4 Tips for Learning from Match Footage

Thanks to the internet, we now have access to hundreds upon hundreds of jiu-jitsu videos. Some are good, and some are bad, but their is still an enormous amount of footage at our finger tips. To learn from an instructional is not very challenging, but to learn by watching fight footage can be frustrating. No one is pointing out the key details. No one is explaining intentions or theory. It's up to you to reverse engineer the technique and make it work for yourself.

The Jiu Jitsu Lab just did a great match breakdown of Marcelo Garcia vs. Robert Drysdale, and the article demonstrates how to analyze a match, even if you are doing it for your own enrichment and not for a blog post.  I did something similar a few years ago when I was a blue belt, long before I had the chance to work with Marcelo on his latest book.  My notes focused on the guillotine, and many of the videos are no longer available, but feel free to check it out.  If you would like to conduct your own footage analysis, here are four tips for doing so:

Jiu-Jitsu: A Lifetime of Fitness

As obesity rates rise and serious health conditions are linked to inactivity, finding a way to stay fit and active is becoming more and more important.  Some people take up running.  Others take up lifting weights.  Unfortunately, not all exercise is created equal, especially if your goal is to stay healthy late into your life.

According to a recent study conducted by researchers at the University of Western Ontario, exercise will only preserve the specific muscles that you are exercising.  By comparing the quality of various muscle groups in runners young and old, they found that in the older runners the muscles typically associated with running were still in good health and functional, but the muscles that were not activated by running, like biceps, were not preserved.  While this sounds like common sense, it reveals that taking up a hobby like running will not by itself improve or maintain your overall health.  As Sweat Science puts it:

Choose Your Jiu-Jitsu Family Wisely

I was browsing my blogroll when I stumbled upon an article by Dan Fagella at Science of Skill, a jiu-jitsu blog that aims to examine jiu-jitsu through a scientific lens.  In November, Dan interviewed Dr. Jeff Nishii, who holds both a PhD in psychology and a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.  Dr. Nishii recently launched a blog on jiu-jitsu psychology, and Dan's interview provides a general overview of how psychology can help us to better understand jiu-jitsu.  The entire article is pretty interesting, but the paragraph on psychodynamic theory as it relates to gym culture caught my eye:

In psychodynamic theory there is a lot of emphasis places on the family and relationships therein. The BJJ academy, in a sense, can potentially become a family-like experience, with the different regular interactions, rules of the academy, and dynamics between people. This new“family” environment can influence people in a way that is positive, negative, or curative (having to deal with a particular issue). For this reason, the “dojo” can have a massive potential to impact people’s lives.

The Glucosamine Chondroitin Deception

Glucosamine, chondroitin, and its combination has long been the recommended supplement for improving joint health and reducing joint pain.  I have taken a combination of glucosamine and chondroitin for a few years now, primarily because it was common knowledge among trainers, mat rats, and body builders that glucosamine and chondroitin were the only supplements that would alleviate joint problems.  Well, our hopes may have biased the true effects of the supplement.

My Ears Are Burning (and it's not from cauliflower)

Rich.  Can you tell he loves fighting?

The Cauliflower Chronicles, my first book, hit shelves in December of 2010, and it has sold more copies than I ever could have anticipated.  Thank you for your support, and thank you for the emails and Facebook messages that you have sent me.  Hearing that my writing has had an impact, even if that impact was just a few hours of entertainment, is far more rewarding than any royalty check.  If I have not responded to your email or message, please resend it.  My inbox fills quickly, and I may sometimes miss a message.

Also, thank you for telling other people about the book.  Rich, for example, sent me this Facebook message to tell me about how he got The Cauliflower Chronicles mentioned on The Sports Network:

Drugs from Strangers and the Collagen Controversy

I am a skeptic.  I question and analyze everything.  I am especially hard on the supplement industry because in a country that does not rigorously regulate supplements it is all too easy to market an ineffective, bogus product.  On Wednesday, I am posting about a glucosamine chondroitin study that found no improvement in joint health from taking any version of this once glorified supplement cocktail.  With glucosamine falling from favor, collagen is now receiving more attention.

I had never intended to try or discuss collagen until NeoCell, a supplement company that sponsors the likes of Frankie Edgar and Igor Gracie, offered to send me some samples to review.  After some searching the web and after talking to a few other jiu-jitsu bloggers, I found that this is a common marketing tactic for NeoCell (nothing wrong with that by the way), but this should make you a bit more critical of NeoCell reviews because the gift of a free product could potentially create bias (this is why it is illegal for a blogger to review a product without disclosing that he was given the product for free).