Glossary: How do you pronounce "Muay Thai?"

All, right. This is one of those things that always gets me. You'll get a bunch of martial artists in a room and sooner or later one of them will say, "you people been saying it wrong all this time. It's not Muy Thai like you're ordering lots of it a Mexican restaurant, it's mwai thai like you're...you know...mwaing."

Then some other nerd will say, "but I once took a seminar with Master Chai and I swear he said..."

And on and on. And this will go on for hours. And be continued at the next party. And despite the hours of training they each put in, perfecting their technique, getting the advice of their training partners and coaches, these nerds will go on for years arguing over the pronunciation. Yet they will never think to call and ask the local Thai restaurant. 

For those of you who are too scared to call up the local Thai ("tie" not "thigh") restaurant: here's what Thai-language.com has to say about Muy Thai...er, Mwai, uh, Mooye, I mean มวยไทย.

Fancy writing pic courtesy of Wikipedia.

An Improved Guillotine Choke

by Mike

It's been awhile since we promised to show this technique, but here we go: a modification to the guillotine that should increase the effectiveness of that technique.

A couple things to keep in mind before we start:

1. This choke can easily turn from a blood choke to an air choke. As such it may be disallowed from use in competition or your school - check with your instructor before trying to use it.
2. This choke comes on very quickly - do not crank this choke. If you do get in position to use this choke, be very aware of your partner's position - it's entirely likely that they will be in a position that makes tapping difficult and you should be aware of this. If you put the choke on and they do not tap, switch to something else.

The Setup:

To properly perform a guillotine choke, you need to make sure that you have your hand up by your sternum:

Nice!

If your hand is too low, you'll never get the choke and trying to muscle your arm up is going to waste too much energy.

Crap! Hand too low!

Instead of holding on like an idiot, there must be a way to transition to another submission without giving up your dominant position.

There is, and it's simple. We're still going to put our hand up by our sternum, but we're going to move it, not muscle it. How to do that?

0. Make sure you are at a standstill. Transitioning into this technique will require you to be off balance for a split-second. If your opponent is still moving forward, or capable of moving forward, he'll knock you over and likely break the hold.

1. Shoot your hips out to the side. Obviously, we're going to go the opposite direction of where the opponent is. This will put you in an awkward position, so make the movement small. This will give your shoulder room to move.

2. Drop your shoulder and shoot your hand to your sternum. When you're done, you should have your opponent cradled in the "v" if your arm. Regain your posture.

3. Grab your tricep with your other hand. That "v" is a fairly weak position and you're not going to be able to hold it long against someone who doesn't want to be there. Your ulna should be on the back of your opponent's neck.

4. Complete the choke by stretching your back and scissoring down with your forearm. This is how a typical guillotine would work with the addition of the scissoring making the space in the crook of your arm that much smaller.

As we stated before, this submission comes on fast. Be very careful with it and like all submissions, it's best to have it applied to you as well so you know how it feels (and can therefore have an idea of how your opponent will react as well as a little sympathy).

It is also possible to complete this technique from the guard as well - the motions are going to be similar to the standing version.

How do you defend against this?

I'll leave that for you to discover - but as with any hold, "when done right, no can defend." Keep your chin tucked and don't let them wrap their arms around your neck.

As always, have fun experimenting with this submission and let us know how it works for you.

Glossary: Blood Choke and Air Choke

The difference between a blood choke and an air choke is a very important one: 

Blood chokes are chokes that cut off circulation to the brain. This is done by compressing the carotid arteries and therefore cutting off the supply of oxygen to your noggin (aka cerebral ischemia). Unconsciousness can occur in as little as three seconds. 

The two most common blood chokes are the read naked choke and the triangle choke. 

Air chokes are chokes that cut off air flow down the trachea. Air chokes typically rely on strength rather than technique for their effectiveness, as such they are typically not as efficient or effective in martial arts as blood chokes. Air chokes are also freakin' dangerous, as they can cause damage to your opponent. As such, many schools or competitions restrict the use of air chokes or ban them all together. 

The most famous example of an air choke is the Homer Simpson choke (sadly, more commonly and tastelessly known as the "rape choke"). 

It's important to note that while the reaction to a blood choke might be relatively innocuous ("OK, I've been here before, work my defense. Get out or tap....") the reaction to and air choke is typically much more violent and unpredictable ("holy shit, someone's trying to kill me...panic!"). 

Given that 1) air chokes tend to take longer to apply than blood chokes 2) air chokes require strength rather than technique and 3) air chokes are more likely to damage your partner it should be obvious that blood chokes are superior. 

One should also note that depending on a variety of factors, it's possible that a hastily applied blood choke could be an air choke. This most commonly occurs when you haven't put the choke on properly (say in a RNC) and your forearm is across your opponent's adam's apple rather than the side of his neck. 

If you find yourself in that situation, don't continue with the choke and risk hurting someone - give it up and try for another submission. 

The difference between "stop" and "break"

by Mike

"Stop" and "break" might seem to be similar commands on the surface, but they are actually separate and distinct things and need to be treated as such. The problem arises when they're used interchangeably.

Break is a command given by a referee that action is to halt and fighters to disengage and prepare to be restarted from a neutral position. Break could be used to signal the end of the round or to allow the referee to restart non-action (stalling, clinch, etc.). When a referee declares "break" the fighters are to disengage and distance themselves from their opponent while awaiting the referee's instructions - whether he's sending a fighter to a neutral corner, calling a doctor to the ring or merely breaking a clinch. 

Remember, even while breaking, keep your guard up - you can be sure that you heard the referee's command, you can't be sure that your opponent has. Your opponent may not have heard the referee but did see an opening and he attacks you while you're not defending. This isn't necessarily cheating, especially at the end of a round where someone tries to beat the bell, but instead hears it an launches the attach - which, depending on their reaction speed, might actually come after the bell. You've seen this in matches before. It's not intentional, but definitely illegal and a huge disadvantage for the fighter struck with his hands down, chin up and mouth open. Times like this are what the referee means when he says, "defend yourself at all times." 

Another point about "break" to keep in mind is that if you're on top of an opponent (in BJJ say), or you're releasing a submission hold, to let go of it slowly. If your opponent is resisting the hold, they're likely to be using all their might and to suddenly let go of the hold could cause injury. 

Stop is not often heard in boxing matches, but rather in MMA events or in class. The order to stop means to cease your actions, but remain in the same position. In an MMA match, this could be used by the referee to indicate that they are going to restart action in the center of the ring and need to make sure the fighters remain in the same position or in class when your instructor is going to point something out to you. In the latter case it might be that you're halfway to a single-leg but are having trouble finishing it and he's going to walk you through the part you're having trouble with. An instructor might also call stop in order for the class to freeze and make sure they're in the proper position they need to be (good posture/stance, etc.).

Just as with break, one should maintain a sense of where they and their opponent are, just in case your opponent doesn't hear or respond to the command.  

Now you can see the difference between these two terms and have a sense of when it is appropriate to use them in class and in the ring ("stop" and "break" could both be used in the course of training, for instance, shouting "stop - check your stance" to make sure everyone is keeping up with their technique during a round and then ending the round with "break!").  Hopefully this will make your training more productive and less confusing (especially if you decide to make the transition from merely training to competing!). 

Preworkout hydration

by Mike

Dehydration is one of the more dangerous parts of training (or any exercise, really), yet drinking water is often looked down on in many gyms - a holdout of the old-school toughguy days. 

The Grappler's Guide to Sport Nutrition tells us that dehydration is be a serious bogeyman, and 

can lead to increases in perceived exertion and central fatigue, a reduction in plasma volume (blood volume), decreases in sweat rate and cooling, decrease in mental performance, a decrease in fine motor skills and precision, and a decrease in endurance and work capacity.

Obviously, avoiding dehydration is something that is both necessary and easier said than done (and hydration during a workout is another subject entirely), but one of the best ways to cut down on the effects of dehydration is to make sure you're properly hydrated before going into the workout. Now, how should one do that?

The American College of Sports Medicine suggests:

To avoid or delay the detrimental effects of dehydration during exercise, individuals appear to benefit from fluid ingested prior to competition. For instance, water ingested 60 min before exercise will enhance thermoregulation and lower heart rate during exercise (34,56). However, urine volume will increase as much as 4 times that measured without preexercise fluid intake. Pragmatically, ingestion of 400-600 ml of water 2 h before exercise should allow renal mechanisms sufficient time to regulate total body fluid volume and osmolality at optimal preexercise levels and help delay or avoid detrimental effects of dehydration during exercise.

A-wuh?

Basically: drink 12-20 oz. two hours before a workout to ensure proper hydration (and still have enough time to take a leak and get rid of any excess).

The knuckleheads then ask: How do I know if I should drink 12 or 20? Well, that depends: how much do you sweat? How hard are you working out? Do you get terribly thirsty during/after the workouts? Do you need to run to the bathroom in the middle of the workout for fear of wetting yourself in the middle of a round? Aka, experiment. 

Even if you think you're properly hydrated before a workout, be sure to follow the above guidelines to make sure that you're "topped off" and you'll have one less thing to worry about during training.

CC-licensed flickr photo by lanier67.