My "local" MMA Experience. Ben "The Baker" Neumann by Choke!

I had the privilege of attending an MMA event called "Combat on Capital Hill 3" last Friday in St. Paul, Minnesota. This is the first time I have attended a "local" MMA event (Note: I have attended countless boxing events and UFC 87) and I wanted to put some of my random thoughts on the experience together. The main thing I want to say is congratulations to my friend and training partner Ben "The Baker" Neumann who won by Rear Naked Choke only 30 seconds into the first round. Ben is an amazing grappling competitor, evidently an awesome MMA competitor, but most importantly a world class person. This is Ben's second victory in the cage and for that I salute him!

This is him with a serious face. ;)

http://www.mixedmartialarts.com/f/DF5E3F2912D683F6/Benjamin-Neumann/

Random Thoughts on My "local" MMA Experience.

1. Lots of Tapout, Affliction, and "fight" shirts. Glad Chris Browning and I decided to dress as opposite as possible (Collared Shirts and Sweater Vests).

2. Lots of thousand mile stares and squared shoulders. No dude, I dont need to put on a front to prove I am tough. Actually I came here to watch fights, not be in one.

3. Amateur bouts are sloppy and absent of much technique. If you can wrestle, you can win an amateur mma bout.

4. Not enough seating. They must have over sold the "general admission" three times over. Its ok though, we looked tougher standing. ;)

5. I know a lot of people at these things. Who knew?! Refs, Commissioners, Fighters, Coaches, Spectators, etc.

6. More women and fan boys than I expected. I even saw kids running around. MMA must really be "mainstream" as they say.

7. I am as good at arm chair MMA'ing at live events as I am at home with a gut full of pizza. Shut up Jason! Until you can learn to enjoy getting punched in the face you are not an MMA fighter.

8. Submissions are orgasmic. Thank you Ben and some other dude who got an Anaconda Choke for fulfilling my needs. ;)

9. Chris Browning is an amazing friend. Thanks for getting me out of the house and into the event.

10. Ben Neumann by Choke! Keep it up kid!!

I could go on but I will cut it off here. All in all it was a good time. I miss the old days when MMA felt smaller and more special, but it was cool to have that many people in the St. Paul Armory who might know what an omoplata or kimura are. Tough guy syndrome will always exist so I need to look past that. Next time I will go with the same intent...to cheer for my friends and the possibility of seeing Jiu Jitsu in MMA!

Teddy Rosevelts Jiu Jitsu Experience.

This is an exert from Roosevelt's letters to his children on wrestling and Jiu-jitsu.

White House, Feb. 24, 1905.

Darling Kermit: "... I still box with Grant, who has now become the champion middleweight wrestler of the United States. Yesterday afternoon we had Professor Yamashita (Yamashita was Roosevelt's Jiu-jitsu instructor before Meada and Tomita had arrived there in the U.S.) up here to wrestle with Grant. It was very interesting, but of course jiu jitsu and our wrestling are so far apart that it is difficult to make any comparison between them. Wrestling is simply a sport with rules almost as conventional as those of tennis, while jiu jitsu is really meant for practice in killing or disabling our adversary. In consequence, Grant did not know what to do except to put Yamashita on his back, and Yamashita was perfectly content to be on his back. Inside of a minute Yamashita had choked Grant, and inside of two minutes more he got an elbow hold on him that would have enabled him to break his arm; so that there is no question but that he could have put Grant out. So far this made it evident that the jiu jitsu man could handle the ordinary wrestler. But Grant, in the actual wrestling and throwing was about as good as the Japanese, and he was so much stronger that he evidently hurt and wore out the Japanese. With a little practice in the art I am sure that one of our big wrestlers or boxers, simply because of his greatly superior strength, would be able to kill any of those Japanese, who though very good men for their inches and pounds are altogether too small to hold their own against big, powerful, quick men who are as well trained."

Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) (Theodore Roosevelt's Letters to His Children. 1919. NEW YORK: CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, 1919 NEW YORK: BARTLEBY.COM, 1999)

Great quote from Robson Moura's Facebook!

Robson Moura Nova Uniao Jiu Jitsu Association

‎"Even if the water falls drop by drop, it will fill the pot." - The Dhammapada \./

BJJ is a sport of small improvements and changes. Rushing to earn a belt, land a submission, make the perfect sweep - won't work. You must work step by step, sweat drop by sweat drop along the path. Train for today, not for the next belt. RMNU!

I am not the only one uncomfortable with competing...so was this guy.

I took a lot longer than is normal to be comfortable with competing.
– Marcelo Garcia

20 Tips to Improve your Jiu Jitsu

http://www.grapplearts.com/Gracie-Mag-Jiu-jitsu-Manual.htm

Great stuff! Courtesy of grapplearts.com and graciemag.com.

No Jiu Jitsu = Know Madness

Its football season here in Wisconsin and with that my traditional Jiu Jitsu nights have become kids football nights. That coupled with the fact that I work such a strange work schedule leaves me with zero mat time. Arrrrrrrrrr!!! Logically I know that I am not on any time frame and that I could use some more healing time anyway. Deep down in my chaotic brain I am going mad. Jiu Jitsu is my therapy. My release from stress and the drain of everyday life. Where else can you go to "lose yourself" and just "live in the moment"? Only a practitioner of Jiu Jitsu will understand this. To everyone else I am just that dude obsessed with Jiu Jitsu who they need to "hide" on Facebook. ;) Maybe in 10 years my area will have the all day training schedules that I read about on the East and West Coast?! Then again, in 10 years I'll probably only need the evening classes (When I finally work a 9-5pm). So in my current world of no Jiu Jitsu, I chose to put my thoughts here. Just like all those pathetic folks in history who chose to write on paper what they were truly thinking. I'd rather be choking you than having you read about my insecurities. For the time being though, know that I am dreaming of all the ways I will become a better Jiu Jitsu player. I hope that counts for something. Thanks for taking the time to read this...and if you have more time, swing by and lets roll in my backyard! Till next time...

Friday Night Side Control Escapes.

Had a good night working side control escapes with my coach Mike and a few brothers in gis. Since side control escaping is a very important part of Jiu Jitsu I thought I would leave some of my notes on here for future reference. Options 1 and 2 seem like the highest percentage moves but options 3-5 end in submission attempts. ALL good weapons.

Review:

1. Control your opponents hip by gripping the pants near the hip, use your other arm to reach up over your opponents back and cup their armpit. While controlling your opponent by holding him tight to you, shrimp away and bring your knee in to regain guard. Guard will be achieved once you stretch your opponent out (while controlling their posture) and a square back up.

2. If your opponent switches their control from the "shoulder of justice" to an "over and under" control you will immediately grab the sleeve of the arm they are controlling your hip with and shrimp away. They will most likely drop their weight on you. At that point you will shrimp back into them and sweep them over the top of you (shrimp, shrimp, shrimp until they go over). Now you have escaped into side control.

3. If the pressure is great while they are using the shoulder of justice, swim the top arm under their chin and make them uncomfortable (make space). Be aware of the head and arm choke at this point. While bridging/upa-ing into them to create space, swim the hip controlling arm under them and shrimp underneath them. Continue to control the head and (swing) get all the away underneath so your head and shoulders are behind their shoulder. Grab a gable grip and finish the head and arm choke.

4. Pop the opponents collar open behind their head with the top arm (thumb in), bridge and shrimp while swimming the hip controlling arm underneath them and grab control of the back of their collar, swim the top hand back down and underneath their chin and grab their collar for the baseball choke.

5. While on the bottom, control the opposite lapel low on their gi (hip controlling arm), swim top arm underneath the chin and obtain a deep collar grip, THEN BAIT the opponent to go into mount. As they mount they will sink the collar choke even deeper. Lights out or tap out.