiness with Gustavo and fulfillment in her jiu-jitsu. In order to give back, she’s made it her mission to try and make a positive impact on women and girls through the art of jiu-jitsu. So, she created a series of “Inspire” events, which are all-female open mat seminars, designed to get more women and girls training with each other.

“Inspire” is for women aged 13 and older, and “Petite Inspire” is for girls aged 4-16 (the overlap of ages is so girls can train at whichever event they feel most comfortable). Inspire is held twice a year (around February and August) and Petite Inspire is held once a year (April). All belt levels and teams are welcome. Inspire runs three hours long and starts off with a “pep talk,” which is the theme for the day, and always aims to raise self-esteem and encourage women and girls to be the best they can be. “The objective is to help them learn more about themselves so they can successfully achieve their jiu-jitsu goals,” Kristina says. She and guest black belt instructors, Luciana “Luka” Dias and Mackenzie Dern then lead some drills and techniques. Next comes a question/

“One of the reasons I started Inspire was because I’d heard that women were intimidated to roll with others,” Kristina says, “They said they thought they’d be judged. The purpose of Inspire is to allow women to motivate, encourage, and support each other on the mats. I’m not trying to recruit anyone and it’s not a competition between us. We may compete against each other in the future, but we should never compare ourselves to each other. Yes, you’re going to roll and train while you’re here, but no matter what, you’re a valuable person and jiu-jitsu is going to bring out the best in you. It did for me. I was bullied growing up, told I couldn’t do martial arts because I was a girl, I had an abusive boyfriend who told me I wasn’t good enough…the message at Inspire is this: do not allow any person, boy or girl, man or woman, your parents, or anyone else tell you that you are less than what you want to be. I always want Inspire to empower women. When you leave here, I want you to feel like you have the power to do whatever it is you want to do in life. I want you to leave here feeling inspired.”

DON’T STOP THE PARTY

I

f you’re interested in being a guest instructor, or you’d like more information on how to register for the Inspire and Petite Inspire events, please contact Kristina Barlaan on facebook at Inspire: All Female Open Mat or Kristina@gdjiujitsu.com or on her website at: http://kbjiujitsu.tumblr.com/

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technique

ROWDY

RONDA ROUSEY Yeah, probably don’t want to mess with Ronda.

words: MIKE VELEZ | photos: JASON BOULANGER

NLESS YOU’VE BEEN LIVING UNDER A ROCK THESE DAYS, YOU PROBABLY KNOW WHO RONDA ROUSEY IS. Just in case you have been residing under ground (maybe you were intent on the Mayan’s being correct), let me fill you in on Ronda’s story. Ronda’s the 25 year old UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion who’s got a perfect MMA record, with all six professional wins coming by an arm bar submission in the first round. If you’ve never seen one of her fights, the word “exciting” is an extreme understatement. So what’s a jiu-jitsu magazine doing interviewing and talking to an MMA star? Well, before Ronda became an MMA sensation, she qualified for the Olympics in Judo in 2004, and in 2008, she brought home the Bronze medal from Beijing. She became the first American to win an Olympic medal in women’s Judo since it became an Olympic sport in 1992. Prior to her making the podium in Beijing, she racked up an impressive career in Judo winning gold all over the world at various high-level competitions.

Brazilian jiu-jitsu owes its origin directly to Judo and Mitsuyo Maeda who brought it to Brazil almost 100 years ago. With that in mind, we thought Ronda would be perfect for showing us some Judo techniques we can use in our jiu-jitsu.

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GETTING TO KNOW RONDA JJM: So how did you get into Judo?

RR: My mom was the first American ever to win a world championship in Judo back in 1984. We were living in North Dakota when I was a kid and then we moved back here (southern California) when I was 9 or 10.

When we got back my mom took me to go visit all her old teammates who had opened up clubs of their own. So, I went and tried it one day. I was into swimming at the time and one of the coaches made fun of me and said, “it’s a lot more fun than swimming isn’t it?” And he was right, I had an amazing time, so I quit swimming and my first tournament was on my 11th birthday. I was very upset because it was a tournament where if you won you got a free gi, but if you came in 2nd or 3rd you got a trophy, and I wanted a trophy.

JJM: How’d you do in that first tournament?

RR: I ended up getting a gi, and cried about

me starting Judo at first. She felt that people my have unrealistic expectations of me because I was her daughter. She didn’t think that would be fair to me. But then her old teammates were telling her, “Ah, nobody remembers you, just let her go do it.” (chuckles) And six years later I was on the Olympic team.

JJM: Starting competition at the age of eleven, then going on to be on the Olympic team six years later, what’s that progression like?

RR: I was doing a lot of the junior stuff in Judo until 2003 and then I decided I wanted to get serious and go for the senior stuff. In 2003 my mom pulled me out of high school and began homeschooling me. She has a PhD, and was a college professor, so she felt fine teaching me. A month after making that decision I tore my knee.

So I spent almost all of 2003 rehabbing my knee.

I didn’t get to start competing as a senior until August of that year, and from then to October I went from nowhere to being the number one rank in the country. I swept all my competitions in the fall circuit. So the following spring they wanted me to go to the Pan-Am Championships.

But to do that we have to qualify for the US spot at a weight division if we want to get to the Olympics. So we had to place at the Pan-Ams if we wanted to go to the Olympics. So, I had just turned 17 at the Pan-Ams and I won, I beat Brazil. So, then I won the Olympic trials in July and by that August I was in the Olympics.

So, from one August I went from just entering

senior’s competition to being in the Olympics by the next August. I was the youngest competitor in Judo for that Olympics (2004).

JJM: What’s more nerve wracking, your first Olympic competition or your first MMA bout?

RR: Oh, there’s no comparison, definitely the Olympics. Nowhere near it. Nothing I’ve experienced can compare to the Olympics.

Even with these title fights. I mean I feel like I die when I lose, but what’s the worst that can happen? If I lost I could come back a few months later and fight for the title again. It’s not like I’d have to wait four more years. That’s pressure, if you have one day where you fall on your butt and you lose everything, that’s pressure. You can make mistakes in MMA, you can’t in Judo at the Olympics. So, it’s definitely more pressure and less room for error.

JJM: In MMA there aren’t too many people you’re coming against who have Judo backgrounds, so how has that helped you?

RR: There are a lot of styles of Judo. I think I lucked out and learned a very MMA appropriate style of it. My mom was really smart about it.

When I lived in LA, when I was first coming up, she would drive me to four or five different Judo clubs each week. We’d go to Venice Judo one day, then go to Heist and train with those guys. So I would get different styles all the time. I would train the traditional Japanese style, followed by the European wrestling style and all those different types. So, early on I had a very unorthodox approach. When my mom

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Could you handle that pressure?

it. I remember at that tournament that all of the commands were in Japanese and a lot of the kids didn’t know what the commands were. So, when you pin someone the ref says, “Osakome,” but a lot of the kids will get confused and they’ll just stand up and let go of the pin. So, before the tournament my mom told me, “Look, I don’t care what happens, whatever they say just stay there, don’t get up.” So, I had one other girl in my division, and I started the match, threw her tothe ground and got her in a pin. The ref raised his hand and started to tell me to get up.

But I wouldn’t let go. The referee had to literally pull me off of her. The next time I did the same thing, I wouldn’t let go. It was a fun way to celebrate my 11th birthday.

JJM: With your mom’s background I’m surprised she didn’t have you in a gi when you were learning how to walk.

RR: Yeah, my mom wasn’t too supportive of

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technique was young she was known for her arm bars. She messed up both her knees when she was 17.

So, she probably only won two matches with a throw. Her thing was she would take people down to the ground, pin them then go for the arm bar. She was one of the first women to be really ground dominant. She was also one of the first to really place importance on conditioning.

Back then the women did the very traditional Japanese Judo, very dainty. My mom was like, “Screw that! I’m going to hit weights and arm bar all of you!” She was very innovative in that regard. When I was 16 I got invited to train with Pedro’s in Boston (Jimmy Pedro), so I moved out there and trained with them full time. Jimmy had more of that jiu-jitsu style on the ground with more of a methodical approach, whereas my mom was quicker transitioning from standing to the ground. I think that’s helped me a lot in MMA. Also, the wrestling style of Judo that I learned has helped me. Also, being in a clinch I feel like I can throw anyone from any type of clinch, it doesn’t matter what my grip is like. I have a lot of versatility in my takedowns. I owe that to Judo. Also, like jiu-jitsu I’ve learned to think many steps ahead, that climbing style as a fight progresses, that’s a big help in MMA. So, basically I feel like I kind of lucked out.

JJM: So far in your career what’s been your most memorable moment?

RR: I’ve had a bunch of “wow” moments, but I

JJM: In a relatively short amount of time you’ve gone from someone who only people in martial arts really knew about to becoming more of a household name. What’s the transition into being such a public figure been like for you?

RR: I wouldn’t say, “household name.” For this period of time there are a lot of people who are conscious of what I’m doing right now. But this could fade very soon. I could fall out of this vein of consciousness. I really don’t think of myself in those lofty terms, like “I’m a celebrity” (says smiling).

JJM: For your fight coming up what are you doing differently?

RR: Not really doing anything differently. I feel like the more pressure there is, the better I do. I lucked out in that the more that’s at stake I seem to fight above myself. I’m not going to see a sport’s psychologist or anything like that. I’m used to living in this whole circus, so when the lights do come on, I’m already adjusted.

JJM: Cool. Well, good luck, Ronda, it’s been a pleasure talking to you.

RR: Thanks, I appreciate that. I love your magazine; I was rocking your bumper sticker on my Honda for the longest time.

Our budget on back drop paper was cut recently. So you get what you get.

think the Kaufman fight was really special for me.

Just because everything went so perfectly, it really came together. Even after the Tate fight I felt like I had so much more to do. Even now I know I have a lot to do.

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OVER THE SHOULDER FROM GUARD PULL This is a great Judo throw that’s very usable for jiu-jitsu as it deals with a situation where your opponent decides to pull guard. The beauty of this technique is that it’s rarely seen. Having this in your toolbox will make you very dangerous at the start of any match.

Successfully getting this throw in any match will instantly give you a huge psychological advantage over your opponent, along with a couple of valuable points.

STEP 1 Ronda squares up with Renato as she normally would at the beginning of a match, with Judo grips to his collar and elbow.

STEP 2 The moment she recognizes that Renato is going to pull guard she shifts her weight from her forward leg to her back leg. So, from her left leg to her right leg.

STEP 3 As she shifts her weight, she’s also shifting her hips and rotating to her right.

KEY POINTS Note that Ronda doesn’t shift her feet as

Does Renato know what’s coming?

Renato jumps her guard. Instead, she recognizes his ill intentions and uses his momentum to begin her throw.

We know Renato would

STEP 4 As she is shifting her weight and rotating her hips, Ronda pulls Renato’s left arm down and into her, while at the same time, driving her left arm across his body to her right.

STEP 5 As Renato falls to her right, she continues her momentum with him to follow him to the ground. This puts her on top of him in a side control position.

never jump guard, so this is purely for illustrative purposes.

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technique

SODE TSURIKOMI GOSHI

Sleeve lift and Hip Throw This throw is as “Judo” as it gets. It’s important with this throw that you don’t allow your opponent to establish his grips. So, keep some distance until you can get a hold of his sleeve or wrist.

STEP 1 Ronda reaches her right arm out to grab a hold of Renato’s left sleeve and keeps her left arm up to protect her collar from Renato getting a hold of it.

STEP 2 When facing off, Ronda wants to get her lead foot close to the inside of his lead foot, big toe to big toe.

STEP 3 Ronda lifts Renato’s left arm up and over her shoulder and across to her left.

To do this, she pivots on her left foot to bring her right leg in front of and across Renato.

STEP 4

“Why you not hold my hands?”

Once her hips have cleared in front of Renato she drops her level slightly by bending at the knees and hips and pulling Renato’s arm forward.

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STEP 5

As she pulls his arm forward, she takes on his body weight onto her lower back and hips, by pulling him forward she’s pulling him onto her.

STEP 6

As she’s pulling him forward she reaches back with her left hand and wraps it around the back of Renato’s left thigh.

She does this to help control him all the way down to the mat.

STEP 7 With his weight on her, she steps her right foot back near her left, then immediately pulls her left foot back, straight behind her as she bends at the hips, bringing her and Renato down to the mat as if to perform a cartwheel.

STEP 8 Because Ronda knows what’s happening, she tucks her chin to her chest and rolls her shoulders, continuing all the way to the mat.

STEP 9 Once Renato’s on the mat, Ronda releases her control of his left leg and turns to him to go to knee on belly, or move into side control. Renato enjoys both positions just a little too much.

Renato likes that finish.

KEY POINTS With enough momentum, this throw can be performed so that your opponent is flat on the mat and you roll to standing. At that point, you can jump to mount, side, or any top position you like.

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technique

OVER THE SHOULDER TO ARM BAR This throw is very similar to the previous one in the setup. During the throw, you fall into position to finish with an arm bar on the ground.

STEP 1 Facing Renato, Ronda steps her left lead leg just to the inside of Renato’s lead leg.

STEP 3

“I whip my hair back and forth, I whip my hair back and forth!”

At the same time she does this drag, she steps her right foot between her and Renato, stepping far past him.

STEP 4

STEP 5

Once her hips have cleared his body, she pulls his arm over her left shoulder. By having his arm up high on her shoulder it brings his weight more over her back rather than on her hips and lower back as in the previous throw.

STEP 7

STEP 6

Ronda bends at the hip bringing her entire upper body down low toward the mat and continuing to pull Renato’s arm down and behind her.

STEP 8

Being the queen of the arm bar, Ronda keeps a secure hold of his left arm, brings her right leg over the front of his neck and shoulders, while bending her left leg, and butting it up against his left armpit.

Renato goes flying over Ronda’s back and onto the mat on his side while Ronda’s still standing.

EP 2

ST left sleeve (or wrist) She quickly grabs a hold of his to her left and up. it s drag with her right hand and

KEY POINTS

With these points secure, Ronda simultaneously falls to the mat, wraps her left arm around Renato’s wrist and takes his arm with her.

For all of Ronda’s points on finishing

that arm bar just keep reading.

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technique

HIP THROW The setup on this one is a little difficult. It’s not too often that you’ll find yourself in this position.

However, it does occur, and you can lead your opponent into it. It’s more common when you’re squared up with someone who has their opposite foot forward.

STEP 3 At this point, he’s thinking he’s going to get the takedown, so he reaches over with his left arm to get a hold of her. As he does, Ronda grabs onto his left sleeve at the elbow and pulls Renato tighter against her, bringing her shoulder and head under his outstretched right arm. Her left foot is on the inside of Renato’s foot, but her knee is on the outside, so she has a little bit of a hook on his leg.

STEP 1

STEP 2

Ronda manages to get her left arm wrapped around Renato’s back and is . hip to hip with him

She tries a simple leg sweep by getting her left leg in front of his right, but this is a 27-time World Champion we’re talking about here, so he has none of that and gets his leg out and in front of hers.

STEP 5

STEP 4 With little space between her and Renato, Ronda bends her left knee toward him to get her left hip up against him.

This is critical, she wants no space between them before she progresses. As soon as contact is made, she flexes at her hip and pulls Renato’s weight off the mat and onto her hip.

STEP 6

With his weight on her, she rotates her body at the waist, her feet stay planted, but her torso moves counter clockwise if looked at from above. This movement creates momentum for Renato. Momentum he’s not going to enjoy much in a second.

STEP 7

With Renato’s feet going further behind Ronda, his upper body wants to come forward, more counter clockwise than she. At this moment, Ronda recognizes the inertia and she dumps Renato’s weight onto the mat, keeping a hold of his left sleeve

Renato falls over Ronda with his left going over the top, pivoting on his right side against Ronda, and onto the mat making contact with his right side first. Once Renato’s on the mat, she can jump to side control or mount while Renato regains his composure wondering what the heck just happened.

KEY POINTS Caralho!!!

The hard part will be getting to your opponent’s side, so try selling the leg sweep. If that’s what your opponent’s focused on, he’ll plant his leg in front of you thinking he’s out of danger.

This isn’t a high-strength move. Once you have his weight on your hips, it’s just a matter of control while you dump him to the ground. Control that left (or far) arm so he can’t break his fall or fight the dump-off.

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ARM BAR POINTERS FROM RONDA Typically, we’re always told to not cross our feet when in this sort of arm bar situation, but instead, to keep our knees together.

Ronda thinks that the “bite” is more important. The “bite” is Ronda’s feet pulling Renato’s far shoulder into her.

Controlling the head, by crossing her feet

and biting his shoulder, she likes the control she can put down on Renato’s head with her left leg. She likes to flatten that out in case he tries to posture up, she can splay her leg out to put pressure on his head to fight the stack.

GRIP BREAK TO ARM BAR This isn’t Renato’s first BBQ, so he’s got a pretty good grip of his own arm and isn’t letting go. What’s Ronda to do?

STEP 2 Next, she reaches over with her right arm to grab Renato’s far pant leg and pulls it over to his right, across his body.

STEP 1 Ronda slips her left arm through Renato’s tied up right arm and uses her right hand to grab some gi to feed to her left hand.

STEP 3 She unlocks her legs and “bites” her right leg tight against his left arm and shoulder and brings her left above Renato’s head and pushes forward, causing Renato to bring his right shoulder off the mat.

STEP 4

STEP 5 As soon as Renato’s grip breaks, she moves her arm up near his wrist and squeezes it to her chest, while at the same time, returning her left leg back over in front of Renato’s head.

STEP 6 With the arm secure she falls back to finish the arm bar.

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Thanks Ronda, Good Luck on February 23rd at UFC 157!

To break Renato’s grip, she moves her left hand to cup the outside of her right thigh.

As she does this, she raises her right shoulder to pry Renato’s grip loose.

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feature

BROTHERS IN ARMS words: ANDRE BORGES of BJJHeroes.com

HERE IS A FAMOUS QUOTE IN JIU-JITSU THAT SAYS, “JIU-JITSU É A ÚNICA ARTE MARCIAL QUE TEM FAMÍLIA” (JIU-JITSU IS THE ONLY MARTIAL ART THAT HAS A FAMILY). Though my knowledge of all martial arts isn’t strong enough for me to attest the truthfulness of this statement, my understanding of the background and the history of the sport can certainly verify that strong family ties are what helped build it. It was the strong bond between the five Gracie brothers (Carlos, Oswaldo, Gastão, George, and Helio) that kept this martial art style alive and intact for four decades, long enough so that it would be passed on to the following generations and prosper. This strong family presence is now deeply enrooted in BJJ and can be seen, for example, in the World Jiu-Jitsu Championships where 14 gold medals in the men’s adult black belt division have been attributed to brothers since the birth of the tournament back in 1996. That is counting only gold medals; the numbers stack up drastically if you go to the silver and bronze medals.

Help a brother out.

THE UNSUNG HEROES

One of the first families to follow the Gracie trend of creating a strong bond through jiu-jitsu was the Faddas. In the process, they also became the most famous non Gracie lineage in the sport. The first Fadda to start jiu-jitsu was Oswaldo Fadda, he passed his knowledge to his brother Humberto Fadda, who then passed it on to his own descendants.

Today, the head of the Fadda jiu-jitsu clan is Helio Fadda (son of Humberto). Helio started practicing jiu-jitsu back in 1955 and is one of the most prestigious coral belt representatives in the sport. Other families maintained their jiu-jitsu tradition working with the Gracies, the most famous were probably the Barretos and the Valentes. From all lineages in jiu-jitsu, there is one that rarely trends as a BJJ topic, but is OSWALDO FADDA certainly worthy of being mentioned, which is the Monteiro lineage. The “Associação Monteiro” run by Fabio, Gustavo, Yano, and Lucio Monteiro in the state of Amazonas, Brazil, is one of the strongest BJJ academies out there, though they may have stayed away from the limelight over the years.

Not a lot is known about this tight family, apart from the fact that their jiu-jitsu style descends directly from the Gracies. The Associação Monteiro has been linked with the development of tremendous athletes, such as the first king of the rooster weight division Omar Salum, Cristiano Carioca, the Ribeiro brothers (Saulo and Xande), and many others.

The city of Manaus has been a great hive for jiu-jitsu, Ronaldo Souza, also known as “Jacare” and his brother Renato Souza might be amongst the most successful broods in the sport, but since the birth of CBJJ/IBJJF, the

RONALDO SOUZA

RENATO SOUZA

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PHOTOS: We’d like to thank all these fighters for use of the various photos found in the public domain. If specific photo credit is due for any of the photos used in this article please let us know at feedback@jiujitsumag.com. We will be glad to give proper photo credit.

Amazonians Saulo and Alexandre (Xande) Ribeiro are by far the most accomplished. Saulo and Xande Ribeiro have been at the top of the heap since the late 1990’s, piling up medals at the world’s top tournaments.

The Ribeiro brothers, now living in San Diego and Los Angeles, California, started with the aforementioned Monteiro brothers, but perfected their technique in Rio de Janeiro where they moved and trained under Royler Gracie’s wing on their way to jiu-jitsu stardom. Rio has probably seen the biggest share of BJJ talent since the start of the martial art, and as a result, participated in the growth of families in jiu-jitsu, so we will go to it next.

XANDE RIBEIRO

EIRO

RIB SAULO

THE CARIOCA COMMUNITY

A TERERE DA SILV

PATRICK CARVALHO

While writing about the families in jiu-jitsu and Rio it is impossible not to mention the Correa brothers (“Gordo” and “Gordinho”) both former world champions in the black belt division who own a thriving BJJ academy in the city. The Behring family, much like the Machados, extrapolated from their surroundings to develop the sport in other areas of the world.

The Machados, in the US, founded one of the first strong American teams, while the Behrings taught their game in Sao Paulo.

Flavio Behring, the patriarch of the family, learned jiu-jitsu from Helio Gracie, but being the busy man that he was, he allowed his children to choose who they wanted to train with. Sylvio chose to train with the Barreto family “GORDO” CORREA (mentioned above), while Marcelo picked Rickson Gracie to be his mentor. When Flavio Behring moved to Sao Paulo, he took Marcelo with him; there the two spread the BJJ Gospel in a state where jiu-jitsu was still scarce. Marcelo at the time (late 1980’s) was “GORDINHO” CORREA considered the

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All these guys have some smooth moves.

Rio de Janeiro, and especially the “Zona Sul” area of the city, have seen the most of LEONARDO charismatic siblings in the sport. The Vieira VIEIRA brothers, Leonardo, Ricardo, and Leandro have plenty of Mundial, World Cup, and ADCC medals amongst them. With humble beginnings, the talented Leonardo, Ricardo, and Leandro poured their efforts into jiujitsu, and this devotion paid with dividends.

Having started at the Romero “Jacare” Cavalcanti academy, fate would have them at the helm of two of the most important teams in our history, Brasa in the early 2000’s, and Checkmat which was created by the older brothers “Leo” and “Rico.” But this wasn’t the only group of kinfolk to have been born and LEANDRO VIEIRA bred at Jacare’s academy, the Gurgel brothers, Fabio and Fernando, have also medalled in some of the most important tournaments training under the Alliance team banner. Another family RICARDO VIEIRA with strong ties to both Alliance and the Zona Sul of Rio de Janeiro is the da Silva household. The first da Silva to reach the black belt level in jiu-jitsu was Fernando Augusto, also known as “Tererê”, who is arguably the most talented fighter to have graced the sport. Terere grew up in one of the poorest slums of Rio (which neighbors one of the city’s richest boroughs). As Terere reached a certain celebrity status in the sport, he decided to bring jiu-jitsu to his community in an attempt to occupy the children of the slum with something positive. For that purpose, he sold a car he had won as a fight purse and opened a jiu-jitsu academy. It was at that same academy that he taught some of his family members, including his cousin Leandro Martins who became a highly accomplished grappler, and even Tererê’s younger brother, Patrick Carvalho who became famous in 2012 as one of the dancers in the Brazilian version of “Dancing With The Stars.” A note worth mentioning is that Patrick followed his brother’s footsteps and opened a similar style academy in the Favela, giving dancing classes to the local kids.

The Importance of the Behring in Sao Paulo

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feature number two in the sport (behind Rickson), which brought plenty of attention to jiu-jitsu in the area, opening doors to sponsors, competitions, and the media. Marcelo’s end, FLAVIO BEHRING however, would be a tragic one. After some time spent on the wrong side of life, battling with drug dependence, Marcelo Behring was found murdered by a gun shot wound to the head in one of the most drug affected areas of Rio de Janeiro. Marcelo’s contribution to the sport was substantial and his lineage can still be seen in the Cia Paulista gyms around the world. Flavio Behring continued working on the development of the sport, working in different countries and going as far as France, where he MARCELO BEHRING has his own lineage.

MACHADOS,

THE BJJ PILGRIMS The Machados, who also went beyond their borders, were brought from Rio de Janeiro to California by their cousins, the Gracies. The first Machado to land in the country was Rigan who worked with Cesar Gracie before he was called by his other cousin Rorion to work as an assistant coach at the Gracie Academy. Being up and close with the American state of affairs, Rigan saw great potential in the US and brought his brothers along to assist him in building a successful academy of their own. The Machados produced many great grapplers, including the most successful American BJJ black belt competitor to date, Rafael Lovato, Jr, who on the other hand has also come from a strong martial arts family; Rafael, Sr is a BJJ black belt himself.

As jiu-jitsu entered the United States, the American families have also embraced the sport.

The Maxwells (dad) Steve, (mom) DC and (son) Zack have become a recurring name circulating in the internet forums and tournament podiums, and so have the Beauregards, the Penns, the Diaz brothers or even the Ruotolo twins.

MACHADO BROTHERS

BJJ AND FAMILY TODAY

Generations of jiu-jitsu alive and well!

The sport is clearly growing, and with this growth, it seems like family ties within the sport have continued to grow with it. You also see cases where the sport has put people together, which is the case of Ary Farias, who met Yuri Simões through BJJ and eventually was adopted by the Simões household. A testament to how family ties walk hand in hand with jiu-jitsu has been the fact that the last two absolute world champions, Marcus “Buchecha” and Rodolfo Vieira, both have family members training the noble art. Marcus “Buchecha” has his dad (who is a black belt) and Rodolfo has his sister (who is also a tough competitor), and even Marcus’ coach, the illustrious Rodrigo Cavaca has a very accomplished grappler for a brother, Rafael Cavaca. Never forgetting two of the most impressive family duos in recent history, the Mendes brothers, multiple world champions Guilherme and Rafael, who have taken the world by storm in recent times, or the Terra family, the star Caio Terra and the rising star Kim Terra who is a black belt under Ricardo Vieira and has recently been in great form competing in Brazil,and even the Terra’s matriarch, who still trains BJJ (and was a purple belt, last time I heard).

MENDES BROTHERS

B

ringing your family to jiu-jitsu is a great way to keep your loved ones close to you at all times. Knowing that jiu-jitsu is a healthy and great, fun sport, it’s not hard to understand why these two (family and BJJ) mingle so well, so why don’t you follow the example of these many great BJJ’ers here discussed, and build your own lineage?

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technique

USING

REVERSE HIP

ESCAPE WITH

KEVIN HOWELL Four Masters’ Secrets Revealed! words: MIKE VELEZ | photos: MIKE LEE

MASTERING THE MOVEMENTS Kevin Howell (Andre Galvao/ATOS Black Belt) is a thinking man’s jiu-jitsu player. He’s written numerous books on jiu-jitsu with some of the top names in the sport, including Saulo Ribeiro, Dave Camarillo, Andre Galvao, and an upcoming book with Leo Vieira. Having had the experience of working so closely with such great champions, and being a political scientist as well, has helped form many of his theories on jiu-jitsu.

Kevin’s theory on techniques espouses that the basics of jiu-jitsu aren’t about whole movements, such as an arm bar from closed guard, or a collar choke. Seeing a white belt perform a collar choke and seeing someone like Roger Gracie do it, with all of his nuances, you quickly recognize that his performance of the same technique is far from basic. Instead, the basics of jiujitsu can be broken down into specific details within each movement. In this article, Kevin’s going to break down the simple hip escape coupled with the reverse hip escape.

These are techniques that, outside of Judo, aren’t often talked about or taught in jiu-jitsu schools. Kevin will use the basic reverse hip escape and explain how each of the champions he’s written about use the reverse hip escape to get out of almost any predicament.

Kevin got a haircut just for this article shoot.

WHAT IS THE REVERSE HIP ESCAPE

THE BASIC HIP ESCAPE WITH REVERSE

T

he reverse hip escape is simply a movement using your feet and hips to return your body (hips) back to where you were before you performed the original escape.

Step 1 On your back, arms up at your sides, protecting your lapels and neck. One foot outstretched, the other bent at the knee.

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Step 3 Base the foot of the bent leg to the mat, lift your hips off the mat, and push off that posted foot to stretch your leg out. Bring your hips out and off to the side from where you began. The reverse part comes next.

Step 4 Base up a bit to lift your hips off the mat and bend that leg at the knee, pulling yourself back into your original starting position.

Step 2

Lean to the side on which your leg is outstretched, with your weight on your shoulder.

DRILLING THE REVERSE Rather than push yourself around the dojo floor with a standard hip escape, drag yourself around the mats.

Step 1 Start on your back, with your arms up near your lapels protecting the neck, bend one knee and stretch out the other leg.

Step 2 Bring your stretched out leg in front of you off the mat and let it fall to your right side.

Step 3 Dig your right foot into the mat and bend that leg, lifting your hips off the mat and dragging your hips forward.

Step 4

Stretch out your left leg, and repeat the steps going in the other direction, reversing direction each time.

A new way to “shrimp.�

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technique

DAVE CAMARILLO

Kevin wrote Submit Everyone with Dave Camarillo. Kevin considers Dave a jiu-jitsu genius with his unique ability to bridge the divide between jiu-jitsu and judo.

BRIDGING ESCAPE FROM SIDE CONTROL On the bottom, in your opponent’s side control with a scarf hold. One thing that comes from judo in this position is the tightness that Kevin places on his opponent.

Step 1 s around his opponent arms loose, Kevin wraps his arm Rather than push off or keep his the inside sharp that so rd nwa dow turning his arms grabbing his own forearm and opponent’s back. his nst es) are digging in and tight agai edges of his forearms (the blad

KEY POINTS If your opponent is too low

Step 2

Getting the “blade” of your forearm in to their back is key. Use that tip all the time.

Kevin pulls his opponent into him tightly, paying attention to the blades of his forearms and their placement just below his opponent’s armpits.

Step 4 Next, Kevin bridges up and to his right to get his opponent’s weight to come forward over Kevin’s head.

Step 3 Both Kevin’s knees are bent with his feet just below his buttocks.

on your torso, this escape wouldn’t be your first option. Instead, you’d probably be better served by bringing your left arm over and around his right arm, and then rotating your body out and to your right so that you escape behind your opponent.

Step 5 Once his weight is back and to the right, Kevin bridges to the center, basing his head to the mat.

Step 6 As soon as he feels his opponent’s weight over his own head, Kevin brings the bridge to his left, continuing the roll ending on top and in side control.

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REVERSE HIP ESCAPE FROM SIDE CONTROL The previous escape can prove difficult if your opponent is considerably larger than you, has an excellent base, or your bridge isn’t particularly strong.

So, this might be a good option.

Instead of bridging your opponent over, you’ll be pulling him over your body. The principle of this technique is moving the fulcrum and using your opponent as the lever.

Step 1 Starting on your back in your opponent’s side control as before, grab your own forearm and turn your arms so the blades of your forearms are digging into your opponent’s rib cage.

Step 2 Bridge your opponent up and to your right, so his weight comes forward and onto the mat.

It’s okay if he bases out to avoid the sweep.

Step 4 Use the reverse hip escape movement to drag your hips and body beneath your opponent.

Step 3 Once his weight is forward there will be some space between him and the mat to your right side.

Step 5 Pull the grip you have of your forearm in tight, pull down, and rotate your weight to your left, bringing your opponent over your body and onto the mat on his back.

Step 6 I bet you can’t wait to try this one out?

From here you can move into a tight side control or go for the back.

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technique

ANDRE GALVAO

Kevin wrote Andre’s popular Drill To Win book. The two of them trained and lived together for some time. In fact, Kevin received his black belt from Andre and Kevin’s Jiu-Jitsu League school is a Galvao affiliate. The next two techniques come from Andre Galvao.

OPEN HALF GUARD SWEEP TO SIDE CONTROL This is a guard that Andre likes to play, some people call it 93 guard, or Z guard. Whatever you want to call it, there’s a bit of a complicated setup, but you probably will find yourself in this situation more often than you realize now that you know what it’s called.

THE SETUP The Open Half Guard setup has you

on your back and your opponent on his knees in front of you. Your right leg is down on the mat with your right leg against the inside of his right leg.

Your left foot is on his right hip with your knee up as a shield, keeping his right arm and shoulder from getting too close. You don’t always have to keep your left foot on his hip, you can lift it up to create space when needed if you’ve got the other points locked up. Your right hand is blocking his left arm from getting to cross face and your left hand is reaching for his opposite side collar.

Step 1 From the setup, kick your left leg up to create some space between his torso and right arm. As you create this space, bring your left hand from his collar to his right side.

Step 2

If you like 93 guard wait until you try 94 guard, amazing!

With your right arm around to his side, hip out to your left side and bring your head against his stomach, reaching your left arm around his body. At this point, you can maintain control of his left hand with your right, but this is not important if you have to pull your right elbow back to get your head to his stomach and arm around.

Step 3 Once your arm is around, grab his pant waist on his left side, if you can find the little eyelet in his pants where the seams meet to grab on to.

Step 4 Once you have a hold of the pants, bump your left arm and shoulder up high to force his weight forward.

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Step 5

Step 6

This step is very important.

Bring your left leg up and over his right leg and capture it. Once your left leg is behind his, you can work your right leg loose and to the mat.

Step 7 Once he has his whizzer in to block your path to his back, make sure your right hand is posted to the mat in front of you. Before he can pull back, dive your right hand all the way down and between his legs with your head following.

Once your left leg has captured his leg, sit out behind him bringing both your knees to the mat. When you do this your opponent is going to resist. He’ll more than likely drop a whizzer on you to keep you from going to his back.

If he sits back thinking he’ll be in guard, you’ll actually be passed because of the position of your legs.

Step 8 With your arm through his legs, wrap your hand around his left thigh to maintain control. At this point he’s going to fight and try to sit back. But that’s fine, you have control of his right leg, and his knee will be bent away, so he’ll be stuck.

Step 9 Now, here’s where the reverse hip escape comes in.

Bring your right leg in front of you and behind him. Once there, use your foot on the mat and your reverse hip escape technique to drag yourself under and behind him, bringing his weight over and to your left.

Step 10 Continue the hip escape to your right, his weight will fall to his left and you’ll end up to his right, but with your leg still tangled. Bring your right knee up and plant it behind his buttocks. From there you can splay out and go to side control.

Don’t sweat the whizzer.

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technique

REVERSE DE LA RIVA SWEEP Starting out with a reverse De La Riva guard where your right leg is between his legs and looped around to the outside of his right thigh. The back of your right foot is bent back to provide a hook around his thigh. When you have this guard in place, it’s important that you keep your foot in a position near his hip so you can push him away, or bring him in by his own weight, if necessary. Your opponent will be looking to pass and will more than likely bring his right hand to your collar to maintain some control.

Step 1

Step 2

From this position, your opponent is going to be looking to knee slice forward with his right knee to pass your guard. Be sure to keep control with your right foot hook on his leg, this is key. He’s going to be trying to get an under hook on your left arm, as long as you can keep your right foot hook in you can push him away to keep him from getting that. So, fight to keep your left arm inside on his right arm. It’s ok if he goes for your collar with his right hand.

Step 3

Step 4

At this point, he’ll probably slice his knee out to escape his foot. As he does this, swim your right hand under his right thigh and grab onto his left pant leg, inside his left thigh.

Bump him forward with your left shoulder, elbow, and left knee. As you do this, escape your hips out to your right so you land on both knees to the mat.

KEY POINTS It’s a “reverse De la Riva” what else would you call it?

If, after step 3,

Bring your left leg around and up and knee him in the buttocks to shift his weight forward. At the same time use your right hand to pass his belt end to your left hand behind him. Or a better option is to pass your right arm as deep and as far around him as you can and grab onto his left hip, at the pants or cup his hip if you need to.

he passes his right leg through it’s ok.

As long as you have a firm grip of his left pant leg you’re good. So, defend that grip if he starts going for it.

Step 5 Escape your head out from his side and you’re out. You can drop into side control.

IF HE DEFENDS THE BUMP

Any time you give someone a bump from behind, their instinct is to think you’re headed out the back, and rightfully so. Your opponent will resist. If he resists with plenty of force, perform the following. The setup for this is right after Step 3 in the previous sequence.

Step 1 So, you’ve got your left arm around his back and your right arm is grabbing onto his left leg. You go to bump him forward, but he resists and sits back. Instead of fighting him, perform the reverse hip escape.

Bring your right leg out in front of you and plant your foot to the mat.

Step 2 Reverse hip escape to your right. Pull him down into you and rotate him to your left as you escape your hip.

Step 3 Once he falls back to the mat, posture up with your knees to the mat and move into side control.

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technique

SAULO RIBEIRO

Kevin’s first book was a home run. Jiu-Jitsu University has been a top seller for years and was very influential to many of us here. Kevin spent a lot of time with Saulo working on that book and picked up a number of techniques, two of which he’ll share with us now.

MOUNT ESCAPE TO GUARD

Step 1 From the start you want his hips to go to your left, and yours to go to your right. So, let’s give him some bait. Use your right hand to protect your left collar. This will leave your right collar open for him to get an inside grip on and help to get him off balance a bit. Grab your left lapel, hide your elbow against your ribcage, and place your right hand against his right hip.

When you’re on the bottom of a mount it’s not good. The guy on top has gravity on his side, and time, so if you move slowly you’re going to let him know what you’re planning and he can quickly counter. So, when you’re on the bottom don’t telegraph your intentions, instead be ready to explode and perform what it is you’re planning. The idea of this escape is to send your hips in one direction and his in another.

Step 2

This one works everytime. Seriously.

Plant your lef t leg flat on th e mat and bend your rig ht leg at the kn ee.

Step 3 Perform a basic hip escape with your hips going to your right, pushing off with your right foot. At the same time, push his right hip forward with your left hand.

Step 4 From there, use a reverse hip escape to pull your hips back or pull your knees to your chest and recover guard. Yup, it was that easy. Wait until you try it ;)

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ESCAPE FROM TECHNICAL MOUNT Somehow you find yourself on the bottom side of a technical mount.

Maybe you were slow in attempting the previous escape, or you took too much time on something else. However you got there, he’s got you on your side a bit, one of his knees on the mat and the other across your body.

Step 1 He’s on top, hide your left elbow and use it to protect your neck.

p2

Ste hip (if you find yourself Take your right hand from his pt from the previous in the position of a failed attem across your body. ’s that leg t righ his technique) to

KEY POINTS If, at step 4, he fights to get back to his feet with a technical lift, turn with him and you have him in your guard. Not ideal, but much better than being mounted.

Step 3 When you control his right leg, you’re going to have a ton of space from your hips down. Throw your left leg out in front of you with a nice big step.

Step 4 Perform a reverse hip escape, drag your hips to your left heel, and push down on his right knee.

He’ll be forced to fall back.

Step 5 From there, put both of your hands under his right leg that’s across your body and swim to your right, going to your knees and on top of him.

Just wait until you try them.

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technique

LEO VIEIRA

Kevin’s next book will be written with multi-time Worlds, ADCC, and Pan Am Champion and Checkmat black belt Leo Vieira. Kevin and Leo have worked in the past on a DVD instructional. The new book is set to be released this year.

KNEE ON BELLY SWEEP Your opponent is on top of you, he’s big and strong, has his knee on your belly, and has a pretty solid base. You’ve tried some conventional escapes, but nothing’s working.

Step 1 Use your outside leg, in this case your left, and bring it up and under your opponent’s pressuring leg, which is his right.

Step 3 Reach out your right hand and grab on to your opponent’s right pant leg, the lower the better.

Step 2 Take your right arm and reach around and up your own left hamstring with your left hand.

No book cover yet.

Step 4

From here, all you need to do is reverse hip escape, step your right leg out, plant your foot on the mat, and pull your hips in underneath him. Once again, you become the fulcrum.

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technique Step 5 Your opponent falls to his right. Continue the motion to your left, pushing his left leg over, thanks to the grip you have on his pants.

Step 6 Continue the motion so you end up on top and pay attention to his legs so he doesn’t get you in his guard, instead you come up on top, passing his guard.

To contact or train with Kevin, check out his academy in Long Beach, CA at www.TheJiuJitsuLeague.com or email at info@thejiujitsuleague.com.

KNEE ON BELLY SWEEP ALTERNATIVE

That first sweep Kevin showed us will work a few times before someone gets wise to it, so this variation is your “fall back” option should your opponent base out with his hands to keep from going over. This will pick up once you have all your grips established, you’ve reverse hip escaped and tried to roll him over.

p1

Ste getting swept. At this He’s based out to keep from mes much lighter beco y bod er point, his entire low ted. Take his left leg that because he’s got his arms plan between your legs. it f stuf you have a hold of and Step 2 Once his leg is between yours, do a simple hip escape to your right, sliding your left elbow across the mat.

Step 3 If he stays on his knees you can go all the way out behind him with one leg captured to take his back. If he falls to his side, you’ll end up on top in his half guard, or with him in deep half guard. Any way you slice it, you’re out of knee on belly/bottom.

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feature

THE TREASURE THAT IS words: DEB BLYTH | photos: JASON BOULANGER

WHO IS RENATO LARANJA?

Seems like Deb is trying real hard to hide some deep emotions.

T’S NOT OFTEN THAT A WRITER GETS AN ASSIGNMENT IN HER FIELD OF EXPERTISE THAT SHE KNOWS NOTHING ABOUT, ESPECIALLY WHEN WE’RE TALKING ABOUT JIU-JITSU, WHICH IS SUCH A CLOSE KNIT, SMALL COMMUNITY, EVEN ON THE WORLD’S STAGE. Usually, something is known about the subject – their name, a little history, maybe a tournament he or she won, some adversity the person has overcome… something. So, when the opportunity presented itself for me to interview a black belt that I had never heard of before, I jumped at the opportunity to cover him, especially once I was told he was a 27-times Mundials champion. His name?

Renato Laranja. How and why had I never met this sensational individual before?

I couldn’t imagine how that could be with a record like that. And once I actually met him, it became even more remarkable to me that I had never heard of him. The man is a legend.

THE NOVELTY WEARS OFF FAST At first, I looked forward to my interview with Renato with excitement and anticipation for what was to come. I “friended” him on Facebook before I called him to set a time for our interview. What happened next is…well… it was nothing I had ever experienced before. First of all, I couldn’t understand him. His accent was very thick.

And after being friends with him on Facebook for a week, my homepage was filled with filthy jokes and pictures of big booty females. I was not very impressed to say the least. Lastly, when I called him to set up our interview, he proceeded to invite me to his CONDO to “feed me some alcohol and listen to H&B music” so I would be “Helax” for our interview. Are you kidding me?

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The research begins… and respect forms

I

had to find something about this guy I liked before I met him, so I did some research on him. Grudgingly, I have to admit, some respect for him began to surface. Remarkably, this is what I discovered about Renato: He is a national treasure in Brazil He won the Mundials 27 times He was blacklisted from a legitimate MMA competition in Brazil for “Dojo Storming” many of the top jiu-jitsu academies in Brazil.

He fought in hundreds of unsanctioned, bare knuckle Vale Tudo matches in his native Rio (in empty swimming pools, racquetball courts, and church basements, etc.)

He is rumored to have organized the Shogun Rua fight that took place in somebody’s Grandma’s living room (JJM had a hard time confirming this, but it’s worth noting).

He’s rumored to have a street fight record of 1,000-0-2 He’s reached legendary, almost “Boogeyman” like status in his home country of Brazil.

“Do your shrimping drills or Renato Laranja will choke you in your sleep” can be heard in BJJ academies throughout South America.

Children can be heard chanting his song, “Henatohhhh La-ran-nja!!!!” in favelas and Capoeira Rodas all throughout Brazil.

He’s widely considered the greatest BJJ practitioner of all time. Commonly referred to as “your favorite fighter’s favorite fighter.”

He’s Chairman and CEO of Fruits & Vegetables, Inc., an actor, nutritionist, health & fitness guru, author, MMA trainer, fighter, and God knows what else.

He’s one of the most polarizing figures in MMA He’s the most sought after BJJ coach by MMA’s top fighters

Are you sensing that too?

He’s been linked to a staggering list of women, including UFC champion Ronda Rousey.

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feature

SO, LOVE HIM OR HATE HIM, HERE IS JJM’S UNCUT, UNEDITED INTERVIEW WITH THE ONE AND ONLY RENATO LARANJA

We apologize to anyone Renato may have offended while reading this interview. But he is a legend.

(for the record I would like to add that none of his comments are shared or condoned by JJM or their affiliates – at least that I know of…):

JJM: After seeing your Facebook posts, I have to ask…do you respect women at all? Because I think there are quite a few women jiu-jitsu athletes out there who could kick your ass. Hannette Staack, Kyra Gracie, Leticia Ribeiro, Luanna Alzuguir, Gabi Garcia, Michelle Nicolini, Luiza Monteiro, Beatriz Mesquita...ever heard of any of these female world class black belts?

RL: I respect a LOTTA women. Especially the

one that take care of themselfs. I don’t respect when they get too fat or start to look old. As for the female Jiu-Jitsu athletes you mentioned, I don’t got a problem with those one’s cuz they still look good. Look, if women wanna do jiu-jitsu so they can stay in shape that’s fine with me. I’m okay with that.

JJM: Wow…ok…what do the ladies see in you exactly?

RL: Why are women so attracted to me? That’s

hard to say. Maybe it’s because I’m a real MAN. I’m what you might call an “Alphalfa Dog.” But at the same time I’m not afraid to let a woman pay for dinner. I’m also good at intercourse.

JJM (laughing): Uh…let’s move on…I understand you have some sort of relationship with UFC fighter Ronda Rousey.

Are you training her or dating her or do you two just roll together from time to time?

RL: My relationship with Honda is up on the air

right now. We was start off as training partners, but I could tell she was attracted from me right off the bat. The feelings was mutual. We had a worldwind romance, closing down Romano’s Macaroni Grills all over the greater Los Angeles area. I was very taken with her. Unfortunately, I was also taken with a few other women at the time too. Honda was devastated. I tried explain, but she can have a very strong head. In the beginning everybody warn me that she was gonna break my arm. Who knew that she was gonna end up to break my Heart? Time will tell whether we gonna be able to patch things out. Maybe this issue of JJ magazine can help us to get back together.

JJM: Hmmm…do you consider yourself a role model?

RL: Yes. I’ve also did a lot of print modeling.

God gave to me a great body and I treat it like a temple.

JJM (looking incredulously): You are obviously very humble, too... You are a 27 times...is it Mundial champion or NAGA champion? I’ve read conflicting reports... which is it? Is this all at the black belt level?

RL: Mundials. Next question.

JJM: What is your favorite Jiu-Jitsu technique?

RL: I like the one I use to choke out Eddie Bravo.

It’s call the “North/South” choke. It kinda look like the “69” position, but it’s only fun for the person on top.

JJM (laughing): So, Eddie wasn’t having much fun, I guess. I have heard that you’ve choked him out before. What’s your favorite way to submit him?

RL: I’ve did it so many times I don’t even know

anymore. That guy is like the Buster Douglas of jiu-jitsu. He had ONE good fight back in the early 90’s. Caralho.

JJM: What do you think of Eddie Bravo’s Jiu-Jitsu?

RL: Eddie’s What? That’s not jiu-jitsu. That’s

some pro wrestling stuffs. All he do is take some of the techniques from the movie “Beat Street” and give to them some stupid names. Big deal.

JJM (shaking my head): Do you give private JJ lessons to anyone I would know?

RL: Have you ever heard of Andre Galvão, Pablo

Popovitch, Rafael Lovato, Jr., BJ Penn? Or maybe Bill Cooper, Caio Terra, Draculino, Jeff Glover, Nam Phan, Cole Miller, Ben Saunders, Junie Browning...I could go on.

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JJM: Wow really? I apologize for sounding so uncertain about your skills. If that’s the case, then when did you discover how great you are?

RL: Only my GOD is “great”. I’m just a humble

jiu-jitsu icon.

Jewish guy was try to hang out with one of my Ladyfriends. He’s a “Ricardão”. And NO we can’t get along.

JJM (shaking my head yet again): Who do you personally want to tap out the most?

RL: Besides Vinny? I think it’s a tie between Paul

think the Jiu-Jitsu community as whole owes to me the most. I’ve influence more Brazilian Fighters than the movie “Only the Strong”. But the person I owe most for MY success is Maestre Renzo Gracie. He’s the toughest and classiest guy I know. Just don’t ever try to bum a Newport off him. Caralho.

Rudd, and the guy who was invent House Music.

JJM: Oh really…Ok…coulda fooled me…In my research I gathered that you aren’t a fan of what you call the “reefer” and the “super reefer”... have you ever tried it?

RL: I’ve experiment with heefer at a Hall & Oates

concert one time and it almost gave to me a heart attack. If you smoke too much heefer you gonna be addicted to that stuffs. Then you gonna start to watch Eddie Bravo videos and hang out with colored Jazz musicians. That’s not cute.

JJM: I’m just going to let that one go…why do you always wait for Joe Rogan outside the bathroom at his gym and argue with him? He never seems happy to see you.

RL: I don’t wait for Joe Hogan. Joe Hogan wait

for ME.

JJM: When will we see you in the UFC? RL: That’s up to Dana White and Joe Silva. They

know my body of works. I’m ready to fight for the title right now.

JJM: I recently saw that you offered to help Fabricio Werdum for a UFC fight. He’s won the ADCC’s twice and he’s a multi-time Worlds Jiu-Jitsu champion. In what ways can you help him?

RL: That’s because Werdum was gonna fight that

light skin black guy, Alistair Overeem. I know how those guys think. I use to train Al Jarraeu.

Light skin guys like Overeem have too much confidence. They have that “Good Hair.” You have to take away his confidence early or else it’s gonna be a long night.

JJM: Who do you think would be most honored by being tapped out by you?

RL: Vinny’s Mom. JJM: Ohhh that’s not going to go over well (Sorry, Vinny!). Ok next question…who needs to respect the gi?

RL: EVERYBODY need to respect the Gi, or

else they gonna be in for a rude awakenings.

Especially those clowns at 10th Planet “Jiu-Jitsu”.

JJM: There’s been a lot of debate about whether or not traditional gi training is necessary for MMA. Do you think it is?

RL: Listen. If I’m gonna bring some chicken

JJM: Anyone you’d like to thank you?

RL: I’d like for Jiu-Jitsu Magazine to thank me

for taking time out from my busy schedule to do this interview.

JJM (eyes rolling): Ya,…. thank you for your time, Renato. It’s been illuminating…(mutters under her breath) as soon as I get back to the office, I’m asking Mike Velez for a raise.

breast to a barbecue, first I’m gonna marinate that one at home, right? When I bring it to the barbecue the people don’t gonna SEE the marinade. All the people gonna see is the chicken.

But when they taste that one they gonna see the flavor is already inside.

JJM: I literally have no idea what that means…so, what’s your favorite fruit and vegetable?

RL: My favorite fruit

is Acaí. My favorite vegetable is Corn on the cobs.

JJM: Who owes you the most for their success?

RL: I

JJM (eyes as wide as a saucer): Oh my gosh…you are so inappropriate! Next question. What’s your beef with ADCC champ and World Jiu-Jitsu Champion and now UFC fighter Vinny Magalhaes? You two clearly do not like each other.

RL: What’s NOT my beef with that guy? Vinny

is what we call in my country “Creonte”. That means he was defect to another school. He’s a trader, like Benedicts Arnold. He use to study from Royler Gracie, but now he’s train with Eddie Bravo. The main problem I have though is that he like to run his big mouth. He said a lotta bad stuffs about my mother. I’m just wait for my chance to wipe that big stupid grin off his face, but he refuse to sign the contract to fight me.

Where you at, fat boy?

Respect the gi.

JJM: Why do you seem to have so many issues with so many people? Do you know who Rodney King is? Can we all get along?

RL: I don’t got a problems with Hodney King.

I got a problems with LARRY King. That old

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mind games

THE ONLY WAY

TO VICTORY

IS THROUGH

YOURSELF On Location at Gustavo Dantas’ Mental Skills Training Seminar words: DEB BLYTH

WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU’RE NOT SUPERMAN?

I

Trades in his gi for a three-piece.

t’s always a shock when you discover that someone you’ve always perceived as invincible, commanding, and larger than life is not who you thought he was… instead, you find out that he is, in fact, human, just like the rest of us. That’s exactly what happened on November 30, 2012, when the uber-successful Gustavo Dantas, who is a fourth degree jiu-jitsu black belt, President of Nova Uniao USA, Vice-President of the Arizona State Jiu-Jitsu Federation, owner of Gustavo Dantas Jiu-Jitsu (which is comprised of multiple schools and affiliates), and now certified Mental Coach, took the stage at his first ever Mental Skills Training seminar in Phoenix, AZ to a packed audience. An audible gasp could be heard around the room when Gustavo explained that, until a few years ago, he had a very poor self-image. He was once a self-doubting perfectionist who had little confidence in his ability to perform. He was terrified of failing. You could have heard a pin drop in the room.

PHOTO: Alex Gomez of Night Vulture Productions

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GUSTAVO’S SELF-ESTEEM COMES AND GOES

When Gustavo moved to the U.S. from Brazil many years ago, he didn’t have the same quality of jiu-jitsu training that he was used to. So, he went from having no confidence in his youth, to building it up through jiu-jitsu, to losing it when he got here. He endured some personal problems; he went through a difficult divorce, with his beloved son caught in the process, and completely lost his self-esteem. To top it off, he experienced multiple injuries and didn’t compete for four years.

Gustavo realized that he needed to snap out of his downward spiral, but he wasn’t sure how. When he was finally able to compete again, he went to a tournament and had performance anxiety, haunted by his struggles as a competitor during his “early days.” “I knew I needed to make some changes, so I started researching self-development subjects,” he says, “I stumbled into sports psychology. I started buying online programs, CD’s, books on tape…whatever I could get my hands on. I read and listened to everything. Eventually, I found an online mental skills certification program.”

Gustavo decided to give it a try. “I knew it would allow me to better help my students with their issues,” he says, “But I had to overcome my own first. So, I started to study more and began to pass my knowledge on to my students.”

A CHANGE FOR THE BETTER IS MADE

GUSTAVO BROKE DOWN THE TOPICS OF THE SEMINAR THIS WAY: TAKING ACTION: Taking action is about taking responsibility for yourself. You can’t perform to the best of your ability if you have tournament anxiety or a fear of failure. “Mental skills need to be practiced like physical skills,” Gustavo says, “You must take responsibility for what you want and go after it.” In order to do that, you have to work hard, persevere, and make sacrifices. “If those three things aren’t involved, then what you’re trying to accomplish must not mean much to you,” he says, “Maturity develops when you realize that no one is coming to your rescue in life. You have to put yourself out there. You need to surround yourself with positive and supportive people, so they can help guide you to your destination.”

SELF-ESTEEM: “Low self-esteem stops people

from reaching their full potential,” Gustavo explains, “If other people tell me I can’t do something, and I don’t question whether it is

true or not, then I guess I can’t. Low self-esteem is the worst virus in humanity. It passes down through generations, and across friends, and others. You can do this without even realizing it.” Gustavo says that people with low selfesteem usually have a fear of failure, they tend to procrastinate, and they may feel unfulfilled, frustrated, angry, unloved, unlovable, shy, and/ or indecisive. “Low self-esteem will prevent you from performing to the best of your ability,” he says.

SELF-IMAGE: Having a low self-image is something Gustavo knows well. At the beginning of his competition career, his jiujitsu record got up to 0-5 before he experienced his first ever win. “It started a problem inside me,” he says, “I wanted to prove I wasn’t a loser, that I was a winner. I was fighting for my self-esteem; fighting to feel good about myself.

It made me angry. Now I know, you are who

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That’s the Gustavo we’re used to.

What came out of his journey of self-discovery was a certification in Mental Coaching and a whole new and improved Gustavo Dantas. With his new-found knowledge and strong sense of self, Gustavo presented an “Introduction to Mental Skills Training…A Guide to Maximizing your Potential and Success” at a seminar in Arizona in November. The room was packed with jiu-jitsu students – some his, some not, wives and girlfriends of those students, and also a few attendees who did not even do jiu-jitsu. A professionally dressed Gustavo stepped on stage and with confidence began talking about why he was teaching the class. “I want to help others reach their full potential,” he says, “I want to help them in their quest to be better competitors and better people in their own lives.”

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mind games you are, not what you do. Just because you lose a tournament, it doesn’t make you a loser. You know you’re a good, worthwhile person. Don’t mix up your image as an athlete with your image as a person.” Today, Gustavo always wants to win every time he competes, but he knows he’s not going to. “As long as I truly did my best, it’s ok,” he says, “Winning and losing depends on a lot of different factors.”

PSYCHO-CYBERNETICS: One thing that helped

Gustavo immensely was the audio book, “PsychoCybernetics” by Maxwell Maltz. “It explains that we all carry a mental blue print of ourselves,” he says, “It’s been formed by the beliefs we have of ourselves. These beliefs have been cemented by all our experiences over the years – things told to us by our parents, friends, and coaches…as soon as these beliefs hit our mental image, they become true, and we don’t question their validity. We just accept the beliefs and ideas. These limiting beliefs about what we can and can’t do make people live behind walls of guilt, fear, and anxiety.”

you may have anxiety over letting people down, not being able to do it, people thinking you’re a loser if you don’t win…you think about the pain it’s going to bring, which stems from a fear of failure, fear of success, and anxiety, and you think, ‘I’m not going to compete.’ You get this sense of relief – which is a feeling of pleasure – and the anxiety goes away…until the next time you think about competing. What’s important to know is that these thoughts are not driven by reality, but by our perception of reality. So, if competition is linked to pain in your mind, that’s going to be your experience until you break the perception.”

HOW MENTAL SKILLS TRAINING CAN HELP YOU: Through Mental Skills Training,

Gustavo says there is a systematic and consistent

NINE TRAITS OF A GREAT ATHLETE: Gustavo breaks down the nine traits in basic, preparatory, and performance-based skills, and they include choosing a positive attitude, motivation, goal setting and commitment, good people skills, positive self talk, positive mental imagery, managing anxiety, managing emotions, and maintaining good concentration. Choosing a positive attitude is the most important trait of all because if your foundation is built on negativity, the rest of the traits won’t stick. “In order for all of this to work, you have to feel good about yourself,” Gustavo says, “You have to question yourself about your negative thought patterns and where they came from. Everyone acts and feels according to their self-image.”

HOW TO INCREASE SELF-CONFIDENCE:

Do you think differently about daily situations because of your jiu-jitsu training?

What’s the answer? We need to re-evaluate our beliefs. “We need to ask ourselves, ‘Who told me I couldn’t do this?’” Gustavo says, “Find the root of the source and re-evaluate it. Ask yourself, ‘If I stick with these beliefs are they going to help me reach my goals or take me away from them?’ Take a look at what’s holding you back.” Although we don’t realize it, the pain and pleasure principle drives these beliefs home even more. “Everything we do in our lives consciously or unconsciously is for a reason,” he says, “We do things out of a need to avoid pain or to gain pleasure.” Gustavo gives the example of competing. “Before you compete

practice on how to do this. In a nutshell (you need to attend his seminar to get the full lowdown), when you enhance your competitive performance, for example, you increase your enjoyment for competing, which helps you gain more self-satisfaction. You will find happiness in competing as long as you know you did everything you could do along the way. Your fulfillment won’t be based on winning or losing your matches, but more on focusing on what you did well and what you can work on in the future.

“You need to learn to snap out of damaging thoughts, Gustavo says, “Don’t think negatively about your preparation – it’s done now - or the guy you’re competing against – that’s out of your control. If you do, you will be out of focus and on the wrong path.”

IN CONCLUSION: “Question your beliefs and PHOTO: Alex Gomez of Night Vulture Productions

ask yourself, ‘what is holding me back?’” Gustavo says, “What is preventing me from getting to

PHOTO: Kristen Mendes

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PHOTO: Alex Gomez of Night Vulture Productions

where I want to be? Find the right people to guide you, set goals, work on your people skills.

Have more people trying to help you. Think about friends and family who are negative.

They won’t change. So, all you can do is change yourself. If you’re willing to make changes, you’re on your way to the process of self-acceptance, which is really important. We all have some good and not so good qualities, but you need to accept yourself as a person. If you think things like, ‘I have a fear of letting people down if I don’t perform to their expectations,’ look at it and change it to say, ‘no matter what others say or do, I’m still a worthwhile person.’ You need to take those negative affirmations and reframe them to be positive.”

HOW MENTAL SKILLS TRAINING HELPED GUSTAVO: “I learned how to deal with my

I guess you can be too perfect.

perfectionism,” he says, “It doesn’t mean that all traits of perfectionism are bad. Some good things include my good work ethic, and my desire for high quality work. But my focus now is on excellence, not perfection. In the past, I had unrealistic expectations of myself. We will make mistakes, but because I had a fear of failing, I’d think, ‘if I mess up, and I lose, I won’t be perfect.’

So I would try to be perfect, which no one is, and I’d end up failing in my mind. I needed to learn balance. I was too extreme. Now I use my determination to keep improving. It opened my

eyes to stop being so hard on myself, which has helped raise my self-esteem. You have to feel good about yourself to reach your potential in life. I realized my views weren’t strengthening me in my goals or making me happy; they were taking me away from my goals, so I changed them.”

HOW MENTAL SKILLS TRAINING IS HELPING GUSTAVO’S STUDENTS: “My students are

finding increased enjoyment in competing,” he says, “They’re more relaxed and they’re having fun at tournaments. There isn’t as much pressure on them, so they’re performing more to the best of their abilities, which is the goal. How can you be mad at yourself when you did your best? When people do everything they can do, and they perform anxiety-free, they leave feeling satisfied. When I was 16, I decided I wanted to be a jiu-jitsu coach. I wanted to have a bad-ass team and have a bunch of champions. I was young. About six years ago, I started to learn that before tournaments, some of my students would sit in their cars in the parking lot outside of the academy, filled with anxiety. It paralyzed them to the point that they couldn’t get out of the car, so they’d go back home. They were afraid of so many things. They were intimidated about something that would hurt their self-esteem. They didn’t think they were in shape, they didn’t want to lose in training or in competition and be perceived a loser, they didn’t want me to look down on them.

PHOTO: Kristen Mendes

It always related back to their self-esteem. I started realizing there was a lot more to being a champion on the mat. It completely changed what I was trying to do, not just on the mat, but in life as well. I wanted to help people overcome their self-limitations through jiu-jitsu. I thought, ‘how can I help people overcome their anxieties in life and through competition?’ So, through Mental Skills Training, I try to help them face their fears and anxieties on the mats, and thru competition, and it starts transferring to their personal lives. In my opinion, you should compete against yourself and your own standards only. Like it’s your own personal Olympics. When you start succeeding in these things, your self-esteem goes up.”

GUSTAVO TRIUMPHS AGAIN T

here were 83 people in attendance at the event, and they rated it a 9.6 on a scale of 1 to 10, so that means it was another gold medal performance for Gustavo. If you are interested in learning more about Mental Skills Training, you can reach Gustavo at: www.gdjiujitsu.com

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BREAK DOWN D’ARCE WITH

JEFF GLOVER

words & phots: MIKE VELEZ

HE D’ARCE CHOKE IS AN ARM TRIANGLE CHOKE THAT GETS ITS NAME FROM JOE D’ARCE. Joe popularized the choke in modern jiu-jitsu, although it’s also referred to as a Brabo choke. Jeff Glover recently did an entire DVD on the D’Arce titled Darcepedia . We asked Jeff to break down the technique for us and to show us the fundamentals of it, along with many variations on how to hit the choke from multiple situations.

THE IDEA L

Jeff loves this stuff!

ike we mentioned in the intro, the D’Arce is an arm triangle choke. To lock it up, your hand needs to get onto your own bicep, similar to a rear naked choke. If you only get your fingers on your bicep it won’t be strong enough to get the finish, so you’ll need to make the adjustment and pull your closing hand across your bicep. Wrist deep is the promise land when it comes to sinking the D’Arce. There is a case where it can be too deep. If you go too deep you’ll end up neck-cranking your opponent rather than choking him.

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PICKING A SIDE

A common situation that lends itself to a D’Arce choke is when you have an opponent turtled in front of you. You can attack from the near side, or you can go for the far side.

ATTACKING THE NEAR SIDE STEP 1 Your opponent’s on all fours turtled, sink your left arm between his right arm and chest, shoot that arm deep enough to get your arm and wrist past his neck.

STEP 2 Bring your right arm up to his head and neck so you can grab the crook of your right elbow with your left hand. Be sure that you get your entire hand through so you can really get a good grab of your bicep. The further you can reach your left hand through, the better.

STEP 3 Bend your right arm and place your right hand on his upper back, below his right shoulder.

The

MECHANICS

STEP 4 Pull your opponent down to his hip by thrusting his body backwards slightly while walking your legs towards him.

STEP 5 Bury your face into the back of his neck, and squeeze everything until he taps.

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Break It Down Again!

The D’Arce Choke applies pressure to your opponent’s neck with the boney part of your wrist. The D’Arce is sometimes confused with the Anaconda choke. The difference is where your hands go.

The D’Arce finishes with your hand on your bicep next to his neck whereas the Anaconda places your hands under his armpit.

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ATTACKING THE FAR SIDE Let’s say again your opponent is turtled up, you’re on his right side, and maybe you have a seatbelt grip around his body.

STEP 1 Release your seatbelt grip and take your right arm and snake it under his right arm, as deep as you can go.

STEP 2

STEP 3

Going for the far side would be the F’Arce.

Next, fall onto his left side so that your right arm can continue traveling under his arm and up through to the right side of his neck.

STEP 4 Bring your left side up so you can bring your right hand to your left bicep.

Curl your left arm and bring your left hand to his upper back.

As soon as your arm is through, curl it so that you bring your opponent into you. His left arm will be trapped against your body.

STEP 5 Walk your feet and legs to your right while pulling him back so that his left hip hits the mat. Tuck your chin in behind his neck and squeeze everything to finish.

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ARM BAR TURTLE DEFENSE TO D’ARCE

This is a cool little switch when you’re turtled up and someone either tries to pry you over to your back, or dig an arm in to get you in an arm bar.

STEP 1 You’re turtled up on all fours. Your opponent is in a headlock position. He slips his right arm under your left shoulder. His goal is to either hoist you onto your back, or attack your left arm for an arm bar.

STEP 2 With his arm dug in he’s got to make a move, as soon as he applies pressure and shows his intent quickly grab the back of his right arm with your left hand.

STEP 3

STEP 4

He’s going to attempt to continue the motion and throw you to your side, use that momentum to go with it, and spin so that you force his arm all the way across your body and onto the mat, not on your body.

As soon as he’s to the mat, let go of his arm and bring your hand to the back of his neck and pull him down to trap him.

The D’Arce is one of those techniques you’ve really got to drill to get good at.

STEP 6 Bring your right arm to you left hand, get a deep grip of your bicep, and practice all the pointers you’ve learned to finish the choke.

STEP 5 With him pinched down, walk your feet and hips all the way to your left so that you’re almost at a 90º angle to him.

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GI D’ARCE EZEKIEL VARIATION

Sometimes with a gi on there’s lots of friction on your sleeve. This extra friction may make it difficult to get your choking arm over your bicep to get a strong enough hold for a clean finish. So, instead, Jeff uses this variation when attacking from the near side.

STEP 2 Bring your left arm through and between his neck and left shoulder.

STEP 3

STEP 1 With your opponent turtled from a front headlock, fall to your left side and at the same time, sink your left arm deep between his right arm and torso, under the armpit.

STEP 4

Reach your right arm up, trapping his neck and right arm between your arms.

STEP 6

Reach your left hand to your right bicep, the deeper you can get that left hand over the crook of your elbow the better. If you can get your hand around your bicep, bend your right arm at the elbow and cup your right hand over the back of his shoulder.

Tuck your chin into your opponent and squeeze your arms together to complete the choke.

STEP 5

Of course you should drill everything if you want to get better at it.

Walk your legs toward his body to increase the angle between the two of you, as you walk it over, force his right hip to the ground.

STEP 7 If you can’t get that left hand deep enough over your bicep, or can only get your fingers to your right arm, instead of going for the bicep, slip your left hand into your own right gi sleeve, and get a good grip with your fingers inside the cuff.

STEP 8 Swing your right arm up and over the backside of his neck with your right hand flayed out straight to pressure the right side of his neck with the blade of your palm. Push the arm as deep as you can.

STEP 9 Pull your right elbow towards your head to pivot your right hand tighter against his neck, curl your left wrist to tighten things up, and squeeze everything to finish with an Ezekiel D’Arce hybrid.

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D’ARCE FROM HALF GUARD TOP This is a cool setup that will be one of those things that will be difficult to set yourself up for exactly, but one of these days you’re going to find yourself in this situation and remember this article.

STEP 1 You find yourself in your opponent’s half guard. He has an under hook so you put in your whizzer, step your left foot out, and post your left hand on his face.

STEP 2 Keep posting on his face to back your right armpit up, while keeping your right arm under his triceps. This moves you into an arm lock position on his right arm.

STEP 5 As soon as you sense that, you drop your weight on to his shoulder, continue feeding your right arm forward.

STEP 8

You can do it!

Cup your bicep, place your left hand on his back, squeeze and finish him, all while you’re still in his half guard.

STEP 3

STEP 4

With his arm still up against the side of your torso, push your right arm forward, but above his elbow to put pressure on it as you’re going for an arm bar.

STEP 6

To avoid the arm bar he’ll more than likely turn his thumb in and release his under hook, bringing his arm to his chest.

STEP 7

Scoop the back of his head down to allow your right arm to shoot in deep behind his neck.

Keeping pressure on the back of his head, run your left arm up to meet with your right hand.

KEY POINTS If your opponent posts up with his left hand, grab that arm and pull it towards you to drop his right shoulder to the mat.

If you’re not sure you can finish while in his half guard, keep the pressure and work your right leg out to pass. He’ll be too preoccupied with the choke to put up too much of a fight on keeping you from passing.

If he doesn’t move his arm down to escape your arm bar then guess what? You’ve got an arm bar for the win.

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D’ARCE FROM FAILED SINGLE LEG Your opponent shot in for a single leg and has a hold of your left leg.

STEP 1 He’s got your leg up, so quickly fight to get a whizzer in with your left arm under his right arm and through it.

STEP 2 or between either to the outside If he’s cleared your leg inside. the to , him of nt fro it in your legs, fight to get STEP 3 Now step your right leg forward in front of you while dropping back and rolling over backward bringing him along with you.

STEP 4 You should land on your knees facing your opponent with him on his left side facing you. Shove your left arm deep between his arm that you earlier whizzered, and the left side of his neck.

STEP 5 Find your right bicep with your left hand, secure, bring your right hand to his back, and squeeze hard for the tap.

KEY POINTS Yeah, this one’s a little tougher.

If he has your leg to the inside, in front of him, already it may be difficult to get the whizzer.

If that’s the case, fight to bring your leg in between his legs to get the whizzer in, the back out to the front to perform the roll.

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D’ARCE FROM SIDE CONTROL BOTTOM

STEP 2 Push off to create enough space to swim your right arm through his arms and across your body, keep him framed with your right arm so you can turn to your right side.

Like many of Jeff’s moves, this one will not be seen coming until it’s too late.

STEP 1 Starting on your back in your opponent’s side control.

Wherever you’re starting from you need to set up a frame.

Get your left arm between you and his right hip, next get your right arm against his neck, this is your frame.

STEP 3 Reach back and across with your left arm under his right armpit to get a whizzer. All the while you’re keeping your right hand against his neck.

STEP 4 Push off on his neck and walk your feet and legs out to your right, moving your body so you’re more in line with your opponent.

STEP 5 While you’re walking your body over, continue pushing through with that left arm whizzer so it gets all the way through and the inside crook of your elbow is somewhere near his chin.

STEP 7 Walk your legs back to your left, closer to a 90º angle with your opponent. Drop his hip to the mat, squeeze and finish.

STEP 6

You’ve got to be quick!

Lock up your left hand to your right bicep.

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D’ARCE FROM STACKED TRIANGLE This is one of those moves that when you see it you think to yourself, “who would ever come up with that?” Jeff Glover, that’s who.

STEP 1 You’re on your back and working on a triangle, but it’s just not happening, your opponent postures forward and begins to stack you, a common defense for the triangle.

STEP 2 As he’s coming up on you he’s going to create lots of space, so with your right arm reach over the back of his left arm and across his chest to your own right leg.

STEP 5 Sink your right arm as deep as possible between his neck and right shoulder. Bend your right arm, dropping his neck and body closer onto you.

STEP 3 As soon as it’s deep, let go of the triangle, drop your left leg to the mat, but keep your right knee up near his head.

STEP 4 Push off on his head with your right leg to keep him close and to trap his left arm. Use your left foot to help get your body in line with your opponent.

STEP 6 Secure your right hand onto your left bicep, and bend your left arm to secure the hold. Walk your feet and legs back to your right to get the angle and drop him back to his left side. Get your left hand to his back, tighten up, and finish the choke.

Now go do it!

DEFENDING THE D’ARCE

The biggest key to defending the D’Arce is similar to defending the triangle. You need to create space for the arm that’s locked up. Do whatever you can to bring that arm around his body, your leg, your torso, or anywhere you can to keep that trapped arm from crossing in front of yourself. Once you have this, you can work on creating more and more space, even circle to an escape as shown here in these photos.

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medic

AGEand INJURIES What Hurts? You Ask, Well How Old Are You?

This photo by Kristen Mendes.

words: DR. ETHAN M. KREISWIRTH, PhD, ATC (Medical Director International/United States Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation)

N ITS INAUGURAL YEAR IN THE UNITED STATES, THE 2012 MASTERS-SENIORS WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS WAS HELD IN LONG BEACH, CALIFORNIA. The event saw over 1,000 competitors aging from 30 years of age and upwards. Data collection by the medical team (Kreiswirth Sports Medicine) included belt, gender, body injury location, and mechanism of injury (how the injury occurred). As in the past, the medical area was adjacent to all mats for constant observation of any injury. Data collection was obtained

via four Certified Athletic Trainers (ATC), three Physical Therapists (DPT), and one PhD. Referees were asked to summon the medical team to the mat for any potential injury, and/or have the fighter report to the medical area for injury assessment and initial treatment after a match.

In 2011, injury incidence data was collected at the 2011 World BJJ Championships, along with a pre-event medical questionnaire, to gather baseline characteristics of a fighter’s previous injury history, days per week of training,

injury locations, along with a multitude of other questions regarding musculoskeletal injuries. After analysis, data suggested that BJJ fighters who suffered a previous injury of any joint in the body were three times more likely to incur an injury at a large scale BJJ event. Additional outcomes of the 2011 study revealed that blue belts, in addition to elbow joint injuries, suffered the highest rate of injury incidence in comparison to other belts and joints. Lastly, there were no statistically significant differences among gender with respect to joint related injuries.

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COMPARISONS As a comparison, injury incidence data was collected at the 2012 Master-Senior event to identify injury differences between the two groups. While the 2011 event saw an increased incidence of lower belt ranks, the Master-Senior event discovered that higher level belts (Purple/Brown) reported more to the medical area. While the elbow joint was the most injured during the Worlds in 2011 due to arm locks, the Master-Senior event saw a multitude of nonspecific low back spasms, muscle strains, and exhaustion, in comparison to direct trauma of a specific joint. As BJJ is novel in its approach to submit an opponent with joint locks, thus incurring a potential injury, the older fighter of the Master-Senior event suffered injuries that were not associated with submission.

Though there are a multitude of assumptions a reader could take from these observations, most BJJ fighters may agree that the sport of BJJ can be an injurious sport as training days, length of practice, and age increase. Interestingly, the 2011 original data collection reported that two-thirds of all surveyed fighters reported a previous history of injury while training, competing, or both. This data drives the assumption that the more one trains, the risk of injury increases. Further assumptions of data comparisons may be that as we age, injury compensation, in addition to early fatigue, may be associated with injury. Theoretically, older BJJ fighters may not train at the same competitive levels as younger fighters. An older fighter has additional responsibilities, i.e., family, job, head of household, that may lead to the under development of proper conditioning for a large scale BJJ event. Because these variables may be prevalent with older persons training in BJJ, it is imperative that the older BJJ fighter understand the inherent risks of BJJ at the competitive levels.

INJURY RECOGNITION Because BJJ competition is relatively for the strong-minded or warrior type fighter, many practitioners may not wish to recognize injury as it occurs. As a whole, the Kreiswirth Sports Medicine team sees a plethora of injuries after the fact of a loss, or after the entire Championship event has concluded. This may be due in part to the fact that fighters do not wish to divulge their injuries prior

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“You think maybe I can just, you know, poop it out?�

PHOTO: Alicia Baldwin

to winning or in front of others. Although these may be examples of why a BJJ fighter does not wish to receive medical attention and treatment, it is in the best interest of the fighter to acknowledge their injury as soon as it occurs. Delaying the recognition of an injury, in turn, delays the medical evaluation process and immediate care. For instance, delaying the evaluation and treatment of an ankle sprain or foot fracture, due to a toe hold or ankle lock, causes increased swelling of the area, lack of range of motion, decreased proprioception (ability for the joint to understand space and touch), and increased pain for weeks or even months. Immediate recognition by a medical professional and treatment with ice, elevation, compression, and referral for diagnostic exams, if needed, will reduce these symptoms drastically. This reduction in symptoms can help a fighter get back to daily adult living and training sooner rather than later. Although we do not know the long-term effects of chronic injury in the sport of BJJ, research strongly suggests that previous injury to any joint in the body may cause another injury, due to compensatory actions of the body while in motion.

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INJURY PREVENTION

As an older BJJ competitor wishes to challenge himself at a tournament style event, his/her risk of poor joint mobility and stability may be a factor of injury. Poor mobility, such as flexibility and stability of the body in precarious BJJ positions, pose a threat to overall body injury. For example, when a fighter reports to the medical treatment area with low back pain or a hamstring strain after a match, it does not necessarily mean he has this condition. In many cases, stronger musculature will compensate for weaker muscles to gain stability of the body through movement. In turn, muscles will spasm, and/or strain in order to gain stability for that particular movement skill. These over-compensatory movements, along with weak muscles, create injury and spasm.

While the sports medicine team recorded a multitude of injures of muscle spasm, cramping, and muscle strain at the 2012 Master-Senior BJJ Championships, these types of injuries are easily

preventable. Of these injuries, prevention would include understanding and implementing the dynamics of core motor control and flexibility.

The term “core” would incorporate the intrinsic muscles that control and stabilize the spine, i.e., transverse abdominis, pelvic floor muscles, internal obliques, and diaphragm. One way these core muscles can be engaged is simply by performing planking type exercises in all plank positions at 10-second intervals. A fighter does not need to be versed in biomechanics to understand that a dynamic warm up routine that engages ground BJJ movements, crawling, bear walking, shrimping, walking, lunging, squatting, and rotational movements will aid in “turning on” the motor control sequence that is needed to stabilize the body during BJJ efforts. Additionally, dynamic multi-planar warm up routines that are active in nature also stretch needed musculature for BJJ efforts. Although there is a growing body of evidence that suggests static stretching

First person to email us where that previous quote is from wins a free T-shirt. Email feedback@jiujitsumag.com

STRENGTH AND CONDITIONING

Knowledge of proper strength and conditioning training programs that illuminate specific metabolic needs for the sport, in addition to enduring lengthy tournaments where a fighter could compete multiple times in one hour, should understand physiological recovery. Since the sport of BJJ uses short bursts of power, in addition to strength and endurance, efforts to engage the many energy systems in the body is necessary for conditioning and recovery. Systems, such as high intensity anaerobic, and/or aerobic training should be implemented to reduce potential injury. Because a BJJ fight can be as short as seconds, and up to long minutes in length, depending on how the match is ended, it is essential that the fighter develop a physiological ability to cope with drastic physiological changes. At some point, a fighter may be energy dependent of all systems during training and/or competition. These efforts to maintain and/ or train energy systems rely heavily on interval type training. These types of workouts would include less rest to work ratios, e.g., bouts of five minute training sessions with only two and half minute rest periods.

Additionally, a fighter may reduce injury chance by developing an Olympic-style lifting program, which would include multi-joint, multi-planar movements to develop power, strength, and stability. That said, none of these types of exercises should go unevaluated or unmonitored by a professional.

Future data collection of comparative data and injury incidence may shed light on injury patterns for us to better understand the relative risk of BJJ in a training setting. Planning to reduce the risk of injury is paramount to the success and further education within the sport.

does not reduce injury alone, many still wish to perform static stretch routines without dynamic movement to prevent injury.

BIO: Dr. Kreiswirth Dr. Ethan M. Kreiswirth, PhD, ATC of “Kreiswirth Sports Medicine” is the Medical Director for the International/ United States Brazilian JiuJitsu Federation.

Dr. Kreiswirth is a black belt in BJJ and has provided medical coverage for BJJ events since the mid-1990s. For additional research of BJJ injury incidence, the article entitled “Incidence of Injury among Male Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Fighters at the 2009 Worlds No-Gi Championships” is in print for the PeerReviewed Journal of Athletic Training.

Additional research of the 2011 Worlds will be submitted for publication in 2013. For correspondence regarding BJJ Research, please contact ekreiswirth@gmail.com

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CHANGE IS GOOD! STATS Age: 49 Height: 5’11” Starting weight: 240 lbs Current weight: 187 lbs Belt rank: blue Home town: Orlando, Florida Home School: Gracie Barra Orlando Instructor: Igor Andrade

How did you discover jiu-jitsu?

My son, Andre, started training BJJ at GBO a couple years ago. Shortly after that, my other son, Fabio, also enrolled. They tried to convince me to join them, but I was in terrible shape and to be honest, I figured jiu-jitsu would be too rough for me. I’ve never done any physical activity or sports in my entire life; I used to go to work, drive home, eat, watch TV, and then sleep. One day, they finally convinced me to go for a trial class…I enrolled on the same day! I thought, despite the healthy benefits, BJJ would give me the opportunity to spend more time with my sons.

How often do you train?

Two or three times a week. I wish I had more time to train, but work and school put a limit on my free time.

Was that Luiz making an appearance in the last issue?

What else do you do for physical fitness?

In the beginning, I used to go to the gym for some weight lifting and cardio, but I had to quit this year due to lack of time. I’m planning on practicing Yoga soon, probably at home.

Have you changed your diet and how?

I quit drinking sodas and rarely drink alcohol.

I totally changed my diet; I’m a firm believer that we are what we eat. No junk food or fried food for me. I never used to like salads and vegetables, but now I can’t live without them.

At grocery stores I carefully read the nutritional labels before I buy anything and I try to buy

AFTER most of the fruits and vegetables organic. I satisfy my craving for sweets with fruits and almond butter. I noticed that a more healthy diet gave me more energy, which helped me with my training.

What’s been the biggest challenge so far?

My biggest challenge so far was to improve my cardio system. Jiu-jitsu requires a lot of energy in a short period of time. When I first started, I used to tap just because I ran out of air! Now I’m doing a lot better, and still improving every day. I never imagined that I would have to learn how to breathe!

What’s the best thing about your life change?

Jiu-jitsu has proved to me that we can do anything once we set our mind on it, and dedicate to it. Jiu-jitsu helped me with my

self-esteem, and gave me the confidence to go back to college to pursue my Electrical Engineering degree.

Lastly, what advice would you give someone looking to make the same type of change you did?

Never quit! I know the beginning is hard and the gentle art sometimes is not so gentle, but dedication and hard work will pay off.

Several times I almost quit, but my friend and instructor, Igor Andrade, never let me do it.

Like in any other physical activity or sports, everybody has a different level of performance; what really matters is the improvement that you make in every class. BJJ for life!

Have a story on how jiu-jitsu has changed your life? Tell us about it at: feedback@ jiujitsumag.com.

106 | Jiu-Jitsu Magazine

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