4 Tips To Deal With BJJ Tournament Anxiety (video)

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4 Tips To Deal With BJJ Tournament Anxiety (video)

 

I had a post a while ago talking about how to deal with BJJ tournament anxiety. I know it’s something that many people find difficult dealing with (here’s the original blog ).

BJJ tournament anxiety is something everyone deals with in their own way. Even the best competitors get nervous before matches. As I’ll talk about in the video. The nerves are a necessary evil. They give you that edge to your performance and make you rise to a new level on the mats during the competition. It’s all about how we channel these feelings and use them to our advantage. In the video I’ll give you 4 tips. Accepting the nerves, focusing on yourself, using music to calm yourself and then bring your energy up when needed and using mock tournaments or new training partners to spur nervousness.  These are just 4 ways that I’ve been able to deal with it both in BJJ competitions and MMA. Ultimately you’ll have to find the ways that work best for you personally.

I hope the tips help you in any of your future competitions. Also, consult your instructor to see some of the tips they have on dealing with the nerves before a BJJ tournament.

 

-Chewy

 

 

Lapel Choke Defense From Back (A Simple Grip Break)

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Lapel Choke Defense From Back (A Simple Grip Break)

Some of you are going to watch this video and say, I know that move. Others might see it and think, “eh that’s too easy.”

But either way, this is grip break technique that is stupid simple and works incredibly well when used as a lapel choke defense. We never intend for someone to have our back in BJJ but it happens.

Likewise, we never intend to let our opponent have a tight lapel grip, but it happens.

When it does happen you have to have a solid defense and an ability to break grips.

One of the toughest parts about removing a lapel choke grip from back mount is that we cannot generate much power. So, instead we have to make the grip weaker once we attempt to break it.

One of the ways I do this is by wedging my fingers into the person’s grip. This creates space and makes it easier to remove the lapel grip. I do this from several positions. Essentially whenever you’re fighting the person’s grips if you can make space in their hand somehow you can weaken their grip. I have several variations for basic armbars too.

Anyways, here’s the video. If you have any questions. Let me know if the lapel choke defense techniques help you.

Chewy

Food Tip: Easy Meal Prep While You Sleep

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meal prep

This is a really easy way to prepare your chicken for your weekly meal prep. I preach to all my BJJ students in the gym that they need to prepare their food in advance. The better you’re eating, the better you will feel and the better you will perform on the mat. You can eat healthy if you’re eating out but it’s more difficult for most of us and it’s much cheaper to do meal prep yourself.

 
For more awesome meal prep ideas and recipes like this one check out my friend Erin’s website at www.ErinStimac.com.

Ingredients:

  • 1.5-3lbs. boneless skinless chicken breasts or thighs A 3lb package of chicken will usually make enough for 5-6 meals. If you use less chicken, you end up with more sauce. Either way, it’s delicious.
  • 16oz. jar of your favorite salsa* or 1-15oz. can diced tomatoes (and flavor you choose-I love the kind with jalapenos or chilies in them, or fire roasted) If you use plain tomatoes, the flavor of the sauce will likely be bland.
  • 1/3 cup Sunbutter or other nut butter (I think the sunbutter is the closest substitute to peanut butter and gives the most authentic “peanut” flavor).
  • 2 TBSP Lime Juice (I’ve also used lemon)
  • 2TBSP Coconut aminos, Tamari, Soy Sauce, or fish sauce (pick your poison) Why you would EVER use fish sauce I have no idea-I HATE fish. 😉
  • 2 tsp. fresh grated ginger or 1 tsp. ground ginger
  • Cilantro and lime wedges for garnish
  • Ground chili paste or hot sauce-optional (for extra flavor or heat)

 

 

 

 

4 Leg Locks From Half Guard: Countering the Underhook

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In this video I demonstrate how to do 4 different leg locks from Half Guard.

This is one of my favorite leg series. 1 because I love using the back step and 2 because it is a relatively safe position for my feet while being able to attack my opponent.

You can use it from Half Guard either as a counter to the person’s under hook, or you could even use it offensively by baiting the person by letting them get the under hook.

 

Chewy

 

Training BJJ After a Meniscus Tear

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Training BJJ After a Meniscus Tear

What’s it like training BJJ after a meniscus injury? How long after surgery before I’m back on the mats? Will my knee ever be 100% again? These are some the commonly asked questions that I get from my blog and some of my videos. If you’re reading this I’m sure you’re probably experiencing some sort of issue with your knee.

I’ve had the unfortunate luck to have experienced two tears. A lateral tear when I was 19 on my right knee, and a medial tear on the left last year. Both knees had arthroscopic surgery performed on them to shave down the meniscus. Rather than a repair.

I’m not a doctor and I can’t diagnose your issue. But I know that getting injured, being forced off the mats and getting ready for surgery is frustrating. So I’m going to share my experiences to give you an idea of what to expect in case you are currently experiencing a tear yourself.

The Symptoms I experienced

  • A general uneasiness with my knee
  • Knee locking out
  • Inability to fully straighten my leg
  • Inability to fully bend my leg
  • Pain ranging from a dull ache to sharp shooting pains when it locked up

*It’s worth noting that I didn’t have much swelling in either case. 

 

The Surgery 

The surgery itself was pretty easy pretty easy. In fact my most recent surgery was at 7:30 AM and I was home eating lunch by 12:30 PM. After both surgeries I was up moving around within the first day albeit with some discomfort. In both cases though I was up on my feet walking within the first week.

 

Training after surgery

When it came to getting back to BJJ after surgery. I competed exactly 6 weeks after the first surgery. Keep in mind I was a 19 year old kid and didn’t make the best decisions. I wouldn’t advise this.

After the surgery last year I was on the mat a week later. I wasn’t rolling. I was teaching people and helping run classes. I just like being in the gym with everyone. I tried to be a bit smarter this time and waited 4 weeks and then started to drill techniques lightly with absolutely no rolling.

Getting Back to Normal

When getting back to training like normal it’s best to side with caution. It was about 8 weeks for me till I felt like normal, and even then I still had some residual tenderness in my knee. For some of you junkies out there I know this time spent healing will be frustrating and you most likely feel it’s time wasted or time lost, but it’s important that you allow your body the necessary time to recover so that you don’t run into the same injury again. Even once I got back to normal training, if I felt something in my knee, regardless of how small, I would stop training that day. So be sure to listen to your body and put special attention towards your physical therapy work.

 

Your body is out of commission but not your mind is not. You’re never quite as hungry to train as when you physically can’t train. So harness that energy anyway you can by preparing for when you get back.

Things you can do while you’re waiting for your leg to heal.

  • Plot out BJJ tournaments for when you make your return
  • Watch videos to try and get ideas for new moves to work on for when you come back
  • Make a list of techniques you want to drill once you get back
  • PT work to make sure your knee is ready to go quicker and to prevent further injury
  • Address others issue you might have in your body
  • Light exercise for the upper body
  • In general become a student of BJJ if you aren’t already by reading, watching and taking in as much BJJ related info as possible while you physically take a back seat.

In my case, last year I used the time spent resting to formulate a game plan for me and my students once I got back. I also consumed countless hours of competition video trying to find some new techniques to play with. Because I had a clear game plan of what I wanted to drill and work on, this helped me hit the ground running with a direction once I was back.

 

Will your knees ever be the same?

The good news is that your knee will probably be fine. There are instances where the surgery has issues afterwards but in most cases everything heals well. The bad news however is that your knees will never quite be the same. They’ll feel great and you’ll most likely be able to resume the same level of activity as before. For me, unless there is some sort of other injury bothering them, I rarely notice my knees. For lack of a better way of explaining it, you’ll just “feel” the knee a little bit more than you use to. But whether by surgery or just age alone, this is going to happen.

I don’t want to paint too gruesome of a picture though. I’ve been able to tear it up on the mats and train at a very high-level with a scoped knee for over 10 years with almost no issues. So if you are going to have the surgery I’m optimistic that you’ll be fine.

PT is Important

I can’t stress enough how important your physical therapy work is and just taking care of your body afterwards. My recovery was much better the second time around and I believe it was because I was very serious about my PT work, whereas when I was 19, I didn’t care.

 

I also made a couple of videos talking about my experiences

 

 

 

So, yea, I think that’s about it. Good luck to you if you’re experiencing a knee related injury. I hope this helps and if you have any questions in particular that I did not help answer, feel free to contact me.

Chewy

Fitaid Review

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Fitaid Review

The other day after finishing a tough no gi class and followed by a Crossfit workout I decided to cool off with a cold shower provided by mother nature. I tried to use my anchorman voice but you’ll see that I pretty much failed. Enjoy the video of the post workout shenanigans.

In all seriousness though. I enjoy the taste of Fitaid. I’m not sure that it does much in the way of helping me recover but it’s tasty. I’ve tried Killcliffs too and I didn’t feel too much on them either.

That said, it’s nice to have something other than water to drink after a workout and Fitaid’s definitely taste really good. The most important thing for performance is diet. Check out this easy meal prep recipe that will make you 3lbs of chicken and is super easy! ( Click Here for the meal prep recipe)

 

 

BJJ Self Defense (Grab and Pull)

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In this video I demonstrate how to use the outside single leg from wrestling and BJJ and combine it with one of the most effective self defense techniques available. Again, this shows that even Sport BJJ techniques can be as BJJ Self Defense for unfortunate situations.

Also, keep in mind. This is a joke and all in good fun.

 

Scissor Sweep To Triangle Choke : Beginner Setup

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Scissor Sweep To Triangle Choke : Beginner Triangle Choke Setup

This is one of my favorite techniques to show to my white belts. It’s a solid triangle choke setup using the scissor sweep. It utilizes the motion of the scissor sweep to setup the triangle choke. Because most white belts spend a ton of time drilling scissor sweeps. It makes it easy to use early on. That said, the move is still effective even at the higher levels and there are plenty of techniques that can be used from this position. I actually used this technique last week against a brown belt while we were doing situational rolling from inside the full guard. If you’re working from your full guard, give it a try and see if it fits into your game.

Also, just in case you’re curious. In one of my previous videos I showed a no gi style triangle choke (view it here No Gi Triangle Choke )

The biggest tip I can give for this particular triangle choke setup is to really punch that leg through. It throws the person off balance and makes finishing the triangle choke much easier.

 

Try it out and let me know if it works for you. Shoot me a message or leave a comment!

-Chewy

 

White Belt Takedown

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What’s up! So I  had someone email from the blog. They said that they are a white belt with no prior Wrestling or Judo experience. They’re going to compete soon and wanted an easy to use takedown.

Before I share the takedown, I’d like to just say this. Takedowns are an aspect of BJJ that we all need to focus on, so make sure that you’re always doing your best to improve in these areas. Whether it’s competition or self-defense. Being able to take someone to the ground is so important.

With that said, I do have a couple of takedowns that have worked really well for many of my young white belt competitors over the years.

The one below is one such takedown. It’s simple, effective and works pretty well even if you don’t have prior wrestling or judo experience.

Fun story about this takedown. I once had a college wrestler come in the gym during one of our takedown classes. I slapped a gi on him and during takedowns one of my students with no wrestling experience hit this very takedown on him.

Most white belts who compete typically don’t have a ton of takedown experience, sadly. Often times takedowns are overlooked and in some cases people are even scared of them. Like anything else in BJJ the more you practice them the easier they become. People often say that they always get hurt doing takedowns but this is most often due to inexperience. Many of us get injured by doing stuff on the ground too! As you get more comfortable and relaxed on the feet you will get injured less.

Anyways, if you’re a white belt and looking for a simple takedown to use, give it a try. If it works for you, I’d love to hear about it. Either comment below or comment on the video.

 

Good luck on your upcoming Brazilian Jiu-jitsu competitions!

 

3 ways to take the back with the kimura

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In this video I demonstrate 3 ways to take the back using the Kimura / figure four lock with the arms. This is definitely one of those moves that takes commitment since you’ll be putting yourself at a possible disadvantage. But there is something to be said about relaxing on the mat when you’re training and just being able to abandon position and go for something. I have plenty of students who are so stiff and find themselves unable to just “pull the trigger” and go for something. I know for myself personally I was very rigid and unable to just play around on the mat till I was a purple belt. I was always so worried about winning and losing and not giving up position. But I found that the more relaxed I stay and the more often I just rolled the dice and went for a submission (even the obscure ones) the better I got, and the more submissions I began to hit in competition. True story, most of my wins as a black belt have come by way of submission.

But with that said, if you’re able to maintain a strong lock with the arms you’ll probably find that even if you aren’t able to get to back mount, you’ll still be able to maintain some control or even snag another submission like an armor.

I love trying to find more uses for the kimura lock since you can find it in almost every position. Anyways, watch the video and give the technique a try.

Thanks!

Chewy