Rigan Machado seminar, Austin TX, August 15

Another seminar, this one in Austin at Zen Jiu Jitsu with the famous Rigan Machado!




Thursday August 15th, 2013 @ 6:00p - All Belt Levels 

Zen Jiu Jitsu and Fitness
2200 East 7th Street #B
 Austin, Tx.
78702
512 517 1509

 Rigan won't just teach you basic techniques that you can just catch on YouTube, but movements and submissions that will guarantee to push your game to the next level, help you flow from movement to movement and lock those movements into your muscle memory by Rigan's special BJJ drilling device called "Quick Drills".

 Seminar cost is $80.00 at the door. Signup here before August 10th, 2013 for the special early bird discount of $70.

CERTIFIED BJJ BLACKBELTS ARE FREE WHEN THEY BRING AT LEAST 5 STUDENTS!

Caio Terra nogi seminar, Dallas, Aug 17-18

What an awesome opportunity!  I understand the gi seminar is already full, but there are 9 or so spots left in the nogi seminar.  This will be held in Rockwall TX (near Dallas) and is fantastic in part because it's limited to just thirty people per seminar!

Contact wolfpackjiujitsu@yahoo.com for more information!

Pedro Sauer backtake, and Leandro Lo guard-- awesomeness

Ridiculous.  Check around :43.  Smooth!  Fun!  And the brownbelt he's rolling with is no sissy, either.



And BJJScout came out with another killer analysis project-- part two of his study of Leandro Lo's guard game.



I know I've been pretty quiet lately.  This ISN'T the "only-TLI" blog, I promise.  I have been training as much as I can (pretty much 7 days a week) but I have a bunch of work deadlines that are messing with my wa.  Please bear with me, I promise I'll have more interesting stuff to say shortly.  Thanks :)

Why is Kinji San Martial Arts sponsoring Team Lloyd Irvin?

Kinji San Martial Arts Supplies makes Ronin Brand gis and is run by a really nice guy named Doug.

I recently discovered that Ronin is sponsoring some Team Lloyd Irvin fighters.

I feel like this is a bad idea because it sends the message that people who affiliate themselves with Lloyd Irvin will not have to pay a price for their choice.  I think it enables Lloyd Irvin to stay in the community and maintain the semblance of "respectability."

I encouraged Doug and Kinji San to withdraw these sponsorships contingent on the fighters switching teams or affiliations.  If you concur, I encourage you to visit the Kinji San Martial Arts Supplies facebook timeline and add your comments and thoughts there.

Thanks.

Why did the UFC book a Team Lloyd Irvin fighter???

So, the UFC booked Team Lloyd Irvin fighter James Vick for the first Fox Sports 1 show.  

He's still training in Camp Springs.  Here's a pic from yesterday, also found here.

If you think the UFC shouldn't be supporting this, tweet Dana (@danawhite) asking him why he'd have a Team Lloyd Irvin fighter on television presumably with Lloyd Irvin in his corner, further legitimizing Lloyd's attempt to sweep everything under the rug.

Crazy 88 and the Team Lloyd Irvin issue....

I have friends at Crazy 88, a powerhouse BJJ academy, historically a Team Lloyd Irvin affiliate in a tiny town in Maryland, under head instructor Julius Park.

 Back when Lloyd Irvin announced he was disbanding the affiliate program, my Crazy 88 friends were super happy-- the big dumbass TLI bulldog logo got painted over and people felt Crazy 88 would finally get its own time in the spotlight.

 Fast forward to Wednesday. The Crazy 88 twitter feed starts posting the brackets for Worlds. People there are so excited for a major event where Crazy 88 gets its name in lights again because they have so many bad asses that train there. They used to carry TLI in those standings, and it always confused people why Coach Julius would let someone else take the credit. But then, it's politics.

 Students start pinging teammates that were unhappy when shit blew up in January. "What's going on with Crazy 88 and TLI?" There's a lot of questions and no real answers coming down.

 One of my friends at Crazy 88 told me, "It's just fucking sad. Disheartening. This fucker, LI, has just trashed so many people's shit, and he continues to pull strings and manipulate people. He continues to play on the bonds forged in training over years for his own gain. It's so disgusting. And he's using that to turn teammate on teammate putting young, impressionable athletes in what has to feel like impossible positions."

 Hours pass. Results roll in. Team Crazy 88 would be in first place at Worlds at the end of Thursday, except they're registered as TLI. "This little gym in tiny Elkridge, MD that has so much athletic talent, so much great coaching from a name nobody would otherwise know if it weren't being made infamous for its connection to LI - this incredibly fun, amazing environment is now drowning in a toxic pool because of this association."

 I'd like to encourage everyone to show the owners of Crazy 88 that people aren't going to shut up, and they're not going away. This is a hard choice because the students there feel there is no other gym nearby with the caliber and coaching of Crazy 88. To find a similar level means driving hours north or south. All these people who love jiu jitsu stand to lose the thing they love, with the people they love doing it with, because of Lloyd Irvin.

http://www.crazy88bjj.com/contact-us/

GOOD LUCK AT WORLDS!!!!

I have so many good friends competing at the Mundials this weekend... but a special shout-out to my teammates and training partners, Randy and Tessa, Rebecca, and Ketra.  Break arms and hearts :)

I wish I was able to be there.  There's nothing like the adrenaline and excitement in the Pyramid.  I want to see what kind of reaction Lloyd Irvin draws.  Did you see Mike Fowler's facebook status?  He wrote his most vicious attack on LI yet, and amazingly there are still some people supporting and defending Lloyd.

(If you don't know why someone wouldn't support Lloyd Irvin, hurry over to www.LloydIrvinRapeTruth.com  and get the background.)

Also, "no more affiliation" my ass.  Here's a list of people who are not ashamed to compete under the Lloyd Irvin flag.  I really wonder what they're thinking!?  So if any of these people would care to comment, I promise to be respectful and offer them a forum to explain, discuss, etc.

Team Lloyd Irvin

WHITE / Senior 1 / Male / Medium-Heavy Jammie Deron Whitfield
BLUE / Adult / Male / Rooster Christopher Duyquan Tran
BLUE / Adult / Male / Rooster Cory Walker
BLUE / Adult / Male / Light-Feather Malachi Edmond
BLUE / Adult / Male / Light-Feather Shane Hill-Taylor
BLUE / Adult / Male / Feather Derrick Holmes
BLUE / Adult / Male / Feather Eric Morales
BLUE / Adult / Male / Light Angelo Claiborne
BLUE / Adult / Male / Light Jonathan Connelly
BLUE / Adult / Male / Middle Devon Daniel Delbrugge
BLUE / Adult / Male / Middle Joseph Justin Ruggiero
BLUE / Adult / Male / Medium-Heavy Joseph Robert Formica
BLUE / Adult / Male / Heavy Todd Allmond
BLUE / Adult / Male / Ultra-Heavy Alfonso Joel Washington Jr
BLUE / Adult / Female / Light-Feather Roya Darvishian
BLUE / Adult / Female / Feather Monica Barlow
BLUE / Adult / Female / Feather Rachel Ranschau
BLUE / Adult / Female / Light Crystal Bradley
BLUE / Adult / Female / Light Katherine Marie Heckman Torralbas
PURPLE / Adult / Male / Light Leo Maggio
PURPLE / Adult / Male / Middle Tye Ryan Murphy
PURPLE / Adult / Female / Light AaRae Alexander
BROWN / Adult / Male / Heavy Roberto Torralbas
BROWN / Adult / Male / Ultra-Heavy Kenneth Vernon Otieno Brown
BROWN / Adult / Male / Ultra-Heavy Wilbur Ross Leonard III
BROWN / Adult / Female / Medium-Heavy Sijara Jihan Eubanks
BLACK / Adult / Male / Middle De'Alonzio Jerome Jackson
BLACK / Adult / Female / Light-Feather Nyjah Easton


Lloyd Irvin Martial Arts
WHITE / Senior 1 / Male / Medium-Heavy Timmy Garcia
BLUE / Adult / Male / Middle Arthur Walcott Ceesay
BLUE / Adult / Male / Middle Wesley Barnes

Super easy meal for you cutting-weight people

Kale and Eggs

 Consider this breakfast for dinner. In an individual-sized baking dish, mix some canned or crushed fresh tomatoes with salt, pepper, and a pinch of smoked paprika. In a separate small bowl, toss about 1 cup of chopped raw kale with a bit of olive oil, balsamic, salt, and pepper. Place the kale in the baking dish along with a sprinkle of feta cheese and chopped scallions. Crack 1­ or 2 eggs into the dish and bake until set, about 10­ to 12 minutes. (You can also fry the eggs separately and place on top.) Finish with some freshly cracked black pepper.

From Jeanine Donofrio of Love and Lemons.

The FRAMO concept.

I started training in October 2008, got my blue in January 2009, and took about an eighteen month layoff which ended in January 2013.  It's true, the first thing to go in a long layoff (from what I'm told and what I've experienced) is your timing.  Not to mention your fitness, of course.  So I'm happy to report that now, after about five months of just jiu jitsu (no crossfit-esque conditioning classes at my other gym, for the most part) I feel like I'm back in the swing of things (although, I lost 20 lbs and then gained 15 back with two trips to NYC and the associated eating-like-a-convicted-criminal.  Pathetic.)

Today I wanted to report a little wee milestone reached.

Today was my first submission by kimura against a fully-resisting adult male opponent.  I call this a FRAMO.

I remember how thrilled I was with my first triangle FRAMO.  (It wasn't that long ago, either..)  I think I've done a lot of jiu jitsu backwardly from most men (and maybe most women, too.)  My first submission that wasn't given to me, my first FRAMO, was an ankle lock when he took my back and crossed his ankles.  Since then I haven't really kept track of every first, but I know the majority of subs were Americanas, far side and near side armbars, ezequiels, and north-south chokes.  The standard guard attacks that everyone seems to get fairly early on, like triangles, armbars, and cross chokes have been beyond elusive for me.  So the first triangle stood out like the sun... and I have yet to get a cross choke.

The only reason I'm catching some of these rare-for-me FRAMO creatures is my eye and timing must be getting better.  I'm not stronger, I'm not rolling against weaker opponents.  It's not that my technique is any better.  I'm just making better decisions.  So that's happy news.

More happy news-- my buddy Mark turned me on to BJJ Scout.  He does some NICE breakdown analysis videos.  Check this one, analyzing Leandro Lo's toreando passing.



Oh, and through his blog, I found some footage of Lo teaching in Portuguese... this clip is a nice reminder for me of a variant on the butterfly sweep (I never get this.  Ever.)



Got some reviews coming.  Datsusara's hemp version 3.0; Lucky Gi's Diaz Brothers bamboo gi; Wamada's new bamboo rashguard; a couple instructionals too including Emily Kwok's Bigger Stronger Opponent, Drysdale's Cradle...

xoxo

The eyepoke problem in MMA...

Check Keebler's thoughts (from Gracie Humaita Cleveland) on the right way to solve the eyepoke problem: