Ground Fighting Basics I - Master Your Foundation

A house built on a poor foundation…is bound to collapse and fall into ruin.

Our martial skills are no different.

• Gain core strength.

• Improve mobility and program your reflexes.

• Master the building blocks to win the day.

The problem with a subpar foundation in any martial art is that it leads to failed technique and a breakdown of applying our skills effectively and efficiently.

When we’re on the ground, this is exacerbated by the weight, strength, and will of larger opponents coupled with gravity keeping us stuck and unable to move. Even a smaller opponent with a higher skill level can prevent us from being able to escape.

Failure to adopt solid basics can cause our brain to stop in the middle of a bout, attack and have to think what to do next.

Take the Shortcut

The short path to a better ground fight game, is to master the basics of Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Programming your body to know how to respond properly to external stimuli. How to react with fluid and natural movements.

Confused moments, or lack of knowledge costs us precious seconds that we need in order to gain position and win submission on an opponent.

As I began learning Brazilian jiu-jitsu I found many of my natural instincts from training other martial arts for over a decade, were wrong. Dead wrong.

The natural reactions and movements I had for striking, kicking, and throwing arts caused me to end up in worse positions on the ground, and to ultimately tap out. Even before getting my black belt in BJJ, I strove to make the process easier for my students. To remove some of the guesswork. To help them build a solid bedrock to grow their art.

Start off on the RIGHT foot

In this course, I’ve assembled the foundation you need to improve your ground fighting skills. The road to mastering your ground fighting game lies in these key movement patterns that will come to save you time and time again from devastating loss.

These drills and exercises are perfect for solo practice while building strength, conditioning, muscle memory, and solid kinesthetic movement patterns.

The training tools of champions. Building these into your training routines will provide large gains on the mats while giving you an incredible core workout.

Let's get started!

Course includes:

• Easy to follow video lessons breaking down each of your necessary skills.

• A pre-planned training mission to take the guesswork out of what to train and how to practice these necessary skills.

• FREE PDF doc Basics of BJJ - breaking down the art of Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Making it easier than ever to understand what your goals are, and how to understand not only the overall objective, but the terminology to navigate the art.

Sweeps - Throws on the Ground - BJJ Training Course

Toss your opponent like a salad!

Pulling off a sweep in ground fighting is an exhilarating moment that fills us with monumental sense of victory. It’s second only to a submission.

You’re on the ground opponent in your guard. You learned how to sweep but when the moment comes to try it, they don’t budge. Why? Or, you get the sweep, and they quickly retake a position on you. Why?

These powerful moves are fundamental to our jiu-jitsu arsenal. Some of the best moves we have. Yet they are so often applied at the wrong time, wrong place, or with a lack of follow-up. In this course I’ll give you the tools to not only train your sweeps on your own, or with a partner, but how to successfully pull them off in live rolling, and to keep the opponent from coming back for more.

No experience necessary!

*course included with Legacy Boxer and Supreme Ultimate Boxer memberships

How to Defeat the BJJ Guard in 4 Easy Steps

The BJJ Guard is a Nightmare to Deal With.

End the frustration! Pass Guard. Dominate. Submit.

Have you ever wanted to try one of the amazing submissions or sweeps from Brazilian jiu-jitsu and instead, spent the entire class stuck in guard? Do you find it impossible to pass guard because you cannot even break the guard in the first place? Do you routinely break guard on people your own size, only to be shutdown and back to square one against a larger opponent?

I’ve been in your shoes.

I’m Randy Brown and I’m a black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu. I’ve been teaching martial arts for almost 20 years. My primary art, mantis boxing, did not have a ground game so I undertook the mission of getting to know the ground fighting game to the best of my abilities, but I started this much later than my other training. This helped me to approach BJJ with a methodical mindset. Always looking for more efficient and effective ways to train, teach, and execute the skills I use, and share with my students.

In this course I will dissect the BJJ guard problem into 4 easy to learn steps to help you master this part of your ground skillset and break and pass your opponents guard so you can focus on the exciting aspects of sweeps and submissions. Match the correct breaking method to the right size opponent. Learn how to keep them from pulling you back into guard as you ready for the pass and win that dominant position.

Don’t Take My Word For It…

Here is testimony direct from high-level, professional martial artists on the effectiveness of my course:

“This course is an incredible time-saver for beginners and a solid tune-up for everyone else. There's no fluff in here-- just the info you need to start breaking and passing guard effectively. If you can't take a private lesson with Sifu Randy in-person, then take this course--it's a no-brainer. Recommended!” - Ando Mierzwa - Black Belt from multiple styles, and BJJ Brown Belt

“A brief, yet deep dive into the vital middle ground of newaza.  Recommended.” - Roy Dean - 3rd degree BJJ Black Belt

Put a method to the madness and start today!

This video includes:

A 32-minute detailed video instruction on how to simplify the break and pass of the guard in 4 easy to follow steps.

Includes managing the guard. Grip-fighting. Gi vs No-Gi. Breaking methods for smaller vs. taller. A variety of standing and ground passes that will stay with you throughout your jiu-jitsu journey.

*course included with Legacy Boxer and Supreme Ultimate Boxer memberships

Size Matters in BJJ!!! - The Omaplata Submission

Here are a few tips if you are a smaller grappler trying to submit larger opponents with the omoplata submission from Brazilian jiu-jitsu. This can drastically alter our success rate for finishing, rather than struggling to combat height, strength, and counters.

"Don't Touch Me" - Why I Hated BJJ

Original article written in 2012 for another blog.

Getting armbarred in Chin Na training - circa 2000

Let me get this out of the way from the start - I emphatically hate people touching me. I have issues with physical contact, space invaders, faux-hugging, and ‘touchy-feely’ nonsense. After many failed attempts at coping, I simply avoid large crowds, parties, grandmas, and priests. Chalk it up to a plethora of personal experiences early in life, or just laugh at me as you will. Getting my finger lobbed off in a table saw was a more a preferable experience than some weird inebriated schmuck trying to grope me at a party while pretending we’re long lost friends (a good use for martial arts training).

I think I’ve made it abundantly clear how much I dislike physical contact, and perhaps now we can relate to one another. I imagine if you are still reading this you have similar issues with physical contact, and this may be a primary deterrent to you experimenting with Brazilian jiu-jitsu in the first place. Or, you just really hate Brazilian jiu-jitsu and clicked on this article in the hopes of reading a series of bad things I have to say about it. Spoiler alert: you can bail now and save yourself some time.

False Fears

The idea of having to work closely with someone else, especially on the ground, used to 'skeeve me out'. There is a stark differential between the modalities I was accustomed to - striking, kicking, and takedowns, when contrasted to rolling around on the ground with another sweaty human being while wearing pajamas, or skin tight clothing. I probably would have loved high school wrestling, but many foes would have fallen just trying to force my fat, chubby, adolescent self into one of those onesie-singlets.

During my time training mantis boxng and other Chinese boxing styles, I became distinctly aware of a giant deficiency they all shared - the lack of a ground game. What to do when an opponent has you on the ground. I discussed this reality with one of my coaches at the time, being practical and grounded in real-world experience, he agreed with the problem and suggested that I take up BJJ. His suggestion was to achieve at least a blue belt level.

The blue belt being a significant achievement in the art of Brazilian jiu-jitsu, it shows an individual has gone through the grist mill and survived to a base level of proficiency of self-defense on the ground. In his assessment, I would have the experience and know-how to deal with an altercation on the ground; if a fight ever ended up there. Which, anecdotally speaking, they usually do.

I was reluctant at first (see aforementioned comments on personal space) but eventually I capitulated and decided to try it out. To say my first attempts did not go well is a mild understatement [insert sarcasm]. Unfortunately, my first couple of experiences went horribly awry. I unknowingly chose the wrong coaches/schools to train with, which produced catastrophic results. You can read more about that here.

Before we address the physicality of BJJ and the close contact dilemna, or even some of the other soft deterrents to training and art like this, let’s dig into some of the benefits I have found that help drive my reasoning on why this is a good thing to overcome.

Ignorance is Bliss - How BJJ can help Martial Artists/Fighters of other styles

Jump below if you are not currently a martial artist but want to learn more about overcoming the physical contact challenges of BJJ

Holly Cyr smashing it with a winning keylock at Boston Summer Open 2013

‘Traditional’ martial arts styles, as they are colloquially referred to, are mostly comprised of arts originating from east Asia. For our purposes we’ll include — western boxing, kickboxing, tae kwon do, karate, aikido, muay thai, shuai jiao, and more. These styles cover one or more of the following modalities in stand-up fighting - striking, kicking, throwing, and at times joint locks.

How do any of these styles, and wrestling as well, account for a larger, stronger, opponent that wants nothing more than to put us on the ground and pummel us? Each and every one of these styles subsist around weight class rule structures in competition. A sound and well rounded martial artist in my opinion, wants solutions for these challenges. Problems such as: being stuck underneath someone that has 100lbs of body weight on us, someone pinning us and choking us to death with their bare hands, or simply pummeling us with fists while sitting on our torso (mount position).

Not only do we want to survive, but as fighters we want to thrive in these situations. To embrace the suck. I have to be frank here - I have seen a variety of nonsensical comments from traditional martial artists over the years when it comes to this very real threat. A belief in their minds, or rather a fallacy, that the threat of someone controlling us on the ground is not real. That arts such as BJJ are useless. These statements include comments such as -

"I will use my eye gouges, groin strikes, and secret pressure point attacks." - anonymous

No, you likely won't, or not for long. You will be too busy trying to figure out which way is up; panicking to get back to your feet, trying to breath as you gas yourself out (the ground is stressful), and performing silent math calculations on how much your opponent really weighs while they crush the soul out of your body with unrelenting pressure.

Another comment I see -

"I won't let them get me on the ground." - anonymous

If the sole purpose of their combat modality is designed to get you on the ground, then you will be on the ground. No doubt about it. Especially if they have been training for years to accomplish said goals. I’ve seen people with a season or two of high school wrestling make short work of people with no grappling game, or defense system against such attacks.

“But I train takedown defense.”

We live in the northeast USA, where snow and ice are prevalent for a large portion of the year. Ending up on the ground is a common mishap for us ‘without’ someone violently assisting us in the process. Bottom line - as a traditional martial artist, or someone with no experience in fighting, we benefit by recognizing the holes in our systems and learning to close these weaknesses. We gain nothing but ignorance, darkness, and oxygen deprivation by hiding our head in the sand.

“Adapt and Overcome”

“Adapt and overcome.” — a common phrase we heard consistently in US ARMY boot camp. As experienced martial artists, adding Brazilian jiu-jitsu, or even wrestling to our game will only improve, not detract, from our primary art. Depending on the style we practice, we may come from arts afflicted by ‘transmission loss’.

Meaning some, or all of the techniques have been lost through the annals of time. We’re left today with empty shells of once proud martial art styles, practicing forms/taolu/kata, and applying best guesses as to the original method(s) of execution. Putting these arts back together can be difficult to downright impossible. I’ve spent the better part of my martial arts journey doing just that with mantis boxing, and taijiquan. I will say, finding crossover principles and techniques in other arts such as BJJ helped link things together in my brain, and improved my primary style of choice.

Brazilian jiu-jitsu has definitively helped me discover more about Chinese boxing and wrestling styles. From takedowns, to defense, to even just kinesthetically putting pieces together to flow and change gears. It has taken my knowledge, my game to a whole new level. This is especially relevant to an art such as mantis boxing, one of many Chinese boxing styles that is rooted in stand-up grappling, and riddled with principles that crossover to BJJ.

Perhaps you are fortunate and train with a school/coach team that has all the applications of your style already intact. Handed down to you in clear drills, and efficient training that turns you into a competent fighter. However, if that art still lacks a ground solution, as my art did, then this is the perfect reason to undertake BJJ, wrestling, or catch wrestling to shore up those weaknesses. You can read more about how BJJ helped me unlock hidden secrets inside Chinese boxing in this essay:

Donut, or Do Not? The fitness benefits of BJJ.

Donut eating me on a trip to train with a new mantis boxing coach - California, 2006

Traditional martial arts teachers across America are known for being out of shape. I have seen it at countless tournaments since the early days of competing. Often embarrassing physical forms of self-titled ‘masters’ of their art, who have clearly not mastered their bodies. Ironic given that we are supposed to be ‘lethal weapons’.

Self-Defense Anecdote: we start classes with proper warm-ups. This can start with — laps around the gym, three minutes of jumping jacks, or jump rope. At times people complain, or whine. My question is always the same: ‘If we can’t manage three minutes of cardio, how are we to last in a full on fight versus one or more opponents, while our heart is racing faster than a greyhound, and our adrenaline is screaming like an eagle through our blood stream?’

A few years after I began training, I myself was overweight. Also while owning and running my school. I had a series of crises in my life that caused my self-discipline to spiral out of control. I ballooned out, and I knew deep down that I was setting a bad example to my students on how I personally believe — a martial artist should live our lives.

Another saying from the military - “fit to fight”. The truth of this simple phrase is so base and fundamental. I’ve fought, sparred, won, and lost to some very good fighters over the years who were better than me, but were grossly out of shape. After 30 to 90 seconds of maneuvering, or light tangling, they were huffing and puffing; buckled over and gassed out beyond function. The amazing skills and techniques they had, rendered useless by a lack of stamina, or basic conditioning. If we’re out of shape, we’re ineffective, or less effective.

How can we stand with our heads high, selling, or marketing fitness, exercise, discipline, along with our self-defense, when we are stuffing donuts down our throat, or puffing cigarettes out behind our dojo? If we are out of shape ourselves, then we are nothing more than an exemplary display of hypocricy. “Do as I say, not as I do.”

How can BJJ change this?

Brazilian jiu-jitsu is an incredible workout. It engages the full body in motion. Exercising almost every muscle in our physical anatomy, including our brain. It takes serious conditioning to roll with another person for an entire class or for a 5 to 10 minute bout at a competition. To get up and down constantly, and often under load.

In my first BJJ tournament match, I stepped into the arena with many boxing/kickboxing amateur bouts under my belt, I was no stranger to the exhaustion and fatigue that takes place shortly after an altercation ensues. Additionally, much of our training, and sparring in the gym is inoculation to the stress of what we are going to face for real. With over twelve years of training/fighting, and being in the best shape of my life at the time, I had absolutely no idea what I was going to encounter in my first BJJ match.

Grappling was a completely different animal. The intensity is magnified ten-fold from any san da, boxing or kickboxing match I had ever competed in. The proximity stress, the gripping, tugging, and pushing, all while we’re still on our feet at the beginning of a match, rapidly drains our reserves. By the time we land on the ground, we’re seconds away from being face to face with the ‘adrenaline dump’ (all energy fades from our body).

When the ‘dump’ hits, there is nothing left in the tank; we’re completely gassed. We’re left only with our willingness to give up; or survive. This…is why an IBJJF (International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation) tournament has more 6 packs than you'll find at a redneck BBQ. It is an incredible test of mettle — physical, mental, spiritual.

During this first fight was the one and only time I looked at the clock in a competition. There was only a minute-thirty on the clock out of a five minute round. I had done hundreds of these rounds (and longer) in the gym, and yet…this felt like Father Time himself was crushing me into dust. I was completely demoralized as I lay under my opponent with a full strength closed guard, a firefighter, who I found out post-match had cut weight from 175lbs (79kg) to 150lbs (68kg) to compete that day.

A voice in my head was screaming for this to be over. That it didn’t matter who tapped, but this needed to end, and end fast. Then the other voice chimed in, calmly, with no emotion, calling the first voice a ‘wussy’. Followed by — “Get it done.” I fought on with everything I had, pushing through the fatigue, the time-demoralization, the doubt.

Fitness Conclusion

What better way to exercise than to have fun? To learn while getting into, or staying in shape? Enjoyment and mental engagement are a necessary function to stay committed to any type of physical activity we choose, BJJ can help us shred fat, build cardio, strength, and keep or return, that weaponized body that some of us once aspired to through joining martial arts in the first place. Of course the nutrition aspect has to go alongside any fitness endeavor, but the mat time we put in incentivizes us to eat better so we don’t gas out in competition or simply training.

The ‘BEST’ Pie is ‘Humble’ Pie.

Soft power wins the gold. Community makes the art.

The saying is - "the mats don't lie." When we walk out on the mats in BJJ, we can't say that we are something we are not. At least we can’t get away with it for long, if we do. When we roll with another grappler the truth becomes abundantly clear who is the higher hand. Hence the above saying.

Having been a part of the ‘traditional martial arts world’ through the rise of the internet, from BBS's, to forums, to facebook, etc., I have seen more petty arguments and nonsensical statements thrown back and forth. Things like -

"My style is the greatest.", "I'm better than you.", "I know more forms than you." “I’ve trained longer than you.”, "My lineage is pure, look who you studied with.", “I trained in {insert country of origin].”, "My teacher is better than your teacher.”, “My grandmother was better than your teacher."

It’s ‘ok’ to get a little mud on our face. Just smile and move on. Chris Meusel — Spartan Race 2012.

This behavior, while downright embarrassing and pathetic, is In direct opposition to the virtues we often seek in martial arts — strength, discipline, confidence, empowerment.

In contrast, I have met some of the nicest people in BJJ. While there are jerks (I met a few in the first couple attempts at starting out), they usually get weeded out early, unless the gym is toxic. The majority of people by and large, are — polite, grounded, and pretty darn cool. All seeking to better ourselves through adversity.

Why the difference? Simple really. In BJJ we have to put our money where our mouth is. We can make claims to ourselves or others about our prowess, our amazing skills, but the truth comes out on the mats.

Each roll, a mirror reflects back on us our own strengths, and weaknesses; whether we’re ready to receive them or not. This is a humbling experience and not for the faint of heart. It requires complete honesty with the most important person listening to us - ourselves.

"In my experience, the more dangerous two people are, the more respectful they are to one another." - Andre ‘Dedeco’ Almeida, BJJ Black Belt.

BJJ, along with any other contact based martial arts, keeps us humble. Aware that we are all just human, flawed at times, amazing at others, even when coaching and helping others. We know in our hearts, and minds — there are always bigger and better fish in the ocean. We all have progress to make in bettering ourselves inside and out. Even if we are the king, or queen, of our own little sandbox, getting tapped out gives us firsthand knowledge and experience in one of the most important martial arts principles to aspire to - humility.

Embrace the Suck

Rolling with Vincent Tseng - 2012. Photo by Max Kotchouro.

All of the above makes the close physical contact worth it. It gives us reason(s) ‘why’ we should we look past our issues with touch, contact, space. But what I can tell you firsthand, having worked through these issues myself, is quite honestly, the contact/space is not that big of a deal after a week or so of training.

Our brain quickly adapts and shuts off the reluctance to these things after we ‘embrace the suck’. Providing our partners are clean and hygenic that is.

We discover that rolling and grappling with someone, the ‘process’ of working with another to better ourselves supersedes the proximity challenge. It is quite different when someone is trying to choke, not grope us.

I highly recommend putting aside your reservations. I believe you will discover, as I did, that praciticing BJJ is just downright fun. One of the greatest challenges you can find, mentally engaging, core-building, and packed with years of intrigue. There are not many sports that encompass all of the elements that BJJ grapples with.

A plethora of the techniques you will learn (sweeps, submissions, escapes, takedowns) are awe-inspiring and a thrill to learn. Empowering. Easily mistaken for magic when we first see them performed by a seasoned grappler, and rewarding beyond measure when we succeed at executing them ourselves; after much trial and tribulation.

STILL RELUCTANT? HERE ARE A FEW TIPS

If you are still struggling with the idea,

1. Meet different coaches. If you find one you like, do one-on-one training with them. In this environment it should be acceptable to bring up your reservations and have a coach meet you where you are at.

2. Learn from a friend or family member who trains. Preferrably if they have a couple years of experience. Ask them to show you some moves but avoid grappling until you have a bit of experience. This avoids the competitiveness that can happen between friends.

3. Join with one or more friends. You can join a team class together, or do a squad style training (semi-private). This gives you the benefit of private lessons while sharing the higher cost of this approach.

If you have overcome this challenge, feel free to leave tips and your experience in the comment section for others to benefit from.

COACHES: RE-KINDLE THE FLAME

As a student, and a coach, I know firsthand that we have to keep the training and the process ‘fun’ in order to stay energized. If you are already a martial arts teacher of another discipline, training BJJ gives us a newfound sense of excitement. The same joy we had when we were a novice student in our original martial art style; when everything was new and enchanting. Reigniting a dwindling flame in our art.

Teaching others is rewarding and fun, but if we are not continuing to learn and grow we can become stagnant, bored, disenchanted, and even bitter. These are a few reasons I highly recommend trying out BJJ for martial artists from other modalities. Try adding it to your game and see for yourself. Box up the ego, don the ‘white belt’ and take the plunge into a fascinating world of new friends, sweet techniques, and all the humble pie you can eat.

Size Matters in BJJ!!! - Part 3 - Breaking Closed Guard

Here's one of my favorite closed guard breaks, and why it is horrible for taller vs. smaller. If you do use this BJJ escape, here is the answer to 'why isn't my closed guard break working?' Enjoy this next installments in our Size Matters series. This is a must see if you are trying to break a smaller grapplers closed guard.

Why I Should Have Quit BJJ When I Started

Teaching the Americana shoulder lock from guard — 2011.

What I am about to share with you not exactly a ringing endorsement of the art of Brazilian jiu-jitsu. It is a tale of my early journey into BJJ. If nothing else, it provides a cautionary tale of how important it is to find a good coach/gym to train with. If you cannot, find a different hobby or travel as far as you need to in order to secure good instruction that will keep you training for years to come.

A majority of my injuries in martial arts in the past 20+ years, and all of the most severe ones, have been from Brazilian jiu-jitsu. And yet, I would still recommend the art to anyone — under the right circumstances.

The Beginning

As I started to find truth in mantis boxing after years of training, the UFC was growing more popular than ever. The reality and efficacy of ground fighting and it’s necessity began to seep into my periphery. I would pontificate questions such as -

• ‘What would I do if someone took me to the ground in a fight?’

• ‘Would any of my skills, after years of martial arts training, help me?’

After all, someone that is even just incrementally larger than us, has an inherent advantage due to gravity, and the laws of physics. Couple this with a season or two of wrestling in high school/college, or a football tackler, and we have serious deficiencies in our combat capabilities; no matter how good our stand-up fighting is.

When involved in an altercation, once we’re on the ground, which could be from a slip, trip, or fall of our own accord, or after an opponent grabs us for dear life as we throw them to the ground - taking us with them - the game is quickly over if they land on top of us.

I am not the largest guy on the planet, even when I was 70 lbs heavier than I am now. Having the knowledge and technical ability to deal with an opponent in a ground situation was to me, becoming more and more evident, for obvious reasons.

Brazilian jiu-jitsu provides solutions to the problems we face in ground combat, better than any other martial art. Using timing, technique, and those same aforementioned pesky laws of physics, we can turn the laws to our advantage, overcoming larger, stronger, and heavier opponents, if we ever end up on the ground in a self-defense situation.

So, as we said in the Army - I ‘sucked it up and drove on’. Putting my ‘human contact’ issues aside, I undertook a search for a BJJ school to train in. And there the problems began…

ROUND 1

Holly and Joe training the armbar from guard - 2011.

One of my early coaches in the martial arts had some training in BJJ. How much, I never found out, and for good reason.

The two of us were discussing my interests in learning a bit of ground fighting over the phone. He offered a trade — If I would share one of the historical mantis boxing sets I learned while studying with another coach, he would train me in some Brazilian jiu-jitsu.

My first lesson included a few rudimentary tips on what not to do on the ground while in the mount position, followed up with my first introduction to a rear naked choke. We spent and hour or so on the mantis boxing tao lu he wanted, and all seemed fine. We then transitioned to BJJ and started with a mount escape and a guard escape. Everything was extremely rough and had too much strength behind it. I know now that this is a sign of an amateur.

Our next and final phase of the lesson, was introduced by him telling me to stand facing the front of the gym with him behind me. I stood there in a compliant stance excitedly awaiting my lesson in one of the most powerful tools in BJJ - Mata Leon, aka The Lion Killer.

Suddenly, I felt a sharp pain in my throat as the man I just entrusted my life to, slammed his forearm into my trachea fast and hard; crushing my larynx. He then proceeded to apply the choke until I tapped (which was rather quick). It took 6 weeks for my esophagus to pop back out, and size months before I could properly swallow again. Thus ended my my first (and last) lesson with him.

ROUND 2

For my next attempt,

I contacted an instructor a few towns away from my gym. One of the closer places offering BJJ. We discussed my background in Mantis Boxing, and I made it clear I knew nothing about ground fighting. Full disclosure. I explained that I was ‘starting over’ in this art, and I would like to put on a white belt and be treated like any other beginner. Nothing to prove and starting from the ground up (no pun intended).

The first class went relatively well. I had a few minor issues, but nothing to stop me from going back for another class. I was committed to doing this after all. Itching to learn. I returned two days later for my second class where I began to recognize some flaws. One such was the partner I had seemed relatively new and could not perform most of the moves. After casually asking how long he had been training in between one of the moves, he replied, “Four years.”

We continued drilling a variety of moves, shared rapidly and in broken English. It seemed like a shotgun blast of material and I wondered to myself how we were supposed to remember all of it. The coach then started the rounds of rolling (BJJ sparring). He had made it clear on my first lesson that I would not be rolling right away, and yet today he turns to me and says — “You will roll with us too.” Not one to shy away from such endeavors, I jumped in thinking things would be fine.

I went from person to person, 5 minute round to 5 minute round, with each person trying to wipe the floor with me. I made it clear this is not what I was there for at the start, and here I was getting attacked full on by everyone in the gym. I wasn’t having it, and I fought back to protect myself and my reputation. Not a single one of them tapped me out, but as you will see shortly — this was not a win.

The coach, seeing that his students of all ranks were having a problem with me, calls me over to roll with him for the final round. This was after 6 rounds. We start rolling and he was better than the others, but he was not tapping me out. This went on and on, and eventually the entire gym stopped their own rolling and came over, formed a circle around us, and began to watch the festivities.

After about roughly 10 minutes of rolling, he was getting no where. Not being my first rodeo I began doing the calculus in my head: one of three things were going to happen — 1) he was going to get frustrated, go faster and harder, and ultimately break something on me to prove himself, or 2) be humiliated in front of his team, and who knows what would happen from there. I was severely outnumbered, or 3) I could give him a freebie and let him save face in front of his team, thereby giving him the win, and getting out of there in one piece. I chose option 3.

I left with a ripped ear, tweaked elbow, broken toe, and my knee out of whack. I never went back. Which turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as said coach went to jail a few years later for sexually assaulting a 14 year old female student.

ROUND 3

Trying to be a smarter monkey, my next experience was born by referral from a coach I knew down south. I came across this MMA/BJJ coach teaching at an associates school halfway across the country. While visiting for a weekend of seminars, I rolled with this skilled grappler for a couple hours. He shut down everything I had, tapped me out several times, but in a controlled way. He obviously knew his craft. He was on staff at this gym and came recommended to me by the owner, who I had known for years and had been training BJJ with a well known coach for about 10 years.

I enjoyed the session and wanted to learn more. This coach was also approachable, and seemed vested in teaching me how to succeed. Like myself, he was also ex-military. We understood one another on a training and practicality level, and shared that bond of brotherhood formed only as soldiers.

At first it seemed a good fit and he was willing to answer questions over the phone. Soon thereafter I flew him across the country to do a weekend of seminars at my gym. The plan being to also get some one on one training in on the side. The seminars went well, and we had some good rolling/training afterwards, until his PTSD kicked in.

He tore my shoulder out. Not once. Not twice. Three times in one hour. With two extreme americana shoulder locks, and a kimura shoulder lock. I barely escaped this encounter without a total shoulder replacement surgery. This day cost me in total tens of thousands of dollars in medical repairs/treatments. A year plus of rehab entailing hundreds of hours of physical therapy and recovery.

Needless to say, I left him behind, and continued searching for another year. I’m sure, if you are still reading this, you are wondering why the hell I would continue on? Good question!!!

ROUND 4

The Gracie family, considered by some to be the founders of the art in it’s more modern form, had a school in Los Angeles. They were running an instructor certification and training program that sounded enticing. I watched some interviews with them and they appeared upstanding individuals with an earnest and sincere approach to teaching BJJ, without breaking everyone that came through the door.

I began looking seriously at their Instructor Training Program. The downside was it was going to cost thousands of dollars, and a great deal of travel.

Additionally, thousands upon thousands of dollars (about $14,000 dollars by my calculations) to get this program underway in my academy - due to affiliation fees, rules, branding, and contractual agreements I will not bore you with here.

Instead, I pulled one of my instructors aside in the school. She was also interested in learning ground self-defense. I purchased some instructional videos and Holly and I started training BJJ basics a few times per week. This continued moving the ball forward, slowly.

With all the challenges I faced in the world of Chinese boxing, I was no stranger to having to teach myself. I was beginning to think this was once again going to be a reality I would have to accept.

ROUND 5

1st class with Dedeco - 8/2011

My contacts across the country came through once more (this time positively). He hooked me up with someone who would go on to become my final BJJ instructor/coach —Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Black Belt under Ricardo Liborio and Ricardo De La Riva — Andre ‘Dedeco’ Almeida.

Dedeco was located south of Boston in Rockland, Massachusetts, a little less than 2 hours drive from me. He came highly recommended, and at the time, his Best Way Jiu-Jitsu was being used to train top UFC fighters. For obvious reasons, I was a bit more gun shy about diving into another bad experience, so I asked Dedeco to meet for coffee first to discuss his approach to training. We met at his favorite coffee shop (Starbucks), and broke the ice, or beans.

Dedeco, as he prefers to be called, was super nice. He seemed like an upstanding person. After listening to my experiences with BJJ thus far, he was appalled. It insulted him that his livelihood and passion since he was 12 years old, was being misrepresented and abused in this way. “This is not way beginners are to be introduced to the art”, and art he had been studying since he was a child in Brazil.

Something he said stuck with me after that first conversation -

“Randy, I am not going to have you ‘roll’ (what we call sparring in BJJ), until I teach you how to roll.”

Well didn’t that make a boat load of sense!!! A principle I followed in my own teachings when starting someone out with striking and kicking in mantis boxing. I wondered what short straw in life I drew to go through all this nonsense in order to find a decent coach?

I started private training with Dedeco shortly thereafter (Aug 2011). Dedeco introduced me to the amazing art of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and the myriad benefits it has to offer. After a couple months we started rolling, with him being extremely patient and allowing me to fail repeatedly, while he maintained composure, and guided me through what to do, and not to do.

Initially I had asked Dedeco if I could/should compete? He calmly replied, “You should really wait a while and get more experience first. White belts can be up to 4 years on average before blue belt, so you could jump in the ring with someone who has been training a long time, but still wears a white belt.”

Soon thereafter he invited me to attend the weekly Team Training on Fridays, where grapplers from all over New England would come down for a 90 minute session of 5 minute rounds with 1 minute rest. I joined in and met a bunch of great people. Most of them were really cool (while still going to school on you), and rarely did I cross hands with an undesirable.

Summer 2012 I registered for the International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Summer Open in Boston, MA. Entering my first BJJ competition.

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Winning Gold at the IBJJF Summer Open 2012

BLUE…ENOUGH

My plan when I started was to simply get to a blue belt level. This was at the time, a significant bench mark for this martial art (it still is depending on the school/coach). Fighters would brazenly step into the cage in UFC fights like a proud peacock donning their blue belt. Unlike other styles of martial arts, that give out black belts like candy, the first belt you get in BJJ (a blue belt), is a monumental achievement in and of itself.

As I trained more and more with Dedeco, and began meeting his other students, and his friends who owned BJJ schools, and their students, I began to witness an amazing family of people that were pushing one another to get better and better, but without injuring one another all of the time.

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Left to right - Ricardo Liborio, Randy Brown, Andre ‘Dedeco’ Almeida.

And juxtaposed vs the Traditional Martial Arts World’ I was accustomed too, instead of the stuffy, overly dogmatic experiences I witnessed in other styles of martial arts, what I experienced instead was a relaxed and friendly environment that fostered creativity, freedom of expression, and ingenuity. Embracing the personal expression of an individual’s artform, that we devote years of our lives to.

I later met Dedeco’s teachers (Ricardo Liborio, and Ricardo De La Riva), and witnessed firsthand, the sincerity and kindness in these men. REAL men, who were extremely accomplished fighters, and champions, yet expressed no ego, bravado, or malice. Just humility, and genuine care for the growth of others, and their art.

This was such a powerful experience. It changed my life, and my entire school/approach to martial arts. I mirrored these training approaches in my own mantis boxing program, and my team overall. It had a profound affect, improving my own skills, my team, and above all else, my abilities as a teacher to help others with their art.

The skills inside Brazilain jiu-jitsu are some of the most powerful tools you can ever have in your arsenal. If you train the art with due diligence, it will reward you in spades. After training for a time, if someone is dumb enough to take you to the ground with ill intent - that attacker just stepped into the deep blue waters of the darkest ocean, and you are the shark!

2018 - One of the best moments in my BJJ journey. Receiving my black belt from Dedeco after 7 years of hard work.

That...is why this style is now part and parcel with my mantis boxing inside the halls of my academy, and within my heart.

If you are inspired to learn and embody all that BJJ has to offer, my advice is to take your time and find a coach, and team that are right for you. Do not settle! It is your money, and more importantly your time, and even MORE importantly - your body.

Size Matters!!! - Part 2 - Spider Guard

Part 2 of our new series on how size affects your martial arts. This is another one for BJJ - Spider Guard. There are some important differences with leg/foot position that can matter if we are a smaller, or larger grappler. Thomas and Vincent assist me in demonstrating a good foot position for spider guard depending on your height.

Size Matters!!! - Part 1 - Turtle Position

New series we're releasing on size matters. When doing martial arts of any kind, size is a determining factor in what moves will work, and what won't for you and your size. We're going to highlight some common positions where this stands out.

In the first episode we tackle the turtle position in BJJ/MMA, and how to choose the right escape for you and your opponent.

6 Submission for 6 Positions - Side Control

Here’s a follow-up to our popular video on the 6 Positions of Side Control Drill. Now we can apply a submission in each of these positions to help train our offensive game.

Part of your journey in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is the transition from surviving, to defending, to getting to a dominant position. Position before submission is crucial for getting a successful submission on our opponent. But what happens when we first go from surviving/defending, to continuously getting to a dominant position? Often times the brain shuts down, and we don’t have a clue what to do next. It’s important to have a gameplan.

Knowing a submission from each position, will give you a strategy to move from position to submission, or at least attempting one. Here is a companion video to go along with 6 Positions of Side Control video. Once you get that basic drill down, and you find yourself getting to side control frequently. Try this drill to learn a submission from each position and expand your game!

Rise from the Ruins: Embarking Into A Dying Art of Boxing

Finding the Mantis

I came across the art of Praying Mantis Boxing in of all places - New Hampshire, USA back in the 1990’s. I was correcting course in my life and on a quest to empower myself with martial arts training and the skills to know how to handle myself. A desire of mine since childhood. I immediately fell in love with the art, even in it’s corroded state.

Sadly, time has not been kind to this, and many other Chinese boxing systems. Much damage has been done over the past century or more, as these arts were no longer used for combat. By the time I began my training, it was difficult to tell what Mantis Boxing was in its original manifestation.

What remained was largely boxing sets (choreographed fighting moves in the air known as forms/kata/taolu), myriad drills, and a plethora of archaic Chinese weapons techniques of a bygone era.

Due to this decayed state my journey early on with this art was difficult and fraught with challenges in finding answers, or seeing an effective use of these movements in sparring/combat. Thankfully, we do have those who carried the torch over hundreds of years; bringing with them the keywords of the style as well as the old ‘boxing sets’ which allow us to view into the past.

I have dedicated over 20 years to mantis boxing, as well as other stand-up fighting arts in a quest to reconstruct the art so that it is intact for my students going forward. Through traveling, studying with experts, training, competing, teaching, sparring, researching; anything I could find that would yield improvements. We move forward with methods so that others, like you, can receive a fighting art that is versatile, effective, and well…quite frankly - RAD!!!

My efforts to ultimately reshape, redefine, and revolutionize the art have created a new version of mantis boxing that is relevant for self-protection in modern times. This last part being of great import to me. I believe any martial art should be applicable and functional. Ensuring not only its own survival for future generations, but also the survival of its practitioners.

BOXING SETS

Throughout my martial arts career I have had many opinions on forms/boxing sets. These viewpoints have shifted like the swirling tides along the rock-strewn coastline of Maine. Early on, when I began my training I was heavily invested in these sets. They were, after all, the primary method of transmission for the art that I chose to study - Tángláng Quán (Praying Mantis Boxing 螳螂拳), and before that, Tae Kwon Do.

Mantis Catches Cicada - circa 1999

Mantis boxing was handed down to me by my early teachers, and their teacher’s before them, with forms as a primary method of transmission. Completely absent of the mechanical inner workings that made these moves functional with live opponents in actual hand-to-hand combat. In all fairness to the first mantis coach I had, was up front with me from the beginning about this. I was under no illusions.

Martial arts forms (kata, tào lù) are more plentiful today than in any time in history. They are widely disseminated in a variety of martial arts schools/styles across the United States, and around the world. A majority of ‘traditional martial arts’ competitions today, are centered around stylists competing with their form of choice. One is hard pressed to enter a school of karate, kung fu; kempo, tae kwon do; or tang soo do, etc. that isn’t consumed by a curricula filled with form after form. Once you complete one form, you’ve earned the ‘privilege’ to learn another...and another...and another.

Years into my training, I went on to scorn these empty shells. For quite some time actually. One reason I held such admonishment toward ‘forms’, was having learned over fifty of them in my first seven years dedicated to wu shu (martial arts) training.

As soon as I would finish one form, I would be handed another; whether by my request for some shiny new toy I was enthralled by, or a suggestion by the instructor(s). It became impossible to remember all of these sets, and far too time consuming to practice them all; little did I understand why at the time.

When it came to fighting and sparring in the martial arts schools I attended, the combative application was entirely disembodied from these forms; like a warrior’s sword detached from it’s handle - once upon a time a dangerous weapon to be feared, now - a toothless tiger.

Crossover from form to fighting never existed in the schools that I trained in. We would warm-up, practice movements, shadow box, and spar the last few minutes. When it came time to spar with classmates, it usually manifested as ‘bad kickboxing’. To be fair to these coaches, their passion lied with what they were teaching - forms, not fighting.

I kept sparring as much as possible, and competing in matches. I became increasingly frustrated over time. I would ask myself - “wasn’t the point of martial arts to learn how to defend yourself? Wasn’t the ultimate goal to become empowered? To know secret ways to disable attackers, fend off bullies, submit miscreants that wish harm upon us, or protect our families?” I was profoundly confused by the training practices I was experiencing, versus what I had envisioned martial arts being meant for.

COMBAT ARMS

Flight School - aka ‘Fight School’ - Alabama 1990

Having been in the military for a short period of my life, I was used to an environment built on training for ‘combat’. We certainly didn’t pretend to drive tanks, or fly invisible helicopters, fire imaginary bullets downrange, or use toy weapons. Lessons on my martial arts path were not adding up with my life experience. Why was a bulk of my time training, just pretending to fight opponents in the air???

While I was stationed in Texas, I briefly undertook the study of taekwondo until my military units’ training schedule was ramped up and I could no longer juggle it in. It was enjoyable at the time, but certainly wasn’t my favorite martial art style. I had a good teacher, and I enjoyed my time there (however brief), but the art was too simple, and too linear for my taste. However, to the instructors credit, in those classes we spent a bulk of our time sparring.

Years later, as I was well into my Chinese martial arts training, I knew something was amiss with the way I was being trained. I tried taking moves from some of the forms I had learned, and experimented with them while sparring in class. This was often met with punishment being doled out by my opponent’s barrage during my risky ventures. Still, I tried to pull them off, but rarely did I find success.

Instead of introducing something new into my game, it became increasingly easier to rely on a few well-timed tricks, and speed/power to overcome my opponents. Sticking to the attacks/counters I was already good at. Reinforcing my current skills rather than growing as a fighter/boxer/martial artist.

Along the way I had decided, with the encouragement, and support of those around me, to become a martial arts teacher for a living. I was instructing at another school while this metamorphosis was taking place, and I opened a school with a friend of mine (2004). Off we went. Things did not improve; quite the opposite actually.

MIRROR INTO THE SOUL

Chris and Vincent - Tournament - Fall 2007

Now that I was teaching others full-time, the disconnect became crystal clear. I no longer had only myself to worry about, but my reflection staring back at me day in and day out. That reflection was my students. The truth became less than encouraging. My students would learn to move, perform cool looking forms, win competitions, but their fighting skills were no match for other martial artists such as boxers, wrestlers, judoka, etc.

I would ask myself - “Why someone taking western boxing for 6 months, could decimate a practitioner from kung fu, karate, kempo, tae kwon do, etc.?” In many cases, the latter had been training for years, or in some case decades.

I was thoroughly frustrated. I could suffer this no longer. We can be either part of the problem, or part of the solution. So I began to change the way I was teaching. I turned the focus of my classes more heavily on qín ná (the Chinese submission art of bone/joint locking and seizing).

In my early training, I had spent 4 years studying this discipline in tandem to my forms regimen. Dedicating multiple hours each week with partners in my first mantis school, and training with friends on the side. I felt better. It wasn’t perfect, but at least this was drilling with live people, and I was giving my students something that felt like martial arts/self-defense, rather than dance.

Jess and Mike - 3 Section vs Staff - 2005

I incorporated more ‘2-person’ hand-to-hand, and weapon sets from kung fu. Again, thinking that at least these had combative moves that involved a live partner to test against. All the while, I was still voraciously searching for answers.

I made it my mission to figure out how these forms worked in fighting; continuing my research; sparring as much as I could with friends that were traditional martial artists, and who were also frustrated by the norm. I turned the pages of tome after tome, reading historical accounts, watching videos. Any sources I could find. I turned my attention and focus to seeking out the core/roots of each system. Then…something enlightening happened.

A pattern began to emerge. I noticed a common theme while traversing my archaeological quest. How these styles began…

• Tángláng Quán - two forms.

• Yīng Zhuǎ - two forms and one partner set.

• Tàijíquán - zero forms.

• Hóng Jiā (Hung Gar 洪家) - one form.

• Bāguà quán (8 Trigrams Boxing 八卦拳) - zero forms.

• Xínyìquán (Intent Boxing 形意拳) - zero forms.

The writing was on the wall. In giant print. None of these styles started out with…so...many...forms. It was now obvious to me what I needed to do. Purge!

I embraced the ‘less is more’ philosophy. Even though, and unbeknownst to me at the time, I was still clinging to too much material. I discarded a bulk of the forms I had learned over the previous seven years. I no longer practiced, or taught them.

I sought out the core forms of the arts that I really enjoyed - Praying Mantis Boxing, Eagle Claw, Tai Chi, and Xing Yi. My intent being to ‘mine’ these forms for applications. To see what the original methods, movements were, so I could reconstruct these arts. Lofty goals to be sure, but I was not to be deterred. I was too invested at this point.

Traditional Long Weapons - Nationals Qualifiers - 2004 - Hershey, PA

After repeated polite inquiries with various mantis boxing teachers around the country, I was rebuffed by taciturn ‘masters’ unwilling to share their art. They behaved as if these forms were valuable magical secrets. As if I was asking for their priceless gems.

These teachers clearly coveted their core forms, like a mage who possessively guards their spellbook. I truly failed to comprehend why teachers were so disinterested in...teaching. I was ready and willing to learn! Why were they not helping me?

I had been learning forms a dime a dozen over the years, why were these such prized antiquities? Instead of welcoming an interested student, people were possessive; greedy, condescending, and cold. Again, rebuffing my ideals of what a martial artist is about.

During my journey, I learned that one “Grand Master” went so far as to try and sue people for stealing his forms. His organization actually attempted to copyright them. Other’s demarcated forms with fake moves so they would know when someone ‘stole’ it from a video, demonstration, or tournament. Marring the art, and further tainting it from its original intent and true purpose. This was chaos incarnate, and I simply did not understand it.

Martial arts in general, and forms specifically, are not something one can ‘steal’. One can copy someone’s form, but if the ‘thief’ does not do the work, or fails to comprehend the intent of the moves within, they have no score.

If the purported burglar does the work - learns it, trains it, tries to perfect it; studies it thoroughly, then they have been taught. Perhaps, without them knowing they’ve been taught. As a teacher, or even a practitioner that wants their art to survive, is that not our ultimate goal and purpose?

Snakes Creeps Down (low single whip) Taijiquan demo - circa 2006

I continued on. I was teaching Tai Chi, and finding it difficult to find any sort of consistency from one person to the next when it came to the movements. Additionally, I could find no one that knew what these moves did, so there was no litmus test to know if a movement was ‘right’, or ‘wrong’. Every reason someone had, seemed esoteric, and subjective. Like judging dance, or art.

Xingyiquan was another focus of mine during this time. I enjoyed the premise behind it. I was told it was highly destructive, energetic, explosive, and aggressive. That it was a badass style of Chinese boxing. I was into that! A coach that introduced me to it, thought it would be a good fit for my…temperament.

Again, it seemed like the standards for success in xingyi, were completely arbitrary. The only ‘depth’ I was finding, was “sit in your san ti (3 dimensional shape) stance for 30 minutes a day.” Aside from that, I wasn’t told how to fix anything, or how to get better at xingyi. Later I realized - because you need to HIT things to really get it!!!

I sought out more coaches in these arts. I was successful in finding a tàijíquán/xingyiquan ‘master’; or so I thought. I attended one of his New England workshops and saw a glimpse of some power generation techniques in his Xing Yi that was of interest to me. I was told “he knows his stuff.” I thought there was something there, so I delved deeper.

I cobbled together some money and traveled to NYC to train with him. I hosted him for a few days at my house and school to help him share his art with my students. To hopefully glean greater technical knowledge from him on how these two arts functioned in combat.

It turned out to be forms, and hocus pocus. The tàijíquán was more incessant drumming of the most mundane minutiae. Where the hands should be aligned to maximize the ‘chi’. How one’s thumb position next to the quadricep was somehow important for mystical energy alignment. No accompanying demonstration of combat application to show why this mattered; nevermind how it was relevant in a real fight.

The renowned xingyiquan, a style known for its destructive capacity, and reputation for general badassery, was also more ‘air-fu’ (martial arts done in the air). Never hitting a punching bag, or pad. Never sparring. Never blocking and hitting. Just more chi (cheese). More pseudo-science. More nonsense. I left it behind.

In addition to the aforementioned individuals foul bathroom habits, and erratic/obnoxious behaviors, this arrangement was not working out to my satisfaction. Could ‘anyone’ in Chinese martial arts actually fight? Using Chinese martial arts techniques? I was growing more and more disenchanted.

Staff vs Staff - circa 2006

I returned to my research and training. Buying any books I could find. I read over 100 books on Tàijíquán, most of them a complete waste of time. It’s amazing how many words have been written about nothing.

I found the other arts lacking in content altogether. At least to my favor, tàijíquán is well documented. The most widely proliferated Chinese martial art in existence. Unfortunately, much of this is without practical meaning, and comprised mostly of esoteric beliefs, or lacking clarity of purpose. Whether this is intentional, or through innocent ignorance is certainly a matter of debate.

I took to searching for videos of the core forms of the styles I had chosen. For mantis boxing, I was able to find one of Bēng Bù (Crushing Step), but had no such luck with Lán Jié (to Intercept 拦截) , or Bā Zhǒu (8 Elbows 八肘). I ordered videos from China, familiarizing myself with the Chinese characters enough that I could search for books and VCD’s containing these sets, or anything close to them. I signed up for a Chinese class to assist in my quest.

My language venture did not last long. It turned out to be the same misguided approach to teaching language that is rampant in public, private, and even collegiate school systems across America even to this day. Grammar first. Years go by, and one is still unable to speak fluently, or converse with a native speaker. It is odd, that this failure of a student to speak, is not a measure of success for a language arts curriculum, or a teacher’s capabilities...

I digress. It so happened that in my research, I had come across an excellent resource of knowledge - an online forum for mantis boxers. Rich, and fascinating conversations took place in this venue, people seemed to be sharing knowledge and communicating their ‘secrets’ without reservation. I visited it from time to time, never saying much as they seemed far more knowledgeable than I; and there existed an hierarchy of lineage holders that I was not part of.

One day, I read a thread where an individual was chastising and insulting anyone who learned from a video. This individual was particularly demeaning, condescending, and harsh in their criticism. Stating matter of factly, that “anyone interested in learning mantis should only be doing so from qualified teachers; certainly not from video!!!”

This infuriated me. Who was this person to dismiss one of the three ‘primary methods of human learning’ (verbal, kinesthetic, and visual)? What position of expertise did they hold in life to stand up and blatantly proclaim that personal instruction (which I had experienced plenty of), was the ONLY way someone should, or could, properly learn. I balked at this notion. I broke my silence and chimed in.

My response was snarky; full of contempt. I no longer cared who held what position, or however ‘exalted’ they seemed to be. I had too many years of feeling like I had been duped. I rose up upon my soapbox and fired back my reply - “blah, blah, blah, - insert stuff about learning types and video being a modern tool to assist people, - blah, blah, blah”. Then (I paraphrase here) - “perhaps if you mantis masters were not so rude and possessive with your forms, those of us whom you shun, would study from you, rather than be forced to pick scraps from videos.”

Shortly thereafter, I had a reply to my post in the thread. I opened it, adrenaline coursing through my veins. I awaited the inevitable online battle that was sure to ensue. Knowing, full well, some virtual vitriolic response from the original author of the post was there unopened in my inbox. Instead, I was greeted with - “Come to San Diego. I’ll show you the core forms of mantis.”

What!?!?!?! I was stunned. Stopped dead in my tracks. This was not at all what I expected. Who was this person? What did they know? Why were they so quick to offer and share what everyone else tried to hide?

Mantis Boxing set - Báiyuán Tōu Táo (White Ape Steals Peach 白猿偷桃) - 2006

I looked at the member profile. They were a member for years, yet barely posted a thing. I found a name. I Googled it. Nothing (Google was in it’s infancy then). I searched further; looking deeper. I finally found some grainy black and white videos of this Mantis Boxer doing the form Bā Zhǒu (8 Elbows 八肘), and another of one of his black belts doing Tōu Táo (Monkey Steals the Peach 猴子偷桃).

I could tell from the way they moved that they knew how to fight. I replied. “I’m interested. Let’s discuss.” Phone numbers were exchanged. A time set to talk. After an hour or so long phone call, and a lengthy discussion on his background, methods of teaching, and why he only works the core forms of Mantis, I booked a flight and hotel to San Diego, CA. Off I went.

I never looked back. In my first 15 minutes of meeting with this mantis boxer, I learned more about ‘fighting’ than I had in 7 years of kung fu training.

“Where do you look when you fight?”, he asked. I thought about it, and replied with “I look off to the side of my opponent.” He paused, a quizzical look on his face. Apparently he hadn’t expected that response. Then came his reply - “Not at them?” I said, “No, but I’ve been told all things of the sort - look in their eyes. Watch their head…” He asked me why I look off to the side. “It’s just something I do.” I replied. “It seems to work better for blocking.” He grinned.

“You’ve figured something out”, was his response. This made me feel good. I was eager to hear more. He proceeded to explain the reason behind why I was doing this, why it worked, and drills to prove it. Beyond that, he offered up the name of a ‘principle’ to go along with it. I was ecstatic. This was amazing! I had never experienced such a thing in martial arts; neither kung fu, nor tae kwon do. A ‘principle’ to teach fighting!?!?!

We then proceeded outside to work on Bēng Bù, a form from mantis boxing, and the one I was already familiar with. I was more interested in Lán Jié, since I had been unable to find anything solid on this form. However, being one of the core forms of Mantis that I already knew, it was a good launch point and gave us a way to see what one another knew.

We spent the next couple hours training in the parking lot of my hotel in the middle of the night, and well into the next morning. He left for home, and I spent the next hour scrambling notes and trying to calm down enough to sleep.

Qín Ná (Capture and Seize 擒拿) training - circa 2000

The next day we met for training around 9 a.m. We spent hours in the park, going over mantis boxing’s Lán Jié (to intercept 拦截) - as well as an application for each move. I was ecstatic and soaking it up like a sponge. We broke for lunch in the early afternoon and then met up with some of his students at his house. Training went well into the night again.

He asked - “How did you learn to block punches?” I stood there for a moment, realizing how little I had been taught on this. Most of my experience with blocking had been from taekwondo. I replied with something that I can no longer recall, but surely it was meek.

He had me pair up with one of his students to show him how I block. I was not allowed to move, and his student was to throw slow, controlled punches while I demonstrate my blocking skills. He destroyed me.

I blocked one or two shots, and then I was lucky to block one of every five after that. His student, had only been training 1.5 years. I was on my 7th year of training. Countless trophies under my belt, and a National 2x Gold, 1x Silver Medalist. I was running my own martial arts school, with a cadre of dedicated students looking to me to teach them how to defend themselves. This was humiliating, demoralizing, and excruciatingly raw. I felt like a novice. I felt as if I had wasted all my efforts. Years of training had been for nothing.

Right then and there, I had a choice to make. I could leave. Throw my hands up in defeat and walk away; quitting martial arts altogether. Or…I could do something less extreme - go home. Go home and lie to myself that I did fine. That he cheated, or that he did something nefarious to trick me. Pretend I was better than I was.

I looked at his student. Then turned my gaze upon the teacher as he stood there quietly gauging my reaction. My brow furrowed, I looked him in the eye with all my will behind me, and said - “teach me.”

Nationals Qualifier 2004 - Eagle Claw Form - Traditional Hand Forms. Hershey, Pennsylvania

To be fair, and honest, this was a bit of a rigged game. I wasn’t allowed to counter-strike, move, kick, clinch, or takedown. Real fighting, does not subsist with such a ruleset. Just blocking for any length of time is a failed strategy. One should be delivering parry/counter, block/counter, move/counter, etc. But the lesson hit home nonetheless.

I revisited everything I thought I knew, from the ground up. Asking him to go over stances, footwork, punching; anything I had already learned, or thought I learned. I wanted to know what was missing. The rest of the weekend turned to working on everything but, a form. He had to keep asking me - “Don’t you want to learn this form you came for?” [With a grin on his face of course.]

I spent the next few years going to San Diego twice/year, flying this coach to my school once/year. I met up with him at other people’s schools just to squeeze in whatever training I could get with him. Here was someone that knew how to fight, and did Chinese martial arts. I was all aboard.

As far as forms go, I learned Lán Jié, Bēng Bù (again), Báiyuán Tōu Táo (White Ape Steals Peach), 5th Son Staff, Saber, Da Dao (Military Saber), and a couple of 8-Step Mantis forms. I also learned how to block, punch, kick, and move; as well as throws, joint locks, and his core fighting principles to diagnose problems we have when sparring.

He helped me fix some forms I still held onto such as liánbùquán, and gongliquan, and my tai chi knowledge grew deeper and richer. As time went on, I had so much practical knowledge to work, the forms seemed superfluous, and nothing more than distractions.

I progressed, and my students became more and more in need of real skills. I went on to scorn forms in full force. Thinking them unnecessary, archaic, and highly corrupted distractions. Time-sucks that stole focus away from the more important aspects of martial arts - application, combat techniques, and self-defense skills.

Regardless of my disappointment and waning interest in forms, throughout it all, some part deep inside of me always held on to the notion that they are significant, important, and central to the art. Not in the possessive covetous way other teachers hold on to them, but in some more intrinsically valuable way.

Afterall, why were these core sets so important as to be handed down no matter what line of Mantis one studied? Why did the same set, with variations of course, exist across multiple lines in the family tree of Mantis Boxing? Why did almost every style of Chinese boxing have a ‘set’, or ‘sets’?

Ultimately I came to the realization that forms are treasure troves of knowledge. Ancient vehicles designed to carry the knowledge of a fighter’s system. Without the techniques, principles, and applications to go along with it however, or the work ethic to practice them tirelessly, they are worthless shells of long forgotten arts. The form, cannot exist without the function.

Without function, martial arts forms are merely martial dance. A non-practical artistic representation of a bygone mode of combat, and self-defense. There is nothing whatsoever wrong with people wanting to participate in the practice of this ‘dance’. It is only problematic when they believe, or are allowed to believe, that this practice of shadow boxing, will lead to the attainment of ‘real’ fighting skills.

In today’s world of video, books, a literate populace due to mass education, and the accessibility of martial arts schools and resources, forms are no longer necessary for a teacher to carry on an art of hand-to-hand, or weapons combat. As evidenced by judo, jiu-jitsu, muay thai, wrestling, filipino stick/knife arts, boxing, and more. All existing without the need for forms to muddy up the waters, or distract students from the true goal of martial arts - the dedicated practice of methods of violence to empower, embolden, and strengthen themselves out of immediate necessity, or the potential threat of such.

What is sorely needed for Chinese boxing to regain its rightful place on the mantle of formidable martial arts in the world of today is - less forms. More techniques. More application, and definitely more sparring.

The CHAINS of CLOSED GUARD - An Attack Strategy for Resistant BJJ Opponents

The closed guard is considered a dominant position in BJJ. Unfortunately, for most of us as we progress in the art, it devolves into nothing more than holding someone in place. We try the basic attacks we learn, but someone with very little knowledge can shut them down through resistance alone.

I found this annoying, and I'm sure I'm not alone. Holly is going to help me show you a chain of attacks I use from 'closed guard' that may help you solve this. Check it out and maybe it can help you improve your success rate at submitting, or sweeping your opponent on the ground in Brazilian jiu-jitsu.

The Easy Principle To Achieve Your Fitness Goals

Yesterday I was meeting with a professional from a different part of the health, wellness, fitness industry who mentioned her gym membership(s) going to waste. Her story may be familiar to some of you so I thought I would share it and offer some of my personal tips to stave off similar circumstances you may find yourself in.

I will call her Suzie for the purposes of this article. Suzie is currently a member at 2 different gyms, and goes to neither. She continues to claim she will eventually go, but laments the fact that she ‘has to’. This cycle of negativity keeps Suzie from attaining her goals, and only perpetuates this cycle of wasting money and prolonging, or worse, never reaching one’s goals. This is an all too common occurrence but one that can be fixed with an easy principle.

Find A Passion

It sounds simple but elusive I know. In order to exercise most of us need to be motivated. In order to be motivated we have to 'want' to be doing the activity that will help us achieve our fitness goals.

This is so important, that I want to TYPE IT IN CAPS SO IT GETS YOUR ATTENTION. You can't turn over a new leaf by saying that you are going to start running a couple days/week when you despise running, and expect that you will miraculously have the willpower to go out and run. Especially when you leave work at 4:30p, and it is already dark, raining; snowing, freezing cold, and the nice warm house with a couch and TV are beckoning.

There's no rational reason any of us would choose that unless we were super excited about running. If running is your passion, then that should be your go to method of fitness during 'sacred time'. If rock climbing is more your calling, then strap in and tackle those rock walls.

There are so many things to do that involve movement - hiking, biking, swimming, roller-blading, street hockey, racket ball, tennis, orienteering, skiing, snow-shoeing, kite boarding, diving, hang-gliding, martial arts such as boxing, kickboxing, judo, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, etc., etc., etc. The most significant part of this - MOVE!

Nonsense

Here is a saying I have heard countless times over the past 18 years - “I have to get in shape first.” This is absolute nonsense. I can tell you this, every single time I have heard those words uttered from someone’s lips, they have never returned.

Do what you love. Don’t wait. Do it safely, but do it now. Even if you have to stop every 20 seconds, or take advantage of more specialized training to reach your goals, you will rise to occasion and start to acclimate to the sport/activity that inspires you. Reverse your reasoning and step forward into what will keep you coming back every day.

Falling Off the Wagon

If we already have an activity we are passionate about, but we just aren't attending it and sticking to it, that is different problem. One solved by breaking the rut we’re in and re-establishing a routine.

Setting a consistent week to week schedule that is what I like to call - 'sacred time', (time that is uninterruptible by other nonsense or static) is crucial. For example: doctor appointments, legal, car registration, etc. We don't let other things get in the way of those, but we'll let someone's phone call interrupt our health and wellness time.

Sacred time is your time to take care of you. We do our best to establish this, and then leave it be; unhindered by the comings and goings of the rest of life. It takes a little time, and the right mindset to get into this, but once you do, you will quickly understand the importance of it.

Some people can let their schedules stay in flux and maintain discipline, but most of us need a solid day/time that we go do something, and we don't miss it unless it is an emergency. If someone asks us to do something during that time, we can simply respond with - "I have an appointment." They don't need to know that you are going to roller derby, laying waste to leather bags in kickboxing, choking people in Jiu-Jitsu, or running half-pipes with your skateboard friends. They simply hear "appointment" and know that you are busy.

MOVE! MOVE! MOVE!

The human body is designed to move. The more studies come out on stagnation the more we learn that sitting at a desk all day, or lounging around too much equals bad news for our bodies, and our waistlines.

"The increased risk of death linked with sitting for eight hours a day was eliminated for people who were physically active for at least one hour a day."

You can see in this Norwegian study cited in this article on CBS News (and many other news sites) showing that prolonged sitting increases our propensity for all sorts of ailments, disease, and early deaths.

Find a Tai Chi class, Yoga, Pilates, stretching. Anything. But...and I can't stress this enough, enjoy what you are doing so you want to go back and keep doing it. If you hate it, resent it, or are even luke warm about it, then you won't want to go. It is time to ditch it and move on. Cut your losses.

This leads to a final point - when we have our 'gym membership' and we don't go, or keep telling ourselves "next week", then we feel anxious, depressed, discouraged, or a failure. What good is that doing to our lives? Exercise helps combat these feelings, but if it is the cause of them, then we need to reassess.

Personally, I am partial to contact sports such as martial arts, along with high intensity training in short intervals. Some people prefer 90 to 120 minutes of running, or 30 minutes of Yoga. What you do is up to you, but find what you enjoy and find a place to do it with good people around you that are on the same path and motivate you to keep going. We become who we surround ourselves with, so community can be a highly valuable tool in our progression.

Embrace the Suck!!!

Frustrated with your progress or lack thereof? Embrace the Suck!

I want to take a few minutes today and try to shed some light on this obscure 'suck zone' we go through, and perhaps offer some perspective to help you not only power through it, but optimize your progression.

• "Arrrrgghh!!! Why Can't I Get This!?!?!"

• "Why is that person getting this so much faster than I am?"

• "Why do I feel so stupid, or uncoordinated?"

These are common questions I hear, or see, as a coach/mentor/instructor. In order to understand why martial arts, or any new activity requiring physical prowess [other sports apply here] is giving us a hard time, we have to look at the human brain. 

Over the past decade and a half, I have taught highly intelligent people. By and large, most of them extremely intelligent. And yet, when forced to freeze a motion and are asked, many cannot tell you where their arm is located in that moment in time if they do not stop and look at it. I have lost count of the amount of times I have given a correction to someone, and received an incredulous look while stating - "I am leaning, really?!?!?!"

What many of us fail to recognize in ourselves, or cut ourselves slack for, is our level of physical activity going into the arts. So maybe we played sports in high school...then we went to college, got a job, started a family, and then realized at 35 we haven't been active in 17 years and need to so something, anything to do to get moving.

Maybe we are 16 years old and have lived in front of a video game console our whole life; never really using our body. Maybe we are 65 and deciding to take up Tai Chi to stay active, but we spent a bulk of our life parked at a desk job since we were in our 30’s. To our brain, there is a common thread here.

The human brain is incredibly conservative. If something is not being used, then the brain ignores it. Don't exercise? Our muscles atrophy. Don't stand/walk put a load on your skeletal system? Our bones atrophy; after only 18 hours (on a molecular level). It doesn't take long to regress with our physicality, and the brain does the exact same thing.

FRUSTRATED???

We have pathways connecting neurons in our brain, and each pathway connects one piece of information to another, to another; creating a network, or a web of interconectivity. This happens with physical activity as well. Compare it to our high school Algebra experience. That thing we said we would never use in life. Let’s say we were right, and we never used it after leaving school. Now, when we try to do Algebra at the age of 25, 30, 35, it doesn't work so well. The same thing happens with our body and physical movement.

When we have a group of common connections with shared threads, it is due to our brain building relationships. Connecting one neuron to another neuron to build a 'network'. Think of it as a power grid; transmitting electricity from node to node. If one node goes down, other connections still exist. Except...this power grid automatically shuts down lines that are not being used in order to save energy.

Unfortunately, if we stop using a pathway, the brain starts overwriting these connections it no longer deems relevant. Pathways grow dormant, and new information that is relevant to whatever we are doing in our life HERE and NOW, is what is going to take precedence.

If physical activity is not at the forefront of our life, then atrophy sets in; physical AND mental. The brain does not waste time and energy trying to keep things 'alive' that are not useful to its purpose. If we were a star athlete in college, we will still have pathways for those actions in our prior sport, but they have faded; and continue to fade over time. If we return to the sport in our 30's, we will probably stumble a bit in the beginning, but will likely pick things back up relatively quickly after the initial grind.

The Neural Network

Neural Network

Our brain is full of billions of neurons. When we start training in martial arts, we may develop a neuron for a block, or a punch that we learned. We practiced the block, we know the block, and it is now a reflexive part of us. We practiced punching for hours on end as well.

Now, when someone punches us, we block successfully, but we don't punch, or there is a delay before we punch. Why? No connection...yet. 

After practicing for a while we see similar circumstances. One day we are comfortable enough with our blocking, and punching enough that when someone in class takes a familiar swing at us, we suddenly match up an opening we see in their guard when we are offensively punching, with the opening we see after blocking one of their strikes at us. We then throw a counter punch.

After an action like this, our brain now creates a connection from the ‘punch’ neuron, to the ‘block’ neuron and we become accustomed to seeing that opportunity in the future, and responding that same way the next time. Voilà! Progress.

Now, let's add a piece to the puzzle. Person A punches. We block. We counter punch, but suddenly our punch misses. The person slips the punch. Now we stand there for a second unsure what to do next. Why? We don't have the connection laid yet. This is a new situation that has occurred. We have to build a new path from here. This is like trying to cross from Boston to San Diego in our car, but there is no map. We have to try road after road, retracing steps and getting familiar with paths so we can venture down new paths from there.

Grappling example: We learn how to do an armbar. Neuron is mapped. We learn how to triangle choke from guard. Neuron mapped. Now we are fighting with an opponent in our guard and we go for an armbar. An armbar that we may be quite successful at and have trained thoroughly over and over.

Our opponent pulls the arm before we can secure it. We lose the submission and have to start over with something else. Or instead, we take that triangle choke we practiced a thousand times and we learn how to snap that on as they counter the armbar. We have successfully mapped a connection between these two submissions and our next response is to immediately counter their counter, with another submission. Something that is impossible to do when we have not mapped out either neuron, or built the connection between them. 

The more we train, the more we experience on the mats, failures most importantly, the more neurons we build connections to as we find solutions. Eventually, we get a web of connections and when faced with unfamiliar stimuli, we have a wider net to catch it in, and formulate a ‘creative’ response based on all the other connections in our web. The better we get, the more likely we are to have a 'proper' response to this new threat or action. The more we can ‘see’.

A.I. 

When I was studying Artificial Intelligence, the coolest subject I had in college, and yet somehow turned to the most boring in practicum (still unclear how one can do this), we learned about neural networks. One of the early mistakes made by pathfinders in the field was to try and code every potential outcome into the machine in advance.

While this may work with a simple 3 instruction test, they quickly found it was impossible to train every single scenario/outcome that can happen. Even some of the simplest tasks would take years of coding and massive amounts of storage. Impossible for hardware at the time.

The solution, was to go from ‘trying to program every response possible’, to ‘building neural networks’ - nodes with pathways, interconnected so the computer could train as it goes through a series of pass fails - what is now known as 'machine learning'. Learn through added stimuli, the same way we learn as humans - through trial and error.

Fighting is chaos incarnate. The supercomputer residing inside our skull would take 100's of years to try and calculate all the possible responses in fighting. Instructors training students in this way, would result in absolute disaster. Instead, we train principles. We train using sparring and rolling to create randomness and variability, causing us to error out, and learn a mistake. The results we get are far superior.

This explains why someone becomes more proficient the longer they train. They see more options, form more connections, and become more and more adaptable.

Coaches Perspective

"Your left foot. NOOOO!!! YOUR OTHER LEFT FOOT!!!"

From a coach's perspective, it can be extremely frustrating to tell someone to move their left, or right foot, and have them unaware of where their leg is. I have been in schools where teachers have thrown out students and told them - "Get out!!! This is not for you."; completely giving up on the student due to their lack of coordination.

I wholeheartedly disagree with this approach; even though at times past I confess to watching students and wondering if they were ever going to get it. We never know where someone is going. We all have our own struggles, some earlier in the process than others. Sometimes these same individuals turn out to be the hardest workers because of the struggles they faced early on.

They could become the next coach, mentor, or even a champion; the next in line to pass on the art. If we turn them off of martial arts for good because they didn't get it right away, then the loss of potential is immediate, and sometimes everlasting. Encourage, guide, support.

Patience, understanding, and empathy are easier said than done, but they are necessary tools when teaching our art to ALL those who wish to receive it. Someone with long periods of physical inactivity, is going to take longer to get up to speed with basic movement than a seasoned athlete. We each face our own struggles.

MILITARY TRAINING vs. CIVILIAN

Holly - playing in the mud at Spartan Race 2014

The drill instructors in boot camp have one hell of a job to do - 8 weeks to turn goofy, uncoordinated, immature, head up their a$$ teenagers into lean, mean, fighting machines.

This is not an easy task, and our lives, and the lives of those around us, depend on getting it right. And quickly. However, we are a captive audience; by choice, or not.

When teaching adults/civilians, who are not REQUIRED by some threat to stand there and take our bull$%&^, we have to be somewhat flexible in our demands. We can do this by drawing out the timeline for success. We can't just scream, degrade, and humiliate them until they get it; like boot camp. If we are training people for combat in a condensed period of time, then absolutely.

However, in that case we likely are not teaching in-depth martial arts that require years of training to explore high levels of skill. We would be focused on simplified fighting systems like Xing Yi, Krav Maga, or some other streamlined hand-to-hand combat system. Simplified, and meant for short training not mastering high levels of skill. 

High Skill Competition Training

If we are training competitively, or training a team to compete, then this can also change the game. Pushing people, and people wanting you to push them, become an interwoven dynamic to increase performance, and achieve higher gains.

This process is voluntary on both sides, and usually involves a higher degree of focus and effort on the part of the competitor. Skills increase over time, and people compete at the level/age bracket they are currently at. As they gain higher skill and aptitude, they move up in rank and compete against more advanced opponents.

The Long Term Approach

If we are teaching out of our garage, do not need to sustain ourselves from a vibrant school, or we are trying to train people as quickly as possible, then we can cherry pick our students, and kick out (directly, or indirectly) the one's that won't get up to speed fast enough for our taste, or goals.

But...if we are interested in creating a strong community of martial artists that help one another grow and learn to a high level over time, a group that accepts people of all skill and talent levels among their ranks, then we need to keep in mind that not everyone has been training for these arts their entire life. Some will need more time and patience in the process.

One approach I like to use in thinking about this - drawing. When we want to draw a human face, we don't start by drawing every freckle, line, or hair. We start with a rough circle for the head, and rough circles for the eyes, nose, mouth, ears. Then, we begin to create finer and finer circles and lines. Adding more and more detail as we go, and erasing/removing unnecessary lines. Martial Arts is no different. We don't need to feel like our ROUGH DRAFT is supposed to be the final MASTERPIECE.

All black belts are not created equal. All black belts are not created in the same amount of time.

No SECRETS

There really are no secrets. The solution is simple, but not easily achieved. The longer we train, the more we surround ourselves with other people who train, the more we watch; the more we read, ponder, discuss; the more 'consumption', will directly affect the pace at which we move up the skill ladder.

This obviously takes other traits and behaviors such as discipline to keep showing up, perseverance to get up after each failure and try again, and overall grit to stick through the lows and not just ride the highs. Combine this with continuing to build that neural network, and you have the recipe for success. Eventually creating a web in your brain that is ready to catch anything that flies through it.

Many people come and go from activities. If we keep showing up, keep training, we will keep evolving. Sometimes the successful people we see in various fields, were not the best at what they do, but they are the one's that kept showing up. 

Stay the course. All will be revealed with time and effort.

--

Photos courtesy of Max Kotchouro

Bibliography:

Buonomano, Dean. Brain Bugs: How the Brain's Flaws Shape Our Lives. New York: W.W. Norton, 2011. Print.

"The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science Paperback – December 18, 2007." The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science: Norman Doidge: 9780143113102: Amazon.com: Books. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Nov. 2015.