Fitness & Recreation Blog Posts

You have to check this out. It’s BJJ at its finest.

If you’ve never seen Eddie Bravo‘s Banana Split submission, check this video out first.

Banana Split: Submissions 101

Now, take a look at this crazy “rolling” match ending in a Banana Split brought to us by Connection Rio. Pretty awesome to see some guys who are so closely matched. I love these kinds of fights.

Crazy BJJ Submission! Train BJJ in Rio with Connection Rio

There are two commonly asked questions regarding Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. One of them is whether or not Jiu-Jitsu is any good when it’s compared to other martial arts and the other is whether or not Jiu-Jitu is any good when it comes time to get dirty in a street fight.

Let’s talk about the first question and let’s view it the way it’s most commonly asked.

Which is better – Jiu-Jitsu or Karate? Kung Fu? Taekwondo?

Let’s see – Is Jiu-Jitsu the same, or very similar, to these martial arts? Is it comparable? I would say no.

What do Jiu-Jitsu and other martial arts have in common? They all necessitate the use of the human body and they all make use of an opponent.

What else necessitates the use of the human body? Walking, singing, hopscotch and digging ditches. What else makes use of an opponent? WWF wrestling, Sumo wrestling, football and tennis.

You get the idea. I’m being a wise guy.

Many people would argue that since Jiu-Jitsu is in the “martial art” category, the question is fair game. I would argue that it’s a pretty damn big category. Also, Jiu-Jitsu makes use of many other fighting styles, such as Judo and Greco-Roman wrestling and it’s more similar to those two than it is anything else. And Greco-Roman wrestling isn’t even a martial art. Correct me if I’m wrong.

Here’s the thing – It’s fun to watch those videos entitled, “Jiu-Jitsu Black Belt vs. WWF King” and stuff like that. I know, it’s just fun. But when really trying to figure out which is better of anything, you need to understand what your goals are. If you’re goal is to run a marathon, then Jiu-Jitsu isn’t for you. If your goal is to get in shape, stay flexible and to learn how to ground fight, then Jiu-Jitsu is for you. If your goal is to learn how to kick properly, then Jiu-Jitsu isn’t for you. It’s pretty obvious – understand your goal and then figure out which activity is going to get you closest to that goal. After that, you’ll find the answer.

But that’s not even the point of this post. The point is just as the title suggests.

Can you use Jiu-Jitsu in a street fight?

After going back and forth through the years and reading through a countless number of conversations on websites, I think I’ve come to a conclusion which I’ll spell out for you in story format.

Back when I was in 7th grade, I used to walk to school. I would exit the front door of my house, make a right onto the street and go all the way to the end. I would head down the hill and knock on my friend Brian’s door. He would come out and we’d cut through a few people’s yards until we made it to the main road. Then, we would walk down to the deli to grab something to eat. The school was right across the street from the deli, so we would usually hang out for a while until the last second, when we would run across the main road into the school.

That’s what we did and we did it for years.

Well, one day, as we were walking out of the deli, this kid in my grade, named Ray, walked straight towards me from the far corner of the parking lot. As he was walking, I looked around, as if there was someone standing next to me. His eyes were trained and, trust me, he didn’t look happy. I glanced around a few more times before realizing that this, perhaps crazy, kid was approaching me and was looking for a fight.

As he took his final steps towards me and after he finally stopped, he said, “I know you’ve been talking about me. You got something to say? Say it to my face.” Now, just to clue you in – when someone says this type of thing to you in a parking lot before school, you aren’t going to get away from him unless you run like hell or get in a scuffle. Ray had fire in his eyes and this thing needed to be dealt with. If I tried to talk my way out of it, I would just spend days worrying about when Ray’s next approach would be.

Ray pushed me. I stood there. Ray got me in some sort of a guillotine headlock. I again stood there, rigidly bent over, hoping that the embarrassment would be over soon. Ray squeezed, and as he did, I looked up at Brian and said, “Hey man, can I get some help over here?” Brian looked at me, continued to stand there, and at that point, I realized I was alone. I had to deal with the situation.

But I didn’t.

I just continued to stand there as Ray squeezed on my neck. I was completely frozen.

Which is strange, because for as long as could remember, I was able to beat up anyone, including most of my friends, some who were quite a bit larger than I was. All my life, I would wrestle and fight in my front yard. All my life, my friends and I would have boxing matches – matches to the end. Last man standing. And I was always that man.

So what was going on the morning Ray got me in a headlock and squeezed me until he got bored, pushed me away and left? What happened to me? Why didn’t I fight back? I know I could have taken him.

I’ll tell you what happened. I was paralyzed with fear. I had no experience with a real fight and I didn’t know what to do. When I used to wrestle with my friends, there was no pressure. I knew their capabilities. I knew who they were. When I was standing there with Ray, I had no idea where I was.

So what made Ray better than me? Well, for one thing, Ray fought a bunch of people. He even fought my friend Pete (Pete won). Ray had experience fighting people and was in his comfort zone when he decided it was my turn.

What makes Jiu-Jitsu useful in a street fight is that Jiu-Jitsu strips you of the fear you would normally experience when it comes time to take care of business. The paralysis is gone. I found a nice summation here:

“Grappling, in general, is good because it gives you a feel of combat. When a real life situation comes up, the fight will be like second nature to you and your nerves wont kill your energy. I definately recommend training BJJ.”

It’s true. I remember back when I first started training in BJJ. There was a bit of hesitancy when it came time to spar with new partners. We would visit various schools and vice-versa. There were new faces all over the place. Back then, when rolling with a new partner, I had very little confidence. I would slap hands and say something like, “Just remember, I’m pretty new at this.” I would remind my opponent of how much tougher they were than I was and I would thank them after they beat me up. Funny stuff. I still see that kind of thing out there today.

Now, I have much more confidence. I don’t back away from rolling partners anymore and I certainly don’t tell them they are tougher than I am. Years of training in BJJ has changed my outlook on people and competition in general. I’ve gotten fairly good at what I do and I eagerly look forward to training with fresh faces at every turn.

One of the more odd by-products of training in BJJ is that my perspective has changed. Now, when I walk around and view people, I wonder if they’ve had any training. I don’t necessarily want to view people like this, I just do. I suppose it’s from training with so many regular looking guys and gals. People you would see in the supermarket and at the mall. I train with moms and dads, computer repair technicians and artists. I don’t train with body builders and track stars. As I said above, Jiu-Jitsu has given me a new perspective.

So to answer the question, I would offer a definite “yes” to whether or not Jiu-Jitsu would help out in a street fight. Just not only in many of the ways you would think.

There is an area of Jiu-Jitsu that I really don’t think much about anymore. I don’t think about it because I am quite happy where I’ve been training for the past four years. I’ve grown as a person and have learned some very valuable skills. I’ve also made some great friends.

The area I’m talking about is finding the perfect Jiu-Jitsu school. And as Ryron and Rener Gracie put it, finding the perfect school – “for you.”

We’ve had many people walk through our doors in search of the perfect school. Many of them have stayed, but a few have left. I would say the majority of those who left, left because they either lost interest or weren’t as physical as they thought they were. That’s fine, because as I like to say, life is about trying a whole bunch of things to see what’s right for you. If you need to quit something, then quit and keep searching for something else.

There were a few who possibly left because they didn’t feel our school was a match for them. Either they wanted to get into MMA style fighting (we don’t do that) or they wanted to lay around and talk all class (we don’t do that either). Whatever the reason, we’ve kept a bunch, but lost a few.

As Ryron and Rener put it and from their observations through the years, there are five factors that generally go into finding the perfect Jiu-Jitsu school:

1. Cleanliness
2. Curriculum Emphasis
3. Class Structure
4. Cooperative Vibe
5. Coach Qualifications

I would also like to add a few of my own:

6. Driving Distance
7. Cost

To get a breakdown of what these brothers are referring to when they talk about these factors, watch their video below.

How To Find the Perfect Jiu-Jitsu School (For You)

Rich is, hands down, one of my favorite guys to roll with. Since he’s lighter than I am, he has to rely on technique, which, through the years, he’s become quite proficient at demonstrating. Not to toot his horn or anything, but he’s thoughtful and careful in what he does. I actually see him think on the mat and I swear, that’s what’s going to make him great. He also has a patience and willingness to learn that is very pleasant to be around.

Today, Rich and I followed our instructor’s lead when he asked us to flow roll during class. We decided that it would be beneficial to show some of what a more relaxed side of Jiu-Jitsu looks like, while not taking too much of the reality out of it.

In the first video, I asked Rich to go ahead and just tap me out. I cooperated with him along the way because I wanted him to enjoy what he was doing. I was also getting some very valuable practice myself – the practice of letting go to the benefit of my partner.

In the second video, Rich and I swapped roles and I took the submissions. About half way through, I suggested that we just trade taps for a while as we rolled lightly. It worked out very well and I was kind of disappointed when we were through. I’m telling you, I can do this stuff all day.

By the way, I had to add music to this video because there was conversation going on in the background. I needed to muffle it.

Jiu-Jitsu Flow Rolling: Jay and Rich

Jiu-Jitsu Flow Rolling: Jay and Rich – 2

I will be posting a few videos in just a moment. They show a good friend of mine and me showing off some flow rolling after today’s class. I suppose our instructor had the same line of thought as I did this past week when he suggested that we brush up on this area of Jiu-Jitsu.

The reason I bring up the videos of Rich and me, or today’s class in general, is that for some reason, I pulled no fewer than ten Omoplatas this morning. It’s almost as though the relaxation I experienced during the way we were rolling gave me the chance to practice some of the finer areas of Jiu-Jitsu. The Omoplata being one of them. But what’s even finer and better feeling than the Omoplata is the Omoplata escape. And even better than that is when your partner rolls (escapes) from the Omoplata and lands on his back, what you do with that. The armbar and the triangle from top come to mind.

This evening, I’m going to post a few videos of the simple Omoplata and the Omoplata roll and step over escapes. These are two fairly simple techniques in Jiu-jitsu. What I’m not going to post (because I doubt I’ll find it on Youtube) is the additional submissions you can grab after your opponent escapes your Omoplata. I am going to put yours truly on video demonstrating them. I really have to get into demonstrating more.

Omoplata Shoulder Lock: Submissions 101

Omoplata Escape: the Roll Over

Omoplata Escape: The Step Over

There is a serious epidemic sweeping the nation of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. It afflicts nearly every academy countrywide and greatly hinders student progress and advancement. It’s something that can be easily corrected, if we only accept that we need to change some things we’ve learned in life so far.

So dramatic.

If I asked each and every Jiu-Jitsu instructor out there what they wish they could change about the guys they train, I bet a good chunk of that group would reply something like this – “I wish I could get my guys to loosen up. They rely far too much on using the muscle they’re born with instead of the techniques I try to teach them.”

It’s true and it’s why I mentioned that we need to “unlearn” what we’ve learned throughout our entire lives; if you’re strong, use your strength, if you’re big, use your weight, if you’re handsome, use your looks. In the world of Jiu-Jitsu, we’re all the same and it’s our instructor’s job to strip us of any advantage we think we have, in order to learn the beautiful art we’re there to learn.

I remember back when I first started taking classes with Jeff. I was in complete awe. From the very moment I began drilling techniques on the mat and was on the receiving end of pressure, I couldn’t believe how effective Jiu-Jitsu actually was. I also couldn’t believe I had never heard of the sport and that I hadn’t gotten into it earlier.

After that first class, I made a phone call to one of my good friends. I told him about the class and explained to him that Jiu-Jitsu was a sleeper sport. I said, “You never know who knows this stuff. It could be the nerdy guy who’s as thin as a rail. You never know who can take you down faster than you can imagine.”

Now that I’ve been around the block a few times, I realize that what I told my friend that afternoon is as true as it ever was. I’ve met some people whose talent I would never expect. I’ve met people who are a good sixty pounds lighter than I am, but have no problem dominating me from start to finish. And I’ve met people who rely far too much on their inherited muscular capability. It’s the strong who have the most to change.

I fell victim to this early on and have bouts of it today. I’m not a small guy. I’m tall and thin, but in no way weak. When I get in a jam, I still try to muscle my way through it. I know what I’m doing isn’t helping myself any and especially isn’t helping my partner, who’s trying to get some good training in as well. Why do I do it? I guess it’s because I’ve been doing it all my life. If the door doesn’t open, push harder. I suppose if a smart man were looking to open the same door, he would try a key.

Jiu-Jitsu is that key. The longer you train, the more you realize how vitally important it is that you learn how to rely less on your physical ability and more on the art. If you don’t, you’ll hit a ceiling that you can’t climb through until you give up what you’ve known forever.

So, what should we do? How do we teach our friends how to learn to learn? Well, there is a way and it involves flow rolling. But flow rolling alone won’t help if it’s not done correctly.

Let me ask all you instructors out there – how many times have you finished up the drilling portion of your class and suggested that your students only flow roll? And how many times have you looked out on that mat, not more than three minutes after you gave those instructions, to see many of your students locked up on each other like two vices sitting on a Home Depot shelf? I know, I’ve witnessed this a thousand times. Actually, I’ve witnessed it pretty much every time. Some of us are worse than others.

To help things out, I think I should offer some helpful tips on how to flow roll – based on my own experience. After that, I’m going to offer an idea I came up with just today. It just might work. But first, those tips:

How To Effectively Flow Roll In Jiu-Jitsu

1. Don’t submit. When flow rolling with your partner, come to an agreement that neither of you are allowed to submit. This will help strip away some of the competitiveness that naturally comes with something like this. It will also instantly evaporate the egos in the room. If they aren’t allow to be submitted, there is nothing to worry about. Whether we like to admit it or not, no one likes to get tapped.

2. Maintain position, but for not more than three seconds. Have you ever been rolling with someone and they get in that total lock down of a position? You can’t move, no matter what you try? What does this do to you? I know – it pisses you off. The natural reaction to something like this is to burst out with all your strength and try to reshuffle the deck. If you create an opening, perhaps you can gain some sort of an advantage. Well, if you succumb to this way of getting yourself out of a bad position, how on earth are you going to practice a proper Jiu-Jitsu escape? I can answer that question – you aren’t. And you’ll rely on poor form forever.

3. Look for submission chains. If you agree to submissions, and you probably should after a while if you have a good partner, look for chains and combos. If you are properly flow rolling, your partner shouldn’t be blocking you at every turn and should actually be encouraging you.

4. Look for position chains. Similar to what I’ve mentioned above, when getting a good position, look for a natural next position. If you get side control, look for the most natural and simplest way to take mount and then back.

5. Ask your partner to work with you. Ask them to be a cooperative partner and remind them when the’re not. Flow rolling quickly and oftentimes turns into a full-out sparring match. It’s the way we’re wired and it gets the best of all of us. Someone needs to be the grown-up and someone needs to keep the peace.

6. Breathe. Proper breathing relaxes the body. If you learn to properly breathe during your flow rolling, you’ll be sending your body a message.

7. Flow roll as a warm-up. Flow rolling is a great way to get the blood “flowing.” In the beginning of class, not many people are yet in the mood to go all out, so take advantage of this down time to get some valuable experience.

Now, I understand that some students may be more stubborn than others. That’s okay, it just means that they need a bit more attention. And I have an idea that just might chip away at their stubbornness.

Since flow rolling really is the essence of Jiu-Jitsu and since flow rolling is where much of the learning actually takes place, why not dedicate one class per week to it? If you think about all the techniques that are taught and quickly abandoned during sparring matches, why not look for another way? And here’s how I think it should go:

During each weekly flow rolling class, choose two people to roll in the middle of the room and have everyone else watch. Set the timer for three minute rounds and have them go a few. This will help in a couple of ways. First, if your most stubborn students are asked to perform in front of everyone, they will be less likely to act stubbornly. Second, if your stubborn students are on the sidelines watching other students performing well, they are more likely to learn by example. In both cases, the students who are watching should be encouraged to verbally critique and give suggestions while the students in the middle are rolling.

What do you think? Comments, questions? I would love some feedback on this.

Roy Dean Academy BJJ: Flow Roll

I’m going to do my best to not get philosophical during this post. A bit of my personal philosophy may creep in here and there, but I’ll try my best to be as normal a human as possible.

Listen, we are all in the same boat. Life is going to throw us curve ball after curve ball. There may be ups and there my be downs. The trick is, in my opinion, to learn how to ride the waves as best as possible, but more importantly, how to acquire a surf board as opposed to just floating in the ocean trying to swim. If you are stuck with the later, your arms may get tired.

Analogies anyone?

I’m a watcher and a listener. One of my favorite pastimes is to seek out interesting and successful people and to observe them. I rarely attempt at reinventing the wheel. I let others do the research for me. If you’re a winner, I want to win right along side of you. I’ve done a lot of this and throughout my life, I’ve figured out a few things. One of which I’ll discuss below.

In order to be successful at anything, you need to be smart, but you also need to be focused. An old friend told me once that if you focus your whole heart on something, really focus it, there will eventually be no alternate route to a successful one (I won’t even touch the definition of success – that topic bores me).

I mentioned Eddie Bravo and Joe Rogan in a post I wrote yesterday. Both of these individuals are wildly successful in their respective careers. How did they become successful? Was Eddie Bravo painting cars at the same time he was competing on the world stage? Was Joe Rogan waiting tables as he was climbing the entertainment ladder? No, both of these guys were focused on getting better and better at what they were already good at.

But, there is a trick to all this and it’s important to mention here. In order to find and achieve your measure of success, you need to choose a growing and dynamic industry. If you do this, it’s going to make riding that wave all the more simple. And this really is the point of this post.

Can you make a life in Jiu-Jitsu?

A while back, in between all the other things I do in life, I realized that no matter how lousy the economy got, there were a few truisms:

1. People still love to get and stay in shape and Jiu-Jitsu is becoming wildly popular.

2. The online world is larger than it ever was and continues to grow. With all the new entrants every day, there’s a need for someone to guide them.

3. Instead of vacationing to Tahiti, people are looking for places to get away closer to home. The mountains being one such place.

After realizing these things, I’ve been positioning myself to take advantage of them. My life is changing immensely and in a year’s time, you should hopefully be reading very different posts. I have my fingers crossed and am excited by the prospects.

After my daily online browse this morning, I came across a great article that was written on November 25, 2025, so it’s obviously very relevant. It’s called, “A Reminder Of How Far Jiu-Jitsu Has Come.” In this article, the author tries to express the rapidly changing dynamic of the sport I love so much. I even alluded to Jiu-Jitsu’s growth potential in my previous post called, “Nate Diaz Breakdown by Rener and Ryron Gracie.” I did a horrible job of getting to my point in that post, but it was supposed to do with how creatively and successfully the Gracie brothers have taken advantage of a growing industry. They’ve adapted and changed and like I mentioned to my brother-in-law during last night’s conversation, they were like Chameleons in an ever changing environment. We all should be so talented.

I guess my point in this post is this: If you want to be successful at something, you need to make a hard choice on what that something is. Then, immerse yourself in it. Get great at it and then start branding yourself as an expert in it. No one else if going to do it for you. Sometimes in life, you just need to make a choice and get to work.

Eddie Bravo and Joe Rogan talk BJJ and MMA

One of my favorite BJJ players by far is Roy Dean. The reason for this is my admiration of his use of Jiu-Jitsu technique as opposed to his use of muscle. He’s also one of the few true Jiu-Jitsu intellectuals I know of.

In Jiu-Jitsu, there is an overwhelming temptation to use your muscular gift from god. After all, you’ve relied on it since the day you were born. It’s understandable and, at times, even necessary, but the fact of the matter it, it’s not Jiu-Jitsu.

My instructor, Jeff Giroux, really tries to hammer home that fact that Jiu-Jitsu is translated as the “gentle art” or the “gentle way.” Whichever you choose, the word “gentle” remains the root. After almost four years of practice, some of the moves I come up with still involve muscle. I need to be reminded that if I need all that muscle, I probably shouldn’t be in a Jiu-Jitsu studio.

Take a look at this video. It’s one of Roy Dean making his way through his promotion test by rolling with some of this students. Eventually, towards the end of the video, he rolls with his instructor, Roy Harris himself. Watch as each person rolls and watch their “lack” of use of muscle. Look at their technique and look at how effective it is. Watch their balance and position. This is the essence of Jiu-Jitsu and this is what we should all be striving for.

Roy Dean Academy BJJ: 2nd Degree Black Belt

We have a small problem at our school that I am trying to help out with. We have a muscle problem.

Back in the day, I fell victim to the use of muscle. After a roll one afternoon, a friend pulled me aside and told me that while I was effective on the mat, I wasn’t actually practicing Jiu-Jitsu. I wondered what he meant, but more importantly, I wondered why I should care. If I was effective on the mat, why not keep doing what I was doing? Well, as it turns out, when you muscle through sparring and rolling matches in Jiu-Jitsu, you eventually hit a wall.

Through the years, I’ve seen guys get discouraged about their training. I’ve explained to them how the learning curve works and how it explodes as a white belt, then mellows as a blue belt and then gradually climbs for the rest of their training. As I listened to their stories, I just chalked their situations up to the traditional learning curve.

As I continue my observation of a few select individuals, I am learning that their trouble may not lie in the normal path of Jiu-Jitsu, but may lie within themselves. Each person I watch uses a tremendous amount of muscle to get themselves through sticky situations. As the rest of us grow and learn, they feel as though they are getting worse and worse because they are relying on this as opposed to taking advantage of effective technique. Something needs to be done because their frustration is turning to discouragement. We can’t let this happen because we’ve got some great guys who truly love the art.

Now that I’ve reached the rank of purple belt, I will be engaging in more of a leadership role. I hope to help some fellow students with the finer points of their training and plan to use various drilling techniques that will assist in breaking them of their bad habits so they can flourish in their training as I think I have over the years.

Whenever I roll with John, I have no idea how it’s going to turn out. He is a very unpredictable man. He’s also quite strong, so I oftentimes have a challenge on my hands.

Last night, John and I enjoyed two rolling sessions, only one of which was worth putting online. The other, I don’t know – I didn’t love it. I looked kind of sloppy. I told John last night that I would just defend and he would attack. He followed in the beginning and then I became frustrated with only defending. It’s just not in my nature. Plus, when John uses his pressure, I take that as an invitation to turn things up notch. If you haven’t noticed, I like to play coy while rolling, but sometimes I just need to break out and have fun.

In last night’s match, we kind of traded taps for a while. Between the two matches, we spent a good 20 minutes together. As always, John gives a good workout.

Jiu-Jitsu Rolling: Jay and John