My Ego | Leg Locks| Jiu Jitsu

So once again I'm humbled by Jiu Jitsu. Any time you let your ego get ahead of you in this sport your bound to get thrown back down to earth real quick. Since my arm is still non-functioning I have been working alot on my leg lock defense, like I have mentioned in previous posts. However, I have had a reality check in the last few days, and it has been frustrating, I have to admit. I have learned a few things though.

I thought I could learn to defend leg locks in a matter of weeks. My progress in this area, however, is coming pretty slowly. What I realized is learning leg locks in Jiu Jitsu is a completely different bread of the sport. It's not like learning one move, its a huge range of moves, and you have to know them all. If you do Jiu Jitsu you are probably thinking that I'm stating the obvious, but like I said I guess I got ahead of myself.

There are so many different intricate positions when it comes to leg locks that there cannot be just one defensive move for every submission type. Every detail, every angle, and every foot position changes the game up. It takes more than just practicing a few escapes, you have to be in the situation in a live senario, learn each detail of the position, and learn how to react to them. A lot of it, I think, is specific to you and the way you grapple, so you have to learn them yourself, through experience. So i think after a week of asking everyone I know for leg lock defense moves and scouring every leg lock video on YouTube, I'm changing my game plan. I'm just going to do leg wars (since I still can't roll) and learn how to defend leg submissions from my own experience. I feel like, I was tought a million ways to defend against a choke, but none of them worked for me, it wasn't until I got choked out 10,000 times that I figured out how to stop it my own way. There's no way around the need for mat time.

Thats the great thing about Jiu Jitsu though, you can spar over and over, loose to your sparring partner, but be able to learn from it and improve the very next day. In boxing, when you do bad in sparring you leave with a massive headache and a need for 2 Aspirin, and 3 days to recover. In Jiu Jitsu, you get tapped, you learn, you go righ back at it. Soooo.... let the tap-out-fest begin. Because I expect to be heel hooked, ankle locked, and kneed barred about 100 times each this week. Time to let that ego go and get back to square one!

This has been a pretty big reminder of what I long road it is to try to master this sport. You hear it all the time though, it's just a matter of time. If I put in the time then I'll get the results. So any ways back to the gym tonight for some leg wars. Over and over and over!


Thank you all for reading,

Please help this blog grow by sharing it on Facebook or Twitter.

Nick

Tweet

---

A blessing in disguise: Leg Locks

I think that there are always good times and bad times in everything that you do, but I believe that there is a positive side to every negative event. It takes practice, but if you cant find a way to turn set backs into opportunities, your going to be a hard force to stop when you set your mind to something.

As I shared earlier that I got hurt last week; partial tendon tear in my elbow.  Its improving at a surprisingly fast rate, thanks to acupuncture and God! But the doc says that I need to stay off of it for another three weeks even if it doesn't hurt any more. When I first got hurt, I can't lie, I was super frustrated. I didn't want to take time off. So I decided that I wouldn't let my injury stop me from improving my game.  I realized that my elbow getting blown out of commission could possibly be exactly what I needed to take my game to the next level.

I've noticed lately that the biggest weakness in my game is my leg lock defense.  I've been getting tapped with ankle locks, heal hooks, and toe holds more than any thing else.  Now normally, I don't enjoy practicing leg locks or leg lock defense.  I think its boring.  However, with my arms in a useless state, I got nothing but time to hone in my leg lock defense.  I'll be doing nothing but that for the next three weeks.  When I can finally get back to my real rolls, I'll be unleglockable! Not really, but I'll have made a serious improvement.

This is perfect timing too because NAGA is coming up in Las Vegas and all leg locks are allowed in this tournament.  Its funny how things always tend to work out.  These things always assure me that God has a plan for me.  Even the worst things in life can turn out to help you with something that you never saw coming in the future.  I'm telling you, there is a positive inside of every negative, you just gotta find it.

So I'll be doing more leg locks in the next few weeks than I ever have before.  I'll try to get some videos up here and share the moves that I learn.  There's even a leg lock seminar coming up that is being put on by a Gene Le Bell black belt.




Thanks for reading guys,

If you like this post please share it on Facebook!

Nick

10th planet HQ: Denny Prokopos guillotine

Last night Eddie Bravo invited everyone from 10th Planet Riverside to come down to head quarters and train in Hollywood.  It was a pretty cool experience.  Denny Prokopos was also teaching, and he is a world class teacher.  Man did these guys like to talk though.  Eddie's class was 80% Jiu Jitsu and 20 % stand up comedy.  The guy was freakin' hillarious though.  All in all they were both great teachers.

Denny showed some stuff on the pretzel grip guillotine.  It was pretty cool.  He showed me something that was pretty eye opening.  If you put your hands in a regular guillotine grip,with your choking hand with its palm facing you, and pretend your choking an invisble person, look at the space between your forearm and bicep.

 When you turn your choking hand so its palm is facing away from you, then squeeze the guillotine.  The gap closes.  Pretty interesting stuff.

When you try this grip at first the squeeze takes a lot of effort, it's very uncomfortable.  However, Denny is a pretty nice guy and he gave me some tips on how to practice the squeeze when I am by my self.  Mainly, pretending you thigh is a neck, strap your guillotine around it, and choke out your thigh.  This will help develop your squeeze.  He said, "don't practice to get a tap, practice to put someone to sleep, because if you can hold your squeeze long enough to sleep 'em, you can definately hold it long enough to tap 'em." 

Eddie didn't teach much because Denny was teaching for most of the time, but showed some techniques using Z guard to get the hand to the mat and transition to rubber guard.  It wasn't anything that I hadn't seen before, but it was his attention to detail that impressed me.  From the angles he explained to the various ways to use your wrist control.  The guy really new his stuff. 

After class I said thank you to Eddie and he struck up a conversation with me.  Which, in my experience, is rare for alot of famous Jiu Jitsu guys.  He was an extremely nice dude, super easy to talk to, and really funny.  He ended up inviting me to come back next week and said he would get a roll in with me.  Can't wait to feel what its like to be inside of a real rubber guard.  I hear that his clinch is unbelievable.  I will let you guys know how that goes and hopefully get some videos up here. 

Hope this new guillotine grip helps out your game guys,  thanks for reading.

Nick

drils drills drills, solo drills for jiu jitsu

Its always a personal goal of mine to stay in the gym longer than everyone else.  Not that I am competing with any one else in my gym, but i figure if i train more than any one in my gym, I probably train more than a alot of the other guys out there.  The problem with this is, I'm left in the gym alone with no one to practice with.  This is where solo drills come into play.  Solo drills have helped me tremendously, and when you cant train with a partner because of a cold or an infection, they can keep the rust off and help your game out.  Muscle memory is the name of the game here, and even though they don't seem to do much while your doing them, they will apply themselves to a lot of moves that you don't expect them to.  Here is a video that I found on youtube, It has helped me, hopefully it will help you guys.

be humble or get humbled

This post is about my weaknesses, and what I need to work on as a grappler.  The list is longer than I care to mention.  However, there are two that really stick out in my mind and need to improve on.  One is posture.  I have learned that posture is everything one of the most important aspects of jiu jitsu, no matter what the position you are in, you will always have more power if you posture is good.  My posture is okay when I am in a closed guard and simply avoiding submission, but I make the same mistake I say many of my peers do, and that is loose my posture wants I begin to maneuver around and put pressure on my opponents legs.  Guard passing will be something I will try to drill a lot this week.  To establish the posture in my muscle memory. 

The second is my hesitation.  I read a great article on the grapple arts website, they collected tips from all of the top grapplers and compiled them into one article.  In the article they quote Wallid Ismail saying, "To make the move work, you’ve got to believe it will work."  This is something that I think will develop in time.  Confidence, after all, is bred from success.  This probably goes back to drilling, if I have drilled a move 1,000 times, I will not even think about it in the roll, it will just happen with no hesitation.  I will just know the move. 

It looks like both of my problems, like most problems in jiu jitsu, can be solved by drilling.  Drills, drills, drills.  I have my work cut out for me.

Thanks for reading guys and girls

Nick