Inverted Gear Blog
Tag: Matt Kirtley
The Four Stages of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
Your progress in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu can be roughly measured by your development in these four stages: Survival Defense Control Offense Like you can see in the diagram above, these stages are built one on top of the other, starting with survival and defense at the bottom and progressing up through control to offense. This framework will help you understand what you or your students need to work on at each stage in your journeys. Survival is the sub-foundation that everything else is built on top of. You could lump survival and defense together because they usually go hand in hand, but I like to put survival as its own category below everything else. Survival skills include: Breathing OK under pressure (not holding your breath...
How to Maximize Learning Potential Every Class
As you progress in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, the burden of responsibility for your improvements shifts away from your instructor and onto you. It makes sense that a beginner should look to their teacher for guidance, but this dependence on being fed information can lead to frustration later on when your progress stalls out. Your instructor will always play a role, but they cannot be with you every moment to see your every rep, every round of sparring, and know your every thought. Clear your headspace Many of us struggle to carve out time to get to the gym to train. You are rushing to class after a long day at work, then rushing home afterwards to clean up, eat a hasty...
Parallels Between BJJ and Magic: The Gathering
It’s no secret that many in the Panda Nation are big Magic: The Gathering players, including Nelson, Hillary, Reilly, and myself. The fantasy card game comes up almost every time we are on a podcast, and MTG terminology often sneaks into the Inverted Gear blog posts, like Nelson’s use of “metagame.” Nelson and I have packed MTG decks for Globetrotter camps. In fact, the first time I met Nelson and Hillary in person was when they stopped by to train and then play Commander, our favorite version of MTG.In this blog post, I want to draw parallels between Magic and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Prepare yourself because we’re going full nerd for this one.A Game with Many Types of PlayersIn both MTG...
The "Thinking 99 Moves Ahead" Myth
After being trounced by upper belts, beginners often make remarks like "You were setting me up the whole time" and "You were thinking 99 moves ahead." While those have a hint of truth to them, the reality is different, and understanding how high level grapplers actually operate will help you develop your game in a similar fashion. This idea of setting elaborate traps is reinforced by the popular notion that BJJ black belts are like chess grandmasters who see the entire game from start to finish before ever moving a piece. But even chess grandmasters do not do this. From the novice's perspective, it feels like every move you made was wrong and only led to worse and worse problems until you finally lost. So from...
The Right and Wrong Way to Think About Belts
In the drama filled world of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, few topics create more drama than belt ranks and promotions. Let’s talk about the good and bad aspects of belts, starting with the negatives:MISTAKE #1: Focusing on belt rank instead of personal developmentHow often have you heard talk like this? “Can you believe that purple belt got tapped out by that white belt? Did you hear that a new blue belt tapped out a brown belt? Can you believe that guy got his stripe before me? I’ve been training for a full 3 weeks longer!”The belt hierarchy can bring out this pettiness in people. Gossiping about who deserves what belt, and who taps who, creates a negative environment that is not ideal....
How to Evaluate a New Technique
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu has hundreds of techniques, if not thousands, and new variations are being developed all the time. Especially in the internet age, we are all struggling to keep up with the hot new moves, let alone refine the classic ones. Instructors usually adopt a “monkey see, monkey do” approach, hoping just copying the moves enough times will give the students proficiency in them. As BJJ students, you can benefit from developing your ability to evaluate new techniques, determining if they are even worth learning, and troubleshooting the problems you run into. Let’s start by defining a “good technique.” Most will agree on this criteria: Hallmarks of a good technique: All fours limbs are always in use. Hips and core...
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...
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...
5 Things Every White Belt Must Learn Before Blue Belt
When you first sign up for Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu classes, you can feel like you're drinking from a fire hose. Everyday you are bombarded with new techniques, strange movements, unknown terminology, and somehow you're expected to just figure it out while you are out of breath, sweating profusely, and being smashed by all your training partners. To simplify things for you, here are the top 5 things you must learn at white belt: Good Hip Movement You will constantly hear coaching advice to move your hips better, and it turns out it's always true. That's why I created these two videos for solo hip movement drills you can do at home or as warm-ups before training: This video explains the value of...
Meet the Pandas – Biomechanical Jiu-Jitsu with Nerd Power – Matt ‘Aesopian’ Kirtley
In this series, we shine light on the many members of the Panda Nation. Last episode we spoke to David Phimsipasom of Maximum Athletics. Now, we focus on black belt Matt ‘Aesopian’ Kirtley: computer wizard, walking BJJ encyclopedia, and unabashed Magic: The Gathering-aficionado. Back when he was a blue belt, Matt Kirtley (32) almost broke the internet with one of the first great BJJ blogs: Aesopian BJJ, a groundbreaking resource of free online BJJ-tutorials. Ever since then, he’s been known as a highly technical and analytical instructor – who’s embraced his inner nerd. Did you practice other martial arts before you found jiu-jitsu? Matt Kitley: Nope. I roughhoused as a kid, but I never got any formal training. My only...