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RCW is ready to help you get the most out of 2022!

Make a Resolution That Counts:

It’s that time of year again, as we open up 2022 with that shiny new car smell, let’s take a moment to make sure we’re setup for success. Too often we set a new goal to embark on a fresh start at the beginning of the year, but we fall short of our mark. River City Warriors has been going strong since 2008, we’ve seen it all, and like most martial arts academies and gyms we get an influx of people ever January.

Like you, we’ve learned over the years what makes us more successful, or at least gives us the best shot at success. It hurts our souls to see people come and go, particularly when they’re making great progress in their Gracie Jiu Jitsu or Jeet Kune Do. Whatever the subject, we know we can help everyone get the results they’re after. That’s our New Years commitment to YOU! All you have to do is follow our professional advice and make it in to the school for some great classes.

All In The Approach

One of the biggest stumbling blocks to any new habit, which is really what a resolution is suggesting, is making a goal that’s unattainable. Don’t get us wrong, we’re huge fans of long term goals at RCW. We have several coaches who are Gracie Jiu Jitsu black belts and it took all of them more than 11 years to attain that accomplishment. A funny but fitting analogy is the old adage “How do you eat an Elephant?” One bite at a time of course!

When we make long term goals, but fail to give ourself short term ones in tandem we are setting ourselves up for failure. Because we won’t reach the long term goal we’ll flounder and burn out before we ever get there. How you approach your resolution is key to determining your success or failure. Another aspect of this long term goal fallacy is that we’ll often be incredibly hard on ourselves. We think that if we’re not fit right away, or an expert, or making this our new lifestyle 7 days a week that somehow we aren’t moving forward. The second key component of our approach is we believe you should seek PROGRESS, not perfection.

Imagine having a diet where you never allow yourself a cheat day. That might work in the near term, but it’s unsustainable in the long run. You’ll quickly feel like you’re missing out on never having your favorite foods. That lack of flexibility will usually sabotage your deeper goal of living well and having healthy eating habits. Not too mention if you decide not to eat in this incredibly specific way down the road, you’re likely to gain the weight again and return to where you started. Flexibility supports your goal, but often we feel like we’re failing when we bend the rules around our desires and the cycle continues.

Did You Catch the 3 Keys?

  1. Set a goal and include both short and long term milestones.
  2. Focus on progress, over perfection.
  3. Allow yourself some flexibility.

 

So You Wanna Become a Badass Warrior?

With some goal setting structure out of the way, lets dive in to how YOU can become a Warrior. At RCW, we are good at our job. We know exactly what skill development looks like and how to train people from beginner all the way to expert in MMA, JKD, Muay Thai/Boxing, and all our other self defense classes. Time and again we’ve repeated this process and if you follow our advice you’ll unleash the inner badass that you’ve always known was in there.

Set a schedule. We recommend attending class twice per week in the beginning. A lot of people think they’re going to need 5 days a week to get going, or that somehow it’ll accelerate the learning process. Usually what happens is people fry themselves out, they get fatigue and sometimes even injure themselves because their body isn’t used to the activity. Two days a week is a great start, and you can go to multiple classes on those days.

In the beginning, it’ll still be tough. Despite the best intentions, creating a new habit of going to class twice a week will be challenging. By setting dedicated days aside where you’ll be training that’ll help facilitate a solid start. We found that people who attend 90 days twice per week in the beginning of their journey at RCW typically stay active with us about 3-4 years on average. That means they made it! Set your days and be ready to stay committed when social invites come up, when work wears you out, when any reason to skip comes up you’ll be able to hold steadfast to your goal.

Stay flexible, you’re a Warrior in training. Do your absolute best to stick to your schedule but allow yourself some flexibility. Listen to your body, if you feel like you can handle a third day jump on in. We’re writing this resolution to do list on the internet, not stone tablets. Be free to make POSITIVE adjustments. Don’t beat yourself up and get defeatist if you miss a day. That too, is probably going to happen. When you eat poorly you have the chance the very next meal to try and get back on course. Training is the same way, if you miss, don’t hate yourself, see if you can fit in a second day that week and keep your goal. In the rare case you absolutely can’t, then get back on track the following week and take a moment to evaluate why your schedule didn’t work. As long as you keep going, you’re on the path of progress.

This is really all it takes. Really. There’s no magical switch we can flip, shortcuts, or some special talent that turns someone into a badass. Which should relieve you, because it means with consistency and a quality curriculum that anyone can do it!

And Now in a Numbered List:

  1. Set a schedule you can keep, 2 days per week.
  2. Be ready for outside factors to challenge your new schedule. How will you respond?
  3. Stay flexible, an extra day is great, but try to stay on track to your 2 day commitment.
  4. Don’t beat yourself up, but find a way to get back on track if you stumble. Remember it’s natural.
  5. 2 days a week for 90 days, and you’ve got it made! New habit unlocked!! Consistency is all it takes.

Nicky P. Winning another match at the Roseland representing RCW.

You Are Not Alone and in Good Company!

River City Warriors is filled with a diverse community of people working together toward common goals. It’s something we’ve intentionally built over the near 15 years we’ve been in this game. You’ll find the other students in the school as helpful as any of the coaching staff on the floor. Building great relationships and hanging out with other people sharing a similar purpose is a great way to stay on track. Whether your goal is self defense, competition, fitness, learning a skill, or any of the benefits that come with martial arts, you’ll find RCW supports you every step of the way.

Don’t take our word for it though, come on by and see for yourself. We always offer a FREE trial so you can see the quality training and community on offer at RCW. If you’re interested you can jump in right now by following the link. —-> FREE TRIAL <—

 

Thanks as always for reading, and from all of us at RCW we wish you the best in 2022!!

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Why Self-Defense is different than an MMA bout

Life vs. Sport, the tale of the tape:

 

Chances are you’re on this website looking for self-defense. While we offer many classes like Muay Thai and Boxing, it’s important to delineate the reality of a street fight. First and foremost and the core tenant of this article is the intent behind an attack, mugging,  or a street fight is vastly different than anything that occurs in a ring.

Should someone attack an individual they might trying to drag the person away, bite them, use a knife, or any other means to get what they want. The assailant isn’t trying to “win” in the traditional sense except that they want your property or something from your personhood.

This is why the curriculum in our Gracie Jiu Jitsu and JKD/Kali programs are so important. Both can assist in ring sports like MMA or Kickboxing, but these methods convey the intent of an aggressor. When someone wants to do a takedown for a few points in a BJJ match that energy and attempt is drastically different than when someone wants to carry you away or drag you to a car. The takedown doesn’t even function the same! This means that if you prepare for a street fight by doing sport methods, you will be left severely unprepared.

River City Warrior has you covered:

Check out this common street hold, the side headlock:

Notice that the blue belt student here is representing a common thug. Someone not that educated, who refuses to let go of your neck. He just wants to pull you down and try to exert his will. This is more realistic for a street fight, whereas this hold in an MMA situation isn’t that valuable. Your average assailant doesn’t have an idea to punch when you start resisting a hold, they think they have something good and will hold on for dear life! It’s our job as educated practitioners to take advantage of their commitment level and use it against them.

 

In a street fight there’s no rules, no gloves, no points, just an attempt to get home safely. This examples illustrates a concept of destroying the attackers limbs in order to gain an advantage. A lot of this won’t even work with a glove, but did you catch that elbow smash to the knuckles? Brutal! Not only is it effective here as an “empty hand” technique, but you can substitute any handheld tool. Maybe you have a leatherman in your pocket, a flashlight, a ballpoint pen, a knife, or you’re carrying an umbrella or cane. All of these hits can target the same component with even better efficacy if you know the basics.

If you’re training for life, make sure it’s legit:

The last example we’ll cover today is pretty brutal, if you can’t watch we’ll try to describe it for you.

The man on the bottom, to the bewilderment of the announcer, is using a move for BJJ SPORT that does NOT translate to an MMA fight. Okay you got us, we’re comparing two different sports here. We feel it can shed some light on the concept in this article. In BJJ this position on the bottom is called half guard, and is relatively safe. The term “half” meaning that both opponents have an equal position for offense and defense. However, when you add strikes into the mix you MUST have a knowledge of how to deal with punches and strikes while on the bottom. Sadly, most people don’t and this is the result.

This is why at River City Warriors in Tigard, we NEVER do BJJ moves that are purely for sport. We have a detailed program that covers these aspects of a real fight and more. In fact our Brown Belt exam is an hour long test where the student demonstrates street self defense in Gracie Jiu Jitsu.

This is a philosophy we’re proud of but can’t take credit for, people like Pedro Sauer and Dan Inosanto have been teaching and prescribing street self defense for decades. We get a lot of our education from these two amazing mentors and do our best to pass it down to all our students.

If you’re interested in self-defense, Gracie Jiu Jitsu, MMA, Kickboxing, Jeet Kune Do or the other programs at RCW we always offer a free trial. We don’t expect anyone to take our word for it.  Come see for yourself the quality of training at River City Warriors.

 

You can get your free trail here —> rivercitywarrior.com/free-trial <—

 

 

 

And as always, thanks for reading,

Professor Joe

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The 5 keys you need to improve your training!

After decades of experience I’m ready to share my SECRET training formula!

I don’t normally like extreme titles, but hey, it’s more eye catching than “You Should Just Practice More!” We all hear that in any sport, we need to train, practice and evolve on a constant basis. Many people in all physical activities will hit plateaus from time to time. That’s still going to happen and you need to be driven to solve these plateaus and move through the boring times into another gain.

When it comes to martial arts, we’re often told size doesn’t matter, rely on technique, and anyone can do it. All those things might be true at any given moment, but they don’t FEEL true when you’re on the opposite end having your hopes and dreams crushed. We have this expectation that after TIME has passed we should be at skill level we imagine in our head. Here is the hard truth about training, time is a factor, but it’s how you spend that time that’s most important. In this article I’m going to break down a method I use to get results. What you’re about to read is tried and true and tested time and time again.

Take it Step-by-step

I often espouse that any good martial arts program whether it’s Jeet Kune Do (JKD), Gracie Jiu Jitsu, Muay Thai, Boxing or Kali (knife handling) should have a progression. You’ve got this pile of knowledge, but if that information isn’t organized your approach to it will be riddled with holes. Your math teacher didn’t randomly jump subjects and start teaching history, or go from geometry one day and then algebra the next. You take sequential classes and they build on each other along the journey though academia. If you’ve already got that pinned down, you’re probably on the right track. MOST martial art schools I grew up in were a chaotic mess. If you could fight and pick things up quickly you learned a thing or two or just got tough, but there wasn’t a product. There wasn’t a mass of people in a community that all had the same skill set like a Pedro Sauer Gracie Jiu Jitsu Black Belt. Being organized is half the battle, the more you know.

The secret not secret formula to my success:

Once you’ve got information organized, you need to keep these simple 5 steps in mind:

  1. Rep technique with good, clean, form.
  2. Drill technique with focus, intent, and athleticism
  3. Drill technique with a partner AND contest it
  4. Spar with the technique in mind and try to produce it.
  5. Find examples of other experts using the technique, emulate it, research it, explore it, and BREAK it.

 

Level 1: Good, Clean, Form.

Slow down! To wire the process of new movement and various calibrations into the body you need to go slow. Think of Tai Chi masters who gracefully perfect their form. Rickson Gracie said that “to move fast, you need to go slow.” It seems counter productive but it’s absolutely true. When you’re learning a new skill you need to stay calm and perform it slowly. One of the greatest hurdles to this besides our own ego, is a bad unwilling partner. A partner that won’t let you slow down to check your movement is not a partner at all, but an adversary. You need their help to understand the movement and make it your own. Imagine you’ve never driven a car before and it’s a manual transmission, would you grab the keys and hit the highway immediately at 80 miles per hour? Of course not, cultivating good form is exactly the same. Take it slow and give your body and mind time to marinade on the movement. Skipping this step will hold the student back and a level of sloppiness will permeate all their movement. It doesn’t matter how athletic or gifted an individual is they must take the time to build good mechanics.

With good mechanics, the disadvantaged can overcome.

Level 2: Drill with focus, intent, and athleticism

We know how it is, you’re in class and there’s a lot of material to cover. It seems like the main goal might be to memorize everything. That’s not quite the case, although memorization is part of the process it’s not the immediate goal. Your memory isn’t going to fail you, you’re going to learn and progress and one of the best ways to accelerate your learning is to drill. At RCW that means getting solid reputation on what you can EASILY remember. Class segments can sometime be brief and then we’re moving on to the next technique. Maximize your time by focusing your reps in class AND possibly spending 5 minutes just drilling what you felt was the most important aspects of the hour. If you’re drilling well you’ll see quick results you can feel every 2 weeks to 30 days. One way you can ensure this happens is to watch the chatter in class. Drilling with your partner shouldn’t be constant question and answer time. If you’re talking too much you’ll be moving way to slow to get anything done.

We know you want to get everything perfect, but that will come in the process. Beware the illusion of perfecting everything RIGHT NOW! You will become one of those endless chatters in class and spend more time talking than moving. Drill, repetition, focus, intent and athleticism.

Level 3: Drill with a partner AND contest it:

When you add variety to a technique Bruce Lee referred to this in Jeet Kune Do (JKD) as “liberating from the nucleus.” He was referring to the idea that although you’re at the core of the same technique, the nucleus, you now have a need to bend it, stretch it, break it down, and solve the puzzle. In BJJ it’s pretty simple, spend the class learning the armbar and now at the end go and spar, and try to get land the armbar on your partner. What’s different in drilling and Bruce Lee’s thought here is focus. For example in BJJ you might want to spar or roll as it’s called in Jiu Jitsu, but it might be better to train a specific area. Try to hit the armbar, but only work from the guard. Give your partner parameters: “Hey will you try to defend this, but I’m going to try to work from this position, if you escape the guard or counter the move can we just start over?” Your chances of seeing the puzzle and process of the technique in action go way up. Now that you have a partner who isn’t just handing you the technique on a silver platter you have to figure things out for yourself. This is where a very high form of learning takes place, because it’s experiential.

Level 4: Spar with that technique in mind and try to reproduce it.

When you begin to work on contesting technique, avoid the tendency to work on more than 2 things at once. Let’s do the guard, and I’ll try to sweep or choke my partner. Let’s work on boxing and I’m only going to use Jabs or straights as my strikes. It offers you an area of focus where you can remove the thought process a little, kick up the enthusiasm and get a good result. You’re still sparring, but you’re not quite doing every component of sparring yet.

When that starts to go well, and it may only take a few minutes, then begin sparring with every option available. Depending on if you’re doing MMA, Muay Thai, Boxing, BJJ, JKD, Krav Maga, etc, the tools available might be limitless. In BJJ you might be rolling, but you’re still trying to find your way to the guard to land that arm bar. Maybe you’re trying to find the armbar in every possible position like the mount, back, guard, and cross body. That’s good to do, but focus is usually key, so if you feel overwhelmed and that you’re no longer seeing the technique you’re trying to produce scale it back. Never be too worried about slowing things down, shaping the training, and going back to specific training where you’re trying to deliver the technique amidst resistance.

Everyone advocates for technical sparring, but few stick with it. Resist the urge to go “all out.”

Level 5: Find other examples

Relying on yourself is one of the strangest sensations and final skills you develop as a martial artist. I don’t mean relying on yourself in competition or a contest. We all crave answers and are conditioned our whole life to seek that knowledge outside of ourselves. This is important for foundational learning, and especially the basics. In Martial Arts you walk into class and right away your coach or professor is going to impart their wisdom. You soak it up, this is what we call the parroting phase. You see your mentor do something and you emulate it, much like the rest of life.

It’s important during this time to trust your mentor that they’re leading you down the path to a high skill level, filled with knowledge and truth. To compliment that you should absolutely look to other experts in the same field and compare the same methods being taught. In a martial arts class it might be as close as another instructor at the academy, a high level student in the same class, or maybe they have a supplemental course. In our BJJ program students can access all the curriculum on video with our head instructor Professor Pedro Sauer performing all the Gracie Jiu Jitsu techniques himself. This goes a long way to ensure that your copy cat system is developing. You see the same technique everywhere with subtle differences and you can cross compare.

Over time this cross examination and constant observation of subtle differences starts to reveal your own ideas to you. Within the span of 5 to 10 years you’ll not only be building your skills that will last a lifetime, but you’ll also have an eye for creativity. To quote Bruce Lee again he had a saying “know the rule, follow the rule, bend the rule, break the rule.”

All human creativity comes from remixing ideas, it is nearly impossible to create something utterly unique. However, it is very healthy and transformative to tweak, combine, and mesh together. It can be a pretty amazing journey through Martial Arts where you never stop seeing new ideas, while you never stop cultivating your own creativity, and never stop honing the basics.

 

Life runs in cycles:

It’s the same for myself too, after 30 plus years of training I still follow the same advice I’m dolling out. You can find me in the academy, slowing down, and repping one thing at time. Moving on to contesting it, specific training, sparring, and trying to be creative. Then I’ll rest and put it all back the beginning again, because it’s not all the techniques we’re after in the world but the principle behind the movements. If you follow my layout here you’re guaranteed to have success on and off the training floor.

 

As always if you’re interested you can find River City Warriors right here in Tigard where we always have a free trail. You can hit us up with any questions or comments you might have at RiverCityWarrior@gmail.com

We appreciate you taking the time to read our blog and let us share our experience and energy with you.

 

-All the best,

Professor Joe

 

 

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What’s the difference? Can you spot quality?

Just starting out in martial arts? Before you make the same mistakes I did, you’ve got to read this!

 

Whether it’s Gracie Jiu Jitsu, Muay Thai, Bruce Lee’s Jeet Kune Do, Kali, or any other method of training it’s imperative that you get off to a good start. In this article I’m going to cover some tell tale signs to look for to find good training, just in case you don’t happen to be anywhere near RCW in Tigard and the Portland Area. Maybe you even live near us in Lake Oswego, but you’re already training elsewhere, I hope this information will help you prevent the same kind of mistakes I made along my continuing 30 year journey of martial arts.

First and foremost, how to identify if the coach knows what they’re doing.

I’ll give a couple examples but this isn’t as obvious as it sounds. I wish it was, but good martial arts is a rare find. It’s like discovering a world class musician, painter, auto mechanic, chef, or carpenter. You can relate to their craft, probably enjoy it, but replicating it at that moment is an impossible task. Let alone understanding all he tools and nuances of that trade.

Martial Arts is NOT an activity in the same way people pick up other physical hobbies. There’s such a vast difference between an aerobic boxing class and boxing as a professional sport they’re not remotely the same thing. Most of us understand that doing Tae Bo doesn’t mean we’re learning real boxing and self defense. The problem comes into finer detail when they’re eerily similar but different. Have you ever hired a contractor to work on your house and took the lowest bid? Only to find shoddy workmanship later, and hired another professional to come back and fix those mistakes. It’s because during the bidding process they seemed so similar the price was viewed as the major deciding factor.

Anything look different?

Rickson Gracie knows what he’s doing, notice he and the team behind him do NOT have cauliflower ear!

Watch the instructor closely, watch the students even more.

A good instructor will be able to relate key details to their students and pass on the knowledge to create numerous copies of their work. Do the senior students exhibit these same qualities? Look to see if these long term students (there should be some!) can perform the technique of the day easily, coach beginners on how to do it, AND make it work in live drills or sparring with resistance. The instructor should be able to perform the movement even if they’re into their 40’s, 50’s or 60’s. They should make it look effortless and relate the concepts contained in the idea presented. At RCW currently our head coaches are just entering their 40’s and have been training for more than 20 years. We would never ask a student to do something we haven’t done ourselves and often we can demonstrate it on the spot.

A good instructor should NOT have to be rough to prove anything to you!

People who are qualified know how to train. That means they can prepare people for competition without injuring them in the process. I have been privileged to train with some of the best in the world, and the better they were the safer the academy. Being hurt cuts your training short, you have to take time off, you lose training partners who are also out hurt, and being tough has little to no benefits! IT does NOT mean you never spar, or that the technique is not effective.

You should be able to FEEL the technique is effective and senior students should be able to handle beginners through skill, not by trying to be overly aggressive. This is another key area, where the natural inclination is that the harder people go at it the more “real” it must be. Nothing could be further from the truth. People like Rickson Gracie, Pedro Sauer, GSP, Bruce Lee, Anderson Silva, and countless other professionals all advocate training safely. Yet at the same time parring is alive elements of timing, pressure, control, and strategy that simulate reality.

What are their qualifications? Ask questions!

Are they offering Gracie Jiu Jitsu? Then they should be able to point to members of the Gracie family they’ve trained with. Jeet Kune Do, then surely they have some credential from Dan Inosanto or someone in the association. Be careful with quick photos, and paperwork on the wall, anyone can attend a seminar on a weekend and say they’re the next grandmaster. Funnily enough, across the board anyone I’ve met who’s qualified as a grandmaster NEVER wants to be called that! Your future instructor should have dedicated mentors who passed not the trade just like a head chef or an electrician. Who walked them along their path?

Go to the seminars and workshops!

At any good school, you should have the opportunity to work with the head instructor’s mentors. At RCW this year alone our students were offered the chance to work with Master Pedro Sauer of Gracie Jiu Jitsu, Henry Akins a a student of Rickson Gracie, Greg Nelson, Ajarn Chai of Muay Thai, and Dan Inosanto of JKD and Kali fame. When you attend these workshops the material you’re covering should be the SAME. If you’re affiliated with Dan Inosanto and claim to practice Kali or Silat and attend the seminar and it’s nothing what you practice all year long, then your school is NOT following the program!

Only one of two things could be the case here, either your instructor is exposed to material and chooses to do his or her own thing back home. That usually means they think they’re own material is better but they are depriving you of what you’re paying for and after years of this they probably can’t perform the technique either! Secondly, they might not have ever been in the affiliation to begin with! Countless people SAY they do Gracie Jiu Jitsu but very few are actually connected to the family and the art. It’d be like getting hired at a fancy Italian restaurant with farm to table food and then they find out you’ve only worked at the Olive Garden. They’re similar on the most basic level but drastically different!

Don’t fall for extremism!

A quick glance on Youtube and you’ll find some top videos with literally MILLIONS of views, often provided by people who have ZERO experience in the advice they’re giving. Phony JKD representatives, bad Jiu Jitsu, and self defense technique that if you tried to use it in a real fight you might not even make it home. Worse still is I’ve seen schools adopt this attitude and start ramping up their vocal intensity as if it adds something to the movement. Sadly, people who lack confidence can view these people as knowledgeable and be quickly defrauded. That person might even believe, like a bad relationship, that their next instructor has to exhibit the same machismo all the time or it must not be authentic.

I cannot tell you how many former Krav Maga students, and even black belts, I’ve had come through RCW only to find out their intensity and material just doesn’t work. I’m sorry to be so blunt, but that is the sad fact. Many people don’t break free of the extremism paradigm and will fight to defend it. As recently as this week in November 2019 I had a recent transplant from Krav Maga in our adult classes. I came in to start the class and the young man was asking another coach “what if I do this, oh wait let me do it as hard as I can…I’ll try this now… ugh ugh!”

Our coach was barely responding and just asking what he was trying to do as this young man tried to throw him around every which way. Before we could deduce the intent, the man exclaimed, “are you serious! None of this stuff works, I wasted a year of my life for what? I thought I was learning something.” This young guy might not know it yet, but he’s in a field of one in ten or twenty who ever look deeper.

Van Damme is in shape, but it doesn’t mean he knows martial arts

I made all these mistakes and more…

That’s right, I’m speaking from personal experience. I hired the sub-contractor and was duped for years trying to find the gold standard for RCW. I was lied to by people who told me they had qualifications. I was lied to by people who told me they could give me qualifications. I too fell into the trap that if training was hardcore it must be genuine. There was even a would-be-mentor I worked with who I later discovered was basically running a small cult! The problem with getting hooked on horrible training is that it can be hard to tell the difference even after a couple years.  Once you’re drinking the Kool-Aid, the sensation of being trapped can take a tremendous mental will to break through.

I had to throw it all away

When I encountered my failure at finding genuine Gracie Jiu Jitsu and had to say “uncle” to Relson, I didn’t run from it. I knew I had found what I was looking for, I was in awe that this 60 plus year old man could wrap me up. He smiled ear to ear, he didn’t use any muscle, and I was playing what sounded like drum beats constantly tapping out. I could’ve blown it off, or called him a jerk, but I knew right then this was a real thing. I wanted that skill to use leverage and principle over muscle and aggression. If it worked for him, I hoped it would work for me and I left the MMA school for Gracie Jiu Jitsu and never regretted it for a moment.

 

TL:DR!

  1. It’s worse to train with horrible people than to not train at all
  2. Observe the instructor and other students
  3. Make them show you their credentials/who trained them?
  4. If advanced students can show efficacy while smiling, they probably have “it.”
  5. Attend workshops and compare your school to the material presented
  6. Being rough is not a sign of good training, it’s the opposite!
  7. Don’t be afraid to start over, it’s never too late!

 

 

 

Good luck out there! When I was a kid good training was hard to find because it was such a rarity. It’s still rare, but good training is now hard to find because there’s schools on every block. In the last 5 years almost as many schools have closed around RCW as have opened. The one thing you can’t get back is time, invest yourself and really find out where you should be training to get the results you want.

 

 

 

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Any effective martial needs the same ingredient: SPARRING!

Rule #1: Always Talk About Fight Club

 

Ever since I was a kid in the 1980’s I’ve embraced martial arts. The decade prior was known for Kung Fu theater and hooked a broad range of fans on Bruce Lee with the likes of connoisseurs like Portland’s own Dan Halstead who owns and operates the wonderful Hollywood Theater. In the 80’s though, Martial Arts truly exploded thanks to source material  like the Karate Kid, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Jet Li, Jackie Chan, and countless more. It seemed like the runaway train Bruce Lee ignited in Enter The Dragon was going to last forever.

And then it didn’t. Something even more magical happened for the first time: The UFC. In the start of my childhood unbeknownst to me a movement had begun. In Torrence California one of Helio Gracie’s sons (of Gracie Jiu Jitsu fame) had begun to teach small nonexistent classes. By 1988 Rickson Gracie, who was undefeated around the world in over 150 matches, was teaching from his garage and begging people to come and train. Literally, him and his friends Pedro Sauer and Luis Heredia would plead with the mail man to try Brazilian Jiu Jitsu for the first time. Nobody wanted to do it, rolling around on the floor wrestling into human pretzels and calling it chess? No thanks.

Bruce Lee (left) and Dan Inosanto (right)

Rule #2 “Adapt what is useful, reject was is useless, and add what is specifically your own” – Bruce Lee

In the UFC, pioneered by the Gracie family, there was something old world about pitting style against style. Prior to that people like Chuck Norris, Ed Parker, and Bruce Lee were committed to an ideology that martial arts doesn’t mix without sparring. This ran contrary to the countless martial art schools around town with non-contact “aura” sparring and lightning bolts embroidered on their pants. The UFC established and cemented the core ideas of Jeet Kune Do (JKD) were valid. A blend of standup based on Boxing and Kickboxing along with a high degree of grappling skill would create the most formidable opponents. Keep in mind that back in the fledgling days of the octagon there were far less rules, eye gouges, hits to the groin, kneeing a downed opponent, were all legal. The time limits for the matches could be as long as an hour with NO ROUNDS! It became quickly evident that movie like Kung Fu sequences were out, there’d be no successful Shaolin this-or-that on display. Personally I don’t think these systems are useless, there’s value in it somewhere, but over time they’ve walked away from their combative roots. Today we could see techniques from these methods return. They have to be able to be delivered from a kickboxing structure or a grappling posture.  With more than a century of documentation, and as we’ll talk about next, it’s the training method behind these arts that gives them their credence.

Rule #3 “Keep it playful” -Rener Gracie

It’s what Bruce Lee proposed, and what the Gracie’s accomplished: Everything has to be vetted through rigors testing. Built in to Boxing, Kickboxing (its’ many forms), JKD, and Gracie Jiu Jitsu is a constant pressure testing that occurs in sparring. Among them is a similar approach of regular sparring. After many people were disillusioned by the Rex Kwon Do’s of the world, wanting to bring home the UFC, another misnomer cropped it’s ugly head. I can’t decide if I like it more or less than non-contact sparring, but one of the fallacies of sparring these days is that it has to be a 100% all out death match.

It certainly bodes well that someone is willing to spar, but frankly full contact every day doesn’t do much except for toughen you up slightly and then it starts to chip away at your health. If you think of the top athletes in these sports like Paquiao, Mayweather, Bukaw (Thai Boxing), Damien Maia (UFC) or Kron Gracie they aren’t going into the gym and killing each other every day. There’s little to no value in this, just as there isn’t any in non-contact sparring. Like Rener Gracie said, keep it playful. Most of the time the intensity of our sparring only has to be hard enough to move our opponents balance. When boxing this means that your knuckles will make contact through the padding, and could displace the position of your partners head, but not cause a knock out or accumulate damage.

Rickson Gracie, Dan Inosanto, Jean Jaques Machado are all great at keeping it playful and all champions

If you want to train for longevity this is the best way to accomplish it. You need to have a sparring regimen that promotes playfulness and the ability to show up every day and mix it up. When you’re going full contact you get hurt, have to sit on the sidelines while you recover, and most importantly you don’t bring NEW concepts to your game because your fighting all out all the time. Anyone in Jiu Jitsu knows this, if you go 100% you can’t work on new techniques, only what you have right now in the fight. It’s good to test those limits, but it should be a rarity. In an 8-12 week training camp we’ll do hard full contact sparring a couple times and no later than 2 weeks prior to the event. That way if any injuries are sustained the fighter can recover before the day of the bout.

Tips on Sparring Smart and Training for Life:

Here’s a few things to start you off right and continue sparring throughout your journey

  1. BE a good partner
  2. FIND good partners
  3. Try to remain calm, breath in through your nose and out your mouth
  4. Look to refine technique, what are you doing in relation to the class exercises?
  5. Give yourself homework; one month improve your jab, next your defense, and on and on.
  6. Spar just hard enough to influence the balance of your partner
  7. Leave your ego at the door
  8. Don’t be a jerk
  9. Don’t spazz out
  10. Don’t coach people on their technique unless you’re their coach

 

Seriously, no really, leave your EGO at the door

It’s a big enough issue that I have to address it in more than one bullet point. Check your EGO, and there’s several types so you may not be aware of your own tendencies. First we’ll get the obvious out of the way, don’t try to flaunt what a badass you are with everyone. That’s a surefire way to alienate yourself from the school and put a target on your back. There is ALWAYS someone more skilled than you around the corner and if they see you beat the break pads off the 14 year old kid and brag about it they will end your days early. Plus, have some human decency. Most people aren’t like that, the EGO just pops up in different ways here and there. The biggest detriment being the “I’ve got to win” syndrome. You might also know it as “well I know I just started but I’ve got to be good right?” Nope. When you’re pride steps in the way and you feel like you’ve got to win you can slip into category 1 jerk right away. Even WORSE than that is you’ll start to rationalize and avoid sparring altogether because the ego just can’t take it.

There’s no other way around it, some call it paying your dues, I call it the price of progress. Remember we’re training in a playful manner if we have good partners. You’re not going to hurt me, bloody my nose, or bust my ribs, all that’s going to happen is I’ll have a little leather introduced to my face or maybe I say uncle on the BJJ mat. All those experiences are learning opportunities and once you realize there’s no consequence and nothing bad really happens you can embrace learning and growth.

This is the number one reason I see people spazz out and coach each other too. The spazz is looking for that one advantage to try and turn the tide, let’s go for a finger lock! (or some other cheap move) because they’re trying to over ride the fact their ego is telling them a big loss is incoming. If you’re out there every day sparring just remember you’re going to improve. This process will get easier all the time. Soon it’ll be one of your favorite activities in the gym and you’ll look forward to playing with your classmates in a competitive manner.

Lastly, the coaches-coach A.K.A Professor White Belt. Don’t over due any criticisms or critique during sparring unless you’re actually the Coach for that class. One it can come off as a know-it-all attitude and limit your sparring partners. You’re there to learn first and foremost, not be the greatest free advice coach in the world.  Learning should always be your primary goal.

On any given day a purple belt might beat a black belt in Jiu Jitsu. A white belt might dust a purple belt because they have a background in collegiate wrestling. Someone more athletic than you comes along, more awkward, whatever the case we have to respect the person across from us. I have seen people instruct others AFTER they have lost to them in sparring, “oh hey, you know you’re doing great but you could really beat me EVEN BETTER if you did…..” Sadly that’s the mark of the ego rearing its’ head again to try and save some sort of face from a situation with no consequences.

It can be easy to start a bad habit, and all it does is limit your own ability to learn and grow. Keep it playful and spar whenever you can with an easy going attitude and you’ll see remarkable gains. If you haven’t done any sparring, consider why your current school doesn’t have that as an activity? Maybe you’ve just been putting it off while developing foundations and that’s good too. When it’s time to jump in take it slow and find a great partner with a ton of experience. Let them know if you’re a little nervous and ask for some tips. They’ll be thrilled to help you because they went through the same process.

And remember, if a nerdy near sighted kid with asthma can get good at all this stuff, anybody can do it with the right training methods and the right amount of determination.

 

Thanks for reading!

-Professor Joe

 

 

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Kickboxing – The Great Bridge of Martial Arts

There’s many styles and methods of Martial Arts, and among those you have diversion on what’s the best of the best. All Muay Thai and BJJ may look the same for example, but to a trained eye the differences in strategy, technique, and quality can be astounding. Experts can look at a method they haven’t personally studied and find the similarities in their own form of self defense.

Kickboxing is a loose term for all methods of combat and sport that use the hands and feet at a minimum. Muay Thai for instance utilizes the elbow, knee, and clinch to create an effective arsenal that can be used in the street or in the ring. Using all the tools available to the practitioner Muay Thai became known as the art of 8 limbs denoting its versatility.

(from left to right: Dan Inosanto of JKD, a devastating Muay Thai knee, Salem Assli an expert Savate instructor known around the world)

Muay Thai

Muay Thai isn’t alone in its effectiveness, although it has come into fashion lately as a work horse art. It’s a phenomenal workout and gets the job done in a short amount of time while offering some depth and strategy. Muay Thai is the most popular modern vehicle for MMA, and often emulated and copied by gyms that have no formal Muay Thai training. Classically Muay Thai is known for its power, as most matches are 3 rounds in total, giving a well conditioned fighter a chance to go all out from bell to bell. As these styles continue to evolve we’ve seen Muay Thai make a shift to a sub style called “Muay Thai Femur.” A Femur stylist is known as a technician, think of someone like Saenchai with great footwork, head movement and utilizing all the tools of the game. This is currently the exception as Muay Thai is very straight line it’s assault and what it does, it does extremely well.

Kickboxing in JKD

At River City Warriors in Tigard we encourage all of our Jeet Kune Do (JKD) students under the Inosanto branch to take at least two years of Muay Thai to have a solid foundation in that structure. JKD also encompasses kickboxing styles as the legendary Dan Inosanto and his teacher Bruce Lee studied many forms of kickboxing. Inosanto would go on from the mid 1970’s until present day and participate in countless hours of dedicated training in Savate, Muay Thai, Cambodian and Western Kickboxing. These methods have been further integrated into the modern JKD program. Bruce Lee in fact coined his own style of Kickboxing before JKD was developed called “Lee Jun Fan” which is his Chinese name.

Savate

Savate is a French method of kickboxing dating back to the 1600’s. Much like Muay Thai it can be traced to war time and the use of weaponry as a craft merchant sailors used defend their ships. The high kicks were easy to pull off because they’d grip the deck rail to throw the leg at their adversaries! Eventually this style made its way back home and was adopted by both the upper and lower classes at the time. The high society version revolved around the use of a cane, literally called Combat De Canne, which was used to settle civil disputes without the use of a sword. Savate hit it’s last wave of popularity in the 80’s and 90’s when America was tuning into to Kickboxing on ESPN. While it’s not in a slump by any means today it isn’t widely televised and most practitioners have to compete under Thai or kickboxing rules in order to find a match. Savate adds an interesting dynamic in that fighters traditionally wear shoes with a sole during the match. They use the footwear for pinpoint accuracy and also to add power to what would be a lighter kick when thrown barefoot. It’s characterized by the use of finesse and footwork to develop an elusive and highly mobile practitioner.

Only one human body:

It has been said by Dan Inosanto that Bruce Lee used his front leg in a Savate style and his rear leg had the power of Muay Thai. This is still emphasized in a quality JKD school like RCW. There is a deep kickboxing component within Jeet Kune Do and given enough time the students develop a balance blend of balance, speed, agility, and power. I still recommend all my JKD students who have an interest to cultivate these methods individually which is why we offer a full Kickboxing and Muay Thai program. Over the years the one’s who’ve decided to jump in to the Muay Thai class have had quicker access to the foundations and generally do better in sparring. JKD has a lot to cover on it’s own as we use the shoe from Savate, but also incorporate street relevant movements into the training: the eye gouge, hitting to the groin, hitting to the throat, etc.

By far the most important thing, is picking a style of kickboxing that you like best and seeking out quality. We finally come to the key commonalities among all of these styles that I want to illustrate. As a point of origin these methods all have one thing in common, they weren’t intended for pure sport AND they came from weaponry. Muay Thai originated with clashes between Myanmar and other neighboring nations. They have a host of weaponry including long swords and wooden forearm shield called Mae Sok. We already discussed Savate had the cane and came from a fencing influence. Western Boxing is also attributed to such a pedigree, originally practiced with a sword and shield, James Figg is credited as the father of modern boxing. Eventually the weapon gave way to sport and Figg became Britain’s first champ in the early 1700’s.

That’s right. At one time, all these mixed martial art styles had weaponry in common. Have they come too far, or is there something that can be gleaned from this today? 

Kickboxing today is a piece of the puzzle:

Absolutely! If you’re going to take your training beyond its limits, kickboxing provides one of the most sure ways to have a solid base across arts. It’s a direct link to almost any other system because of it’s origins with the weaponry and how it functions in every range. Watching the UFC lately? It’s pretty rare that someone will just shoot in for a takedown, but they’ll use a setup and come in behind a jab, a knee, a leg kick, etc. Into classical styles like Wing Chun? A lot of people in Wing Chun find it hard to close the distance, blend it with a kickboxing style and you’ll find it’s much easier. At RCW we offer a Kali class, which explores all manner of handheld tools including the knife, sword, and stick. The movements from kickboxing and boxing are always found in knife fighting as well from the stance and footwork to the guard positions as well. In closing, if you want to add a commonality to all of your other training, kickboxing is the way to do it. As MMA continues to evolve we won’t see as many “Muay Thai” fighters, but a fusion of well rounded techniques hand picked from all these styles.

If you’re looking for the highest quality in JKD, kickboxing, or Muay Thai, and you live in the Portland area we can help you discover yourself on this journey right here at RCW. For more information and to sign up for our FREE trial —> click here <—

 

All the best,

Guro Joe

 

 

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We has YouTubes!!

In a visual world, why not put all your curriculum on You Tube?

We often get requests from students to make supplemental videos to training. We are definitely on the path and welcome that encouragement! Right now we’re exploring the best way to put curriculum online. Like some ancient culture our martial technology is precious to us. It also comes down to a level of respect and loyalty that we have for our instructors who shared the art with us. It’s not fair for us to see what they went through to attain this level of expertise and then give it all away online to the general public. Like Star Wars, incredible powers of self-defense and badassery that come with skills like Gracie Jiu Jitsu and Jeet June Do can be used for good or evil. Since thugs have access to the internet, we feel a little hesitation in a complete open source martial arts channel.

We’re gearing up to launch video content training soon!

Currently we’re researching platforms and organizing our content that will be released in the near future. It’ll happen! One day soon all our students, and even people around the world, can engage in the martial arts on display at RCW. For now at this crossroads we have a ton of stuff up on our Youtube channel. It’s a good mix of what you can expect from our classes and if you’ve been attending you’ll probably find some drills, techniques or at least fond memories from things we’ve explored together at RCW. If you want to head over to the channel just click.  —> The Tube <—

Nothing beats real human beings when it comes to learning a craft

The warriors in our tribe do the best they can to be generous and sharing with the material on offer. We feel as instructors that there are so many hurdles to training such as scheduling, health and wellness, family balance, and just learning a new skill that we NEVER put arbitrary golden carrots on a stick in front of students and start fishing. Have a question? We’ll answer it! Want to get better and improve? We’ll do our best to get you there! And if we don’t know the answer, we’ll bring in an expert who does. Trust us when we say we’ve seen quite the opposite, but RCW is always a stronger tribe when everyone is working and sharing together.

Here’s a small sample of our Jeet Kune Do and Kali class from a while back. This is the first of 3 core concepts for developing defense against a knife attack. Hope you enjoy and thanks for watching!!

 

Sincerely,

Guro Joe

 

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