In with the new.

I got the surprise gift of a purple belt.

How’s that for a happy new year.

I had the pleasure of training at American Top Team in Hollywood, FL this past Christmas weekend. Leo Kirby and I met up to share techniques and take photos.

A while back, Leo did a private lesson with Robson Moura. He’s long wanted to show me what he learned, and the members of the SBG forum were clamoring for it as well, so we thought we’d shoot a tutorial of it. I have taken Leo’s notes on the private lesson that he posted on the SBG forum after training with Robson…

Originally posted on Paul Pedrazzi’s Journal and the Straight Blast Gym Forum. Reposted here with his permission.

The Training

Yesterday I drove down to San Jose to train with Dave Camarillo at AKA in San Jose. I have not been down there for about a year simply because the drive is about an hour each way and with my family it is very tough to make it. On this day though I had some time and was fresh on the heels of my decision to work harder on progressing in bjj, so I got down…

After watching the The Twister I was very intrigued by Eddie’s success with lockdown and old school (his favorite sweep). I started trying it out and wasn’t having much success, other than stalling with the lockdown.

Reading his first book, Jiu-jitsu Unleashed, helped a little but I still found myself just being smashed from half guard while desperately holding on to the lockdown.

I spoke to many others who were studying Eddie Bravo’s half guard and almost all of them had arrived at the same point: all his moves seemed like they should…

While training this Saturday, somewhere in all of the twisting and turning of sparring, I pulled a muscle midway down my back.

I didn’t think much of it while I was warm, but as I cooled down after class, I realized just how badly I’d got it. It hurt to stand or walk, raise or lower my arms, turn to either side. I had trouble finding a position I could sleep in, and it was an endeavor to get out of bed the the next morning. Even breathing wrong made me…

Indrek Reiland is the instructor of Aliveness Gym Estonia (Straight Blast Gym) and an e-buddy of mine. Just to try his hand at it and see what it was like to create an instructional, he produced one called Functional Half Guard. Despite the guerilla filming, I have to admit that it is one of my favorite half guard instructionals.

I’ve seen ones by Gordo, Gustavo Machado, Saulo, Bob Bass, Ze Mario and others. While those are all good, Indrek’s was the first I’d seen break down the half guard into truly basic…