Grapplearts: A Harsh Quote, Delays, & Aikido Sneak Attacks

[Stephan Kesting]

QUOTE OF THE WEEK (MAYBE THE YEAR)

Well here we are, roughly 5 weeks after New Year's Eve and resolution-
making season. Have you made progress on your goals? If not, then
here is a harsh but great quote by Merlin Mann on getting your ass in
gear:

"Somewhere, a sad obese man in pristine ASICS scarfs cookie dough over
an unopened “Runner’s World”, complaining that he needs more tips"

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BJJ FOR MMA INTERVIEW DELAYED...

A few weeks ago I wrote how a friend of mine was going to train with
Ricardo Liborio at American Top Team in Florida. Many of you sent in
questions on the relationship between BJJ and MMA for Mr. Liborio.
The plan was to publish that interview on Grapplearts.com

We HAVEN'T forgotten about your questions; due to circumstances beyond
anyone's control this interview has been delayed. I'm going to make
sure you get your answers from one of the living legends of BJJ, but
it's just going to take a little bit longer than I was hoping for.

Thanks for the questions and sorry for the delay!

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WHY AN OPEN MIND IS A GOOD THING

One of the tenets of JKD is that one should keep an open mind with
regard to other styles. After all, "absorb what is useful, reject
what is useless" is a classic Bruce Lee quote.

In general, I find that most BJJ practitioners are relatively open
minded when it comes to learning from other styles. Since BJJ hit
North America it has been infused with techniques and strategies from
wrestling, judo, sambo, shootwrestling, etc. For the most part, these
additions have made it a richer, more effective grappling system

But what about other, more obscure martial arts? Let's take aikido
for example, an art that someone once described as being only useful
"for restraining aged professors, run amuck." Does aikido have a
contribution to make to BJJ and/or submission grappling?

Predictably, I'm going to say that it does. One of my favorite sneak
attacks is a wristlock that comes straight out of the aikido
repertoire (and I get everybody with it at least once). And for proof
that I'm not the only BJJ black belt who thinks that traditional
Japanese martial arts can be applied in a ground grappling context you
can check out Roy Dean's "Art of the Wristlock" video:

http://www.roydeanacademy.com/dvds

And why stop there - what about Indonesian Silat? How about trying to
adapt some techniques from Indian Vajramushti or from Mongolian jacket
wrestling?

A long time ago I wrote about how I first learned the omo plata
armlock from my Silat training. For a short time I thought that I was
the only person using that technique in BJJ.

http://www.grapplearts.com/Omo-Plata-Article.htm

(You can tell that this is an old article because my training partner
Vlado is still a purple belt in those technique photos...)

Well of course I soon found out that I was NOT the first person to use
that armlock on the BJJ mat. In fact it was already an established
technique with many different applications, ranging from submitting
your opponent, to sweeping him, to setting up other submissions. My
point is that I got a head start and an alternate perspective on this
technique by trying to apply what I had learned in other martial arts.

Interestingly I recently published an article by John Will on the
ancient Indian art of Vajramushti. Turns out that they ALSO use the
armlock that we call omo plata (if you don't believe me, check out the
3'rd photo in this article)

http://www.grapplearts.com/Ancient-Vale-Tudo.html

The bottom line is that there are only so many ways to twist somebody
into a pretzel to make them say "uncle." Over the millennia there
have been hundreds of thousands of martial artists in other styles who
have done some serious R&D on what works. Learning to grapple does
involve a lot of self-discovery, of course, but you don't have to
reinvent the wheel entirely on your own either.

Issac Newton once wrote "If I have seen farther it is by standing on
the shoulders of giants." I encourage you to accelerate your own
progress by standing on the shoulders of giants too. Just keep in
mind that some of these useful giants are outside the art of BJJ!

Stephan Kesting
www.grapplearts.com
www.beginningBJJ.com