Cooler than a polar bear's toenails.
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Cooler than a polar bear's toenails.
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PART ONE Some of the most interesting and impressive things in life are also some of the most complicated. We watch in awe as a pianist taps out a symphony with seemingly no effort, or a chess grandmaster creates intricate puzzles and traps for their opponent to solve. However, this complexity can be a double-edged sword. We tend to forget that that same pianist started out by playing Chopsticks and learning where to put their fingers. At one point, a grandmaster couldn't tell you how to set up the pieces on the board. This overwhelming feeling tends to stop us from learning new things and dull our enthusiasm once we're learning them. Now, in most cases, Brazilian jiu jitsu is no different. But I believe it can be. In this series, I plan on simplifying the sport so that anyone, from advanced practitioners to people who have never trained but are interested, can have a guide to reference. I'm not going to spend a lot of time going into detail about techniques here. Rather, I'll give you some ideas to play with. First of all, what is Brazilian jiu jitsu? Jiu jitsu is a way of movement, as well as a martial art and combat sport. It can be used for self-defense, or simply for fitness. It can be trained with or without the "gi" (karate-looking uniform). You see it if you turn on the TV to watch UFC: It's the part where someone chokes the other guy, or makes his limb bend the wrong way. Instead of revolving around punches and kicks, jiu jitsu focuses on grappling. The reason being is pretty simple: Jiu jitsu is based around efficiency. If I were to fight someone who outweighed me, trading punches with them would probably be a bad idea. My best bet would be to take them to the ground, where if I knew how to position myself, I could put them in a situation where they were unable to generate force. In sport jiu jitsu, (usually what people refer to), strikes are illegal. Because of this, practitioners can train hard with minimal injuries as compared to something like boxing, where constantly sparring hard is a recipe for disaster. This sparring is referred to as rolling. As opposed to drilling, where you practice techniques without resistance, rolling is done "live". During rolling, you can see how effective you are when someone is trying to stop you. In short, you won't see any pressure point knockouts or chi blasts in jiu jitsu... nor will you see punches or kicks. So then what do you do? Paraphrasing John Danaher, arguably the most successful jiu jitsu coach there is, jiu jitsu typically follows a four-step process, regardless of whether it's being used in a sport context or fighting/self-defense: 1. Take the fight to the ground. On the ground, the chances of someone doing something random to hurt you become significantly less. 2. Get past your opponent's legs. A trained jiu jitsu fighter can use them to attack you. Whether they're trained or not, people tend to kick upwards as well, which can be very damaging. 3. Get to pinning position, somewhere you can attack the guy and he can't attack you. We will touch more on this later. 4. Finish the fight with a submission hold. A submission? When most people think of jiu jitsu, they think of submission holds, and for good reason: they are the ultimate end goal of the sport. A submission is a technique that could cause harm to your opponent if they don't escape or submit (give up, surrender). Because of this, the first technique you should familiarize yourself with is the "tap"! By tapping two or more times on your partner/opponent, or verbally saying "Tap", you surrender, and your opponent releases their submission. In sport jiu jitsu it's illegal to attack individual fingers, eyes, mouth, or grab the windpipe or the groin. Depending on the competition, everything else is pretty much fair game: The upper body can be attacked with: - wristlocks (self-explanatory) - armbars (an elbow lock) - or moves such as kimura and omoplata (attacking the shoulder). Less commonly, the muscles can also be attacked (bicep slicer). In some cases, people will attack the spine (twister) or compress the ribs. The legs can be attacked with - ankle locks & toeholds (Which attack the ankles, not the toes, by the way) - kneebars - heel hooks (attacking the knee and/or ankle) as well as calf slicers and moves like "banana split" (attacking the hips and groin muscles). However, the kings of all submissions are chokes and strangles. Hypothetically, someone could allow their arm or leg to break and continue fighting. It's happened in combat sports more than once, and if you're using jiu jitsu in self-defense, someone who is high on drugs or adrenaline may not be stopped by a broken limb, or not feel it until later. This is not the case with a choke. Technically speaking, a choke cuts off someone's air supply, a strangle attacks the carotid arteries, cutting off blood flow to the brain. Most of the time, they're both colloquialized as chokes. Regardless of what you call them, no matter how big or tough someone is, if they're in a good choke they're going to sleep. There are many varieties of chokes utilizing the arms, legs, and sometimes the opponent's own jacket. Personally, I value the rear naked choke above all, "naked" referring to the fact that you don't have to grab cloth to apply the choke (not that the practitioners have to be naked). The reason I value the rear naked choke so much is simple. Done properly, it is the most straightforward and powerful way to submit someone; your two arms versus their neck, a battle you're very likely to win.
To perform the choke requires you being behind your opponent. While getting there can be difficult, the position comes with many advantages, which brings us to our next topic: Jiu jitsu is a game of positions. Just like in chess, where various pieces are assigned advantages and disadvantages, jiu jitsu revolves around positions and a constant struggle between a top player and a bottom player. All jiu jitsu matches begin in the standing position. Here, athletes look to advance position by either taking their opponent down and working from the top, or "pulling guard", essentially taking themselves down and working from the bottom. Why would anyone choose to do that, you ask? Good question. On the ground, positions generally fit into two categories: guards and pins. A guard refers to any time a bottom player puts their legs in between themselves and their opponent. From there, they can use their bodies to set up submissions, or to reverse their opponent and come up on top (known as a sweep). There are many different configurations of guards, and the technical battle between the top player trying to pass and the bottom player trying to sweep and submit can be very thrilling to see. Whether you passed your opponent's guard, or simply won a chaotic scramble, chances are you might find yourself with a pin. Unlike a guard, which is neutral by nature (hence the name) and can be used to either defend or attack, if you're on the receiving end of a pin, you're in danger. A pin is out of the way of your opponent's guard and is very offensive. Once you've pinned your opponent, your options to attack them open up significantly and they're given the burden of escaping and defending. There are five major pins in jiu jitsu: - Back mount/Back control (Four points under IBJJF rules) - Mount (4 pts) - Side control - Knee on belly (3 pts) - North-South While side control and north south don't score points under IBJJF rules, the action of passing an opponent's guard will score three points, and most of the time, a guard pass will end with a side control or north south. Out of these five main pins, mount and the back are more dominant than the others and are scored accordingly. The reason being is they offer the most opportunities for attack while preventing your opponent's attacks, with mount having you on your opponent's chest and the back having you behind your opponent, hidden from danger. In summary... "Jiu jitsu is pretty complicated," you might be thinking if you read this far in the post. Honestly, it is, but to me that's what makes it so appealing. In this sport, there's always room for improvement and learning. There won't be easy wins anywhere, but when the victories come, you can be sure you've earned them. The satisfaction of seeing yourself evolve as not only a grappler, but a person, is incomparable. At the risk of sounding cliched, it's a lifestyle, one where you learn to love the journey. Until next time, when I'll go into a little more detail about practicing and learning BJJ! - Rick
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(The following is a short story I had to write for a creative writing course.)
Against dead silence, one will notice the smallest noises. This became clear to the man as he sat on the floor, looking out the window at nothing but darkness. Only his reflection looked back, illuminated by the flickering light above him. Two distinct rhythms filled the room. A steady drum, and a steady buzzing. Beads of sweat lined his forehead as he stood up, pacing around. He had been doing this for days, in some form or another. His breathing intensified, and he screamed, an explosion of noise that seemed to remain within the room long after his voice gave out. Eventually, even that stopped. The pressure in his head was that of a million pounds as he checked the empty cabinets once more. He walked over to the console in front of him, slowly pressing every button. For a second, the submarine seemed to move towards the surface. But then the buzzing left the room, and with it, the light. The only sound that remained was his heartbeat. With time, he realized, that would start to fade too. He sat in the dark and waited. |
how do you doI write for the people who read. enjoy! |