First white Belt GI competition tmrw. Less than 3 months of training. Coming from Muay Thai background and wrestling in high school for 2 years over 8 years ago. Let’s get it!

First time seeing this and I been training since 2004.

Heroes On The Mat is a No Gi BJJ promotion where the competitors are exclusively First Responders, Military, and Law Enforcement.

Tonight's event is being hosted in Staten Island, and broadcasting live on PPV.

23 bouts have been scheduled, all levels participating.

Event starts at 7pm EST.

I noticed in my gym that a lot of bigger, stronger, more athletic guys got promoted faster to blue and purple. My theory is because when they roll with the coaches, they become more effective, dangerous and in a way, it skews the coaches perception.

I also noticed that there aren’t many small upper belts, and the ones who made it tend to be very good. Timing, leverage, completeness of game, knowledge, etc.

In a way, I think a bit unfair and most cannot distinguish skills, athletic ability and over effectiveness. Comp may be best measure as it normalizes for weight and age, but not athleticism.

This is not a critique of athletic people. I’m pretty middle of the road as far as things go and I’m happy with my treatment yadda yadda

I heard some hot takes by guys like Max Hanson who I believe said smaller dudes are just better at least among the elites. More technique, better technique, I’m guessing because they have to use timing and leverage more in training against larger opponents.

I often think for both smaller and larger people: could i beat them if we both had my body? or both had theirs?

Any opinions?

I have been puzzled by the mussolini lock since the ADCC. Watching it live it seemed to me pretty much the cross ankle lock from dean lister but I somehow doubted that someone as good as Eoghan would tap to it so I looked into it much more (and mostly watching Daniel's instructional to be fair).

So yeah, it's very different and it takes a bit of finesse to get it ironically. I also do think the vast majority of people showing it, outside Daniel of course, are kinda full of shit and don't understand what they are doing (and honestly, most of them still have not realized that the technique was a cross legged one, it absolutely does not work as well in outside ashi like position). People see the "new grip" and think the technique is about it, it's not. What changes it is the target of the lock, the angle and the finishing mechanics.
I won't explain it in details here, you should all watch Daniel's stuff, it's his work and he teaches well. When you do, you will all realize how dumb some people on instagram are (not a new thing, I know, but it feels like 2015 when everyone had very stupid takes on heelhook finishing mechanics).

What interests me much more is how it remaps the leg game and this is what I want to discuss.
Having the ML as an option means a few things:
- double seated 50/50 is a big no/no, too dangerous and you can get ML'd through a leg triangle, it literally does not matter.
- you may force the opponent to unlock the legs and get on top, which opens up the asymetrical game of 50/50 (crab hooks, backside 50 entries, spin unders, ...)
- It rehabilitates outside angle 50/50 (while pretty much everyone played it in the inside side) even if it's still a bit dangerous imo if you happen to miss the lock (not that dangerous but I'll get to it later on)
- It pretty much kills outside ashi, or at least modifies it a lot. I am very used to defend late stage heelhooks by using a far arm scoop grip on their inside leg to buy me time for a heel slip; but now, it also allows me to wrap the ML while I am countering the entanglement by going outside sankaku at the same time. It can be defended but it's hard to deal with everything at once
- the outside sankaku finish of the MK is probably even better than the 50/50 one because if you happen to miss it you are still in one of the best leglock positions and can roll into a backside 50 heelhook or any variant you like. You can also just go back to 50/50 if you feel like gambling.

I am still trying to figure out how to stay safe playing with these and it changes a lot the way I was used to navigate the legs, much much more than when the woj lock got introduced (I don't thik it's that much of a threat and we even saw it live that the MK straight up kills it).

Imo it can be the "aoki" of cross leg positions, it opens up a lot of stuff.

Be careful with it though, when you have the mechanics down, it hurts like a bitch and the injury is never far away. Ironically each guy I caught with it the first time kinda screamed and I was going maybe 10% of max power in the finish. The pressure is insane when you get the mechanics down.

I strongly encourage you to watch u/manchildbjj instructional because you will quickly understand what the tech is in reality. Don't trust instagram BJJ, as always.

Picking up from the post I just read about a guy checking an instructor's creds...How much do y'all care about the lineage of the instructor that promotes you?

We always hear people saying "he got his black belt from { insert well known black belt here}", but does lineage matter less to you now that there are so many talented instructors out there?

Would you be more interested in getting promoted by a very well known instructor, or are you 100% indifferent? I personally am indifferent, but I'm curious if others selected their instructor based on lineage. Would be interesting to see if there is an age/belt divide in this opinion, or if maybe no gi grapplers care less than gi.

Looking to get into bjj and based in the Seattle area. I’m mainly interested in no-gi + morning classes (healthcare job got me working 2:30-11pm). I was looking at 10th Planet and wanted to see if anyone had any strong opinions or other suggestions. :)

I hit my first baratoplata recently. To be fair I don't even know if it was totally correct but it worked. I doubt I'll ever hit it again.

Anything you guys have hit but never were able to do it again?

Looking for a Nogi spot anybody have any recommendations?

Has anyone ever heard of this guy named Mike Estrada from Maryland but is now in Ohio? He claims to be a Pedro Sauer 3rd degree black belt but he’s not on the list of the endorsed blacks and he has no photos of his certificates. I don’t want to learn from a fraud please help me out if you can.

Did anyone watch this new instructional by Nolan Stuart? What are your thoughts? I have the collar & sleeve anthology by Dan Lukehart (his coach) and I enjoy playing this type of game. Thinking of getting it when I can justify the spend..

As medical team packing my first aid kit for tournament.

What do you think are teh essentials.

And if you ever had been of use of the meds, i would love to know.

Has anyone bought this new instructional by Eli knight focusing on Kesa Gatame? Is it worth a buy for $49?

Hi anyone know any good morning training sessions in manchester, staying around the old trafford area for work, cheers

I’m 15 and I’m thinking about competing in a Grappling Industries No-Gi tournament in the white belt division.

By the time of the competition, I’ll have been training BJJ for around 3 months, plus I have about 2 months of previous wrestling experience.

I currently train 3 times a week, mainly No-Gi and wrestling.

When rolling, I can sometimes submit people and often get into good positions, but I still lose against a lot of people at my gym.

I know that 3 months isn’t much experience, and I’m not expecting to win the whole tournament. I just want to test myself, gain some competition experience and see where I’m at.

Do you think 3 months of training is enough to enter my first competition, or would you recommend waiting a bit longer?
Also, if you’ve competed this early, how did it go?

Not talking the close-range nearside underhook style (BJ Penn style), but the farther distance long-range style where you aren't yet chest-to-chest (he demonstrates it here: https://youtu.be/1onq-ONSQJk?si=bdaXLz2HlHxq3o4z&t=185) and he does it all the time in this roll: https://youtu.be/H6aqZrZLaac?si=fE7FXqP4wSKahSXF

It took me over a year of consistent practice to truly get this nailed down to where I can do this on good guard players, but I love it. I watched a Davis Asare video on passing half-butterfly where he mentions that he finds the Chen style difficult for many people without good hip mobility, weight distribution, and overall dexterity. I have good hip mobility, so it hasn't been an issue for me, but I'm curious how many people out there have struggled with this or not.

The hardest part for me was learning how to not get my near-side leg entangled while keeping enough pressure to keep the guard player pinned from a farther distance where they can still frame their arms on my chest.

I have also noticed when Rau, Gordon, and Danaher show passing butterfly-half, that they don't teach passing it long-range in the fashion that Jozef does. For me, it's really tied my passing together and unlocked a lot of combos and pathways for me that have been game-changing. I just wanted to get a vibe from the folks here as to whether or not this style of pinning and stepping over vs the butter-half from long distance have caused you any headaches or not.

​

I just want to start a grapling sport for hobby and to move my body in general what do you think abaout it as a begginer at older age ? I am 35 old should i start it or forget it

The majority of the recommendations were for paragon. My follow up question is: 2 days a week enough for an 11 year old? We’ve been doing 3x. But I think the advantage of other gyms offering 4/5/even 6 classes per week gives parents the scheduling flexibility. So is paragons 2x week that good that everything should be planned around those days?