Life vs Jiu Jitsu: ACMA

Showing posts with label ACMA. Show all posts

Jan 21, 2013

Kyra Gracie Interview 2013

Kyra Gracie hosted a seminar at our school (a first for the Toronto area!) At the Seminar, the guys from JITS magazine stopped in to interview her.

I found this through DSTRYRsg blog post HERE

Cool Interview...We need more Role models in modern society

Some quick Seminar Photos

Jesslyn brought Mackenzie along to the seminar, and we snapped this pic...

Mack's Shirts Says "Jiu Jitsu Black Belt From Birth"..:)

Cool Seminar, filled with tons of small details and little "fixes" to help make certain situations more manageable. One of the more technical seminars I have been to, I definitely recommend her.

Mike.

Aug 10, 2012

Refining Your Warm-Up Technique

I have come under a new appreciation for the warm ups we are doing in class. I had an epiphany style moment when one of our instructors mentioned to me that my technique was slightly off during the warm up.

In our school, we try and focus on technique based warm up drills that approximately mimic certain fundamental BJJ movements. Warm up motions like "shrimping", the "step-thru from turtle", and "phantom triangles" are common and no doubt your school does some of the same.

At the time I was following the class across the mat; butt scooting forward, then shooting my legs up for the triangle. He mentioned I wasn't really raising my hips far enough off the ground, and that the "bite" with my leg behind the imaginary neck was coming from too far outside of the imaginary body. He mentioned that the path my leg should take should be tighter and follow closer the contour of the body.

It was then that I had the eureka moment. If your technique is sloppy during the warm up drills, then you will have helped ingrain crappy technique into your muscle memory. I think it is safe to say that some of that will be carried over into your "fast response" technique in rolling

Lets say you review triangles once a week (which would be a lot). What carries over more in how you perform a technique? Drilling it properly 15-30 times during the "teaching phase" of that one class, or the hundred times you could possibly mimic it over a typical week's worth of warm ups?

In that instant when you need to call on a technique and not think about it, you brain and muscles quickly recall what they have done the most.

Now... I am not saying that your warm up should be as technically sound as the proper drilling of the class. It is a warm-up after all. But I think by adding a little more thought into how you perform the techniques during the warm up, you can do a lot to improve your reactionary time for certain techniques.

I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once,
but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.~ Bruce Lee

While I was doing a little bit of research into this, I found this post from The Jiu Jitsu Labratory. If you have time, give it a quick read. I think it's fantastic!

Mike.

Jul 12, 2012

Jean Jacques Machado Competition Video's

There is a great story I read about Grandmaster Carlos Gracie and Jean Jacques Machado

Once was visiting a dear friend of the family, Luzita, who just had a handicapped baby. They were chatting and Luzita was holding her baby when she noticed that Carlos was carefully looking at the child. She asked what he was thinking about and the Master said: “You can be cool (calm) because your son is going to achieve everything he wants in life. This handicap is not going to get in his way at all, much to the contrary." That baby was Jean Jacques Machado, future Jiu-Jitsu phenomenon and ADCC world champion (source)

(̶N̶o̶t̶e̶:̶ ̶A̶p̶p̶a̶r̶e̶n̶t̶l̶y̶ 
̶t̶h̶e̶r̶e̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶a̶ ̶p̶h̶o̶t̶o̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶G̶r̶a̶n̶d̶m̶a̶s̶t̶e̶r̶ 
̶C̶a̶r̶l̶o̶s̶ ̶h̶o̶l̶d̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶a̶ ̶b̶a̶b̶y̶ ̶J̶e̶a̶n̶ ̶

J̶

a̶c̶q̶u̶e̶s̶ 
̶M̶a̶c̶h̶a̶d̶o̶.̶.̶.̶i̶f̶ ̶a̶n̶y̶o̶n̶e̶ ̶h̶a̶s̶ ̶a̶ ̶c̶o̶p̶y̶.̶.̶.̶ 
̶e̶m̶a̶i̶l̶ ̶m̶e̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶I̶ ̶w̶i̶l̶l̶ ̶p̶u̶t̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶u̶p̶ ̶h̶e̶r̶e̶ 
̶

a̶n̶d̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶R̶C̶J̶ ̶M̶a̶c̶h̶a̶d̶o̶ ̶P̶h̶o̶t̶o̶ 
̶H̶i̶s̶t̶o̶r̶y̶)

Thanks Alan for finding this gem!!

The fact that Jean Jacques Machado was able to achieve the accomplishments you will see below is almost unbelievable. Professor Machado has a congenital disorder on his left hand known as Amniotic band syndrome This disorder severely limits the functionality of his hand. Rather than accept any sort of limitations, the Professor exploded into the Jiu Jitsu scene winning tournaments and "super matches" against the elite. His strong use of under-hooks helped to propel him to the top of the "No-Gi style" ADCC Tournaments.

I personally am fascinated by his "always attacking" style of fighting and his ability to push the pace of the match. Truly a champion.

IF I can ever find a copy, I would love to watch "Force Of The Spirit". Until then, I will continue to watch these videos of his competition footage,

I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

In BJJ/ Grappling Tournaments

Jean-Jacques Machado vs. Roy Harris

Jean-Jacques Machado vs. Rogerinho (?)

Jean-Jacques Machado vs.Wallid Ismail

Jean Jacques Machado vs. Yuki Nakai

Jean-Jacques Machado vs. Kuniyoshi Hironaka - L.A. Sub X

In the Abu Dhabi Combat Club (ADCC)

Jean-Jacques Machado vs. Caol Uno- ADCC 1999 66-76 kg Finals

Jean-Jacques Machado vs. Ricardo Arona- ADCC 2001 Absolute Finals

Jean-Jacques Machado vs. Leo Vierra- ADCC 2000 (?)

Jean Jacques Machado vs. Tsuyoshi Kohsaka ADCC 2001 Absolute

Jean-Jacques Machado vs. Matt Serra- ADCC 2001 66-76 kg Finals

In MMA

Jean Jacques Machado vs. Frank Trigg VTJ 1998 - Vale Tudo Japan 1998

If you know of any more on Youtube...let me know and I will embed them here.

Mike

Jun 8, 2012

Jean Jacques Machado Interview and Technique

Professor Machado recently came by our school for a seminar (my 4th JJ Machado Seminar...where does the time go?) While he was there he spent some time with Matt and David from Jits magazine giving them an interview about his philosophy on Jiu Jitsu, progression of the students in Canada, and an interesting sweep-to-crucifix when someone is passing your guard...

But first... the seminar photos (faces blurred out of respect for peoples privacy)

The Seminar Begins

Congrats Shihan for a stripe on your Black Belt

I get to be the "Uke"

"The Three Musketeers"

King of the Mountain

Professor Machado goes over our technique questions one by one.

All-in-all a great seminar thanks to Shihan at ACMA for bringing him in, and thanks to Jesslyn for taking these awesome pics (check out her photo blog)

RCJ Machado Photo History

I hope you find these pics of the Machado brothers as interesting as I do... They are by no means an exhaustive record, but this humble blog post will hopefully document some of it.

The Machado Story