Martial Vitality

Are you a Jiu-Jitsu practitioner? Have you heard of Beltchecker ? It's a free site that seeks to provide ways for BJJ practitioners to validate their own rank, and therefore the ranks of others. I had signed up a while ago, but had not taken the steps to verify my profile. The main steps involved uploading a profile photo, uploading a photo of me with my name and Beltchecker ID number (Reddit AMA-style), and verifying my name. I chose to do the latter by donating $2 to the project, rather than uploading copies of documents. Those steps verified me as a user, but I also needed to verify my rank. Each rank requires "votes" from existing registered users. For blue belt, I needed 200 points.  Registered users can vote to endorse my rank. The number of votes they can provide is based on their own rank. For example, a black belt can offer 100 votes.  I decided I would try contacting Jeff Shaw from Bellingham BJJ , as I had attended his great online history of BJJ sessions. I a...

Thursday I attended a Jiu-Jitsu seminar by Grandmaster Relson Gracie, hosted by Professor Marco Moreno of The Basics Gracie Jiu-Jitsu . I want to share a few thoughts on the seminar for anyone who wants to attend one in the future. Marco runs a great academy. It isn't huge but he has what appears to the plush green Gracie mats installed. I trained there once before, when Marco hosted a Rener Gracie seminar. Everyone was friendly and approachable. The cost was a bit higher than other seminars I've attended recently. It was $100 for two hours. I figured it was worth it to spend some time with a Jiu-Jitsu red belt who lives in Hawaii. I only had to drive about an hour to participate, which is cheaper and easier than a flight across the country and the Pacific! Relson taught a kid's class before my seminar. I did not see the class but I saw him interacting with the kids afterwards. It is clear he loves teaching Jiu-Jitsu and interacting with young people. We had about 50 attend...

This post is mainly for those with access to  pedrosauertsd.com . If you're a student at a school that is an affiliate of Professor Pedro Sauer's association , you may also have access. I don't know how it works with affiliate schools, so I apologize if this post is for a very narrow audience! By chance I heard Prof Mike Horihan mention that he had loaded new fundamentals videos into the pedrosauertsd.com site. I remembered seeing Professor Sauer and Prof Jeff Curran posting to Instagram about recording these videos. Professor Sauer said one night in class that about 20 years had passed since he and Jeff had recorded the original fundamentals instructionals! I wanted to offer a few comments on what I found in the new videos. First, the easiest way to access the new videos is to select the "Fundamentals" check box in the "Programs" part of the web site, as shown in the first screen capture. Uncheck "Video Pool," "White to Blue," and ...

Saturday I attended a Jiu-Jitsu seminar by Rigan Machado, hosted by Patrick Tray of Trident Martial Arts . I want to share a few thoughts on the seminar for anyone who wants to attend one in the future. The location was top notch. Trident is in Woodbridge, VA, and features two huge training areas. They are meticulous about mat hygiene. I've trained at Mr. Tray's school before, about 1 1/2 years ago for a great series on ground, striking, and weapons scenarios. The cost was very reasonable -- $79 for early registration and three hours. Saturday was a gi session and Sunday was a no-gi session. I could only attend Saturday. If I had paid at the door, it would have cost me $99. If I had registered early for both sessions, the cost would have been $149. In addition to Master Rigan, Master Marcos Santos from Texas  was present and helped teach material. Mr Tray and several of his black belts (like Mikey Custodio) participated and helped teach. Ben Gilbert, who is a full instructor f...

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...

Who needs a hobby, or even a lifestyle, that requires getting punched in the mouth? We do! We martial artists are likely to be intentionally or unintentionally smacked in the face many times over the years. We owe it to ourselves to protect the investment our parents made in our braces and trips to the dentist! If you managed to avoid the orthodontist, you have an ever higher duty to protect what your creator gave you! Throughout my martial arts career, I've worn the same mouth gear. When I entered basic training at the Air Force Academy, military dentists took a cast of my teeth and made a form-fitting guard. It sat on my front teeth and helped me avoid injuries during the basic assault course, boxing, and combatives. I was not smart enough to wear it playing pick-up ice hockey (or a helmet, for that matter), resulting in some damage that is a story for another day. (I gave the other guy a scar, too.) Last month I decided to upgrade my protective gear. My old mouth guard was servi...

Saturday afternoon First Defense Krav Maga hosted GM Jeff Smith , a karate and TKD practitioner from the "blood and guts" era of full contact kickboxing. Krav practitioners spar, but not competitively. Our head instructor Nick Masi brought Mr Smith to the school to share his knowledge of movement, striking, and tactics. Here I will try to capture some of his drills and key themes. Mr Smith began the seminar by explaining his key principles: footwork, distance, accuracy, timing, and speed. We worked movement drills and relaxed our shoulders to avoid wasting energy and losing speed. Mr Smith said skipping rope was a great way to practice relaxing shoulders while developing endurance. If you constantly trip on the rope, get rid of it! Just work the movements. You generate the most striking power in a stance, not while moving. Therefore, we drilled moving, striking, and moving again. Mr Smith led us through a series of attack sequences. From a left foot forward fighting stance, ...

This week I attended several extended training sessions offered by Trident Martial Arts . One of the sessions included Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu-styled grappling, with a focus on extracting elements for combatives situations. It sounded like I needed a BJJ gi. The last time I wore anything like that was my sophomore year at the Air Force Academy, when I took a judo class for one of my physical education requirements. I turned to online vendors with a very clear mission: buy a gi that was of decent quality, and was as plain and white as possible. I had read about the "plain white gi" requirement in several articles. Basically, when visiting another school, you don't want to be an advertisement for your home school. Now, I don't train BJJ at my home school, but I still didn't want my gi to look like the inside of a MMA octagon. Therefore, I searched for plain white gis. I bought the  Your Jiu Jitsu Gear Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Uniform White with FREE BJJ White Belt pictured ...

I'll admit it. Last week I checked out what sorts of shoes the guys in my Krav Maga classes were wearing. I prefer to wear sneakers when training, because I wear orthotics. I also don't walk barefoot on the street, so I like to train in shoes. I didn't always practice martial arts in shoes, but at this point in my career I prefer to wear them. For the last seven months I wore black Nike Air Monarch IV cross-training shoes. These worked pretty well, but they suffered a few drawbacks, especially weight and undue contact with mats. I primarily chose them because they were sold in wide sizes, they were black, and they were cross-trainers. Last week I decided to take a closer look at the shoes the instructors were wearing. That primarily means you, Sam and Chris. I noticed these two high-ranking gentlemen were wearing wrestling shoes. I hadn't wrestled since high school gym class, and certainly not in special shoes. However, I decided to do some research and buy a pair. The...

Many of us have participated in tournaments, seminars, and workshops, but have you ever attended a martial arts business event? Earlier this month I attended my first Martial Arts SuperShow . I wanted to learn more about the business side of martial arts, and the SuperShow seemed to offer exactly what I wanted. The SuperShow is the annual conference presented by a partnership of the Martial Arts Industry Association and Century Martial Arts . It combines business-themed seminars on attracting, retaining, and developing students and teachers, with physically-oriented training by well-known martial arts and combatives instructors. What really sealed the deal for my attendance, however, was the prospect of two of non-business seminars. The head of Krav Maga Global (KMG), Eyal Yanilov , was scheduled to teach a three hour session on one day, and a separate one hour session on a second day. The chance to train personally with Mr. Yanilov was too good to pass up! My plan for blog posts dur...

If you've heard anything about Krav Maga, you've probably heard about the need for groin protection. This Simpson's video , starting at the 45 second point, makes that requirement abundantly clear! When I started training in Krav Maga six months ago, I realized I needed to upgrade my personal protection. I had relied on my old hockey cup and strap when practicing other martial arts. For Krav Maga I decided to do some research, buy some gear, test it live, and let you know my findings! The first product I bought was the Shock Doctor Core Compression Short with Bio-Flex Cup . At the time of writing, the Web site shows this product for $29.99. Using compression shorts was a new experience for me, but I quickly adjusted. This product relies on a pouch positioned inside the shorts to hold the cup in place. While this system seemed to be an upgrade from the simple cup and strap I wore under my hockey equipment, I didn't stay with it. The cup was not comfortable and it did not...

Do you wrap your hands when practicing martial arts? If you don't now, but want to, what wraps should you buy? In this post I will offer three reasons for hand wrapping, plus three tips for buying hand wraps. I will also suggest a set of wraps I recently bought, and hopefully save you some research time. I wear hand wraps to for several reasons. 1. Protect Your Wrists.  When worn properly, they help provide better wrist alignment. This means you are less likely to strike a bag or focus mitt with a bent wrist, which could result in injuring the wrist. 2. Sweat. Wraps absorb sweat. When sharing focus mitts during training, this is of benefit to you and your training partners, and keeps the gear a little less damp. 3. Sizing.  I have found most boxing gear, when properly selected, is sized for hands that are wearing wraps. If you agree that wraps are a good idea, what should you buy? Look for these three features. 1. "Mexican" Wraps. I recommend so-called "Mexican"...

At my Krav Maga school , I noticed several students wearing MMA-style gloves. These are generally 4 oz gloves with open fingers to permit grappling. I had been wearing wraps to class, but I wanted to give this sort of gear a try. I did some research online and decided on a pair of Hayabusa Ikusa Recast 4 oz MMA gloves . This post will share my thoughts on this equipment, in case you are wondering if they would be useful in your training. First, let me share some pictures of the gear. Hayabusa Ikusa Recast 4 oz MMA Gloves As you can see, the gloves offer openings for four fingers (as seen in both globes) and your thumb (as seen in the glove at right). Hayabusa Ikusa Recast 4 oz MMA Gloves, strap detail One aspect of these gloves that caught my attention were the double straps. Hayabusa calls this the "Patented Dual-X® Wrist Closure." Essentially it allows you to tighten down one strap over your wrist, then cover that strap with a second one from the other direction. This allow...