8 August 2008, 19:07 in Martial Arts
Singapore training trip
This year in May I spent a week in Singapore with Brandon and Troy for a martial arts training holiday. We did some training in Tabimina Balintawak under Sir Bob Tabimina himself, and we trained some knife combatives with Charley. I also got to meet Richard and some of the other guys from Singapore for the first time.
Balintawak is a family of combat systems developed in the 1940s by Grand Master Venancio “Anciong” Bacon in the Philippines. A single rattan stick is used as the primary training tool, but it is not just a stick fighting art. Tabimina Balintawak is Sir Bob’s own variation of the style. The philosophy is to end the fight expediently; it is counter-offense system with emphasis on strong impenetrable defense. This contrasts with most other weapons based styles which focus on the long range and offensive elements.
Tabimina Balintawak focuses on the development of appropriate reactions, timing and speed. This can be applied to a variety of weapons (stick and knife) or bare hands fighting. The approach is very different to most martial arts where the focus is initially on techniques or applications, and the timing and reactions which actually make those techniques work come later. Tabimina Balintawak is about the development of appropriate reflexive response under pressure in real time.
The movements are simple and efficient, nothing fancy. The emphasis is on gross motor movements such as waist turn, hips, and legs, rather than on fine motor movements with the hands. The idea is to zero your mind and use your reactions and reflexes, rather than cognitively think about what is happening and how you are going to react (which is too slow).
The training is done one-on-one with the instructor personalizing the training for each student. The instructor “feeds” the student attacks and the student defends and counters. The instructor always keeps the student just above their comfort zone, continuously pushing them by increasing the speed or intensity, varying the tempo, introducing new attacks, or increasing the level of deception. While the training is not physically hard, it is tiring due to the psychological pressure and overloading of your brain.
Sir Bob is a true martial arts master, as opposed to someone with a day job who does martial arts as a hobby, or a business man who uses martial arts to make money. He is also a very interesting person with a warm heart. It was an honor to train under him. He may be old, but I wouldn’t want to cross him!
On most days we did do two training sessions, one in the early afternoon and one in the evening, each for 2 hours. We also did some knife combatives training under Charley, focusing on how to escape from some common knife hold up situations from both in front and behind. One night we visited the local BJJ club, run by Jason. Troy took the class, focusing on hip movement. We had a wrestle with the guys and then went out for a meal after.
This was my first time in Singapore (outside of the airport) and I really enjoyed it. The weather was warm, the food was tasty and cheap, the people were friendly, the shopping was good, and the training was awesome. It was a much needed break from work and the Perth winter.
Going overseas to train is something I definitely want to do more often. Being in another place and culture, away from the distractions of every day life, and surrounded by other people with a passion for martial arts was a fantastic experience.
6 April 2008, 18:10 in Martial Arts
No-gi BJJ tournament
A few weeks ago, on Sunday 16 March 2008, there was a no-gi Brazilian Jiu Jitsu tournament held here in Perth, in which I and a number of people from my club competed. I was in the men’s blue belt 78kg to 88kg division. Below is a video of my fight (I am wearing the black rashie, my opponent a red one).
I ran out of steam during the fight and ended up losing but it was still a great experience. I would definitely benefit from some extra fitness. I found it hard to remain composed with all the adrenaline; it is different to normal training where it is more easy going. I also still rely too much on strength, which means that I don’t do very well once I get tired. I have to work on being a bit smoother, and work on my escapes. I missed a few opportunities for submissions in that fight.
Below is a video of Graham’s fight, in the white belt 85kg to 95kg division (Graham is wearing a black rashie, his opponent a red one).
After the tournament I had a busy week, then was away over the long weekend, and then came down with a nasty virus which put me out of action for a few days, so I’ve hardly trained since then. We are back into gi season now and I’m looking forward to getting back into it!
30 October 2007, 01:11 in Martial Arts
John Will's new book - Rogue Black Belt
John Will recently released a new book Rogue Black Belt – Fear and the Engine.
From the rogueblackbelt.com website:
Fear starts in small places.
It is a seed that takes root and though it can remain dormant for years to come, under the right conditions it can blossom again and again.
In confronting our fears, we learn to harness the secret power that lies nestled in it’s kernel.
Fear is like rocket fuel, it can explode and destroy us or when harnessed properly, can take us to the moon.
Without fear we would be jellyfish, completely at the mercy of life’s currents.
I recently ordered it and am looking forward to reading it!
11 October 2007, 00:05 in Martial Arts
Elvis Sinosic BJJ seminar
On Saturday, Elvis Sinosic came to our club to give a Brazillian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) seminar. Elvis is a professional mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter based in Sydney, Australia. He holds a black belt in Machado BJJ and has fought in the UFC. Besides being a big, strong guy, very experienced at martial arts, and a talented fighter, he is also a great teacher.
The following is a crude brain dump of what I remember from the seminar. These are just my personal notes (writing stuff down helps me remember) and probably won’t make much sense to anyone else. By the end of the seminar I had information overload and my memory is not the best. I have forgotten some things (hence the lack of detail on some techniques) and probably or got some things wrong, so feel free to correct me!
I had a quick roll with Elvis before the formal start of the class and most of the time he was just toying with me from his guard. Every time I felt like I was about to pass he would submit me. He got me with cross lapel choke a couple of times and this turned out to be a major focus of the seminar. We started at 10am and finished around 1pm.
First we did basic cross lapel choke from guard.
- Use your left hand to open their right side collar (i.e. your left side).
- Slide your right hand deep into their right side collar (palm up, fingers in).
- At this point most people with a little grappling experience realise you are trying to choke them and will attempt to sit up. To apply the choke, we need to break their posture and pull them down. With your left hand, grip their collar just below your right hand, in a baseball bat type grip. Once you have this grip, squeeze and lift with your legs as you pull down on the collar. This should allow you to pull their head down near your chest.
- Once their head is down, feed your left hand under your right hand into their left hand collar (i.e on your right side), again palm up, fingers in.
- To apply the choke, use your back muscles as if you are doing a rowing motion.
We then did a variant of cross lapel choke where you use the same setup, but when you feed your right hand into their collar, you put your thumb in and have your palm facing up. Doing it this way it seemed that you can get your left hand in with less effort and higher up their collar.
We also did a choke from guard that uses the opponent’s gi against them.
- With your right hand, pull their gi out of their belt and push it out behind them.
- Sit up and push the gi through under their arm with your right hand while reaching around and pulling it over their shoulder across their neck with your left hand.
- Then reach up with your right hand and grab it; this now forms one side of the choke.
- Now you feed your left hand thumb in behind their head (use their ear as a guide), and kick your right leg to your left while at the same time punching your right arm to the left.
- This will disrupt their balance to the left where you can position your right forearm and then pull them back to the middle and apply the choke.
Very tight and hard to get out of once it’s set up!
Next we did side control to knee ride to cross lapel choke.
- From side control (on your opponent’s left side in this case), control their collar with your left hand and their belt with your right.
- Kind of drive into them while arching your back slightly, like a sprawl, and from their jump up and place your right knee on their chest. I normally did knee ride with my knee on the opponent’s belly, but Elvis showed us to put the knee higher up more on the opponent’s chest, facing their chin. The same foot should be against their side for maximum control.
- Now that we have knee ride, we can apply the choke. I don’t remember the exact steps for this at the moment.
Elvis then showed us how to apply cross lapel choke from mount.
- Most grapplers are good at defending their necks from under mount. He showed us how to feed your hand into their gi collar quite low on their belly and then slide it up under their arms.
- Once you have your right hand in the collar, keep your wrist straight, and drive your lower forearm/elbow into their belly to lift their head off the ground slightly and make it difficult for them to move.
- After setting up the hands he advocates going to half side mount, which is a position that is basically halfway between normal mount and side mount.
- From here you can feed the left hand in and post on your head, to your right, and apply the choke.
Then Elvis showed us how to transition from knee ride to mount. This involves using your left hand to post right next to their head, preventing them from turning towards you, tucking your left knee and shin right into their side, and driving your right knee down to the floor. Once your knee touches the floor, flick the heel around and you are in mount. Then he showed us how to transition from mount back to knee ride. This involves driving your hips down and forward into your opponent and kicking your right leg back to almost touch your own butt and bring your foot down on the left side of their body (their right side).
Once we could do the transition from knee ride to mount and back to knee ride, we learnt how to transition from knee ride to mount and back while applying the choke. This seemed very tight and difficult to counter for the person on the bottom. You pretty much force them into only having one option as to how they react, and you are already ready for that to happen.
We finished with a bit of stand up stuff. First we did a chop and single leg take down (best to keep your head on the inside on their to avoid being guillotined). Then he showed us what do when someone tightly grabs your gi collars with both hands and straightens their arms, and simply holds on. This often happens in tournaments and if you don’t know what to do is very difficult to counter and can become a frustrating, time wasting, deadlock situation. What he showed us to do is choose a side (right or left), and bring your elbow on that side over their wrist and down (close to your body) and get the underhook on them that same side. From here you can get the back, sweep, throw, etc. This is simple to do and works well.
I had the privilege of being used as the dummy whenever Elvis was demonstrating the techniques. A bit painful, but it was good to feel the effectiveness of the choke and knee ride to mount transitions being applied properly! I have never been good at chokes and rarely pull them off in a wrestle, but I think today’s seminar helped me a lot.
I really liked it how, rather than just going through the steps of a technique like how it would be executed in the ideal world, he would often stop and point out what an opponents reaction would be at that point, and how to counter it. For example, his method of, when someone is in your guard, using a baseball grip on the opponent’s gi and squeezing and lift with your legs to break their posture will be very useful. Thanks Elvis!!
Here are a few words of wisdom I found on his website:
Winning is not the goal
The goal is to achieve the performance required to win
Winning is the outcomeMany dream of winning
Very few dream of performance
Very few win
You may wish to check out Elvis’ personal website, and his club, Sinosic-Perosh Martial Arts.
4 October 2007, 01:17 in Martial Arts
My first Judo class
A month or two ago, one of the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) clubs in Perth closed down. Fortunately, that club merged into our club so we now have a new coach and new members, and I think the change is beneficial to everyone involved. Diogo, who has taken over most of the coaching responsibility from Troy, is from Brazil and holds a black belt in both BJJ and judo (respect!). The Monday night BJJ class has now been swapped for a judo class.
I can’t normally attend the Monday class because I do some self defense (weapons and unarmed combatives) training with Brandon at that time. However, this week, with Monday being a public holiday, we decided to go up and check it out. Brandon has already been training in Judo elsewhere for a while but it was my first class. Most of the guys there had already been to a few weeks worth of classes. I was interested to see how the class was run and how it compares and overlaps with BJJ.
After some warming up and stretching, we started by drilling the entry to some throws. I am not familiar with the Japanese names of the techniques, but we paired up and took turns in repping out 50 entries to three different types of throws, at a fast pace. It was hard work and by the end of each lot of 50 a lot of little places in my lower back and legs were sore. We then did some grip fighting practice with a partner, fighting to get better grips to control the opponent. From what I understand, the person with the better grips is an advantage and controls the fight, so it is important to practice this. My fingers and hands were very tired after this. We then did some randori (free sparring), which was good fun. Finally we practiced throwing a compliant partner for 10 repetitions, for any throw of our choice. We finished with stretching.
From my limited knowledge, it seems judo overlaps considerably with BJJ. Judo is a bit more of a sport, with more restrictive rules. It emphasizes stand up grappling, particularly throwing your opponent. Pinning your opponent or using a submission (joint lock or choke) are other ways of winning a match, but many techniques are not allowed in competitions. BJJ matches only finish when one participant wins by submission, or the time runs out (in which case points will be used to decide the winner). BJJ has less restrictive rules so a wider variety of attacks and techniques may be used, and it focuses more on groundwork and submissions. In Judo the gi (martial arts uniform) is always used, whereas BJJ is practiced both with and without the gi. The gi is significant because it provides “handles” with which to strongly grip and control your opponent, so it influences the style of the fight.
Most of what we learn in BJJ classes operates on the premise that we are already in the ground-fighting state (i.e. we are on the floor). However, often a BJJ practitioner’s stand-up grappling is not up to as high a standard as their groundwork, and so they may have trouble initiating the groundwork situation in which they thrive. I believe that cross-training a little in Judo will help a BJJ student develop their stand-up grappling game and thus make them a better overall fighter.
To give you an idea of what competition level judo looks like, here’s a judo highlights compilation video:
I really enjoyed the judo class and will try to incorporate judo into my training routine.
27 September 2007, 16:26 in Politics, Religion, World Issues
Cage fighting should not be banned
There is a King Of The Cage fighting tournament scheduled to be held in Perth in October this year. For some reason, this has caused some uproar and the Australian government has recently been trying to ban the sport of cage fighting. Some news articles on the issue are here, here, here, and here.
In short, I believe that cage fighting should not be banned.
- All the arguments I’ve heard used against the sport of mixed martial arts are made by people with no knowledge of the sport, and don’t hold any water.
- Training in martial arts reinforces good personality traits such as a hard work ethic, learning, planning, goal setting, problem solving, respect, and so on.
- Training in martial arts has many positive benefits, including physical health benefits (conditioning, strength, and flexibility), increased awareness of the human body, increased confidence, and self defense.
- Martial arts or other physical sports help people release their natural aggression in a controlled manner. To try to suppress people’s aggressive traits is unhealthy.
- Mixed martial arts or cage fighting is no more dangerous than other sports such as boxing, kick boxing, rugby, or AFL. Some would argue it is in fact safer.
- People should stop trying to tell other people what is best for them. Even if you dislike this sport (which is fine), let other people enjoy it.
I am appalled and angry at the government for attempting to ban cage fighting. Every criticism of the sport that I have heard has either been completely ignorant, or at the least hypocritical or inconsistent with other sports. What we have here is politicians and other people who are completely ignorant of the sport looking at a few photos or viewing a short video clip and making a knee-jerk reaction.
For a start, cage fighting is not a sport in itself, and competitors don’t usually call themselves cage fighters. Cage fighting is simply a mixed martial arts fight held in a cage rather than the traditional boxing ring. Mixed martial arts competitions in normal boxing rings have been running here for a long time. Why is a huge fuss being made now just because the same event is now going to take place in a cage arena? Two fighters I talked to believe that the cage is actually safer than a boxing ring, because when grappling/wrestling is involved it’s quite easy to fall out of a ring or get tangled in the ropes.
Politicians and the media seem to make out mixed martial arts competitions as a blood bath, involving two unskilled brutes trying to kill each other. In my experience, nothing could be further from the truth. All the people that I know personally who have competed in or intend to compete in MMA fights or similar tournaments are generally very down-to-earth, respectful, hardworking, and relaxed individuals. They have nothing to prove, and don’t go starting fights in public.
The violent idiots that just want to hurt someone never get very far in training. Generally they show up to a training session or two and never again, because they realise what is involved. Becoming good at any serious combative sport involves being humble, keeping an open mind, acknowledging that there are people out there much better than you, learning from defeat or failure, working your butt off, and being persistent. The biggest battles you fight are internal battles within yourself. From what I have seen, at least at the amateur level, there is generally a high level of sportsmanship between competitors (in contrast to what we usually see in AFL matches).
One commonly used argument against violent sports is “we don’t want to condone violence, we are a civilised society”. I hate this argument. Allowing fighting tournaments to take place does not condone violence. It does not send out the message that it is OK to be violent at home or at a nightclub. Two consenting adults challenging each other on fair terms with rules in place is quite far removed from a bunch of idiots assaulting someone outside a nightclub.
I believe that, just like any other animal, we humans have some natural aggression in us, and this is OK and not something to be embarrassed of. We need to be able to let this aggression out in a controlled manner. Labeling all forms and expressions of our natural physical aggression as being undesirable and taboo is just plain unhealthy. I am a fairly highly strung person, but after a good hard training session I feel relaxed and content (and a little less bothered by the stupid drivers going slow in the right lane on the freeway).
People are different. Everyone has different standards for what is too violent or too brutal. Some people would say that any contact sport like AFL or rugby is too violent. Others would disagree. It is a personal thing and everyone should be allowed to make their own choice. No one is being forced to watch or participate in something they don’t like.
Another argument often used against cage fighting is that it is unsafe. I disagree. Sure, it is has some risks associated with it, and accidents can happen, but I don’t think it is any more dangerous than many other sports such as football, rugby, boxing and so on. While maybe they aren’t as violent in nature, fast paced physical ball sports such as rugby or football seem like they would have a higher chance of serious injury because there are multiple people on the field at one time, there is lots of space and people are running at each other at high speed, there is only one referee who can’t be looking everywhere at once, and it is quite probable that you will be hit or tackled or run into by someone you didn’t see and weren’t able to brace yourself for. A mixed martial arts bout is more closely refereed, with one referee per two fighters. Fights usually only take place between two opponents of similar skill or experience, and similar weight. As soon as one of the fighters is unable to intelligently defend themselves, or when they voluntarily submit (give up), the fight is ended.
At first glance, boxing may appear to be safer than mixed martial arts, due to the bigger gloves, and more restrictive rules (no kicks, no grappling, no knees, etc). However, I believe these restrictions actually make it more brutal. In boxing you have no choice but to trade punches with your opponent, and as a result boxers get frequently punched in the head. On the other hand, mixed martial arts is a more flexible game where you have other options; there is grappling and ground fighting and it is possible to finish a fight by submission (which causes the opponent no damage provided they tap out). From what I know, mixed martial arts has a good safety track record with few serious injuries or deaths.
From the article in the Sydney Morning Herald:
The AMA says cage fighting is dangerous and puts contestants’ lives at risk.
You could substitute just about any activity (e.g. driving a car, riding a bike, playing football) in place of the words cage fighting in the above phrase and it would still be true. The AMA would probably like to ban just about anything else that has some tiny element of risk associated with it. Doctors aren’t experts on everything, and their advice has to be taken in context. Don’t get me wrong, I have great respect for doctors and some of my close friends are doctors. Doctors are great at helping sick or injured people recover and lead a normal life. However they are generally not experts on helping an already healthy person become a better, faster, stronger athlete. I believe that because doctors tend to deal with people who have something wrong with them, they tend to have a skewed point of view. Some time ago, I hurt my back and went to see a doctor hoping for a detailed diagnosis on what happened, and advice on what I could do to prevent the same thing from happening in the future (e.g increase my flexibility, strengthen certain muscles, warm up differently, etc). Instead the doctor’s advice was that I should never lift weights again, and just do light jogging instead. Talk about a defeatist attitude, and legally covering your ass!
One thing that really pisses me off is people who believe that they have the right to tell other people what to do. As long as no one is being harmed or having their property damaged against their will, let people do what they want. I’m sick of living in a dumbed down idiot-proof world, where everything is covered in warning labels, no one takes responsibility for their actions, people expect compensation for their own stupidity or bad luck, every piece of information comes with a disclaimer, and anything that is remotely dangerous or doesn’t fit in with the current politically correct flavour of the month gets banned.
Obviously mixed martial arts is not a sport for everyone. Some people prefer football or cricket or tennis or chess. We are all different and that’s fine and good! All I ask is that if you don’t like a sport or activity, then feel free not to to watch or participate in it, but don’t ruin it for other people that do!
I would love to hear anyone else’s opinion on this matter, or feedback on what I have written.
21 August 2007, 11:55 in Martial Arts
John Will on the hourglass training model
Australian BJJ black-belt John Will recently posted on what he calls the Hourglass Training Model.
In the commonly used method of teaching, which he refers to as the Showerhead model, students are shown a variety of finishes (outcomes) from a single starting point. He likens this to being shown one way to catch a fish, and five way to cook it. The problem is that if you can’t catch the fish, then even if you know two hundred ways to cook it, you will still go hungry.
The Hourglass model uses a different approach, where students are shown a variety of ways to end up at the same outcome from different starting points. In other words, you teach the student five ways to catch a fish and one way to cook it. This ensures the student has the maximum chance of putting what they learnt into practice. By catching fish repeatedly, even if you only know one way to cook it, you will not go hungry. Additionally, you will quickly become better at cooking from the practice you are getting.
For example, in a typical BJJ class, students may be shown four attacks from side control. However, if they are unable to maintain the side control position on an opponent, then knowing these four attacks is of no real use to them. In contrast, with the Hourglass teaching model, the students would be shown a few ways to achieve the side control position, and then only one attack to finish from there.
The Hourglass teaching model puts the emphasis on getting the student to the starting-line as many times as possible in the course of grappling/sparring. The more ways the student has in to the beginning of the technique, the greater the chances are that they will have the opportunity to try the technique. Ultimately, the more opportunities they have to try the technique, the more likely it becomes that they will be successful with it.
I often find myself frustrated because I am taught advanced techniques that rely on some premise being true. When I wrestle that premise is not satisfied and thus I can never pull off the techniques. Then, because I haven’t successfully practiced the techniques, they quickly get pushed to the back of my brain and are soon forgotten. I believe a lot of students would benefit from more frequent use of the Hourglass model.
28 May 2007, 23:57 in Martial Arts
Some notes on standup grappling from John Will seminar
In the recent BJJ seminar that John Will gave on Sunday 20 May 2007, we started with some stand-up stuff which I found really useful.
One of the first things we did was pummeling. This is a semi-cooperative drill done with a partner that is very useful for stand-up grappling. Initially, you both start in over-under-position which means you have one underhook and one overhook. The objective is to get double underhooks on your partner.
Something to always keep in mind during standup grappling is that if you put the wrong leg forward it is easy for an opponent to scoop up that leg and take you down. I had always been taught that you should keep your blind leg back. This means that if your opponents head is to your right, then you keep your right leg back. However, John said you should keep the leg back on the side where you do not have an underhook on your opponent. If you have an underhook with, say, your right hand, then this allows you to control them enough to prevent them from reaching down to that side. Thus if you have an underhook with your right arm then you would keep your left leg back and right leg forward. I haven’t got a chance to play with this yet but will have to try it out.
We learnt a way to get to a control position, similar to a guillotine, from under-over-position. Say you have an underhook on your opponent with your right arm and an overhook with your left. Keep the underhook in place. With your overhook hand, grab the back of your opponents head and pull it into you while applying forward pressure against it with your own head. The force of your hand pulling back and your head pushing forward create an equilibrium resulting in no movement. We then suddenly step back and stop pushing forward with our own head, breaking the equilibrium and causing their head to come towards us and down. With your left hand pull/push their head down and grab around their chin with your left hand, all the while still keeping the underhook with the other hand.
From this position we learnt three different takedowns – a turning kind of throw, a far leg shoot, and a near leg shoot.
The first takedown involves stepping your left foot behind you and to the right, and turning to the left 180 degrees in a tight circle, using your left hand on their chin and your right overhook to throw them onto their back. This is a nice setup for an armbar too; once they are on their back, keep your right foot planted and turn back the opposite direction (to the right) around their arm with your left foot.
The far leg shoot involves keeping your left hand on their chin to control their head, as you drop your level and reach under them with your right arm. You drive forward under them, dropping onto your right knee, and with your right hand, grab the back of their right heel and drive (diagonally?) backwards.
If the far leg shoot fails because they posted out with the far leg, we immediately switch to the close leg shoot. With your right hand, grab the back of their close (left) leg heel and drive into them.
I haven’t trained BJJ since the seminar because I somehow strained a muscle in my belly while doing squats, but very keen to get back on the mat!