10th Planet Watch – 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu Van Nuys Blog

You ever roll with the guy who says let’s go light, and then proceeds to grab you and drive you over 3 sets of other people rolling? They then smash you into the wall, grab a heel hook and crank it wildly as hard as they can. Before you can tap, you’re knee pops 5 times. “Thanks knee for tapping for me, I was just about to do that, but this gorilla didn’t give me a chance.” I used to have of trouble with guys like this. Ultimately, it’s the instructors/owners burden to keep everybody safe. Reckless training would lead to unhappy or to injured students. That would lead to bad attendance due to injury. Which would lead to less training partners coming to the gym, which would lead to uninspiring classes. That would lead to guys not progressing as quickly in their training. Not to mention it would lead to less money coming in. No money, we can’t pay for lights, water or a space to even train in.

After years of not knowing what to do, I decided to change it up. Now, everyday before rolling, I do a quick injury check. I ask who has any injuries, which helps people remember that some people can’t go super hard, and lets the class know the instructors are paying attention, and we’re care about safety. After that, I give a speech to the class about our number 1 priority, taking care of your training partners! This is your number one job as a member of the team. If you let them get hurt, you got nobody to help you out. If you injure people, it will spread quickly and soon people will avoid training with you.

The Next thing I do puts how hard you should go in perspective. I preface how hard the roll should be by breaking it down like this:

If you are going to go…

-100%, it’s only if you’re fighting for your life against Nazi war criminals, evangelical leftist rapists or an equally threatening foe.
-80% is for fighting for the UFC championship belt.
-70% competing at a friendly Jiu Jitsu tournament.
-60% solid training for a competition or fight. This is reserved for people who understand the risks of training hard and accept the risks, I keep this separate usually.
-50% good old competitive everyday training. This is for 90% of the people. Under most circumstances, training at this rate, you should be able to get up and go to work the next day, and train again tomorrow. It’s competitive, it’s challenging, yet it’s good natured, and enjoyable.

It works extremely well at our gym. Injuries happen much less frequently at 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu now days. It’s not the good old days of MMA/BJJ, we’re much smarter now. Therefore we have to be more responsible with our health.

At Metamoris 3, the whole world watched as Eddie Bravo dominated Royler Gracie using proprietary 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu techniques, specifically the Lockdown. In the match, Eddie was able to control, sweep, and pass Royler’s guard, something he wasn’t able to do the first time they competed. He almost submitted Gracie for the second time, but Royler was tough, and refused to tap even though his knee nearly exploded from “The Vaporizer.” At the end of the day, the match will go down in Jiu Jitsu history as one of the biggest, most anticipated, and most exciting grappling matches of all time.

With all the interest in 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu, specifically the Lockdown, I wanted to do something as a show of good faith for the BJJ community.  I’ve been practicing the 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu System for nearly 10 years, and I’m in a unique position to be able to share my knowledge.

That said, 10th Planet Van Nuys is proud to offer a FREE, one time, very special event. We are going to Unlock the Secrets of the Lockdown!!!. This won’t be broadcasted, and it won’t be taped, the only way to be a part of it, is to be there live in person, so don’t miss out!

In this seminar, I’ll be breaking down the little known details that you have never seen before. You may think you’re familiar with the Lockdown, there’s information out there about it. The difference is, I’ve dedicated my entire life mastering the system, and I’ve had the privilege to have learned it directly from the source. Don’t be fooled by cheap imitations and johnny come latelys. I’ve logged tens of thousands of hours studying, training, and teaching these techniques over the years. I know how this game works inside and out.

The Lockdown isn’t just a bunch of random moves, It utilizes a unique philosophy. It’s creative, and out of the box. Just when you thought you understood it, you realize how intricate it can be.  You’ll learn the system of entries, controls, defenses, sweeps, counters, recoveries, transitions, and submissions,

This event is limited to less than 40 spaces. We require you R.S.V.P. If you do not secure your space, we will not be able to accommodate you. We want to have room and for the event to be comfortable. We are already 2/3 of the way full, so don’t wait! Book your spot today. It’s first come, first serve.

There’s no tricks, we won’t harass you with emails, pressure you to buy anything, or sign up at our gym. Honestly, what are you waiting for? Call us today at (818) 781-5487.

• Location: 10th Planet Van Nuys
• Date: Saturday April 19th
• Time: 12pm-3pm Followed by an open mat.
• Cost: FREE!!!
• R.S.V.P. Required,
• Capacity will be reached well ahead of the date, Call now to reserve your spot. If you cannot make it. ***Please Cancel 24 hours in advanced to allow for others to take you spot if your cannot attend.

*PLEASE NO RECORDING DEVICES ALLOWED

Awesome match from 2 extremely high level Grapplers.

Speaking of Javier Vasquez, we’re having a seminar with him at 10th Planet Van Nuys August 31st, 2013 at 12pm. For more information click here, or call us at 818 781-JITS(5487)

Want to learn the 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu system? <a href=”http://www.10thplanetvannuys.com” title=”10th Planet Jiu Jitsu in Van Nuys, California” target=”_blank”>www.10thplanetvannuys.com</a>

Javier “Showtime” Vasquez will be teaching a seminar at 10th Planet Van Nuys, August 31st! He will be going over his SES method, a system based on the opponent having you in side control. For those of you not familiar with Javi, he is one of the most legit guys out there. He’s well versed in self defense, wrestling, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (gi and no-gi),  Submission wrestlilng, and MMA. He’s competed at the highest levels of those sports in ADCC, King of the Cage, Grapplers Quest, Shooto, UFC, and WEC. I couldn’t be more stoked to have him coming down to our gym. CALL TODAY to reserve your space. This will sell out! (818)781-(JITS) 5487

Javi’s Bio
“Born in Santiago, Cuba on April 27, 1976, Javier Vazquez came to the United States at the age of four. He grew up in El Monte, California and started wrestling as a sophomore at Arroyo High School at the age of 15. In 1994 he placed 3rd at the CIF wrestling tournament and continued his stellar high school career by placing 4th in the Southern Section Masters tournament. He was just one match away from placing in the high school state wrestling championships, ending up in the top 12 in the state at 130 lbs. He was voted team captain in both his junior and senior years. He continued his wrestling career at Mt. San Antonio College where he again proved himself to be one of “the best of the best” by finishing 7th in the state and being voted team captain for his leadership on and off the mat.” click here for full wiki

Want to learn Jiu Jitsu? www.10thplanetvannuys.com

Eddie Bravo will be gracing the mats of 10th Planet Van Nuys next Monday, June 10th. He is one of the most prolific figures in all of MMA and Jiu Jitsu. He’s not afraid to speak his mind when it comes just about anything. 10th Planet is constantly evolving, and Grandmaster Bravo will be teaching the latest advancements in the system. He is always researching, developing, refining and updating techniques. You don’t want to miss out on any of the new stuff! 

Due to limited amounts of space, this event is only for current 10th Planet Van Nuys team members. However, if you’d like to join our team in time for this event, there’s still time to sign up, and get in on the action. 

We’re having super summer specials right now, so call us!!! (818) 781-JITS (5487). You’ve probably been thinking about signing up for a while now anyways, and these prices won’t last forever. Call and book a free class to see what we’re all about. Best way to see if 10th Planet is for you is to take a test drive. There’s no strings attached, what have you got to lose? I can guarantee you’ll love our program, and our prices, for what you’re getting are out of site. 

Did I mention, we have morning, night, and weekend classes? We  have classes for beginners, seasoned vets, and competitors too. Think you’re too old or too young? Think Jiu Jitsu isn’t for girls? Nonsense, we have classes for everybody!!!

After you come try us out, and you still find you’re not convinced, you can walk away no hard feelings, and no pressure sales. We only want people to join our team who absolutely want to be there. That’s why we have such an amazing vibe at our school. Our instructors and our members all are incredibly passionate about Jiu Jitsu, and it shows!  Stop making up excuses and jump in today! You’re future black belt awaits you.  

Best,

Coach Alder

P.S. interested in checking out our website? Go to www.10thPlanetVanNuys.com (sign up for our newsletter!)

 

We just got ourselves a new Dollamur Swain landing pad! These things are wonderful for practicing high impact slams, throws or flying attacks on. No more knocking the wind out of ourselves when trying out that flying triangle or armbar! Students can be tentative trying out these moves sometimes because of the the fear of landing hard, and possibly injuring themselves. Not anymore! These things feel like your landing on a nice cushy cloud. Not only are they good big huge double leg slams, but we can now practice our pro-wrestling moves on each other as well. Look for more fun things to come from this essential piece of training equipment!

10th Planet Van Nuys’s New Dollamur Swain Landing Pad

There are only a few spaces left, call now and reserve you slot!

Denny Prokopos Seminar
June 1st, 2013 @12pm
10th Planet Jiu Jitsu Van Nuys
16760 Stagg St. Suite 218
Van Nuys, CA 91406
www.10thPlanetVanNuys.com
(818) 781-5487

Want to learn Jiu Jitsu? Contact us today! www.10thplanetvannuys.com

I’m sitting here at my office watching a beautiul display of Jiu Jitsu in MMA at UFC on FOX. Mike Swick is taking on the always durable, Matt Brown.

In the first round, Matt Brown gets a nice takedown and starts working from the top. He’s able to secure a beautiful D’arce choke. In an interesting move, Brown falls to full guard in an attempt to finish the submission. On one hand, pulling guard with this move can control the opponents hips, not allowing them to get distance away from the choke. On the down side, it can take the leverage, and the ability to put your weight down from the top, into the choke. Swick, understanding his advantage, and ends up keeping Brown flat on his back. Brown is unable to get any torque from that position. He’s not able to get his weight on top of Swick’s head. If he could do so, forcing the chin to the chest, that could cut off the air, and the blood to the brain. Swick is then able to pull out of the choke and end up on top.

Continuing from guard, Brown now starts fishing for wrist control, looking for a triangle. He is able to force Swick’s arm through his leg, achieving the arm in/arm out position. From here, Brown is able to lock in a full on triangle. This is not a new set up, this is old school BJJ at it’s best. The advantage is, in MMA, when an opponent choses to throw strikes, they take their arm off their body, giving the bottom player the ability to control it.After the choke is in, Swick does an awesome job of defending. Knowing that Brown has to pull the head down and squeeze the legs together in order to finish him, he quickly throws both legs over Brown’s body to give him leverage to break the hold. As Swick extends his hips, and Brown is forced to let go. In an attempt to counter, Swick transitions into one of trademark moves, guillotine aka the “swick-o-tine” off the scramble. He’ wasn’t able to lock the hands together and finish. The lock is broken, and the round ends

Matt Brown goes on to K.O.’s Swick standing in the following round with a devestating combination, but it was a really exciting grappling match while it was on the ground. We’ll played sirs!

Alder Hampel
Head Coach 10th Planet Van Nuys
www.10thPlanetVanNuys.com

As of recently I was perfectly happy with the rule set in BJJ. Alright, I lied a little bit, I’m really unclear as to the system of advantages that the IBJJF use. It’s not for a lack of trying to figure them out either. So, maybe I’m not completely happy with that, but otherwise, I’m ok with it. I think there’s always going to be a place for the point system. It system was put into place to make a game out of self defense so we could compete against each other so see who the best martial artist was. This can lead into the whole self defense vs. sport bjj argument which I’m not going to get into today, that a different topic. The point system represents moving into a more advantageous position. The idea is if this were the streets or a fight of whatever, we would theoretically be able to inflict more damage without sustaining as much, thus we’d be “winning the fight.” By no means is it a perfect system, but it was the best we had.

Lately there’s been a string of great “submission only” tournaments. The rules in these tourments are simple. The person who wins by submission wins, and continues in the tournament. If there is no submission, both competitors lose. It may seem harsh, but there’s some definite advantages to this style of competition. Here’s a few things that I like.

1. Submission only cuts down on “grey area” wins. There’s a ton of arguable calls in jiu jitsu. Many times refs aren’t 100% sure what the rules are because they’re not very specific at times. What I call a pass, sometimes isn’t a pass to another referee. There’s too many subjective calls. This can leave fans, and competitors alike with a bad taste in their mouths. I can’t tell you how many people who may have otherwise gone to more competitions, either to watch or participate, were turned off by the whole thing, because of grey area calls.

2. Sub only discourages stalling. If you came to pass the guard, get 2 points and stall out the rest of the match, this kind of contest is not for you. We have a joke at 10th Planet Van Nuys about losing 2-0 to a wrestler. The wrestler who have little to no submission ability will enter a Jiu Jitsu tournament, take his opponent down, and then shut down for the rest of the match. I don’t feel doing the bare minimum, and laying on top of somebody represents winning. The term wet blanket was coined for these type of fighters.

3. Sub only promotes action! The idea is that in submission only tournaments, if you’ve trained for a month, paid an entry fee, dieted, cut weight, waited around for hours for your name to be called, you’re not going there just to lose. That mean’s you’re there to win, and the only way to win, is to go for submissions. If 2 combatants are in there trying to win, you’re going to see Jiu Jitsu at it’s most exciting.

4. It’s more fan friendly. Having fans will make the whole sport grow. If the sport grows, maybe we’ll see it in the olympics. Even if submission only was the gateway drug that led you to get into the point system eventually, wouldn’t that be good? If a casual fan goes to a tournament, they soon learn, even though they might have paid 10-20 dollars to get in, this tournament is not for them. Most of the time, you can’t see the clock, so you don’t know how much time is in the match. You can’t see the score cards. They’re usually set up so that only the competitors can see them. As a coach, I usually can’t even see them. In many cases, especially with advantages, fans don’t know the rules. Forget the fans, like I said earlier, coaches and competitors are unclear with the rules because of subjective grey areas. If there’s 6 matches going on at a time, and you are trying to watch 2 at the same time, if you look away and you miss points, you’re lost because you can’t see the score cards. Submission only takes all that away, either the match ends in submission and you see somebody tapout, or you see two people walk off the mat, not to return that day. It’s simple and easy to follow.

Now, I admit, sub only isn’t perfect either, it’s going to have shortcomings too. However, it does have some really great points. I’d love to start seeing more of the really big names in the sport come out for the sub only format, just like in Metamoris. The Gracie Worlds is coming up January 20th, in Los Angeles. Hopefully we’ll see a big turn out.

Coach Alder Hampel
10th Planet Van Nuys

After a tremendous success, we’re bringing back our coaching program to 10th Planet Van Nuys. If you’re a serious student, and you’re looking to make Jiu Jitsu a serious part of your life, this class is for you. Whether you want to own your own gym one day, help corner fighters, teach classes, or just get better and more involved, this class is for you. I’ve told my class this several times, but I’m serious when I say this, this is the BEST class we’ve ever had at the gym.

If you don’t know my story of why I got into coaching, here it is. I was just a regular old purple belt looking to do something more with my bjj. I wanted to find a reason to be around the gym more, I wanted more responsibility so I wouldn’t slack on my training. I wasn’t must of a competitor, and I never really had any serious interest in fighting MMA, but I still wanted to find a reason to show up everyday outside of just loving the sport and staying in shape. I ask my friend and training partner Brent Littel for some advice. He told me to find some white belts who needed some extra work, and start helping them get better. Fast forward a few years, and here I am, a full time coach, running my own 10th Planet affiliate.

If you’re a full time member of 10th Planet Van Nuys, and you want to jump in there’s still some time left. Contact us at info@10thplanetvannuys.com

Coach Alder Hampel

www.10thplanetvannuys.com

In the last article we talked about the importance of training partners, you can check out that artcle here. This is part 2.

Please, be kind to your training partners! These people are the ones helping you get better, train for tournaments, teach you new moves, give you details on existing moves. It’s not a competition to see who can hurt each other the best. This is already a rough enough sport, we don’t need to be getting injured every time we show up to class. This might seem pretty obvious, but don’t bully people. Yes, I am talking to you adults! What does that prove? Ok maybe, you’re entertained at some poor saps expense, but what happens when there’s no more poor saps to torture, because you’ve ran them all out of the gym. A bad training partner can make an otherwise fun sport a terrible experience. I’ve seen people avoid certain classes to avoid problem training partners. I’ve also heard of seen people leaving gyms because the owner or the coach never addressed these bad training partners and people were either injured or abused. At 10th Planet Van Nuys my coaches and I are very careful to address people who may be abusing their partners. I make sure they understand what they’re doing is not cool. If they continue to do it, I wont hesitate to protect my team, and remove that person from our gym.

Another thing to watch out for is the opponent resisting 100% or reversing the position on you during training. I’m not talking about when you’re rolling live, I’m talking about when we’re learning a move and drilling it. If I’m working my technique and the person keeps blocking my technique, chances are they’re, not helping, they’re just being a jerk. Maybe you have all the best intentions in the world by trying to show him what could happen, but first let’s learn the move before we start talking about the options of what could happen when some body does, “this or that.” Let your partner do the move, help them, correct them, but it’s just annoying if you shut them down. Sometimes it can be helpful, you don’t want your opponent getting in repetitionss of something that is incorrect, but you don’t have to go hard and fight them in order to show them what they’re doing is incorrect.

I’ll write some more on this later, you can always learn to be a better training partner. You can’t write enough material on this subject, if nobody talks about it, you’ll continue to have bad training partners. If you don’t want to speak up and tell your training partners about this stuff because it’s uncomfortable, then just link you’re team to this article.

Coach Alder Hampel

10th Planet Jiu Jitsu Van Nuys

www.10thplanetvannuys.com

Something I address frequently at 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu Van Nuys, is the value of having a good training partner. They can be very influential in your Jiu Jitsu career. This may seem obvious, but sometimes we need a good reminder. A good training partner, just like a coach, can be somebody that will help you to becoming a better practitioner. Brent Littel has been one of my best training partners/mentors over the years. He has helped me get to where I am as a player ,and as a coach. He’s kept me accountable when I was slacking. Without people like him, I wouldn’t be where I am today. You and your partner form a sort of think tank, where you can bounce ideas off of each other. You can form solutions as a team that you may not have thought about on your own. For the most part, our sport requires you do most of the movements on, or with another person. I’m a big fan of solo drilling, bridging, rolling and shrimping without a partner, but the majority of stuff is more fun, and more effective with another human being.

What I myself look for in a good partner is first and foremost, trust. I’m putting my safety in this person’s hands, I sure as hell don’t want to get hurt by a careless/crazy/ego driven person. I need to feel comfortable with them to be able to focus on my technique, and not be afraid he’s going to snap my arm. If I’m practicing a move, and I’m worrying more about that person spazzing out on me, my technique is going to suffer. If I don’t trust somebody, I don’t want to train with them. Will I? probably, I’ll make the best out of the situation, but I’ll be very careful as to what I let happen.

I’m careful in who I choose to roll with as well. I’m very concerned with injury. If I feel my partner will try to spike me with a power bomb while trying to get out of a triangle, I won’t roll with him. If I feel a partner will potentially put his knee on my orbital to escape a kimura, I wont roll with him. If everybody has this mentality, it should hopefully force the bad apple to either change, get kicked out or quit. Either way that’s a win for the team. Contrary to popular thought, you’re not a “wuss” if you choose to not roll with a certain partner, to avoid getting hurt.  I’ve accepted the fact that I’m going to get injuries here and there, but if it’s avoidable, I’d rather pass on training with a jerk today, than not roll tomorrow. I’m getting to be an old guy, I’m a product of the 70’s, I’d rather train smart, than be a tough guy and sit on the sidelines icing my wounds.

Part 2 coming tomorrow, stay tuned!

Coach Alder Hampel

www.10thplanetvannuys.com