The ‘Domoplata’ is a mounted shin choke (Gogoplata) named after Marcelo Garcia black belt Dominyka Obelenyte, the 2015 female black belt world champion (weight & absolute) who is well known for her use of this attack. At first glance the Domoplata may appear to be unnecessarily complicated when compared to other mounted submissions due to […]
Training in a martial art can be one of the most rewarding and positive experiences you can have in your life providing benefits to you physically, mentally and emotionally. That said, getting started can be daunting and for a lot of people just walking through the doors of an academy for the first time is […]
A decade or so ago the phrase “roadwork” would have conjured up the image of a tracksuit clad athlete stoically jogging through the early morning mist and up the stairs of the Philadelphia Museum of Art to the inspirational tune “Gonna Fly Now’. In recent times though, roadwork has fallen out of fashion in the athletic community; […]
It’s a long road.
Most judo clubs practice uchikomi. In an ideal world, it looks like this. Uchikomi is repetition training for judo throws. The person practicing a throw goes through all motions of the throw up until the point where the person being thrown would lose their balance. It serves as a warm up, a method of teaching […]
One thing I consistently notice when training with different Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) coaches and instructors, is that everyone has a different opinion of what techniques are considered fundamental. It got me thinking about the idea of fundamental positions vs fundamental techniques, which really made sense to me. I recently started using this concept while teaching, to […]
One of the nice things about Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) is that you can travel practically anywhere in the world and find somewhere to train. Training in a new academy in a different city or even a different country from your own can be one of the most rewarding and revealing experiences you can have […]
A recurring question from students throughout all the learning stages of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) is “What should I be working on?” While this can be a highly personal and specific question knowledge of the general goals of each belt can help with this problem immensely. White Belt The purpose of white belt is to […]
Rubi Doom and ElaStomp are both Roller Derby athletes who compete in the Canberra Roller Derby League as well as nationally. Despite their separate team alliances (Rubi plays for the Black n’ Blue Belles and Stomp’s on the Surly Griffins) they’ve been training with me as a pair for a couple of years. They’ve made […]
There’s been a bit of discussion regarding the Elements Jiu Jitsu grading process so I thought I would lay it down here for all to see. Please note that I am not talking about the process of determining when an athlete is ready to be graded but the actual act of awarding of that new […]
