More on Flashlights

27 Sunday Sep 2015

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

I’ve got a couple of pepper spray posts that I’m working on and a “Jits Notes” post from Thursday’s class that I’m overdue on as well. I’ll get at least one of those up by tomorrow.

Until then, check out this video from Aaron Little, a very talented instructor in Lexington, KY, on the usefulness of the humble flashlight. He’s an interdisciplinary instructor with a good grasp of the realities of self defense, both armed and unarmed.

Remember When 60 Lumens Was Enough?

27 Sunday Sep 2015

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Defensive Daddy has a point. I’m willing to carry a larger light because I like the performance, but it does look lousy in dress pants.

defensivedaddy's avatarGrowing Up Guns

This won’t be a long winded post, like they usually are. Someone recently asked what flashlight I carry, because he was getting tired of having a 6 inch roll of quarters sized Surefire G2X Tactical in his pocket every day. I gave him a quick answer, but it got me thinking about what we gun-totin’ parents and average folks need in a flashlight.

My training in flashlight use consists of short segments in several pistol classes, and one where flashlight technique was a huge portion. Shivworks A.M.I.S. (a must take), Armed Dynamics Pistol 1, Paul Gomez and Claude Werner impromptu tutorials and a few local classes. Not a lot, but probably enough for my needs. That and a lot of home practice. So turn back now if that’s not enough for me to have an opinion.

LED flashlights have spoiled us. Remember when 60 lumens in a xenon G2 was plenty…

View original post 342 more words

Friday Fundamentals 01 – Establishing Your Baseline

26 Saturday Sep 2015

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

The beginning of a series of tips from my friend and instructor. I like the idea of doing these drills in a basement or garage with an airsoft gun as well. You can use reduced size targets to simulate greater ranges.

tacticalprofessor's avatartacticalprofessor

My friend Mark Luell, the author of Growing Up Guns suggested I provide a ‘Friday Fundamentals’ post weekly. We got the idea from my colleague Cecil Burch who wrote a blog post about Fundamentals. It’s a great idea to stay in touch with the basics.

The first installment is Session 01 of my Pistol Practice Program – Establishing Your Baseline. As in any journey, you have to know where you’re starting from before you can get to where you want to go.

The objective of this drill is to determine what distance you can make 100 percent hits on the vital area of a silhouette target. My feeling is that we need to work on achieving 100 percent accuracy because errant rounds in our homes or neighborhoods could be a major problem. Since I also think the first shot is the most important, I structured the session with a…

View original post 643 more words

Another grip video from Dan Simmler

21 Monday Sep 2015

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

There’s a whole series of videos entitled “Judo for Jiu Jitsu” available on BJJ Weekly, and I’ve picked up some good tips just by watching a few of them. I found a video on grip fundamentals by Dan Simmler that I posted in the last blog entry and found another good one this morning.

This is why gripping is so important – the first person who has solid grips on their opponent begins to dictate the flow of the contest. Check out how easy Dan Simmler makes this look!

Get a Grip!

20 Sunday Sep 2015

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

I’m using this blog to collate and track my exploration of grappling, among other things. For those of you who came to this page looking for a Steampunk angle, please remember the “Baritsu” that Sherlock Holmes practiced is probably based upon Barton-Wright’s Bartitsu, an art comprised of judo, boxing, wrestling, fencing and savate, and there’s an interesting subchapter of the Suffragette movement that is also concerned with women’s self-defense so this grappling stuff just might be of interest!

One thing that is not really being taught in the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu classes I’ve attended as yet is grip fighting, so I’ll add videos, articles, and any experiments I’ve undertaken and their results. I’ve had minimal training in no gi grappling, with or without weapons, and have some experience with basic wrestling wrist, bicep ties, 2-on-one grips, and arm drags, but the finer points of grip fighting are definitely foreign to me.

Jimmy Pedro’s DVD and workbook have come highly recommended, so I’ll likely be picking that up in the next few weeks. Until then, here’s a few videos to get everyone started:

A teaser from a Jimmy Pedro DVD

Judo for Jiu Jitsu

Grip Fighting and Throws

Another good tutorial from the Judo for Jiu Jitsu series

Many of these throws and grips are readily adaptable when the opponent doesn’t have the common decency to wear a gi, coat, or velvet smoking jacket. Note the underhook and wrist tie leading to the same result that a lapel and sleeve grip would provide: tai otoshi

Jiu jitsu Class Notes – 9/17

18 Friday Sep 2015

Posted by in Exercise, Fitness, Jits Notes

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , ,

Hey everyone! I’m publishing these instead of keeping them private as some of my mentors have demanded progress notes. Its easier to share and possibly even get comments/hints from fellow practitioners by doing it this way.

Takedown class: Backfalls, sidefall + technical standup, grip stripping, snapdown series, snapdown + hiza guruma, snapdown + double leg takedown, free gripfighting for 2 minutes and ate an accidental headbutt to the nose for my troubles.

Ground class: closed guard pass – opened guard by standing up, inserting a leg, then sitting down into combat base. Cut across the thigh with the knee, then passed. It went almost exactly like this. A little more digging revealed that its called “the logsplitter”

The second series began in closed guard against someone with good posture. It was very similar to this video from Draculino – use the knee to break the grip of one arm while maintaining control of the other with a same side grip at the elbow and a cross grip at the lapel near the collar bone. Establish a high guard with the gripped arm forward of the hips, bridge and adjust the arm for the triangle, then swivel and fiddle with leg position for the choke. If the triangle isn’t working, the next step in the series was unlock the locking leg on the triangle, bring it briefly to the floor to get some spring in order to get the leg over the head and the ankles crossed while rolling up on the shoulder opposite the trapped arm. Then its time to arch and arm bar, something like this.

This was the last move drilled – going for the triangle using the knee to break the grip and clear the arm, but the tricksy opponent pulls his arm out to defend against the triangle. Draculino demonstrates it very well here, and adds the additional tip to force the opponent’s head to the mat to break his posture. I’ll link to another Grapplearts video for an explanation of triangles and some funky variations.

My brain was fried by the end, so no rolling this time. Now that I feel like I’m starting to have some game and my cardio’s getting back on track, I’ll add that to the mix!

Jiu Jitsu class notes 9/15

17 Thursday Sep 2015

Posted by in Exercise, Fitness, Jits Notes

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , ,

Attended the takedown class and wondered how I used to do sprawling drills and breakfalls for 45 minutes at a shot…a few minutes has me gasping and sweating.

Takedowns & techniques worked: sprawls, technical standup (without the kick. http://www.grapplearts.com/2014/08/bjj-self-defense-part-4-the-technical-standup/?nabe=5701865648947200:1), peeling the grip off the lapel, single leg + counter (get head into attacker’s chest and mule kick the leg free), snapdown series (jerk with arms, jerk with arms and a step back, “snap the towel” and step back), snapdown + hiza guruma, snapdown + double leg. It took me a while to figure out that the trip we were doing was actually called “hiza guruma”, but perseverance and hitting the judoinfo.com site paid off! It also led me to spend more money at Amazon on a few judo books, too.

Anyway, check it out: http://judoinfo.com/images/animations/blue/hizaguruma.htm . When it’s done right, its effortless.

Moving into the grappling portion of the night, we started with breakfalls, penetration steps, and shrimping drills. Most were familiar but my back roll and penetration steps were pretty sloppy and need more drilling. There was a funky reverse shrimping movement that I hadn’t done before that wasn’t at all intuitive, too. Here’s an explanation of the movement from Ritchie Yip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Io63PwUHNrc

After 5 or 10 minutes of breakfalls we covered pulling guard – gripping sleeve and collar, placing a foot in the crease of the same side hip, then dragging the opponent into the guard. This progressed naturally into the “monkey flip” aka tomoe nage. http://judoinfo.com/images/animations/blue/tomoenage.htm

The progression then led to various sweeps from the guard against a standing opponent – I assume the intent was to chain these attacks against an opponent who didn’t get pulled down into the closed guard position. The “Tripod” and “Tomahawk” were the ones we worked. http://www.grapplearts.com/2013/07/3-open-guard-options-vs-standing-opponents/?nabe=5701865648947200:1

There were also some De la Riva sweeps and a monkey flip that I grappling dummied for but didn’t practice myself – I had enough trouble with the basic open guard sweeps. I like the De la Riva quite a bit but have fairly short legs so am not sure how readily I can make some of those moves work.

I was pretty well rung out at that point so skipped the open rolling again. I’ll add that to the regimen soonish.