How to Tie Your Jiu-Jitsu Belt: A Step-by-Step Guide by Strong Heart Academy

Welcome to the Strong Heart Academy blog! As a premier Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu gym in Scottsdale, Arizona, we're committed to providing you with the highest-quality instruction and resources to help you excel in your martial arts journey. Today, we'll be covering a fundamental aspect of BJJ training: how to tie your Jiu-Jitsu belt correctly.

Having a properly tied belt is not only essential for maintaining a professional appearance, but it also ensures that your belt stays in place during training and competition. Let's dive into our step-by-step guide on how to tie your Jiu-Jitsu belt the right way!

Step 1: Find the Center of Your Belt

To begin, locate the center of your belt. Hold the belt out in front of you and make sure the ends are even. The middle of the belt will be the starting point.

Step 2: Wrap the Belt Around Your Waist

Place the center of the belt on your stomach, just below your navel. Wrap both ends of the belt around your waist, crossing them over in the back. Bring the ends back to the front, ensuring that the layers of the belt lie flat against your body.

Step 3: Cross the Ends Over

With both ends of the belt now in front of you, cross the right end over the left end. Make sure the belt remains flat and snug against your body.

Step 4: Tuck the Right End Under the Layers

Take the right end (now on top) and tuck it under all the belt layers wrapped around your waist. Pull it up and out, making sure to keep the belt tight.

Step 5: Make a Knot

Grab both ends of the belt and ensure they are the same length. Fold the end that is on top (previously the right end) over the bottom end. Then, take the bottom end (now on top) and thread it through the loop created by the top end. Finally, pull both ends tight to secure the knot.

Your Jiu-Jitsu belt should now be tied correctly, with the knot lying flat and horizontal across your waist. The ends of the belt should hang down evenly.

Additional Tips for Tying Your Jiu-Jitsu Belt

• Always ensure your belt is clean and in good condition. If your belt is frayed or damaged, it's time to replace it.

• To prevent your belt from coming undone during training, consider using the super lock knot technique for added security.

Wrapping Up

Now that you know how to tie your Jiu-Jitsu belt, you're one step closer to mastering the art of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. At Strong Heart Academy in Scottsdale, Arizona, we're dedicated to helping you reach your full potential in martial arts. Check out our class schedule and join us for a session soon!

How to Practice Jiu Jitsu Alone

In this video, Professor Mike Martin, a third-degree black belt under Caio Terra, shares his insights on training in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) on your own.

He explains that BJJ is more challenging to train for on your own than striking martial arts, which can be practiced on a bag or in a mirror.

BJJ requires an opponent, but there are many drills that you can do on your own, including movement drills, warm-ups, and workouts.

Professor Martin recommends using bjj2go.com, where you can find a range of drills and resources that you can use to improve your skills in BJJ.

In the video, he also discusses the importance of hip escape warm-up drills, hip thruster drills, mobility drills for balance on the ground, and neon belly drills.

Video Transcription

Hi, I'm professor Mike Martin. I'm a third degree black belt under Caio Terra. I own and operate strong heart academy in Phoenix, Arizona.

We are at 32 street in Union Hills and today I want to talk about how to train on your own.

Done With an Opponent

One of the things about Jiu Jitsu that sets it apart from a lot of martial arts is it is more difficult to train on your own.

Okay. Many things you can do in striking martial arts. In the mirror or on bags, there's less options in Jiu Jitsu.

Now, because things are done on an opponent. So in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, your goal is to submit your opponent or control your opponent to a point where they're ready to give up.

And there's no strikes, no punches, no kicks, nothing like that, no knees. Now you could obviously add those for some defense purposes, but they're not in sports Jiu Jitsu.

And generally not taught during most Jiu Jitsu classes. Now you need a partner to work on because I'm going to do a move on the partner.

Many times again, striking, you can practice your jab, crosses, hooks, your boxing in a mirror, and you don't have to hit anything.

And if you have a bag, you can practice hitting an actual bag. Now when you spar, that's when you need a, another person that's still very useful to learn how to spar for distance and things like that.

Practice on Your Own

Same thing with Jiu Jitsu. But in order to practice on your own, there's many drills you can do. We can do movement drills.

On my online platform, for strong heart, we use our curriculum, goes through it. It's bjj2go.com. And on there, I have plenty of things you can do on your own.

We also have like workouts and warmups. So learning how to warm up on your own is very helpful, especially if the old or you get, you want your body to be loose before the class starts.

Or if you're going to compete, how to get your body tuned up and ready to go versus just go straight out there.

Even when I was young, I, I like to warm up versus just go straight out there. But now that I'm older, it's even more important that I learn these movements to kind of, it's like greasing the bearings is the way I kind of think about it.

Get my joints ready to be used. It blood flowing through my muscles mobility work, things of that nature. Now there's a whole set of drills in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu that we can do that are movement specific to jiu jitsu, not just warm up drills.

So we can practice various, hip escapes, almost every jiu jitsu class you go to will have some form of hip escape warm up drills that they do.

The Value of Movement Drills

Now I've had, I've seen many people start to say recently like, you know, those are useless but I don't, I don't believe they are.

I think learning how to hit escape and continually not being lazy with your hip escape keeps you sharp in your ability to move your hips in and out of position.

So when you're attacking, you may need to move your hips. When you're escaping, you definitely need to move your hips.

So it's a valuable tool that you can use that's a movement that it's not always needed with another partner. You can do this by yourself.

Drill at Home

Now if you're at home, this is something that can be done on a rug, something like that. It's not as hard on the ground.

You're not going to have to move as much. If you have mats, I have plenty of students that have mats at their house like a five by five by five by ten, five by eight.

Those are great. You don't need much more space than that. You can put it in the garage. People have dedicated rooms in their house, which is awesome.

You can drill by yourself and you don't need a partner. There's also drills, movement drills. People call them egg beaters, where you're moving your legs and directionally.

It kind of warms up your knees, but also if someone's trying to grab a hole with your legs, how to circle your legs out of the grip.

It's hard to grip. I'm grabbing your circling your legs one direction and other direction. This also helps moving your hips and moving your knees, getting those knees warmed up.

You're ready to have good guard retention, which would say is make sure someone stays in front of you and not getting around your legs.

That's your guard retention, retention, keeping them in your guard. Your guard is anytime you're using your legs between you and your opponent.

This is a great drill. You don't need another opponent to do. You can do it with or without another person.

We do other hip warm-up drills, hip thruster drills, mobility drills for balance on the ground. You can also take a medicine ball and do neon belly drills, warm-up drills off of putting your neon a belly and then windshield-wipe your legs side to side.

There's plenty of these drills online too. If you go to bgj2go.com it has them all, but you can find them on YouTube for free.

There's many of them out there. They're not going to be listed in a row like bjj2go. It's not going to be as convenient.

But you can search them and you've got to find good ones of people that know how to teach properly. Unfortunately there's a lot of people that aren't great teachers, but they have a ton of content out there.

It might take you a little bit longer, but it's out there for free if you'd like. I also like to use a punching bag.

If you have a punching bag, maybe the rings broke on it. You can't hang anymore. Or you just don't really want to hang anymore.

You're not striking anymore. You can put it on the ground and you can do so many drills on a punching bag, learning how to mount off of it, how to change sides from the side control position.

There are plenty of those drills out there as well. Learning how to fall properly, dropfalls, which is done almost every judo class.

Falling and Standing for Self-Defense

We like to do them in at Strongheart too and technical stand-up. How to fall, how to stand back up. To me is one of the most important things for self-defense that you can do.

So many people don't know how to fall properly. If you fall improperly and you hit your head, you're going to knock yourself out.

Then there's no defending yourself at that point. Or you're going to post an arm and hurt your arm. You can't defend using your arm because it might be broken, dislocated, wrist hurt, fingers hurt, all these things.

And learning how to stand back up even just so you can run away is really important. A lot of times when people stand up, they lean forward, which exposes your head to a kick or a punch, like a soccer kick, like a real street fight.

And learning how to lean out of it to stand up and not turn your back, turn away to get up.

If you turn your back, someone can kick you from behind. Jiu Jitsu they will take your back and choke you.

But just for self-defense purposes, it's so helpful. When I teach my self-defense classes, I really emphasize falling and standing up just as much as like striking and covering your face, defending strikes and striking back.

Where You Can Practice?

I think falling and standing up is huge. And important to prevent injuries too. But those could all be done at your own.

You could do it in the grass, you could go to a park, you could do it on mats, like I said before if you had them at your house.

If you have a rug, I would go very slowly with these. Again, we have those on bjj2go.com also. We'll help you show you how to drop fall properly, starting on the ground and working way up and then back down.

More Training to Learn

Now there's back fall, side falls and front falls. All those are very valuable and helpful to get you learning how to fall properly, reduce any kind of injuries or take injuries out of the equation altogether.

You don't need any partners for those type of drills. Check it out. You guys can see all these drills and workouts that you can do too.

Workouts by yourself that are jiu jitsu centric, I would say. We have those on there too, even foam rolling, how to stretch properly and foam roll to get your muscles ready to go.

I like to do that after training or before training both. Check that out. It's a short one today. I just want to talk about how you can actually train by yourself.

Obviously, at the end of the day, you will need to join a class with others. I don't believe training, garage training is a great way to do jiu jitsu is better than zero training.

But if you want to supplement your training, you can do it on your own and there are plenty of drills that you can do on your own just to get a little bit better, more comfortable when you're in class.

When you go to an actual class, these things are a little bit faster, a little bit more warmed up and you'll understand them a lot better.

Your body movement is a lot better. One thing I like to also say is when you first start jj2, one of the things you learn in the beginning is just how to move correctly on the ground.

I'll tell people all the time, once you're past one year's old, there's really no other sports on the ground other than grappling.

If you play any sports, basketball, baseball, hockey, even, it's all on your feet and we are used to the movement and the balance on our feet.

Learning your balance on the ground is a great way to understand how to move properly for jj2 class. When you actually do lose live sparring, you're not falling over and losing a position because your balance is very good on the ground.

All these kind of solo drills that we call them are great for that great balance understanding of how your body works on the ground and how others do to break someone else's balance.

When you're trying to do a sweep, learning how to break someone's balance is to sweep them off their base and come on on top.

Very helpful just understanding your own balance and how your body works and with posts.

Conclusion

That's it for today. Just want to go over those solo drills.

You can check them out at bjj2go.com. Then we also have these warmups on our curriculum that everyone on my students have access to if you're a member of Strong Heart.

You can check us out at StrongHeartAcademy.com. If you want to try a free trial, just hit the free trial button.

I'm going to start putting up all our prices up soon just to get that out of the way so everyone knows what our value is.

When you come in you understand the value of what you're getting and check us out. Thanks. Peace.

What is the Difference Between Judo and Jiu Jitsu

In this video, Professor Mike Martin, a third degree black belt and owner of Strong Heart Academy, discusses the differences between Judo and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ). He shares his insights on how Judo and BJJ have evolved over the years, and how they differ in terms of grappling and scoring. He also provides a brief overview of BJJ rules and belt ranks, and how they vary based on age and competition level. If you're interested in learning more about the fundamentals of Judo and BJJ, this video is a must-watch.

Video Transcription

Hi, I'm Mike Martin professor under Caio Terra. He's a 12 time world champion. I'm a third degree black belt. I've been training for about 23 years now.

And I've had my academy strong hard academy since 2009. We are the longest running academy in the north valley Phoenix.

And it's been an honor to teach all these families and adults for the last, whatever 14 years now. Today I want to talk about the difference between judo and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.

What’s Brazilian Jiu Jitsu?

Many times when people ask me what it is, what's Brazilian Jiu Jitsu? And I like to say it's similar to judo because judo is in the Olympics and maybe people have seen that to understand it.

You know, when I first started to do it, everyone would give you knife hands like karate and like, no, it's not karate, you know, Austin Powers just say judo chop.

There's no chops on judo. That's why it was even funnier. But judo starts standing and they used to do a lot of lot more stuff on the ground, which is called Ne waza.

Ne waza is the grappling part of judo. Now, because of the nature of bringing judo into the Olympics, they changed the rules to sport jujitsu.

There's much less grappling. You have a very short window of time to do something on the ground in judo. And jujitsu matches also start in sport jujitsu standing.

But it's only two points. If I take my opponent down, I get two points. In judo, if I take you down with speed and force, it's called e pon, which is one point.

The goal of judo is to score one point. Pin or let's see, or submission. Now, only at the black belt level do they allow most submissions.

Many submissions are also cut out of judo too. And just that kind of happens with with sports that join especially comments for us to join the Olympics that get to get to the tend to get watered down, I would say.

Judo Used to Have More Grappling

So you know, judo, like I said before judo used to have a lot more Ne waza, a lot more grappling, which would look very similar to Brazilian jujitsu.

So when Brazilian jujitsu, my goal is to submit my opponent in sport jujitsu, depending on the rule set. Whoever scores the most points when the timer goes off or gets a submission.

So if I'm losing 20 to zero, but I pull off a submission, I make you say tap. You say, you know, uncle basically, we say tap.

The matches over immediately and I would win the match no matter how many points you've racked up. So it's kind of cool.

Some of the wrestling if you're losing by quite a bit and I get, I can still get a pin and win the match.

Now in wrestling, they have tech where you can win by so many points above. They just the matches over you're beating them so much.

But I have seen matches in Brazilian jujitsu where the guy was losing by a significant amount and the other guy just got lazy or cocky or whatever.

And then the other person was able to get a submission before the timer goes out. Now in, excuse me, in jujitsu matches are based on time for different belt ranks.

Different Belt Levels and Divisions

So generally speaking, white belt is five blue belt, a six, purple belt is seven brown belt is eight and then black belt skips to nine or 10.

And these are for, I'm Jeff rules and the international Brazilian jujitsu. Federation rules plus depending on your age. So if once you're over 30, they call you masters division and every five years is another master's division.

So 32 34 is masters one. Masters two is 35 to 40. And then 40 to 45 is masters three and so on and so on and so on.

Match Length

So all those matches are going to be five minute no matter what belt you are. You can be white, black blue, purple, brown, black, it's all the same as five minutes.

And once you start doing jujitsu, you kind of appreciate that like when you're getting older, like man cuz right now I'm 43 and a 10 minute matches a lot to ask.

And if you're in a big tournament, you know, we might have six to eight matches. So, you know, can you do 80 to 90 minutes of as hard as you can 100%.

So if it's a normal level of, you know, you can do 70 minutes of. It's a class, that's not as bad in class, but when you're doing a competition, much more difficult.

Jujitsu matches are much shorter. I don't remember the exact amount of time. There's no periods. It's just a straight match just like jujitsu.

But again, in the end of the day, most matches are won by e-pawn, meaning you threw your opponent and they landed on their back with speed and force e-pawn one point.

Now you can do half, half point. I think you can afford a quarter point for if you land on your side or butt.

When you hit the ground, sometimes they give you a certain amount of time to try to get it to submission.

Now, they don't give you much time. I'm talking less than a minute. You've got to get a submission going. You need to be actively going for submission.

Now, the good news with this, I would say, is as far as watching a match, it's more exciting because it's a faster pace.

But in brazilians jujitsu, it takes time to set things up to go right to a submission. It's very difficult. In jujitsu, many people even do what's called pulling guards.

Guard Descriptions

There's no take down. I didn't take you down. I have to get a grip and then I sat and I tried to get a guard going, which is basically my legs between me and my opponent.

So, I'm sort of guard. Then, I'm going to get something to happen. I'm going to try to sweep you, meaning get you off your feet or off your base.

I end up on top of you in a more dominant position. Now, you're going to get points for more dominant positions.

So, a sweep is two points. Take down the two points. If I were to pass a guard, pass around someone's legs.

If the legs were between me and you, I get around them, pass the hip line. With control, I'm going to get three points.

If I mount its four points and if I take your back, it's four points. So, positional dominance is going to create more points structure.

You cannot come off a position and go back to try to get more points. You have to continually go forward.

So, once you go to mount, there's no where you can go other than taking the back and vice versa. You need to be going for submissions.

Now, at any point, you can go for submissions from guard. Almost all positions, you can go for submission. They're submissions everywhere.

So, and bad positions and good positions. Generally, you want to be on top if you can. And that's just not the case in judo.

Pins, Guard, Stances in Judo

Now, they do have pins in judo. You have to hold someone down for 25 seconds, I believe. And honestly, doing jujitsu is that's pretty simple.

Like, I can hold someone for 25 seconds. Not these, you know, in Olympics, these are Olympic athletes. It definitely would be way harder to hold Olympic athlete down for 25 seconds.

But the first thing I would have to get him to the ground. So, that would be a challenge. They'd all allow pulling guard in judo.

You have to stand up. You'd be disqualified. So, even the types of takedowns and stances are going to be a little bit different too.

So, in judo, you are required to stand straight. Now, they didn't always have this as a rule set. Rules have changed over time.

But they don't want you bent over. You need to make sure that you are straight. In Jujitsu, it's going to look more like wrestling or folks out wrestling where you're bent over and your hips are far away.

So, many throws are difficult to pull off because you can't get your hips close enough to your opponent. Or, you have to figure out ways to make that happen.

How can I get my hips to my opponent to apply a take-down? So, getting someone to go backwards versus forwards is a lot harder versus in judo where I'm required to stand up straight and erect.

Also, once I get a grip, I have to do something with it fairly quickly in judo or you're going to get called also.

Jujutsu, I have a lot more time. They will call you for stalling in judo, Jujutsu, but nothing like judo. Judo's matches are so quick.

It's not uncommon 30-second matches because again, I'm just trying to get a grip and throw you as fast as possible.

We'll get you off balance with a series of throws and breaking your balance or destroying one's balance, which is Kazushi, and taking you down off of that.

I love both. I started Jujutsu, well, first I started wrestling and then I went in to Brazilian Jujutsu and I just wanted to get some judo take-downs.

I already had wrestling take-downs. So I joined a judo club in the valley and they awarded me my brown belt.

I would say definitely Rusty compared to where I was. We do teach judo throws in my academy, but I'm not as sharp.

Judo is Great for Self-Defense

I would say as I used to be, but I do love judo. I think it's great for self-defense. Also, sport judo's cool.

I love judo too more because I have more options with submissions and just stances and less penalties and things like that.

I think it's more fun and the order you can't, you can go a little longer, I think, in judo two versus judo.

Taking those falls in judo, it's only falling and getting thrown hard. So it could beat you up a little bit more.

I think judo's a little bit more forgiving on the body. Like many schools will start on their knees, especially there's no room versus judo's always starting standing.

So that's some of the differences right there. I enjoyed my time in judo. I sometimes I want to go back and just take it in my black belt in judo, because I don't like things undone.

But it's been difficult as running a gym and family and things like that to go out and pursue that black belt again.

The judo's just why I attended only spoke Japanese. They were Americans that ran it, but the one guy lived in the Kota Khan in Japan.

They were white boys, but they spoke fluent Japanese, which is crazy. And they did not like you speak in English.

So when he's teaching, it's all in Japanese after class before you can speak English, but he's teaching in Japanese. All every move is in Japanese when he's teaching things, he's saying things in Japanese.

I still caught on no problem. I didn't really have a problem with it. Pronounciations were hard. I barely speak English, but I did appreciate trying to keep the name straight.

Because in jujitsu, some moves have multiple names. And wrestling has this issue too, where judo does and judo has that name.

And that's it. And they don't change really. Sometimes they have a set amount of throws. And there's just variations, but the set amount is the set amount.

There's no new ones. So, jujitsu is evolving all the time. Very few things are not like illegal. Certain knee reaping they call is illegal and many things.

And you can do double eggs and you're not allowed to do that in judo anymore, grabbing the legs. Which is goofy, but that's just kind of the rules.

Conclusion

But thank you for listening for me today about just going over the very basic differences of judo and jujitsu. But at strongheart we do do judo takedowns.

I like to start all my matches, start standing just to get used to it. And I do take the falls and do take downs myself as well.

But I mix up my wrestling and judo together. And then we teach one throw per month at my academy. So you have your curriculum, but we stick with one throw, one take down every month.

So every month you get a new take down, do you take down, do you take down, do you take down?

And then it rotates back through again. So we have a set amount of judo throws and set amount of wrestling throws plus pulling guard.

So hopefully that clarifies some differences between judo and jujitsu. And I hope you appreciate it. Thank you. Peace.

Learn How to Move for Jiu Jitsu

As you learn how to move for jiu jitsu, one of the most important things is to remain one step ahead.

This is one of Strong Heart Academy's 21 truths for brazilian jiu jitsu.

When you can stay one step ahead, whether on the mat or in life, then you're able to increase your chances of success.

In this video podcast, I dive deeper into this Strong Heart principle.

Watch below!

Video Transcription

Hi, I'm professor Mike Martin from Strong Heart, Martial Arts Academy. We teach Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and MMA striking for kids and adults.

We're in Phoenix, Arizona, North Phoenix, 32nd Street, and Union Hills. If you want to check us out, Strongheart Academy dot com.

I'm a second degree black belt under Caio Terra. And I'm sorry, I'm 3rd degree black belt under Caio Terra, almost 4th degree.

But I’ve been at this for about 23 years, but doing it for a long time. We've had our academy since 2009 but today I want to talk about our 21 truths, which is behind me.

Concepts of Jiu Jitsu

These are things that I think are extremely important just to keep in mind conceptually for Jiu Jitsu. And I'm very big on concepts of Jiu Jitsu, not just the actual technique.

I think it's a, it's a better, it's a deeper understanding of something when you can conceptualize understanding something versus just the facts of something.

Because, just as humans I think it gives you a better depth of knowledge of, of the particular thing that you're talking about or, or trying to learn is the concept.

So the 21 truths this one we're talking about today is always be one move ahead. And this is the 20th of the 21 truths.

And so what that means is that you need to be always knowing what your neck is. Is. Okay. And you want to be ahead of your opponent.

Human Chess

So we kind of talk about also that that Jiu Jitsu is like chess. It's, it's commonly referred to like human chess.

And good chess players are multiple moves ahead, but in Jiu Jitsu, I think you have to have a minimum of one move ahead.

And because we're constantly moving at the same time we both can counter at the same time as well. So if I'm a, ahead, then I'm going to know hopefully what your next move is.

And I like to think of it as leading the dance. So whoever is leading the dance gets to make the decisions.

So when you're ahead of your opponent, you are acting and your opponent is reacting. So now, you know, they have to counter what you're doing and encountering is slower than action is faster than reaction.

Okay. That's a common kind of self defense term. You know, even in military terms, you know, the shocking are part of the awe is that you went first and now they're responding.

And if it was a surprise, it's even more that's more shocking. Violence of action as well, you know but in Jiu Jitsu, if we're ahead, if I start an initiate contact, initiate a take down, initiate a sweep, initiate a garp pull then I'm always going to be leading the dance.

I'm always going to be slightly. Ahead. And even if we teach, if we keep pace with each other and you're attacking the same time, if I'm always ahead, one move ahead, you're constantly trying to keep up, trying to keep up.

So this is really important for multiple reasons, but if you, the more knowledge you have, the easier it is for you to, cause will be ahead of your opponent.

Know Your Opponent

If you know your opponent, you know then you're going to be able to even go. Easier to be ahead of them because you know what they like to do.

You know, they're their favorite things that they're going to do. And, you know, you might know they're opening move. I'll tell students all the time.

There's certain schools in the valley. And, and Phoenix that I know that they're going to pull guard. They do not do take downs.

None. So just understand like, don't even think you're going to get a take down. They're going to pull before you, before you have an opportunity to try to take them down.

So really it narrows what I have to work on because I'm just going to take a take down. I'm just going to have to focus on passing, guard passing, because as soon as they pull, I'm going to pass.

Or once they're, I'm in their guard. I have to attempt to pass. So, you know, you're going to take that out as far as like, moves ahead.

Maybe they pulled first, but because you anticipated that, you kind of are a move ahead because I know that you're going to pull guard.

I'm immediately going to pass. Okay. And, versus someone that can do both that can do take downs and guard pull.

You don't know what they're going to do. You know, I'm, are they going to do, are they going to try to do a rep out wrestle me?

They're going to try to do judo on me. Or they're going to try to pull guard. And so, that makes them unpredictable and unpredictable person is way more dangerous in my opinion.

Very few people are so good that they could do what they want. And you don't, you can't counter. Because if I know what you're going to do, at least I can prepare ahead of time for my opponents and, you know, that's great.

Game Planning

Like that's game planning. You know, almost all sports, they game plan for their opponent. If you know your opponent. Now, and you do too many times the brackets.

You never know who that guy is. You can't do that. And if I have an opening move, we also talk about ABC's my A attack, B attack and C attack.

Then if I open up with an arm bar and depending on your reactions, I know your ABC's of reactions, I would also say that's going to lead me to my secondary and tertiary moves and so on and so on and so on.

So, what I want to do is certain attack, sweep, back take, whatever it is, you kind of need to know what your opponent's counter options are.

So, not only do you know your offense of the thing that you want to do. You have to know their defense because now when they counter, you're ready to counter their account and you're still going to be ahead.

You're still one move ahead because I already know when I do the arm bar that you're going to stack past me or you're going to stack to try to get your arm out.

So, I'm prepared to spin through or I'm prepared to change that angle of that arm bar, come out to the side and break the grip loose to finish my arm bar.

Or, I'm going to turn that into a sweep off the stack. If you don't stack properly, you don't put your leg up, you stack what you're still underneath, I can still sweep you over and I'm going to end up in a mount position and still have my arm bar.

So, that's me leading this dance and seeing where you go but that I'm moving you where I want to go.

I'm out when we're now moving you by constantly having that one step of a head, one move ahead. And, you know, where does that relate to your own life, it's not just your everyday life.

Benefits of Being One Move Ahead

I mean, it's super beneficial if you could be a move ahead, a move ahead of your in business. You know, move ahead, always ahead of move knowing what your, you know, what your customers are going to want is a step ahead.

What do my customers want for me? That's a step ahead. You're always a step ahead of them. What it anticipating their needs, you know, anticipating their needs is really important.

So, just conceptually understanding, always trying to be a move ahead is going to put you in lots of different scenarios that are going to help you and be beneficial.

So, you're not always reactive and you are active because again reactive is slower than active. If you are the person initiating, you're going to be ahead of the curve and being able to anticipate because everyone's going to be reacting off of you.

There's a lot of things and even a business that some businesses will lure weight for certain leaders of business leaders to do something.

They're waiting for them. What is their reaction to market? What the market is saying and then they kind of copy them basically.

But you're the one, you know, if you're ahead then you're the one leading that movement, okay, that movement.

Examples

You can see it in like cars, you know, Elon Musk, you know, love him hating whatever.

I mean he ushered in the modern era of electric cars and, you know, is there problems with it? There's problems with the car in general.

There's cars that have exploded over the years, you know. So, but he led the charge of electric cars and now all these other industries have copied him basically, you know.

So now you have Porsche has a electric car. I mean literally all manufacturers now are going to produce their electric car and some of really invested a lot of money into this because they believe it's the future.

But the first guy is he's a head, step ahead. So his market share is going to be bigger. You know, Elon Musk has a better market share of electric vehicles than Ford does and Ford is everyone else is playing ketchup.

Okay. Can they catch up? Yes. But again, in the industry you are a move ahead. You are ahead of everyone else.

Okay. So he's ahead of everyone else. They built the infrastructure and we are also playing catch up.

Conclusion

So being a move ahead is always going to be better, more beneficial for you in these types of scenarios.

If you are a competitive person, it's very advantageous to be a move ahead. And thank you for your time.

Peace.

Inner Strength Jiu-Jitsu

Today, we're diving into the world of jiu-jitsu and exploring the powerful concept of "inner strength." As practitioners know, jiu-jitsu is not just about physical prowess, but it also requires mental and emotional resilience. In this video, we'll be discussing how jiu-jitsu can help develop your inner strength and how it can positively impact your life beyond the mat. So, let's get ready to roll and uncover the secrets of inner strength in jiu-jitsu!

Video Transcription

Hi, I'm professor Mike Martin. I'm a third degree black belt under Caio Terra. I'm the owner and operator and head instructor at Strong Heart Academy.

We’re in Phoenix, Arizona at 32nd street in Union Hills. We want to come check us out today. I want to talk about the very last of our 21 truths that I came up with.

Jiu-Jitsu and Life

These are things that I think are really important for Jiu-Jitsu and for life. The very last one is strong heart means breaking.

Your limits. Okay. So I was listening to excerpt of a book about a lady that did research on, on kids and adults that seemed to be successful.

And one of the things she said was grit was the thing. The number one thing was grit. In your ability to overcome obstacles, push through have diligence through those things.

And when I named our school strong heart took me a long time, to come up with this name and just trying to emphasize that belief system of that true grit belief system.

And there are times where it's just very easy to give up. And people say, oh, it's not an option to give up.

Well, really, it's the easiest option is to give up. You know, you, you want the mindset of like, oh, it's not, it's not an option.

But the truth is it is an option. And your ability to push through those things can make you way more successful than others.

You know, the people that can go far that push more do more. I've been watching a ton of interviews with tier one operators they would call them.

Do You Want it More?

So Navy Seals even the Rangers Air Force controllers Delta Force. These guys. One of the things they all seem to have in common is like they're, they want it more.

Like to pass the qualifications is always about your ability to kind of just push farther. And in these courses, they seem to always, they're going to find your limit and then where you will break.

And then will you go a little bit more. And I remember hearing, I had actually had a book on one guy years ago, Navy Seals.

And he, he said his trick was just whenever he needed to go farther, he just would say 10 more seconds or one more minute.

And then it was just one more minute or one 10 more seconds. Can you go 10 more? Oh, I can go 10 more seconds and 10 more seconds 10 more seconds or one more foot.

Instead of like this long goal of like, I got to get 18 mile road marks or whatever. It's like, hey, can I get to that tree up there?

How Strong Can Your Mind Be?

Let's just make it to that tree. And your mind will go, okay, we can make it to the tree. And, and so much of this is, is how strong you can be your mind.

Sometimes our mind is our, it's our greatest weapon. And it's also our greatest enemy. And, you know, depending on how you're kind of built, you know, could be your past or just genetics is your willingness to do more and go farther, study more, push harder, train harder, those type of things.

And so those are, those are important to me. And those are important for me to emphasize, especially the kids. It's one of the greatest lessons I think that I can teach kids is that you can always do more.

And whenever you think you can't, you actually have way more, you know, David Goggins had the famous thing. You had like 40 more percent, you know, whenever you're done, you actually have 40 more percent.

Because your body only does what the mind will allow it. There's certain times where your body will shut down, but it's not where your mind says it is because your mind is trying to, you generally it's, it's avoiding pain and the thought of death.

Okay. And so it's just trying to keep you alive. So pain is not seen as progress and difficulties are not always seeing as progress in your brain.

Your brain is like, well, you know, this could lead to death. And so it is as extreme as that sound.

That's just kind of how our brains are wired to keep us alive for this, you know, however long we've been around.

I said survival mechanism. So, you know, your ability to kind of trick your brain and go, hey, I think can you go, can you go a little more?

Can we go 10 more seconds 10 more seconds. I like to watch the clock when I'm wrestling when I'm really exhausted.

I'll try to go, hey, there's only, you know, one more minute in the match one more minute. Can you go one more minute?

Just push one more minute and try to get to that end. You know, when I'm really exhausted, just we're like, oh, I just let this guy win.

You know, those are, those are the negative thoughts that your brain will talk to you and talk you out of things.

Strong Heart: Pushing Your Limits

So pushing your limits, you know, that's what we talk about. Strongheart is about pushing your limits. And I thought about, you know, people say, oh, he has heart.

That was my first thing. So I was like, oh, you know, there's brave heart. Well, I can't call it brave heart.

That was a movie. You know, I'm not going to get the license for that or something like that. But I thought the same kind of concept like, and then there was a movie.

No one lying heart. And you know, but it just I didn't like lying heart as much. I wanted, but I did want like strength and the strength of seeing that as a strength, not a weakness.

Your your ability to go more, do more and not give up and not just give up so easily. And some of you of us learned to give up easy and parents, unfortunately, a lot of modern parents are just very easily okay with their kids quitting things.

And it's okay, you know, you know, that you didn't get an A you got a B or it's okay, you got a C instead of a B and it's like, no, it's not okay.

Like you could you could have done it better. You know, we should we should want more and expect more of our kids and not crush them for failing.

But like, hey, it's okay to fail, but you should have done it better. And you can and I know you can do better.

Setting Expectations

And setting those expectations and then for me is like my kind of I feel as my responsibility as a structure is like to teach people, hey guys, you can do more than you think you can't.

And it's a very powerful, very powerful feeling when you learn that you can go that much farther break those limits.

We set limits and limitations in our mind of what we think is achievable. I've talked about this before about the four minute mile and and how they didn't think it was possible and tell one guy did it.

And then once the guy did it like a couple more people did it right away. And so when you set that limit for yourself, you know, it's it's like self-fulfilled prophecy, you know, like well I can never do that.

You know this is where I'm at, you know, well, yeah, whether you believe you can or can't, you're right, that's a head and forward saying.

And I believe it to be true. So because if you say you can't, you won't go farther than that limit.

You set that limit for yourself. You will not go any step farther. And so it's it's you know, obviously we want to be realistic, but you know that you can go a little bit farther than the limit you've already set for yourself.

And you should know that like whatever that limit is 10 more seconds. You know, 10 more dollars, five more steps, eight more push ups.

You know, whatever it is, it doesn't matter what it is. Try a little bit more push a little bit harder.

How Growth Happens

And then this is how growth happens. You know, when you're lifting weights, you're trying to get stronger. But if you never add weight to the bench, if you never add weight, you're just going to be stuck at whatever it is you're stuck at, you know, curling.

Oh, I can only curl 10 pounds. I can only curl 20 pounds, 35, you know, whatever. Everyone that can curl 100 pounds, which is an extreme amount of weight started a little less.

You know, at one point he was a baby, you know, like the, so you inch, incremental, like small steps increased to get better and better better.

And that's pushing those limits and not setting the limits for yourself. You can set a goal and then you're trying to beat that goal really, you know, some people just want to meet the goal.

I tend to try to push and surpass my goals.

Conclusion

So just a conclusion, it's one of the last things on my list of my 21 truths.

It is the last one on my list and it's just to understand that the name of my school is basically to break your limits.

Do more than you think you can. That's having a strong heart. And I'm not alone in wanting to quit things and not going to do the best I thought I could, but it's a constantly reminder for myself and hopefully for others that strong heart.

That's what it means, guys. That's what it means, strong heart to push yourself to do more and to break your limits.

Thank you. Peace.

Great Self Defense Classes Phoenix | Is Jiu Jitsu for You?

Great Self Defense Classes Phoenix | Is Jiu Jitsu for You?

A third-degree black belt, and owner of Strong Heart Academy, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, in Phoenix, Arizona, Mike Martin, discusses Self-Defense Classes Phoenix and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Is this martial arts training for you?

View our blog here.

Watch the video below:

Transcript: Self Defense Classes Phoenix

Hi, I'm Mike Martin from Strongheart Brazilian jiu jitsu academy. Today I wanna talk about, self-defense in Phoenix or Phoenix self-defense, and is jiu jitsu right for self defense. And the answer is very easy. Absolutely. I kind of talked about this with women on a previous podcast is, jiu jitsu good for women for self defense? Absolutely. But men is no difference. Okay. So, I could say for myself, when I started Brazilian jujitsu, I weighed about 140 pounds and I was, six foot tall. So I'm very thin I did do jiu jitsu before, but I wasn't strong enough to overpower bigger people, you know?

I was very thin. And, right now, you know, I've done 20 years of Jiu Jitsu. I've put on 50 pounds of muscle, but over 20 years, and maybe 40 pounds, I might have a little bit of fat on me, but I'm pretty lean for my age.

Self-Defense: What Jiu Jitsu Teaches

And one of the things that I would say that jiu jitsu does is it teaches you to use leverage versus strength and not that strength isn't as important, but just physics, mass. Okay. If you just add mass four mass versus three mass and they go head to head, okay. Four mass beats, three mass. Okay. So angles are important. Leverage is important. Okay. Speed, timing, aggressiveness. Those are all important attributes that you're gonna learn in Jiu Jitsu. Learning, to deal with a generalization when you get really nervous, because there's an altercation happening. Okay.

So many people, even if they're trained in something, but don't train live sparring like jiu jitsu does, or at Strongheart jiu jitsu does, you'd never get adrenalized and you never learn how to deal with when it actually happens. So even if you know a correct move to do, you have to learn how to do it live when someone is not letting you do it. And I feel like that is one of the biggest differences between Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and so many other martial arts is the live sparring, our ability to get after it in a safe way, cuz we're all gonna be able to have the ability to say, tap or tap physically, and then having the trust in your partner to let go. Now, in a real altercation, obviously, you know, you don't know if the person's gonna let go, if you say tap or I give or whatever.

Okay. Most likely not. Okay until they've calmed down or they feel like you're not gonna be a threat anymore. So your ability to, preserve under pressure okay, is important. And your ability to stay calm and make correct decisions. Okay. Learning how to frame so that the weight isn't on top of you. Okay. And then the last part of all that I would say is, confidence. You know, so many people lack confidence. And as far as predator prey, when a predator, even in the wild is looking for a prey, it looks for something that it perceives as weak. Okay. Especially large cats, large cats don't want to be injured. They generally stalk and surprise attacks, something it's either an injured animal, a young animal, an old animal. Okay. So if they say, oh, they're not gonna go off after the biggest one, they're gonna go off of the weakest one.

Different Self Defense Scenarios

So as far as like self defense, I mean there's many different self defense scenarios. But if you, if, someone that is a bully or someone that is just starting to wants to start something, someone that's trying to take advantage of you, rob you, they're gonna look for a target that is weaker because they don't want to get caught. They don't want to get hit. They don't wanna get hurt either. And they're not gonna look for the toughest biggest guy. Okay.

Self Defense: Confidence and Calm

So your ability to be calm and be confident, just walking around in regular day life, I definitely believe it gives you a sense of confidence knowing that you feel that you could take care of yourself. And I feel like that radiates out almost like a beacon to other people to know, ah, that's not an easy prey. I'm not gonna mess with that one.

Even if you are a smaller person, it doesn't matter. I've often said, if you see, bouncers in security somewhere and you see a little guy, that's the scariest of all of them, the big guys are almost like window dressing. They might never have had a trained fight cuz nobody messes with the big guy. They literally don't. You could ask big guys, they don't get in fights because nobody wants to start a fight with them. So you know, the littler people they might get in more fights. Okay. And if they, if you have a job and you're smallest one, most likely they know that you can handle yourself. Okay.

Self Defense Comparison

The last part of that is if you do get cauliflower ear, that's almost, I always tell people it's like a tree frog, the arrow tree frog, you know, it's the most dangerous poison in the world that, Amazonians will dip, poison darts in, it's a brightest frog.

So all the other animals know, do not mess with this animal. The frog's like this big, it's not the size. It's the bright, they know you mess with this. You will die. Okay. I find that like sometimes a cauliflower ear for people to know is like a sign. Hey, that's not the one. That's not a good idea. I've seen a funny meme once that had a guy in a bar and it was like Dan Henderson, famous MMA fighter and wrestler. And he has his ear and the other guy's just like barking in front of his girl. And it was like, this guy has no idea. You know, that, that is a symbol of like, don't mess with this person. Now you might not ever get cauliflower ear doing Brazilian Jiu jitsu. You know, it's not most people, many people don't get it.

Cauliflower Ear: A Self Defense Symbol?

But I do understand that it is like almost like a, a beacon to say like warning, warning, warning, you know, less likely to mess with you. People. I forget, I have it. I'll step in an elevator sometimes and go, oh, did you wrestle? Do you fight? I'm like, oh yeah. And then I realize, oh, they're talking about my ear. You know, not, I have no outward symbol. I'm not talking about it. We I've never met this person, but it'll just come up sometimes.

Power of Knowledge and Self Defense

And again, people don't wanna mess with someone that knows something. And then the power of knowledge is if I know something and you don't, that's, that's so powerful. You know, most people that get in fights have never trained to fight. People that train to fight don't fight. And if you're a professional fighter, you surely don't fight because Hey, I get paid to fight.

Why would I pay, fight you for free? <laugh> you know, I'm a prize fighter. I don't, I don't, I don't mess around. I can get injured with you. I'm a professional. Like I don't wanna get injured for $0. Okay. So real fighters don't fight. They just don't. Unless they absolutely lose their mind with CTE or something like that, but jiu jitsu you don't get it because there's not hitting. You're not constantly getting punched, but you can learn to defend yourself for punches even on the ground. If a guy is standing, you can upkick. We just saw in a UFC fight last two weeks ago, a lady upkick into the kidneys and as kidney shot, the other one dropped to the ground. You could upkick to the face. If you're in the guard, you know, if you take someone's back, you could elbow in the back and there's no rules in the streets.

Striking and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu

Okay. Striking is easy to add to Brazilian jiu jitsu. Very easy. Once I control a position, you cannot defend yourself against strikes until you say I give. And then the last part is you don't have to strike it all. I could take a hold of someone, hold them down until the police come. Okay. They will not move. They're not gonna hit me. They're not gonna grab a weapon because I have control of their arms. Okay. S

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu a Great Self Defense?

So do I think it is a great self defense? Absolutely. If you're looking to get into self defense and you wanna learn, okay. We have a great program at strong heart strongheartacademy.com click on the trial button, try a class out. You have nothing to lose. It costs $0. The price of admission is, courage. Get in your car and to drive down. That's the hardest part.

The hardest part is to get here. And even people that train, you know, when you're tired, ah, I had a long day, the hardest part is getting in the car and getting there, not the workout. The hardest part is getting there. So I encourage you. If this is something you're looking to, do you feel like, man, I feel like I need to know a little bit something, more, something that boosts your confidence.

Professionals and Jiu Jitsu

Even I think people are professionals working professionals, training Jiu Jitsu feels like you have an extra confidence level. If I have to give a sales presentation. So much of it is your confidence in your persona. But if you have this thing, that's like one part of my life is kind of taken care of. So many parts of our lives are constantly in flux, but you're like, man, this part of my life, I'm, I'm confident I can defend myself and all my family and my friends. That's powerful, really powerful stuff. Every, UFC fighter, every MMA fighter knows at least some jiu jitsu. If they don't, they go to the ground, they will lose. Okay.

Self Defense: Most Fights Are on the Ground

The last part of this I would say is most fights go to the ground. Somebody sucker punches 'em they're on the ground. Somebody tackles someone they're on the ground, you trip over something in the street you're on the ground. So your ability to even learn how to fall correctly, say drop ball. So you don't hurt yourself on the way down. And your ability to stand back up is part of jiu jitsu. Okay.

Summary: Strong Heart Academy Self Defense Classes Phoenix

So, I appreciate your time. And if you wanna try out in you're in the Phoenix area and you wanna learn Phoenix, self defense, go to strongheartacademy.com, hit the trial button and try out a class for you. See if we're right for you, have a great day.

Top Women's Self Defense Classes Phoenix AZ

Women's Self-Defense and Is Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Right?

A third-degree black belt, and owner of Strong Heart Academy, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, in Phoenix, Arizona, discusses Women’s Self-Defense and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.

View our blog here.

Watch the video below:

Transcript:

So today I want to talk about, women's self defense and is Brazilian jiu jitsu, right, for women, for self defense, to defend yourself? And I would say absolutely yes. In Phoenix, you know, I don't know the statistics right now, but there's definitely a feeling that, crime is on the rise. And I think this is nationally right now, too, since the pandemic happened.

Is Brazilian Jiu Jitsu a Great Self-Defense?

And a lot of women will, will call and ask, Hey, is, is Brazilian jiu jitsu a great self-defense? Or is it good for self-defense? I'd like to take self defense classes. And, the answer is yes.

Self-Defense Techniques in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu

So we don't always specifically use, self-defense techniques in Brazilian jiu jitsu.

It is incorporated to what Brazilian is. And, because most fights end up in a clinch or on the ground, meaning, someone might throw a punch, but then someone tries to grab a hold of somebody. And then we're tussling when we're literally locked together, that's called the clinch. Okay. Now there's wrestling clinch and there's Moi Thai clench. Um, those are very helpful. Okay. But if you've grappled, you can control a lot of the strikes in the clinch. So someone trying to hit you, you can control the strikes then if you're a lot smaller than your opponent, okay. And there's nowhere to run, you can't run away. Then the best option is to take that opponent to the ground. Okay. Once you're on the ground, if you are on top, you have a severe advantage over your opponent. If you're on bottom, Brazilian jiu jitsu teaches you how to escape from those positions.

And I don't know of any other martial art as effective as that. They're none. There's a lot of, you know, Croma gosh, tried it. Some karate they'll incorporate like ground, oh, we do ground. And they just take little pieces of Brazilian jiu jitsu. And then like, oh, this is what we do. The problem is they don't do it live. Okay.

Live Martial Arts Sparring

And I've talked about it before the, the best martial arts are the ones that actually spar live, where you're not letting me do what I want to do. And I'm not letting you, what do, what you want do, you know, it's one thing when they're like, okay, grab my wrist, grab my wrist with the other hand. That's like the joke, you know, is, but meanwhile, they would just be punching you in the face. Okay. Or attacking you. So learning to deal with someone that's trying to oppose their will, or you trying to impose your will on someone when they're not letting you do it.

Okay. That's the sparring aspect of Brazilian jiu jitsu.

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu: A Must for Self-Defense

I absolutely think it is a must, or self defense. You have to have resistance. Otherwise the realism's not there and in Brazilian jiu jitsu, even more important, even more important than the actual technique, which sounds crazy is learning to deal with adrenalization. Okay. Adrenalization happens when your body is trying to tell you to, fight or flight. Okay. Now sometimes your body wants to flight when there's not an option to flight and that it can be an issue. Okay. And you need to learn how to deal with that. There's also a freezing effect. Sometimes people get frozen like deers do. Okay. And you're a prey. You want to, it's okay to freeze so they can't see you. But if you're already in a conflict, there is no hiding. And I don't think that that is bad thing to hide.

You know, if someone is chasing you and you can hide for sure hide, but make sure you have an out, so you're not cornered. Okay. Once you're cornered, you have to fight. There's no option. Okay. And the fight has to go a hundred percent. Okay. There's no like, oh, I, I kind of just wanna not hurt him. No, you have to defend yourself to the fullest. Okay. And make that person regret the decision that they had to attack you. Okay. We're not trying, we're not talking offensively, going out and attacking people. We're saying we are defending yourself. Okay.

Are Women Easy Targets?

Now, sometimes people think that women are easy targets. Because the truth of the matter is they have 50% muscle mass of upper body muscle mass compared to a male. This is all typical numbers. Okay. There's always outlier there's women that are probably stronger than me.

That could deadlift more than me. Okay. But on average, on average, you know, most women aren't as strong and are not as tall. Okay. For sure. This is on average. Are there, some women that are over six foot tall for sure, but it's very, it's not, it's not the norm. Okay. Those are few and far between and still those women generally are, are still 50%, not as strong as a man. Okay.

Learning to Deal with Leverage

So in learning to deal with leverage, okay. To leverage the fact that you don't have as much strength. And for me personally, this was, helpful because when I started Brazilian jiu jitsu, I was about six foot tall. I was 20 years old, but I was very thin for a six foot tall person. So I was about 135, 140. I just very skinny. I would say I was scrappy cuz I wrestled.

But, I didn't have the muscle mass that most of the people in class did and every class we sparred and instead of using it as an excuse that I was smaller, I just learned how to get good at jiu jitsu, Brazilian jiu jitsu and there's tactics in jiu jitsu that you can use as a smaller person to defend yourself. And I think it's hugely valuable, for everyone, but especially women. Again, you are a smaller statue. My wife she's about 5-4, 5-5, maybe. I'm six foot tall. And even for a woman, 5-6, 5-7, that's a pretty tall woman. But you're still shorter than an average man. I think the average man is about 5-10, 5-11. You know, if we're talking about six foot-2, 6 foot-5, those are very big people. Even for myself, it can be hard to, grapple with someone that large. Okay. But Brazil Brazilian Jiu jitsu Jteaches you how to use your leverage to gain advantage over your opponent.

Okay. How to escape bad positions. Okay.

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu: Overcoming Panic and Emotions

And then how to not panic when you're in these bad positions, which is also extremely helpful. When you, if you start panicking, you don't think clearly you don't breathe clearly and you're not gonna react correctly. Because we spar every class at strong heart. You're gonna get the feeling of that. A generalization of panic. You know, I, I, I don't wanna scare people saying that that you're gonna panic in class, but you all have a, you know, it's a controlled environment, but, when you start wrestling for the first time, it could be very, alarming if you've never done it before. So it's very helpful to learn how to deal with those emotions, deal with those thought processes.

Being Prepared: BJJ

So when it happens for real, you're prepared, it's not a, it's not something that you're not prepared for.

Okay. It's like the Boy Scouts, you know, being prepared, it, it's gonna help your outcomes for sure. Or business, any business that's not prepared. Excuse me for, everything, you know, is when something bad happens, you're just not ready for it and it can set your business back. Okay. So, you know, it's the same thing in the life. If you're not prepared for a dire situation, it can catch you off guard. And if you're not mentally ready to shift gears, from peace to violence, that's also could be an issue. Okay. I've seen so many people why I don't wanna hurt them. Um, well you're being attacked. Okay. And you need to defend yourself and you know, we're not talking about, unjust violence. We're talking about just violence because you're, you're defending yourself with the people around you or even your children. Imagine you're a mom.

Okay. You know, I know any mom would die for her children, but do you, know how to defend, defend yourself so you don't have to die. Okay. We don't want, we don't want people to get hurt. We want people to defend themselves so they can be, live another day and be with their children, be with their family. Okay.

Husband and/or Boyfriend Will Defend Me

I've had many times in the past women have told me when I've done. Women's self defense seminars that, oh, well my, my husband, he's such a tough guy or my boyfriend. He's a tough guy, but you know, they go to work, they have jobs, they have lives that they're not around 24-7, you're going out to run an errand. Okay. And you gotta go to your car and back there's, that's no man's land. Okay. Depending on where you park. If there's anyone around, you know, there's a lot of people I would call street people right now that are homeless, have psychotic issues, are on drugs and they're desperate, you know, times can be desperate right now. So, you know, you wanna be able to defend yourself against these people that might approach you. They might be completely harmless, but what if they're not? And you need to be prepared for those scenarios.

Using Weapons for Self-Defense

And I'm not against weapons either. I practice regularly on pistols, but there are levels of when you can use, a firearm. Okay. Now I think actually women have an advantage with that because you can kind of prove that, it's gonna be harder to defend yourself. And if it's a, if you think your life is threatened, you can defend yourself with a pistol, but are you willing to pull that trigger and kill someone? Okay. And studies, say that, most people are not. And even officers, although we see so many, videos of officer shootings, a lot of times they miss quite a few rounds because they're not willing to take a life and, Brazilian jiu jitsu makes it so you don't have to take a life.

Defend Yourself Without Killing

You could defend yourself without killing another person, which is also why it's great for the police. I believe all police should be at least a purple belt. Like Andrew Lang said, the president candidate, from the last election, you know, he said, all Brazilian jiu jitsu should be mandatory, purple belts. And I highly agree with that. Your ability to defend yourself and others is paramount to be a police force that you are trying to protect the public. But women is no different. So, I highly recommend that women train Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.

Women's Only Self-Defense for Jiu Jitsu

Now we also run into like, well, do you have a women's only class? And sometimes we, we used to have a women's only self defense class or, women's jiu jitsu class. But the truth is most women are going to be attacked, not by other women. So you're gonna be attacked by men.

That's just, are the statistics, rarely women attack other women, you know, they either attack their spouse or boyfriend or actual children, unfortunately. They're not attacking other women. It's very, very, seldom that ever occurs. That's like the smallest of populations that ever happens. So the mass amounts of physical altercations are gonna be between a man and a woman, a man trying to attack a woman, unfortunately. And if you're training in Brazilian jiu jitsu, I highly recommend you're training with men so that you are used to the size difference, the physical presence of a man. And it's not as scary, you know? And, as intimidating, like, oh, I've done this before your mind goes, okay, this is a big giant man, but I know I could defend myself and at least get out of the situation and not be stuck underneath person.

Sexual Assaults and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu

The last part I wanna talk about this would be in sexual assaults. Okay. You know, most sexual assaults. They're trying to get you down, on the ground. Okay. They could have also pushed you against an object. Okay. And assault you from behind. But, even then your ability to grapple on that situation and face the person okay. And defend yourself that way is gonna, help tremendously with Brazilian jiu jitsu. Okay. Not being taken down, not being forced against a wall, forced against a hard object. And then the last part is that they're trying to take you to the ground, trying to take your pants off. You know, there's so many techniques there that can prevent that from happening. And, you know, even teenage daughters, you know, I only have boys, but I can't imagine, my fear if I had teenage daughters, they're out there in the world.

And, so many women are assaulted and sexually assaulted. The numbers are, are, are disturbing. How many men are that evil. And it's an unfortunate thing in society. And I hundred percent agree.

Teaching Men to Be Better

We need to teach our men better and are boys better. But also the reality is that there's a percentage of the men that are doing this or will always do this. So, I think it's a twofold thing. You know, teaching my children, my, my boys to be morally sound men that don't take advantage of women or hurt women ever. That's my, that's my responsibility. Okay. And then, if I had a daughter teaching her to defend herself, so it's like a twofold problem. People go, oh, we're just, you know, it's, don't men should just be better for sure. Men should just be better. For sure.

I'm not arguing that fact. But if we could just, teach our boys better, plus teach our women to defend themselves. I think, the statistics would play out a little bit better and there'd be less assault. And, there'd be a lot more happy stories of women able to defend themselves. And, hopefully if that happens, then men will start thinking twice before they start attacking.

Are People Who Attack, Trained?

I also don't believe that most people, that attack people are trained in anything. So your, your advantage to being trained versus an untrained is crazy. If you've ever taken a Brazilian jiu jitsu class, you'll see this from, once you're in six months after six months of training and a new person walks in the door, your ability to handle yourself is insanely. It's crazy, the difference. It really is crazy. The difference if you were consistent for six months and then a new person walks in the door and you're gonna start wrestling that person tonight, they don't know anything, your ability at least to keep them in front of you and not hold you down or not get on your back.

I mean, it's empowering. It really is empowering.

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Can Empower Women: Confidence

And I think jiu jitsu can empower women to help have confidence in their ability to defend themselves or at least get out of the situation. And then keeping, someone when, when you have the confidence. Okay. I believe it makes you less of a target too. Predators look for soft targets in the wild and in, humanity too. Okay. Why would you want a hard target? That's going, I mean, if you even, I mean, for all my wife watches, all these murder shows, you could look it up. I mean, all these guys, the serial killers are always looking for easy targets, gullible targets. They, they trick, okay. They're weaker, they're vulnerable. Okay. You know, I, I would, if you're doing Brazilian jiu jitsu, you will be less vulnerable that I can promise you. Okay.

Can You Defend Yourself?

Can it defend you against everything? Absolutely not. Okay. There is no full proof anything okay. Weapons can be used against us. Okay. So, and even if you do have a pistol, you lose your pistol. It jams. What, what do you do then? You know, can you defend yourself? You should be able to defend yourself. And Brazilian jiu jitsu is perfect for that. Okay.

Striking Classes for Women

We also offer a striking class, which is great learning how to use distance and circling, your ability to move in striking. We don't just sit you in front of a bag and you're just doing like a cardio, kickboxing. I know a lot of women like cardio, kickboxing classes. You're still gonna get cardio out of this, for sure. You're hitting bags, you're hitting mitts, but we're also working with others. You could spar if you like. But learning how to move on your feet and not be a sitting still target to get pummeled on is very important.

I want it to go to the ground. Once it gets to the clinch. Now we're talking about Brazilian Jiu jitsu now with striking. It is a disadvantage. If you're a smaller person, number one, why you have so many weight classes in striking, martial arts, be it kick boxing, boxing, Muay Thai, MMA, even karate. Okay. And there's different women and men divisions. It is because there is a huge disadvantage. If you're smaller, reach is a big thing, physical, weight difference, you know, cause power comes from, mass, rotation, and speed. So your mass, that's why heavyweights are such knock outs. If they hit you correctly in the right spot, okay, they're gonna drop you even a sledge hammer, moving slow. It's still gonna hurt you. Now. A sledge hammer moving fast is gonna do extreme damage. And then think about a sledgehammer.

The rotation you're swinging. It creates more force as well. So the taller someone is the more rotation they're gonna have, okay. To create power in a strike. So where I love striking, I've boxed, I've kicked boxed. I've done, MMA. I fought MMA. For sure there's a difference. And there's a size, difference and advantage there, okay.

Where Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Comes into Play

And this is where Brazilian jiu jitsu comes into play, where like, I cannot knock this guy out. I need to either take them down or I need to be able to create distance so I can get out of the situation. Okay. When you're in a corner, there is no other option. So we're going to have the clench and get it to the ground. Even if I were to pull guard, okay. At least I have up kicks and up kicks can knock someone out. So learning how to be on the ground, practice your up kicks practice.

Upkick standups to stand back up after I've struck him in the nose. If you can bloody his nose. Okay? Most people aren't used to having a bloody nose, your eyes water, you can't see properly. And then you can get out of that, that situation. Okay. I'm not even talking about chokes involved. Most people wear a collared shirt. Okay. If you're wearing a collared shirt, you can be choked. If you're wearing a jacket, you can be choked. Okay. Those are advantages for a Brazilian jiu jitsu player. You know, people talk about Nogi, but the reality, why would I, if someone's wearing a weapon that I can use, why wouldn't I use that? Okay. That's not a knock against Nogi. I love Nogi. But for self defense purposes, women, you can take advantage of that and choke someone. If you could choke someone unconscious, there is no fighting.

Sometimes if you break someone's arm, a limb, from a kimora, an arm bar, if they are so whacked outta their head, they still might be to fight now, not as a, as well, they can't fight as well, but they still may continue to fight if your ability to choke someone unconscious, okay. Using all the various chokes in Brazilian jiu jitsu. And you're confident in that. I mean, you could save your life for sure. You could save your life.

Women's Self-Defense in Phoenix | Brazilian Jiu Jitsu

So, you know, this is just my, my take on, women in self defense and in Brazilian jiu jitsu, you know, in Phoenix, Phoenix, women's self defense is imperative that, you know, some form of self defense while living in Phoenix.

Okay. So you can check us out Strongheartacademy.com. If you like our, content on, AZ ADHD podcast, please like, and subscribe, it helps me out. I like doing these just cause they're fun, but we should be trying to grow, any time you're trying to do something, you should try to grow and get better. So I encourage you please. If you enjoy this content, please subscribe, please, share like, even comment you could say, Hey man, I think that's total nonsense. You know, I encourage, interaction.

So thank you and peace.

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu: Truths of Strong Heart Academy

Strong Heart Academy’s 21 Truths for Brazilian Jiu Jitsu

1. Train MORE than you think you can.

2. Control your opponent.

3. Always KILL.

4. Use angles.

5. If they don’t tap they nap or snap.

6. Be first, with attacks or take downs.

7. Take the high ground, always be on top.

8. The Guard is active, sweep, sub, stand.

9. Flow, Jiu-Jitsu means gentle. Sub hard.

10. Never grip hard until you attack.

11. Attack so your opponent must defend.

12. A counter attack should be revenge.

13. Always smash.

14. The present is the most important match.

15. Chokes are nasty, always with brutality.

16. Never telegraph your intention.

17. Breathe!

18. Jiu-Jitsu is live chess, you MUST think!

19. Know your ABC attacks completely.

20. Always be one move ahead.

21. Strong Heart means BREAK your limits!

Black Belt Mindset: Discussion on What It Takes

Black Belt Mindset

A third-degree black belt, Mike Martin discusses what he thinks it takes for black belt training. Mike owns Strong Heart Academy, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, in Phoenix, Arizona.

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Talk about what I think it takes to have a black belt mindset

Transcript: Black Belt Mindset

Today's podcast is brought to you by Strongheartacademy.com where no heart is no victory. We are also brought to you by BJJ2go, if you wanna build your game and learn jujitsu, go to BJJ2go.com. Okay. So today I just wanna talk about, um, being a black belt, um, this weekend, last weekend, uh, on the fifth, we did a belt graduation. It's the first one I've done ever. Um, I've always given black belts, like are given belts out during class. Like you're already, uh, we do a black belt test at, at strong heart. Um, you have to have the hours required, then you take your black belt test and then we do a gauntlet. And then after the gauntlet, we, I would give the belt for blue belts and purple belts and brown belts. Um, and then black belts, we've done them during, like Kyle would come out and we'd do a seminar and then we'd do a black belt, like the, a little bit ceremony for the black belts.

Black Belt: Reasoning

Um, and you know, my reasoning was that, um, when you're ready, you're ready and I don't want you to have to wait. You know, some of these schools will do once one graduation a year, twice a year. And I always like bother me. What if, like, you know, you have to go outta town for work that weekend. What if, um, your mother is in the hospital that weekend? You know what, it, it's just not, I didn't never seem fair to do that. So we're gonna start doing 'em quarterly. You will have the option. Um, if you, again, you still have to have the hours, you still have to do the black belt test and you still have to do a gauntlet. Um, and a lot of these schools, you know, they just go, I think you're ready. And then they give you a belt. And then, uh, I don't, I'm not a fan of that. Uh, we always had a test, um, and we'll always continue to have a black belt test.

And, um, so that being said, um, you know, we're gonna continue forward, but I think every three months we're gonna have one of these and see how it goes. It went great this weekend. Um, you know, I gave two black belts out. Um, uh, they were earned, uh, Joseph Westbrook. He's trained with me since the beginning. Uh, he trained bef outta school that I ran for years and we both trained together there. So he's been trained about 15 years. So, you know, it's a long road sometimes. And then Adrian is trained with me. I'm not even quite sure, maybe seven years, six years. Um, but he trains almost every day, sometimes twice a day, uh, sometimes three times a day. And he was my first black belt that was from white to black. The, a lot of the guys that I've given black belts to were, um, were started at blue, or they've trained a little bit somewhere first, you know, I've taken most of my black belts all the way, but, or most of the way, but he was the first one I took all the way from white to black.

And for me, that was a big deal. And, um, and I, I told him like, you're gonna be, you're my expectation's gonna be even higher for you, man, cuz you're gonna have to set the bar now. And um, and I think he did, you know, I, I asked him to do a couple things, fix a couple things, work on a couple things and, and he did that. He applied and, and got it done. And you know, Westbrook has been my friend forever. Um, one of my really good friends and um, um, just I'm happy for both of them. We gave out a number of other black belts too. You know, bunch of people got belts. I saw a bunch of, uh, old students of mine that don't train anymore or train. I have like one guy that trains in another school and it was just good to see him, you know?

Um, it was a good, it was good memories. It was good memories. And I was very appreciative of the whole, the whole day. And it was like a very, um, it was good for me. It was good for my soul. So, um, we'll continue those. And uh, I think everyone enjoyed it and, and liked it and, and we'll go forward and we got some good pictures, uh, Marcel, um, from Marcel visuals, he, uh, does photography and videography and he did a great job and, and I'll post those videos up. And if you ever wanna check him out, it's Marcel visuals.com I believe. Um, and he has his own studio too. You can go to a studio and do professional shot, you know, professional shoot, you know, he does with models all the time. Um, so I'm happy for him too. He's one of my students, I'm just happy that he's doing his passion in life.

And it's so hard. Society is not really built for people wanting to do their passions. It's very built for getting the, getting the machine, be your cog and, uh, and shut your mouth type of thing. So it's, it's hard to do your passion, but I think in the long run, even the struggles, you know, you'll be happier on the journey if you do those type of things. And one of the things during the gauntlet or during the graduation was, uh, Adrian said, uh, he whispered to me, I always knew I was gonna be a black bow. And it was like a kind of a mind blowing epiphany, whatever was like, yeah, like you, you have to believe that you can get there. And man, fortunately, there's a lot of watering down in jujitsu right now. I've seen a lot of guys getting black belts and it's not because it's like less time because I think you can get black belts a lot faster.

Black Belt: World Titles

Now I would still say, you should ha you know, unless you're winning world titles, I still say it should take six, a minimum of six years, you know, guys are doing it four or five. That's cool. But have you won any of the world titles? You know, the Kyle got in three, but he was winning world titles after world title, after world title, after world title, doing open divisions. Like, yeah, man, like you gotta give that guy a black belt, but like there's guys getting black belts that I just don't, I don't know that I personally would give them a black belt and maybe my standards are a little high and none of my guys have won titles or anything, but like they have the years in the experience in, and they have the battles in and, um, they've helped others. They've done the things that I feel like are required to be a black belt.

And um, to me, like you almost have to be a, a kind of a crazy person. You have to be super dedicated in order to do it. And you have to really want it. You can't, can't be like a, a hobby. You know, you just, you could be a hobby, no problem. But if you wanna be a black woman, it's gotta be a little bit more than that. It's like your way of life. Um, and I think it's just hard to be a black belt without that. And you can, you can for sure, but it's harder. And I, I highly recommend going all in if that's what you wanna do, if you want to be a black belt. And that doesn't mean you have to, again, doesn't mean you have the world win world titles, but definitely if you wanna win world titles, you have to be all in.

You cannot be a toe in you can't be lukewarm. You gotta be red hot for it. And you gotta love it. You gotta love that grind. And if you don't love the grind, I think it's really hard to get to that to the end. And it's not the end, but like it's the first end. I would say, it's the first end, the first major milestone and that blue belt's kind of a milestone too, cuz you're start like, okay, I think I understand the basics now, but black belt means like you've mastered the basics. In my opinion, you have mastery of the basics. Uh, we went to a seminar. I won't say who, not that long ago. And I saw some black ball Sarah and they were like, they didn't know what da Heva was. Da Heva is so old. <laugh> it's not like this new fancy thing, man.

Like you should know how to play daily. Heva even if it's not your game to play, you should know what it is. He's like, you don't know what it is. How, how are you a black belt? I don't understand. You know, some of that could be not. And these guys, cuz these guys were new black belts, but some of that could be like, you're so old that you never train. You know, it was new back then and 20 years ago. But uh, you're not, you know, you don't play it. But sometimes these guys like they stop learning when they're black are like, ah, I know everything I need and maybe that's true. But like anytime you're in an industry and you quit learning, the industry passes, you buy, uh, jujitsu is no different, you know, jujitsu is constantly changing and there are certain areas I think I'm behind that.

I need to work on, but I try to work on stuff. I really do. Um, age. Isn't the factor that stops me from learning. That's that's um, a limiting mindset that I don't like. And I don't think you should have that as a black belt. It's like, oh I'm a black belt. I'm done learning. No, not really man. Or it could be, but it shouldn't be, that's uh, not a good way to think about or do it. And you could definitely quit after black belt. I mean, it's a, it's a big accomplishment for sure. But like I'm so in, I so love jujitsu that I can't imagine quitting. It's like, uh, marriage, you know that you love someone, you don't, why would you do quit? You know, unless you're physically cannot do it. But even then man, I would be around it. I would be pointing and I would be around and I would still study.

I would be watching Jiu Jitsu and you gotta have that love, man. I just think you gotta have that love to get to the end. You can't make a black belt without a love of it. And uh, you know, I've heard some people lately saying there should be no belts, you know, we should just compete. Whoever's the best wins. And I've, I mean, you know, in wrestling that happens, but there's definitely levels to this. And to say there's not levels is weird because even in basketball, I'm a big basketball fan. Like the difference between high school basketball and college basketball and then the NBA basketball and then the NBA champions or all stars. Those are all levels, man. And those aren't belts per se, but those are definitely levels. You know, you, you, most high school kids will get destroyed by college and most college kids would get destroyed by, um, by NBA players.

So it's it's for me, it's like the same concept, even junior high, junior high to high school. Now some of that is like physical growth, but it's also knowledge and skill set too. I mean that those come with time and hours put in and it just takes the hours and, and Ji's just no different. And uh, so that's how I look at those kind of belts almost is like, um, depth of knowledge and depth of application and skill. Um, and if you just don't have that, just think it is a, uh, it's slows down the, and even like college, you know, you can get a bachelor's, but you can get a master's or you can get a PhD in so many fields that you wouldn't under. Didn't think you can get a PhD in, but you can get a PhD in a lot of things.

So it's like, those are levels, you know, you can consider those like belts almost because, um, it's the mastery of the subject and you're trying to master get a level of mastery of the subject. And I in, I always heard, you know, calling someone master I'm like, I don't like that cuz I feel like you never really master anything, but you definitely have a certain level of mastery of something. Um, but the master is like, I know everything there is to it in my mind and it's just like not possible <laugh> and that's the beauty of logistic. Cause it can keep me motivated and not bored because there's always something new and there's always little adjustments. I don't wanna say micro adjustments, but there's micro adjustments that you can make for sure at a higher level to make you better. And uh, I think that's an awesome journey and um, it was cool to see their families there and support them at the graduation and um, and it went great.

I think it went great. So I definitely wanna continue these and March is funny because um, I got my black belt in 2009, um, on March 24th. So this month will be my black belt, um, anniversary and I I'm coming. I should be getting my fourth Stripe pretty soon. I got meet up with Kyle somehow and get that done. And uh, it's also the month I started to Jitsu. So it was like March 1st ish. Uh, like it was the first week of March in 2000, the year 2000. So I've been at this for 22 years and um, there's times where I've been tired and getting burned out, but I've never dropped jujitsu. I never not trained jujitsu. Uh, the longest I ever took off jujitsu 22 years was two months for a shoulder injury, uh, surgery, I should say. And that was not, I was supposed to do nine months.

Um, but that's just like my love for this. And man, I feel like sometimes I get confused that people don't have the same love with me, which is delusional on my part. But um, you know, that's a super projection, but I think you have to have the same love to get to that end. And it can't be like, this is something I do now. It could be, this is something I do that helps me be straight and narrow and keep me motivated and goal setting. That's true. Um, and it could be like a utility for you even more than a passion. So the utility of it is, is important. You know, I make people write out certain questions I ask when they do their black belt test, they gimme a sheet that I want you to fill out. And um, somebody, she wrote out a thing and she said, you know, one of the things that J's done for me is that it gives me excuse to tell my friends that I can't go out tonight and ha and party.

And I was like, yeah, it does. And, and this did the same thing when I first started. Cause I started at, when I was 20, you know, I was 21. Um, and then when I turned 21, you know, you, you can go out and, and go to try to pick up girls and you're going to bars and things like that. But like in the middle of the week, that's not healthy. And then you can't do that when you're getting you can, but you shouldn't be doing that when you're getting older, you know, you got years in. And like I thought that was a great thing that she said that was like, it gives me this excuse not to go out. And again, that, that would be like the utility of it. Um, this week, one of my students said, Hey, it's my two year anniversary of being sober.

And I, we look, I looked down the line and there was four other people in the line that I didn't say anything, but I know that that they've been, uh, they have a sober way of life as well. And you know, they had their struggles and I think jujitsu's also helped them with that journey. You know? So there's five people in this line of maybe there was a smaller class, like 12 people. So five outta 12 had, are, have used and maybe are using jujitsu as a vehicle to stay clean and sober and do something positive with your time because everyone has time and you gotta, you're gonna fill it no matter what. Even if you sleep all day, it's filling your time with sleep and you might as well do something positive with it. And it can give you an excuse to be positive.

Like, oh man, I gotta do jujitsu. I can't go out tonight. Sorry. And I think the non Jitsu people are like, think, look at you. Like what, why are you rolling around with a bunch of people, but they don't, you know, they don't understand it and they're not in that place in their life where they're ready to make a change. They just wanna party party, party, party. And I get it. It's, it's fun, but there's consequences to that. So, um, and to say that there's no consequences, Jitsu, for sure there's gonna be injuries, but I went over that in the past too, man. Like you get older, there's always injuries. Our body breaks down, no matter what you did, lack of exercise will break your body down. So at least you're gonna have good stories and you'll be in shape in between, in between the injuries.

But, um, I'd rather play those prices than the liver damage or whatever your, uh, fun choice is that you do. That's gonna wear that body down. So, um, yeah, these are just kind of reflections over the weekend and, and of the graduation that we had and I'll put some pictures up, um, you know, Marcel took some great pictures and, and uh, I'll figure out how to get everyone's pictures. We took a picture of everyone getting their belt. So I'll try to do that for you guys and, and get those out for you. Um, sometime this week. Um, some of you, I, I, I text, but it's just too many people to send via text and, and, um, their com I can't know how much I can compress these pictures too. So I'll get those out. I appreciate everyone showing up to for the graduation and, and, um, supporting the people that got, uh, new belts and leveled up. And, um, it was just a great experience overall. So it was a short one today. I just wanted to share that with you guys and hope you guys have a great weekend. Peace.

Black Belt Training starts here.

Kids BJJ Day: Demonstration

CHILDREN’S BRAZILIAN JIU JITSU LESSON

Mike Martin, Owner of Strong Heart Academy, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in Phoenix Arizona, and third-degree black belt, narrates various grips, holds, and more. Demonstration for children’s BJJ and adult BJJ.

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Kids Day, BJJ Demonstration

Transcript - Kids BJJ Demonstration

Footwork and Cross Stepping

All right, drop Sandia. I'm gonna show with some shoes, some footwork you can do cross stepping and then your other leg is gonna try to stay within your partner's, uh, legs. You don't want to go too far outward outside of the legs. Now, if they're smaller, you can go a little bit. It's not as bad, but try to stay within and then, uh, squat or drop to your knees. Uh, we tend to teach dropping to our knees. It's a little safer, some more footwork gripping at the elbow, lifting the elbow and cross stepping. Lifting at the elbow, allows the other leg, the other arm and grip to come inside.

Making Room for Grip

You're making room for your other grip. Now I'm gonna show cross gripping the various grips we can use, um, lifting form or, uh, form goes inside. So form goes inside the armpit and my other foot is gonna step behind. So cross step form goes inside and squat. Now you could do the full San AGI from standing or the drop sayNo. We tend to do the drop. San AGI just is a little safer for everyone. Now, this is just a self defense, uh, practicing of gripping. If they're overhand, I'm showing 'em like, if you had something in your hand, like a hammer or whatever, stick, it doesn't matter. It just open Palm out as a stop. And then you're gonna reach in traditional gripping underneath.

Body Positioning: BJJ

So it's easier to practice if you partner a square, meaning both feet are equal. Open the elbow cross step. Now opposite arm comes in. It's the same grip. You wanna make sure you get high in the armpit and not in the middle of the bicep. Pull the hand down. So it's hard to finish you head down and follow through leading him forward. Before you drop will help get him on his toes. And the throw is much easier to finish lifting the hand with the sleeve grip and dropping. You need to get underneath the arm, uh, armpit, and you need to get lower. So if you're a taller person in your opponent, you have to squat lower than your opponent. This is the traditional grip, but his arm is straight so that he cannot curl and go for rear naked, choke and jujitsu. They're gonna try to choke you and put hooks in. So you also, another reason I like to draw it to my knees. It's harder to get the hooks in, to follow through.

Armbar from the Guard

All right, armbar from the guard, gonna pull the arm underneath, pull it across. Same foot will go on the hip cross grip on his shoulder arm that you're attacking. That foot goes on. The hip. Other foot goes high and turning him high on his back high. As you can almost touch your knee, he possibly can push the face, hand slides to the wrist. I step over pinching my knees and curling my legs. Lifting hips. Wrist must stay on your chest to finish this time. When I do the arm bar, I come underneath, I pull the arm across, I step foot on the hip. We step over like a normal arm bar, but they're going to pull their arm out. When they pull their arm out, I'm going to drop my left knee towards the mat. As I hip escape, I hip escape, dropping my knee, clear the arm to the far side, and now I'm tacking the other arm, lifting my hips to step over the head heel to toes.

Securing Wrist and Finishing Armbar

Make sure you secure the wrist to the chest. Finishing the armbar. This last one is a Kyle armbar, which I call Kyle armbar. He has control of my lapels. I'm going to break his grip. We've worked earlier videos on breaking his grips. I lift the sky, switch my grip over the wrist and grab his tricep material at the seam with four fingers Palm up. I'm gonna maintain that hand on the tricep. Do not let go of that. Just like a normal armbar, changing the angle. We're gonna go over his shoulder with my thigh pinching my knees. Many times I can lift up. Do not take your hand off his tricep lift finish even better. Step over. Keep your hand on the tricep and lift your hips for the finish.

Starting with Grips from Half Guard

I'm gonna start with grips from half guard, thumb in his neck, gripping his wrist shin in his chest knee towards my hand. So there's an angle there. Here's the other side, my feet. I like to keep in tucked. You need to hook his bottom knee. So he does not knee cut slice. You, you have to hook your inside leg cannot be on the ground. So kicking him off of an angle and then hand follows my knee. As I kick forward to do like a sit up, my ear goes on his belly button or as low as I can. The lower, the better makes it hard for him to re underhook you. I have the under hook. We need to maintain the under hook coming up to my knee and getting ready to sh him to take his back is the first option. If they do not wizard. Now, the easiest thing to do is to get back to close guard. Now, many people wanna play half guard. This is fine, but you should always understand, pull their hand out and then lay comes out. You couldn't turn this into a scissor sweep as well, but we're just gonna turn my hips, relock my guard, go back to clothes guard.

Strong Heart Principle | SERVICE

View all 8 principles here.

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.

Thank you.

Kids Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Lesson

Children’s Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Lesson

Mike Martin, Owner of Strong Heart Academy, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in Phoenix Arizona, and third-degree black belt, narrates various grips, holds, and more. Demonstration for children’s BJJ and adult BJJ.

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Watch the video below:

Mike BJJ Kid’s Demonstration Video

Transcript: Kids BJJ

Footwork

All right, drop Sandia. I'm gonna show with some shoes, some footwork you can do cross stepping and then your other leg is gonna try to stay within your partner's, uh, legs. You don't want to go too far outward outside of the legs. Now, if they're smaller, you can go a little bit. It's not as bad, but try to stay within and then, uh, squat or drop to your knees. Uh, we tend to teach dropping to our knees. It's a little safer, some more footwork gripping at the elbow, lifting the elbow and cross stepping. Lifting at the elbow, allows the other leg, the other arm and grip to come inside.

Cross Gripping

You're making room for your other grip. Now I'm gonna show cross gripping the various grips we can use, um, lifting form or, uh, form goes inside. So form goes inside the armpit and my other foot is gonna step behind. So cross step form goes inside and squat. Now you could do the full San AGI from standing or the drop sayNo. We tend to do the drop. San AGI just is a little safer for everyone. Now, this is just a self defense, uh, practicing of gripping. If they're overhand, I'm showing 'em like, if you had something in your hand, like a hammer or whatever, stick, it doesn't matter. It just open Palm out as a stop. And then you're gonna reach in traditional gripping underneath.

Form

So it's easier to practice if you partner a square, meaning both feet are equal. Open the elbow cross step. Now opposite arm comes in. It's the same grip. You wanna make sure you get high in the armpit and not in the middle of the bicep. Pull the hand down. So it's hard to finish you head down and follow through leading him forward. Before you drop will help get him on his toes. And the throw is much easier to finish lifting the hand with the sleeve grip and dropping. You need to get underneath the arm, uh, armpit, and you need to get lower. So if you're a taller person in your opponent, you have to squat lower than your opponent. This is the traditional grip, but his arm is straight so that he cannot curl and go for rear naked, choke and jujitsu. They're gonna try to choke you and put hooks in. So you also, another reason I like to draw it to my knees. It's harder to get the hooks in, to follow through.

Armbar from Guard

All right, armbar from the guard, gonna pull the arm underneath, pull it across. Same foot will go on the hip cross grip on his shoulder arm that you're attacking. That foot goes on. The hip. Other foot goes high and turning him high on his back high. As you can almost touch your knee, he possibly can push the face, hand slides to the wrist. I step over pinching my knees and curling my legs. Lifting hips. Wrist must stay on your chest to finish this time. When I do the arm bar, I come underneath, I pull the arm across, I step foot on the hip. We step over like a normal arm bar, but they're going to pull their arm out. When they pull their arm out, I'm going to drop my left knee towards the mat. As I hip escape, I hip escape, dropping my knee, clear the arm to the far side, and now I'm tacking the other arm, lifting my hips to step over the head heel to toes.

Finishing Armbar

Make sure you secure the wrist to the chest. Finishing the armbar. This last one is a Kyle armbar, which I call Kyle armbar. He has control of my lapels. I'm going to break his grip. We've worked earlier videos on breaking his grips. I lift the sky, switch my grip over the wrist and grab his tricep material at the seam with four fingers Palm up. I'm gonna maintain that hand on the tricep. Do not let go of that. Just like a normal armbar, changing the angle. We're gonna go over his shoulder with my thigh pinching my knees. Many times I can lift up, do not take your hand off his tricep lift finish even better. Step over. Keep your hand on the tricep and lift your hips for the finish flat and then posturing up. So now he's gonna show me, he grabs his elbow tied to his chest balls speeds so that my head goes to the mat, then rolls over towards the side that he blocks arm and I'm showing him to put his hands on my stomach. So it doesn't get CommEd. And push me back down from the guard. Then he'll work to pass the guard and we'll show this full speed or actually faster.

Thank you.

Strong Heart Principles | Diligence and Consistency

View all 8 Strong Principles here.

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.

Children's Jiu Jitsu: Demonstration Lesson

Children’s Brazilian Jiu Jitsu: Demonstration of Moves

Mike Martin, Owner of Strong Heart Academy, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in Phoenix Arizona, and third-degree black belt, narrates various grips, holds, and more. Demonstration for children’s BJJ and adult BJJ.

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Watch the video below:

Mike Martin, Children’s BJJ Demonstration. Moves, Holds, Grips and more!

Transcript: Children’s BJJ

So pulling guard have sleeve grip and lapel grip. I wanna step forward and my right leg is gonna go toes out on the hip. As I fall to one butt cheek, and then I'm gonna grab his ankle. My other foot needs to step, uh, hook behind his knee and pull so that can backstep and start passing series. If you fall on your side, it's easier to reach the ankle that you're aiming for. Here's another angle. They'll slow you down. As you could descend, bend one leg and then you'll have our sleeve. And then my other leg, my hand goes right to the ankle. Now you can turn this into a million guards. This is just a nice, simple, open guard. I usually turn into a sickle sweep, uh, but this is the way I like to pull guard.

Intercept Hand and Grip Fighting

All right, we're gonna work on changing levels first here and elbows in hands out. So thumbs are in hands are out. It's easier to intercept, uh, hand and grip fighting, but he feeds changing levels. I have to change levels with him and that's the whole point. My head level is gonna go at his level. I'm showing how to clear his hands, cuz his hands in front. So I'm going to change levels, knee pound and blast double. Now here's the more sophisticated, double leg changing levels. My knee goes to the ground. Head should stay up better than that. I like to grab the calves step and then I'm gonna lift one leg, head up and walk towards my ear. My head is turning him. I'm tapping his knee and walk in a circle will always keep you on bounds and you'll gonna get this side control position. Most likely instead of getting stuck in guard, the blast double will get you stuck in D uh, closed guard. If they know what they're doing, they're it's great for a street fight. It's um, good for MMA, but uh, for jujitsu tournaments, you don't wanna be stuck in the double leg and there's uh, a little bit faster. You really can't do it this

Arm Bar from Guard

Slow either, but uh, showing you how it should look. All right, armbar from the guard. We're gonna pull the arm underneath, pull it across. Same foot will go on the hip cross grip on his shoulder arm that you're attacking. That foot goes on. The hip. Other foot goes high and turning him high on his back high. As you can almost touch your knee, he possibly can push the face, hand slides to the wrist. I step over pinching my knees and curling my legs. Lifting the hips. Wrist must stay on your chest to finish this time. When I do the arm bar, I come underneath, I pull the arm across, I step foot on the hip. We step over like a normal arm bar, but they're going to pull their arm out. When they pull their arm out, I'm going to drop my left knee towards the mat.

Hip Escape and Arm Bar

As I hip escape, I hip escape dropping my knee, clear the arm to the far side, and now I'm taking the other arm, lifting my hips to step over the head heel to toes. Make sure you secure the wrist to the chest. Finishing the armbar. This last one is a Caio armbar, which I call Caio armbar. He has control of my lapels. I'm going to break his grip. We've worked earlier videos on breaking the grips. I lift the sky, switch my grip over the wrist and grab his tricep material at the seam with four fingers Palm up. I'm gonna maintain that hand on the tricep. Do not let go of that. Just like a normal armbar, changing the angle. We're gonna go over his shoulder with my thigh pinching my knees. Many times I can lift up. Do not take your hand off his tricep lift finish even better. Step over. Keep your hand on the tricep and lift your hips for the finish. So we're gonna do guard break. Um, when you're in the guard. So the person in white is gonna roll his two lapels, put 'em together and roll them up like a burrito. And then he's gonna keep his hand. So his thumb is still up. And when his partner comes up, he pushes him back down and stiff, arms him back down to the ground.

Working Breaks

He rolls the gear back up and his hand goes to the hip. One hand on the lapel. When he push comes up, he pushes him back down. So we're gonna work breaks today. Uh, when he's grabbing your sleeve, you're gonna grab his knuckles and pull your hand out. We're gonna do some of these a couple times and you can see he dabs. If you'd like grabs and knuckles and pulls a hand out and then you can pin their hand. The second one is lapel. So that's your lapel. I'm pointing to when your partner grabs the same side lapel, and you're gonna make a V with your hands and break the grip. So he takes his hands. Two hands, hand breaks this time he cross grips. So meaning he grips across the other side of lapel, not the same side. You're gonna loop your head underneath and posture up hard. I helped him by pushing his head over that time. We cross grip, loop our head and posture up and you can break also with your hands as you posture up.

Open the Guard

Now we're working to open the guard up. So you have your burrito grip. You have your hand on the hip. The hand, the knee is gonna go right down the middle and other knee is gonna go wide and you're gonna turn your chest. And he already opened his guard here, but many times they don't thumb inside the knee to push down, to open up and break the guard open. And that's our whole goal knee on the middle step over, keep your leg nice and straight while your hand is on the knee.

Thank you.

Strong Heart Principle - HEALTH

View all 8 of our principles.

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.

Reverse Half Guard Knee Bar: Demonstration from Third Degree Black Belt

Reverse Half Guard Knee Bar

Mike Martin, Owner of Strong Heart Academy, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in Phoenix Arizona, and third degree black belt, demonstrates reverse half guard knee bar.

Response When Opponent Defends

In reverse half guard, attacking the knee bar then switching to a foot lock when the opponent defends.

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In reverse half guard, attacking the knee bar then switching to a foot lock when the opponent defends.

Transcript: Reverse Half Guard Knee Bar

So I'm in, uh, I'm trying to attack this knee bar. So when I come in, sometimes he grabs the sleeve or I just can't get it out. So when I come and I roll here, I'm going, I can't extract it. I'm gonna take this foot instead. Okay. Now I'm gonna reach through if I can grab it. That's fine. Many times you can't grab it. You're just gonna grab the toes. Top of the toes are gonna pull the heel, pull the heel to your chest and push it in. Or if you can reach at this point, you can get your, your, your foot lock. Okay. But depends on the size of the guy's foot. How strong he is to finish the toe hold. If the foot he starts coming out, I'm gonna use this as a lever again, and pull out catching with my head and finishing.

Thank you.

Strong Heart Principle to Live By | HEALTH

View all 8 principles here.

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.

BJJ Mount: Simple Mount Demonstration by Third Degree Black Belt

Simple Mount Brazilian Jiu Jitsu | Demonstration

Mike Martin, Owner of Strong Heart Academy, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in Phoenix Arizona, and third degree black belt, demonstrates a simple mount.

simple mount, mount, Bjj, Brazilian jujitsu, strong heartbjj

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simple mount, mount, Bjj, Brazilian jujitsu, strong heartbjj

Transcript:

Okay. From mount position. I wanna tuck my feet under their butt. My hand is gonna come under the head. I want my shoulder into his face so that he looks at my free hand. My other hand's gonna go wide. All we're doing is just, this is we're gonna call home base or Mount. Okay. You can lock your feet onto the butt. And I wanna put my hips into him for pressure.

Mount Position

You should never be up like this in Mount. We'll lose the position. Okay. If I have my hand here and my arms out here, he can end up rolling me this direction. So I want his head, this direction facing, looking at my hand posting with my hand. So right now we're not worrying about submissions. We're just worrying about understanding what, when I say Mount, what does it look like? Sitting on their chest feet locked under the butt or tucked under the butt.

Bjj Mount - Feet Wide:

If I had my feet wide and he pushed on my hips, I'm gonna fall off. Yeah. So especially for smaller people, we gotta make sure that we're tucking our feet under the butt. If you push on my hips now I don't go anywhere. And he tires himself out. If we were to push on my chest, okay. From the beginning we could arm bar him, but the beginning, I wanna learn how to swim, swimming through. So he pushes on my chest. I swim through, he pushes on my hips. I grab the head. He pushes on my knee and I'm gonna push his head away. Lift up on his hand, pushes on my other knee. I Push his head away lift up.

Thanks.

Strong Heart Principle #4 - INTEGRITY

View all 8 Strong Heart Principles here.

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.

BJJ Positions: A Simple Explanation by Third Degree Black Belt - Strong Heart BJJ

BJJ - Jiu Jitsu Positions

Mike Martin, Owner of Strong Heart Academy, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in Phoenix Arizona, and third degree black belt, explains BJJ positions.

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Transcript - Brazilian Jiu Jitsu

We're gonna do a quick run through all the positions today in Brazilian jiu jitsu or basic positions from fundamentals. This is standing position. My leg is forward. You could also be square. My elbows are in very much like wrestling. We are in guard, closed guard. My legs are locked. I have two separate grips, uh, many various grips we can use he's on his knees. His knees are widening knees on his toes. If possible his posture is up, not leaning on me and his hips are low on his feet. This is half guard. My leg is between his legs. I am framing with my arms so they cannot put weight. And my shin is on his chest. This is Mount position. My arm is wide. One arm is under the head and my legs are locked under his hips. I stay low my chest on his face. He needs his knees up. It's easier to escape from the position.

BJJ Positions

This is side control position. My hand is arm under his hips under his arm. Under his head. My shoulder is in his jaw. My head is turned sideways. My knees are wide and touching him. You cannot see in the photo. So my hips are as low as possible. You can see my back is almost flat, so my butt should not be up in the air. It's easier to get rolled. His knees are up and one knee is up towards me. So it's not easy for me to Mount. He's also framing with his arms. One arm on my neck. One is on my hip. This is case kata position. I'm a little bit high here. Usually I like to get my armpit near his armpit by where I'm gripping his arm and my legs are wide to not get rolled. I'd also put my head lower. If he is, uh, flexible, uh, to hook my head. This is neon belly position. Uh, you would hop up on here from a side control normally, or a guard pass. Um, I have two grips to stabilize myself in my, my leg must be straight out by his head

North south position. My knees are wide. You can also sprawl on a north south position. Uh, he's not in a good position here. This is used many times for attacking, but also contr, uh, moving from side control to the other side, without hopping over the body. We go north south and transition to the other side or attack. This is wrestler's position or turtle position. I'm actually in a wrestler's position. It's not very good for jiu jitsu. He can actually escape from here. I usually sit behind the hips instead. Um, he's not in a great position either, but I'm going to work to attack or get my hooks in for a back control. This is back control. I get my hooks in, meaning my legs in between his legs. My head is tucked and my cheek is on his shoulder. So I don't get headbutted in the face. I have a grip over an under grip or seatbelt grip with my hands at a Gable grip. Now we're on the side, same position. This is actually better, easier to attack. I can also transition to a Mount position. Uh, my hands are gripped and I do not lock my legs. That is all.

Thank you.

Strong Heart Brazilian Jiu Jitsu - Student Principle #2: LOYALTY

View our 8 Strong Heart Academy Principles to Live By

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.

BJJ Recovery: 5 Things This 3rd Degree Blackbelt Does

BJJ Recovery: Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Training

Mike Martin, Owner of Strong Heart Academy, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in Phoenix Arizona, and third degree black belt, talks about the 5 things he does for BJJ recovery.

5 Things for BJJ Recovery

The 5 Things I Do for BJJ Recovery. I Started Training Brazilian Jiujitsu in 2000. Ive Trained through My 20's, 30's, and Now in my 40's. These Are the 5 things I do to Recovery and train as much as I can. You can try these by going to Strongheartacademy.com and trying a FREE Trial Class. or BJJ2GO.com is our online platform that can be used any where. or if your not in Phoenix find an Academy near you.

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Transcript

Today's podcast is brought to you by Strongheartacademy.com where no heart is no victory. We are also brought to you by BJJ2go, if you wanna build your game and learn jiu jitsu, go to BJJ2go.com.

Jiu Jitsu Athlete Recovery

Okay. So this one is gonna be about recovery, um, for Jiu Jitsu um, athletes. Um, obviously the older you get, the more important recovery is, um, and how serious you take it. But if you're younger and you start young, you just get the pattern set up and it's gonna be easier and easier and easier and easier recovery. Everything I'm gonna talk about today is, uh, no TRT, no steroids, nothing like that. Obviously those are super recovery tools. People think of steroids like that makes you stronger. No, it allows you to work out more, to get stronger. Um, when you're sore, it's like hard to just work out again.

Muscles and Energy

Like your muscles are just shot, uh, and energy too. So what steroids do is just allow you to cover fast or fast, faster. You can do two, three workouts a day where someone, you know, might take one to two days off per workout, just so your body heals up and you'll get injuries. Um, today we're gonna talk about just what you can do, um, without any steroids at all. And tier T now people get fishy with the TRT. They're like, you know, especially jiu jitsu athletes, um, you know, after a certain age, you're like, well, you could take, you know, TRT because you have low testosterone. You can go to a doctor. If you're gonna do it, go to a doctor, please do it. There, don't buy illegal steroids. Okay. Um, but uh, you need to be careful with those things, because I do think there's a higher risk of heart, uh, failure.

And, you know, if you have prostate problems, which you're getting older, you could actually increase the prostate. So, but they'll test you for those things, um, to make sure you don't have any prostate problems. Um, but it, if you are not catching, you're not getting tested a lot. It could lead to cancer and other problems too. So the other problem I have with TRT is that, um, once you're on it, you're not gonna get off of it. It's like for life basically. So, um, it takes a while to, if you, if you get off, it I've know people got off it and it's like, their body never really comes back. Like their testosterone doesn't stop producing testosterone. So, um, and they're so used to being on testosterone and the benefits that they get that it's like once they come off, there's a mental pro problem too, even though like their levels might get better.

Time and Energy Levels

Um, it takes time and to get used to, um, not having that recovery that you did with taking testosterone and your energy levels and all those type of things too. So, um, it's hard to get off of them once you're on them. So again, once you're on them, it's like you're on them. So just, just a word of caution, if you're gonna do that, it's completely legal, um, easy to do. Uh, just be careful. So, uh, I don't do any of those things. Uh, I'm 42, uh, as of today or as of now. And, um, I've tried everything for recovery. Um, the number one thing though, so we're gonna do five things. The number one thing is gonna be sleep. Um, you know, Americans are extremely sleep deprived. We work a lot. Uh, we don't take a lot of holidays, our vacations, um, me included, you know, I work about six days a week.

I always make sure my Sundays is my family day. Uh, and I try to just go to church and I don't do any other, um, I try not to do, I don't do any jiu jitsu for sure. Or business. Uh, unfortunately I do to work around the house. I should take that day should be completely nothing day, but I run outta days to get things done. So sleep is the big one for me. I make sure I get enough sleep. I do sleep in. I'm kind of a weird guy. I, I like I'm a, a night O um, but whatever your schedule is, figure out how you can get your eight to nine hours of sleep. If I get 10 hours of sleep, I feel like I feel like I'm 10 years younger. Um, and so just keep that in mind, you know, and, and when you're young, you might be able to get a day, a couple days in a row of like five, six hours of sleep.

Sleep

It's just not, it catches up to you. There's a price to pay and you can't really catch up sleep. You just gotta get your sleep habits back, set a time that you want to be unconscious. And what, how long does it take you to get from that, to that now? Uh, I have a doctor friend. He wrote me a whole like prescription of how he does it. And I don't mean drugs. I mean, like he goes, go to the bathroom, do read a little bit, do this. Once you get in bed, you do not leave your bed. The last thing with the sleep thing is, well, not the last thing, but is make sure your room is very dark. You don't want that blue light when you're staring at your phone right before you go to bed. Uh, I tend to read off of an iPad, so that's not good.

Reading

I do a lot of reading before I go to bed. Um, but I think it's better for my eyes versus like, uh, reading a book with bad lighting is not good. Uh, I have really good eyes still for my age. I don't have any glasses or nothing, so I like that better, but they say that blue light makes it more difficult to go to sleep. Definitely don't have any TVs in your room. Uh, so many people, I, I know have TVs in rooms. I I've gotten away with that one. It's kind of me thing with my wife. She's always had TVs in a room and I said, look, this is be hard for her to sleep. You know, it's not good for you. You're not supposed to have any light, your body reacts to light. That's how it wakes up. So knows if it's day or night and, and humans are meant to sleep at night.

Jiu Jitsu: Clear Thinking

So there's always exceptions to this rule. Again, like I said, I, I like to go to bed really late and I like to sleep in. It's hard to do that. Just find your routine. What's gonna work for you. And really, really, really, really try to get that eight hours minimum of eight hours. Um, you know, I've done the game before, like, okay, if I go to bed now I'll get, oh man, I'll get five hours. I'll get six. It's just, you'll break down your body needs rest. Your mind needs rest. You won't think as clearly, you'll be, you know, you'll make mistakes in jiu jitsu. You'll make, make mistakes in your job. Um, you'll get be irritable. There's so many things it's actually bad for your, uh, diet, your metabolism, lack of sleep slows your, um, it, it slows down your metabolism. So there's, there's so many benefits.

I mean, there's so many studies about sleep. That would be my first one. Um, the second one I would say would be water. Um, um, I'm in Arizona, I'm in Phoenix, it's a desert. So we gotta drink a ton of water. It's summer as currently as we're speaking. And that's gonna be 106 today. I think, um, you're sweating. You're an athlete. If you're doing GE Jisu, you know, you have that big, heavy GE you're basically exercising with the jacket on it's great exercise. You're sweating so much, and it's easy to be in kind of a deficit and like a low grade dehydration. Now your body needs water to, for everything to move waste, to, uh, rehydrate your muscles. Um, I find you can get more injuries when you're dehydrated. And again, back to not thinking clearly when, and when you're not thinking clearly dehydration sometimes is that if you're getting headaches, those are all things, uh, for me, like I'm, I'm making sure I pound that water and we're back, uh, technical difficulties.

Water Intake: BJJ

So, uh, back to water, um, that's helps with your metabolism also. So if you're trying to lose weight, um, cutting weight, uh, water's important. Even if you're cutting water weight, you wanna rehydrate first. So tech tech, uh, you know, MMA fighters, uh, or actually anyone cutting a lot of weight. If you pound a gallon a day, you can do a gallon gallon and a half a day, gallon and a half, and you slowly cut it during the week until you're ready for the water cut and the water cut's always done the night before the weigh in, or the day of the weigh in. So, you know, even that you, the water's super important and you will just feel so much better with energy wise. You know, that's what I'm saying by recovery. Like you're tired, you're sore. Water is huge. It is a huge benefit to making sure you're getting enough water intake during the day.

And in Arizona, you're just constantly sweating. If you're outside, if you have an outside job, um, you know, you're, you need to be making sure you're getting a gallon a day. You know, this is not eight, uh, eight, eight glasses of water. I don't know where that ever came from. I don't know how many ounces in a glass. So what is that like? How big is this glass? Just make sure that you're drinking a gallon of water if you're an athlete. Um, and I think even, even back east where it might be a little cooler, I think a gallon is still a good gauge just because, um, you're an athlete and you'll be sweating so much when you train. So especially if you're train twice a day, you definitely gotta get a gallon of water in you, cuz you're kind of always. And when you wake up in the morning makes you drink a glass of water, a big glass of water.

First thing in the morning, before we get your coffee, before we get your, whatever you're drinking in the morning water first. Okay. Cuz you slept again. Let's say that we did the eight hours. That's eight hours of no water. Um, we want to, we need to, we're gonna be dehydrated. You're gonna pee you probably in the morning. You're gonna lose some hydration there. You probably sweat during the night. Uh, so you need to get that water back inside you and you'll feel you'll feel so much better. These so far, these are very simple things that cost $0. Okay. Now the third one I'm gonna talk about is, uh, protein. So, uh, protein helps me tremendously. Now my favorite protein is actual steak. Now steak is gonna have some other stuff in it that I think for me, I just feel like it helps, um, with my intake.

Protein for BJJ

Um, so you know, I'm going through I'm training a lot. Um, I wanna make sure that I have enough protein that my muscles, uh, are performing at the right, uh, level. They're going to feel better, not so sore. Okay. I think creatine is in it. Irons in steak too. Uh, I was using P protein. Somebody recommended pre proteins, a plant-based protein. Some people have problems with weight, figure out what works best for you. Now the other thing that I use, I go to Costco and I buy those things of protein, uh, shakes. Pre-made shakes. Why? Because I'm lazy. I don't want to clean shakers out. I don't, it makes a mess. Uh, they have like 30 grams of protein, low sugar. I shake it up after I get done training. And before, before I train, I pound one after training, I pound another one. Um, that's how I do it.

Now you can do the measures like your weight, how much protein you should ingest. You can look those measurements up online. Uh, but protein, you have to be taking in protein. Again. If you don't eat meat, there's P protein is awesome. Hemp, protein. Um, it's still protein guys. It's still gonna help you out now for me again, if I eat a steak at night, I will feel amazing. The next day I really do. Red meat is huge for me. Um, but I think everyone operates a little bit differently. Besides protein. Everyone needs protein. Uh, if you're not getting enough protein, your muscle's gonna break down and then you don't recover. Okay. So the next part would be for muscles too. Is foam rolling. Now I like to use, uh, foam rollers. If you go to BJJ, uh, BJJ to go.com, which is our online platform.

I have a whole series on foam. Rolling on there. You can check it out. You can look online too. If you'd like, I like to use, uh, different balls to get different areas. Uh, and different softness of a ball will help different areas too. I, I start with my feet and I work my way up. So I stand on the, on a, uh, lacrosse ball and I roll out my feet first, work my way up, my calves thighs inside. And I, and think about each, uh, limb six sides of a limb, okay. Or four. However you wanna look at it. Six is more accurate, um, or massages. So I try to get a massage. I get to two a month. Uh, but I also foam roll. So I would foam roll when I'm really sore. I start formula wheeling. Some people formal before they do exercise too.

Warming Up for BJJ

I've I actually think that's a great way. The older you are, the more warmups you need. And again, preventing those injuries I think is huge and extremely helpful. Okay. Now here's the last one. The fifth one is a sauna or cold plunge. So I use a sauna when I work out, I do one. So on per week I try to do 30 minutes. Uh, but I think two is, would be more ideal. I just don't have access to twice a week. So once a week I do a sauna or they call it heat, shock proteins. I don't know what that means, but I do know that I feel much better from saunas. Um, my recovery is so much better. I'm gonna start doing my cold plunges again. I used to do that when I'm really, I mean, I'm really drained cold plunge. I used to do four to 12 minutes.

Now people are telling me 12 minutes was too long, but I just threw a bunch of bags of ice in a bathtub with water. One thing I would recommend with this, I think I talked about it before is making sure someone's in the house. So if your legs give out, you don't fall and bash your head and die in the bathroom, you know, buck naked. The other thing, I always, always, I put a swim trunk on just in case. Uh, something goes wrong in a pass out. I don't wanna be naked. You know, it's not a good look. So, um, if you have access to an actual cold pledge tub, hopefully I'm gonna get one of those soon. Those are money, they work awesome. And I would highly recommend doing that now. Here's I mean, one more. My bonus thing that I do is I go to a place called, uh, route sport, me, shout out to route sport me.

I've had them on this show. Um, and we've interviewed those guys. They're great. And I kind of think of that as prehab. Okay. Prehab is like, I, I work out with, 'em only once a week. They give me exercise for the week, but I'm too lazy. I don't do them. Um, I'm gonna try to, I'm try, try to start doing that guys, but, um, it's hard. So, um, but that has made my leg stronger. It's prevented injuries. Um, they give kind of like massage, cupping, those type of things, you know, scraping, those are also recovery tools. So that's kind of like all in one. Now that would be like a bonus thing. You know, that costs more money. Totally understand it. If you can't do that, foam rolling is cheap. You don't need a massage pay for massages. Protein can be expensive, but look, it's part of your health.

Health and Diet: Brazilian Jiu Jitsu

It should be part of your diet. Just get it into your diet. Somehow again, I go to, uh, Costco, I buy the big thing. I think it gives me 18 protein shakes. Um, and it's about 25 bucks, 26 bucks, you know, so, you know, probably spend 50 bucks a month probably on protein, not including steaks, but you know, it's your health, health is wealth is the way I look at it. So, you know, you could be spending money now or spending money later in the hospital when you're older and you're all broken down and your body doesn't work. Right. So, um, you're gonna spend money it's just up front or, or, or, or later on, I'd rather do it front and feel better for longer, you know, uh, nobody gets out alive, but uh, I want my time to be my batteries, keep going dead.

So I don't know, uh, sorry about that. I'm, I'm pretty much done with it anyway, but I wanted to say that, you know, figure out what works best for you, but these are my top five is, uh, water or sorry, sleep water foam, roll protein sauna. And then I go to sports, uh, uh, Shawn at sports men, a ton of my students go to the hint, those guys, again, it's gonna cost you some money, but it's your health man. And you will feel great. Like what does it cost to feel? Great. People buy objects to feel great too, but you're physically still not gonna feel great. So this is gonna make you mentally and physically better. You gotta work on your mind too. You know, you could add in meditation in there too. Um, but those aren't my top five, my top five is still gonna be sleep, water, protein, massage, and sauna.

And, um, the sauna again might cost you mu a little bit of money, but cold plunge is not. If you get a bunch of bags of ice, you could jump in your own tub, just be, be careful and mindful how long you're in there for four minutes is good. Um, you and I don't even, I don't even figure out the temperature. I just set cold, fill the tub and then put about three bags of ice in and I feel great. So it's not exact measurement. Um, but I do feel pretty awesome from that. You'll get more energy and my recovery. I mean, I feel so much better when I do those type of things. So thanks for listening for, uh, strong hearts, five, uh, ways to recover. And again, with your age guys, you're gonna have to be more mindful, more and more mindful. I'm trying to stay in jiu jitsu.

Aging Goal: BJJ

My goal is to make it to 70. I want to roll in my seventies, not just like, hang out, I wanna be rolling. And it doesn't mean I wanna be beating 20 year olds, but I wanna be able to hang, be able to keep people in front of me. Okay. So those are my goals, uh, for my happy life, happy, happy jiu jitsu. And uh, if you have any other questions, you could always reach out to me, uh, at Strongheartacademy.com and uh, if you wanna take out any classes, we have a free trial program on Strongheartacademy.com. Just hit the trial button, please subscribe. Uh, I always hear on, uh, YouTube Hulk smash, the subscribe button button. It helps me out. I appreciate any comments, leave comments. Uh, you can tell me I'm a fool. I should be taking TRT, whatever you wanna call. I don't care. It's fine with me. Opinions are great. Uh, good or bad. I don't have, I don't have a sway either way.

And that's it have a great weekend and peace.

Side Control BJJ - Strong Heart BJJ

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu

Mike Martin, Owner of Strong Heart Academy, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in Phoenix Arizona, and third degree black belt, demonstrates side control.

Jiu-Jitsu Side Control

side mount, side control, maintain, Bjj, brazilian jiujitsu, jiujitsu, Jits, Gi

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side mount, side control, maintain, Bjj, brazilian jiujitsu, jiujitsu, Jits, Gi

BJJ - Side Control Submissions

Okay for side control. Uh, we're gonna go top and bottom. So from bottom position, we're just talking about hand position. He needs forearm on my hip. It's gonna prevent me from changing sides. Other hand is gonna be on my shoulder, forearm underneath my neck. My knees are as wide as I can go in the beginning. We're gonna start with our hand under the hips and one hand under the head. I want my hips as low as I can. Either sitting on my, um, heels. You could be on your toes as far or feet can be flat. Same as Mount. I wanna push his face with my shoulder and hand underneath his hips. My knees need to be touching. I do not want to sprawl. It's too easy for him to get away. So on my knees, my butt is low as I can, and I can actually push my chest to make it tighter shoulder pressure in the face.

BJJ

From here, we can transfer. My hand comes underneath the arm and I'm just gonna clasp my hands. This is called a Gable grip. No thumbs go over and same shoulder pressure, but I'm not flexing at all. I'm just pushing my shoulder forward. Many people make a mistake of like, try to squeeze as hard as we can. We're just wasting energy. Let gravity do the work for us from side control. From his perspective, he needs to be flaring his elbow up and making it uncomfortable for him to hold me and then pushing on my hip so that eventually he would get his knees inside to the fanning and try to pull guard again.

Thanks.

Strong Heart BJJ - Student Principle #1 - Service

View all 8 Strong Heart Academy Principles to Live By.

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.

Hip Escapes - Brazilian Jiu Jitsu

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

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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

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.

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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

View all 8 Strong Heart Academy Principles here.

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

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.

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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.