It’s a common way that BJJ is taught. You show up to class, do a warm up, perform unresisted repetitions of several different techniques and then you roll. The warm up and rolling are beneficial, but the technique portion in the middle is ineffective. Ineffective? Observe the experienced students in gyms that structure their sessions […]

A teacher of mine had a saying he was fond of. “If you believe everything I say then you’re a fool. Either prove me right or prove me wrong”. This is great advice for life in general, but it’s very relevant to the martial arts. Pressure point knock outs, kiai masters, wrist throws, chi balls. […]

The most important skill in BJJ is not a physical skill, but a mental one. It’s the ability to predict how your opponent is about to move. Once you know how your opponent is about to move, you can plan your response and implement it with good timing. In expert level competition, everyone is moving […]

Last Sunday we were proud to host the regular West Australian Women’s BJJ sessions run by Josephine Masiello. Jo (WA’s first female BJJ black belt) has been organising regular sessions for all female BJJ practitioners since last year. This is a fantastic initiative by Jo to provide support and specialised training to women in our […]

I was recently pointed to a blog post about applying the Pareto (80/20) principle to BJJ. Seeing as my gym is named for this principle, a response seems appropriate. The idea behind the Pareto principle is asymmetry. Obviously, not everything is the same. There are a small number of good things, a large number of […]