Hip Escapes - Brazilian Jiu Jitsu
Mike Martin, Owner of Strong Heart Academy, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in Phoenix Arizona, and third degree black belt, demonstrates hip escapes.
BJJ Hip Escapes
Mike Martin, Owner of Strong Heart Academy, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in Phoenix Arizona, and third degree black belt, demonstrates hip escapes.
Hip escapes, movement,shrimps, Bjj, Brazilian jiujitsu
Watch the video below:
Hip escapes, movement, shrimps, Bjj, Brazilian jiujitsu
Overview of Hip Escapes:
So now I'm gonna go over hip escapes. Uh, every class we do, we're gonna do hip escapees. They're not super exciting, uh, part of jujitsu, but they're really important for defense and offense. So when you're on your back,
Hip Escapes: Positioning
I'm gonna put one knee up and then my hands elbows are gonna be tied to my body. I wanna turn on my side and I'm gonna lift my hips by putting my weight on my shoulders. And I'm scooting my hips away. Some people call it shrimping, like you're moving like a shrimp or snaking. Uh, but it's a hip escape. I'm escaping my hip. So I'm pushing my hip away. I straighten myself out. Then I would go to the other side, leg, comes up, turn on my side and hip escape. One of the mistakes that people make is they stay flat and they try to scoot sideways. Okay. So what we want is on our side, pushing away from the person, it could be their body coming towards us, could be their legs towards us, but it it's really important to master this movement of moving my hips away from my opponent. We would do this all the way down the mat.
Drop Falls
Uh, drop falls is another thing that we need to work on, uh, so that we don't hurt ourselves when we do take downs. Um, honestly I think all sports should learn drop falls just to reduce injuries. Uh, we could start from seated position first. So we're gonna cross our arms and I'm gonna tuck my chin.
Hitting the Ground: BJJ Falls
When I hit the ground, I slap the ground and my hands, my, my hands are straight. I'm not crying. Chopping don't wanna hit my knuckles, my arms about a 45 degree angle. And I don't want to bounce my head off the mat. So two things that we wanna work on when we're doing drop falls is not falling and posting an arm,
Cuz It's either gonna hurt my wrist, Elbow or shoulder. Something's gonna give, I don't want to go. Uh, also don't wanna hit my head cause I get knocked out and all my bones are
BJJ Falls: Body Positioning
On top. So my knuckles are on top. My wrist is on top. My elbow's on top. If I go Palm down, I'm actually gonna hit all the bones on the ground. So imagine if I fall on concrete, I don't wanna hit bone on concrete. I want the fatty parts of my arm. Okay. Some of us are a little fattier than others slapping the ground. Okay. It should sting, but it's not gonna be hurting. It's not bruising or breaking is what we wanna avoid. So start from a standing position. We would stand up, cross my arms, tuck my chin squat.
Technical Standup: Brazilian Jiu Jitsu
When my bum hits slapping the mat. When we get better, We would just jump, Breathe out. Now a technical standup is how we stand up properly. In the movies, when I was a kid, usually this cool Kip up, but in truth, someone's just gonna stop kick like a soccer ball. Okay. So the proper way to do a technical standup is I'm going to also, don't like to do sit-ups.
Side Roll: BJJ
See, I'm gonna roll over to my side to my elbow, to my hand, posting my hand, defending myself. So if someone wants to kick me or punch me or throw something at me, I have my hand up. I have my foot up. I can kick post my foot, tuck my other foot to my butt. I'm gonna lift my hips. So this the first step is just learning how to lift my hip. So you can lift your hips. Then you've created the space to get to your knee. You've created the space to get your foot behind you to stand up properly. So we would drop fall technical, stand up, drop fall technical stand up.
Thank you.
Strong Heart Principle: COURAGE
View all 8 Strong Heart Principles here.
Okay. Uh, so last one is, uh, courage and courage is another great one, especially for today's generation. I'm finding, um, you know, the isolation of the pandemic and just the way that kids interact now, more online versus in person with people.
Um, courage is becoming more difficult to do things that are difficult. Um, and people get confused with courage that it's like a lack of fear. It's actually the opposite. It's doing something in spite of your fear, because you know that it's worth it and, and worthy of your courage. Um, you know, it's not that firefighters aren't, uh, afraid to go into a burning building, only psychos. Aren't afraid, you know, only people that, um, don't respect their own life or others. It are not afraid of things. And, um, you know, you could be a level of fear for sure. And, and, you know, my, my father used to say, I'm not afraid of dying because I, I, I, I try to live my life where I, that I know I'm where I'm gonna go when I die. And I always be like, man, always like, man, I'm afraid of dying.
You know, when I was a kid, I was like, I'm, I don't wanna die. He's like, I don't want to die. I'm not afraid to die. Um, I have courage in my life, the way I live my life with courage and, um, and the way that I live, I, I, if I die, I'm not afraid of where I'm going to go. And, uh, you know, an atheist might say, well, it's, it's P you know, there's no, there's nothing, but we hang on life. You know, the Buddhist would say the same thing. Don't hang onto life. Um, but, um, courage is not the absence of fear it's, um, doing what is right. And facing your fears, even though you have fears. And, uh, competition is great for that. Public speaking is great for that. Um, you know, sometimes I try to get the kids to speak in front of the other kids in class.
It's one of the number one fears is public speaking. Um, we collect a tennis card. Sometimes I allow certain kids to collect tennis cards. I make sure they shake them at everyone's hand and look, 'em in the eye because this's a skill that a fine is going away in society. Again, you know, when you do a zoom meeting, you meet someone in zoom. There's no shaking hands, but people will re go back to the list. Again, respect is gained off of a first appearance, shaking the hand, looking me in the eyes and speaking clearly. Okay. And sometimes that takes courage. Like people have anxiety meeting, two meeting, new people. Okay. Even the simple thing is that there's some people that are having difficulty leaving the house. The anxiety levels are so high and I encourage to have courage. Okay. Attempt, attempt it, small steps. Okay.
And it's not big steps like, oh, I'm gonna go out and speak to thousands of people. No, but like a small step. Can you speak to three people at a time, you know, two people at a time, um, because it's important. If you have something to say that you're heard, and if you don't have the courage for that, that could be a problem too. Um, you know, for job sake, it's important when you're doing sales. It's important when you're leading with a team, you're working with a team with your job, it's important. Okay. And you know, you, you, people don't wanna be, look like a fool. It's, that's the fear. Okay. Same thing with competition. People don't wanna look like a fear in front of their peers and family. You know, what if I lose, what if I lose? First of all, everyone loses is what I try to let everyone know.
You know, Caio Terra's a 12 time world champion. He lost he's lost. Okay. Now not a lot, but it happens. Okay. And those are just mistakes and we work and we fix mistakes and we go back out again. That's the way you look at it. Okay. And as far as like the, the real courage of, of someone that has to go to combat or fire or saving someone, you know, understand that if you do perish, you know, you are doing what is right. And someone might be saved because of your actions. And it is a worthy case for courage. It is worthy of your courage to do those things. And people hopefully will honor you in that. And, uh, at least your family will honor you in that. And that's a, you know, that's worthy of your courage. And again, courage is, is not the absence of fear, but your ability to do something in spite of fear. So that's all I have for today. Uh, those are my eight, um, principles. Someone say, why do you have eight? Well, uh, you know, the octopus is a logo. So I kind of broke it down into eight principles, uh, distilled them down. We still have this that I don't think I've ever talked about is my 21 truth. So jiu jitsu, but eight principles. And those are just, uh, principles to live by, um, in your life.
And so hope you enjoyed it. And peace.
Back Control BJJ - Demonstration by Third Degree Black Belt
Mike Martin, Owner of Strong Heart Academy, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in Phoenix Arizona, and third degree black belt, demonstrates back control.
Brazilian Jiu Jitsu: Back Control Demonstration
Mike Martin, Owner of Strong Heart Academy, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in Phoenix Arizona, and third degree black belt, demonstrates back control.
Back mount, Brazilian jiu jitsu, hooks.
Watch the video below:
Mike Martin demonstrates back control, back mount, hooks.
Back Control: Simple Explanation
So we're gonna do a very simple, uh, explanation of back control from seated position. So when I sit, uh, when I take someone's back, the most important thing is getting my chest glued to their back. So my hips can be farther away if I'm taller or shorter. That's okay. Um, but I don't want my head by his head here. I'm gonna get headbutted intentionally or accidental. We don't wanna break our nose or our nice teeth we wanna have here. Some people say second head. I can put my cheek on their shoulder. So even if he were to a forward roll, his head would hit. And not mine. If I'm kind of sagging off, I get, you tend to get loose. I don't wanna cross my ankles if he puts his feet over, he's gonna break my ankles. Okay. It feels correct. Unfortunately, it's not correct.
In Detail: Back Control
So we wanna hook with our feet and squeeze with our knees, my hand position. I'm gonna go one arm under and for you right-handed guys, we're gonna go over here. If I can get my armpit over the shoulder, it's gonna be much tighter versus just my elbow over the shoulder. Okay. Because I, my arm is not as long for the chokes and things I want to do for attacking. I wanna get my armpit over a classmate, my hand, Gable grip again, no thumbs fingers attached, and then I'm gonna tuck my cheek and my elbows are gonna pull tight here. So, uh, just from now, we're not really attacking. I just want you to understand when I say taking the back, what is, what is the position gonna look like from the seated position? You can also do this from knees. It's the same exact thing. It's gonna be a lot easier to see on camera, uh, from our, butt.
Thank you.
Strong Heart Principle: Balance
The third thing is balance. This is the hardest, okay. Balance for me is hard. Uh, I really try to balance my life as much as I can. And this is like all aspects. Like people think sometimes when I say balance is like, oh, can, are you on balance? Like, um, athletically? And that is important too, because that is, uh, balance is a aspect of athletics. And, um, you know, some people will only go to strength, training, endurance, training, stamina up, but I think sometimes flexibility, but balance is huge. Um, huge for Jitsu, uh, huge for almost all sports, really. So that is an aspect of it, but I'm talking about the balance of life.
You know, we try to talk about kids like, you know, and even adults really honestly, uh, is with, you know, video games are video games bad. Absolutely not. If you're playing eight hours a day. Yes. I had a student one time, years ago that, uh, he lost his job because he was playing world of Warcraft, uh, until like four in the morning had to go to work at like six or seven. And he would call in his work, his work dropped, and then he ended up losing his house. Um, you know, these, these are, that's a dangerous thing. You're not having balance in your life, you know, like you need sleep. And that's the thing thing too, like not just video games, but sleep, sleep is a part of balance. Part of the health too, is a healthy person, is someone that gets their sleep.
You know, you work X amount, you, you have X amount of time with your family. You know, sometimes for myself, I, I struggle with, you know, a small business, uh, staying with my family and, and making sure that they're giving time. My kids, my wife is getting the time that they deserve. Uh, and then I also have to work, you know, like if I'm just only hanging out with them and I'm abandoning my, my school, my, my business, it's gonna start to degrade, not do as good. So like, it's constantly like checks and balances of balance in your life. You know, work it out all the time. Your body will break down, you need rest. That's part of the balance. And, um, you know, with school, like you gotta study, you know, if you're not gonna study, then it's gonna be difficult to get good grades and achieve the things that you're trying to achieve.
Um, so, so that's kind of my, my, my take on balance is you need to be wor thinking about it. You can even write it out, like what you're doing. If you write out your day, like at the end of the day, what did I do at this time? What did I do at this time? You'll start seeing the hours of the day. We only have so many hours of the day and you know, you gonna have to get your balance down. What, what are you gonna do? And there's gonna be sacrifices as far as balance of concerned. You know, there might be one month, like I gotta work a little extra hard, but you need to make sure that you're gonna come back and work with your family, see your family, you know, maybe take a weekend off with your family, something like that.
Okay. Um, but these things are important. So even with jiu jitsu, like I'll tell people set the days they're gonna do jiu jitsu. Okay. Sometimes, uh, our spouses are like, why are you always with these people? You know, like, but it'll make you better for your family because you get this, um, respite in doing jiu jitsu and you're being healthy and doing something positive. And then you're gonna go back to your family. And I promise, you'll be a better person. You need to explain this balance to your parent, to your spouse, but your, you also need to be with your spouse. So like, if you're training every day, six times, you know, if I'm training twice a day, five to six times a week, and maybe you're not seeing your, your, your, your spouse, this could be a problem. Okay. And you know, a lot of the champions that I've known in my life, their balance is a little off.
And a lot of times families, um, take the brunt of that. And, and professional athletes is the same thing. You know, the door horse rate is so high because their balance is outta whack. And so to, in order to achieve the levels that they need to achieve, there's a lot of sacrifice. And sometimes, unfortunately, the family is the first thing to sacrifice. So if you're a competitive athlete, you need to be asking yourself, are you willing to make these sacrifices to be the champion? Is it worth the sacrifices? And then, you know, I've known some people that they find out that later, it's not, it's not worth it. You know, like, man, they look back and like, I, I didn't see my kids. I didn't see my wife. And now I'm, you know, I had these gold medals, but what does that mean? Um, so it's a tough one.
It is a tough one. And, um, work and balances for, for me is the toughest on this list, the toughest on this list.
The 8 Strong Heart Academy Principles to Live By
Mike Martin, Owner of Strong Heart Academy, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in Phoenix Arizona, and third degree black belt, talks about Strong Heart Academy’s Student Creed. The 8 principles to live by.
Strong Heart Academy’s Student Creed - 8 Principles to Live By
Mike Martin, Owner of Strong Heart Academy, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in Phoenix Arizona, and third degree black belt, talks about Strong Heart Academy’s Student Creed. The 8 principles to live by.
Click the image below for the full video on YouTube:
Today's podcast is brought to you by Strongheartacademy.com where no heart is no victory. We are also brought to you by BJJ2go.com, if you wanna build your game and learn jiu jitsu, go to BJJ2go.com.
Okay. So today I want to talk about, our student creed and our eight, principles of strong heart jiu jitsu or strong heart academy. We go over these with the kids a lot, but I feel like these are great for everybody. Adults included. Sometimes we need to be reminded as adults, things that we already might know, or maybe in depth explanations of what, what these things mean. So, we have service loyalty, balance, integrity, health, diligence, respect, and courage. So I'm just gonna run through 'em pretty quickly here and, what they mean to me and what I want to, help our students and our kids understand, you know, I teach Brazilian jiu jitsu and kids striking.
But part of this is like, I want to in explain things that I think are important as a person, to be a strong person, a reliable person, a person that is respected and, respect for others. And these are principles that I try to live by. And, I want to share with my students and I feel like they're helpful, no matter what your stance on morality or your stance on, you know, no, it's not even a religious thing. It's just, these are things that I believe that people should be proud of and work on.
Service
So the first one is service and the way we talk about this is service to others. You know, I try to encourage the kids to, do community service and, and understand that you are part of a community as humans and helping the people around you.
So we give pins out, awards out for 10 hours, community service. And the goal is just to get you in the service mindset. And I know for myself, all the service things that I do, I mean, they hugely impact my own life. Not the people that I help. Like obviously they help the, the people that I help, but I get something out of it. There's something about being a human and helping others. And, what it does for yourself. Like you have a sense of gratitude, for the things that you have that maybe others don't. And, it sets a community, you know, when you're working with others. So we highly encourage service. I encourage this with adults too. And you know, my, we, we even say that, you know, I allow for these community hours of community service, some of 'em don't like, what, what can I do as a kid?
I'm like, you could pick up trash in a neighborhood. Sometimes we think if it has to be like this complicated thing, it really doesn't, you know, you can go at school, you could pick up trash around the playground afterwards, just ask for a bag. I guarantee you, the teachers will say, absolutely, I'll give you a trash bag. You go out there, wash your hands afterwards. And, and, and thank you. So these are just things that we, we try to encourage, encourage, encourage, you know, be a part of the community, help your community, help people around you. And I think that's something that we're missing right now in, in society is everyone's very me, me, me, me, and you're encroaching on me. And, and it's like, how about us? You know, us? And the other thing I encourage kids is to help their grandparents.
You know, America has a, a very strange relationship with grandparents. Um, you know, they're separated like a lot of countries in the world, grandparents live with you. Okay, now, now grandparents live separately. Either they have their own place or they're maybe at a, a nursing home. So I encourage, you know, helping your grandparents, wash their car, pick up dog poop at their house, help them with their laundry pick weeds. Um, there's many things that kids even young as four can do and get these, this, this helping your grandparents out. And, um, you should be, and your grandparents will love it because you're hanging out with them. Um, it's kind of the way I believe that things should be okay.
Loyalty
So the second, uh, the second one that we do is loyalty and loyalty. I'm not gonna say a ton about loyalty, but loyalty is, um, earned, just kind of like respect is earned and I'm not, um, one that is, um, forces people to be loyal to strong heart.
You know, we, I allow people, you know, I don't own, my students is the way I look at it. There's a lot of schools that are like, you don't, can't go to any other school or whatever. You know, I, I, I encourage them to be part of the community of jiu jitsu as well, go to open mats, go to seminars. Um, you know, there are certain things where look, if you're competing, you have to be a little bit careful with what you're going out and showing others, because just like any team, the sons don't hang out in practice with the Lakers or whatever, you know, whatever team they're opposing team, you just don't do that. So there's that, but the loyalty aspect is kind of an earned thing. Kind of like trust is earned. You know, if you would be loyal to strong heart, if I, if you think that I am worthy and you think strong heart is worthy of your loyalty, that's how loyalty works.
And then, you know, if we've built trust over the years, if I were to make a mistake, um, you would give me a little bit of, uh, wiggle room. If I'm, you know, if apologetic about something, um, to keep your loyalty and you, you know, you're loyal to your family, you're loyal maybe to your country, to your school. These are, these are not a bad thing. Um, sometimes we get confused with nationalism and it's like, oh, it's a bad thing. And not necessarily we are, we are a people groups. Um, and there's nothing wrong to be loyal to a certain group, but it needs to be deserving of the loyalty is the way I would, I would say that. So, um, you know, you're lo loyal to your relationship with your spouse or your girlfriend. Um, but until that relationship, the loyalty is gone. If there's a cheating aspect or someone that's trying to ruin your, your, your life alive, you know, you shouldn't be loyal as much as like it's time to separate from that person.
And, um, and I, I, I, you know, if you expect people to be loyal to you, you need to be the, understand the same concept. Like, am I worthy of loyalty? Okay.
Balance
Uh, the third thing is balance. This is the hardest, okay. Balance for me is hard. Uh, I really try to balance my life as much as I can. And this is like all aspects. Like people think sometimes when I say balance is like, oh, can, are you on balance? Like, um, athletically? And that is important too, because that is, uh, balance is a aspect of athletics. And, um, you know, some people will only go to strength, training, endurance, training, stamina up, but I think sometimes flexibility, but balance is huge. Um, huge for Jitsu, uh, huge for almost all sports, really. So that is an aspect of it, but I'm talking about the balance of life.
You know, we try to talk about kids like, you know, and even adults really honestly, uh, is with, you know, video games are video games bad. Absolutely not. If you're playing eight hours a day. Yes. I had a student one time, years ago that, uh, he lost his job because he was playing world of Warcraft, uh, until like four in the morning had to go to work at like six or seven. And he would call in his work, his work dropped, and then he ended up losing his house. Um, you know, these, these are, that's a dangerous thing. You're not having balance in your life, you know, like you need sleep. And that's the thing thing too, like not just video games, but sleep, sleep is a part of balance. Part of the health too, is a healthy person, is someone that gets their sleep.
You know, you work X amount, you, you have X amount of time with your family. You know, sometimes for myself, I, I struggle with, you know, a small business, uh, staying with my family and, and making sure that they're giving time. My kids, my wife is getting the time that they deserve. Uh, and then I also have to work, you know, like if I'm just only hanging out with them and I'm abandoning my, my school, my, my business, it's gonna start to degrade, not do as good. So like, it's constantly like checks and balances of balance in your life. You know, work it out all the time. Your body will break down, you need rest. That's part of the balance. And, um, you know, with school, like you gotta study, you know, if you're not gonna study, then it's gonna be difficult to get good grades and achieve the things that you're trying to achieve.
Um, so, so that's kind of my, my, my take on balance is you need to be wor thinking about it. You can even write it out, like what you're doing. If you write out your day, like at the end of the day, what did I do at this time? What did I do at this time? You'll start seeing the hours of the day. We only have so many hours of the day and you know, you gonna have to get your balance down. What, what are you gonna do? And there's gonna be sacrifices as far as balance of concerned. You know, there might be one month, like I gotta work a little extra hard, but you need to make sure that you're gonna come back and work with your family, see your family, you know, maybe take a weekend off with your family, something like that.
Okay. Um, but these things are important. So even with jiu jitsu, like I'll tell people set the days they're gonna do jiu jitsu. Okay. Sometimes, uh, our spouses are like, why are you always with these people? You know, like, but it'll make you better for your family because you get this, um, respite in doing jiu jitsu and you're being healthy and doing something positive. And then you're gonna go back to your family. And I promise, you'll be a better person. You need to explain this balance to your parent, to your spouse, but your, you also need to be with your spouse. So like, if you're training every day, six times, you know, if I'm training twice a day, five to six times a week, and maybe you're not seeing your, your, your, your spouse, this could be a problem. Okay. And you know, a lot of the champions that I've known in my life, their balance is a little off.
And a lot of times families, um, take the brunt of that. And, and professional athletes is the same thing. You know, the door horse rate is so high because their balance is outta whack. And so to, in order to achieve the levels that they need to achieve, there's a lot of sacrifice. And sometimes, unfortunately, the family is the first thing to sacrifice. So if you're a competitive athlete, you need to be asking yourself, are you willing to make these sacrifices to be the champion? Is it worth the sacrifices? And then, you know, I've known some people that they find out that later, it's not, it's not worth it. You know, like, man, they look back and like, I, I didn't see my kids. I didn't see my wife. And now I'm, you know, I had these gold medals, but what does that mean? Um, so it's a tough one.
It is a tough one. And, um, work and balances for, for me is the toughest on this list, the toughest on this list.
Integrity
Okay. The next one is integrity for me. This is the easiest one. Uh, for a lot of people, it's it, it's hard because sometimes you're gonna have to, um, when you're doing what's right, it's sometimes it's gonna be painful. And this is just, uh, I'm fortunate that the way that I was raised, I, I, this is just part of my, the way I was raised. So I, I I've always had integrity. Um, and for me, my, uh, reputation is very important. Um, and not a false sense of reputation, a, a real reputation. Um, I try to do what I say I'm going to do. Um, and that's why I try not to, you know, I I've expressed this as a biblical concept for me, that I, that very few people I think talk about, but, you know, Jesus used to say, make your, yes, your yes and your no, no.
Don't make promises. Don't make proclamations, you know, it's yes. If you say, so, I'll say, let me think about, let me, I'll try to do it, but I try not to say yes or no, because I, I want to try to do it. And I don't want to give you a false, you know, I know certain people, I tell them, don't tell me they're gonna be there unless you're gonna be there. If you're not gonna, you know, I give people a lot of breaks, but after like three I'm like, I don't don't tell me you're gonna be here. Okay. Just be here. And then I'll, I'll be thankful that you showed up or Mike, I'm gonna do this thing. Great. And then they don't show up and kids really, this is a big one with kids. If you're a father or a mother, you know, you tell them you're gonna be somewhere or do something, you, you know, this you'll lose trust with this.
Okay. So integrity is about doing what you say you're gonna do, even if it's gonna be painful. Okay. And, um, and honesty is, it's part of the honesty. You know, I have integrity. I'm not, I'm not gonna be, uh, dishonest with people, you know, you know, and if you do, you need to apologize and take and, and make amends. And part of our current zeitgeist is a problem with, um, forgiveness right now. Um, but, uh, it's, I think we need to bring it back. And, and with honesty, if, if people are honestly, um, uh, you know, apologetic and they wanna make it right, then you should be willing to have forgiveness because understanding that you make mistakes as well. But, um, you know, there's a level of trust when someone has integrity and you see someone and like, man, I know, you know, Mike, he says he is gonna do it.
It's gonna do it. You don't even, people have a tendency to just believe them because you've built up integrity. You've built up a, a level. And it's kind of like a fuel tank, you know, like, you know, you, you, you, every time you don't do what you say, it goes down and down and down and down, and you start looking at your fuel gauge. You're like, mm, I don't know. There's not much there. Um, you know, you want to trust that someone's gonna do what they say, and it's a big one for me. Um, and it's, I judge people a lot for this one. You know, this is a big one for me. So it's easy for me. I know some people might be a little bit harder. Um, but I, I, I, it's a principle that you should be work working on that if someone, if you were to die tomorrow and they're at you at the funeral, they would say, you know, John DOE, he was a man of integrity.
Jane DOE. She was a woman of integrity. Um, that is something that I want said when I die, but, but an honest version, you know, I wanted to say it. And they mean that I actually had integrity, not just because I'm, I'm dead and they wanna, you know, make me look good. I, I wanna earn, earn that. Um,
Health
The next one is health. And you know, this is kind of mixes with balance. A lot of these mixed together, which I think is important too. But health is, you know, eating right, sleeping, exercising, and mental health as well, working on mental health. We have a serious mental health issue in the country right now. Um, and so I think jiu jitsu's a huge help for it, but it's, it's just an aspect of your mental health. You need to be working on other things and ex, and be a, be a person that self examines yourself and be brutal with yourself.
You know, am I working on the things that I need to do for my mental health? You could have anxiety, depression, um, you know, you know, how are your relationships? That's part of your health too. Okay. Stress leads to physical ailments. It's proven. Okay. So dealing with your stress in a positive way, instead of drinking or drugs or medicating, you know, everyone's so many people taking Xanax. Oh, it's legal. Okay. But, and, and maybe you need it if you're having severe panics. Okay. But you need to deal with the root cause. What is causing the anxiety and maybe therapy might be a thing that you need, okay. Or a psychiatrist or psychologist maybe read on these subjects. Is there something that, a book that might help you, you know, faith, um, I think is a huge part of this too, you know, like not everyone has faith, but I, I believe, um, a good part of balance and health is your mind, your body and your soul.
And, um, health, I think is an important part of that. You know, that Trinity of, of health and balance, um, uh, so, you know, making, making sure you're, you're eating properly, you know, myself, I have a, I have a sweet tooth, you know, and I, I drink way too much soda. And, uh, our doctor, you know, I, I drink, uh, pop, whatever you wanna call wherever you're in the country. Uh, I call it soda, but, um, it's not good for you. It's not healthy. I need to be drinking. I drink a lot of water, but I need, I would like to cut out as part of my thing. Like my list, you get cut out more. Um, I'm trying to cut down on my carbs a little bit. I'm decent at that. You know, my, my, my, uh, my food intake is probably where I suffer the most.
I, I do exercise. I do have, I am a man of faith. I do work on my mental health. Um, I am very conscious of my mental health. Um, and all those things are struggles. You know, not, no one's saying that any of this stuff is easy, but it's, if you don't work on things, um, they don't change.
Diligence
So, so, um, the next one would be diligence. And this is, I think out of, on the list of kids, for kids, this is the one I want to teach them the most. And if, and if they don't get any of these other things on here, I feel like diligence is the most important, uh, it's important for success.
Consistency
Okay. Consistency kind of, I almost wanted to put diligence, diligence slash consistency. And when people join jiu jitsu, what's one of the first things I tell them, like, there's no secret sauce.
The secret is to show up, okay. And be diligent. And you know, when you're getting setbacks, diligence pushes you through the setbacks it's in, you know, people say quitting is not an option. Quitting is the easiest option. So, you know, this is for me too. I'm, I'm trying to work on my mandolin. Uh, I've been doing it for about a year. And, um, you know, I try to be consistent and be diligent with my practice every day, and then try to push myself things that I don't understand. Um, things that are difficult. I try to do the difficult things and be diligent with, with my, with myself and the same thing with kids, with their work, their schoolwork is being diligent, you know, like set this time, which is also balance, um, to set a time, to get, get your homework done. Okay, get your studying done.
You have a test. You gotta get on it. Understanding the, the subject. You could be very frustrated. Sometimes you're not understanding, but diligence. You have to keep pressing at it. You know, the grand canyon was built by water just to, you know, the, the Colorado river cut that thing down. If you've ever seen the grand canyon in person. Uh, and if you haven't, you know, you should work to do that. I promise you it's a seven wonder of a world is I look at it and, and it's wondered it's beauty, but I also see the diligence of a river can cut a canyon and, you know, water can cut anything. It can dissolve literally anything. So, um, it's and then, and in that process of thinking is like the diligence of it. It's just continually, continually, even it takes a millions and millions of years.
It still did it. And we don't have that much time on our life. But if you are consistent and have diligence, and when things get tough, you press through, it's only going to help you. Okay. The next one is respect. And the respect is kind of similar to, uh, loyalty in the fact that, uh, you give respect where respect is, is, is, um, earned. And I also try to respect people that I don't know now, respect. I try to give instant respect and then tell it's lost. So I'm gonna assume that you, as someone I don't know, deserves respect, and then the way that you treat me or the other people around you that I also see is gonna determine how much respect I'm giving you. Okay. So it's like same thing, gas tank, uh, analogy, uh, a hundred percent respect. And then I say, oh, you do this.
Oh, I do that. Oh, you do that. And then you get less and less respect or you maintain, or you get more. I'm like, oh my gosh, this person is, deserve so much respect. And, and, um, and right now, you know, and living in a big city, it's easy to not give people the respect, cuz there's so many people and um, respecting people's space, faith beliefs, you know, right now everyone wants to fight beliefs, right. Left, you know, like, ah, you're right. Ah, you're left. I can't, I can't respect you. It's um, a dangerous game of dividing everybody. And um, so again, if you say you are left, you know, and something that I, you do that I lose respect and I'm gonna lose respect. If you say that you're the, on the right side and that's fine. But then maybe certain things that they, that the person on the right does that might lose respect.
That's just the way it is. You know, I don't, but I, it's not an immediate thing for me. It's not like, oh, you're a right wing. I can't respect you. Oh, you're left wing. Oh, I can't respect you. It's your actions. Uh, okay. So I try not to categorize you right away. You, you know, the content of your, of your character, you know, uh, uh, Martin Luther king said, you know, don't judge by color of skin, but the contact of character, it's not just color of skin though. It's contact of everyone's character. You know, you can categorize, you know, he was talking, dealing with civil rights, with, you know, unjust to people of color, but there's unjustice of everything. Um, not just that. And I'm not Blitt that at all, but like, um, you know, how do you treat others? You know, you say you're a man of faith and then you, you, you belittle people, you know, you, you, you put people down, you know, I will lose respect for you.
You know, you say you're a man of faith, but then you, you, you, you choose to the tenants of this faith and you, um, you know, you, you give to charity, you help others. You try to help people with their problems. The, the, then I just get more respect for you, you know, but you just try to put people down and then degrade people and you're unwilling to help people, you know, and you're living in an ivory tower and then people, you know, are, are, are starving and in poverty and you, you're not willing to, you're not helping them out. You're driving, you know, fancy cars, but yet you, you, you, you look down on people below you. I, I lose respect. Okay. So respect is get is for me, it's instant. And then it's something to be lost. Okay. Um, and I also try to give respect, even if someone says something about someone, I try to meet them first, you know, and give them the benefit of the doubt, prove, prove me, right, please.
Um, that, that you should be respected. Okay. And then that, that's how I go for it. And, and that's another thing that I don't think people should give me right away. And when I first, um, came up with a black belt and I got my first degree, you know, the first degree you're supposed to be called a professor. And I was like, really weird about that. Some people used to call me sensei too, or coach, uh, coach is a little bit easier for me for whatever reason. But professor was like, I felt like, I don't know. And, and I remember Kyle told me like, Mike, you, you need to ask people to call your professor because it's a sign of respect. Okay. And this is true. Like whoever's teaching the class should get respect. And, um, but I also feel like I should be earning that respect.
And, you know, one way I earned it is 22 years of jiu jitsu. But, and, and my knowledge, you know, that you could respect me because I, I know what I'm talking about. I teach, well, you know, that's a sign of you should, you could respect that if I start showing up late, if I'm not giving my best, if I'm not teaching well anymore, if I'm being losing all my patients, you know, it's easy to lose patients here and there, but, you know, if I'm just not patient with kids that don't understand it, or adults respect can be lost, you know, even as a professor and sometimes, uh, black belts, they think they just need per, you know, they don't wanna roll with others. You know, it's very common. Um, I don't do that in my school, but like, you can't ask a black belt unless you're a black belt to roll.
I don't really care about that, um, at my school. But I understand that that many schools traditionally, you can't do that. You know, you have to, they have to ask you. Um, and, but I, I feel like respect is earned there's purple belts that could beat black belts, you know, you could mess up and you're outta shape. You're old, whatever. And, and young guy's a blue belt catches you in. Something happens, you know? Um, it, it, I respect all people and my opponents as well. Same thing when I'm rolling with a blue belt, I'm like, mm, I try not to get too lazy. Okay. Uh, because I'll catch you.
Courage
Okay. Uh, so last one is, uh, courage and courage is another great one, especially for today's generation. I'm finding, um, you know, the isolation of the pandemic and just the way that kids interact now, more online versus in person with people.
Um, courage is becoming more difficult to do things that are difficult. Um, and people get confused with courage that it's like a lack of fear. It's actually the opposite. It's doing something in spite of your fear, because you know that it's worth it and, and worthy of your courage. Um, you know, it's not that firefighters aren't, uh, afraid to go into a burning building, only psychos. Aren't afraid, you know, only people that, um, don't respect their own life or others. It are not afraid of things. And, um, you know, you could be a level of fear for sure. And, and, you know, my, my father used to say, I'm not afraid of dying because I, I, I, I try to live my life where I, that I know I'm where I'm gonna go when I die. And I always be like, man, always like, man, I'm afraid of dying.
You know, when I was a kid, I was like, I'm, I don't wanna die. He's like, I don't want to die. I'm not afraid to die. Um, I have courage in my life, the way I live my life with courage and, um, and the way that I live, I, I, if I die, I'm not afraid of where I'm going to go. And, uh, you know, an atheist might say, well, it's, it's P you know, there's no, there's nothing, but we hang on life. You know, the Buddhist would say the same thing. Don't hang onto life. Um, but, um, courage is not the absence of fear it's, um, doing what is right. And facing your fears, even though you have fears. And, uh, competition is great for that. Public speaking is great for that. Um, you know, sometimes I try to get the kids to speak in front of the other kids in class.
It's one of the number one fears is public speaking. Um, we collect a tennis card. Sometimes I allow certain kids to collect tennis cards. I make sure they shake them at everyone's hand and look, 'em in the eye because this's a skill that a fine is going away in society. Again, you know, when you do a zoom meeting, you meet someone in zoom. There's no shaking hands, but people will re go back to the list. Again, respect is gained off of a first appearance, shaking the hand, looking me in the eyes and speaking clearly. Okay. And sometimes that takes courage. Like people have anxiety meeting, two meeting, new people. Okay. Even the simple thing is that there's some people that are having difficulty leaving the house. The anxiety levels are so high and I encourage to have courage. Okay. Attempt, attempt it, small steps. Okay.
And it's not big steps like, oh, I'm gonna go out and speak to thousands of people. No, but like a small step. Can you speak to three people at a time, you know, two people at a time, um, because it's important. If you have something to say that you're heard, and if you don't have the courage for that, that could be a problem too. Um, you know, for job sake, it's important when you're doing sales. It's important when you're leading with a team, you're working with a team with your job, it's important. Okay. And you know, you, you, people don't wanna be, look like a fool. It's, that's the fear. Okay. Same thing with competition. People don't wanna look like a fear in front of their peers and family. You know, what if I lose, what if I lose? First of all, everyone loses is what I try to let everyone know.
You know, Caio Terra's a 12 time world champion. He lost he's lost. Okay. Now not a lot, but it happens. Okay. And those are just mistakes and we work and we fix mistakes and we go back out again. That's the way you look at it. Okay. And as far as like the, the real courage of, of someone that has to go to combat or fire or saving someone, you know, understand that if you do perish, you know, you are doing what is right. And someone might be saved because of your actions. And it is a worthy case for courage. It is worthy of your courage to do those things. And people hopefully will honor you in that. And, uh, at least your family will honor you in that. And that's a, you know, that's worthy of your courage. And again, courage is, is not the absence of fear, but your ability to do something in spite of fear. So that's all I have for today. Uh, those are my eight, um, principles. Someone say, why do you have eight? Well, uh, you know, the octopus is a logo. So I kind of broke it down into eight principles, uh, distilled them down. We still have this that I don't think I've ever talked about is my 21 truth. So jiu jitsu, but eight principles. And those are just, uh, principles to live by, um, in your life. And so hope you enjoyed it. And peace.
Arm Bar Demonstration by Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Black Belt
Mike Martin, Owner of Strong Heart Academy, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in Phoenix Arizona, and third degree black belt, demonstrates an arm bar.
Mike Martin, Owner of Strong Heart Academy, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in Phoenix Arizona, and third degree black belt, demonstrates an arm bar.
Watch the video below:
armbar, guard, closed guard, Bjj
Okay. So basic armbar that we're gonna go from the guard is everyone needs to know from the very beginning is if I wanna attack this arm, I'm gonna come underneath his other arm and grab across, pulling the elbow to the hip. Same side foot goes on the, off the arm I wanna attack.
So I come on me grabbing behind the tricep versus arm. If I grab arm arm, he pulls his arm back and it's nothing. So I want to grab behind that tricep and control the wrist, and then I'm gonna pull it to my far hip. So center line's okay. But if you get it to the far hip, you're gonna have a lot better arm bar. Foot goes on the hip. I don't want any gap. I wanna squeeze my knee. I grab the far shoulder. Other leg goes high. It's gonna give me a nice angle. If I could see in his ear, then my leg can come over. I do not wanna cross my ankles cuz my knees tend to flare. So you wanna pinch your knees together and try to pull your heel to your own butt. And from here, like even just his wrist, close to my chest, he's gonna be very close to tapping.
I don't even need to lift my hips. If I'm lifting my hips, I'm actually breaking the arm. So again, I have his hands. I come underneath, I grab this tricep or behind the elbow. I pull to the far hip. I grab his shoulder, whatever arm I'm attacking. That foot goes on the hip. My other leg goes high on his back. I step over pinching my knees together, pulling my heels down, gripping the wrist, pulling to my chest. If I'm having issues with his, turning his wrist, then I need his thumb towards the sky. Gripping his wrist with two hands. So I transfer from his tricep to his wrist, pinching my knees. You can slightly lift your hips if they're very flexible and maybe it's not as tight, but if you're curling your heel down, you're gonna have a very, very, very tight armbar. If I want him to fall over, I wanna take my knees, my knees go down towards the ground. Now it's very tight. If I get his hand even close to my body, he's gonna tap. If it touched my body, I'm probably gonna break his arm off. If I lift my hips, I can take his arm off and feed it to him. So at that point so quick,
My knees, I come underneath, I finish with my arm bar.
Triangle Choke (Judo Style) from Turtle Position: Demonstration
With 19 years of Judo experience, Grant shows his triangle choke from turtle position on 3rd degree bjj black belt, Mike Martin.
With 19 years of Judo experience, Grant N. demonstrates his judo style triangle choke from turtle position, with Mike Martin, third degree bjj black belt and Owner of Strong Heart Academy, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in Phoenix Arizona.
Watch the video below:
Grant teaches the Judo style triangle choke from turtle position.
This is Grant N.
I've been doing judo for about 19 years. Been practicing here of strong heart for about eight months now. And, I'm gonna show, my judo style, triangle choke.
So, in general this will happened from, if you get behind their back. First what I like to do I'll come under his arm and I'll grab his wrist, even grab the wrist or the hand. I prefer to grab the hand like this. I'll bring in right into his hip and then I'll put my shoulder right in the middle of his back. And I, as I'm spinning around, put my free hand my, and my grab the back of his elbow and pull it up by itself. And then I'm gonna turn my wrist and thumb up like a hitchhiker and paste it right to his head. Then with my free leg, I'm gonna bring it right into his, behind his armpit. And I'm gonna roll on my side. Before I secure the arm, I'm gonna secure the arm I had right to his hip, either his belt or his Gi pull it tight. If you do not control this, he's gonna be able to just roll into you and you just completely waste the move. So make sure you control this arm first.
Once I've controlled this, but grab and his elbow, pull it, his arm towards me and kick out my top leg. And my bottom leg is gonna just become a pillow for his head and I apply the triangle.
This is what it's gonna look like full speed.
Thank you.
Leg Locks from Half Guard: Demonstration
Mike Martin, Owner of Strong Heart Academy, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in Phoenix Arizona, and third degree black belt, demonstrates leg locks from half guard.
Mike Martin, Owner of Strong Heart Academy, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in Phoenix Arizona, and third degree black belt, demonstrates leg locks from half guard.
Watch the video below:
Leg Lock from Half guard taught by Mike Martin From Strong Heart Jiu-jitsu
Yeah.
Okay. So we're gonna go in between the legs, reaching his heel with both hands and I need to push his knee under my armpit.
So it's not my chest. It's here. Use your, I like to use my foot to push into him.
Okay. I have more strength this way. Sometimes I'm out here, he might roll me that way or it's more of a scramble.
When I come here, I'm gonna take his foot.
As I fall, I'm pulling his foot outward. Okay. Now when I catch it, I catch it with my head.
My arm comes underneath and I'm securing with my Gi.
Now, instead of hips, pulling your legs back and arching your back for the finish.
So he locks it up.
I dive in.
Thank you.
How to Tie Bjj Belt
Mike Martin, Owner of Strong Heart Academy, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in Phoenix Arizona, and third degree black belt, demonstrates how to tie a belt in jiu jitsu.
Mike Martin, Owner of Strong Heart Academy, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in Phoenix Arizona, and third degree black belt, demonstrates how to tie a belt in jiu jitsu.
Click image below for the YouTube video.
Click on the image to go to YouTube for the video!
How to tie a bjj belt:
Make sure it’s equal,
Close your Gi on your stomach,
Pull through,
Make sure the sides are equal,
Right left over tuck under,
Both pull till you’re comfortable,
Left down right over and goes through,
Pull it, tight.
Thank you.
Caio Terra Camp Experience (Third Degree Blackbelt - 2022)
Mike Martin, owner of Strong Heart Academy, and third degree blackbelt, shares his experience at Caio Terra’s 2022 camp.
Mike Martin, owner of Strong Heart Academy, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in Phoenix Arizona, and third degree blackbelt, shares his experience at Caio Terra’s 2022 camp in San Jose California.
Click here or on the image below for the full podcast on YouTube.
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Today's podcast is brought to you by Strongheart academy.com where no heart is no victory. We are also brought to you by BJ to go. If you wanna build your game and learn jujitsu, go to BJ to go.com. Okay. So, um, today I'm gonna talk about my trip to CTA camp. Oh God, Caio Terra. Um, I've been with Caio Terra, I think for 10 years now. I get confused. Um, maybe nine years I've been to every camp, CTA camp, uh, Caio Terra association camp that he's put on. Um, during the last one we did was right before the pandemic hit. So I remember we had, uh, guy that runs at Nick he's super cool. He got us, uh, Airbnb and we had a bunch of guys in one house and, um, you know, a ton of guys in one house and we had multiple guys, two room, we had multiple beds in a room.
Uh, these houses are basically just set up for Airbnbs, but, uh, we're watching the news and, um, uh, we're seeing everything go off, pop off. This is in February, 2020 February, and you could see it in, in China. And you're seeing like crazy videos of people in China. And I remember seeing like them, like netting people, like they're catching butterflies, but it's, you know, people with COVID in China. And they're like, like locking people in their rooms, like welding them in their rooms and stuff. Their lockdown was insane. And um, I'm like, man, I was getting worried. I was like, this is doesn't look good. And I remember the guy I was talking to. He does not a nurse, but he does like blood tests in Canada, Clayton he's super cool guy. But he was like, I don't think it looks like, kind of like a, like a flu or something like that.
It's probably fine. You know, their healthcare is not as good as ours in the west, which is true. Um, but that was the last one we did, you know, than two years nothing. So we, we didn't, uh, or last year we didn't have one. So, uh, this year I was happy. We got it. It was very last minute. So basically they do the San, um, it's in San Jose and, um, they do the Caio Terra, uh, the Caio Terra, um, camp is near a tournament. So the tournament's usually in San Jose or San Francisco this year, it was in Santa Cruz and they were waiting and waiting for I Jeff it's I B JF, uh, IBJJF tournament. And they're waiting for them to announce the tournament. It was like three weeks out. So maybe that less than that, like two and a half weeks.
So it was one of the smallest camps, you know, that's a lot, it's a lot to ask of people to make it out there. Um, it was very short notice and I had to do a lot of things to make it happen. Um, you know, and it was pretty stressful for me. Um, you know, I have a new puppy at home and my kids are just starting school that week. So, or the week, half in the week before. So it's like, okay, kids are going back to school. And then this is also when like, people are, uh, signing kids up and, and people are coming back to, you know, activities like martial arts or whatever. Uh, you know, summer's, vacation's over now, we're gonna start doing things. So I wanted to be at my, my academy help sign new members up and greet them. And I wanted 'em to, I like people to see my face as an owner.
That I'm the guy, this is, this is a mom and pop place. We're not a big giant corporation. Uh, you know, where this isn't like 60 schools and I'm never at these schools. No, it's me. I'm the guy. So even that I was really nervous about leaving. Um, and I know I had capable of people have multiple black belts here. You know, they're all teaching classes and I have multiple people per class, especially with kids, but, uh, you know, for me, it was like walk away from babies, my actual babies at home, my kids, my wife, and, and then my school. And, um, so it was stressful. And, um, I'm trying to get everything, you know, ready in order to do this, you know, and I'm gonna leave for a while. Um, you know, I didn't even leave the full week, but, uh, I, so I didn't have that week with my father's birthday.
The, and I forgot that the week before my father's birthday, I forgot his birthday. I just forgot. I don't do that. I'm not that type of guy. And so that sucked. And then, um, there was a tournament, somebody competed that Saturday and I did couldn't make it. And, you know, they felt like I let them down, you know, and I just feel like I couldn't, I had so much to get done. I didn't feel like I could do it. I also had these issues at home. Uh, my pool was green. Uh, I, I replaced 600 pounds of sand. Uh, I took the 600 pounds out of our filter and put 600 pounds in with a cup. You just take a cup. Okay. 6,000 more of those, you know, it was terrible, but things have been breaking my house. I've been trying to fix everything. So before I leave, like my wife doesn't have to do anything.
I'm already saying you have to take care of the kids and, and make sure the house is okay. And, and this brand new puppy that's tearing everything up. So I was just trying to get everything done and, and, um, you know, so that family, they, they, they felt, uh, I let 'em down, which is unfortunate and, um, made me really sad. So that was like right before I had to go, it was just, it was terrible. Um, I don't like people feeling that I let them down. It's uh, I just hate that feeling. So I try, I try to do the best I can, but that was very last minute. I just couldn't get it done. I just couldn't and I was gonna go earlier, but then the time changed and, um, it was like, okay, well then I'm gonna have even shorter time to get things done before I have to go.
Um, so I got my flight. I went out there to, to camp. Um, I met out there on Tuesday morning, you know, they already did. They had competed that Saturday, Sunday in Santa Cruz. And then they started the camp technically on Monday. I missed that training and then I showed up around noon. They were already in the, the first class of the day for CTA. So when you go to camp, you can go to any classes they have available there, which is like all day long, 6:00 AM. I think they have a 10:00 AM, uh, like a, uh, comp class at one or two. This class is like in between, it was like 11 o'clock class. So that's CT members only, uh, from all affiliates. And it looked like they were doing more advanced stuff, some advanced passing. I was like at the tail end of it.
So I just sat and watched with all my luggage. And, um, anytime Kyle was teaching, I, I like to observe, man, he's such a master, you know? So when you can observe a master, uh, I highly recommend you do no matter what it is. And, um, so it looked cool. Unfortunately, I missed that one. Then that night we went and they opened a new school in, uh, uh, Palo Alto. So, uh, we were go out there that night, which I was excited about to see their new school, uh, the new things they're doing, uh, Kyle and his, his, uh, partner. And, um, I didn't have a hotel, so I didn't know where I was gonna stay. So if that was even planned out, I don't even know where I was gonna stay. And, um, I, every year I've done something different. I've slept on the mats there, you know, I've slept in, they have a t-shirt shop.
I slept in there on the floor. I slept in couches. I've slept in. Uh, I know, like I said, I've done every year, uh, for about nine years, eight years, something like that. And, um, they just, I didn't have a plan. So there was somebody in an office and he was willing to share the office with me. I was gonna sleep on the floor, get a mattress or something. Um, but you know, I decided to walk down. There's like this road goes through the neighborhood and you can walk down. Maybe, I don't know, six blocks, seven blocks about a mile, half a mile. And then, uh, there's a hotel there. And over the years, this hotel is kind of nice. I've been in there once before, um, big rooms, you know, it is like a boutique hotel, not very big, maybe four floors, five floors.
It's not huge. It's very, it's pretty small. Um, and people are like, well, it's kind of ghetto now. I'm like, eh, whatever. Like, I'm, I, again, I've slept on couches. I don't care. I go in there and you could tell, it's like run down. There's a couch in a lobby. That's like peeling the, the, the, uh, leather on it's peeling off. And they don't seem to care. And there's like graffiti etched and stuff like, uh, scratch, you know, scratch graffiti, not, not markers or whatever. And you know, they're not taking care of that. And, um, but the, they were friendly at the desk and he gives me a deal and I didn't even haggle with them. He's like, well, you're gonna be here for three days. Well, I'll take this off. I was like, whoa, it's pretty cheap. I'm like, it's a hundred dollars a night.
That's cheap anywhere in California, that's cheap. But this place used to be a lot nicer. And I was like, whoa, this okay. That helps me out. First night was good. Um, but then the next night got rough. So I'll go back to that. But, uh, I got a deal. I had my place, I, I drop my stuff off. I put all my gear in my bag and I walked back down to Kyle's gym, which is about seven blocks. I dunno, I'm guessing seven blocks away. And, um, and then I got a ride. I was gonna get a, uh, rent a car this year. And I just, again, trying to save money. I spent all this money, uh, prior to this, and I knew this was gonna cost money for this trip. And I had some other things I needed to get, I, I had to pay for.
So I was trying to be cheap and I've always done it kind, the cheap, this, this trip. And, um, so, but everyone's so generous and nice and people, I think I got a ride first day. I got a ride with Kyle. That's what it was. I got a ride with Kyle and his he's a really cool Tesla. Um, and he drives like a maniac, which for me is fun. I'm one of those guys. I die die. <laugh>, it's, uh, he drives like a maniac, you know? And, uh, I trust them though, you know, so I'm sitting in the front seat, zooming in our traffic and we get there. And, uh, Santa, uh, Palo Alto's really nice, beautiful gym, not a big gym, but it was like really pretty well done. They took their time. And I think they, I think they did a great job.
I mean, it's a great gym. I thought it was like really cool things that they did. They had like a changing room in the back. They had all these like touchless toilet. So you just wave your hand at flushes. And, and it was very Palo Alto, you know, they wanna make it nice because that, that's a very nice area, you know, very, very nice area. There's not even homeless people, which is crazy. Cuz San Jose has homeless people everywhere. Um, so we did some deep half and which was fun or actually we did two classes in a row. So we did a fundamentals class, which was very, very fundamentals. Um, you know, I'm a, I'm a black belt. I, uh, fundamentals is fun if there's other advanced belts in there, cuz you can train with them. But, but um, there's a lot of white belts that they brought to the, the CTA camp.
A lot of these, the owners of the others' gyms, they brought a bunch of guys and they were all nice people, you know, but it's like I was teaching, I didn't wanna teach black belt. I didn't wanna teach at all. Like when I go out there, I wanna learn. I'm not here to teach. So I just felt like I was teaching a little bit. I, I didn't really wanna do that. I teach every day, I, this is kind of like a vacation for me from teaching. I want to be a student. Um, and I didn't learn much from the fundamentals cause I kind of know Kyle's fundamentals, probably not at his master level, which is funny, cuz he's even yelling at Blackbelts. It's like about hip escapees, you know, we're not doing it right. And you're like, I'm a black belt, these guys are black belts and for whatever reason, I've never even yelled at by Kyle.
I think he thinks I'm like probably like, uh, ly handicapped and he's like, I don't wanna make fun of a, a ly handicapped guy. I don't, I don't know what the real reason is. But like sometimes I feel like he thinks I'm, we're not supposed to say retarded, uh, mentally handicap. And uh, he doesn't wanna make fun of a mentally handicap guy. So he never yells at me or whatever. But so either I was doing right or he feels bad for me. Doesn't wanna yell at me either way. So that's the first class, first hour, second hour we do deep half, which was pretty cool. He should like a waiter sweep, but a cool back take from it that I didn't, I've never done before. Um, it wasn't like the most advanced thing, but it was cool for me. I, I, I, I got something out of it.
And then, um, then he puts everyone in the middle or not everyone in the middle eight guys go in the middle and I volunteered to go in the middle and there's probably 30, 40 of us and maybe more like 40 something people in the class. And then, um, and so you just stay in the middle and then you, as a person in the middle is like king of the mat, you know? So if you win, you stay in and we had to go from deep half position. So, uh, the person coming in gets to choose almost all of 'em choose top. Uh, they, you know, they don't want to be in the bottom position. So I worked a lot of deep half and I suck at deep half and I was proud of myself. I stayed through like, I'm guessing about 25 people in a row.
I swept them or took their back. Um, I don't think I got any, I did get two submissions. Yeah. But I wasn't looking for submissions from them. I'm trying to get the back takes and stuff. And um, it was good. I I've rolled with some black belt from Brazil. He was cool. He was a nice guy, bigger guy, probably my age, maybe a little bit older. Um, I took a picture with him. Uh, Marcio, Marcio. I man, I felt bad. I don't remember his name. His wife was really nice. I called her, uh, Raquel, but it's Hael cuz ours are HS dummy. I know that I've been doing jiu jitsu for 20 years, over 20 years. Um, nice guy. And so I beat him the first time, but then he went through the whole line again and then man, I had nothing left and it was a good scrap, but he beat me F square.
And then so I had to get back in line. I go through the line and then, uh, I beat this other black belt and uh, I got, I passed his guard and then, uh, and then I was in line again and I was stayed in line to the very end. And this one guy, we end up like scrambling to our knees. He armed dragged me and took my back, but he didn't get, he only got one hook in, so there's no points. Okay. So he tries to choke me and he just crushes my face. He's probably two 50. And then I just like, he was high with his head cuz he is oh, blue belt or white belt. I just grabbed his head and I pulled it down. He cuz he only had one hook. So if you have one hook, I lift one leg up.
You don't have that hook. Boom pull you off. And then I smashed my knee in his chest. I was so mad. Cause he was just trying to rough house me. I get it. You're a wipe belt or whatever. And you get behind a black belt. Like that's an accomplishment. I get it. He's like you could tell I was a wrestler. Right. I was like, yeah, I was like, it was a good arm drag. And uh, you know, he caught me off guard and you're so freaking big, but I was like pissed that he tried to crush my face. I had like a bloody lip inside. I had mouthpiece on too. And it still gave me a bloody lip. And um, it was just weak. I don't know this isn't the Moony house. You know what I mean? Um, so I stayed in cuz I beat him and then I stayed until the very end.
I was proud of myself. I was like, man, I'm pretty good shape or did good. And the next day I slept in I that night I slept in, it was a good night's sleep. The hotel was fine. Um, the next day I go and we do the noon class and it was like just open. It was just, uh, very basic stuff again. And my knee started to hurt. You know, this is three, three classes in, I don't do twice a day anymore. I'm 42. It's hard to, I don't take anything. Like I don't take testosterone or nothing. And um, it's hard to keep my like I'm in shape, but uh, my knees start to get tired and I feel like it leaves the injury. You know, I'm not a young man, I gotta be smarter. So, uh, I started to feel it man, I'm training, but it was, it was okay.
Um, and then we trained that noon and then that night we trained again and it was very basic again and more, more white belts and it was cool. But um, I was like just kind of done with the white belts and then the next day I just took the noon off. I was like, I don't. So I, I contacted, oh that afternoon, sorry, the afternoon I got done, I watched the comp class and they're getting ready for ADCC. So ADCC, if you don't know, is the top grappling tournament in the world? I would say over worlds of moon dials, you know, a lot of Brazilians might, uh, argue this, but this is like the criminal crem honestly. Cause you gotta, you gotta win tournaments to get into it or get invited. You can't just show up, you know, uh, like you can, the, the Moony outs now Moony outs, they used to have this thing where you have to win something in Brazil to get here, but Americans should just go in, which is also weird.
But uh, um, but this is criminal crime. So, you know, Yuri won it twice. I think Yu Simone and he's under Kyle and then Mason made it to the medal round. He lost to Craig Jones and then he beat Craig Jones ands a couple times. Um, but uh, you know, this year I know Mason's coming after it and he's had a good year of GE and no GE you know, as a black belt level and now he's going to kind of revenge ADCC. So it's, uh, it was fun watching. I mean they get after it and I I've learned a lot from his comp training over the years. I like to watch I've done one or two of them. And then I generally chicken out, cuz those guys are animals. I also feel like I'd be wasting their time. You know, they're trying to get they're training for life, altering changing tournament.
If they win this, their life will change. You know, I don't wanna be in the way if I can't give you the reactions you need. I don't know if you know, I'm a young guy and they're not fighting. No, nobody in that tournament's gonna be in their forties. I don't believe. And um, you know, they're young guys getting after it. And uh, so I just, I don't know. I didn't feel like I wanted to, I don't mind getting my ass kicked. I just don't wanna waste their time. Uh, so I watched, it was so fun to watch and I liked how he was running rounds. He's doing three, three threes, three minute rest. So it's nine minutes, uh, then, uh, kind of like wrestling where you have, you know, rounds and kind of like ADCC two a little bit. And then the last round was ADCC rule.
So first round you get to choose second round. The other guy gets to choose. Third round is you start standing ADCC. So it's a ton of wrestling. I'm watching these guys. I mean, great grappling, you know, these guys going after I've noticed this one, guy's really good. A couple guys wrestling was amazing. I asked one guy I'm like, Hey, did you teach privates? He's like, look, man, that guy over there he's better than me. And it was Kyle Bristol. And um, he was a D one wrestler from Oklahoma state. He's awesome. And uh, he teaches at AKA, uh, American kickboxing academy where CIB and all those guys in uh Comier and all them. And so I got a private the next Mor, uh, the next morning. And then I was like, I'm not gonna take the noon class that day. So Thursday, I didn't take the noon class.
I just, um, I just, so I set up a private for that day, that night we took the night class. It was, it was okay, whatever it was basics again. And I don't think even Kyle taught that, I think it was like, what's his name? Mari, Mary go, America go is a great teacher. It's not that it was just, um, it was just very like how to open the guard. I'm like, okay, I kind of know how to open the guard, um, pass it. But, um, so I had fun. We did the private lesson was just, it was great. He let me film it. Um, and I had a partner to kind of work with, uh, call and shout out to Colin from, from Irvine CTA. He was great in Texas. And, um, and uh, so I did that and then, uh, filmed all that thought.
I learned a lot from his, his takedown series. I did San Siegel, high crotch. And then when they sprawl kind of on your side versus in front of you, how to turn the angle properly, how they do at Texas, um, or sorry at Oklahoma state, he taught me how they do it and it was really cool. Um, and I'm gonna use that one for sure. And then he told me, showed me kind of how Comme likes to do his high sea to lift, which is really cool. You know, you can watch it and his MMA matches, uh, actually you could watch it in his, uh, wrestling, old school wrestling matches too. I mean his high, high sea is so good. Um, so I thought that was useful. And then I decided to walk, I was gonna get a G at the shop. They have a shop, uh, OS gear is like right down the road, about block two bucks away.
I walked down there and then I walked in front of the tattoo shop that one of the guys Matt owns that goes to CTA and a lot of guys went and got tattoos. And you know, I just sat in there talking to him and congratulating on his new shop, his beautiful shop. Um, you know, I like nice tattoo shops. They're kind of like art galleries, you know, I've been into some CD ones. I've actually had tattoo in someone's, uh, in someone's bedroom, you know, that he set up a thing in his bedroom, which I don't recommend that this is a nice professional shop. You know, it was, it was nice. I'm talking to him. He was like, I was like, you know what? I wanna give a tattoo. So he didn't have any openings. His, um, apprentice did. So I got this tattoo,
Matthew 6 33. So if you wanna look that up, I'm not gonna tell you what it means. You really need to look up Matthew 25 through 34, Matthew 25 through 2034 to get the full kind of understanding of it. I like that line of it. So, uh, 33. Okay. Math 2 33. Cause that is like, if you just worry about that, it covers the other stuff. The way I look at it. Okay. It's only like someone asked me yesterday, look it up. What do I, is it gonna be reading for like an hour? I'm like, no, dude, dude. It's like a paragraph. It's not very long. If you can't read a paragraph, come on, man. You need to read a little bit more. Um, so I got the tattoo. She was great. Like I barely felt it. I don't have any tattoos on my arms, so I didn't even like, I was like, wow, I don't even feel that.
I literally didn't feel it. It shows so light. Um, so I did that and then I came back, did the training at night and again, it was okay. Um, and then was ready for the next day. I got a leave Friday morning, fly out. So we had our dinner that night, Thursday night. Um, it was fun. We went to Brazilian steakhouse. Oh no, no. It was Wednesday night. We did the Brazilian steakhouse. Sorry. I packed that up Wednesday night. We did Brazilian steakhouse. Um, and whenever I eat steak, I feel like I recovered pretty good, but man, I was still sore on Thursday. And so I took that class. I skipped the noon and then I did the night again. And then that night, uh, me, Kyle, Colin, and Nick, the other associate or partner of Kyle's, they took us to the same steakhouse and he hooked me up again.
And uh, I just thank you for that. You didn't have to pay twice. That place is expensive. It means a typical Brazil steakhouse it's expensive and this is their they're like conno sores of state of uh, Brazil steakhouse. So they think this is the best one. You know, I've been to a ton of them with them over the years, I've done tons of steakhouse, uh, Brazilian steakhouse. If you've never be gone, you should go. At least once, if you're gluing for meat, it's great. Um, there's tricks to it though, how to do it. Right. Um, and uh, so it was good man. And one of the things like I like about these association camps that I've been telling people is that it's the camaraderie that I really enjoy. And jiu jitsu's done this across the board with me, you know, in my own academy over the years and just my own training.
I'm at 22 years, I've met so many people with so many different jobs. Um, you know, even at the, at the, one of the white belts, I'm like, oh, how do you know you train at, he trained at that, at that place? And I said, oh, what do you do? You know, you, you work around here and he's like, oh, I'm a scientist. I'm like, oh cool. What kind of scientist? He's like, oh, I study baby, uh, premature babies or babies. What, why it goes wrong? Like, um, you know, genetic problems, things like that, you know, outside influences and, and what can we do to make it better? I'm like, oh, that's so cool. You're contributing to society. Not all scientists do that. So I was like, that's such a cool job, you know, and I was talking to him about it, but those are type of people that, where am I gonna meet a scientist, any scientist?
You know what I mean? I used to be a ditch digger, landscaping guy, like, where am I gonna meet the, sometimes I would meet the owners of these BI of, uh, the houses I would take care of. So that gave me a little bit of variety. Uh, but you don't talk long conversations with these people, so you don't get the same feel. And Jiu Jitsu, I've had, you know, multimillionaires train with me and, and you just being around people that are in your class are in your race, are in your religion. Um, and I think it's such a benefit of jiu jitsu is getting in where we all have this thing in common, but we're very different, you know, conservative and or liberal or whatever, you know, even in my own gym, I have very conservative guys and I have very liberal guys and we all like to choke people, right?
So it's good to have a common ground in anything. And, and, and it's what society right now is missing. And I feel like we're being pushed against each other on purpose. It's a whole nother thing. But when I was over there in San Jose, I get to meet people from other countries and because the co the association of worldwide. So one day I got to go that Wednesday afternoon, after training, we did lunch, late lunch. And this guy VU, he took me to a Fo place and he's like a connoisseur of foe, which is like, uh, Vietnamese cuisine. Um, and, you know, fo is like a soup with meat in it and different things. You put, put stuff in it and I've had it before, but I wanted to go with those guys and then VIN who's from China. And then, um, Khan was from una.
So it was these three kind of guys, you know, Asian tsunamis, actually south America. Um, but, uh, I got to eat with them and, you know, share the afternoon with them, pick their brain, talk to them about things. And it was just cool, you know, like I'm just some white boy. And I get to, how many times do I get to talk to someone from ser period Vietnam or China? And, you know, I've met people that, um, you know, maybe second generation here, but first generation or, you know, people that are currently living, even if you're first generation, but you're living in America, you still have the, the American experience. If you've been here for a while, if these people are from other countries now, VU, technically isn't VU is from Virginia. Uh, he's from he, he was born in Vietnam, but he's an American citizen.
And, um, he actually works for the government, uh, American government. So that's about as American as you can get. Um, but you know, he still has, um, he still speaks fluent, uh, Vietnamese. So he's ordering for us. And it's just cool to have that experience of like multi multicultured, multi religion, multi social economic, those three things are big barriers that people kind of separate themselves with, you know, your religion, how much money you make and your culture of like borders. What are the borders that you reside in? And, you know, border itself is a dividing line. And social economic is a dividing line where you can live, you know, because you can't live in a mansion. If you make 20 GS a year, you know what I mean? And so you're not gonna live around those people. And, uh, so I find it like super helpful for myself just to have a great, give me myself a perspective.
And I heard his conversation with this guy, and he was talking about like difference between empathy and perspective. And he believes perspective is more important. And empathy, empathy is understand is, uh, saying that your feelings are valid, that I understand you have feelings. And, and I, I empathize with your feelings that you have feelings about a tip topic perspective is actually kind of putting yourself and seeing through their eyes and understanding walking in their shoes, putting yourself in their shoes. And I find perspective is even more powerful. And, oh, that's what it was that CIA guy. I watched a podcast with this CIA guy, and he used to be an agent a couple years ago. And he was, I think, L Friedman podcast. And it was very interesting when he was talking about perspective versus empathy. And he's saying empathy, empathy's a little overused perspective.
He finds very useful. And, you know, when he was trying to turn people in other countries, understanding their perspective gives you how they think, you know, and too many times when we put ourselves in these socioeconomic religious borders, we're in these like categories. And it's like, there's a line between 'em. And it's like, you know, feel like poor people are the, the, the wealthy, tell the middle class to hate the poor and the poor hate, you know, the wealthy. And it's just like, and then the liberals and the conservatives pit, everyone against each other, and it's not helpful at all. Um, and I, I like just having a, a talk over food that we all can kind of have something in common. We all do jujitsu. And even if we don't believe the same things, I can at least get a perspective. And you can tell an honest assessment of how you view things, view the world.
Um, you know, I had a great conversation about VU with his fam about his family and his son. And I just felt like they were honest conversations. I try to have honest conversations back with them and my perspective as too as well. Hopefully they get something out of it. I don't know. But for me, it's like so powerful to have perspective of others and jiu jitsu man has done that so well for me. And, uh, I'll never, uh, uh, take that for granted. And so it's really good for me to go out there, talk to other owners, too. I talk to other owners of businesses, Hey, what are you doing? You know, what's working, what's not working. Um, you know, when you're in your own area, everyone sees you as, um, as competition. So they don't wanna share anything with you. So when I go over there, that people more willing to share and, and what's working in their different markets, um, is helpful too.
Oh, the last thing I was gonna say, so the rest of the week at this hotel was insane. I forgot to talk about that. So, uh, I go in the vending machine to get a Dr. Pepper and I look on the ground and there's like gas station, boner, pills, rhino, whatever. And, um, just thrown on the ground, the, the rappers it's like, he's like, I need these pills. Now I'm gonna get soda and then go off to the room and get down or whatever it was. It was kind of crazy. Then I see, I go back to my hotel and it's late at night. We get back. I think that was the night we had the, the school dinner at the, uh, steakhouse. I see next door. And it's really loud in the hallway. I'm like, what is going on? It's like 11 at night, whatever.
I, I stay up late, but, uh, I see that they peeled, like, instead of like paint on the doors, I think it was like a wall PA. It was like almost like a wallpaper that they put over the doors to change the color of the doors. And they were ripping it off and shredding it. And I have a picture of it. I took a picture. I'm like, what the heck is going on here? I could hear them next door. It was like kids in there if sounding like there's 10 people in that room and they're stomping. We're on the third floor. You stomping around. I hear 'em like, whatever I read, I read at night, I was riding for a couple hours. It was like two in the morning. I'm like, I'm ready to go to bed. It is late. And these guys are loud.
I go downstairs. I'm like, look, can you tell 'em to shut up? Like, it's loud. He's like, well, send security up there. Um, and if they don't, you know, be quiet, then they get kicked out. Nothing happened. Okay. They never got kicked out. They were allowed to like four in the morning. And I gotta get up at, I got up at eight the next day to have a meeting, uh, with Nick and kind of talk with some stuff, which was like, not much came of that, but I was so tired. I had like four hours of sleep and, uh, and then having to do it. And then I did that private lesson. It was just like, oh man, I was dragging. But anyway, the hotel was wacky and I probably won't ever stay there again. Uh, the bed, the room itself is nice, but the hotel itself was ghetto and sketchy.
There's weird, sketchy people out front. Um, there's weird people in the hallways. Um, it, that hotel went down, I guess the pandemic hit 'em hard. And then someone said that in San Jose, like they had some law that if their past below a certain occupants Lev occupancy level, they had to allow homeless people to stay there. And I don't know if the city pays them for that or what, so that could be the thing like, Hey, you're homeless. Wanna stay here? Oh, cool. You know, instead of homeless shelter, which sounds nice on paper, but if you are paying to stay there and they're acting insane, cuz they don't have a job tomorrow, they don't have to work. And they're just taking drugs all night long and being loud. And in like, it was like a Wednesday night, like there's kids in here, they don't go to school or what's going on here.
It's four in the morning. What are you doing? Screaming, just being crazy. So I won't stay there anymore. Anyway, uh, just as a recap, a CTA, I wore this hat, uh, cuz none of the Canadians came out this year. I was bummed out. Clayton gave me this hat he sent from, uh, Canada, you know, they're they love their hockey. So he gave me this hockey hat, which is sweet. Thanks. Shout out to Clayton. Um, and thanks to everyone. I, I got to hang out with, haven't seen in a couple years, um, hopefully next year it'll be bigger. Uh, and we'll have more time to hang out. I'll try to stay longer next year, I think. Uh, and get a better hotel and maybe we'll get Airbnb again, cuz that's always fun to share the, share the house with other people. You can kind of eat in the house, shave some money and use the washer and dryer there too. So anyway, uh, hope you enjoyed this one and peace out.
Cross Choke Demonstration: Brazilian Jiu Jitsu
Professor Mike Martin shows his version of Cross Choke from close guard.
Professor Mike Martin of Strong Heart Academy, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in Phoenix, Arizona, shows off his version of Cross Choke from close guard.
As a third degree blackbelt, Mike will show off the mechanics of this fundamental technique and how to use it from close guard.
Watch the video demonstration below:
Professor Mike Martin shows his version of Cross Choke from close guard.
We’re gonna do a quick breakdown today on a very simple, fundamental technique. That's super effective. And I feel a lot of people do incorrectly. So we're gonna work off of a cross choke, but generally people, stay square when they cross choke. So when I go in like this, I'm generally putting the side of my arm instead of the bones in, in the neck, on the corotid artery. So when I'm here in closed guard, if I go in straight, which is most people do, the flat part is on the neck and you have to like really twist to get the bones in. So what I like to do is I grab the tricep material foot on the hip is if I'm gonna set up an arm bar, when I place my hand inside, I get the bone on the neck automatically. I don't have to turn my hand around.
I get it. And when I get deep, I start to curl this hand here. Even if the arm is inside, I like to keep it there. I come, like I'm gonna saw his head and I grab material. I don't like to fumble by getting my thumb inside. I like speed. So when I grip, it's saw, grip. As I square back up, it's gonna get tight just by squaring up. I'm not even curling. He's already turning colors. I would pull my knees in, crank my head. So again, we go for here. I would open the Gi also, so that it's quick and easy to get my hand inside, hand comes over, square and pull.
It's important that I'm pulling with my legs and tightening with my abs. As I pull elbows down, we should never be here. But again, it's all really honestly the angle that gives me the grip. You can pull your wrists towards you. So wrists towards the elbows. Okay. Will also tighten the grip.
Thank you.