Tuesday, November 27, 2007

I'm still alive :)

Yes yes, I know I have been lazy regarding updating the blog lately, but don't worry, I have not been lazy with my training ;-) I have some new posts in mind that I plan on writing down here soon, also with some new video clips. I need to get me a new videocamera so I can actually make them though, but I'll figure something out.

Training is going really good, I have doubled the hours I teach every week and it is as always cool to see people in the gym get better. I also get some good hours of sparring every month to keep the rhythm going and I have started to plan my weeks a little better so I am sure I have time for weight lifting and sparring in between all the teaching. I am still doing some web- and graphical design on the side, but it is hard to find time for, so sometime in 2008 I hope to be working solely on trainingrelated things.

If you take a look at my 1000 flighthours project, you might notice that I am closing in on the 900 mark. That took a while, but it is cool to get there, and it will be a good time to evaluate my training and progress a little. I plan on shooting a new sparring video when I get there.

I recently launched a new amateur MMA and Muay Thai turnament held in my gym called CSA Fight Night. I make it to give the beginners and upcoming talents a chance to get some fight experience before they take the big step and fight in a bigger show. The first one was a big success and the second one is already gonna be February 1st. Check out the video from the first one: (notice the handsome referee!!)



My biggest project is the Adrenaline show, which will return April 12th. I'll post some more about that as the event and fightcard starts to evolve.

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

BJJ intro old video

Just stumbled over this old clip on Google Video, that I produced about 3-4 years ago. It was made from the footage we shot for an "Introduction to BJJ" DVD we wanted to make for our students. The DVD was unfortunately never produced (lazy!), but this clip is still online. Pretty fun to watch, so much has happened in so few years :)

Friday, October 12, 2007

Some pictures from Studio X

I stumbled over kying418's thread on the NHB Gear Forum with photos from the Studio X training and found some pictures from the night I visited the gym. See if you can spot me!! :D




Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Time to go home!

(I wrote this before I left for the airport tuesday evening, but didn't have the chance to post it untill now)

Last week here in New York has been super cool. My ankle has been really fucked up, but I have just kept training with it and thought I would take care of it when I get home. Right now I am waiting to go to the airport, and it really really hurts. But it has been worth it :)

Before we came to New York, we had the chance to go by a big tournament in Los Angeles. Here our friend Joe from Texas (who we met in Rigans gym) was fighting, as well as Andreh. It was interesting to see the tournament, but as always, there was just a loooot of waiting.

After we have come to New York, I have trained a few times in the Ronin gym, which has been really good. Yesterday was my last chance to get some good training, and I sure did. First I was in Ronin for a few hours, where Ryan Hall was visiting. Extremely talented grappler, and no wonder with all the energy and enthusiasm he puts into Jiu Jitsu. Very impressed, especially knowing he only trained for 3 years.

In the evening, I went to Marcelo's school to take a class. Marcelo himself was teaching, and it was a great experience to train with someone I respect so much for his skills in the sport. The people there were super nice and I was even recognized by a few because of this blog :D Unfortunately, I didn't get the chance to roll with Marcelo himself before the class was over, but just watching him spar was equally impressive. I will without a doubt come back to that gym next time I am in New York.

30 minutes till I am heading to the airport, so time to finish this off. It has been such a cool trip and I have gotten a lot of inspiration to take home to the gym. Not so much techniques, but more seeing how other people train, structure their class, have different styles of rolling etc.

Now it is time to go home, rest my foot, get some good danish food and start lifting weights again. I think I have lost some weight on this trip so I better get it back on again. When I get home it will be winter for many, many months, so nothing to do but switch off the brain, train and lift weights while waiting for summer to come :)

I would like to thank everyone I have met on this trip for making the experience even better. Christian Montes and Adam Blake the real Bruce Lees of New York City, Erik the maybe smallest male grappler in the world, Kerry who let us make a mess of her apartment for 3 weeks, Rigan Machado for all his help, the crazy people at Surf City Hostel, KimuraJoe and the Texas Crew, Andreh Anderson and Rey Diogo for their hospitality, Ryan Hall for kicking my ass, Marcelo Garcia for impressing me again this time IRL, everyone in the gyms I have visited, my best friend Søren and his girlfriend Kristin, Martin Kampmann for showing us Vegas nightlife, Christoffer "The Yeti" who I have travelled with and of course all the others I have forgotten right now.


The tournament in L.A.


Ronin Athletics


Teaching the Five Swords in Ronin


The five points of the Five Swords Topgame (now with The Five Katanas)


Impressive Empire State Building


Rolling with Ryan (now with gi patch censuring :D)


Christoffer, Erik, Christian, Adam and me

Friday, September 28, 2007

Training, training, training!

Last few days since we came back from Vegas has been really intense trainingwise.

After a long tuesday night in Vegas, 4 hours of sleep and a 7 hour drive, we went straight to training in Rey Diogo's gym on Venice Boulevard. I had no energi at all, but managed to get some good rolls with people there. I also did some training with Rey, who is a really cool guy. He is often in Sweden, so I will invite him to Copenhagen next time.

Thursday I slept till 1pm, I was completely exhausted. We drove with Rigan to his gym in Hollywood where we had some really good training with a small group of about 8 people. After that we went to a release event with Rigan's brother John Machado. There was a boxing ring outdoors, where different martial arts did demo matches, it was pretty cool. I also met Mario Sperry there, I remember watching his instructionals when I first started training, so that was pretty fun.

Today we have trained two hours in Rigan's gym and about 1 hours in Rey's gym. Really good sparring both places. I had the pleasure of training with Chris Haueter, the guy who basically introduced me to Jiu Jitsu (he doesn't know though :D). It was his instructional tapes that got me started with my training, when me and my friend was watching them 7-8 years ago or so. It was a pleasure to train with him and we had some really good rolls. He is teaching a class monday night that I want to attend before we go back to New York tuesday.

So far, this trip has been really inspiring regarding Jiu Jitsu. I have met so many cool, friendly and skilled people here and it is awesome to get pushed so hard in training every time. Back home I know everyones game, so it is not as big of a challenge to roll, but here I really need to be working hard to succeed with every single technique I try.


The gym in Hollywood


Outdoor Martial Arts event


Getting crushed by the black belt troll of MMA.tv


Chris Haueter in Rigan's gym


Rolling with Chris


The chicks in L.A. are HOT!!! *OMFG*

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Xtreme Couture

Arrived in Vegas yesterday and walked around a bit to see the place. When we woke up today, we went to the Xtreme Couture gym to train. I took a grappling class at noon, where we did some standing up from being pinned against the fence. It was fun to do some specific MMA grappling with a cage. The facilities were amazing, definately the best I have seen, and I have visited a lot of gyms around the world throughout the years.

The trainer in the class was Dennis Davis, who has actually fought in a tournament in Denmark, that I was filming for TV. Funny coincidence. He was a cool guy and it was a great class.

We have decided to try and change our ticket back to New York, so we can stay in L.A. for a little longer. There are so many gyms and people I want to visit here, so it would be a shame to leave already tomorrow. We will still have a good week in New York, before we head back to Denmark.

Arrived in Las Vegas

Drove to Las Vegas today and had a chance to practice my Kung Fu in the desert.

Met up with danish UFC fighter Martin Kampmann and took a walk around. He is training in Xtreme Couture, where I am planning to do some grappling tomorrow before we check out the city. I really need to work out after sitting in a car all day :)

I might also check out some other Jiu Jitsu gyms here. My gi is in NYC though, forgot it in the gym there.

Monday, September 24, 2007

Andreh, Venice, Rigan

Today has been a great day. First, we went to Rey Diogo's gym to meet Andreh. As often when you share an interest with someone, you tend to get along really easy, and this was no exception. It was really cool to train a with Andreh, I got some good little details out of rolling with him, that I will take home and work on.

After training, we went to Venice Beach, where we rented bicycles and drove around a bit. Then we met up with Rigan, who took us to a party in Hollywood and then out for some great Brazilian food. I also got a chance to check out his gym, which looks really cool.

I really want to train more with all of these guys here in L.A., maybe I'll look into flying back to New York a little later, so I get some more days here for training :)



Sunday, September 23, 2007

UFC 76 live = AWESOME!

Went to Honda Center in Anaheim today to watch the UFC 76. What an experience! The place was packed, atmosphere amazing and best of all, the fights were awesome. Some of the best, technical grappling I have seen in MMA for a long time, it was pure beauty to watch. Especially Saraiva, Tavares, Sanchez and Fitch put on a beautiful grappling display. Occasionally I heard the "get up and fight like men" classic, but other than that, I enjoyed the fights very much.

Tomorrow, we are driving our Mustang to Venice, where I will meet and train with fellow Jiu Jitsu blogger Andreh. After that I am planning on meeting up with Rigan Machado, who recently taught a seminar in my gym, and hopefully do some training with him as well if I have any energy left :)

I don't wanna fill this blog with vacation photos, but here are two I took today:


Friday, September 21, 2007

Training in Ronin - headed to California

The last two days, I have had some good training in the Ronin gym. Some good sparring and yesterday I taught a class on collar chokes.

Right now, I am sitting in JFK airport, headed to California to see UFC tomorrow night. I will try to find time for some training while there, but we will train for sure in Vegas, where we are staying monday and tuesday.

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Arrived in the states

Arrived here in New York last night and just woke up. We are staying at a friends place in Brooklyn, right by the Verrazano bridge.

Have not really been training up to this trip because of my foot, I wanted to be sure that it was ready for training over here. Right now it looks really good, so I can't wait to get started with the training. Gonna meet up with my friend Christian and train in his gym, Ronin, tonight.

I will probably make a seperate travel blog for this trip, but every training related thing that I will be writing about will be posted in this blog. I hope to get a lot of good training and inspiration while here!

Better look up Marcello's gym as well. Leaving for Los Angeles friday, so I probably won't make it to that gym before I get back here in NYC next week (tuesday).

This is a picture I took during my trip over here in 2005.

Friday, September 7, 2007

Kneeslide pass to RNC

This is a pass I use a lot in my game. I was observing a very skilled danish grappler from another gym here in Copenhagen use the standing kneeslide pass in competition with a lot of success, so I decided to look into it and see what I could get out of it for my own game. With a few adjustments to make it fit me, I came up with this really simple and - for me at least - very high percentage passing series, which I ofcourse will share with all of you right away :D

The should work fine both with and without the gi, but I have had most success with it in no-gi. This is because I need to slide my arms in position pretty fast and thight, which can be difficult when wearing a gi.

This has been a perfect example of learning by imitating for me. Hope you can use it too! :)


Credit for inspiration goes to Frede, Brasa ;)

Thursday, September 6, 2007

Yet another leftside injury....

I have this strange thing, that I get all my injuries in the left side of my body. I have injured almost every left part of me and almost none of the right ones. Toe, ankle, knee, hip, ribs, shoulder, elbow, fingers, neck.... I even have some cauliflower on my left ear only! :D

The past two weeks, I got another two leftside injuries for the collection. During a takedown setup, I stretched some muscles in my left shoulderblade, and this sunday I sprained my left ancle during a takedown where my foot got caught in a wrong position. The shoulder is fine now, but the ankle needs a few more days of ice and rest, before I can start using it again.

Less rolling = more pullups, so it is all good :)

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Armtriangle / Heartattack setup

This is a basic tutorial on how I like to set up the armtriangle/heartattack submission from sidecontrol. For me, the most crucial detail to make this setup work, is how I utilize my entire body to move his arm into place instead of just my head. It is almost like a deadlift motion, which btw is an awesome excersize :)


Next up: Scramblepass to RNC

Monday, September 3, 2007

Double under pass counter

Just a small detail on how I counter the double under pass using the stiffarm escape. Nothing special, just using it a lot so thought I would put it out here :)


More videos coming up soon!

Friday, August 31, 2007

Baseball Choke a la Graugardo

Here are a few details on how I like to set up and finish the Baseball Choke. I really like this submission, because it can be set up from many positions almost without notice. Also, it works like a charm both with and without the gi.

Notice how I again utilize the principle of weight placement when I set up the submission from mount and sidecontrol. Weight is on my hands while the legs are moving into position, then the weight transfers to the legs so I can finish the choke using my arms.

Please don't mind that small part of the video that I forgot to edit out LOL ;)


Next tutorial coming up: Double under pass stiffarm counter setup.

Thursday, August 30, 2007

The flipover guardpass/mount move

I have made a tutorial on the front flip guardpass by request from Halph in my little commentbox here on the blog (hope you find it usefull :)). It is a pretty simple (yet flashy!) move, that I use very often when I roll. You can see me pull it off several times in the 969 flighthours sparring clip (1:42, 3:13, 5:14, 7:50, 17:00 and 24:36) I posted a few months ago. Even though it doesn't look very basic, it is a very solid move for me and I consider it - and variations of it - a part of my a-game.

I do it most of the times directly from a takedown. The example I show in the video with the takedown sucks a bit, as I really need the opponent to sprawl on me to gain the momentum for the move, but you get the idea.

The most important detail needed to be successful with this move is understanding the correct weight placement. I need to keep my weight on my opponent at all times, both to keep him from moving me but also to make my leg-movement lighter and faster. Check out the small video on weight placement first, if you have not seen it yet.


Next tutorial coming up: Baseball Choke a la Graugardo.

Visiting United States Sep. 18th - Oct. 9th


I have been visiting the United States every year since 2003 and I thought this year should not be any different. So together with a friend from my gym, we are taking a three week trip over the atlantic, just because we can :) Our plans are pretty loose, but for now they look something like:

Sep. 18th
Arriving in NYC to meet some of my very good friends there
Sep. 21st
Going to L.A. to meet my friend Søren and his american girlfriend
Sep. 22nd
Watch the UFC 76 in Anaheim, CA
Sep. 24th
Driving to Las Vegas and staying there for a few days.
Sep. 26th
Driving back to L.A. to fly to New York again
Sep. ??th
Going to Tampa/Hollywood, Florida to visit my blogfriends Aesopian and Leo Kirby.
Oct. 9th
Going back to Denmark

We don't really know what to do yet, so we'll just take it one day at a time. If any of you have some good ideas for what we should do, let me know! Also, if you live close by where we are going and want to hook up for some training, sightseeing or just plain heavy drinking, write me!! :D I'd love to visit as many gyms as possible during the trip, always a good way to meet new friends.

As we say in Denmark... Ses vi? Det tror jeg nok, frisør!

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Weight placement principle

Here is a very very simple principle that I think can help people understand movement a little better in BJJ. It is one of those things that I have always done, but never thought about. The principle is simple:

Whenever I want to move one part of my body, I need to place my weight on another part.

That makes the part you are moving light, and thereby easier to control and move. I teach this to beginners from day one in my gym.

If you watch some of the very fluid moving grapplers like for instance Jacaré, you can see that every time they make a move that seems impossibly fast or fluid, they always have their weight placed on another part of their body than the one they are moving.

I make a few examples in the video, but there are really tons of situations where this apply. I encourage you to look at your own game and see if/where understanding this simple principle can improve your movement.


Next video coming up: The front flip guardpass.

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Clinch takedowns video

In the recent 6 months or so, I have started to grow a bigger interest in standup wrestling. I think that there is a sad tendency in Jiu Jitsu to neglect this part of grappling, especially in this part of the world, where we have no real wrestling traditions in schools etc.

Your ability to fight on the ground is only as good as your ability to take the fight to the ground!

I have shot a small video of my current clinch takedown game, so that I have a refence to my development in that area in the future. I know I still have lots to work on, but compared to my very simple game a few years ago, I have gotten much better at this and also developed a much deeper understanding of positions, tieups, setups and takedowns.

This video is a reference of the clinch techniques I use in sparring in my game today. Everything I do in this clip is moves that I pull off with full resistance on a daily basis:



I don't know if any of you can get anything out of this, but if you see anything you want me to show in detail, just let me know and I can shoot a small tutorial on it.

No guard pulling allowed!! :)

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Learning by imitating

I am back from a few weeks of vacation. It was really nice to get some sun and warm weather, we haven't had much of that here in Denmark this year.

I have not been sleeping much those two weeks. I have been lying awake for hours every night just thinking about moves that I needed to train and try out, I guess I have a big overload of training in my head everyday that I need to get out in the gym so my brain can realax afterwards :D


I have a LOT of material that I am planning on shooting on video within the next few days to post here. During my sleepless nights, I have thought of so much stuff I want to put up here on the blog, so finally some new material is gonna be here :)

One thing I have thought about a lot lately is how my process of learning has evolved over the last few years. I rarely have someone show me a new technique or detail that I then apply to my game. Mostly, I learn by watching other people roll and try to see the small details that makes their techniques work. It can be watching video of matches online or just watch someone in the gym roll. Anyone really, even the whitebelts teach me something now and then, probably without they know it though :)

I can highly recommend to just sit down and watch someone roll with the purpose of analysing their moves and find out WHY they work. Not just WHAT they do. A good example is my study of Marcello Garcias armdrags from videos, now it is a bread and butter move of my clinch attacks. I just took the time to watch that clip in slow motion about 50 times before I could see and understand the details of how he set it up and executed it. I am sure he could teach me tons about armdrags, but he is not really around here so that is not an option :D

And that is another thing. I don't have and never have had an "instructor" to teach me Jiu Jitsu on a daily basis. Maybe that is why this imitation/analysis of others game has come so handy in my own development of my game.


Look out for the video updates to come here soon!

Sunday, August 5, 2007

More outdoors Jiu Jitsu in the beautiful Copenhagen summer

Today, during the Cultural Harbour 2007 event we put out some mats on the Islands Brygge harbour in Copenhagen and rolled for about three hours. The weather was perfect and we got a lot of good sparring with many interested spectators walking by. It was a beautiful place to train and also a great opportunity to hand out some flyers for the gym.

I am going on vacation to Bulgaria soon, and I am gonna miss training a lot. It was great to get three hours of rolling today, especially after watching all the other guys fight yesterday without being able to participate :)

See all the photos from today here: http://picasaweb.google.com/graugart/Kulturhavn2007







Saturday, August 4, 2007

Battle on the Beach today!!

Today, I arranged the 10th Openmat Submission Wrestling tournament here in Denmark. Because it was number ten, I wanted to do something special, so we held it outdoors on the beach. It was super nice weather and a ton of people came by to watch. There was A LOT of very exciting matches and all in all it was a perfect day with beautiful Jiu Jitsu!!

Se more photos from the event here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/graugart/Openmat10
http://www.23hq.com/Trolle68/album/2281062









Monday, July 30, 2007

First 50 flighthours done, 950 to go! :)

I have today reached the first 50 flighthour mark of my 1000 flighthour project. It has taken me five months to get here, which means that I get about 10 full hours of rolling time a month. I want that number to be a significantly higher in the future, but it is difficult to have time for it all :) With this pace I will be done with the project in in 100 months, which is equivalent to 8,33 years. I was hoping that it could be a little faster than that! LOL

Training is going really really great. I feel I am improving for every hour of training and I can definately see that I have improved in every area of my game over the last 50 flighthours. I have especially been working on my wrestling game of clinch and takedowns.

Lately I have gotten a big interest in the takedowns and setups from Freestyle Wrestling. Ken's classes started the interest and now I am reading books and watching instructionals to learn more. Wrestling is a complex game when you start to understand it, just as Jiu Jitsu is. That, combined with that we have no real tradition for Wrestling here in Scandinavia (Greco is a very small sport here and Freestyle virtually does not exist), makes it feel like I am exploring all new territory, which is super cool.

You often hear that a persons ability to fight on his feet are only as good as his ability to keep the fight on his feet. The same must be true the other way around. My ability to fight on the ground is only as good as my ability to take the fight to the ground.

I find that the big difference between Wrestling and Jiu Jitsu, is that you can never really rest when clinching. There are no positions, where you can just hold your opponent for a moment, whilst you take your time to breathe and relax. It is all about attacking and exploding all the time, which transcents really well with my little project of developing a more agressive game.

Today and yesterday, I have done around 2 hours of clinch and takedown sparring only and I am really starting to hit those moves again and again under full resistance. Awesome!

Here is a video that Ken have put together with some wrestling for zhoozhitzu (yes I know, I need to make my own LOL):


***
On another (BJJ-)note, I have a ton of material that I want to share on this blog, but my videocamera is no longer with me, which makes it a little difficult. I can use Ken's though, but that takes planning ;) But anyway, you can expect some new material from me here real soon, so keep checking back :)

Friday, June 22, 2007

Ken at Danish Open Submission Wrestling

Here is a video clip of my friend and employee Ken Allen fighting at the Danish Open Submission Wrestling tournament a few weeks ago. I met Ken in Portland, OR back in 2003 when I was there to train, and about a year ago, we invited him to come to Denmark and teach in our gym. He has taught me and everyone else in the gym tons of stuff and the level of the entire team has been raised significantly with his inputs and teachings here. We are very happy to have him as a part of CSA.

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Leaving the SBG

I tried to post this on the SBG members and MMA.tv forum, but it got deleted, so i'll post it here instead in hope of reaching out to as many of my friends in the organization as possible :)

***

Dear friends

As some of you may have heard, I have been asked by Matt to leave the SBG. It would not make sense to start a discussion about why here, nor beginning to list or explain reasons. To make a long story short, me and Matt have had some cooporational and financial issues to deal with over the last approx. 6 months and still going.

Throughout the years, I have met so many cool and fantastic people through the SBG. A lot of them have become very good and close friends of mine, and I wouldn't leave them for the world. The fact that I no longer have an SBG logo on the door to my gym won't change a thing. I will still travel, meet, train, share and hang out with as many of you as I can. I will keep training, teaching and exploring the beautiful sports of BJJ and MMA together with my training partners, students and friends in my own gym, city and around the world. I have many projects going on with grappling tournaments, mma tournaments, teaching, seminars and other events, so don't worry that I am gonna be bored ;)

I am planning to keep my acceptance of my invitation to come to the SBG Euro camp in Sweden together with my friend Ken Allen to teach and train, so if you are coming, I will see you there.

Needless to say, anyone who would ever want to come and train in our gym in beautiful Copenhagen are ofcourse always welcome, regardless. Come see my country any day, there is always room on my couch and in my gym for anyone who feels like stopping by.

If anyone should have an interest in hearing my side of this story in more specific details, you are always welcome to email/call/msn/travel to me and hear all of it. I have nothing to hide, but it would be pointless to write it all here :)

Best regards and with all the best wishes for the future to all of you,

Christian "Using No Way As Way" Graugart
CSA Copenhagen
www.csa.dk -o- www.shogunhq.com

Saturday, June 2, 2007

Rolling, rolling, rolling... now with video! :)

I just read Aesopian's latest post on his blog, How much do you really need, and found that I have come to the same point in my training at the moment.

I have really not been working on a lot of new stuff the last two months or so, but instead my focus has been on getting to roll as much as possible and refining / getting a deeper understanding of what I already know and do.

That is the main reason, why I have not posted much in here lately. I simply have not been working on coming up with a lot of new stuff to "show", but just putting my focus in getting as many flighthours as possible. And I have gotten quite a few.

Funny enough, all this rolling and investegating what I already know have led me to some pretty cool stuff, that I want to share here when I get the time to shoot some video of it. Here is what have been my focus lately when rolling:
  • Baseball choke, setups and variations
  • Front flip for guardpass and takedowns
  • Upper body weightplacement for faster and smoother leg movement
  • D'arce choke from sidecontrol bottom
  • Finishing the single / low single
  • Headtriangle setup for stiffarm escape
  • Flying triangle guardpass

I hope to cover all of these subjects here in the blog in the near future, but for now I really just want to roll, roll, roll and roll some more :)

So instead of posting some new fancy tutorial here, I have shot a little video of myself doing some light sparring in the gym. My training partners vary from white through purple belts and MMA fighters to kids, beginners and weightlifters. My MMA is getting pretty sloppy and I don't train it very often, but I did some sparring lately as some of the guys were fighting so I threw it in there on the video as well. It is pretty long (30+ minutes) and I don't expect you to watch it all, I really mostly put it up here so I can track my own progression in my game along the way :)



I will try to make many more of these videos as I slowly progress through project 1000 flighthours. 969 hours left!!

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

First post in a month

Man, the last month has been crazy. I have had so much work because I have been promoting my first big event, which was held here in Copenhagen May 5th. I am sorry for not posting here, but I simply haven't had the time. I even had to skip training in the weeks up to the event (and then you know I am not lying about being busy :-D). You can check out the event on www.adrenalinesports.dk.

The show went great, there was 31 awesome fights in many different styles. I think it was very exciting and I was very pleased with the final result. We are going to make a new show some time im the fall, but first I have to relax a bit and focus on all the stuff that have piled up during the last month, this blog included :)


I have been rolling a little the last month and the project 1000 flighthours is halfway to the first 50 hours. I can see that I have improved immensely since I started the project, but I will wait with the evaluation untill I have reached 50 hours of rolltime.

Monday, April 16, 2007

Awesome weekend

So, Rigan was here this weekend and did a seminar in my gym. It was really good, I caught some good details and I really liked his approach to Jiu Jitsu. I took a private with him today to steal some of his topgame secrets and he also showed me some good tips on escaping from bottom. I got a chance to roll with him a little and as expected, he completely CRUSHED me, I couldn't move an inch. Pretty cool experience, kind of brings back the "magic"... the feeling that some people are just so good at this stuff and that there is still sooo much to learn. Great inspiration.

We trained almost five hours both saturday and sunday so I am really tired now, but I still have a long day of training in front of me tonight... another five hours to be exact :)

Rigan just left for a few days for Amsterdam and then he will go to Sweden for a seminar there, before going home to California.



Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Training with Rigan Machado this weekend

This weekend, Rigan Machado is coming to my gym to teach a seminar. I am really looking forward to train with him and hopefully get some inspiration for my game. Maybe I'll even invest a little money in an hour of private lesson with him, I'll be sure to post all about it here :)

Tuesday, April 3, 2007

Attacking, energetic game - Leozinho vs. Shaolin

Man these two guys have so much energy, it is really inspiring to see them roll. This is the game I am trying to develop at the moment:



Training is going great, I am getting a lot of rolltime and working hard on being more aggressive. Damn it is hard on my body, I wake up every morning and is sore all over. Hopefully I will get used to it soon. I will film some of my rolls soon and put them up here, then I can look back later in the 1000 flighthours project and see how it looked earlier :)

Thursday, March 29, 2007

A change of style

I have taken a decision to change my style of grappling. For many years, I have played a really lazy game that was mostly build on waiting, relaxing and waiting for my opponent to make mistakes that I could take advantage of. Great style for me, because it is highly technical and doesn't demand too much of endurance or strength to be effective. However, now when many of my training partners get really good and start to match me technically plus get to know my game, they rarely make mistakes for me to exploit anymore. So if I have a day where I relax a little too much, I can get completely run over by some of these guys. And that is a beautiful thing, because it has led me to the decision, that I will try to change my style for a while.

Instead of the lazy game, I will try to be more aggresive in attacking and setting up my opponent to my advantage. I don't want to lay still and wait, but instead I will try to attack again and again, constantly putting pressure on my training partners.

I have been playing this game for about a week and a half now and it is doing a big difference. Ofcourse, I do it mostly with people who challenge me technically or athletically - beginners I still go nice and slow with, no idea in just smashing them :D

One thing I have realized though, is how much tougher this game is for my body. I am SO sore after training now. Probably also because I have had a month off training, but training with this intensity really burns me out. I need more sleep and more+better food to play this game. It is hard, but also a lot of fun. For instance, this attacking game has led me to experiment with the flying triangle guard pass. Really takes some commitment to do it, but it is awesome when it works. Caught it five times in sparring last week, VERY NIAAAICE!!

Project 1000 flighthours down by two hours this week :)

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

One month break + 5 hours training = FUCK!

Ok, so I ended up training for five hours yesterday and when I woke up this morning I felt like I would never be able to get out of the bed. Every muscle in my body hurts, I feel sooo busted right now. Had to skip all weightlifting today, but I'll get back to that later in the week :)

Here are two very inspiring clips I found, awesome flow... enjoy:



Monday, March 19, 2007

Rolling again!!

YES! Finally I can roll again! I started out doing just a little guard work and standup some days ago, and today I turned up the intensity and rolled almost 100%. For some strange reason, after training today, my knee felt completely drained for liquid. Like it just disappeared during training. AWESOME!!!

During the last few weeks, I have just been lifting a lot of weights, which has been really boring. Last saturday, we had two guys from the gym fighting amateur MMA for the first time. It went great, one win and one loss. Here is one of the fights with Nicolas from the gym:



Most people think of our gym as a grappling school, so it is pretty cool to show up at MMA tournaments and hit people in the face instead... just as a surprise :D

I am so excited over the rolling today, it was such a relief to be able to work on the mat again. I was wearing a big smile for the entire evening of training.

I have now added the first mileage to my 1000 flighthours project. Total of five hours of sparring over the last few days. 995 hours to go!! :)

Monday, March 5, 2007

Project 1000 flighthours

I am getting really desperate to train now, I can do absolutely nothing with this stupid knee :( All I do is hang out in the gym and lift weights, which bores me like hell.

So I have been thinking about a little project for myself I want to launch, when my knee is good again... "Project 1000 flighthours". I want to roll for 1000 hours and see what happens. I have no idea how long it is gonna take, but I am willing to give it a try. A year? Two years? Ten years? I am in the gym every day anyway, so I can always ask my friends if they wanna come by and roll a little. I think it is gonna be an exciting project and a lot of hard work.

I will use this blog to keep track of the hours and then evaluate when I one day finish it. I am eager to see how far I can go in 1000 hours of rolling.

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