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.

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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 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.

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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.

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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.

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Can Change Your Child's Life

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu for Kids

Yes, seriously! Getting your kids to learn Brazilian Jiu Jitsu will change their lives for the better. It will also equip them with the necessary skills to help them navigate the minefield that is life in the 21st Century.

Your Child

Gone are the days when everyone had a sense of community and personal responsibility.

Click here for the 8 Strong Heart Principles to Live By

Taking kids through a properly instituted martial arts program allows kids to learn essential life skills such as temperance, resilience, discipline, and respect for themselves and those around them. However, these virtues are no longer enough to get by in this ever-changing world. 

Let's examine how Brazilian Jiu Jitsu enhances your child's life.

Tempering their Egos

We live in a dichotomy between maintaining traditional values and attempting to blend them with modernity. Add in the differing cultures and religions, which, while a melting pot of diversity, can lead to clashing societal philosophies. 

There has been a severe clash in certain spheres between the two. These differences have led to a chasm in terms of values to emulate. To successfully thread through this constant clashing, our children require the right attitude of being reasonable. 

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu tests your child's limits physically, mentally, and emotionally. They will experience failures, attempt to compare themselves with others, and even try to match up. This will lead to pain that is necessary for their growth and tempers their egos. 

This discomfort will be the flint that sparks their internal development and gets them to learn how to be the best they can be. It allows them to appreciate the ups and downs of life, as well as the meaning of effort. 

Buttressing Their Self Esteem

It isn't easy to discount the impact of social media and society on how your children see themselves on the inside. Most media channels, at the moment, focus on bragging and showing off, which can be things your kids aren't capable of doing. Being around people who want nothing can be a real stab for many children. 

Through immersing themselves in martial arts, the child learns to trust in themselves and what they have on the inside. The learning process means they see improvements, no matter how small; filling them with confidence. Since they have worked hard on these improvements, they have what it takes to do whatever they have to, no matter how difficult. 

The Power of Compounding

Jiu Jitsu black belts aren't built in a day. Getting to that coveted belt takes years of concentrated effort and action. What's even more interesting is, in those years, the learner has gathered many skills which they can use to get them to their goal. 

This is a directly transferable skill. Compounding is necessary for personal finances. The little skills, mistakes, and corrections one makes during their Jiu Jitsu journey are the perfect analogy for the road to financial freedom. It doesn't happen in a day, but it takes deliberate effort, discipline, and focus to attain their goals. 

By learning different financial skills, the child can leverage them to gift themselves a type of freedom not many enjoy in this world. 

It Starts with The First Move

The Shrimp is a familiar technique for someone already in a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu class. For your child, however, the first move will be to take a free trial with Strong Heart Academy. We are a family-friendly martial arts gym based in North Phoenix and are members of the Caio Terra Association. 

We have structured our classes for four different age groups, from the Tiny Tigers at 4 to 5 years of age, Mat Monkeys ages 6-7, Kids BJJ from 8-12, to the Teens between ages 13-16. If you'd like to know more about how we work, get in touch with us now. 

You can also view our blog here.

Strong Heart Academy Student Principles #3 - BALANCE

View all 8 of Strong Heart’s Principles to Live By here.

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.

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.

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How to tie a bjj belt:

1. Make sure it’s equal,

2. Close your Gi on your stomach,

3. Pull through,

4. Make sure the sides are equal,

5. Right left over tuck under,

6. Both pull till you’re comfortable,

7. Left down right over and goes through,

8. Pull it, tight.

Thank you.

Caio Terra Camp Experience (Third Degree Blackbelt - 2022)

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.

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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 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.