Ask Sifu Z: How old is too old?

Dear Sifu Z,

I'm 40 years old. Is it time to quit Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu?

Sifu Z sez:

Dear bjj 40 yrs old -

Should I quit?

The question is "is it a hobby or a way of life?" You see I'm 49. Been doing martial arts for 24 years and plan on practicing until death. I needn't win all the time. In fact I, of late, take great pleasure in getting my ass kicked by one of my female students. She has gotten pretty good, I still dictate the way the fight goes but she is so much more aggressive than I am and so much faster that it's a chore to keep up. Now I'm not that familiar with the details of BJJ but the Gracies practice well into old age.

The question you should ask yourself is "am I gettin' pleasure outta this and is it having a positive effect on my life?" Both need to be yesses. If not, why dontcha try tennis?

Sifu Z

Photographing Fighters

by Mike

Over at Notes from Ringside, Hywel gives some advice on taking pictures of fighters.

Presumably, this also applies to taking photos with fighters which makes me think that maybe I didn't really break rule #2 (avoid the "fight pose" shot) when I really only had the half-fighter pose going with Robson Moura.


However, nothing beats a pic of Wanderlei Silva playing cornhole.

Mailbag! What do you call...those things you do?

Hi guys, What is the proper term for...all those things you learn when you do martial arts? Like each punch has a name, if you do Jiu-Jitsu, each submission has a name...is it a technique? an expression?

Hm. That's a tough one. Much like anything else related to martial arts, there's a varying amount of consistency within a style and almost no consistency between styles. So, there's no real answer. The following might give you a better idea of what tendencies people have, so you an at least be in the right ballpark.

Wrestlers often refer to "moves," karateka and jiu-jitsu players (among others) have "techniques," and right before a fight, Dangerous asked me to show him "that retard thing."*

But the above could also be plural. A thing could also be, "that...thing from the mount" (where they refer to moving from mount to S-mount to an armbar submission). A move could refer to a sequence of discreet techniques that others might refer to as a sequence. Boxers have "combinations" and savateurs "enchainments."

Do note that if the person you're talking to is a real stickler (or a jagoff), you should probably just call it whatever they do, if only to avoid having them talk to your ear off for hours about what, and why, it is what it is.

* He was, of course, asking about the Rubber Guard's retard control.

CC-licensed photo by Nick Lo.

Post-Seminar Checklist

by Mike

So, you used the seminar checklist and got everything that you needed to before you showed up. 12 hours of seminar and one semi-private later, you've got some bumps, bruises, the hell of a lot of illegible notes and a vastly improved game. What now?

When you get out of the seminar:

• First things first - have a beer. It'll kick start your recovery process. If there are people around who aren't sick of you from spending a weekend trapped in your stinky gi, this is a great time to go out, talk a little bit about what happened, what you learned and all the cool ways you're gonna change up your training.
  
  
• Then, shut the hell up about it. Enough already. Don't even think about bothering your friends that didn't go and/or don't train. No matter how supportive you think they are, a) they don't care and b) they're thinking, "you basically put a part-time job's worth of work into one weekend and spent it hugging dudes?"
  

When you get home:

• Take your gear out to let it air out/go in the wash. You'd be surprised how many times people forget to take their stuff out and only remember right before the next class, realize that they don't have enough time to wash anything and show up smelling like a gi or gloves that were used for 12 hours and then sat in a bag for a week. Wash your clothes!
  
  
• Hop in the bath. Hot water, epsom salts and try not to fall asleep in there. Take it from experience that if you stay in over 20 minutes, the salt creeps in your open pores and you'll be sweating medicinal salts for the next few days.
  
  
• Use your preferred painkillers and anti-inflammatories. As my wrestling coach says:

  When you get home, remember: ice. Or if you're that type, ice and Advil. Or if you're that type, ice, Advil and beer.
  

• Be careful about taking a nap. Falling asleep at six and waking up at 8 is a great way to not be able to fall asleep again that night, which not only takes away some prime recovery time, but also makes you groggy and grumpy the next day.
• Instead, use that time to review your notes. You'd be surprised how easy it is to not only not be able to read your own handwriting, but also to forget all those cryptic abbreviations you used to save time.
  
  
  

  Example of notes taken during a seminar. Note the diagram, which I think might have been copied from the Lesser Key of Solomon and not the representation of how to place your legs in the S-Mount like I intended.
  
  

  The sooner you can get back to your notes and use your memory to fill in the gaps, the better.
  
  
• Practice what you learned. Having the notes is nice and all, but trying to learn anywhere from a couple to a couple dozen techniques in a short time only allows for a couple reps - barely enough to figure out what you need to pay attention to and definitely not enough to get the muscle memory to kick in. If you've got access to others who took the seminar with you, try to get together and compare notes/review everything you worked on.
  

Most importantly:

• Share what you learned. Bring your experience and knowledge back to your gym and your classmates who couldn't attend. Sharing what you know will not only help reinforce what you did, but you'll be raising the game of everyone at your school and in turn that will elevate your game even more.
  

First Aid For Fighters: Torn Toenail

by Meredith & Doc Dill

More for the injury journal:

After months of 'breaking in" savate shoes that were a bit small on my right foot (my right is a half size bigger than my left, whatever, I'm not the only one), my big toe turned black. This was unattractive but not too upsetting since I have the nail polish option. It was already starting to grow out, so I didn't pay much attention to it. Then one day when I was sparring, I threw a roundhouse and my partner stuck out his elbow. He wasn't wearing elbowpads and my toenail split in half horizontally. I'd like to mention that I WAS wearing my savate shoes at the time. So currently I'm applying neosporin and trying to keep the remainder of the nail on the toe with bandaids.

Doc Dill says:

Ouch! Busted toenails hurt like a bitch!!

Well, ideally you should trim the broken part to prevent moisture accumulating and developing a fungal nail bed infection. Neosporin to keep it from drying out and cracking and preventing a bacterial infection. Cover it to protect it and wash it twice a day thoroughly trying it. In a couple of months the nail will grow out and you'll have beautiful tootsies once again.

Glossary: The Pocket

In striking arts, the pocket refers to the are where a fighter can stand and throw punches at arm's length.

Properly used, it's when one fighter stands on a diagonal to the other defender, so they can land shots without worrying about the other fighter counterpunching or returning the strikes and cannot defend properly. Staying in the pocket then is used to describe being to the opponent's side, like you're, well, in his pocket.

Example: Panda and Dangerous both fight in a conventional stance and Panda wants to get into the pocket to drop some bombs on Dangerous while avoiding any counterstrikes. Panda will stand to Dangerous' 2 o'clock. Panda will be in a good position land his strikes while Dangerous has nothing to offer in return. Dangerous will want to pivot to face (and therefore be able to defend and attack) Panda, but Panda can keep circling to stay in the pocket.

Robson Moura Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Seminar

Robson Moura, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Black Belt and multi-time-just-about-everything champion will be teaching a weekend-long seminar at the Degerberg Academy of Marital Arts Friday 4/25, Saturday 4/27 and Sunday 4/28.

The Seminar will consist of six two-hour sessions covering the following topics:

Friday 4/25 7 - 9pm - Working From the Full Guard

Saturday 4/26 10am - Noon - Side Control

1:30pm - 3:30pm - Attacking the Back/Turtle

4pm - 6pm - Passing the Guard

Sunday 4/27 10am - 12pm - Butterfly Guard

12:15 - 2:15 - Sparring Concepts/Gameplanning

Only a few slots left, so sign up quickly - Pricing is available for the entire seminar or per-session.

$50 per session or $250 for the entire seminar if you sign up by Thurs. 4/24

$60 per session or $300 for the entire seminar at the door (space permitting)

Please call Degerberg Academy of Martial Arts for more info or to sign up 773 728-5300.

Degerberg Academy of Martial Arts is located at 4717 N. Lincoln Chicago, IL.

If you're in the neighborhood, stop on in. Most of the WWNHH? crew will be there and we'd love to meet you.

Review: Free Stuff!

by Mike

Crazy Monkey Defense MMA Training Journal by Dr. Randy Broum and Rodney King RSME Free registration required.

I always knew that if I waited long enough, someone would write a nice, free book with all sorts of useful articles so I wouldn't have to.

This little manual is a very helpful guide to some metatraining considerations - things like setting goals, recognizing and treating overtraining/injuries, as well as maintaining focus over the course of not only individual training sessions but a training career.

Definitely worth a read for beginners, and maybe a quick once-over as a refresher course for veterans.

The Ringside Boxing Manual by Jim Brown.

This manual is primarily of interest those just getting started in a boxing program. Oddly, part of the book seems to be written with coaches in mind while the other half is addressed to boxers. This focuses purely on amateur boxing, which is a very different game than professional boxing (keep in mind the old saw, "amateur boxing is about technique while professional boxing is about punishment").

Diet, training, fighting common styles and "how to win an amateur bout" are covered as well as basic techniques. Sidebars cover basic rules of boxing and a useful list of things to keep in mind (I particularly like #5: "Appear confident at all times" and #6: "never forget that your opponent is as tired as you are."

This is a short guide and many subjects only receive lip service, but overall, this is a useful guide for beginners as a guide to see how their training should be structured and progress. Anyone other than beginners is likely not going to find much value in it.

Seminar Checklist

by Mike

Seminars are an awesome way to progress and grow as a martial artist. We've previously covered seminars and how/why they may be useful for your training, but there are practical matters related to the seminar - logistics if you will.

Whether your do all your training on the seminar circuit with Rorce Gracie and Dan Severn,* or you have the opportunity to take a one-off with one of your idols, you best make sure you're prepared to take full advantage of the situation.

Things to bring:

• Proper equipment. If the seminar is going to be Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu or Judo make sure you have an appropriate gi. If it's going to be Muay Thai drills, make sure you bring your tombstone pads. If you'll be sparring, bring your sparring gear. If it's not clear from the seminar agenda, ask the hosting school.
  
  
• More equipment than called for. Few seminars have any structure to them, let alone a rigid agenda, so it's entirely possible that you'll end up doing some fun stuff, like rolling with the instructor or sparring. You don't need to bring your whole gym bag, but some "just in case" items might prove to be worth the extra weight.
  
  
• Your notebook and several pens. You are keeping a notebook aren't you?
  
  The notebook is by far the most important thing you'll need during the seminar. You're paying good money for access to a great teacher that you likely won't see again for another year, if at all, so you want to make sure that you not only learn a lot while you're in the seminar, but that you remember it after the seminar's over.
  
  You should take any spare moment you get to start writing down notes - drills you like, things you need to work on, new techniques, etc. I have fond memories of Renzo Gracie teaching a very high-percentage kneebar when stuck in someone's half-guard that I only wrote down, "kneebar from inside half-guard" and every time I get caught in someone's half-guard, I curse myself for not remembering it.
  
  
• Camera. If you're that type that likes to get shots of you and famous people. I'm not particularly, but somewhere a dude from my gym has a great shot of Matt Lindland choking me out that he keeps promising to email me and never does. Shoulda thought to bring my own camera.
  
  
• Cash money. Most, if not all, seminar instructors will have something extra to sell after the seminar. Books, t-shirts, videos, knives, etc. They probably won't take credit cards or checks, but definitely will take cash.
  
  Also useful for having if there's an unexpected break in the seminar and you want to go out and grab a snack, or otherwise go out to dinner/the bar with other attendees after the seminar's over.
  
  
• Water bottle and snacks. Most seminars are going to bring out many more students than the space they're held in normally hold. Thus, when there is a break, there will be a line of nerds waiting for the drinking fountain. While they're holding up the show, you can take the opportunity to take some notes.
  
  If there are going to be multiple sessions or the seminar is particularly long, having some well thought-out snacks is going to serve you much better than heading out with everyone to the 7-Eleven to get some crap to fill up on. Nothing funnier than watching people come back to an afternoon session of an all-day seminar (which are traditionally harder than the morning sessions), full of burritos and spend the rest of the day looking like they're going to puke.
  
  Unless they're your partner.
  

Other considerations:

• Make sure you arrive early... Traffic and/or your sense of direction are often worse than you thought they were. Showing up to a seminar late is bad for two reasons 1: you miss out on some learning that you're paying good money for and 2: it pisses off the instructor.
  
  Case in point, I attended a Maurice Smith seminar at the ComicCon of all places (see Bas Rutten vs. Dracula) and, due to there being a surprising amount of traffic at 9am on a Sunday, I got in about five minutes late. My hopes of being able to sneak in the back were dashed when I walked in the room and saw everyone was spread out and starting to work on drills. Big Mo was kind of annoyed as I kicked off my shoes. I bowed and said, "I apologize for being late, sir.** Can I still jump in?"
  
  He softened a bit, "No problem, just line up and we'll get started."
  
  About five minutes after that, another guy walked in, looking like he just got out of bed, kicked off his sandals and said, "uh, I'm here for the Maurice Smith seminar."
  
  Maurice looked at him and said, "You're late. Hurry up, you're wasting time."
  
  
• ...but don't expect the seminar to start on time. It's entirely likely that the seminar teacher will be in town visiting his friends the host and therefore was out all night with them, catching up and/or crunked.
  

--

* This is a joke, please don't email me about how I misspelled Hoyce.***

** In case you ever have occasion to meet the man, don't call him "sir." I'm pretty sure it's also a bad idea to call him anything other than what he tells you you can call him.

*** That was also a joke.

Kerstin wins the Gloves!

by Mike

WWNHH? classmate and sparring partner Kerstin fought and won in the Chicago Golden Gloves this weekend. After this win, Kerstin is a svelte 3-0 in her boxing career, with two of those wins having comefrom fights taken on remarkably short notice.

Kerstin picking up the W.