Bushido Notebook

I received a black belt, in taekwondo, at the age of 17 after over 3 1/2 years of training, yet, I still had no confidence in my ability to defend myself, much less fight. I had some techniques and skill sets that gave me an advantage a few years later at the age of 20 when I joined the Marines and we practiced LINE training and had boxing matches. Yet, I still had little confidence in my ability to protect myself. I became a green belt Marine Corps Martial Arts Instructor at 26 years old. A three week school, I began getting the first feelings of true confidence due to the rigorous training that went into learning how to fight. At 29 years old I was introduced to Brazilian Jiujitsu (BJJ). Within a few months I had far more confidence in myself than ever before up to that point. Years later again now at the age of 33 I have earned my brown belt in the Marine Corps Martial Arts Program (MCMAP). I have more confidence in myself now than ever before. As I look back I wonder to ymself wh

Since the very inception of judo it has had to defend itself from the skeptics of whether or not it could hold its own against jujitsu. Judo, created by Dr. Jigoro Kano in 1882, was conceived from jujitsu originally, but with many of the more dangerous techniques removed and with an emphasis on sportsmanship and personal development rather than purely a combative art. Among judo's first tests again jujitsu was with the Tokyo Police in 1886. The police department was searching for a fighting method for its officers. 15 judo players versus 15 jujitsu players from a rival school. Judo won 13 of the 15 matches. The rivalry moved forward when years later in 1951 Brazilian jiujitsu (note spelling), founded by the Gracie family of Brazil, took on Japans judo masters in competition. Brazilian jiujitsu ( BJJ ), however, is not the jujitsu of old from Japan. BJJ is a derivative of the original form of judo brought to Brazil by a judo master. At that time judo was often calle

Endurance Conditioning: During sparring sessions, judo stand-up in particular, I used to find myself getting very tired, very fast. Part of it is breathing and relaxation, but another part of it is lack of conditioning. Some ways to condition the cardio are running and swimming, and better yet, combining the two. Running, depending on your own level of fitness, might be jogging for middle distance (2-4 miles) 2-3 times per week. You can supplement this with 40 yard prints at the end of the run. 1-10 sprints is sufficient, depending on your level of conditioning. The goal of the distance runs should be to improve your time every time you run. As for swimming, 1000 meter swims with minimal breaks is optimal for basic conditioning. Relaxation and controlled is a key to judo success as well as swimming. At the end of the 1000 meters and a 5 minute break, 50m sprints are a good way to max out after a swim, similar to sprints after a run. 2-10 is a good number, depending on your per

In the last three years I've attended several Brazilian Jiujitsu (BJJ) seminars given by BJJ masters, mostly named Gracie. I wanted to see what ancient secrets these jiujitsu mystics had to teach that would give me the edge in my Bushido. The seminars, lasting from 3 hours to an entire 3-day weekend, go through an overwhelming amount of information and techniques. All of it great information...many techniques I wouldn't have figured out, or maybe even learned for years, if ever!.....Hardly of it anything I could remember once I got back on the mat the next week! How was I to be a true student of the art if I couldn't remember the techniques from the professors for more than a few hours? I should have paid attention to what I saw a few of the other students doing...a few blue belts and ALL of the purple belts.....they all had pens and varying levels of worn out notebooks. They were the true students....I might as well have been a guy paying good money to watch a demonstr

I remember watching the first Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and watching Royce Gracie submit all challengers with his chokes and arm-bars.....it was like magic at the time. Years later when I first started Brazilian Jiujitsu (BJJ) I just wanted to put on the chokes that I'd learned in the Marine Corps and the arm-bars I was learning in class but I was finding that they were far easier to execute on a static partner than during sparring (rolling, randori). I found myself getting lucky here and there, but more and more often not even going for arm-bars because I'd end up getting reversed and submitted myself, or getting frustrated that I wasn't even getting a chance to try out my techniques because I was busy defending myself from them, especially from the more advanced students. It was like being a rag doll for months on end. That's no fun at all, and if it isn't fun, then why go to practice? The submissions are one of the more exciting things about practic

Typically in Brazilian jiujitsu (BJJ) classes an instructor or senior student will teach 3 or 4 techniques and the students then practice them. They might be related or combinations, and they might not. One thing that happened to me as a beginner student is that I was overwhelmed with techniques and I still didn’t have a handle on the basics, much less the ability to add tools to my game. For a while I was frustrated because I couldn’t learn it all fast enough, and thought that maybe I was just a slow learner, until I realized two things: (1) the other new students with less than 6 months experience in BJJ were having the same issue, and (2) the blue belts with few or no stripes had really good basics, but rarely used the fancier, seemingly complicated techniques that were often taught in class. When I came to that realization I decided to come up with a methodology for my own training so that I was improving on my basics while still learning new techniques, but without overwhelming