I found this article on a chess forum - very interesting read 
posted by Human 8128 here

 Any form of combat is simply a different expression of exactly the same thing. This holds true whether it is expressed mentally or physically. I could (and in the future might) write similar comparisons with any other combat sport. For now the two are BJJ and Chess.

1)      There is an opening, a middle game and an endgame: In an evenly fought match between two tough competitors you are likely to see all three of these phases. A small advantage from the opening might be increased or converted in the middle game with the killing stroke in the end game. Sometimes a player can win in the opening or middle game due to their brilliance and aggression. There has been many a time when the world chess champion’s preparations have been so complete that victory was known in the first few moments. I am sure there are points in Xande Ribeiro’s career where he achieved a tap out in the first minute because his opponent couldn’t handle his opening preparations.

TKMMA 3 FULL RESULTS

 The Third installment of the Total Knockout MMA show is in the books, A great show with some good semi pro and pro match ups. The evening kicked off with Welterweight Champ Matt Holland opening the show with a win in an exhibition K1 fight with the 4oz MMA gloves, The Champion looked very relaxed on his feet showing off his kickboxing skills, even at one stage nearly scoring an Anthony Pettis style cage kick. And the event finished with the crowning of a new Featherweight Champion Tier Blundell winning by a beautiful belly down armbar win over Stuart Mcdowell.

 RESULTS:

We Just Had A Great Seminar With Nicolas Gregariades at RGA Bucks - If you Missed Out Please Check Out Nics Jiu JItsu Brotherhood Website Here
its A great source of Information with some excellent videos and articles like the most recent one below:

Posted by Nicolas on May 1, 2013 in Nutrition & Conditioning | 6 comments

This is an article I wrote which was recently published in America’s premier bjj publication, Jiu Jitsu Magazine. You can order back issues and get your subscription here: http://jiujitsumag.com

Because my surname isn’t Gracie and I didn’t start training when I was five, I’ve had to constantly and relentlessly search for supplemental training that will improve my game and allow me catch up with my Brazilian contemporaries.

Of all the additional systems and methods I’ve used to improve my jiu jitsu ability, I consider yoga to be by far the most effective. So much so, that I’ve eliminated almost all other supplemental training from my regime. This includes, kettlebell training, olympic lifting, swimming and rock climbing. I’m not claiming these aren’t great ways to improve your jiu jitsu. I’m saying that, at this point, I get a far bigger return investing my limited time into the practise of yoga.

The double guard pull is a hot topic right now - and this article by Ze Grappler makes some interesting points  - check out his website here 

 Double Guard Pull You Say? It Makes Sense? Blasphemy?

Coming from Judo and having briefly wrestled in college, I instinctually had disdain for the double guard pull when I started Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

The thought of sitting down and conceding top position felt antithetical to my instincts and training to fight for top position, or at least outgrip the opponent and force him to sit first then work to pass.

From GracieMag
by Luca Atalla

The fan side of almost all of us applauded the attitude of the referee to disqualify the two finalists of the brown belt adult absolute in Abu Dhabi, during the WPJJC 2013.

This is because, deep down, we all wanted to watch an electrifying fight, with comings and goings of these two great Jiu-Jitsu athletes.

It turns out that combats between two great fighters not always translate into big fights.

By: Tyler Bishop

The 2013 Pan Jiu Jitsu Championship is in the books. We are starting our extensive study of the event this week, and the results of the study will be up in about a month. It will piggy-back off of our 2012 studies of the Worlds and 2012 Pan. We hope to include elements of comparative analysis from year-to-year, and will attempt to see how the game may be changing this year compared to last.

UFC Q&A: ‘Jacare’ Souza discusses Vitor Belfort, Luke Rockhold, Anderson Silva

Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza, 33, has done well in Jiu-Jitsu, MMA and ADCC, but another step was needed to feel professionally fulfilled: to fight in the UFC.

Twice the absolute world champion and former holder of the Strikeforce middleweight title, Jacare arrives in the world’s largest MMA organization full of morale. On May 18, in Jaragua do Sul, Brazil, Souza faces the dangerous Costa Philippou, a winner of five straight fights.

Coincidentally (or not) on the same card is Luke Rockhold, who took the Strikeforce title from Jacare in 2011 and kept it until the end of the franchise. The Brazilian showed interest in Rockhold as his first UFC opponent, but the American instead will face Vitor Belfort in the main event.

Jacare last fought in January 2013, when he submitted Ed Herman with a kimura in the first round at Strikeforce event farewell

Happy to not have long layoffs between fights, as it happened in Strikeforce, Souza promises to lift the crowd on May 18. And the strategy to beating Philippou is already drawn, as he revealed to GracieMag.com: good old Jiu-Jitsu. Check out the exclusive interview below.

I've always been a fan of MMA - in fact I fought pro 
MMA on a whim after less than a year training 
(this horrified one of my Bjj coaches at the time) 
back in 2001. 
MMA has changed a lot since then 

The 9-Year Rule: A look at career lengths in Mixed Martial Arts

By Zach Arnold | June 19, 2011 

Article written by David Williams

Mixed martial arts is a very young sport. While the history of the UFC dates back to 1993, established mainstream sports such as baseball and football have existed since the 19^th century. Over time, those sports have evolved: the way they’re played today looks very little like the way they were played in the early years of their existence. Part of the evolution of these sports is the development of a mostly set career path. In baseball, for example, an average MLB player can expect to reach the major leagues between the ages of 23 and 25, reach his prime between ages 27 and 31, and decline afterwards, with most players retired or out of the sport by the time they reach their late-30s. Running backs in football are notorious for having short careers: most of them suffer a career collapse sometime around the age of 30.

For MMA, there doesn’t seem to be a specific age range in which fighters enter their prime or suffer a decline. Great fighters such as Wanderlei Silva and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira are 34 and 35 years old, respectively, and both appear to be on the last legs of their careers. Randy Couture, on the other hand, didn’t even begin his career until he was 34 years old. A remarkable fact about recent high-profile MMA collapses is that there’s little consistency about what age they occur. While Chuck Liddell’s collapse took place in his late-30s, fighters like Joe Stevenson and Karo Parisyan aren’t even 30 years old yet.

Caio Terra On Drilling As A White And Blue Belt

Today we have a guest blog post from Dan Faggella who was able to interview Caio Terra on the art of drilling. 

I was lucky enough to be able to interview Caio Terra - one of my personal heroes in the world of lightweight BJJ. Some of his advice almost seemed counter-intuitive, but I figured every last bit was worth saving - ESPECIALLY any of his insights on training and skill development (my favorite topics). 

Drilling to Your Skill Level 

One of the first questions I asked Caio was: “What are your general thoughts on drilling for BJJ - as in - how much should someone drill compared to roll, and do you think most BJJ players drill enough?” 

His immediate response was: “...Well... what belt level are we talking about?” 

I thought that was a very interesting way to respond, but Caio followed up with the following insights:

A London-based Jiu-Jitsu professor, Roger Gracie is going through a special moment in life.

Having signed with the UFC in January, the 31-year-old middleweight has two months to go until the birth of his first daughter, Maya. In the meantime, Roger is planning his routine for a new stage in his career: the life of UFC athlete.

Over the phone from England, the three-time absolute world champion of Jiu-Jitsu spoke of his plans and explained the arm-and-neck choke that sent him through to the UFC and the changes to his career from here on out.

GRACIEMAG.com: First, the unprecedented. Is it true that a slippery floor tile nearly knocked you out before the fight?

ROGER GRACIE: It’s true. It was a few hours before the Jan. 11 weigh-ins for Strikeforce in Oklahoma. I was doing my last sauna and tub session to make weight and slipped, fell flat on my face on the ground. It opened up a big cut on my forehead. I was fortunate that I was already at weight when I got out of the Jacuzzi. If I’d had to sweat any more it would have been rough because of the cut. Renzo [Gracie] quickly calmed me down and went to the pharmacy to buy Super Glue. We glued my forehead together, put a discreet Band-Aid on it and went to weigh in. The Strikeforce medic was suspicious, but since it looked like an old training cut, he let it pass (laughs).

The first edition of the IBJJ Pro League is in the books.

An old plea from gentle-art competitors came true this Saturday, December 8.

For the first time ever, the IBJJF held an event that awarded cash prizes to the champions ($5,000) and second-place finishers ($1,000).

Caio Terra, Leandro Lo Nascimento, Rômulo Barral and Roberto Alencar were the winners of the four weight classes.

A Recent Interview With Caio Terra By Graciemag.com

GRACIEMAG: You’re the first and only five-time No-Gi Jiu-Jitsu world champion. But your first titles came at light featherweight, and now you’re down to roosterweight. What happened?

CAIO TERRA: I did an experiment on my body. I know my body well, and knew I could drop a bunch of weight without suffering, and ended up weighing 54 kilos, two less than what I needed to be to make roosterweight. And I wasn’t even thirsty or hungry! I even felt I could have dehydrated, but everything worked out well. I have no intention of making this weight again, but I thought it was interesting to discover that I can make 54 kg with no problem and still be just as nimble.

The half-guard has proven to be a dangerous weapon, and when you were on top you seemed to ignore it, both in the final and the semifinal…

Winning, Losing, and Keeping Score in Training

Bleacher report put up the list. Anyone Missing?

Source: Bleacherreport.com

Few fighters have what Eddie Bravo refers to as “the third option”—the ability to pull guard and pose a very real threat of ending the fight.

Given the dominance of wrestling in MMA, one would expect those who do not boast a wrestling pedigree to develop an offensive bottom game. However, surprisingly few fighters possess the kind of guard that would give pause to the many proficient wrestlers who populate the sport.

With that in mind, here is a rundown of the 10 most dangerous guard players in MMA today.

GRACIEMAG.com’s mission is clear: to arm Jiu-Jitsu practitioners with tips, positions and fresh news and points of view so they’ll show up at the academy for training all the wiser and better prepared.

Our goal is to be by your side 24 hours a day to help in your evolution on and off the mat. To forge ahead firmly on our journey, the same one shared by our readers, today we flipped through past issues of GRACIEMAG and dug up the following pointers for speeding up your evolution in training.

Give them a read and share them with your buddies at the academy. And to not miss out on any more tips of use to your Jiu-Jitsu, subscribe to GRACIEMAG. Click here to subscribe with a discount.

Starting BJJ Over Forty

I found this good little article about starting Bjj when you are over forty, we have quite a few guys who started training with us that are over forty and I'd be interested to know your thoughts on it?
Article via http://www.revolutionbjj.com

40 is not the new 20, contrary to what you may have read on the internet.  However, it’s also not the end of your active life.  Here are some incredibly helpful tips I’ve compiled from my older students as I’ve worked to guide them through a long and luxurious career of jiu jitsu well into their 50s.

Pick a training schedule that works for you

Don’t fall into the trap of thinking you have to train every day, or even 3 or 4 days a week.  2 days a week is the sweet spot for grapplers over 40; it provides enough training to get constant information and to see steady progress, but also enough rest time.  Make sure the 2 days you pick have enough time in between them so that you can rest (for example, Wednesdays and Sundays would be ideal).

GracieMag Recently interviewed Roger Gracie on his upcoming superfight and return to Strikeforce in 2013 - for more great stories go to http://www.graciemag.com/

GRACIEMAG: You’re in the main event at Metamoris Pro on the coming 14th in San Diego, where you’ll be taking on current absolute champion of the world Marcus Vinicius “Bochecha” in a 20-minute match where points won’t count. How are you training for that?

ROGER GRACIE: I’m doing all my training in London, where I live. I spent ten days in Mexico with my cousins doing a Gracie Adventure Camp, and we trained a lot together there. I managed to sharpen up my game. The best part of it was training with Renzo in the gi.

Source: Tatame (Translated from Portuguese): Ten times world champion of Jiu-Jitsu, Roger Gracie is one of the greatest names in the history of the gentle art in competition. He has missed the last two World Championships, by being more focused on his MMA career, where he has five wins in six matches. But who is longing to see “Rojão” in action in kimono will have a great opportunity, since the “finishing machine” is back and will face none other than Marcus Buchecha, current world  and absolute champion.

The ‘dream superfight’ will happen at the Metamoris Pro event and will be a 20 minutes fight. The fight will be without points  and if at the end of the 20 mins, there is no submission,then it will be ruled a tie. Check out the exclusive interview below where Roger talks about his fight with Buchecha, evaluates his going down a weight class in MMA, among many other subjects:

Source Breakingmuscle.com

Andrew Read wrote a great piece about the 4 basic strength exercises for grapplers. The most important aspect of the article is this: The only way to improve Jiu-Jitsu performance is to practice the key skills of Jiu-Jitsu. So unless your sport is lifting you will not benefit from more time lifting in place of more time working on Jiu-Jitsu.

“Let’s imagine two fighters, one very experienced yet weak, the other unskilled but strong as an ox. You know who wins that fight, don’t you? It’s the skilled guy. I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen an overweight guy who gets out of breath putting his shoes on choke the lights out of a new guy who looks like he’s been carved from stone.

This article addresses the idea of complementing your Brazilian Jiu Jitsu training with another Martial arts discipline. Preferably one of the Striking Arts such as Karate, Tae Kwon Do, Kung Fu, Muay Thai etc. The idea being to improve your ability to both strike effectively and become more aware of the nature of striking attacks that you may have to one day face and defend against!

There was never a specific aim to start UK BJJ, i just wanted to teach people as well as id been taught

- Mauricio 'Motta' Gomes

If ever there was a model for the Jiu Jitsu lifestyle then Rolls Gracie was it, son of the founder, Carlos Gracie, and an instructor at the Gracie Academy, his passion for life and Jiu Jitsu was unquestionable - inspiring people on and off the mat everywhere he travelled. Rolls is widely credited with introducing many new aspects to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu including wrestling and open guard techniques. Before his untimely death on the 6th June 1982 he had promoted just 6 black belts (commonly referred to as the famous five) these were:

Mauricao 'Motta' Gomes, Ronaldo 'Jacare' Calvacanti, Marcio 'Maccarao' Stambowsky, Nicin Azulay, Paulo Conde and Talarico.

By Guillaume Huni

There is no denying that Brazilan Jiu-Jitsu is nowadays very respected in the worldwide martial arts community. It has proven it's effectiveness in combat over the years with success in the UFC, Pride and other MMA events. Nowadays it is widely recognized as a important part of MMA.


Jiu-Jitsu is effective because you can't be a fake and train in this sport. The long hours spent live rolling means that you can openly test the effectiveness of your skills against a resisting opponent.
Going through the ranks is a long and tough process which weeds out the people who are not 100% commited to to Jiu-Jitsu. Ryron Gracie  said that "Only 1% of people that train Jiu-Jitsu will get their black belt". That has got me thinking:  Is a black belt  in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu the hardest black belt to achieve in all martial arts? And also, what is a the value of a BJJ black belt?

Posted by Kev Capel

It seems like at Rga Bucks the last couple of months has been competition after competition, with members of the team competing as far a field as L.A and Abu Dhabi or a bit closer to home in Birmingham and Hereford, we have put in a strong showing at tournaments big or small. Personally I never felt that a coach would be a deciding factor of the outcome of a fight, I often believed that all the work had been done by the time you stepped on the mat and the difference having a coach there or not was negligable - however having spoke to a number of the competitors from the club and seeing first hand the difference it makes when myself or another team mate shouts the right thing to someone in the middle of a contest it has led me to change my mind on the matter, heres a nice article written by Valerie Worthington on the subject:

Use your "Spidey senses"! Go from good to great in BJJ: Awareness

Article by Nicolas Gregariades founder of  The Jiu Jitsu Brotherhood

The Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Belt System is a far stricter than in most other martial arts. It can take upwards of 10 years to achieve the black belt. As there are only a few belts, you will spend a long time on each one. Also, your progress will not be linear. You will spend weeks or months on plateaus before being rewarded with a jump in ability. Sometimes it will actually seem as if you are getting worse instead of better. But the plateau is actually your friend and is itself an indicator of progress. It is those who have the mental strength to keep going when they find themselves on a plateau that break through to a higher level of ability.

This article is courtesy of Aaron Bair and Jiujitsusweep.com

A colleague recently brought up the topic on ways to survive your first year as a grappler, while i think more ways can be used these are the 10 most important ways to get going and start your career as a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu practitioner. Of the many ways one can survive the initial training these are the 10 most important core topics, a guide for the white belt fresh from the street and onto the mat and on the road to blue belt .

click the title to read the full article

This blog post I found on when to submit to your opponent/training partner was interesting reading check it out......