My Quest

Welcome to Jiu-Jitsu Grit! 

My interest in learning self defense lead me to a local school (Lawrenceburg Martial Arts) that teaches Carlson Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, Japanese JuJitsu , Che-Lu Karate (pronounced Chi-Liu), Combat Sambo, Judo, and other defensive tactics. Naturally, being only five minutes from home, I knew I had to check this place out. 

In May of 2011 I went to the local dojo to find a humble setting. There was wasn't anything fancy - just mats on the floor, old plaster walls, and a smell that said this is a real dojo! I was welcomed and given a brief synopsis of how the dojo operates. The main focus was on Che-Lu Karate, Carlson Gracie Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, & Combat Sambo.

I decided to give Jiu-Jitsu and Combat Sambo at try. At first I didn’t know what to think, then after a few weeks of training I became hooked. I found myself looking forward to classes – even passing up overtime at work to go to class! After a few months the Combat Sambo instructor’s military duties were pulling him away from teaching and eventually resulted in a lengthy deployment to Afghanistan. With the Combat Sambo instructor’s deployment came an opening in the class schedule which was filled with more Jiu-Jitsu instruction.  

My training with BJJ has slowly but steadily increased over the past year. I started out training once a week, then twice a week, and now up to 3-4 times a week. It has gotten to the point where it is starting to consume me! If my mind isn’t actively engaged in something intriguing I find myself thinking about Jiu Jitsu.

Constantly thinking about Jiu Jitsu and being good at it are two totally different things. By no means do I think I am any good. The more I learn the more I realize that I have a long way to go just to get proficient at the basics. I found this out the hard way at my first tournament. During my matches my mind went blank and muscle memory was non-existent. That needs to change!!!! This blog is the beginning of my quest to train my mind, muscle memory, and overall grappling performance.

Everyone knows that it is difficult to get a training partner to work with you on your schedule outside of class. With work, family, and other life endeavors, there really isn’t a way to train the moves you learned in class with another Jiu-Jitsu practitioner. Repetitive drills are needed in order to develop the much sought after muscle memory we all seek. My solution to this problem is to use a grappling dummy. After reading grappling dummy reviews and jiu-jitsu dummy reviews I settled on the Submission Master Grappling Dummy. The reviews I read on forums and blogs all seemed to conclude that this is the best grappling dummy for practicing Jiu Jitsu. Although a little on the pricey side, it appears that you get what you pay for. Other grappling dummies are cheaper but they don’t appear to measure up to the Submission Master Grappling Dummy. I will be documenting my own experience with this grappling dummy through this blog.

Using the grappling dummy should develop the muscle memory like I want, but now I need a solution for keeping my mind from going blank when I am competing. Unless you are new to Jiu-Jitsu or grappling you have probably heard that grappling is like chess - to defeat your opponent you must use strategy to set him up and gain positions in order to tap him out. Capturing the chess pieces is the muscle memory but the strategy comes from your mental ability to read your opponent and react or adjust accordingly.  

There are many different Jiu-Jitsu Videos and Grappling Videos – even online training programs, but the ones that I have seen don't really seam to help with the problem of, “Ok, now I am in this position, what should I do from here? Ok, now that lead me to this position, what options do I have from here? That previous move lead me to here, now what?” and so on. The videos show great material but you have to rewind or skip to the move that you want, then think about your options and try to find the next move either from your training notes, somewhere else in the video, or on YouTube. There seems to be a lot of time wasted by thinking and searching for “what options do I have from here?” Upon ordering the Submission Master Grappling Dummy I discovered a product that looks like it will help with the problem of “what options do I have from here?” It is called the iGrapple and it appears to be a great tool based on the branch-out system. Click on the iGrapple link and watch the demo video to see how it works.

In addition to documenting my experience with the Submission Master Grappling Dummy and the iGrapple, I plan to post miscellaneous links that I think will be beneficial to those seeking to expand and develop their grappling. I welcome all comments, advice, discussions, and constructive criticisms. Please feel free to post comments as community discussions on any topic related to grappling should prove to be beneficial.