One of the hoary myths that people will try to use to discredit grappling for self-defense is something along the lines of “I don’t want to be rolling on the ground with someone while their friend kicks me in the head”.

If you hear someone say this, you will know immediately that they have spent ZERO time actually training grappling in a legitimate gym against varied opponents under the eye of an experienced coach. Why do I say that? Because if they had done that, they would know how utterly foolish that line is. But, since they have not actually bothered to really train any real grappling, they only have second and third hand ideas to go on. So they look at  what is happening in a sport BJJ match, or a MMA fight. They see two fighters of matched skill having to play a strategic game of chess, and they assume that is how an encounter in the street will play out.

Let me tell you how that encounter will truly play out. That high level grappler will maul the non-grappler in SECONDS. If you don’t know how to counter the moves of an experienced, knowledgeable grappler, your friend is not going to have time to kick the grappler in the head, because the fight will be over before he can wind up said leg.

And that is a fact, that is proven night after night in every BJJ gym in the world. Every night somewhere, a new guy walks in to try it out, and is soundly beaten in seconds. Usually by someone with about six months of experience. Often the new guy is some young, muscular tough guy, who is matched up with a skinny, nerdy computer guy, and the nerd stomps him like a narc at a biker rally.  Of course, it is done in the nicest way possible, generally with no real pain or injury to the tough guy. He just realizes he has a lot to learn! This is not hyperbole, but easily verifiable fact.

So the next time you hear someone go on a rant how you don’t want to be rolling around on the ground for hours in a fight, understand you are listening to hot air.

http://thefightworkspodcast.com/2008/03/09/107-wellington-megaton-dias/

A couple of years old, but still a lot of good stuff in this interview, and you can start to get a glimpse of why Roger Gracie has publicly declared that Megaton is the greatest competitor in BJJ history.

IAJJ endorses only two holsters: the Vanguard 2 from Raven Concealment (http://www.ravenconcealment.com/holsters/vanguard-holster-systems/vanguard-2-holster-full-kit ) and the Keeper invented and made by my good friend, Spencer Keepers. Not only is he a great holster maker, but he is one of the finest pistol shooting instructors on the planet. Here is a link to an in-depth review of his holster.

http://www.activeresponsetraining.net/the-keeper-appendix-carry-holster

Do yourself a favor. Get a VG2 (if you shoot Glocks or M&Ps) and a Keeper (for most popular pistols), and never look back .

You can contact Spencer for info/ordering of the Keeper, or get info on his shooting courses, at: Keepersconcealment@gmail.com

On May 4 & 5, 2013, I conducted a seminar in Sacramento at Monster BJJ (http://www.monstergym916.com/). Here are some thoughts from some of those attending, as well as my thoughts at the end.

AAR Summary for IAJ/IAP NorCal

First, let me just say that for those of you miss out on training with Cecil, you are missing a great opportunity to put together your empty hand structure of the physical component of ECQCish training – but under Cecil’s very capable, real- time performance coaching. Wow that was quite the run on sentence.

Overall, the beauty of taking IAJ together with IAP is that you can see how congruent this platform of training is. From the standpoint of the importance of surviving the initial “ambush” or initiative deficit impact event and the importance of moving to regaining initiative from a solid defensive platform, the underlying concepts and even some of the physical structure expressions are consistent.

Having now taken this coursework three times, I have seen how each time I continue to learn and pick up additional tweaks and major pieces to augment my empty hands training. Cecil continues to refine his messaging and delivery all for the better. One of the big “light bulb” gems was how he communicated the structural similarity of the “default” structure and CM structure, as well as the ground survival structure.

One of the interesting circumstances of the weekend was that my coach came in and rolled during the end of the IAJ weapons portion. We discussed this a bit thereafter and during my private lesson last week. Needless to say, I’m personally going to truly benefit from his exposure to this material. He adapted very quickly to weapons- based and probably in two cycles he was really starting to get it. His take on it was that he thought of “weapons” as just another technique/submission – once he gained positional control, albeit with a priority to hand monitoring, weapons access was there – that is accessing his opponents weapons.

Same thing during IAJ, my coach came in and worked with me in a “moving” wall drill. He is a skilled attribute based boxer, but was unable to penetrate my defensive structure. He commented that he really sees the value of this structure, especially for guys like me that don’t train this for hours a day.

Because our class consisted of all ECQC alums and experienced jits or MMA guys, we were able to move along and cover quite a bit more material than from previous courses. We were then able to go thru a lot of cycles and evos with Cecil watching and giving us individual live performance coaching – which he excels in. I’m certain I speak for all the attendees that all of us benefited greatly from this course!

Thanks again Cecil, for putting together this material and flying out to NorCal!
Byrren

I enjoyed Byrren’s comments, especially where he talked about the congruency between the standing default, the standing striking game, the vertical clinch, and the grounded game. It is one of the most important things I try to get across. The more congruent we are across all those elements, as well as when weapons are in play, we can streamline our training, while still maximizing it.

It was a great class, and especially the CM stuff was very eye opening to me and not what I was expecting based on the clips I’ve seen on YouTube. There’s a lot more to it than just moving your arms like that.

Drew

And my own comments:

It was great getting out there this year. As always, Byrren is a great host, as well as a talented and hard working athlete.

It was great to get some feedback about my evolution as a coach and the materials’ evolution. It is one thing to think I am on the right path and doing some good things, but it is something else entirely if other people don’t share that belief. To have such positive feedback was very gratifying.

I also enjoyed being able to go beyond my fundamental coursework and at least get a “taste” of the next level by being able to work some offensive stuff from the ground, and to go a little deeper into CM than I usually am able to, because of the attendees already having trained with me before, or had a good game already.

Thanks to everyone who came, and to Byrren for jumping through hops to put ti together, and to Seth for coming out and giving his deep insight and analysis not just to me, but freely to everyone at the seminar. I am looking forward to the video clips that will come out of it!

That was a pretty gratifying moment. Watching B deal with someone far younger, stronger, far faster hands, and an ungodly amount of superior experience. He really tried to amp up what he was doing to try to land even one clean shot and couldn’t, and you could see his frustration mount. Afterwards, he volunteered to write a testimonial for CM to put up on the CM main website. That’s how impressive Byrren’s performance was!

Here is a link to a nice article about my teammate (who also happens to be my coach’s daughter) and it has some funny (and true stories about my coach). One day I will write a post about the old days of training with Megaton. As soon as the therapy helps me deal with it, that is!

http://www.cagepotato.com/cagepotato-exclusive-interview-mini-megaton-mackenzie-dern-looks-to-make-her-mark-at-metamoris-ii/

The following is an AAR of a course I co-hosted recently in Northern AZ, ECQC run by my friend and one of  my mentors, Craig Douglas. There are some really insightful comments by the writer, Jason. BTW, he is a really good dude who makes some solid kydex holsters and he stands by them 100% . He is going to make me a pistol mag carrier that is perfect for the ECQC environment(for info on pricing and availability, as well as custom work, contact him at : info@tcbfirearms.com

So here is a factual story about a woman using Jiu-jitsu to save her life. Even though there are a lot of Self-defense trainers who still try to convince people that Jiu-jitsu is nothing but a sport and has no value in the street.

I would like to ask these experts what alternative would they have suggested that would reliably work in this situation – i.e. a woman in a foreign country without backup, and unable to carry any kind of weapon, trapped in an enclosed environment against a bigger, stronger attacker? Because her solution worked pretty damned good.

http://www.bjjee.com/bjj-news/female-us-navy-sailor-puts-rapist-to-sleep-with-triangle-choke-in-dubai/

Here is a clip of the other key fundamental jiu-jitsu movement, the hips escape:

Here is a clip going over one of the two key movements, the hip bridge, or upa: