Grappling dumbly

WOOT! Or whatever the kids say these days. I have my own fighter profile page on the MHBJJ website. Regardez ici: Mill Hill BJJ Seymour Yang. Now, no one can ever say: No one remembers second place!

Training's been going ok. as I mentioned before I think, it's just business as usual since I got promoted. The guys who mullered me before, still do, and visa versa. But I have noticed a little change in the way I approach my jiu jitsu, I liken it somewhat to the time when I was training in traditional ju-jitsu. Allow me explain...

BJJ is a bit like eating out in a fancy restaurant...

Hi, reservation for one please.

I'm sorry Sir, tonight is uniforms only, rules of the house.

How about his blue one? It's clean.

Certainly sir, here is your menu...
...tonight we have a starter of warm-ups, followed by a course of stretching. the main course will be passing the guard followed by dessert of sparring.

Um, sounds delicious but I was hoping your speciality of flying armbar would be on the menu?

I'm sorry, only passing the guard tonight.

Do you take card?

I'm afraid only monthly direct debit only Sir.

Jeez, who is that over therre shouting, screaming and swearing?

That will be Master Ramsey, he's a black belt who is visiting us for a TV program called Hell's Dojo, please ignore him.

Ok, what do you recommend for an aperitif?

May I recommend a large portion of the white belt over there Sir, he is big and a bit clumsy, but he is young and perhaps easily submitted by a vintage such as yourself Sir?

Er, what about the cheeky fizzy one over there?

Ah, an excellent choice Sir, but beware, the purple belt means she will crush you despite her diminuitive stature.

Sounds great, do you do fries?

Sir, we are a BJJ academy, Mcdonalds is down the road.

Spiral Guard

Hands up if you have heard of the spiral guard before?

Nope, me neither, well I didn't until a few weeks ago when the name suddenly started appearing on forums with people asking about this mysterious new system. Youtube and a google search (at the time) wasn't much help either. Then I read Slidey's review of the Japanese instructional DVD called Paraestra and his  description of spiral guard grabbed my interest. Being small and, seemingly by default, a bottom player, I loved the idea that I could spin around under and beneath my opponent trying to weave a web of confusion -  so I bought the book/DVD and decided to test if this spiral guard thingy actually works in real live sparring...

The Online Itch

A short while ago, my good BJJ pal and fellow blogger Matt who writes Martial Farts came up with the idea of a BJJ E-zine. He asked me to write something and for various reasons, the e-zine has been put on hold. So with his agreement, I thought I would share my article with you...

The Online Itch – How BJJ and Blogging Go Hand in Hand

It is an irrational obsession...a compulsive disorder that takes over your entire life. Sure training BJJ is an addiction, but darn it, blogging about it is even more so.  But surely blogging is all introspective self-indulgent twaddle that nobody reads? No way argues Seymour Yang, who writes the self indulgent introspective blog that is Meerkatsu.com.

My New Year Finally Begins

Hooray! I have finally, two weeks in to the New Year, got my first roll of 2010 - good times!
Boo! I have decided, with so little time left to prepare, plus other factors, not to compete at the IBJJF European Championships in Lisbon - bad times!
Thus beginneth my topsy turvey start to the year...

Braulio Estima - Invisible Jiu-Jitsu - Lesson 3

Continuing my series of lesson-by-lesson reviews of the instrucional videos that are available from the CageFilm website.

Lesson 3: GUARD PASS VARIATIONS

The full title of this episode is “Effective guard pass control – Concepts of passing the guard”. The file is 570MB and runs for 49mins. Before showing us guard passes Braulio begins by briefly demonstrating the variety of guards available once the top guy has successfully opened your closed guard. These include De la Riva, spider guard, half guard and deep half guard. Braulio postulates that in order to pass the guard, you need to understand how those guards work in the first place, and then work to break down the areas where your opponent can control you.

Faixa Roxa

Wow! What an amazing start to 2010. Tonight, although I was still suffering from the effects post-swine flu, I decided to pop down to the club to say hello to my team mates, when out of the blue, Nick Brooks decides to promote me to purple belt. I'm well chuffed. But along with the belt comes a lot of weight. I'd like very much to thank my coach - I hope I can live up to the responsibilities and expectations he has honoured me with in this promotion.