Inverted Gear Blog
Tag: Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
A Jiu-Jitsu Journey Without Gold Medals
Many jiu-jiteiros begin training with aspirations of being a world champion, and I was no exception. So many of our heroes in the sport have incredible competition stories, and perhaps since we aspire to someday acquire their mythic abilities on the mat, we too begin to dream of gold medals and towering podiums. The reality, however, is ruthless. The vast majority of grapplers will never be world champions, and the numbers don’t even look that great for being the best grappler at your gym.That can be hard to accept, and it’s certainly been difficult for me. In my case, the interest in being the best is less about who I can beat and more about how good I can become.I...
2 Critical Habits for Your Training
“Champions don’t do extraordinary things. They do ordinary things, but they do them without thinking, too fast for the other team to react. They follow the habits they’ve learned.” - Tony Dungi I came across this Tony Dungi quote recently. Tony was an NFL head coach and was notorious for turning around some pretty bad teams—first the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and then the Indianapolis Colts. He came close with the Bucs and then won the superbowl with the Colts in 2007. Like anything else in my life, as soon as I heard this quote, I started thinking how this correlates to grappling. Then it hit me. I remembered being dead tired, exhausted from a grueling practice back in my wrestling...
Meet the Pandas – A Selfless Quest for Quality - Kevin Sheridan
In this series we shed light on the many members of the Panda Nation. Last episode starred brown belt Ro Malabanan of Overthrow Boxing. Now, we spend some time with Kevin Sheridan: former D1 wrestler, all-round BJJ entrepreneur, and black belt guru of many Inverted Gear Pandas. As a lifelong wrestler, Kevin Sheridan (46) took to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu like an anaconda to the Amazon rainforest. The art helped him to open his mind, and navigate his way through business and life. After building up several accomplished black belts, he now has his sights set on providing disenfranchised inner city kids with free jiu-jitsu. How did you get your first exposure to the art? Kevin Sheridan: It was thanks to...
A Visual Guide to Hand-to-Hand Grips in BJJ
A reader of the Inverted Gear blog recently asked me if I could do a series of posts that define BJJ terms, much like a visual dictionary. With the aid of my hand model Nelson and the power of GIFs, let's look at the right and wrong ways to do hand-to-hand grips. Gable Grip Somewhere along the line, BJJ took to calling this palm-to-palm configuration the "Gable grip," after the famous wrestler Dan Gable. The wrestlers who I have asked about it do not use his name, for what that's worth. This is sometimes mispronounced as the "cable grip." You see this grip used ubiquitously, from bodylocks to defending armbars to attack with straight armlocks--any time you need to put your hands...
My New Instructional: From Chile with Love
About a year ago, I started to work on an instructional with the crew over at Artechoke Media. It has been an amazing experience. After nearly ten years of grappling, I felt I had a unique take on certain positions that I felt could benefit some grapplers, so breaking them down and diving deep into them was a fascinating process. The product has been out for a bit, and It’s gotten positive reviews from people I really look up to. If you haven’t checked it out yet, maybe you will be interested by end of this blog.The book starts with takedown section, my takedown game has been deeply influenced by time cross-training and competing in wrestling, judo, and sambo. I...
On Suicide in the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Community: One of Those Stories I Wish Nobody Had to Write
I know I am not alone in feeling sad when I hear about someone taking his/her own life; indeed, sad is an understatement. It is extra surreal when I find out the person in question trained. It would be nice if the effects of jiu-jitsu were so magical that people who train never experienced depression, anxiety, or other mental illnesses. Then those of us who are evangelical about it would feel that much more justified.But jiu-jitsu is not magic. I know this because of the too-frequent reports of people in our community acting on their suicidal ideations. I know this because of the work of groups like Submit the Stigma and the more informal but equally well-intentioned efforts of people...
This Technique Doesn’t Work
Usually—and I have been guilty of this myself—this thinking is rooted in frustration. After many attempts to learn and apply a technique and failing, you give up on a move. Unfortunately, many fundamental techniques get this treatment. I was inspired to write this article in the first place because the scissor sweep is one of these misunderstood techniques, yet we recently saw Ricardo Evangelista hit one on Leandro Lo. Other techniques that get this treatment include Americanas, sit-up sweeps, and even the mount position as a whole. Side note: mount often frustrates students to the point that they don’t bother taking it in pure grappling matches, opting instead to work from side control and north-south. Side side note: I too...
Meet the Pandas – ‘Open Your Mind & Kill Your Demons’ - Ro ‘The Show’ Malabanan
The Panda Nation abides. As we continue our series Meet the Pandas, we shed light on the many awesome Inverted Gear athletes. Last episode focused on black belt speed cyclist David Phimsipasom of Maximum Athletics. Now we like to introduce Ro Malabanan: master of the sweet science, general manager at Overthrow Boxing, and jedi apprentice under Marcelo Garcia. As a teenager, brown belt Ro ‘The Show’ Malabanan (39) got beat up often for being a ‘pretty boy’. After becoming a boxer and breaking some ribs here and there, he found Brazilian Jiu Jitsu to channel all his negative energy. The art kept him sane, while everything in life was falling apart. Was boxing your first martial art? RB: Yes. I...
3 Common Pitfalls As You Move Up the Ranks
Over the years, I have seen BJJ students run into many common problems. I am guilty of many of these myself, and now when I work with my students I try to steer them away from making this mistakes as well. My thinking is that if I can help you skip over the obstacles that slowed my own progress, you can learn more and advance faster than I did. Here are the top 3 pitfalls I talk to my students about: Becoming a technique collector. As a white belt, your biggest problem is usually that you simply don’t know what to do. Your instructor comes along and shows you a move for a certain situation. Now you know when you’re...
Get a gi to give a gi
A year ago, my friend Sean contacted me to tell me about a school club a few of his teammates from Main Line United were helping out with. The Workshop School is a project-based charter school that takes an innovative approach to teacher and learning. Sean and his teammates were pitching in to help by incorporating a jiu-jitsu program into the school’s offerings. When I saw that the students were using "jawn" -- a Philadelphia catch-all colloquialism -- for an ornament project, we had to get involved. In case you don't know, "jawn" is an all-purpose pronoun that's unique to Eastern Pennsylvania, mainly Philadelphia, that can refer to any person, place, or thing, such as "pass me that jawn" or "see you down...