Josh Vogel Art

Breathing for power in Grappling....

2012-02-12T17:46:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone,

Here's a cool video I filmed with my buddy Jason a few weeks ago. It's an idea that I've been working for about 6 months on with using breath control to increase the power you can apply in doing certain chokes and joint locks. Enjoy!

Leverage; First Blood

2012-02-09T16:44:00.000-08:00

Hey all,

I figured I would mention a new product that my buddy (Jason C. Brown) and I are putting out. It's going to be an instructional video showing some of the principles of body movement and mechanics using very simple Bjj techniques and corresponding Kettlebell exercises as a way to illustrate these ideas. It's going to be 6 modules with 2/3 videos per module. The videos will be short, just meat and potatoes stuff, so 5-8 minutes each video.

The first module focuses on Base, the second on Posture/structure, the third on Leverage, the fourth on hip Movement, the fifth on breathing to amplify leverage, the sixth and final one will focus on flow. The stuff we have in these videos will be principles and concepts that you can apply to any Bjj or Kettlebell technique that you use (they really can apply to any physical activity)

I'll keep you all posted on developments, but it will be out sometime next month I think and should run about $37, so it's reasonably priced. Jason explains it much better than I do here:
http://www.bjjworkouts.com/leverage/

What's cool about this project is that Jason knows a whole lot about how the human body works and we kind of work off each other developing ideas and through his knowledge, I'm better able to explain some of the stuff I know via Bjj training that I'm not able to explain eloquently in a scientific way. Plus he's a cool dude.

Changing directions...

2012-02-01T15:33:00.000-08:00

My goal for my Grappling training this year revolves around making all the Grappling I do more efficient. I want to use less effort when possible, use effort when it will save me effort later, and do what I can to make all of my movements, breathing and energy expenditure more efficient and less wasteful.

In my video study, and practice with my Judo and Wrestling coaches, I notice that one of the key concepts that seems to make them really really effective without wasting energy is that the best grapplers I know and watch seem to be masters of the directional change. Simply put, they go one way and then go the other way and sometimes switch back the other way very very quickly and with conviction.

If you watch Rodolfo Viera, his guard passing is a masterclass in getting a grip, passing one way and as soon as the bottom player reacts to that direction, he switches direction and moves the other way, passing cleanly and effortlessly.

And if you watch Marcelo Garcia, particularly from butterfly guard, you will see that he commonly switches quickly from a sweep in one direction to a sweep in the opposite or another direction. He also will sweep one way and quickly switch directions/intentions into a submission, like a guillotine for example:

And in the case of Judo, when I train with my Judo coach one of the most amazing things about how he throws me is that he will quickly attack with a throw and as I am adjusting to that feignt, he will switch his hips into another direction to take advantage of my adjustment, making my reaction exactly what he needs to complete his second throw (this is not my coach, but he does the same quick switching move with his hips at :30,:43 and 1:07 of this video)

And in wrestling you see this a lot with single legs and double legs, switching directions to complete the takedown. Incidentally, in MMA, the super man punch is a great example of this same concept. It so happens that George St.Pierre is a perfect model for both the superman punch and the wrestling style takedown examples of switching directions back and forth. Here's a good video of some examples of this. Watch the small movements of his hips when he strikes and executes his takedowns:

Having been on the receiving end of this switching various times with all of my coaches, I hate the way it feels. It makes me want to have a temper tantrum and smile at the same time because it feels like the perfect effortless pass/throw/takedown when it happens, but it is also frustrating because it makes you feel extra helpless when someone does this effortlessly to you. In some ways it reminds me of a magic trick where the magician has a coin in one hand and through a series of small misdirections makes you think that the coin is in his other hand when it's really in the first hand, then he pulls it out of your ear. Misdirection.....

Filming your own instructionals as a learning tool

2012-01-27T08:06:00.000-08:00

I love google. You can pick any word or phrase and almost immediately learn about that thing. You can also find some truly wonderful pictures in the images section to illustrate a point. :)

My buddy, Jason C Brown (www.bjjworkouts.com) and I are filming an instructional Bjj/kettlebell series right now and it occurred to me how much stuff I learned just in the process of making an instructional.

When you decide to teach something, especially if it's going to be spread to the masses, you have to do your research. You freestyle a little, but you also have to know what you are talking about and research every detail pretty thoroughly. You have to know that you are using terms correctly, you have to know that what you are teaching is accurate and you have to anticipate questions and trouble shoot that thing.

The theme of our instructional is going to be very very basic concepts in Bjj and Kettlebells. Base, posture/structure, leverage, breathing, etc...and we are using relatively simple techniques to illustrate these points. So my research in doing this project had to be pretty thorough. I had to check and double check that my understanding of the basics of leverage is correct. Check and make sure that my understanding of base, alignment, etc... are all accurate and that I can convey these ideas to my millions of adoring fans ;) I have to make sure that when I demonstrate the techniques, there is no disconnect between what I am describing and what I am showing.

Sometimes there is the tendency to "know" a thing and "do" a thing without a clear idea of what is really happening. What I mean is that you know how to do an armbar, and you think you are applying that knowledge directly to your practice, but when you actually do the armbar, you do something different. Depending on your awareness, this gap can be slight, or it can be pretty significant. You could teach someone to curl your toes up when finishing a triangle choke, but when you actually triangle someone you do not do that thing.

This can mean a couple of things: Sometimes you are just not doing the technique the way that you know you should be doing it, maybe it's laziness, maybe it's that you are rushing the move or you are too anxious while applying it. Or sometimes it means that your "knowledge" of the technique is flawed. It means that what you know needs to be refined so it reflects in the results that you get when you do the technique. Or sometimes your performance of the move is ahead of your knowledge of the move. Sometimes your body teaches your mind. That's when you are rolling, trying a technique and you make a small adjustment without even thinking about it; just something small that you do that you didn't even realize that lets you hit that armbar....

That's what video is great for. You can watch video of yourself doing something, break it down into digestable parts and practice it the way that you do it when you have success with it, rather than the way that you "think" is right. It's also wonderful for correcting mistakes.

So, there's that old idea that the best way to learn something is to teach it. I think teaching is a great way to learn, and making your own instructional videos (even if they are only for yourself) is a good way of lumping multiple learning technologies together. You:

1. Analyze the thing
2. Figure out how to teach the thing
3. Get video of yourself doing the thing
4. If someone watches the video, you get outside feedback on your version of the thing

There are tons of small instructional video clips that my brother and I have filmed just for fun or for our own use over the years on my youtube channel (most are private, but some are public), it's www.youtube.com/joshv if you want a look. As we have improved over the years, it's kind of fun to go back and look at the differences between how we used to do and teach things back then, and how things have evolved now. It's also fun to cross reference that stuff with our competition footage to see what we actually do under pressure. My armbar from the guard is quite different in competition than the way that I used to drill it and sometimes teach it years ago. It took me a while to realize that what I do under pressure is quite different than what I "knew" to do. I was able to modify accordingly.

I'm kind of inspired to go back and look again at some of those old videos and see what I can "see" now...

Invisible skateboarding, Invisible Jiujitsu

2012-01-22T08:09:00.001-08:00

There is a fascination in the Brazilian JIujitsu world with what Rickson Gracie coined as "Invisible Jiujitsu". I've heard the term mentioned in other places, Braulio Estimas instructionals, John Danaher uses the term in his rebuttal of Bj Penns accusations of GSP greasing during their last fight. The term indicates that there is more to grappling than meets the eye. There is also an idea out there that Grappling is a game of inches. That moving a limb, or shifting your bodyweight in an inch one way or the other can have profound influences on the overall effect of a technique or movement.

I believe this to be very true, without a doubt.

Now here's another idea, it's related, so don't worry, I'm not getting too far off track. I've been reading this book called "The Medeci Effect". It's pretty good so far and presents some interesting ideas. It's a pop-whatever book, like Malcolm Gladwells books and The Talent code, Talent is overrated. The idea that the book hangs on is that great innovations are found in the intersection of fields. Take Submission grappling for example. If you take just the traditional Brazilian Jiujitsu element of 5 basic positions and submissions based on those, you have one line going in one direction. If you take the Leg lock game from Sambo you have another line, moving in a different direction (different arts, different goals, different directions). Now intersect those two lines and what happens? If you intersect the line at the guard position in Bjj, you have someone who can play the traditional sweeps/submission game of Bjj who now has the added skillset of someone who can attack leglocks. This now creates a whole new direction of thought , positions, transitions and subs, to explore.

You get the idea.

So, one of the other "memes" of Brazilian Jiujitsu is that the Invisible Jiujitsu cannot be taught in videos or books. It has to be felt to be understood. This leads to a whole lot of frustration, if you are like me and want to know what the hell people are talking about when they type vague seminar reviews of what they learned at the Rickson Gracie seminars. Countless people post on forums "why can't you just type something useful, explain some techniques or something!", frustrated that people go online and talk about how awesome these seminars were, but don't explain anything they learned.

One thing about that is that there are plenty of gems that people have dropped from the seminars. Details of limb positioning, concepts about "connection", etc... but that's not dazzling enough for a lot of people.

So I went to one of Mr. Rickson Gracies seminars a couple of years ago...I was blown away, and I also found myself in the same boat, I couldn't really explain well what I learned there. Sure there were technical details, the connection thing and some other concepts. But it just seemed kind of empty when put down in written word. It seemed more three dimensional when I was there are the seminar, and it doesn't really take shape until you have someone there showing it to you and making you feel it.

So I was thinking, maybe I can use the ideas from "The Medeci Effect" to help explain to others, and maybe explain better to myself why it is so hard to explain the subtleties of Jiujitsu to someone else. I'm not trying to explain "Invisible" this or that; I'm trying to explain why some stuff is hard to explain. I'm not just talking about the Rickson Gracie Seminar, hell, I just went to one seminar, I don't really know much beyond that about his style (and whatever I've gleaned from video analysis of his students and him competing). But I think I can use my 24 (or so) years of experience skateboarding to help illuminate a little:

In skateboarding, at first you learn how to push and then you learn some tricks. You learn ollies, 180's, 360's, etc...there are some fundamental movements that you need to do anything else in skateboarding. At first it's enough just to have your feet on the board. As time passes, you develop sensitivity to the leverage of the tricks. You feel when a trick isn't going to happen, it's almost like a sixth sense. Sometimes you still do the trick and that's when you bust your ass on some hard concrete. You learn to adjust foot placement. It's amazing how an inch here or an inch there can influence the rotation of a skateboard during a kickflip, or an inch here or there can influence the height or quality of an ollie. If your front foot is close to the top bolts of the board, this is usually sufficient to ollie up a curb. To ollie over a fire hydrant, this will not be enough (unless you are very tall, or the board very short, then the leverage changes).

Time passes and your body feels the proper foot placement, now it's more a matter of the pressure that you place on different parts of your foot, your small weight shifts, your focus going into the trick. Internal things that you have to feel to be aware of. It becomes so that everything starts to matter; what kind of board, the concave, the wheels, the tightness of the bolts, the condition of the bearings, the footwear you are using. These things all start to FEEL important and they are minor things in a sense, but not minor things in another sense. They all contribute to the overall FEEL of whatever you are doing on the skateboard. Things that I suppose you could explain to someone, but not in a way that would make much sense, or allow them to learn much from it. The thing is that I think you have to be at a certain level of skateboarding (I'm not talking about being good or bad at it, I'm talking about a certain level of sensitivity and awareness and experience that only comes with years of doing the thing) to understand this stuff. When I skateboard, I can't really do any good tricks any more, with any real skill. I can do some basic stuff, but nothing substantial, I'm not willing to get hurt doing the stuff I used to. However, I can push the skateboard really really well and I feel everything with a really high degree of sensitivity when I am pushing and cruising down the street. I can feel everything and I feel, in an almost OCD kind of way when something is off. I've whittled down my skateboarding game to the bare essentials and I choose to focus on and master those. They are safe, they are fun and that's how I can keep progressing. I'll never be in the X games with that stuff, but it's enough to keep me happy and learning.

I think Brazilian Jiujitsu shares some of the same qualities. One glaring difference is that it is difficult to teach the invisible aspects of skateboarding to someone else because the skateboard doesn't talk and cannot tell you if the pressure is right. A person, however can. They can give you feed back, and you can discuss things after sparring or drilling to help improve certain points. But what IS similar is that everything starts off with rough, broad strokes and progresses to the fine lines. You start off with a rough looking armbar and end up with a subtle armbar that uses small pressures here and there to coax the opponent into submission. You start with something coarse and end up with something fine and profound. But you have to go through all the steps and go through the growing process.

The thing is, I know that there is an efficient and invisible aspect to every activity. It's the same old story that every art shares. I cannot say that I am anywhere near that level with Brazilian Jiujitsu, I'm certainly not. But I've tasted a little of that from skateboarding and from the seminar and from the skill of people that are much much better than me at Bjj. Sometimes a taste is enough to give you a direction to go in. Sometimes a taste is enough to figure out the recipe, if you work at it.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Efficiency...afterthoughts....

2012-01-17T11:00:00.000-08:00

After training a little Bjj today, I had some afterthoughts about the idea of Efficiency. One thing that occurred to me is that the Philosophy of Efficiency is different than that of using "No strength". That's a pretty common idea in Brazilian Jiujitsu is the idea of not using strength. I think it's more along the lines of efficiency to use your strength as effectively as possible and finding ways to downgrade the amount of energy wasted. It's a matter of degrees, I think. Using "No strength" kind of implies that putting energy into your movement or techniques is not good. Like using any energy is frowned upon. Making your movement/techniques more efficient implies that you are in a constant process of making your movement more efficient by degrees; a little here, a little there, step by step. It also implies that sometimes it's more efficient to use strength and energy than to not do so. For example, if you are 2 minutes into a match and you have a submission locked in, it might be more efficient to "add some juice" to the sub to finish it. Sometimes "adding some juice" is an efficient thing in itself, you can use body mechanics and breathing mechanics to amplify your strength enough to fulfill your needs. So if you are working to finish that armbar and you have to use some strength, there is the option of holding your breath and pulling as hard as you can without coordinated movement, or you can tighten certain muscle groups and use a controlled exhale as squeeze the armbar free to finish it. Efficient strength vs. inefficient strength. Being efficient based on the circumstances vs. not using strength at all.

This also brings up the idea of what is using strength? Here's a scenario: A black belt in Gracie Jiujitsu/Brazilian Jiujitsu is telling a white belt that he is using too much strength when performing their armbars. The Black belt then demonstrates an armbar that "feels" effortless to them. They easily jump their hips up high into the armpit, throw their leg over and hip in to the armbar. The white belt is unable to replicate the technique with the same sense of ease and grace. It is clumbsy, the hips don't jump up high enough, they kick their partner in the head trying to throw their leg over the head and they have trouble hipping in for the armbar. What is the problem?

The problem is not that the white belt using too much strength, in my opinion. It is that the black belt has been performing that armbar for 10 plus years. They have developed the strength and coordination to support the movement. Since there are not a lot of movements in normal civilian life that replicate the exact movements and the exact sequence of movements that the armbar uses, the white belts body is unconditioned and uninformed in how to perform the movement. This is why drilling and repetition is useful (using a myriad of drilling techniques, not just static drilling). So when the black belt tells the white belt not to use strength (in this particular instance, in other instances it's a valid statement), it might be more useful to just ask the white belt to repeat the movement over and over again, trying to make the movement as efficient as possible each time. Eventually, with instruction and perseverance, the white belt will develop the strength and coordination necessary to complete an efficient armbar. The Black belt has developed strength, but it's an efficient strength and their mentality further reinforces the use of efficiency.

When I was rolling earlier today, I tried to keep the idea of efficiency in my head the whole time. I asked myself over and over again if I was doing the most efficient thing in each situation. Sometimes in answer to this, I found that I had to relax more and use my body weight, or place a hook differently. Sometimes I found that I had to squeeze a grip tighter rather than pulling with my lats and back and sometimes I found that it was a matter of speeding up in certain spots. It was an interesting experiment and completely different feeling than when I roll with the mentality of not using ANY strength or energy.

By the way, I should explain the picture at the top of this post.

1. The first reason I chose this picture is that as cheesy and over used as the example of the lion hunting it's prey is; it's a model of efficiency. They wait outside the view of their prey for the perfect moment to strike and when the opportunity is there, they sprint and catch their prey by the neck. The entry is efficient, they use the energy in an efficient way to catch the prey and the finish their prey in an efficient way. Note that it is not without energy, it is just well applied energy.

2. Lions are really, really awesome.

Maximum efficiency, minimum effort.....

2012-01-17T09:01:00.000-08:00

The term "Maximum efficiency, minimum effort" is pretty commonly used in reference to Judo and Bjj. For my purposes, this short phrase could be shortened to "maximum efficiency". (The term "mutual benefit" is also associated with this). I'm not going to dig too deep into Judo maxims and philosophy as I don't really know what the hell I'm talking about in that world. I do, however have some thoughts about efficiency.

I kind of want to start the cool intellectual blogger way, by posting a websters dictionary definition of "efficiency" but I'll resist the temptation, I do enough cheesy stuff on this blog :) I just tried to write my own definition of efficiency, but that turned out pretty lame too, so I'll leave it at that. You know what efficiency is, haha.

I think that there are many ways to be efficient, and the more you can layer those ways of being efficient on top of each other, the more they magnify each other exponentially. For example, if you have efficient technique in grappling, and have efficient breathing patterns; then you will be much more effective than just having one of those skill sets. If you add being in good physical condition on top of that, it multiplies further, if you know how to make your opponent tired, etc...

Some of the layers of efficiency, as I see it:

-Efficiency in grappling technique
-Efficiency in pace/energy expenditure
-Efficiency in breathing (which relates to the previous)
-Efficiency in timing
-Efficiency in fitness level (are you prepared physically for the demands of your sport/art?)
-Efficiency in diet (are you eating the right foods at the right times to maximize your performance?)
-Efficiency in thought (are you thinking in ways that support the other aspects of your sport/art?)
-Efficiency in outside life (are you surrounded by people who support your lifestyle? does your work schedule harmonize with your goals? etc...)

There's a lot of stuff, now that I start to write it all down. If you think in terms of systems, you start to understand how all things relate to each other in a delicate balance. If your work schedule is keeping you up all night and you don't sleep enough you will have a harder time making classes that are set up for folks with more normal schedules. If you are married to someone who breaks your balls every time you try to go to class to grapple, then you will start to have some problems in that arena that make everything else less efficient. If you aren't in good grappling shape, even with good grappling technique you may become overwhelmed and fatigue (which might not always effect your technique, but will certainly effect the mental qualities that drive your technique and the sharpness of application).

I'm not saying that you have to have the perfectly harmonious life. That's really tough to do, I think, if not impossible. But I think it helps to look at Efficiency as a lifestyle, rather than a vague idea that relates only to grappling. I also think it helps to do some research into systems thinking to help see with more clarity how everything is part of a whole. Once you see things as systems within systems, you can start to break your systems apart and look for problems with efficiency and fix those things to make smoother. Here's a book on systems thinking that I particularly like:

So, to bring it all back together, I think that it's great to have efficient technique. I think it's great to have efficient movement skills. I think it's great to have efficient breathing patterns. I think understanding how these things relate to each other and magnify each other is super important. I think understanding how extending your use of the efficiency principle to areas outside the scope of grappling is a way of bringing your abilities to a higher level. I felt this strongly when I was being trained by Jason C Brown (www.kettlebellathletics.com and www.bjjworkouts.com) for the Nogi pan ams this summer. As he improved my physical strength and conditioning, my mental abilities were improved and my technique improved as a result. As an extention my home life improved as did other areas of my life. An improvement in efficiency in one part of the system improved my efficiency in most other areas of my system.

I hope that made sense, I'm pretty brain dead today haha....

Interview with 68 year old artist and Bjj Blue/Purple belt Willy Adler!

2012-01-12T13:45:00.000-08:00

I was hanging out with my friend Willy yesterday and decided that it would be the perfect time to interview him. I see a lot of interviews in Bjj with World Champions, active competitors, athletes, etc...but I don't feel like they are representative of the majority who practice the art. Don't get me wrong, I love those interviews, and I love hearing what those folks have to say; but I don't really see many people interviewed who can serve as inspiration for the majority of practitioners. People who are recreational Jiujitsu people who are in it for the fun, for the exercise, for the self defense or for the lifestyle. People who will probably be training in their 40's, 50's and hopefully later. Willy is the perfect guy to interview, for me, because not only is he the most in shape guy I have ever met who is older than 50 (he's 68 years old!!!), but he's a true individual and carries with him a taste of the past. He is working from a different operating system from most people that I know and I have a ton of respect for him. Whether you agree with his ideas or not, they are most certainly HIS ideas and I admire that he isn't afraid to share them.

In this interview, we kept a pretty loose format with the questions. He talks a lot about how he stays in shape, some of his views on diet, exercise, Bjj, art...etc...

I should mention, he is doing an art show of his paintings in Massachusetts in February (around the 18th I think), I'll post more info for those who are interested in checking it out. Here is his website if you want to see his work: www.willyadler.com

Without further adieu, here's the interview. Sorry it's in so many parts, I did it on my phone lol:

More awesome stuff. Bodyweight exercise competitions.

2012-01-12T12:54:00.000-08:00

Anyone who likes bodyweight exercises, has free time and access to youtube has probably seen these types of videos. There's these guys called the Bartendaz who started putting out these crazy videos of people doing all kinds of insane bodyweight stuff at public playgrounds around NYC. Pull up variations, push up, dip, everything you could possibly think of to do on a playground; they have done. It's like they have taken the pull up and the dip and raised it to an art form. In some ways it reminds me of Parkour or Urban Free running, but a more specialized subset of that.

Pretty much gymnastics/feats of strength on monkey bars. Amazing stuff. Check out this guy, Hannibal, that's some strength right there:

What I like so much about this stuff is that it's so unconventional. It's like skateboarding in that you are making your environment into a canvas and your body into a paintbrush. They can work out anywhere, bus stops, playgrounds, parking lots; anywhere! In skateboarding, my favorite skaters can take something seemingly mundane, say a curb or a small ledge, and spend hours milking every possible trick that they can think of out of that object. These guys in the video above are taking a playground and milking it for every ounce of movement/exercise value that they can, but they are also moving beyond the practicality of exercise into more artistic realms with it. Whew, I'm starting to get a bit too artsy here, haha.

When I was a kid, my brother and my friends and I would get together almost every day and ride around our neighborhood and look for stuff to skateboard on. We would use cardboard boxes that people threw in the trash to ollie over, we would use old desks that people didn't want anymore, old refridgerators, or we would simply go in back of the Quik E Mart and skate the same small platform that was there for years, covered in blackened wax from us doing sliding and grinding tricks on it. We would build ramps out of plywood or stack boards on top of each other to ollie over. We had to get really creative with finding new ways to push ourselves in skateboarding, trying to figure out ways to do something new or to make up new obstacles for us to skate on. There was a little of a competitive aspect to it, we would all kind of want to be the best skater of the bunch and when we hit new spots that other skaters were at we would try to get noticed a little....Maybe we would end up in Thrasher or Transworld skateboarding someday if enough people noticed.

These guys kind of remind me of some aspects of that. Obviously they aren't little kids skateboarding around New Jersey, but they are pushing each other through a social competition and they are using creativity to explore new ways to move and evolve in the things they choose to do. But beyond all that, they are just amazingly strong people who got that way by doing really unconventional stuff that looks like a whole lot of fun.

Beyond me trying to wax nostalgic and overanalyze this stuff; this is just plain cool. Just like Ninja Warrior.

I've also been watching this guy, Ido Portal, do some cool stuff with his body:

and I've been inspired to learn how to do what he and the guys in the above videos do. I'm starting off slow, trying to work on getting to the point where I can hold a hand stand for 10 seconds. So far I'm up to an astonishing 5 seconds before I tip over and get pissed off at myself for my lack of ability, haha. It's much harder than I thought, but trying to break down these guys movements into digestable parts and trying to figure out progressions that will get me closer to the point where I can move like this is super interesting to me. I also think that this will help with my Brazilian Jiujitsu practice a lot as it will help develop some of the upper body strength and stability that I lack right now. I notice that the hand stand practice is helping clear up some of the shoulder pains that I've been having for the last 6 months too.

Part of what appeals to me about this stuff, is that they are taking generic movements like push ups, dips, hand stands and pull ups and making them look fun, challenging and interesting. I want to be able to workout like these guys, but make it feel like play rather than something that I'm doing merely to get stronger. I'll get there, but I've got a whole lot of work to do :)

Ninja Warrior is awesome.

2012-01-06T13:47:00.000-08:00

I don't think you need me to tell you that Ninja Warrior on G4 is awesome; it's pretty obvious. It's the ultimate obstacle course and looks like a hell of a lot of fun, but that's not my favorite part of it. The thing that makes me love this show so much is that, at least on the Japanese version, the best athletes are always the last people you would expect. 40 year old fishermen, firemen, chefs, guys who are in their late 30's all the way to guys in their 50's.

Don't get me wrong, there are some 20 year old super athletes that do great on the show, but it just seems like the ones that do the best are these middle aged blue collar guys who take the sport super super seriously.

Today I watched an episode where an in shape Karateka in his 20's couldn't make it past the first obstacle and ten minutes later, a 59 year old Japanese clown/noodle shop owner was gliding effortlessly past the first few obstacles. Amazing!

Some of these guys take this really seriously as a sport and build their own training courses at home to practice the unique skills and movements neccesary to complete the course. Part of me really wants to try out for this show as it looks like an awful lot of fun. Who knows, maybe in the next year or so.

On American Ninja Warrior, an off shoot of the original program, it seems like there is a growing group of people following this and taking it seriously. Lots of guys in their 20's who already do Parkour and Urban Freerunning are training to go to Mount Midoryama and try out the Japanese course. What's interesting is that the dominant body type that seems to do best on this show (both Japanese and American) are people who are 5'7-5'9 about 145-155 lbs. People like me. Maybe that's part of why I love this show so much. It's cool to see guys built like me, who are my age (32) or older doing amazing gymnastic/movement feats.

Awesome.

How to make a Bjj belt part 3

2011-12-23T16:35:00.000-08:00

To illustrate my points in my last post, here are some photos of one of the belts deconstructed a little bit. This first picture is a view of the belt from the side. You can see how the ends are folded in to the cotton webbing core.

Here's a photo of the core material. This is cotton webbing, like you would use to make straps for a bag. Approx 1.5 inches wide. The blue part is the outside/sheath of the belt. Just thin cotton, like you would make bed sheets or pillow cases out of. You can sort of see how the ends would fold into the webbing here.

Here you can see some of the folds a little better.

While it's not my finest work :) , you can see how the stitching at the end of the belt would look. I pretty much just tied a knot and cut off the ends of the thread at the ends of the belt. On one of the Karate forums, I read that if you just sew all the way down the belt with straight rows rather than turning the belt at 90 degree angles and making almost "u" shapes at the ends of the rows, it prevents the belts from twisting and curling up if you end up washing your belts. I don't know how true that is, but it seems like it might make sense.

Here's a crappy picture of some crappy stitching that I did at the end of my purple belt from a couple of years ago. Since it was my own belt, I didn't really care to be super particular with the ends of this one. For other peoples belts I would take the time to go back with the machine and make sure the rows were clean and went all the way to the ends of the belts.

I'm sure there are better ways to tie off the ends of the belts, and there are definitely errors that I made in sewing as I was just kind of figuring stuff out as I went along. Someone with better sewing technique would probably make a much nicer product in the details. For example, you don't see the same sloppiness at the ends of the belt with Kataaro belts and the pictures I've seen of Eosin panther belts are also much much cleaner looking.

How to make your own Bjj belt, part 2

2011-12-22T13:11:00.000-08:00

In part one, I gave kind of an outline of some of the stuff that goes into making a belt. In part two, I drew a bunch of pictures to illustrate the step by step process of making the belt. I don't have the means or materials to actually make a belt right now, so the pictures will have to suffice. Hopefully they are clear enough to follow, if not, feel free to ask any questions and I'll be happy to clear up as needed.

Step 1 is to measure and cut your materials. I used 1.5 inch wide cotton webbing (like you would use for straps on a bag or something.) and doubled them up because I made pretty thick and heavy duty belts. You can use just one piece of cotton webbing if you want a lighter belt. Make sure that the piece of cotton that you use for the outer layer (sheath) of the belt is going to be wide and long enough to wrap the webbing and have some extra left over to fold inside of the webbing to make the edges of the belt. So if you are using 1.5 inch wide webbing, try using a 3.5 or 4 inch wide piece of cloth for the sheath. You can go even bigger if you like and trim it down based on your needs.

Step 2 is to sew the two pieces of webbing together. This is to minimize the materials sliding around when you are trying to sew the whole thing together later. All you need is to sew the two pieces of webbing together close to the edge on one side. Try to keep the webbing flat and even as you sew so it doesn't skew when you sew it or buckle/wrinkle. The side that is not yet sewn should open easily. Also, start and end your row of stitching about an inch in from the top and bottom of the belt so it can open a little at both ends too. You will need these opening later.

Part 3 is to fold the "sheath" over the webbing. Make sure that the sheath is long enough to hang over the edges of the webbing by about a half an inch or so. You will be using the extra cloth to pull the sheath tight as you sew it so you don't sew wrinkles into the belt. You will also need to make sure it's long enough that you can comfortably fold the ends over in between the layers of the sheath to make nice edges when the whole thing is sewn together.

Start off sewing one row in the whole sandwiched sheath/webbing along the same edge as the row that you sewed into the webbing. You still want the other end to be able to open up easily. Also, make sure that you leave about a half an inch unsewn at the top and bottom of the belt. This will allow you to fold/tuck the material of the ends into the webbing to make nice clean ends when sewn. Sometimes I will sew two or three rows into the belt at this stage just to make it easier to fold/tuck the cloth at the edges of the belt in in the next stage of sewing.

Step 4 is to fold/tuck the end of the webbing up into the tail end of the belt. You will make a row of stitching along the tail end of the belt perpendicular to the rows that you already have sewn. Make sure that you fold/tuck the other side of the belt into the open mouth part of the webbing before you sew that perpendicular row. Doing this will keep the end clean looking and allow you to continue with a row perpendicular to the one you just did so that you will now be sewing the belt lengthwise again. This is the hard part. You have to tuck the ends of the cloth into the open "mouth" of the webbing along the length of the belt every few inches. I would use sewing needles to hold these tucks in place as I go up the belt so it didn't start to skew or wrinkle as I sew. You should now have the belt completely sealed in on every side except for the top tail of the belt. You will have three or four rows of stitching sewn along the length of the belt so far. At the bottom sewn tail end, I'll usually sew two or sometimes three really tight rows of stitching so the end doesn't start to open up with use or washing.

Step 5 is to fold/tuck and sew the top of the belt. Just like at the bottom, you will fold the ends of the sheath in between the open ends of the two layers of cotton webbing. Same as at the bottom, I will sew two or three tight rows of stitching to seal up the end of the belt so it doesn't bust open with use or washing. I try to get as close to the edge of the belt as possible, maybe within an eighth of an inch from the end.

Step 6 is to sew the remaining rows of stitching along the length of the belt. You will also clean up any gaps in stitching along the ends. A point I should have mentioned before is that when you have loose ends of stitching after you cut the thread, tie the thread and cut it as close to the knot as possible to keep it clean looking.

Depending on the width of the belt, I would typically sew 9-13 rows of stitching along the length of the belt. This is based mostly on what you think looks good on a belt. You don't really need that many rows for function. Then again, you don't really need a hand made belt for function either, haha. These will be pretty tight rows and you will have to have a steady hand to keep all lines straight. This isn't really that hard after your first row or two is already sewn as you can use that as a guideline to keep your lines straight. This is really monotonous work however. Make sure you aren't trying to talk to anyone or watch T.V at the same time here, it's easy to lose focus and screw your belt up here and screw up the hours of work you already put in.

Step 7 is to prepare your Black (or Red) bar to sew onto the end of your belt.

I know the proportions of the drawing are off. You want a rectangle of cloth. I like a bar about 4 inches long on my belts, so make your cloth about 5 or so inches wide. Fold the ends of the cloth over and iron them down so the edges stay put when you are sewing. Length wise, 5 or 6 inches should be wide enough. You just need to be able to wrap the cloth around the belt a couple of times before sewing it on. Make sure to fold and iron all four sides of the cloth before sewing it on. This will get the wrinkles out and make nice edges. Also, don't burn yourself with the iron; they are obviously very hot. Also make sure that you are ironing on a surface that makes sense to iron on. Don't mess up your floors or tables. Try to use an ironing board if you have it.

Step 8 is to fold and sew the bar onto the belt.

I liked to fold the bar around the belt a couple of times, two or three. Make sure it's about an inch to an inch and a half of the end of the belt showing because if the bar is sewn to far into the belt it looks odd. Once you folded it onto the belt the way you like it, snug it tight onto the belt and iron it again. This will keep it tighter as you sew. You can see the diagram to see the order that I sew the bar on. Some people like to sew a bunch of vertical rows onto the bar just like the belt. I always thought it looks nicer to just sew around close to the edges of the bar and leave the inside alone.

CONCLUSION:

That's pretty much the process of making a belt. It's about 8 steps, but they are pretty long steps. Once I got good at making the belts, it would take me 3-6 hours to make each belt and I would feel brain dead afterwards. It's fun, but certainly time consuming. Probably from having poor sewing technique and using a machine that was not suited to sewing such thick materials, I would experience lots of broken threads, lots of crazy machine problems and lots of bent sewing needles. I expect that with professional machines, these troubles are reduced.

Also, please bear in mind that it's been a few years since I've made any belts, so there are probably minor points that I forgot to mention. If I think of anything, or course I will edit this post and put those things in.

Another note is that I appreciate any interest that you have in the belts, but I am no longer making these belts. I will certainly let every one know if I start up again though.

Enjoy!

Josh

How to make a Bjj Belt part 1

2011-12-16T15:11:00.000-08:00

About three or four years ago, I decided that I was going to start making my own Bjj belts for myself, friends and to sell online. I made about 8 or 9 good ones before I had to stop production for various reasons. There were dozens of prototypes that I made before that and they were all pretty screwed up looking before I finally figured out the formula and was able to make some nice ones. Since I've stopped making them, I figured that it might interest some of the folks that used to like my belts, or just were curious about how to make belts, if I made some blog posts about how I learned how to make belts and what they can do if they decide they want to make their own.

First off, I have very very minimal sewing skill. When I started, I had some vague ideas of how to use a sewing machine from home ec class when I was in high school. The last time I touched a sewing machine was probably 1995 or 1996 lol. Truth be told, a sewing machine is not too hard to figure out if you have patience and can resist the impulse to pick it up and smash it into pieces when you are trying to thread the needle. I won't go into that because I'm sure there are plenty of instructionals online how to use a sewing machine.

The first thing I did was buy a machine. I didn't know any better, so I got a brother brand machine from Wal mart for about $130. It looked something like this:

Then, I went online and went to as many karate forums as I could to see if there was any info about belt making, or about what people like in a belt. For some reason, it seems like Karateka in general have the most varied selection of high end belts to choose from, and there seem to be a lot of people into belts on the forums. Alas, there was and is almost nothing online about how to actually make the belts though. The top brands that people seemed to like were Shureido and Tokaido. Mizuno belts seem to also be liked, but of a slightly lower quality as far as higher end/expensive belts go. Eosin Panther and Kataaro seem to be the gold standard as far as high end hand made custom belts go. These were the belts that I wanted to model as it seems like people like all these brands the best. I only managed to get my hands on a Kataaro, but I looked at lots of pictures to see what the construction of these other belts were like. I also researched some of the standard Bjj belt brands and bought a number of these to see how they were built. As they were significantly cheaper than the high end belts, I could get my hands on a number of these.

So, now I had all these belts and all of these pictures of belts, but no info on how to use this stuff. Time to reverse engineer. I dissected the belts that I had to see what the core materials were made of. I found that belts like the new Atama bjj belts were cotton on the outside and on the inside was just folded layers of like a canvas type of material, nothing fancy. Other belts, were much the same except thin layers of folded felt were used as the core. Again, nothing fancy. In my first experiments at making belts, I found it most time consuming and difficult to make belts like these by hand because there was waaaaay too much measuring and cutting involved. I was able to make a good copy of these, but they were not time/cost effective.

The more expensive belts used thick layers of cottom webbing for the core. Some had one thick layer of webbing, sometimes a wide piece folded in half (like a 3 or 3.25 inch wide piece folded in half so the belt would be somewhere between 1.5-1.75 inches wide when complete). They also used many many more rows of stitching. Most used 10-13 rows of stithing along the width. The results were pretty solid and stiff belts that were hefty and seemed well built. The standard Bjj belts had 6-9 rows of stitching and in general were softer feeling, though not always. Also, the ends of the belts had different quality of stitching.

Once I had a sense of the measurements needed and the materials that I wanted to use for the belts (I liked the cotton sheath on he outside and the cotton webbing/straps for the core), I had to figure out where to get the materials. Wal mart had all of what I needed sometimes, but the cotton webbing (1.5 inches wide) was sometimes sold out. Joanne fabrics had the same webbing, but again was sometimes out of stock, or only had enough for me to make one or two belts at a time before I had to find more. It was also really expensive for what I was trying to do also. I don't remember exactly what it broke down to, but it was not cost effective at all. I was not able to find a reliable source of webbing online either that would provide prices that made sense for me.

I got to choose the different colors of cotton that I wanted for the outside of the belts, there was a good variety to make some nice looking belts. I got some scissors, a stitch ripper, an iron and some softer cotton thread. I also got a pizza cutter looking thing that was used to cut the material.

I guess I can't really go over the actual construction yet without pictures or a video for people to get a sense of what I mean, so I won't go there yet; but a couple of the main points to consider once the supplies have been purchased:

-You need to know what the different belt lengths will be for different sized people. This is not too hard because there are sizing charts on most websites. I would modify the length of the belt a little if I got an order for someone who preferred a belt that hangs or is short.
-Get some black cotton sheets so you can make the black bar on the end of colored belts.
-Use the iron to iron out wrinkles in the cloth before you sew, other wise you will end up with strange wrinkles while you are sewing and you will get super frustrated and want to break things if you are half way through a belt (maybe two or three hours into it) and a wrinkle screws up your stitching. The iron also helps to make edges crisp when you are sewing on the black bar.
-Make some prototypes that you don't care about just to see how the small elements of sewing work. There are points where you have to hold the cloth with a certain tension to keep it flat, or to provide some slack so the belt doesn't look weird once it's washed. This is the trial and error part.
-Wash your prototypes and try them on. My first couple of belts looked fine when done, but when I washed them they got all screwed up looking and all kinds of odd wrinkles developed.
-Try to use heavy duty jeans needles for sewing. The machine that I used was probably not meant to make heavy duty things like belts, and that's probably why my machine broke, but the heavy jeans needles helped me get through the thick material easier than the thinner needles which tended to bend.

I'll take some of my old belts apart and do some photos and videos sometime soon so I can continue with some visuals on how to actually sew the belts.

Regards,

Josh

Invisible Jiujitsu? Maybe.

2011-12-12T17:51:00.000-08:00

So, there are already a bunch of blog posts online about the "Invisible Jiujitsu" that Rickson Gracie talks about in interviews and his seminar circuit. Braulio Estima also has a set of instructionals dealing with the same topic. It seems like everyone has there ideas about what it is, what it means, etc...but there's very little concrete and specific information about what this really means. The thing that people say about Invisible Jiujitsu seminars/ Rickson Gracies seminars is that you have to feel it, you can't see it or explain it.

When I went to Mr. Gracies seminar in Virginia a couple of years ago, I kind of felt the same way. It's really really tough to put into words the kind of stuff he was showing. It was mostly mechanical leverage ideas with some philosophy and personal anecdotes thrown in. Having spent the last couple of years digging into that material, and also coming up with my own ideas about what is going on behind the scenes in Jiujitsu, I think I have some ideas about what some aspects of this might be.

What are some of the things that you cannot see when you are watching people grapple?

-it's tough to see people breathing if they are not out of breath and breathing loudly.
-it's tough to see the kind of pressure and squeeze that people generate when they are grappling. It's easy to see where the limbs are in side mount top, but tough to describe the difference in what it feels like when someone is pressuring your diaphragm vs going a little lower and pressuring your stomach.
-it's tough to see someones "intent" or directed focus and confidence when they are grappling.
-it's tough to see weak links in ones force/where ones base is weak.

1. Breathing. There's a reason that most martial arts, weight lifting, yoga and a host of other physical activities focus on some sort of coordinated breathing and movement. Boxers make that "tsss" sound when they strike, weight lifters make noise (sometimes a hissing sound, sometimes other sounds) when they lift, Yoga people have a variety of breathing practices, Lamaze classes teach breathing techniques for giving birth. There are breathing patterns for running, swimming, etc...but it's not really tackled in any in depth way in grappling. Or at least not many people mention it. It's hard to see breathing when you are watching and it can be hard to be aware of breathing when someone else is using it against you in grappling, but if you use certain techniques for breathing while grappling you will find that you can have greater stamina during grappling, apply greater pressure during certain movements, or by being aware of your opponents breath you can start to sap their strength and energy and make them tired.

2. Pressure and squeeze. You can watch a video of someone applying side mount, or applying a choke or lock of some type and it looks a certain way. Then you can have someone doing this stuff to you and it can feel completely different when one guy does this to you than it does when someone else does it. They both might look the same from the outside, but the pressure and squeeze feel different in person. If we are using side mount as an example, if you have two people doing the same thing that are approximately the same size, weight and build; the difference in pressure would be in two areas:
-how person A uses their body differently than person B. Squeezing certain muscle groups to amplify pressure, linking certain muscle groups together, etc...
-how person A has trained these movements differently or for longer than person B and how the training has developed their musculature over time. Person A might have 10 years experience on top side mount and person B might have 2 years. Person A has developed the small muscle groups much more thoroughly than person B over the years and has developed a "body intelligence" for the movement over those 10 years that person B probably has not developed yet.

How you develop your body and how you use your body. Both practically invisible to the observing eye, but provide a significant difference when you feel it.

3. Intention. When you roll with someone that you have more experience than, and that you have been able to control and tap easily for a long time, you develop a certain sense of confidence that gives birth to something more solid than confidence. I think of this as "focused intention". It's when you know in your heart without a doubt that you are going to pass the guard, side mount and americana someone and they will not stop you. It's when you believe completely in your movement so that there is no hesitation, no wavering or doubt in your mind. It's when someone is trying to sweep you, but you think of your self as heavy and planted and therefore you become more heavy and planted as a consequence. These are mental skills that are again invisible to the outside observer for the most part, but not completely. You can look at someone and tell when there is no doubt in their mind that they will pass, take the back and finish the choke. The best example I can think of is Roger Gracie. When I saw him compete at the 2009 mundials, every match he would stand on the mat, silent and unmoving (kind of like Jason Voorheese in the Friday the 13th movies before he murders someone) and then when the match starts no one doubted that he was going to win, it was just a matter of when. (it wasn't even a matter of "how" in that tournament. He mounted and choked everyone!). His will never wavered, that I could see at least. Pure intention.

4. Weak links in force/base. Think about when your car is out of gas and you have to push it to the side of the road. You connect your feet to the ground with a strong stance, straighten your arms and lean your back into it. As you press off of the ground, there is an unbroken connection of force from the ground all the way through your back and arms into the car, then hopefully the car moves. If it doesn't, take off the parking brake and try again.

That's an unbroken line of force between the ground and your car. Now imagine that your base is off, your knees are buckling together, or you have a bad shoulder that needs surgery. Those are all weak links in a chain of force. They effect your posture, your base and the force that you are able to put into your movement. If there are no weak links then you have a strong and unbroken line of force and will be able to put the coordinated power of your whole body into a movement, like pushing a car, or double legging someone, or armbarring someone. If you have a bad back and try to armbar someone, especially if they are trying to stack you, then your line of force is broken and it will be a less effective armbar. If you have a bad knee and are trying to drive off of the ground with a double leg, you will be less effective with that line of force than you would usually be and your technique will be effected. It will effect the whole body coordination of movement.

Sometime breaks in that chain are injuries, sometimes they are improper alignments (like raising your elbow when you should be dropping your elbow, or keeping your knee over the center of your foot,etc...), sometimes they are weaknesses in musculature that are not up to par with the rest of the muscles in that chain of movement. Weak link in the chain=weak line of force=weaker technique. This too might not be immediately obvious to the outside observer.

These things are just ideas that I have about what people might mean when they talk about the Invisible Jiujitsu. Whether I am correct or not, I think that some of these things are neccesary to "inform" the techniques of Jiujitsu. Almost like they give movements substance and depth.

I've been reading a few of Pavel Tsatsoulines books about exercise/kettlebells,strength training etc...reading a little about gymnastics training, and also learning from my Strength and Conditioning coach buddy Jason C. Brown (www.bjjworkouts.com and www.kettlebellathletics.com) which kind of influenced some of my ideas about the muscle stuff. It is really similar to the concepts I learned when I did Hsing I, Tai Chi, Pa Kua and I chuan styles of Kung fu years ago. A lot of the stuff about breathing, tension, whole body movement and alignment are identical to my experiences with Kung fu. They are also very similar to what has been described to me as standard practice in Shotokan Karate and other Traditional martial arts such as Hung gar, etc.... And of course the Rickson Gracie seminar gave me lots of food for thought about how to apply some of these ideas to grappling and gave me a different perspective on what is in the nuts and bolds of a technique. That the substance of a move might not be in the surface technique, but in the inner things that build the technique up.

In the end, I think that the human body can be used in really really subtle and complex ways that are not visible, but can be felt. I think a lot of the older forms of Physical culture developed some really incredible ways of getting the most out of the body and mind and whether it's old martial arts skills, or old style power training skills, or the revelations of modern science; there's more than meets the eye and studying beyond your particular art can help "inform" your art and help you develop some things that could be considered "Invisible".

Hopefully this makes sense, lol. I wrote this over the course of the day and kept on coming back to it without re reading what I already wrote. :)

Goggles for grappling, part three...

2011-12-12T12:45:00.001-08:00

So far so good with the goggles. My eye is back to normal, so no problems there either.

On a technical grappling level, there isn't really much that I'm finding I have to modify that isn't immediately obvious

Goggles for grappling, part Deux

2011-12-05T13:23:00.000-08:00

So I've had a week wearing sports goggles grappling so far and I'm having a couple more insights. One, the fogging thing is getting a little irritating. I was recommended a product online called "Cat Crap" which apparently is some kind of wax that keeps the goggles from fogging up. Whether it works or not, I'll certainly be getting this just because it's got such an amazing name:)

Another odd thing that is related to the fogging issue is that the area underneath and around my goggles gets really sweaty. Almost like the goggles act as a mini eye sauna that creates a tremendous amount of sweat. No big deal, I just take them off and wipe my face, just something to note.

Technique wise, I think I'll have to stay mostly away from Wrestling style takedowns that involve using my head or face to apply friction in any way to my partners torso or leg. My goggles simply move around too much doing this kind of thing. I'll be focusing more on my Judo takedowns for a while because there is less face contact. An interesting side note, I recently contacted Jon Trenge (wrestler from Lehigh, the documentary called Veritas was about him) and he said he used to attach his goggles to his head gear with a dog collar strap and some velcro so they didn't move around so much. This sounds like an excellent solution for this particular issue and I will probably try this sometime in the future. For now I have to keep my goggles seperate because I need to be able to answer the phone quickly and often while I'm rolling. This would come in especially handy for a competition I think.

Another issue I am noticing is that like any other piece of athletic equipment, I'll have to keep on top of keeping the strap for my goggles clean and find some sanitary wipes to wipe down the frames regularly. Again, no big deal.

All in all, so far so good with the goggles!

Grappling Goggles, Day one! By Josh Vogel

2011-11-30T17:08:00.000-08:00

So, I injured my eye pretty badly a few weeks ago and now that I'm on the tail end of the healing process, my doctors recommended (well, mandated) that I wear some kind of protective eye wear when I grapple lest I re-injure my eye. In the past couple of weeks, I was investigating this possibility, but was unable to find much information online in regards to doing Bjj with goggles on.

My brother recommended that I watch a documentary called "Veritas" about a Lehigh wrestler named Jon Trenge. When I watched it, I understood the recommendation. Trenge got a severe eye injury in his freshman year of college (if I recall correctly) and had to wear a modified pair of sports goggles for the rest of his competitive wrestling career. Interestingly, his opponents used to mess with his goggles during the matches to mess with his head and get him off of his game. Obviously a frustrating situation, to put it mildly. Anyway, the goggles worked out for him and he was still able to be an amazing wrestler who functioned at a high level in his sport.

Good news for me. While I don't have my bar set so high as him in my own realm of grappling, I still want to be the best grappler that I can be and it's certainly reassuring that goggles won't get in my way too much. So I ordered some prescription sport goggles for $30 from www.zennioptical.com , hence the picture of my busted mug at the top of this post.

What I want to do is kind of document some of the issues that I have while wearing sport goggles and how I end up having to modify my Bjj game/training (if at all) because of the goggles. While I don't expect it will be too big of a deal, I want to put something of my experience out there for anyone else who might be going through, or go through the same thing in the future.

I wore the goggles for the first time today. They are really really awesome, to tell you the truth. I barely noticed that they were there, super comfortable, well built and kept on my head nicely. The would shift a little from peoples arms or legs grazing my face during guard passing, or whatever, but nothing serious. The only issue that I'm noticing so far is that they fog up pretty easily. Some of my class mates said that there are some products out there (besides spit, lol) that I can apply to the lenses so they don't fog up. As they are prescription goggles and I use them to see with (I have really really bad eyesight in general) I don't think I can use spit to prevent fog. I was thinking of trying to draw a pair of eyes in the fog, like kids do when they fog up car windows in the winter, to play around haha. Wow, that doesn't sound nearly as funny in text....

Other than that, no real issues yet. I opted for the zenni optical goggles because they are relatively inexpensive at $30 and I've ordered from them before and gotten great service/product. I was also told to check out rec specs, which are pretty easy to find online, but those are $80. I figured I would try the cheapies first and if they were no good, I would try the rec specs. Think I'll stick with the zenni ones for now.

Technique wise, when I was rolling today I noticed that the tight, low style of guard passing that I usually play is made more difficult because there is so much friction on my face when I pass. The goggles would shift very easily, I never realized how much I use my face to press and slide when I'm grappling. I'll have to work more from a medium/higher posture style of passing. Most likely this will mean I'll have to really fine tune my cut pass/x pass game. I also notice that when people try to choke me from the guard, or if they mount/side mount me, goggle sliding becomes an issue too. I'll have to develop a better inside arm frame to block my face when people get side mount and are passing my guard. I'll also have to change my mount defense.

Will write more as my experience grows. Please let me know if you guys have any information about this kind of stuff, or any feed back! I'd like to put out as much info as possible for other folks in the same predicament.

Learning in the boundaries...

2011-11-21T10:06:00.000-08:00

I've been reading this book, "Change your body, change the world" by Frank Forencich and I came across an interesting quote from another book "Finite and infinite games: a vision of life as play and possibility" (which I have not yet read, but sounds right up my alley). The quote is this:

"finite players play within boundaries, infinite players play with boundaries"

I thought this was a really interesting idea and in applying it to grappling arts, it takes on a meaning that sort of sums up what I enjoy most about grappling. There is an idea in the grappling community that all grappling arts are the same, they just take different forms based on the rules of the event they are being applied in. For example, Judo has developed throwing and gripping techniques to a very high level of sophistication, because the rules of Judo tournaments, the boundaries, reward throws and limit ground play. Brazilian Jiujitsu has developed ground work to a very high level of sophistication because there is no limit on ground work and only limited reward for takedowns; the rules allow guard pulling and make this a viable strategy for winning a match. If you look at submission grappling, without the gi you see different rule sets for advanced divisions and high level events such as ADCC. Heel hooks change the behavior of the athletes from what it would normally be with the gi on. Wrestling is the same way, it develops behavior that is rewarded in competition and within the philosophy of the sport; such as developing strong takedowns and top game and developing limited skills off of the back. There is an idea that the rules of the sport, the boundaries, shape the behavior of the athletes and mold the nature of the skills that they develop; but they still fall under the umbrella of grappling. You could take the example outside of sport and apply it to the philosophy of the arts you practice, like the self defense art would have different concepts than a sport art, but the point is still the same as far as boundaries go.

Sometimes you have to step outside of your boundaries and play with those boundaries. It's not really a novel idea, wrestlers cross train brazilian Jiujitsu, Brazilian jiujitsu guys cross train wrestling, it's the same with Brazilian Jiujitsu people and Judo players as well. But I think there is an open area for explanation within the boundaries of the arts, especially if you add MMA demands to the mix. As a Bjj player, or a Judoka, or a Wrestler, how often do you grapple off of a wall or a cage? As an MMA player, how often do you explore guard pulling, or training MMA with a gi on? How often do you practice with strikes involved?

Within the boundaries of your sport, there really is no obvious reason to do these things. Why would a Bjj guy need to know how to grapple off of a wall or a cage if all he/she cares about is Bjj competition? Why would an MMA athlete bother training MMA with a gi (I don't just mean grappling, I mean training MMA) on if you don't wear one in a fight?

Playing in the boundaries provides an area for growth and creativity when things get stale. Sometimes it's just fun, as a Brazilian Jiujitsu player to practice grappling off of a wall or cage. Sometimes it yields answers to questions that I was unable to solve while working within the boundaries of sport bjj. Sometimes playing from the guard with strikes, or with a goal only to stand up, or operating from the perspective of a wrestling rule set provide insight and answers to problems that I wouldn't have otherwise seem or thought of. How would I deal with a specific type of guard pass if I was a wrestler? Or a Judoka? How would a Judoka deal with a really good x guard player?

It doesn't have to be the boundaries of your sport that your work with either. You could work with the borders of your particular style. If I am primarily a closed guard player, maybe I'll improve my closed guard by playing spider guard, or de la riva guard. Or maybe I'll improve my closed guard by working from on top for a while, improving my passing. Or maybe if I'm great at takedowns, I'll spend time working on my reversals off of a takedown, or defense for takedowns. It's almost the same idea as working on your weak points, but there's a point where you work outside of your strong or weak points into a completely different area and come back better because of it.

Getting better at getting better

2011-11-17T10:35:00.000-08:00

As usual, I was perusing the MMA (Mixed Martial arts) and Bjj (Brazilian Jiujitsu) forums online, specifically www.sherdog.com and www.mma.tv and the subject of belts came up. Really, the subject of belts never leaves the forums, it just takes a bunch of different forms; but the jist is usually along the lines of "how long does it take to get to blue belt?" or "what makes a black belt?" that kind of stuff. It got me thinking about what my process has been like going from white belt to brown belt and how many different ways have I progressed since white belt.

I think the biggest difference I feel now is that I've gotten much much better at understanding how to get better at things. I've gotten better at getting better I think. I don't think that this is the "way" of training in general, nor do I think this is the way that everyone will look at things. I think that this is part of what I get out of training as an individual. I think I really really enjoy learning how to improve, learning how to learn, and the process of development almost more than anything else.

I strive in a lot of ways to improve and be the best that I can be, physically, technically and mentally but I don't devote 100 percent of my efforts in that direction, I want to accomplish my goals and feel the joy of success but I think my heart is in the mechanics and process of improvement. I would love to be a World Jiujitsu Champion, or even a Black belt in Brazilian Jiujitsu, but I am truly satisfied by the tinkering, disassembling, testing, practicing, training, feeling; the process.

When I was a kid, my mom had this exercise bike she used to ride in the house. I would mess around on it sometimes, trying to make the wheels spin as fast as I could. It was pretty fun! I had even more fun when I got my hands on a wrench and a screwdriver and took the bike apart when she was at work. I dug around inside the bike and then I tried, and failed, to put the bike back together as it was before. She seemed kind of pissed when she got home and the bike was messed up, and I got an earful about it; but I loved every second of taking that bike apart. I loved putting together my skateboards, I loved finding new ways to learn the tricks, I loved the feeling of a perfect trick performed and I loved watching myself improve and finding new ways to express myself through that art. I had a mild sense of competitiveness with the other skatebaorders around, but ultimately I never felt a need to improve to them; I just wanted to take myself apart and put myself together and see if I could make myself better than I was before and study how it happened. There's so much joy and satisfaction to be found in such a process.

I do my best to study the whole experience of getting better at things, but I don't have a strong desire to measure myself against other people. I think this is why I've had such hit or miss results as a Brazilian Jiujitsu Competitor. I love training, I love drilling, I find satisfaction in the search for the perfect movement and the perfect technique and I love the feeling of grace and effortlessness when I feel that sense of "flow" touch me for the most brief of moments; but I don't really care how I measure against other people for the most part. I guess I'm results oriented, but my results aren't the medals or the titles, they are the feeling of the performance.

I competed at the IBJJF no gi pan ams in October and won my first match on points. I lost my second match on points. I ended up with 3rd place and never felt more terrific during a tournament! I felt better with that performance than I have in winning some other tournaments in the past. The reason is because I spent the whole summer working with Jason Brown (check out www.bjjworkouts.com) on my Strength and conditioning and I was in the best shape of my life. I learned more about the mechanics of my body and fitness and how those components influence my Jiujitsu. I became the best version of Josh that I've been. I felt good mentally, I felt prepared and I felt like I put forth a much higher level of effort in preparation than I ever have before. I enjoyed the bus ride to New York that day, I loved every second that I was on the mat competing and I enjoyed the hell out of the Gyro I ate right after the tournament. That was my result, not the win by points, the loss by points and the 3rd place medal (which is really a mediocre result at best if you are looking at it purely by tournament statistics).

I guess I intend this post to be one of those journal entry type posts where I just write a bunch of shit and clarify whatever vague and undefined notions that are running around my head. I know lots of people think differently about tournaments, results, and people find their own satisfaction in different ways. These things relate to an idea that Jason brought up to me a couple of months ago. There is a term, Autotelic, that describes a type of personality...I think it's similar to what I'm experiencing when I think about Grappling, Skateboarding, Drawing, or any of the other activities I participate in. Here's a definition: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autotelic

The basic idea is that Autotelic is the sense of being self motivated, internally driven and do things for the enjoyment of the process of doing the thing. I guess it's a form of that old cliche phrase "it's not the destination, it's the journey" kind of thing.

I'm glad to learn more about this term. It is kind of reassuring that there is a specific personality type that functions and finds satisfaction in life in this way. When you spend a long time around people and in a culture dominated by other types of thinking, it's easy to doubt yourself sometimes. You start to wonder, "well, should I care about that gold medal more?" , "Should I be trying to impress these people more?". I think it's reassuring to know that this is a specific type of thinking rather than just me being a weird dude.

To sum, here's a cool video:

Sao Paulo Volume 4: The Sao Paulo approach to passing the guard and smash passing. DVD REVIEW!!!!

2011-10-08T15:20:00.001-07:00

Notes from Sao paulo dvd 2 from Tony Pacenski

Starts with a good explanation of what happens directly after the guard passes are complete. The finishing positions to maintain side mount go to the mount, and to take the back.

_so far it's filmed more clearly than the last one.

Then he goes over the basic over under pass to leg drag position

Reviews some smash passing from dlr guard. 14:50 into the dvd

Getting "caught" in thoughts....

2011-09-29T09:56:00.000-07:00

This series of thoughts I've been having is sort of a follow up to the last post that I wrote. There's a lot of stuff written in books and online in martial arts literature about zen stuff and No mind and things of that nature. It's not a concept that I entirely understand, and I think maybe it's a bit over used in martial arts; but I still think it's a thing of value.

Like I was writing in the last blog post, I think it's easy to get in your own way when you are grappling with people who may be more experienced, or be skillful in certain skill sets that make you nervous, or that have a reputation as being skillful. That's something I struggle with in competition sometimes. I tend to get "caught" in reputations and start to doubt my own skills when facing "name grapplers". It's the same thing as getting "caught" in knowing that someone is good at a certain move. A good example would be the under 88kg (I think that's the weight class) finals at ADCC 2011 with Andre Galvao and Rousimar "Toquino" Palhares aka "Paul Harris" (haha). Toquino looks like a super strong dude who was ripping legs off of everyone in the tournament and Galvao was on a technical tear thought the event as well. When I saw the match begin (on the ADCC live stream on Budovideos) I kind of assumed that Toquino would just grab Galvaos leg and take that one home too. This doesn't mean that I underrate Galvao, just that Toquino was so aggressive with those leg locks, I think between the technical prowess, the physical strength and the mental advantage of being an intimidating leg lock guy would just be a lot to overcome. However, Galvao did it. Absolutely amazing, he of course looked like he respected what Toquino could do to a human leg, but he was able to get past that mentally and play a strong, technical, aggressive and super smart game to take the Gold medal. I was absolutely amazed. He didn't get "caught" in the mental trap of being too intimidated by Toquino, he was able to observe that skill set and get past that mentally to play a confident game.

That's the perfect example to me. I want to work towards that kind of mental strength. To be able to not get caught in any of the webs that people spin. The technical webs, feeling like you can't deal with a good guard passer, the physical webs, feeling like you can't deal with that guys strength, the mental webs, feeling like you can't beat that guy because he beat Grappler X. I guess the "no mind" idea is to be able to express your art without getting snagged on any of those edges.

Grappling is mental....duh!

2011-09-11T17:33:00.000-07:00

It's almost a cliche now to bring up the role of mental training in sports performance. There are tons of books about sports psychology, mental training, meditation, cognitive training. When you start digging into martial arts, you will find even more mental training methods. There's really no point in me re-hashing what people out there have already written. I will note, however, just for the sake of reference, that you can learn a great deal about sports psychology and some mental training tips on Dr. Cory Bank's excellent site/blog: www.abingtonpsychology.com

Check it out, great stuff!

The thing I wanted to discuss today is more about how you view your training partners, and to offer a simple tip: Have confidence.

When I was a white belt in Bjj, I would roll with the Blue and Purple belts and just assume they would smash me. Then as I progressed, I started to give them a bit more trouble and started to realize that I didn't have to get smashed by these guys. So I started learning how to view everyone that I roll with as a white belt. At first, it was slow going. I would view really good grapplers as people that I could handle and more often than not, I was wrong; I would get tapped. I would do ok for a second, then I would start to lose that confidence as they would counter me and take me apart. My confidence was fleeting and weak. As I progressed I would go through some periods of high confidence and low confidence and I would feel the difference, but it was subtle and hard to grasp. It seemed so abstract a thing, this sense of confidence/will power, that it was hard to control; it felt like something I either had, or did not and sometimes I wasn't even aware of whether it was there or not. The more I began to focus on the mental aspects of things, the more each mental element started to become more of a real "thing". These things like confidence, control, clarity, etc...started to feel more solid somehow, as if they were tangible things that I was starting to really feel their presence or absence.

So before I get to abstract and weird, what I'm getting at is that I think that the first step of mental training is learning what mental skills are and developing the sensitivity to their presence. You might think you are confident, but really lack confidence. You might think you have a never say die mentality, but really have serious weaknesses, cracks in the wall. Everyone has weaknesses, but I think being able to sense and feel, to be really aware of these cracks in the wall is very important.

When you roll with a Black belt in Bjj, are you aware of their belt? Do you expect them to dominate you? If a submission opportunity presents itself, will you blow it because you are so excited to almost tap a black belt? Will you freeze when applying your special technique because you think this guy might be too good to fall for it?

When you do randori with a good Black belt in Judo, or work takedowns with a good Wrestler, do you assume that they will throw you or take you down at will? Do you hesitate with your shots because you know they will sprawl? Are your thoughts too present in your actions, your footwork and hip motion; slowing you down?

I think the real work is getting your mind to a point where you are not "caught" by these things. I think the trick is getting your mind to where you roll with a Black belt and see a white belt. Where you do takedowns with a good wrestler and know that you will take them down. Where you forget yourself when you are sparring with these people because when you remember who you are and when you remember who they are, you doubt yourself and hold yourself back. You hesitate on your shots, your footwork is overly self concious and slow, your ground techniques are without intention and clarity and are easily blocked.

I'm not saying I am there, I sure as hell get dominated every week by good Bjj guys, my Wrestling coach and my Judo coach...But I do a whole hell of a lot better when I forget myself and forget them when we train.

Good question...

2011-08-17T09:04:00.000-07:00

I just finished reading "The War of Art" by Steven Pressfield the other day and towards the end of the book and interesting question was posed: If I was the last person on earth, would I still do the thing that I do?

I think the point was whether or not you are doing something for a reason. Like to impress other people, or to make yourself feel more valuable, or simply because it fills a void in your life. Why are you doing what you do and would you still do it if there was no one around to impress?

In regards to grappling, aside from the obvious fact that I would not be able to grapple if I was the last guy on earth, I would sure as hell try. I love this stuff. I would also draw, I think, and maybe write but I imagine both would be a lot stranger and more unrestrained than what I put out now.

That book was chock full of food for thought.

Skateboarding is beautiful!

2011-08-11T16:29:00.000-07:00

I recently started following one of my old skateboarding heros, Mike Vallely on Twitter, I became a fan when I saw him running fast as hell through that graveyard in Animal Chin or Public Domain, one of those old Powell Peralta videos. Anyway, he's awesome. I feel like an idiot talking about "tweets" but during one of his tweets this week, he mentioned a skateboarder named Kilian Martin and he wrote something pretty poetic about his skateboarding. I don't remember exactly what he said, but it made me want to watch this guy skate.

I've always been a fan of the more creative skaters, the Rodney Mullens, the Daewon Songs and also the more simplistic but graceful skaters like Kien Liu and Gershon Mosely. Kilian Martin seems like he's cut more from the cloth of a Rodney Mullen. Simply creative and he looks like he has a whole lot of fun skating. He's one of those guys that you watch a video of him and you spend the rest of the week itching to get out there and skate. Here's a couple of his videos:

and:

Enjoy!

More thoughts on Art and Grappling

2011-08-11T13:52:00.001-07:00

I was reading some more of The War of Art by Steven Pressfield and was inspired to more thoughts about Grappling as art. What got to me was the part towards the end where he was asking the reader if they were the last person on earth, would they still do the thing that they are doing? Would I still Grapple if I was the last person on earth? (well...I guess I couldn't really, but you get what I'm saying) Would a painter still paint or a weight lifter still lift those weights? Would we still do things the same way if there was no one else around to impress?

I think the idea is to really look at what it is that you are doing and decide if you are doing that thing for certain reasons. Am I grappling so I can show off my medals to my wife, or to work my way up the food chain? Am I grappling to scratch an itch that I have to dominate another person, or to fulfill some insecurity that I have? Or am I Grappling as a form of therapy. I might be grappling because I feel like it's the best vehicle for me to reach my potential as a human being. I think that's the one I'm going with.

I feel like Grappling inspires me. It pushes me creatively, physically, mentally, emotionally. It makes me hate the difficulty of pushing myself past my comfortable limits, but love the yield that I get from the push. These crops are extremely difficult to sow, and require so much to grow; but the harvest is sweet!

I compete sometimes, and I have a love/hate relationship with it. I recognize that I improve in certain ways when I train for and participate in a moderate amount of competition. What Mr. Pressfield talks about in The War of Art towards the end is the person who does things with the hierarchy in mind. The guy who measures himself against others and what they say. The person who is caught up in climbing the food chain. That aspect of Grappling and competition is what I want no part of. It's also a part that gives me fire to improve. That's the love/hate I think.

Ideally, I would love to say that I never care what people think and that I compete and Grapple in my own world, my only concern for self improvement. That's the thing I am working towards and I think it's a beautiful ideal. Getting past the

Webinars and the spread of Grappling information

2011-08-03T09:16:00.000-07:00

I've attended 5 or 6 web/tele seminars over the last four months or so and I'm starting to see a trend among a certain group of Grappling/MMA educators here. I think this is going to be the start of a change in the way that information is taught/spread in the Grappling and MMA world. Rhadi Ferguson, Lloyd Irvin and Marcos Avellan seem to be on the forefront of this type of technology and are the only ones I've seen so far actively using it to spread info.

I attended Rhadi Fergusons "Anatomy of a Judo match" webinar last weekend and it was pretty awesome. (as is par for the course with his products) Lots of great information was given out, but more importantly, a completely different approach to analyzing grappling was shown (to me at least). He was able to break down a Judo match like it was a science and it seems like his way of thinking and breaking things down would just as easily apply to any grappling art. I think the webinar is still being repeated, here's the link if you are interested:

www.judoanatomy.com

I also attended Marcos Avellans Black belt psychology series (even taking time out of my precious pool side reading sessions in Texas a couple weeks ago to watch from my hotel room, haha) last month using the same technology and was super impressed as well. Avellan was doing the webinars live, which I enjoyed greatly because he did a nice question and answer session at the end using the online meeting technology. What can I say, the guy knows what he's talking about! Terrific information and I feel like I was privy to a different, more high level way of thinking about and breaking down the grappling and MMA game. I don't know if Mr.Avellan is planning on doing more seminars, but I certainly hope so because I feel like between the actual content of the seminar and the question and answer sessions, I was able to come away with some stuff that will certainly effect my training in a positive way.

I do not know if Lloyd Irvin has done any Grappling webinars yet, but I have attended one of his Grappling and MMA business webinars which was cool. I won't go into that too much as it didn't pertain much to actual grappling training, but was more of a how to run a school kind of thing.

Enough with the testimonials (which were inadvertent) . The technology itself is probably nothing new to the Corporate world. I'm sure businesses all over the world have been using online meeting technology for years, however I have never seen it used in the Grappling world (or any martial arts for that matter). It's a cool idea. The benefits are pretty significant, you can do a live webinar and have a question and answer session during or afterwards. You can use pictures or possibly even video to illustrate your points in a Powerpoint presentation style format. I would guess that there is a way for the webinar attendees to chat with each other during the webinar as well, sort of like they do on those live broadcasts that Budovideos.com does of the Mundials and Pan jiujitsu tournaments.

I think this is all a part of Grappling education evolving with the times. The days of buying a Dvd set are still here, but I think the future is moving more towards this style of learning. Rhadi Ferguson also uses an interesting model of online videos on his website where he has video, audio and text files set up on his website under a password protected section. Having bought a number of his products, I can say that I much prefer this format to the traditional tape or dvd set as I can watch his stuff on my ipod, my phone, etc... and take it with me wherever I go. Check out his free product for an idea of how this technology works:

http://www.rhadi.com/goldmettle/superfreegift.html

Marcelo Garcia and Josh Waitzkin have set up yet another amazing learning product in the website Mginaction.com (yes, I'm going to plug the site again :), use "sloth" as a promo code for a free week there, and also so I get $25 if you sign up). I wrote a review of this site already, so I won't go too nuts with it (here's the link: http://joshvogelart.blogspot.com/2011/07/mginaction-website-review.html ) In short, it's a way of breaking down Marcelo Garcias grappling game into sparring and instructional components for study. Absolutely amazing.

All of these formats are super interesting ways to learn and I'm very excited to see where people go with this. I hope more people hop on the bandwagon and start using this stuff. Some tips I would give if you are going to check out any of these web/tele seminars:

1. Have a notebook ready. I almost don't have to say this because every single one of these guys preface all of their seminars with this advice.

2. Make sure you aren't somewhere where you are going to be distracted or lose your internet connection. ( a coffee shop, at the gym, on a train, etc...)

3. Put the date and time in your calendar. It's easy to forget that there is going to be one of these things going on if you don't block out that time on your schedule.

Enjoy!

Josh

A trip to Grapevine, Texas

2011-07-25T12:16:00.000-07:00

I spent the weekend in Grapevine texas at a resort called The Gaylord Texan. Name aside, the resort itself is pretty amazing, it's kind of like a cross between Castle Grayskull and Biosphere 2 (if you don't remember Biosphere 2, do a google search, it was a pretty big thing in the early nineties and an interesting read.) The Courtyard has this kind of dome over it that keeps everything fresh and at the perfect temperature at all times. Somehow, it keeps everything really quiet too....it sort of drowns out that "world noise" that is always around in the background. The result is a really really serene environment. Kind of like heaven is portrayed in the movies, the main difference being that coffee is probably cheaper in heaven and I hope they play less country music there.

Very very nice place, the hotel. Theres something kind of timeless about being at a nice hotel/resort with nothing to do. It's almost like clocks seem like they are full of shit when they tell you what time it is. I like that. There's something really rejuvenative about having no sense of urgency. Sitting by the pool in the sun makes me feel like I'm a cell phone laying on one of those battery backs.

On the plane over to Texas, I started to get a little more into this book I've been reading called " The war of Art" by Steven Pressfield. It's about the resistance everyong feels when they are trying to accomplish. When they are trying to write a book and find themselves procrastinating, when they are supposed to be training, but find themselves talking by the water machine instead. It feels like a conversation, a really intense one, with the author about defining and overcoming those mental blocks and attitudes that slow down or halt progress. It's written as a series of very short chapters, almost like little bites of ideas which makes it the perfect book for sitting around and thinking. Take a bite, chew, digest...I first heard about this book on Joe Rogans podcast (the Joe Rogan experience, check it out on iTunes, it's awesome!), but like most book recommendations, it took me a while to getting around to buying the book. I'm definitely glad I did though.

Something to chew on...

2011-07-20T12:55:00.000-07:00

I was reading a thread yesterday on www.Sherdog.com and also on www.mma.tv about whether or not Bjj is an art or a sport. The subject of "martial art vs sport" has been done to death on pretty much every martial arts forum out there and there's no reason to rehash anything already written there. I doubt I would come up with any new or revolutionary arguments there anyway. I think the distinction here is interesting, though. I like to view Bjj as an "art" separate from the view of "martial art". I like the idea that it's a creative outlet, a puzzle with many many layers and depths to it. Something akin to mathematics,painting, dance, sculpture, science...There's a lot to chew on here.

What's so awesome about Bjj (brazilian jiu jitsu or Gracie Jiujitsu) is that it, like any other activity is an inherently creative endeavor that is limited only by the context and rules that you place on it. You can do a technique in a certain way with certain considerations (for example, you can do a scissors sweep from the guard with self defense considerations) and it will mold your technique into a certain shape or form. You can take the same technique and look at it through a different paradigm (say IBJJF rule set tournaments with the gi on) and it will evolve into a completely different set of tactics and actions with different set ups, transitions and variations that result in different later actions. You can find artistry in Bjj through any paradigm.

You can be a competitive athlete and train to find perfection in your physical, mental and technical expressions of Jiujitsu in the competition format. The pursuit of a goal, planning your training sessions, working out with specific people and participating in certain tournaments are all tools that mold you into a certain shape. This is no different than using a chisel to chip away at stone or choosing certain brushes to paint with...to create a certain product, to produce a work of art.

There are times when the pursuit of Jiujitsu as a problem solving device, a series of interconnected puzzles to be solved, is what intrigues me. Finding a solution for a tricky guard pass, or a sequence of off balances and sweeps...looking for the most elegant and simple solution to a particular style of play. These things can occupy hours of your time and provide richness and depth to your practice. They can add a level of satisfaction to training which sort of ties into using Grappling as a form of therapy or cathartic release. It's puzzle and problem solving along the same lines that some endeavor to solve certain mathematical puzzles or problems, or prove certain ideas to be true or false. It's satisfaction that you find in the process of discovery and new knowledge. Again the puzzle becomes a matter of what lense you are looking at Grappling through. If you are viewing Bjj as a self defense art, then you will solve problems taking certain things into consideration (striking, headbutts, multiple attackers, weapons, etc...) if you are a Mixed Martial artist (think UFC, Strikeforce, Bellator, etc...) then you will view your Grappling through a different lens and take different things under consideration.

Ultimately, the point that I'm trying to make is that the only true limits that are placed on your practice are the ones that you create. In my own training and practice, I find it most rewarding to pursue Bjj as an art form. I find it most rewarding to apply and study that art through various lenses at different times of my training, depending on where I'm at mentally. In this way it is a never ending source of fascination, joy and discovery for me. I feel like limiting your definition of a thing to only one aspect is really really limiting and dulls the experience for me. I cannot stay interested thinking that I cannot ever study the 50/50 position because it may not be the best position from a self defense perspective. Similarly I don't think that I could view my Bjj as only a sport where I would be constrained by the rules of any event. I need the freedom of being able to play different games at different times, or playing the same game by different rules, etcetera. I like to play by the sport rules and compete to develop certain aspects and skills. I like to play by self defense rules to keep a certain sense of realism. I like to study the puzzle of Grappling without the usual constraints to see how the game evolves.

What an amazing art.

3 quick ideas on how to improve your Grappling sessions...

2011-07-13T11:30:00.000-07:00

I've been in the process of making my training schedule more efficient and systematic for the last three or four months because I've become really really busy with a variety of activities. Accordingly, I've been doing lots of research on time management, skill development and recording/scheduling the activities that yield the most improvement in my training lately. I have also been spending more time scheduling training sessions with specific individuals who are able to help fill in gaps in my knowledge and hopefully I am able to help them as well. With this in mind I also have been concerned with making myself a better training partner for them also, as I do not want to waste any of their valuable time when we train.

So that brings us to 3 quick ideas I have come up with that have been helping me maximize my training sessions:

1. Log your training sessions for review later. When you write down a log of what happened in your training session, you can find weak points in the training session and improve those things the following week. For example, if you notice that you are exhausted halfway through a one hour training session, you might want to look at what you did before the sessions (if you did circuits or weights before hand, or participated in a class, or took a 45 minute bike ride, etc...) how long it's been since you have eaten (if you eat an apple at 8 am and have a hard training session at 2 pm without anything else, that might impact your session), if you spend more time talking than you do working, etc...You get the idea. If you have had a less than useful training session this is when you identify the weak points and plan to correct those things for next time.

2. Identify what kind of training partner you are working with. I find that some people are terrific drilling partners, some people are great for hours of positional sparring, some people are best for just hard rolling and some people are best to spend time discussing theory with. This is an energy thing and it's a personality thing. If you are drilling non resisting reps with someone who you really should just be sparring with, you may both just get bored, get tired and start to slow down which might result in a less than optimal training session. Some people are hard to drill with because they want to discuss the technique every third rep. Some people are hard to roll with for an hour because they might lack the conditioning to roll hard for an hour.

3. Make your training sessions a regular, scheduled part of your week. Especially if you are doing training sessions one on one, or in a small group with a few other people. If you have to text each other each week, or email each other to meet up, then it becomes difficult to get into a regular rhythm that you can build on each week. It's too easy to just not text the person and let that training opportunity slip by, or bail on the session. If it is a regular part of your week, it is much easier to schedule around and it is much easier to plan what you want to accomplish and improve each session and build up on those things each week.

Since I am training harder than usual and am making myself more goal oriented with my training, taking these kinds of actions are super important for me. I think they are also very useful for people who have only a small window of opportunity each week for training. If you can only make one or two training sessions per week, you will get much much more out of the sessions if you take an organized approach to things. If you are training for professional reasons (aspirations of being in the UFC, Strikeforce, winning big Bjj tournaments like the Mundials, Pan ams, etc...) then it is almost a must to maximize your training time through organized sessions. If you are the casual practitioner who just enjoyse the culture of the school and likes to work up a sweat a few times a week, then it becomes less neccesary to do this kind of stuff; but I still think it's useful because it's much easier to improve this way and training is much much more fun when you are improving regularly.

Thanks for reading!!! If you have any questions or comments let me know!

Future stuff

2011-07-12T07:05:00.001-07:00

Interesting book I've been reading: The singularity is near by Ray kurtzweil. Here's a Wikipedia that sums some of the ideas up: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Singularity_Is_Near

Over the years I've been pretty hot/cold with technology and futuristic kind of stuff. I'll read some sci fi stuff here and there, the standards like Dune, Brave new world, Do androids dream of electric sheep, etc...and get pretty nuts about the ideas in them for a bit, and it always taper off. This kurtzweil book is my new thing right now I think, haha. I first heard about it when I was watching a documentary on Netflix called "transcendent man" ( here's a link: http://mobile.transcendentman.com/) about Mr. Kurtzweil and I was riveted! Definitely worth checking out both and I'll try to write more about what I learn later. There are a lot of cool ideas that make me think (of course) about Brazilian jiujitsu and MMA stuff. Again, I'll write more when I know what the hell I'm talking about :)

2011-07-10T18:07:00.001-07:00

Testing to see if text blogging really works or not.

Movnat seminar with Clifton Harski review!!

2011-07-02T13:49:00.000-07:00

On Saturday I had the pleasure of attending a Movnat seminar (movnat.com) with one Mr. Clifton Harski. I’ve been interested in Movnat for a little over a year and a half when my buddy James showed me some articles about Movnat founder Erwan Lecorre. James ended up attending one of Mr. Lecorres seminars in NYC last year and gave rave reviews so I resolved to go to the next one that I could attend.

In the mean time, I read every article I could find on the system and other systems of natural movement. Most of what I read about the Philosophy of Movnat made perfect sense, so when I found out that there was one here in Philly on April 30th I signed up immediately. When that saturday came, I arrived at Fairmount park with some Vibrams (those peculiar looking, but highly comfortable/functional “toe shoes”), some shorts and a bagged lunch packed. I met some of the other attendees and they all seemed like pretty cool people, friendly and from a variety of backgrounds they all shared an interest in Natural movement. Some came from Triathalon background, some from a Crossfit background, some from no athletic background at all. A good mix of folks from all walks of life. Some of the people mentioned being into the Paleo diet, which I know very little about, but sounds interesting as well. I liked that everyone came from different backgrounds and “scenes” , but no one was irritating or obnoxious about it.

We started off with some basic awareness and posture drills which flowed into some technical movement drills and technical modifications to the way we walk. Everything covered in the seminar was technique oriented, but not overly so. We came away with more efficient ways to walk, run, jump, climb and lift as well as some play time using our imagination to create obstacles and using our training partners to help us develop agility, strength or a number of other skill sets. It was technical, but technical in favor of simplicity and function rather than being overly detailed to the point of being frustrating.

In this way I thought that on a technical and in some ways philosophical level, Movnat seemed almost like the Gracie Jiujitsu (Brazilian Jiujitsu) that I practice, only instead of applying technique to a person you are applying it to your environment in as technical and efficient a way as possible to accomplish your goal. A technical way to climb a tree or jump off of a log, or as in the case of Bjj a technical way to break an arm or apply a choke. Technical drills to improve efficiency and skill in doing things that are natural to human movement. Jiujitsu is in a lot of ways the application of a certain Philosophy and the corresponding technique to the human skill of fighting and Movnat seems to be the application of a certain Philosophy and it’s corresponding technique to other human skill sets (running, jumping, climbing, etc…). Some of the drills that we did at the Movnat seminar are things that we do regularly in Jiujitsu (standing up in base, shrimping) and what I found interesting is that these are done in Bjj with the intent of escaping a partners attack, but in Movnat these same movements might be used to accomplish something completely different, like using standing up in base to get up on a beam to balance, or shrimping to scoot underneath a low ceiling or under a wall. Very interesting an eye opening.

On a work out level, I was sore as hell for about a week afterwards. All of the movements we performed were of a whole body movement variety. Very few things were done with isolated sections of the body only (and if they were, they were a supplementary drill as part of a larger movement). I’m young and in fairly good shape, so I was able to perform all of the activities without too much difficulty and the ones I had trouble with I felt that I would be able to improve systematically with the training methods provided during the seminar. This is stuff that anyone can begin to work on and with practice will be able to develop the requisite skills to do what was covered in the seminar. It’s also easy to see that there are higher level skills that are reserved for more experienced practitioners, as is true in any system; but I can also easily see that you can modify your workout yourself to challenge yourself past your limits simply with the things provided in the seminar. You learn how to jump off of a log. Once you get good at that then you learn to jump off of a log onto a precise target, or jumping a longer distance or over something, etc…

I won’t attempt to describe the Philosophy of Movnat as their website and related articles does more justice to the system than I would be able to with more eloquence than I possess, but one thing that impressed me the most about it was that I came away with a perspective towards movement that felt much much more “useful” than other work out systems I have been exposed to. Useful, efficient, fun, technical are all words that I would use to describe the experience.

The instructor, Clifton Harski, did an excellent job. He comes from a pretty extensive background in fitness and movement and shows a genuine passion when speaking about the Movnat system. He explained the techniques and philosophy well and was very open to questions and concerns during the seminar. As someone who has been to and been involved in orchestrating a number of Bjj seminars and teaching one or two myself, I appreciated that he was skillful in his presentation. He spoke clearly and well, was friendly and energetic and provided enough information without overloading the participants. That’s my long winded way of saying that Clifton does a damn good seminar and I will definitely be participating in future events.

To sum, if you get the chance to do a Movnat event, do it. I felt like it was worth every penny and as with the memorable seminars that I’ve been to in the past I came away with technique/skills to work on as well as Philosophical insight that changed my perspective on how I work out.

Regards,

Josh Vogel

Mginaction website Review!!!

2011-07-02T13:47:00.000-07:00

Mginaction website review!!!
When I first heard that Marcelo Garcia and Josh Waitzkin were putting together a website, I was pretty excited to see how it turned out. I’ve been a huge fan of Mr. Garcia for years, watching every scrap of footage I could find on Youtube and Dailymotion almost daily and studying it to see what I could implement into my grappling.

Mr. Waitzkin came to my attention through his excellent book, The Art of Learning. Having a similar background in Chinese martial arts and an interest in chess (an interest, but no skill haha) I picked the book up and thought it was brilliant, so I kept an eye open for new media, articles, etc…that he was putting out.

The website. Mginaction.com , as an educational resource, is amazing. Before I get on to the features of the site, one thing I want to point out is that this site is in constant evolution, which is an amazing thing in itself. The staff at Mginaction are always improving the site, adding new features (such as slow motion on the video) or updating the site (making it available for use on iPhones and other smart phones, for example); it’s clear that they are focused on creating the best resource possible.

The actual website is something that takes a while to digest. What I mean is that it takes time to understand exactly how much you can actually do with this site as there are so many features and ways of cross referencing things, bookmarking, etc…That being said, the site is very, very easy to use and is aesthetically pleasing to look at to boot. Features wise, the video stands out the most for me. At the point of this review, there are close to seven hundred videos of Marcelo Garcia sparring with students, drop ins and visiting Black belts from just about everywhere in the world. He rolls with white belts, he rolls with guys who have placed on the medals stand at Black belt in the Mundials and he rolls with everyone in between. There’s even footage of him rolling with one of his teachers, Fabio Gurgel on there. The footage of him rolling with all of these people alone is well worth the price of admission, in my opinion. Just off the top of my head, there’s footage of him rolling with Fabio Gurgel, Jimmy Pedro (Judo Olympian), Ben Askren (Wrestling Olympian), Jt Torres, Ryan Hall, Chris Moriarty, Paul Shreiner, and dozens of other amazing grapplers.

What can I do with this footage? Well, on Mginaction, I can slow the footage down to varying degrees of speed to break down exactly what is happening during the roll. I can see a list of the techniques that Garcia uses during the roll and click on any of those links to see dozens of other sparring sessions where he uses the same techniques, short clips of him sparring with these techniques and instructional clips of him actually teaching the techniques and sequences that he uses. So, for example, when I went to visit the school last July, they filmed our sparring session. I can look at the footage on Mginaction.com and see that Garcia guillotined me about eight times in a five minute roll. I can click on a link to the right of that video to see more videos of Marcelo Guillotining people (which makes me feel a lot better that he makes it look so easy with everyone else too lol). I can click on another link to see hundreds of short clips of him guillotining people in sparring situations, which I can use to see how he sets up and transitions to the guillotine in different situations. Then, I can click on a variety of links to see Garcia actually teaching the guillotine and variations of it, different sets ups/transitions, etc…in an instructional format. So not only did I get to learn from my experience getting whupped on by Mr. Garcia at his actual school, but I can look at the footage and they have already broken down the footage for me.

This brings to another point and a brief interlude: When you sign up for a year on Mginaction, you get a free week of training at Mr. Garcias academy, or you get half price on the drop in fee should you only stop by for a day (I think it’s $40 usually, $20 if you have a membership to the site). His school is awesome. The students are all cool and there are a lot of really skilled people to train with and while I’ve only been to the school once, it seems very very easy to get a chance to roll with Marcelo himself, which is a great learning experience. You may luck out and have the footage put up on the site for you to study as well. In short, stop by the school. Awesome people, awesome training, awesome changing rooms and bathroom. Awesome mats.

Back to the features, so now you can break down whatever footage you like. There are also sections where you can see Beginner technique instructionals, Advanced technique instructionals, Individual technique sparring clips, Full sparring sessions, Drills that Garcia and the class perform and Discussions that Mr. Garcia has with his students and with visiting “Celebrity grapplers”. The discussions section is a nice addition because you can listen to Garcia discussing theory and his ideas about positions, techniques, strategy and grappling in general with a variety of people like Ryan Hall, Mark Bocek and others.

There are other features, like bookmarking your favorite videos, etc…which are cool but that I won’t write about as I have not explored them yet. The forum is another aspect of the site that is very useful. Students who have questions about anything can get answers about training at the academy, how Mr. Garcia feels about certain topics or deals with certain situations, etc…The answers are usually from students close to Mr. Garcia so while I don’t know if Marcelo actually goes on the forums, he answers through these intermediaries. Lots of good knowledge on there.

On Sherdog forums, someone asked me how, in the year and a half/two years or so that I’ve been on this site my game has benefited from being on the site and how much I have improved. I feel like it’s silly to quote myself, but I’m going to do it any way because I think it’s the best way that I could explain what I’ve gotten from the site:

“when I take the time to drill and implement the things I have learned directly and observed from the website into my training systematically and regularly I notice that I improve at what I work on. I usually use instructionals to enhance things that I already do rather than learn completely new things, so while I have started doing new things like north south chokes and spiral armlocks , I feel the best improvements have come in my footlock guard (or one legged x guard), open guard passing and in practicing, avoiding and observing how one of the best deals with other high level guys in certain “niche” positions and transitions (avoiding 50/50, for example).

I feel like the website has influenced my training and improved it for sure. I don’t know if I could give a percentage or quantify exactly how much, but the benefits that I have received far exceed the sum of money that I’m paying.

The site helps if you just watch the content. The site, like any educational service, will benefit you more if you study and implement well. For me that means note taking, video breakdown and lots of drilling.”

Ok, the absolute BEST thing about this site is that it is updated almost every single day. New sparring videos, new instructionals, new everything. Always new footage to analyze, always new instructionals to learn from. To sum, the whole site is absolutely brilliant and the fact that it is always updated both boggles my mind because it probably takes so much work to do, but also impresses the hell out of me and is just one more thing that sets this website far far apart from any other Bjj educational resource around. My perspective as someone who has been using the site for a couple of years is that it’s amazing how much the site has improved and I’m excited to see it’s evolution over the next few years.

One last point about the site that I want to mention is that there is a referral program, so if this review helped you and you want to check the site out for free for a week, please use my username “Sloth” as your promo code. You will get a free week and I’ll get $25 if you decide to sign up. You can then do the same thing and have other folks use your username as a promo code. This is legit, by the way, I just got a check from them the other day and was pleasantly surprised. Thanks Mginaction!

Hello and transferring some content

2011-06-29T08:36:00.000-07:00

Hello,

I haven't posted on this blog in a while, mostly because I tend to get crazy about a billion different ideas at one time and forget to maintain the things I am already working on. That being said, I'm planning on posting a little more on here. I'm going to start transferring some of the content from one of my other blogs (metropolitanmma.wordpress.com) onto this one so that I can...well, I guess so that I can get some people to read some of the stuff that I've written haha!

Thanks!

Josh

Hitchcock's Ninja Cat comes closer without moving

2008-10-11T15:45:00.001-07:00

This cracked me up.

My first grappling Superfight!

2008-09-23T08:34:00.000-07:00

This saturday I had the good fortune to be able to compete in my first Grappling Superfight. Definitely an awesome opportunity for me and I must admit that it was one of the most pleasant experiences I've had competing. No waiting around, one match and then you are done. It was pretty awesome! Plus I didn't have to make weight or anything which was sweet. This naturally led to a ridiculous eating experience with Rick (Migliarese). We both pigged out so bad it, lol. I think I ate about 6 hamburgers in two days, plus sandwiches, old country buffet (there's no point in even trying to figure out what I ate there), pancakes, etc...

The match itself was a great experience for me. Henry Matamoros is an experienced competitor who has been doing this stuff for a long time and I'm grateful to have been able to test myself against good competition. Mark Severtson of Badgerland Bjj was the man who set the trip up for Rick and I, thanks Mark! The tournament was fun and the next day Rick did a great seminar with some of Marks students at Marks school. I'll tell you what, the folks at Badgerland Jiujitsu are awesome! Great training and the nicest folks you could meet. If any of you live out that way, or find yourself traveling to the Madison area, you will find yourself in good hands there!

Naturally the seminar led to training which led to my sixth hamburger of the weekend. This was something special. I've been eating hot dogs with sauerkraut for years, but I never even thought to try a Burger with Sauerkraut. It was awesome!

Well, I think I've used the word "Awesome" enough for one post, so I'll leave it at that and post some pictures later today with a little more story time about the weekend.

Damn, some people are just plain nuts.

2008-08-26T18:30:00.000-07:00

Here is a video of El Caminito del Rey (In english, the Kings Pathway). On the video (go to this link if you want to:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWcegpemjbA ) there is a little information about this. It's basically this busted path on some mountain in Spain that hasn't been maintained at all in years.

It's pretty crazy watching the video, this guy is walking around on this path with about a billion feet of instant death below him and he doesn't even hesitate or anything when he's going across these narrow pipes. Crazy. Watch the video, it will definitely freak you out.

Taking notes, the writing process and internet forums....

2008-08-15T14:34:00.001-07:00

I'm a big fan of writing stuff down. Whenever I learn something new I try to go over it in my head a bunch of times, write it down and sometimes draw pictures (most of this pertaining to learning Bjj) and I feel like I've gotten alot out of this practice. Of course this is all supplementary to actual practice time, drilling, trying stuff out rolling, etc...For me it's part of the process of absorbing and understanding what I learn better and digging deeper into everything that I learn. Oddly enough, one of the side effects has been that I'm focusing more and more on less and less techniques.

I learn a move. Drill the hell out of it, make a committment to drill it and use it over and over again in rolling for a period of time; say two weeks or a month. I write it down in as much detail as I possibly can. Every single piece I try to write down and I try to figure out why each piece is the way it is. If I come across any fuzzy areas that I'm not a hundred percent sure about, then I make a note to ask my instructor about that part. I write down a lot of questions and I bring my notes to the gym with me so that I can remember to ask the questions that I write down.

The next step is writing it down later on after I've been working on the move for a week or so and writing down what people are doing to counter the technique. If I'm doing an armbar from the guard and making it work 60 percent of the time, what is stopping me from getting it that other 40 percent? Am I not applying enough squeeze with my knees, or keeping their posture broken down enough or is my timing off? How do they defend the technique?

As best I can I try to apply this information to my practice sessions. I get answers from my instructors and I try to watch as much video of the technique as I can. Youtube is really really awesome. For real.

Sometimes watching someone else teach the technique on youtube, or watching someone apply the technique successfully (or not) in a competiton or sparring match can give me answers to questions about the techniques that I might not even know to ask.

I guess it's more than note taking, it's trying to research the techniques as much as possible in as many ways as I possibly can. Note taking is really important for me in this aspect.

It's why I write these posts, in some ways. More than anything it's helping me sort out and analyze the learning process and how I can learn better. So instead of having all of these scattered ideas about improving and all of these dissasociated thoughts about training; I can work towards having an organized system to improve.

Regards,
Josh

Gripstravaganza!!! Not really....sort of....

2008-08-12T18:59:00.000-07:00

I've been focusing alot on grappling with the Gi on lately and so naturally the subject of grips has come up for me. Whenever I get the chance to roll with good grapplers, especially with the gi on, it's almost inevitable that I get stuck in some grip that off balances me and is seemingly impossible to break.

Strong, fast and well placed grips. How do I get them?

Neil Adams book on Judo gripping has excellent advice on all things grip related and if any of you get a chance to check it out, I think it's pretty well worth the cash. I thought I would mention that, just as an aside if anyone is thinking of checking out that book.

Grips, things that are helping me I think:

1. Starting off with a light kettlebell. I hold it with both hands and let my arms rest straight down, kettlebell hanging from my fingertips. Then I use my fingertips to lift the kettlebell, slowly, repeating fifteen or twenty times. I try to use all of my fingers as best I can.

2. I got one of those squeezy stress balls that can be found for like $4 at any sporting goods store. I squeeze it. Ha ha. There's not much more to it than that. I try to work all of my fingers, including my thumbs and I try to squeeze slowly, bending my wrists at different angles while I do this to help strengthen from different directions.

3. Extend my arms straight in front of me, like a mummy. Open my fingers as wide as I can and close them into fists, I do this slowly, quickly and every where in between.

4. Hanging by my fingertips from a pull up bar. This can be done hanging from the bar, doing pull ups and doing both with a gi, or gi material hanging from the pull up bar.

Just some ideas. These things are helping me develop a better grip for Gi grappling. One thing that I was told that made alot of sense to me, I should mention, is this: The muscles in the hands are small and relatively delicate. Strengthening the hands and wrists should be done carefully and gradually.

It's been helping me to stretch my hands and forearms alot, massage them as well so that they have a chance to rest and relax. This is especially useful in between matches at a tournament, by the way. My grips burn like crazy after my first match at tournaments and it's definitely helped my recovery time between matches.

I want to spend more time learning about this subject and will try to write more about it as I become more educated about the subject.

How to enter a Bjj or Submission Grappling tournament.....for the most part.

2008-07-16T20:33:00.000-07:00

Hi,

There was a post on Sherdog.com asking about how to enter a tournament and it got me thinking that there really isn't anything out there that I've seen that will clearly take one through the process of entering a tournament if you haven't done so before. Usually classmates, instructors or whoever is hanging around at ones school will have at least been to one, so they can be helpful; but in the event that there is absolutely no one around to help with the process; here's a brief rundown of how it works:

1. Find out where, when, and see if there is a website associated with the tournament. For example, Grapplers Quest is a large organization that has regular tournaments around the country multiple times a year. The website is : www.Grapplersquest.com

2. On the website you can find out about rules, time limits, cost of the event, where and when the event is. You can also pre register for an event. When you pre register, it means that you are paying for the event ahead of time and you will frequently pay less than you would if you pay at the door. Some tournaments, mostly the Ibjjf ones (go to Ibjjf.org for more info on rules, etc.) require you to pre register for an event and reward early pre registration with bigger discounts on entry fees.

3. Once you get to the tournament, you will either have to get in line and register and pay for whichever divisions you choose to do. For example, you might to Blue belt heavyweight and Blue belt absolute division if it's a gi tournament. If you are competing no Gi in the same tournament you might do Intermediate heavyweight and Intermediate Absolute. (meaning whatever weightclass you normally weigh in at and if you choose the absolute divison, which is where there is no weight classes, just grappling with whoever you get matched up with of any size or weight).

4. Once registration is complete, you will usually be given a sheet of paper indicating which divisions you paid for. You will take this to the weigh in station where you will hand the weigh in station workers your paper, step on a scale and weigh whatever you weigh. If you are trying to lose weight, or are unsure of where your weight is at and might want to be in a different weight class, it's a good idea to show up a little early so you can have a few "test weigh ins" before doing your final weigh in. If it's a gi tournament, sometimes you are required to weigh in with the gi on, so factor that in to your weight and be sure to read the rules clearly before showing up. Also, pay attention to make sure that you are listed as being in the divisions that you requested to be in. It's not uncommon for someone to make a mistake, whether it's you or the workers and you might end up in the wrong division. You will probobly end up with a slip or paper of some sort that you will be required to give to whoever is working on the table of the mat that you are competing on.

5. Grab an event schedule asap. Find out which tables your divisions are on and see what order you are going on in. Be aware that sometimes tables will change and your division will get moved to another one. Keep an ear out for the loudspeakers making announcements about this sort of thing and check frequently with your tables to see how far along the schedule they are. There is no need to ask the workers at the tables , by the way, they are busy as hell all day and you can usually ask the competitiors around the table what divison is going on at that time. If your division is coming up soon, it's a good idea to stay relatively close to whatever table you are supposed to be at.

6. When your division is called (usually a loudspeaker announcement will be made, followed by table workers calling out names), head over to your table and provide your slip to them should they require it. Some tournaments do weigh ins right before you step on the mat to compete, and sometimes also require a photo i.d. at weigh ins also. The only event that I've seen this at is at Ibjjf events, but there may be others.

7. At this point, this means that your division is either up next, or ready to start. Your brackets should be up by now. This means that sometimes you can ask the table workers to see when you go up, who you are to compete against, etc...It's important that you stay close to the table at this point, so that you don't miss them calling you up to compete.

8. Make sure that any coaches, friends, people videotaping or taking photos of your matches are nearby and ready to go.

9. You will get called to be "on deck", which means that after whatever match that's starting now is over, you will be up. After that match is over, they call your name and you step on the mat.

10. The referee will usually give you a colored ankle band to put on your ankle before your match. This is to make scoring easier for him/her and the table workers. This is if you are doing No gi. If you are competing with the gi, then you may have to wear a multi colored belt, frequently it's green and yellow, to serve the same purpose.

11. The ref will either explain the rules, or make sure that you understand the rules. You slap/shake hands with your opponent, the ref says go and you go and do your best.

12. If you keep on winning your matches, you will be asked to keep close by so they don't have to look for you when your next match is up.

13. After you win your final match, hang out and wait for them to call you or your division over the loud speakers to show up at the medal stands. Sometimes you will get medaled right away, right there on the mat pretty soon after your last match, it depends on the tournament and the size of the event.

14. Go take a nap.

A couple of tips that might be useful:

-It's boring as hell, but read the rules before you compete. It really sucks to get disqualified for something that you were not aware of. This is not only in reference to technique, this can apply to the size of your gi, your weight, hygiene, etc...There are lots of ways to get DQ'ed.

-Bring small, healthy snacks for yourself. Water also.

-Be polite to the staff of the events. Refs, table workers, etc... are usually there all day working and it's not easy. They are more likely to be helpful to you if you are pleasant to them.

-Be prepared to wait. Some events run smoother than others, some are bigger, some are smaller, and some take forever and ever and ever to call your division. Be ready to wait.

-Take advantage of the warm up area if there is one.

I hope that helps some. If there are any important points that I left out, by all means feel free to comment.

Damn, those last photos suck!

2008-07-13T16:59:00.001-07:00

Sorry folks, I know you probobly don't come on this blog to find state of the art photography, but damn, those were some messed up photos that I posted.

A day at the beach

2008-07-13T16:51:00.000-07:00

God I love the beach. It can be the filthiest piece of crap beach in the world and I think I would still enjoy myself there. There's something very theraputic about it for me, lol, big shocker right?

Anyway, my girlfriend Angela and I went with her family to Wildwood this weekend and had a blast! I vowed right then and there to make a real effort to spend as much time near the water as possible this summer. The first photo is on the way home. It's always kind of sad going home from the beach, but until I live near the ocean I'm afraid that's a situation not easily remedied.

Some photos I took the other day messing around...

2008-07-13T16:46:00.001-07:00

I was messing around some stuff in my room the other day and it made for some interesting photos, here is one:

Sundays are very quiet in Philly

2008-07-06T07:38:00.001-07:00

I just walked to the gym from my place this morning and damn, Sundays in Philly are really quiet. Barely any cars on the road and almost no noise except for that wierd background fuzz that all cities have.

It's hard not to be introspective on days like this. Usually I'm still too lost in the fog from sleep to even try to have any real thoughts at this point; but for some reason I'm kind of awake today. I think training will be good today.

I've been reading a good book called "Coaching Wrestling Successfully" by Dan Gable lately. I bought it a year or two ago and read it then, but only in a cursory way just to quickly absorb any interesting tidbits that stood out to me. I'm going through it a little more slowly now and I have to say that the work ethic that Mr. Gable describes in his "case studies" and that is alluded to in the training/coaching advice that he gives is really inspiring. I admire that and I think maybe that's something that I need a little more of in my training, mentally. I think I need to push myself more than I do.

An interesting point was made in one of the stories that he mentions in the book. He was talking about a guy who drove something like three hours each way to go train with Mr. Gable because he needed a good workout. That's pretty awesome.

I think it's easy for me to take for granted training sessions where I train. There are so many talented people there all the time to roll with and I always have the opportunity to take class, learn from , roll with, workout with excellent people. I think that since I don't have to go far or overcome any obstacles to get good training in with good people, that I don't fully appreciate training with the people that I do. So I guess that's my new goal:

Look at every training session as a chance to get a great workout. Appreciate the value of my training sessions and make the most out of them.

A cool picture from this weekend!

2008-07-02T20:33:00.000-07:00

Pretty cool picture from one of my matches. Action photo!

Tired as hell...

2008-07-02T20:26:00.000-07:00

I trained hard today and it feels good. I think I like this more aggressive way that I've been approaching training. Not that I'm wrestling more aggressively (though I feel like I am), but just a more aggressive and hands on approach in general. Working harder and it feels good, I end the day feeling satisfied like I got a little better than I was yesterday. Now I just have to keep doing that. One step in the right direction each day.

My plan for the year:

1. Compete as much as possible in the Gi.

2. Win the Worlds in whatever weight I am at the time.

3. Be more organized about my progress.

I want to keep it simple and stick to this plan. It gives me something to work towards and helps keep that fire going I think.

I also want to play more nintendo and Skateboard more as both are pretty damn fun and I need to enjoy myself more outside of BJJ I think. More later.

Being happy with the track that I'm on.

2008-07-01T20:39:00.000-07:00

Hi,

In continuation of the prior post, with my matches from this weekend on it; I wanted to say a few things. I'm pretty happy with the track that I've been on. Training has been really good lately and the last two weeks I've felt a renewed sense of motivation and joy in training. Not that I didn't enjoy training before, but that I've just had a fire lit for the last couple of weeks and I am really motivated to improve and climb higher.

I don't know where it came from. Part of it is motivation to compete.....not only compete, but make my Jiujitsu work against better and better guys in tougher and tougher divisions. Not for the sake of a medal, or for the ego boost that it provides (and it does for sure) but to prove to myself that I can control myself and my skills under pressure. Maybe to have faith in myself and what I can do is more along the lines that I'm thinking.

As far as training goes, I've taken an active role in being a better athelete for the last couple of months and more intensely in the last couple of weeks. I believe that BJJ is for the smaller and weaker guy and that the real power is in Technique, timing and leverage; but I feel mentally and physically better training when I am in better shape. Jogging, bodyweight excersises, some kettlebell stuff and Yoga have all been instrumental in helping me feel sharper and more....confident in my training and with myself. I think I just feel like a healthier person training this way and it makes my training better. Plus alot of that stuff works my posture and base which is what I've been working on alot in training lately.

Now I just need to learn how to balance it all with proper rest. That's something that I've never been good at and I think that's definitely it's own set of skills.

Another thing that I've been working on alot again is the mental part of training for me. I mean everything from not letting ego get the best of me in training to getting better at anger management to focusing myself and building up my confidence at tournaments and in training to finding motivation and keeping it. This is something that I've been fascinated by for most of my life; mental and physical control and how they relate to each other, and it's found it's outlet in BJJ for me. Competition definitely helps me find a platform from which I can experiment and test things out under pressure with this stuff.

Well, time for some of that rest. I'll write more later.

My Matches from a Tournament this weekend...

2008-07-01T20:31:00.000-07:00

Here are my gi matches. My first Gold medal as a Purple belt. Needless to say, I'm pretty happy with the wins. Now it's time to forget them and push myself harder.

Here are my no gi matches. My first match I was happy with. The guy felt tough and was very good at reclaiming his guard. The second guy is a Black belt from Renzo Gracies academy in NYC named Daniel Aguilar. It was an honor to compete against him and I learned alot from the experience in that match. I hope to have more chances to compete against guys of his caliber!

My first match as a Purple belt. Video

2008-04-10T10:46:00.000-07:00

Hi,

I competed for the first time as a Purple belt at the Pan ams a couple of weeks ago and I got my grubby little hands on some footage of my first match. It was a great experience for me to go to the pan ams at all, much less compete against good guys in the Purple belt division. It was really exciting to see the level of competitor there, in all belt levels. There were no weak competitors there that I saw and I feel like I learned alot just from hanging out and watching matches. Enjoy:

And more pictures, lol....

2008-04-04T16:04:00.001-07:00

More pictures from my trip....

2008-04-04T16:00:00.000-07:00

Just got back from California!!!!

2008-04-04T15:54:00.000-07:00

Well, I just got back from California and what a great time I had! Here are some photos from my trip:

Videos of my brother at Last weekends tournament!

2008-02-12T11:18:00.000-08:00

Two of my brothers matches:

One of my tournament matches from a couple of months ago...

2008-02-08T17:31:00.000-08:00

Some footage of me grappling in class last weekend!

2008-02-01T22:46:00.000-08:00

Hi,

I just found this online and figured I would post it to share with everyone. Enjoy!

Video of me Grappling at a tournament last month. Dancing involved as well....

2008-01-29T11:40:00.000-08:00

Here's a video of a couple of my matches from last month (decembers U.S Grappling event) plus some bad dancing. This was posted by my teacher, Ricardo Migliarese who has tremendous musical sense, lol. Thanks Rick :)

New pictures from this month!

2007-12-16T21:34:00.000-08:00

Here are some nice scenes that stuck out to me this past month:

Grappling tournament superfight!

2007-12-03T07:30:00.001-08:00

I decided to post this here because I cannot access youtube directly from work. The only way I can watch videos is to post them somewhere that will host the video directly. This is a superfight between Rick Macauley and Fernando "Margarida" Pontes. enjoy!

pt.1

pt.2

Philly by night...

2007-11-01T12:41:00.000-07:00

Some shots of North philly at night that were pretty fun to take.

Philly by Day....

2007-10-28T19:07:00.000-07:00

A couple shots of West Philly that I like near my favorite Indian restaurant...

Videos from yesterdays grappling tournament

2007-10-07T12:49:00.000-07:00

This is my first and only match of the day. I popped my rib about a minute in, but felt like I did well. I had a great time competing and learned alot from this.

My brother Drew never ceases to amaze me. His throwing skills are great!

One for the road...

2007-09-07T20:10:00.001-07:00

Here's another one. I always kind of liked alleyways for some reason. There are always wierd shaped pipes and other wierd crap laying around to look at.

Some more of what I did and saw today...

2007-09-07T19:30:00.001-07:00

What I did today...

2007-09-07T19:16:00.000-07:00

Today was a good day for stuff to look at. I spent most of the day at work, luckily that involves sitting in a truck and passing by interesting stuff. More to come in the next post. Maybe tomorrow I will actually write something interesting, lol.

Awesome gate!

2007-09-06T21:11:00.000-07:00

I always liked this gate alot. It's in the park up by the Schuykill river on 25th and locust-lombard or something like that. There is a really pleasant courtyard right in front of it, which is a nice place to read.

More Philly by bike

2007-09-06T13:36:00.001-07:00

Got this one while I was doing some laundry. I always thought this was a pretty neat looking building.... The top one is the underside of a bridge type thing. I suspect this might be one of those "Had to be there" kind of things, to enjoy looking at but I'll post it anyway lol.

Cats are crazy. 'Nuff said.

2007-09-06T07:58:00.001-07:00

Exhibit A

More Philly by bike

2007-09-05T19:59:00.001-07:00

Here are some more. I'll keep posting the ones that I particularly like and I'll probobly find tons more since I'm kind of inspired to go around Center city now. Enjoy!

Philly by bike...

2007-09-05T19:38:00.000-07:00

I ride my bike around the city alot and don't really look around all that much. So I decided that I would start taking pictures of stuff on the way to work. It's actually really nice. I've been enjoying myself alot more on the way to work and I'm starting to enjoy looking at all of the awesome stuff that Philly has to offer again. I hope you guys enjoy some of these pics, they were taken with a camera phone, so the quality isn't that great.

Changing posts.......

2007-09-01T21:20:00.001-07:00

I'm not exactly sure why I added the picture above, I like it and it's really simple; but beyond that it's not that related to what I'm thinking about now. It's just cool, I'll leave it at that... :)

I wrote a whole post about motivation and learning and all of this other stuff and reading it a couple of days later; it makes a lot less sense than I thought it did when I wrote it. So I erased it....Anyway, I'm going to post some more pictures up and I'm going to try to keep this blog simple. Better than getting too nuts and posting a bunch of stuff that I will erase later on.

Hope that makes sense.

Josh

BALANCE STUDIOS JIUJITSU AND YOGA

2007-09-01T09:15:00.000-07:00

Lol, here's my "Nerd that time forgot" picture from the Balance studios website. I have to say, I kind of like this picture in a wierd kind of way... The website is www.Balancestudios.net if anyone is interested. It's the Gracie Jiujitsu school that I train/work at and it's like a second home to me. Anyone in the Philadelphia area should check it out, awesome training, great people and a very friendly environment!

www.Freejiujitsu.com
www.Balancestudios.net
www.Graciebasics.com

A cool picture from last week.

2007-08-31T17:22:00.000-07:00

I turned 28 today.....

2007-08-31T16:45:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,

I origionally started this blog as a means to highlight some of my drawings and I still mean to continue with this at some point in the future; but more than anything right now I just feel like writing whatever I feel like writing. This includes posting whatever interesting and/or funny stuff I find laying around on the web.

So here goes:

I turned 28 today and I think today was my lucky day. Here are some things that went right:

1. I got the last everything bagel at the coffee shop today. I know of at least two people that wanted it, but I got it and I wasn't giving it up for anything today; it's my birthday...

2. When I got home, early, by the way; Crocodile Dundee part 2 was on.

3. Human Weapon is on tonight.

4. I expect pizza later on tonight.

All in all, birthday depression aside; this was about as good as birthdays get in my book. Quiet, no bullshit to deal with, no obligations; just me and whatever I feel like doing.

So, in summary I want to wish myself a happy damn birthday! There are still four hours of it left!

The regular version...

2006-08-28T09:13:00.000-07:00

Hello,

Here's the regular version of that first drawing, without the calendar set up. I hope you guys enjoy!

Josh

One thing.

2006-08-09T09:09:00.000-07:00

I forgot to mention. All of these are photos of my drawings taken with a digital camera and then uploaded to the computer. That's why the image may not be clear, or might look strange. Once I get a scanner, I will get better images up for you folks to see.

Josh

Another drawing!

2006-08-09T08:53:00.000-07:00

Hello again,

I drew this about two years ago, maybe a year and a half ago. I was thinking aboutt those guys who stand on street corners all day wearing those chicken suits, advertising for fast food places. Now that's a tough job!

Anyway, I hope you guys like the drawing, there are more on the way this week.

Josh

More to come!

2006-08-07T20:59:00.000-07:00

Hello,

So I set this blog up a few days ago and had planned to put more artwork up immediately......Unfortunately, my computer skills are pretty low level. I tried banging on the computer, but nothing happened, so I'll have to wait until my Art work update/maintenance team shows up to work. (Translation; I'm incapable of doing anything meaningful with computers until my girlfriend gets to it).

My point is this: There will be some new dawings/artwork put up here on this blog in the next week or so. Stay tuned! Until then, I may just write whatever pops into my head :)

Josh

2006-08-03T20:59:00.000-07:00

That's me. Being Loco and hanging out. Just so you know.

First post.

2006-08-03T17:40:00.000-07:00

Hello,

Well, this is my first post on this blog. The purpose of this blog is for me to have a venue to show my artwork on the internet as well as keep everyone updated on what I'm doing. I also reserve the right to post any awful jokes that I might hear or anything that I might find funny, regardless of whether or not it actually funny.... I look forward to any feedback folks have.

Josh Vogel Art

Breathing for power in Grappling....

Leverage; First Blood

Changing directions...

Filming your own instructionals as a learning tool

Invisible skateboarding, Invisible Jiujitsu

Efficiency...afterthoughts....

Maximum efficiency, minimum effort.....

Interview with 68 year old artist and Bjj Blue/Purple belt Willy Adler!

More awesome stuff. Bodyweight exercise competitions.

Ninja Warrior is awesome.

How to make a Bjj belt part 3

How to make your own Bjj belt, part 2

How to make a Bjj Belt part 1

Invisible Jiujitsu? Maybe.

Goggles for grappling, part three...

Goggles for grappling, part Deux

Grappling Goggles, Day one! By Josh Vogel

Learning in the boundaries...

Getting better at getting better

Sao Paulo Volume 4: The Sao Paulo approach to passing the guard and smash passing. DVD REVIEW!!!!

Getting "caught" in thoughts....

Grappling is mental....duh!

Good question...

Skateboarding is beautiful!

More thoughts on Art and Grappling

Webinars and the spread of Grappling information

A trip to Grapevine, Texas

Something to chew on...

3 quick ideas on how to improve your Grappling sessions...

Future stuff

Movnat seminar with Clifton Harski review!!

Mginaction website Review!!!

Hello and transferring some content

Hitchcock's Ninja Cat comes closer without moving

My first grappling Superfight!

Damn, some people are just plain nuts.

Taking notes, the writing process and internet forums....

Gripstravaganza!!! Not really....sort of....

How to enter a Bjj or Submission Grappling tournament.....for the most part.

Damn, those last photos suck!

A day at the beach

Some photos I took the other day messing around...

Sundays are very quiet in Philly

A cool picture from this weekend!

Tired as hell...

Being happy with the track that I'm on.

My Matches from a Tournament this weekend...

My first match as a Purple belt. Video

And more pictures, lol....

More pictures from my trip....

Just got back from California!!!!

Videos of my brother at Last weekends tournament!

More videos. From last weekends tournament!

One of my tournament matches from a couple of months ago...

Some footage of me grappling in class last weekend!

Video of me Grappling at a tournament last month. Dancing involved as well....

New pictures from this month!

Grappling tournament superfight!

Philly by night...

Philly by Day....

Videos from yesterdays grappling tournament

One for the road...

Some more of what I did and saw today...

What I did today...

Awesome gate!

More Philly by bike

Cats are crazy. 'Nuff said.

More Philly by bike

Philly by bike...

Changing posts.......

BALANCE STUDIOS JIUJITSU AND YOGA

A cool picture from last week.

I turned 28 today.....

The regular version...

One thing.

Another drawing!

More to come!

First post.