Matt Benyon (www.thegrapplingdummy.com) was kind enough to feature jiu-jitsu brotherhood in his latest production. There’s an interview with Nic as well as a demonstration of his new ‘shadow grappling’ drill. Enjoy.
Manto Presents: The Grappling Dummy – Nic Gregoriades from martial farts on Vimeo.
This is the trailer for the upcoming Jiu-Jitsu Brotherhood instructional !
Jiu Jitsu Brotherhood – Journey into Jiu-Jitsu Volume 1: Basic Concepts
This is an article I wrote for the UK edition of Martial Arts illustrated several months ago. I’m putting it up because several international readers have expressed an interest in reading it. Let me know your thoughts.
We look at our world and can see that the majority of strife comes from division. War, prejudice and bigotry – all of these social ills require that their participants share the false belief that “you are different from me.”
Despite the fact that martial arts were initially devised as tools for warfare, in their current evolution they have superseded their original purpose and become agents for cooperation and brotherhood. After his fights, Genki Sudo, one of the best fighters of the early MMA generation used to hold out a banner reading “WE ARE ALL ONE”. He advocated the primary tenet of eastern mysticism – that everyone and everything is connected on an intrinsic level. I believe that Jiu-Jitsu and martial arts can change the world, and that they will do it by fostering awareness of this interconnection.
I have seen many examples of this awareness during my own journey into the martial arts.
Fraternalism
Several years ago, when I had first arrived in London, I met one of my best friends for the first time. I am a white South African of Greek descent. He is a black Frenchman of West Indian extraction, whose great-grandparents were affected by the slave trade. On the surface we couldn’t be more different. When I was introduced to Antony at the Roger Gracie Academy in 2004, he spoke little English and I spoke even less French. But we both understood jiu-jitsu. It dissolved any barriers that there might have been between us. It was through the art that our friendship was born. Today, I consider him my brother, someone with whom I would trust my own life.
At the academy where I teach I roll with people from countries including Poland, France, Canada, Croatia, Japan, Morocco and countless others. Admittedly, London is a very cosmopolitan part of the world, but I have not experienced any other institution here or anywhere else that affords the same diversity of nationalities, professions and cultures as the dojo. Millionaire bankers spar with cleaners. Grappling world champions train with school teachers. Muslims learn alongside Christians. On the mat all stereotypes and categories fall away, and in this process it becomes a catalyst for fellowship and camaraderie.
Martial arts connect people. Jiu-jitsu initially spread from Japan to Brazil and now continues to propagate to the farthest reaches of the globe. It’s a reflection of the increasingly global, interconnected nature of our world. Personally, I know that I can go almost anywhere on earth, be it Tokyo or Buenos Aires, and all I need to do is find the local jiu-jitsu academy. There I will almost certainly find a warm reception and a new group of friends. It has been my experience that almost all martial artists feel the same way.
The jiu-jitsoka ultimately realizes that the concept of ‘your country’ and ‘my country’ is outmoded, as is the idea of ‘me’ versus ‘you’. Your training partners and tournament opponents are not people who are in competition with you, they are individuals who are who helping you to experience life and learn about yourself.
Empathy and Humility
Through Jiu-jitsu I have come to understand that I am ultimately no different from anyone else. No better and no worse. Discrepancies in size, strength and skill level, and the dualistic concepts like winning and losing feed the illusion of separation. Some people will always eclipse you in ability, and you will most certainly surpass others. But beneath the shell of the physical, the interconnected spirit is pervasive, and it is on this plane where we are all similar. Jiu-Jitsu and the other more physically intensive martial arts can help us understand this because they harshly exposes the limitations, and ultimately, the mortality of the physical body.
On the mat we have all faced our own weakness, and been surprised by our strengths. The human being goes through a gamut of physical abilities from the cradle to the grave. The journey of a martial artist parallels this. Like an infant, the beginning student helpless and with very little awareness. En route to adulthood, the child’s body grows and he develops his consciousness and strength. Similarly, through experience and training, the flegling martial artist gains skills and ability. Finally, in old age, both undergo an inevitable decline of capacity and form.
In a microcosmic and contracted expression of a human life, the martial artist experiences his vulnerabilities and capabilities every time he steps on the tatame. These are often confronted in its most visceral and primal state. The most talented and strongest are humbled by superior opponents or old age. The weakest and most timid surprise themselves with acts of courage. When you share these experiences with your training partners, an empathetic bond is formed between yourself and your fellow man. Through jiu-jitsu we can come to realize that we are all one.
So the next time you are at your academy, give the same respect to first-day beginner as to the black-belt master. Remember that, like the world itself, they are both mirrors to your own soul.
Nicolas Gregoriades, London, September 2009
Jiu-Jitsu Brotherhood will be holding our first US seminar in conjunction with Grappler’s Retreat in California. Spaces are limited – you can find out more information here.
Right at the start of my grappling career, I stumbled across this flow chart of Rickson Gracie’s on the web:
This gives a pretty good insight into the way Rickson thinks. As you can see, his whole game is based around the mount position.
Over the years, I have used flow diagrams a lot. These flow charts are a very effective training tool because they instantly let you see where there are gaps in your technical knowledge. Also, just the act of sitting down and making the chart consolidates all your knowledge and reminds you of moves and techniques you may have forgotten.
Types of Flow Diagrams
Because jiu-jitsu was created around positional strategy, I personally like to create my flow charts around certain positions, i.e. mount, or closed guard. But there’s nothing to stop you for creating more specific diagrams around particular sweeps, submissions or whatever.
Below I have included a very basic closed-guard flow diagram. I usually do my flow charts freehand, but this time I digitized one of them so it’s easier for you guys to read. Unfortunately, It came out a little small – click on the image to enlarge it.
So you can see that when I’m fighting from my closed guard, my main strategy is to try to break my opponent’s posture.
How Specific?
If you have a large enough piece of paper, there is no limit to how specific (or broad) you can be with your flow diagrams. As you become more skilled and your depth of technical knowledge increases, the natural progression will be an increase in the complexity of your flow diagrams.
In my opinion, creating flow diagrams is a much more effective method than regular note taking. If I were any good at drawing, I’d even add in little sketches to each of steps in flow diagram.
Let me know if this has helped you, and if you have any tips of your own for making flow diagrams.
One of the questions I am often asked at seminars is “What kind of conditioning training do you do for jiu-jitsu?” In an earlier post, I spoke of “attribute maximization”. This article will discuss specific ways to condition and prepare the body for jiu-jitsu.
I believe that the most important question you need to ask yourself when doing any training to improve your grappling is “Why am I doing this?”. For example, let’s say you are doing a session consisting of jumping jacks, sprints and pull ups. Why are you doing those exercises? How will the they aid you, specifically, on the mat. If you can’t answer that question about your workouts or even each specific exercise, then you need to reevaluate what you’re doing. Below I give a general overview of the exercises I engage in and, more importantly, why I use them.
Climbing
At this point, I have found no better compliment to my jiu-jitsu training than climbing. The improvement in grip strength alone is worth the effort. After about 6 months of rock-climbing once per week I noticed a major increase in my forearm and finger strength.
A study on bone density between two control groups, one of weightlifters and one of rock climbers, found that the climbers had far higher levels of bone density. Obviously, increased bone density is invaluable to a jiu-jitsoka.
Climbing enhances strength, balance and weight distribution. What more could a jiu-jitsu fighter want? It’s fun as hell too.
Best for: Grip Strength
Bodyweight exercises such as the alligator increase all physical attributes
Swimming
Swimming is great for jiu-jitsu. In my opinion it’s far superior to running as a form of conditioning because there is no impact on the ankles, knees and hips. It lengthens and strengthens the muscles and opens up the back and shoulders – areas of the body which often tighten up after a lot of grappling.
It’s also excellent for breath control and strengthens the heart and lungs. It promotes rhythm and, when done at a slow pace ,will help with over-training and recovery.
Best for: Cardiovascular Fitness
Resistance Training with Equipment
The beauty of using equipment is that is allows great control over the resistance variable of the exercise. When I use weights and kettlebells I tend to focus on compound, multi-joint movements such as full squats, barbell rows and Turkish get-ups. Using rubber cables/strands is also very effective as they more accurately simulate the tensile strength of an opponent.
Best for: Explosive Power, Muscle-specific strengthening
Gymnastic / Bodyweight Training
If you wanted to, you could get in shape to grapple without ever using a pool, weight, cable or any other equipment for that matter.
Moving the body through space using push ups, squats and pull ups is a challenging and effective way to build strength and/or endurance. At the more challenging end of the spectrum, gymnastic style movements such as handstands and bridging develop pretty much every attribute. The animals drills are also great for co-ordination and agility.
At the moment I am working with unilateral movements such as pistol squats and one-arm push-ups because I feel they offer the superior functional strength for jiu-jitsu.
Best for: Agility, Core Strength
Yoga
Yoga is the most widely practiced exercise system in the world. Rickson Gracie is a yoga master, and without question that plays a role in his incredible mat skills.
Regular yoga practice strengthens your muscles, massages your internal organs and calms your mind. But to me, the biggest benefit derived from yoga is flexibility. It increases lubrication of joints, ligaments and tendons and corrects muscular-skeletal imbalances that can affect your health and and jiu-jitsu performance. I don’t do as much yoga as I should, but when I have time I tend to prefer the more dynamic, physical styles such as Astanga.
Oh yeah, there are loads of hot girls in yoga classes too…
Best for: Flexibility
I hope this has helped some of you. I would love to hear from you guys regarding the training methods you employ to make yourselves better jiu-jitsokas.
To maximize your potential as a jiu-jitsoka, it’s not enough to just head to class every day and go through the motions. You need to approach your training from several angles.
I have a particular system which has worked for my students and I. It’s called the A.C.T. Model. This stands for Attribute Maximization, Conceptual Understanding, Technical Knowledge. This article will provide a general overview of this model.
Attribute Maximization
Attributes include, strength, power, flexibility, pressure sensitivity, balance, coordination and endurance.
Jiu-jitsu is a highly athletic endeavour. It is one of the most physical of all martial arts and sports, and demands a lot from those who practice it. You need to maximize your attributes if you want to maximize your jiu-jitsu.
After Royce Gracie’s early wins in the UFC over much bigger and stronger opponents, there began a popular misconception in the grappling arts that size and strength were not important, and that technique was all that mattered.
A lot of jiu-jitsu guys make statements like “strength is not important, all you need is technique.” This is simply not true. Stronger, fitter individuals have a huge advantage over others. This is why the 250 lbs, rugby-playing white belt is usually much harder to spar with than the 140 lbs, super-skilled purple belt. This is also why the absolute division at the world champs is never won by lightweights.
It is true that the leverage afforded by grappling techniques often allows those with lesser attributes to defeat larger, stronger opponents. However there is no denying that being more powerful, faster or fitter than someone gives you an advantage over him, regardless of his level of technique. It is when you combine great attributes with technical and conceptual knowledge you have the makings of an exceptional grappler.
The good news is that most attributes can be improved through intelligent, specific training. This will be the topic of future posts.
Conceptual Understanding
Conceptual Understanding refers to the awareness of the principles and theories that form the foundation of the art. These include things like leverage, biomechanics and breath control.
There are an infinite number of technical situations in jiu-jitsu, and new ones are being developed all the time. You will never be able to learn every single attack, defense, counter and combination. There will always be holes in your game. Conceptual understanding fills in the gaps in your technical knowledge. It allows you to create your own movements and adapt quickly when you do not have a technical response to a particular circumstance.
For example, let’s say during a sparring session that your opponent has a great guard and you feel him set up a sweep which you are not familiar with. Although you might not know the ideal technical defense to his attack, if your understanding of the concept of “base” is good it will still be difficult for him to complete his move.
See the concepts section of this site for examples of Conceptual Understanding. Also, look for the work of Matt Thornton, an excellent concept-based instructor.
Technical Knowledge
Technical Knowledge is a framework of response patterns to specific situations, usually following the simple formula of If ‘x’, then ‘y’. An example, “If I am in guard and my opponent puts his hand on my chest, then I trap his arm, step on his hip…” etc.
Most BJJ academies focus heavily on this aspect of training. The beauty of a technique is that it usually represents the most efficient way of accomplishing an objective. I say usually, because even great techniques are often replaced by more effective variations.
Long-time black belt and instructor Roy Harris speaks of “Technique Collectors”. This is the guy who watches every single YouTube video of the most advanced, inverted x-guard sweeps and owns every single jiu-jitsu instructional DVD on the planet, but ask him to mount and choke anyone in sparring and he’s completely lost.
Technical knowledge can be broadly categorized into depth and breadth. Technique collectors usually have great breadth of knowledge, or the ‘know a little about a lot’. Good fighters usually have great depth of knowledge, i.e. they specialize in only a few positions or techniques, but they know these really well. The great jiu-jitsu practitioners have both breadth and depth of technical knowledge.
The best ways I have found to improve technique are physical repetition and visualization.
Becoming Complete
To become a complete jiu-jitsoka you need to be strong, have a familiarity of the concepts underpinning the art, and also have great technique. Try to identify any aspects where you are deficient, focus on improving them, and ultimately make them your strengths.
Hey guys !
Check out Nic in this month edition of Martial Arts Illustrated !
Martial Arts Illustrated hears from Nicolas Gregoriades – founder member of The Jiu Jitsu Brotherhood – about how martial arts can change the world for the better. Nicolas is then interviewed and delivers his favourite Jiu Jitsu technique.
Following my article on nutrition, I frequently received emails from readers asking for more detailed information regarding their diets.
James Tolley, one of my training partners and a nutrition expert, agreed to offer his views on the topic. Please bear in mind that these articles can get quite technical, but the investment of a little reading time and thought will reward you with the tools you need to achieve an optimum diet for jiu-jitsu.
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In my first article for the Jiuj-Jitsu Brotherhood I looked at post-exercise nutrition. I am going to stay on the topic of nutrition and talk about the types of food we should eat and which food to avoid.
You shouldn’t think of food as just a source of energy and nutrients to fuel our bodies; it is also a powerful drug capable of eliciting chemical changes in our bodies. Some of these changes are beneficial and some can be harmful. If food is a drug that you are putting into your system three, four, five times a day, you need to ensure that this drug is helping you achieve your training goals and not silently killing you.
The Evolutionary Diet
Following an evolutionary diet is challenging, but the potential rewards to your training and health are worth the effort it initially takes. One of these rewards is that an evolutionary diet allows us better control of our hormones, keeping a natural balance in the competing feedback mechanisms of our complex endocrine (hormonal system) system.
Recently we have seen an explosion in so called ‘diseases of Western civilisation’, including type 2 diabetes, thyroid disorders and obesity. These diseases have one thing in common, they are endocrine diseases. It is essential for health that your endocrine system is in balance. It is worth repeating the point that if this is the case you will see a huge increase in performance.
What to Eat
Following an evolutionary approach to nutrition allows a simple definition of what foods we should eat:
Meat including muscle meat, organ meat and bone marrow. Preferably wild game meats, if not then at least organic and grass fed over intensively reared and grain fed.
Marine and fresh water fish and shellfish. Preferably wild, if not then at least organic and naturally fed.
Fresh, seasonal fruit and vegetables.
Nuts and Seeds.
For occasional sweetness I would include honey and agave nectar (agave originates from cactus plants and unlike refined sugars contains high levels of iron, calcium, potassium and magnesium).
What Not to Eat
We can expand on this list by including what we shouldn’t be eating:
Avoid all modern processed food. This category tends to be high in refined sugars and oils; processed foods are also generally high in added salt content.
Avoid grains. They have a high glycaemic load when compared to more favourable carbohydrate sources such as fruit and vegetables. However, there is also research which suggests that consumption of grains is related to various digestive disorders.
In the past I included all dairy products but I have softened my stance on this topic recently with information from genetic profiling. This suggests that you should consume dairy products if you have the genes to metabolise lactose. Not all people have these genes, but they are more commonly distributed in people with a heritage from north-western Europe.
The above list provides us with a simple guideline of what types of food to eat to help maintain a neutral hormonal balance in synch with our caveman genes. This will help us to remain healthy and allow maximal expression of these genes through our environment, including the physical training associated with jiu jitsu.
Macronutrient Ratios
There are other reasons why an evolutionary approach to nutrition is beneficial to your health and performance. As we have seen the main aim is to maintain a neutral hormonal balance, this can be affected not just by the type of food we eat but also by the ratios of the different types of food nutrient groups, otherwise known as the macronutrient composition of your diet.
The modern principle of diets i.e. a calorie is a calorie is simply not true. It is what you eat (the types of food AND the ratio of macronutrients) and not just how much you eat that is the major influence on body composition, health and performance.
Macronutrients (carbohydrate, protein and fat) are the three basic nutrient groups provided by food. The composition or ratio of the macronutrients digested in today’s diet has drifted a long way from the ratio we have evolved from. Bio-chemical imbalances resulting from sub-optimal nutrition lead to a situation where your genes cannot express themselves resulting in disease and lack of adaptation when training.
It is currently recommended that we consume approximately 65% of total calories from carbohydrate, 15% from protein and 20% from fat. A pioneer of the Paleolithic movement Professor Cordain examined hunter-gatherer macronutrient ratios and found that protein is generally between 20%-35% energy, at the expense of carbohydrate (22%-40% energy).
Recent trials have shown that calorie restricted high protein diets have been more effective in promoting and maintaining weight loss than calorie restricted high carbohydrate diets.
Part 2 of this article will deal with some of the health benefits associated with eating in an evolutionary way.
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