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Admin has written 421 posts for The Black Belt Blog

Modest strength for BJJ

In keeping with the theme of fitness for BJJ, let’s have a look at some of the things I think you need to do when you don’t have a partner to train with. Specifically we’re going to look at strength here but I’ll deal with conditioning in another post. As I stated before in this … Continue reading

My favourite technique right now

Robert taught this half guard sweep (though slightly differently to the method in the video) at his seminar and while I’d seen and done it a bit before, I hadn’t really used it much. However I’ve been using it a lot since I’ve learned it and it fits very well with my sweeping game generally. … Continue reading

Withdrawal Symptoms

I’m just home from holiday, and I have a healthy tan. That is about the only thing that is healthy about me however, as I really enjoyed my food and drink on my break, and I’ve now slept two weeks on beds and floors that weren’t my own. I feel pretty broken after the Poland … Continue reading

A week in Poland is not enough

I’m sitting in Gdansk airport waiting on my flight home from the Drysdale BJJ camp 2011 here in Poland. I’m tired, sore, but very sad to be missing the last 2 and a half days of what’s been an amazing week of jiu jitsu. I’m also enjoying a beautiful Polish amber beer which I like … Continue reading

Murmur murmur murmur

I heard the same thing twice during the week, a sort of half compliment that really baffled me. I still can’t get my head around it, not completely. Two people complimented me on having competed at the Munster Open a fortnight ago. Not complimented my performance, mind you, just the fact that I’d competed at … Continue reading

I want to be a deep half guard killer!

A position that my opponents take that bugs me quite a bit is deep half guard. Since losing my match at my last competition via a deep half guard sweep I’ve decided to attack the position head on to try to come up with some new methods of combating the position, and putting greater pressure … Continue reading

Musings on how to get fitter for BJJ, part deux

Part 2 I wrote Musings on How to get Fitter for BJJ a couple of weeks back and got a lot of reaction from it. More than usual anyway. I think most people who read it misinterpreted the message as “never do any strength and conditioning work”, which wasn’t the way I intended it. I’m … Continue reading

From the archives: masculinity!

As promised I’m going to delve into my old blog from time to time and dig out an older article. This one is from December 2010. Enjoy. I’m teaching a kids class tomorrow morning. It’s a lot of fun, especially since it’s not my usual job to teach the younger ones. I get to be … Continue reading

The 5 things you must do to keep training

Last week I spoke about how I do next to no conditioning work, and prefer to spend my time playing my sport at a higher intensity. I thought I’d flesh out the last post as to what you should and shouldn’t be doing to get stronger and to stay on the mat for longer. Let’s … Continue reading

Budgeting for training… no seriously…

This one’s a request from Tom. Firstly, I am probably the worst person to ask about financial matters. (If I gave financial advice to the government, Ireland would be broke right now. Boom boom!) However I do recognise that training can be expensive and paying for mat fees, seminars, competitions and equipment can also be … Continue reading