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Showing posts from January, 2018

Keep Rolling Rolling Rolling

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Since starting Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu last year at Professor Pedro Sauer's school , I've had to regularly do forward and backward shoulder rolls. Both are part of the KMG curriculum we follow at my Krav Maga school , but we don't practice as often. I've been trying to improve my backward rolls because they are part of the regular Jiu-Jitsu warmup drills. The instructors and many students can do them slowly, without building momentum. This was my goal, to smoothly roll backward over either shoulder. Recently I watched a video by Stephan Kesting titled 3 Most Common Backwards Shoulder Roll Mistakes . I paid close attention to his technique and took a series of screen captures. Something clicked when I watched him roll backwards towards the camera. The breakthrough for me was watching how Stephan twists his whole upper body off the centerline , and then swings his legs along the centerline . For whatever reason, that clicked with me. I tried focusing on those two elements an

Professor Sauer on Jiu-Jitsu TV

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A year ago I started learning Jiu-Jitsu at Professor Pedro Sauer's school, One Spirit Martial Arts , in Herndon, VA. I don't take the quality of instruction for granted. Having access to so many talented instructors is a blessing. It's particularly special when I can attend a class taught by Prof Sauer himself. I find myself in a catch-22 situation when Professor teaches. If I'm on the mat, I can try the techniques and concepts he is teaching that night, but I can't really record what he's sharing. If I'm off the mats, usually staying for a few extra minutes before heading home, I can record what he says. However, I'm not in the class, so I don't get to try the lesson. Thanks to a new set of video instructionals, I have found a way to have recorded access to Professor's wisdom and concepts. Last month Jiu-Jitsu TV began offering a set of 81 video lessons from Professor's 2017 seminar series in Australia and Singapore . I decided to take advan