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Book Review: Advanced Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Techniques by Marcelo Garcia (with Marshal D. Carper & Glen Cordoza)

January 2, 2012 By Yael Grauer Leave a Comment

First things first: Happy New Year! Here’s hoping 2012 brings you joy and fulfillment.

If you set some goals for 2012, perhaps improving your grappling is on the list. Luckily, a plethora of instructional books and DVDs are out on the market–the problem is often which one to choose. But it’s hard to go wrong with Marcelo Garcia, who is arguably the best pound-for-pound grappler in the world in addition to being one of the most sought-after instructors. Marcelo has five world championship titles as a black belt, as well as countless submission grappling awards from ADCC. He has won many absolute divisions against larger, stronger opponents at the highest levels… and in his instructionals (on MGInAction.com), he seems like a very down-to-earth person as well.

I was a bit intimidated when Victory Belt Publishing sent me this book for review. It is, after all, advanced techniques and I’m just a baby when it comes to BJJ. But Marcelo Garcia’s system is always intriguing, as he provides numerous variations to techniques that are unique to his system and often more effective–especially if you’re smaller than most of the people at your gym. (As I mentioned, Marcelo has competed in absolute divisions at the highest levels and done brilliantly, a testament to his technical mastery in the sport.)

Advanced BJJ Techniques is divided into 6 sections: arm drags, establishing back control, submissions from back control, takedowns, attacking the guard and submissions. But first, there’s the introduction–written by Josh Waitzkin, author of the Art of Learning (which, incidentally, is an amazing book about learning, interwoven with Waitzkin’s experiences in competing in both chess and Tai Chi at an elite level). Waitzkin is a chess prodigy and writes with so much beauty and precision. Like Marcelo, he is absolutely brilliant; birds of a feather and all that.) Reading Waitzkin’s descriptions of Marcelo–his personality, his learning processes and his approach–is an absolute treat. Some interesting tidbits: Marcelo does not study opponents ahead of time, will not use techniques that won’t work against bigger and stronger opponents (including D’arce chokes, head and arm chokes, and kimuras) and is always up for a challenge, perhaps sometimes to his own detriment. I found myself wanting to read more about Marcelo as a person, but alas, this book is an instructional and not a biography.

Who is this book for? It is definitely an advanced book, though I think intermediate students may benefit from it as well. Almost all of the techniques are for the gi, so if you train primarily in no-gi, this may not be the best book for you. I think it would be difficult to use as more than a resource if you are a beginner…unless your coach uses techniques from the book in their instruction and you’d like to have something to refer to.

The book’s strengths? It is incredibly comprehensive, focusing not only on techniques but also on the set-ups and options for failed attempts. There is a lot of emphasis on transitions, which is missing from many BJJ instructional books. The photographs are great, like with all Victory Belt books, but specifically they also include minor steps for the techniques as well as photographs of the main steps. And Marcelo always has very technical variations of moves that work against bigger, stronger opponents. The book was co-written by Marshal Carper (author of the Cauliflower Chronicles) and Glen Cordoza, so it’s very well-written and easy to understand.

Onto the meat of the book. It starts with the arm drag section, which is divided into three parts: arm drag grips, arm drags to back takes and transitions from failed arm drags. There’s descriptions of times when Marcelo used these arm drags in competitions, and he describes both gi and non-gi variations with various grips. As with all Victory Belt books, photographs are abundant, making it easy to understand each technique.

The section on establishing back control is very extensive, and includes the basic body lock, ways to secure the second hook, and 8 counters to common escapes.

Submissions from back control include a detailed breakdown of the rear naked choke, an alternate back choke, ways to trap the arm to get the rear choke, information on the bow and arrow choke (including grip fighting and counters to escapes), and a counter to the back escape from a belly-down rear choke.

Takedowns are often underemphasized in grappling–usually due to space–so I was psyched to see the takedown section in this book. Marcelo prefers wrestling style takedowns to those used in judo and that’s what he emphasized: shooting in (double leg and single leg takedowns and trips and counters to sprawls), and the over/under clinch, plus some counters to sprawls.

The next-to-last section is attacking the guard and includes strategies for breaking the closed guard (including 3 breaks and a sweep counter), passing the open guard (3 methods), passing the half-guard (6 methods, including 2 counters) and passing the butterfly guard (3 methods.)

Last but not least, there’s a chapter on submissions. It is divided into three sections: chokes, armbars and omoplatas, and counter omoplata defense. These often include a transition: throat crush to guillotine; single leg counter to guillotine, failed choke crush to forward roll to bridge choke, plus the North/South choke, armbar from mount and various omo plata setups.

The book will run you $34.95–but it’s less on Amazon or BudoVideos, so check around.

Filed Under: BJJ Tagged With: bjj, book review, Marcelo Garcia, Victory Belt

2011 Survey Results

December 29, 2011 By Yael Grauer Leave a Comment

I promised I’d release the results of my 2nd annual reader survey, and give a bit of an overview of where the blog will be heading in 2012.

Survey responses were collected between November 13th and 22nd.

Topics of Interest

The most often selected blog topics survey respondents were interested in were health and fitness, along with the weekly “Variety Hour” and “Friday Musings” posts.

People also expressed strong interest in posts about Paleo food and nutrition, weightlifting and strength training, self-employment, humor, interviews with cool people, personal posts and posts about the writing process.

There was some interest in MMA, grappling/BJJ, recovery, psychology, politics/news, poetry and videos.

Several survey respondents specifically requested more personal posts.

People were interested in a variety of topics that were not covered, including motivation, kickboxing and variations on equipping a home gym (on a budget, in a limited space, after an injury, in a rental unit, etc.)
motivationI think you covered it. n/akickboxingStuff about equipping a home gym, maybe with variations like “On a budget” or “In limited space” or “After sustaining an injury” or “In a rental space,…
Lack of Interest
Some people said they were not interested in martial arts and men’s MMA, and still others were uninterested in all things fitness-related or Paleo-related.
Where This Is Going
Because survey respondents were only a small percentage of readers, I took these results into account along with other data, such as traffic volume and other indicators. My conclusions?  The vast majority of you guys are interested in most of the topics I cover (health, fitness, food, combat sports) and are especially pleased when there’s a personal angle to the posts. It is great to have authoritative information, but I think it’s really the human angle that many of you are looking for. So I will continue to include my own personal experiences in my posts.
It seems that other topics I write about are of interest to some but not all readers. I will continue to include posts about self-employment, writing, etc. but they will remain in the background.
I was pleased to learn that people enjoy the Variety Hour and Friday Musings posts, as I really love putting them together.
I am still working on determining a publishing schedule for 2012, and deciding whether to maintain the current schedule of five posts a week or lower the volume–so stay tuned.
A special thank you to all survey respondents!

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: bjj, paleo

Yael’s Variety Hour: Last Party of 2011!

December 28, 2011 By Yael Grauer Leave a Comment

The variety of links this week is the same as usual: some health and fitness posts, some thought-provoking pieces (on education and writing this time), food posts and combat sports posts. Enjoy!

Health and Fitness

  • The January 2012 issue of the Performance Menu is out! It’s got articles on pulling technique in Olympic weightlifting, incorporating animal moves into your workouts, and getting more cash flow in your gym. There’s also Paleo recipes, a comparison of the U.S. Men’s team’s 2007 and 2011 performances in the World Weightlifting Championships and a review of a day-long MovNat workshop, along with some Q+A on training post-ACL surgery and seeing significant gains in the lifts in your mid-30s. Yours for $5.
  • Sleep: An Undervalued Ergogenic Aid was originally published in the Performance Menu, and is now available for download on the Whole9 site. Check it out.
  • We love Jen Sinkler, Experience Life’s fitness editor and all around amazing gal. Here’s an interview with her: Life Time Weight Loss Interview: Jen Sinkler.
  • Body/Art. Really nice piece by Tav Byerhoff about art/fitness. Beautifully written…
  • Cancer Cells Slurp Up Fructose, Study Finds. Case in point: Beware of “healthy” types of sugar. From Reuters.
  • How Doctors Die. A thought-provoking piece on Zocalo Public Square.
  • 15 Crazy Things About Va-Jay-Jays. From Psychology Today.

Food

  • The holidays are over, but if you ever want to buy a foodie a present, here’s 5 Great Kitchen Gadget Gifts which I wrote for City Pages’ Hot Dish blog.
  • Losing ‘Virginity’: Olive Oil’s ‘Scandalous’ Fraud. And here you thought you were paying extra for the good stuff. From NPR.

MMA, BJJ, Wrasslin’

  • Jon Fitch is facing Johny Hendricks this Friday night. We’re totally trying to have a party, but I’m not sure anyone is coming. Anyway, here is part of my interview with Fitch: No Need to Dumb Down MMA on Sherdog. A longer profile should be up any day now.
  • Also locking horns at UFC 141 are Donald Cerrone and Nate Diaz. Here’s my Fight Breakdown: Cerrone-Diaz for InterMat Fight.
  • Here are the Top 10 Posts of 2011 on MMA HQ. I wrote #1, 4 and 10. (Well, 4 was a joint effort.)
  • As always, Zach Arnold hits the nail on the head. Here’s his piece on Fight Opinion about What’s Not Said About Drugs in Combat Sports.
  • 38 Closed Guard Combinations Everyone Should Know in 4 Minutes is a great little YouTube video by Jason Scully.
  • InterMat Reads: Perfected by Girls is a really great audio interview with Alfred Martino, the author of Perfected by Girls, a book about a female amateur wrestler. I don’t normally read a lot of fiction, but this novel is definitely on my list.

Edumacation

  • Bootstrapping My Way Into the Ivory Tower. What if you want to be an academic, but you’re poor? What does this even look like? What are the challenges? This personal essay for the Chronicle of Higher Education makes some cogent points.
  • The Problem Is: You Write Too Well. What does this even mean? Another piece from the Chronicle of Higher Education
  • Freelancer’s Survival Guide. A late gift for freelance writers–this book is free online.

Filed Under: variety hour Tagged With: bjj, paleo, pastry, tav byerhoff, variety hour, whole 30 weight loss

Best of 2011: Top 5 Articles

December 27, 2011 By Yael Grauer Leave a Comment

Yesterday, I posted the top ten blog posts from 2011, according to my hosting statistics. Today, I’d like to link to some posts I have available elsewhere. This list is far from comprehensive. Much of my writing is available in print publications and not online. Some of it is ghostwritten, and much of it is very time-specific (such as interviews with fighters about events which already took place.) Nonetheless, here’s five posts that I’m pretty proud of which I think you may enjoy, if you missed them the first time around.

  • Body-weight Training for Beginners. Writing a piece for Experience Life has always been a dream of mine–and working with fitness goddess Krista Scott-Dixon and editor extraordinaire Jen Sinkler (a fitness goddess in her own right) was one of the highlights of my year. The piece was very well-received, and I was thrilled to get e-mails from people who found it helpful.
  • Interview With an Urban Farmer. Spezzatino, a beautiful online food magazine (and all-volunteer effort) which raises money for the Healthy Food Bank, posted an interview I did with Will Allen of Growing Power fame. This makes me feel all warm and fuzzy.
  • A Few Words With Henry Rollins. Getting to meet my childhood punk rock icon (tied with Ian Mackaye and maybe Kathleen Hannah) at a book signing was pretty darn cool, as was getting to interview him via e-mail… even if his publicist does hate me. I was hoping his responses would fit his typically verbose persona, but had no such luck…but that means it’s free on the Performance Menu website, rather than only available to magazine subscribers. So enjoy.
  • From the Ground Up: How to Defend Yourself at  Your Most Vulnerable. I am just a baby in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and you’ll have to trust me that there is no false modesty behind those words. But I was thrilled when Angela Jorgensen asked me to write a feature for Chikara exploring which aspects of BJJ are relevant for a self-defense situation, and which aren’t. You could write a tome on this, but I feel like I touched upon some basics.
  • Leaked! Ultimate Women Challenge Disaster: Filming Plagued by Lack of Food, Funds & Training. I always feel sick to my stomach when I hear about fighters being screwed over by shady promoters, and the stories coming from Ultimate Women Challenge participants were more egregious than anything I’ve covered before or since. I was pleased to at least be able to play a small part in exposing the show producers for their role in this fiasco–despite their threats and bullying. MMA HQ published hundreds of posts in 2011, and this one had both the most page views and most unique visitors in the entire year.

We’ll have our regularly scheduled Variety Hour tomorrow, and Friday Musings to finish the week. On Thursday, I’ll wrap up the survey responses for y’all and give a little outline for what to expect next year.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: bjj, krista scott-dixon

Top Ten Posts of 2011

December 26, 2011 By Yael Grauer Leave a Comment

I checked Google Analytics to see what my most popular posts of ’11 were, and thought I’d put them all on one page for you.

The Paleo posts were by far the most popular this year, accounting for more than half of the top 10.

  • The Paleo Experiment: My 30 Day Summary. The most often viewed post of the year was my quick recap of going Paleo for a month.
  • Paleo Flour and Other Sundry Substitutes. I was surprised at the popularity of this post, since it didn’t have a lot of recipes and only a few links…but it’s hard not to want to eat Paleo muffins, so I get it.
  • How to Lose Weight While Sitting On Your Ass & Eating Ice Cream. Well, who doesn’t want to know how to do that?! This piece was based on my own true story.
  • My Top 5 Quick and Easy Meals: Paleo Style. I was surprised at the popularity of this, too, as my ideas of hastily put together meals don’t really seem special.
  • My Whole30 Recap. I think taking pictures of all my meals increased interests in these posts.
  • Eat This! The Ultimate Food Resource Guide. A compilation of my favorite food blogs and resources. It needs updating, so this may be a good project for 2012.

The next most popular type of posts was my BJJ posts, specifically BJJ DVD reviews. Interestingly enough, it was the two beginner DVDs I reviewed which were most popular.

  • DVD Review: The White Belt Bible – Jiu Jitsu in Theory and Practice was the most popular. (The DVD is available from the Roy Dean Academy.)
  • BJJ DVD Review: A Road Map for Brazilian Jiu Jitsu by Stephen Kesting was next on the list.

Finally, my next three most popular posts were pretty random.

  • What Are Your SEO Questions? This was the biggest surprise of all, that this was such a popular post, since nobody asked any questions.
  • My Vibram Five Fingers. Another surprise, because this piece was written in 2010! I will admit I’ve since moved on to New Balance Minimus–perhaps a different post!
  • 7 Alternatives to Pandora. I don’t typically blog about music, but this one was a hit! Apparently other people were running out of free time on Pandora, too. I’m pretty sure the service is now unlimited…but not positive, since I’ve moved on to Spotify.

Conclusion

It looks like many of you guys reading this are interested in Paleo food, very beginner BJJ, free music and nice footwear…and perhaps even in SEO, though you don’t know what to ask.

That concludes the top ten posts of 2011! Tomorrow, I might dive into some survey results.

Filed Under: musings Tagged With: bjj, dvd, music, paleo, pandora, review, road, whole30

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