So my mind is just reeling… how do you people manage to create these moves? to read my posture and reactions and so on with such precision? Several times today I felt like I couldn’t escape if I wanted to.. every minute movement on my part was well anticipated and taken advantage of.

Tonight in competition class it was bliss– no hard cardio is a welcome change, as it was training session #3 for me, and I get tired of being beaten up at competition speed. Instead we discussed some basic principles of escaping side control (a forced choice for the top player of getting swept or giving up the regathering of guard).. then moved on to a new series of sweeps Donald’s been working from the “Dan Dau” guard (I call it so because that’s who I see play it, but Donald says it’s the 93 guard. Aha, another piece of the puzzle.. more to youtube..)

I’m pretty pooped, trained 3x today, so I’m already snuggled in the bed and my eyes are droopy. On Thursday I’m cooking for a friend’s NYE party and tomorrow night I have kids’ kajukenbo. I need more sleep.

ABOVE ARE THE NEW DESIGN RASH GUARDS AND MMA SHORTS WHICH WILL BE ON SALE VERY SOON, TO RESERVE YOUR TEAM GEAR SPEAK TO EDDIE OR JIM.

Or cereal…or carrot sticks…but most decidedly not when it’s your neck. Turning your head shouldn’t sound like a bowl of Rice Krispies. Performing a star pass shouldn’t sound like your neck doing its best Chinese firecracker imitation. And most definitely, you shouldn’t be awake at night because you can’t find a comfy spot on your [...]

The latest from the Art Junkie Tokyo factory of pure primary colour grappling-themed Japanese awesomeness.
This time it’s the Catch Wrestling themed shirt as worn by the catch wrestler who most recently won the BJJ world championships, Josh Barnett!
It’s on sale here as a pre-order with a discount so check it out. As it is a [...]

Sitting here as dawn breaks, in the misty mountains of Bali.
I get up very early each morning, just before dawn as it is peaceful and the perfect time of the day for writing. I am working on finishing the third and final volume of my Rogue Black Belt series – as promnised. Hundreds of people have e-mailed me, asking when it will be done, and so my dawn starts!
I hope to get three quarters of it done before the end of this week; and the rest done within the first fortnight of the new year. I love writing this – going through the process of writing allows me to re-live to a certain extent, some of these experiences. And this is the perfect place to do the work. In fact, for those who have read the first two books in my series, you may recall Dewa Patra and Mardi, two of the best fighters I trained with in my early Silat days in Tampak Gangsul. Tonight I am having dinner with them both. I can’t wait. Dewa Patra, as it turns out, is an important figure in Balinese politics – working directly with the governor. How life has changed for all of us.
Well, a family of monkeys has just come up to the poolside where I am staying up near Ubud. They are pulling up some of the plants alongside the pool, to get at the soft fresh roots. I doubt whether management will appreciate their antics. Still, they need to survive – as we all do; I am on their side.
Best wishes all – I shall blog one more time on new years eve.
Warm regards from the mountains,
JBW

Recounting the holidays with Ryan and Fifty/50…where to start?

How about with the text message I received from Ryan while I was at work on December 23 since that shaped the rest of our holiday, “Murilo Santana and Ana Lowry are here. Sweet!”.

They had arrived to train at Fifty/50 that afternoon with news that they would be in town through New Years. Ryan was thrilled at the thought of training every day with one of the top BJJ black belts – who is also (by far) the best to have ever come out of the DC area. Murilo grew up training at Yamasaki’s school in Rockville, MD but now lives and trains in Sao Paulo. And I of course was thrilled to have an excellent female to train with every day!

I can’t even begin to describe how happy the two of us were over the course of the entire Christmas holiday. Ryan and Murilo have spent hours training together every day since Dec 23 – even on Christmas day! I was able to roll with Ana for extended periods of time on Dec 24, 26, and 27th and I have totally reclaimed my love of BJJ through the chance to be able to train with a good female every day. Ana’s technique is sharper in a broader range than most women I’ve ever trained with or competed against – not that I was surprised since she won the blue belt division two weights above me this year at the Mundial. We are doing a lot of flow rolling and it’s so awesome to be able to move around with someone this way. They will be back in to train tonight, and tomorrow night Murilo was nice enough to offer to teach class and Ryan of course enthusiastically said YES! I can’t wait!

So anyway about Christmas…after training with Murilo and Ana on Christmas Eve, Ryan’s parent’s and 8-yr-old sister came over for dinner. It was their first time in our apartment and I cooked for them since they have been so great helping us and the new gym in so many ways over the last year. Then we went over to our friends’ house to play Rock Band – Ryan is gearing up for his week with Jeff Glover, lol!

For Christmas I gave Ryan a glass chess set and Bobby Fischer’s book on how to play chess as he’s taken a new fancy to playing on the computer recently, and I gave him Dan Gable’s book on how to coach wrestling. He was surprised so I think I did pretty good. *patting myself on the back* Ryan bought me the new Shoyoroll gi (so excited!) but it doesn’t come in until January. I can’t wait to put our new purple Fifty/50 patch on it!

Christmas “morning” around noon we had “breakfast” with Ryan’s family and opened up presents. Then we met up with Murilo and Ana at the gym. Ana didn’t feel well so we chatted and watched Ryan and Murilo train. Then Ry and I headed off to Riverdale, MD to my grandmother’s house for Christmas dinner and gifts with my family. Ryan had been kneed in the face last Friday and had gotten eight stitches below his eye in the ER during the snow storm – so my mom (don’t worry she’s a nurse) cut them out in my grandmother’s kitchen after Christmas dinner with quite the audience peering over her shoulder. Lol! Only in my family…

The Saturday after Christmas we trained in the afternoon then headed to my uncle’s ginormous house in McLean that Ryan says always makes him feel like he’s going to the Batcave for another Christmas dinner and gift exchange with my dad’s family this time. Good times!

Sunday was freaking AMAZING! Chrissy Linzy from US Grappling had said earlier in the week that she was coming up for our women’s class Sunday afternoon so we quickly announced a semi-impromptu open mat. I taught a women only class to 4 white belts and 4 blue belts and two more female blue belts joined us after during open mat. That’s ELEVEN ladies total who made it (counting myself)! OMG it was sooooo much fun to train with everyone! I’m in BJJ heaven!!!!!

This was the best Christmas ever! No seriously. Ever.

Murilo Santana v Andre Galvao

Ana Lowry – Blue Belt Lightweight 2009 Mundial Champ

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman speaks with Dr. Margaret Goodman about the heated drug-testing controversy which threatens to derail the proposed fight between top pound-for-pound boxers Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao on March 13, 2010, in Las Vegas. Dr. Goodman is a neurologist, the former chair of the Medical Advisory Board of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, and also the medical correspondent for No Holds Barred.

In a lengthy interview recorded Sunday evening, we discuss why it is “the right thing” for the regulatory bodies of sports like boxing and mixed martial arts to adopt the protocols of the World Anti-Doping Agency and have random prefight blood testing of all fighters for widely-used banned and dangerous substances, including EPO and human growth hormone. Thus far, the Mayweather camp has insisted on such testing, while the Pacquiao camp has vehemently opposed that.

Dr. Goodman explains why the current testing procedures used by the various athletic commissions are “behind the times” and must be changed. We discuss how the controversy around the proposed Mayweather-Pacquiao fight is further killing and discrediting boxing, and why the motivations of the Mayweather camp in bringing this issue to the fore are far less important than the need for such testing to protect the health and safety of the fighters.

This interview provides scientifically-based information and analysis that most of the media either does not or will not dare discuss, but it is all right here for you on No Holds Barred.

If you would like to support No Holds Barred financially, you can send a gift through our PayPal account. Just click the “DONATE” button on the No Holds Barred pages at http://nhbnews.blogspot.com or http://nhbnews.podomatic.com. Any size gift, large or small, is greatly appreciated.

The No Holds Barred theme song is called “The Heist”, by Ian Carpenter.

Make sure to visit the official boxing forum for No Holds Barred, the MySpace Boxing Forum.

No Holds Barred is free to listen to and is sponsored by:

BJJMart.com, your premier source for all Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu gear, videos, books, and much more.

American Top Team. Whether you’re a beginner or a champion, train with the champions in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, boxing, wrestling, grappling, and mixed martial arts at American Top Team. Check out their web site at http://americantopteam.com/.

GRACIEMAG, the most reliable source of information on Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. GRACIEMAG represents Jiu-Jitsu philosophy and features news, profiles, history, photos, videos, and tips and secrets of the mother of all martial arts. Published since 1996 in Brazil, GRACIEMAG: The Jiu-Jitsu Lifestyle, is in both English and Portuguese, and is also online at GRACIEMAG.com.

FightBeat.com, for news, results, interviews, and free exclusive videos from the worlds of boxing and mixed martial arts.

Thanks, Eddie Goldman
EddieGoldman.com

Here we start our training tip of the month, this will be supplemented by a training video so you can obtain all the finer details of the technique stay posted for video.

Sarah Bahous interviews UfC vet and MMA superstar Roger Huerta at Tiger Muay Thai & MMA Training Camp, Phuket, Thailand.