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

It’s hard to believe that we’re almost 50 episodes in to “Mastering the System.” Each episode is always chalk full of Jiu Jitsu, Mixed Martial Arts, comedy, celebrities and much more. Most importantly, Eddie shows his curriculum for that month in each episode. This gives fans and up close and personal look at exactly what moves are being taught at the 10th Planet headquarters at the Tapout gym in beautiful downtown Los Angeles. up at 10th Planet Van Nuys, all the guys can’t make it down to HQ on a reglar basis, so they can watch from the comfort of their own homes.

Below is a breakdown my minutes and seconds as to what all is in the video. If you like what you see, you can watch the full videos when you sign up for a premium account, at www.10thplanetjj.com. Most online programs can be a lot of money, but you can watch Eddie’s videos for 5 bucks a month! If you’re not in the know, it’s a hell of a deal. You can learn exactly the same stuff we learn, he’s not holding anything back. If you don’t like it, cancel your membership, there’s really nothing to lose. Even if you hate Eddie Bravo, you can watch this to be a better basher too.

MTS 49: Sub Only Rules

In this episode:
00:00:15 – The Hangman
00:03.54 – East Coast Training Camp 2
00:08:04 – 8-man Sub Only Tourney – Rules Meeting
00:13:04 – 8-man Sub Only Tourney – Match 1
00:18:40 – 8-man Sub Only Tourney – Match 2
00:20:52 – Skydive – to Zombie from the top – to Head & Armpit – to Arm Triangle
00:31:23 – 8-man Sub Only Tourney – Match 3
00:34:20 РVinny Magalḥes promoted to 10th Planet Black Belt
00:44:33 – 8-man Sub Only Tourney – Match 4
00:50:16 – 8-man Sub Only Tourney – Match 5
00:55:31 – 8-man Sub Only Tourney – Match 6
00:59:32 – The Future of 10P (Featuring Jacob Harris)
01:03:22 – Skydive – to D2 – to Head & Armpit – to Gangsta Lean – to S Mount – to Mono Plata – to Straight Jacket – to Special K – to Spiderweb -to Arm Crush – to Arm Bar
01:13:10 – 8-man Sub Only Tourney – Match 7 Final
If you need to upgrade to watch: http://www.10thplanetjj.com/payments.php

Here’s an older episode, MTS 47. If you like this one, go watch the new one!

Don’t have long finger nails. This is my personal pet peeve. I will never show you the secrets of how I use deep half guard or how I dim mak ninjas, if you slice me open with your talons. It’s really easy to cut somebody inadvertently, make sure you keep and extra set of nail clippers in your gym bag. Hell, bite your nails for all I care. Just get it done. I have a scar right between my eyes from a disrespectful training partner that forgot to trim his nails. I have to be reminded daily when I look in the mirror, of how much I hate this.

No talking to your partner while the instructor is teaching. You can help out your training partner when the instructor breaks to practice back and forth, but don’t distract him before then. You should probably stop talking when the instructor is pointing out details, or making corrections, during the drilling. Not to mention the fact that you are probably distracting the other students from trying to hear what is being said. Everybody is there to learn from somebody who has lots of experience, not the white belt who wants to show off to the other new white belt how much technique he has. (or thinks he has.)

Please don’t roll or drill with mat cooties. If you have nasty on your skin, and you still want to train, you can go for a run or do some tape study. Please don’t go roll around with guys no matter how much you want to. In the long run getting sick leads to people quitting or worse, getting super sick. Don’t be greedy, take a couple days off, go see the doctor and get it taken care of.

Handle all of your open wounds. Nobody wants to get bled on! It’s gross! If you get a cut it’s one thing, you have to expect it a little bit of that, but if you’re bleeding all over and it could have been prevented, people are going to be turned off. Take 3 minutes before hand to cover up any wounds, and tape them up. Band aids always get knocked off when you get all sweaty. I haven’t even talked about how you can get sick from infections, which can lead to other ways to be a bad training partner.

I have another couple blog posts out of this subject. I hope I’m making Jiu Jitsu a more pleasurable sport for you and your team. Please feel free to post this, or tell your partners what I’ve said, just keep the information out there. Problems can arise when you have expectations that the other students already know this stuff. Never expect it’s “common sense” for people to know these things. They’re busy thinking about how they’re going to sweep you, or how to make their technique smoother, rather than thinking about being a better training partner.

Coach Alder Hampel

10th Planet Jiu Jitsu Van Nuys

www.10thplanetvannuys.com

Training partners are one of the key to you success in Jiu Jitsu/MMA

Coach Ryan Bradford’s new blog, www.awesomeniujitus.com, is up and running!!! Ryan is one of the smartest, and most analytical coaches we have at 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu Van Nuys. He’s also one of my oldest and most loyal students. He’s followed me all over this Valley. His dedication is what every coach hopes to get from a student.

What makes Coach Ryan different is he can break the science of jiu jitsu down to atoms. When it comes to teaching a curriculum, he “gets it.” What makes him so effective, is that he’s an educator by trade. Teaching is what he does best. Look for big things to come out of Coach Ryan in the next year. He and I are working on some amazing projects as we speak!

Prepare to be dazzled! This blog is definitely for the jiu jitsu geek in all of you! You will learn something new, and be entertained at the same time.

www.awesomejiujitsu.com

If you’re interested in coming down and learning from Coach Ryan, or another of our instructors at 10th Planet Van Nuys, visit our website. We’ve got some awesome free offers on there.

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

Joe Rogan (www.joerogan.net) had stuntman, MMA fighter, The Ultimate Fighter Season 3 contestant, gym owner and all around great guy, Tait Fletcher on his show. At a certain point they gave 10th Planet Van Nuys (www.10thPlanetVanNuys.com) a nice little shout out. Thanks for the plug guys!

The Muay Thai gym Rogan mentions is Saekson’s Muay Thai, run by Julio Trana Jr. and the family www.vannuysmma.com

Dan Hardy is not new to myself, or 10th Planet Van Nuys. I had the pleasure of being his Jiu Jitsu Coach in his title fight versus Georges St. Pierre. It was at that point, the highlight of my MMA coaching career. Being able to have the honor of being a part of something that big, a title shot against one of the biggest draws in the sport, was indescribable. The coverage was crazy, Dan was doing interview after interview, photo shoots, appearances, and not to mention the camera’s followed up around everywhere. The UFC was doing a 24/7 type reality T.V. show leading up to the fight. The schedule was packed from sun up, to sun down, but when when could fit it in, we did like to get a bit of training in too!

The whole story itself is crazy. We trained all over the place, Matt Serra’s 2 gyms, LA Boxing in New Jersey, Ray Longo’s in Long Island, and Joe Defranco’s just to name a few. We even trained at this decrepit, old wrestling gym where many great NJ amateur champions had wrestled. The place had no heat and it was freezing cold, it was filthy, it was wet, it was falling apart and it made a great photo opportunity! I was miserable, my joints hurt, I was covered in dirt, but it was great material for the camera crew! After that training session, I was pretty confident we’d have a shot at that fight. Training in that place made me feel like we were the underdogs about to fight the Canadian Ivan Drago in GSP. I knew one thing, for better of for worse, GSP wasn’t training like we were!

Unfortunately, that fight didn’t finish how I would have liked it to. Dan ended up losing a 5 round decision to GSP. It did however show that he does not give up. Even when it looked like St. Pierre was going to finish him with a fully extended armbar, or a fully locked in kimura that was completely behind his back, he would not give up. He proved to the world it is not easy to finish him. Many critics didn’t even expect. him to last one round, much less, survive an entire fight and sustain little, to no damage! He did much better than most people expected. He went the distance and gained much respect from fans all over the world.

All personal things aside, Dan Hardy is legitimately one of my favorite fighters on the planet to watch. He exciting, he’s dynamic, and he’s always down to scrap! There’s a reason that even though he had a brief hiccup in his career, losing 4 in a row, that he’s still in the UFC. He proved he belongs in there in his last fight, when he knocked out striking legend, Duane Ludwig. I know tomorrow I’m going to have my tv set to watch Dan take on the always dangerous, Amir Sadollah in Nottingham UK. I have to guess Dan isn’t going to let his fans down when it’s in his home town. NO WAY!

Many of the fighters at 10th Planet Van Nuys look up to Dan and have modeled certain parts of their styles after him. In fact, just last week one of my top fighter, Mike “Lobes” Frausto, used devastating knees to finish his opponent in less than one minute in the first round. The last of which forced the referee to stop the fight because one of the knees that landed, looked like it broke his arm. After the blow was delivered, his opponent dropped his hand and started holding his arm in pain. The ref waived off the fight from there, declaring the fight a TKO. I know Dan would be proud!

If you’re interested in fighting, competing, or just learning martial arts give us a hollar. We cater to guys, like Dan Hardy, who are looking to become the next UFC champion. We also cater to the everyman who just loves to the sport, and wants to get a good work out. You don’t have to have aspirations of fighting or competing to train with us, we welcome all people at every level of experience. We have classes that fit all kinds of schedules. We’ll even give you a free private lesson, consultation, and tour! Stop having the internal debate in you head about it, and give us a call. You know you want to! (818) 925-JITS (5487)

Coach Alder Hampel

www.10thPlanetVanNuys.com

For all my 10th Planet people in the Greater Los Angeles area. 10th Planet Van Nuys is meeting up to watch the fights tonight at black belt, Master Shigeki Matsuda’s world famous, Orochon Ramen. He has a beautiful, brand new San Fernando Valley location. Located on San Fernando, near Orange Grove.

If you’ve never been to a team even before, come experience how we get down. We’re tons of fun!

Test you spicy skills! Finish Orochon’s signature Spicy #2 in under 30 minute, and forever be immortalized on the wall of Bravery. Many have tried and failed, but your’s truly, Coach Alder is amongst that elite who has prevailed.

Prelims start at 5pm pacific
Main card 7pm

Ben Sample of HQ and Mike “Lobes” Frausto of 10th Planet Van Nuys both DEMOLISH their opponents both under 1 min. Not quite the way you would have expected it. First, Lobes defeated his opponent with vicious knees to the body. It’s likely he broke his opponent’s arm in the process.

Ben crushed his adversary, David Lee a grappling stud and standout under Barrett Yoshida, with an Anderson Silva style beat down. Throwing lazer beams to every part of the body, it was something else to watch. He KO’d him in just 19 seconds.

Big shouts out!

Give us a shot, the worst thing that could happen is you get addicted to jiu jitsu!

Staying on top of the game in MMA or even just Jiu Jitsu demands alot. It requires sacrifice, dedication and perseverance. As a result, it should be common sense that knowing what to put in your body, aka having a diet, is a must! Not just to make weight for your fights, but also to make sure you are taking care of your body so that you can train at the best that your body and mind needs. This will totally help with how one feels with recovery/rejuvenation so that you don’t feel like a bloated fat piece of crap during training, as well as your fights. Supplements on top of a good, proper diet will excel your game to the next level. First off, the body needs protein, which is an essential building block needed to repair muscles in the body that have been through a rigorous training session. When exercising with rigorous work, you are tearing your muscles down, and the protein comes in and rebuilds/reinforces the muscles. The most common protein used is a whey protein supplement for after a workout. I personally have been using a plant based protein by a company called Vega. Since it is a vegan protein, it is free of any animal products. On top of that it is soy free, so men don’t have to worry about growing man tits. Supposedly too much soy can raise estrogen levels in a man, hence men can develop breasts, aka boobs, as a result of too much soy. Since using Vega’s post workout protein, my body actually feels much better and cleaner, cause God knows what we feed our animals. As a result, using this protein has taken rejuvenation to a whole new level in terms of recovery, especially due to the fact that there are high quality Branched Chain Amin Acids (BCAA’s) that help you get the best out of the protein. The BCAA’s are what help synthesize the protein, thus enhancing, the building of stamina, endurance and recovery/rejuvenation.

Another great supplement to add in a training regimen is a preworkout supplement. Having worked as a sales representative in the nutritional supplement industry, pre workouts have been a very popular product for people, if not a must. At least half the time, customers come in asking for a pre workout supplement. One I use personally is by Vega. Other than coffee, Vega’s preworkout supplement is filled with many beneficial ingredients for the body such as yerba mate, green tea, ginseng, kombucha, etc… Coffee is a stimulant due to the high content of caffeine. The stimulants in Vega are filled with rich antioxidants and causes no crash or jitters. This preworkout, taken before training will help one’s training tremendously by helping them to train at 100% if not more. Vega’s supplements have been shown to be the best stuff for me and I truly believe it is the best stuff out there… PERIOD. Just remember, the way you train is the way you fight. If you are giving it all you have in the gym, then the fight should be just a re-creation of all that hard work that was spent day and night on the mat, in the gym. So put in your body what will help you to be at your best. If you eat like crap, then you will perform like crap. If you eat good, you will feel good… and if you feel good, you fight good.

David Hah is a blue belt at 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu Van Nuys and a supplement consultant for more information you can email him at davidshah88 at yahoo (dot) com

History of 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu

10th Planet Jiu Jitsu was originally the brainchild of Eddie Bravo. Eddie, was first introduced to Jiu Jitsu the way many people were, through Royce Gracie via the original UFC, or Ultimate Fighting Championship, way back in 1994. Bravo, a former Karate practitioner and a high school wrestler, was immediately sold on the effectiveness of this new brazilian rendition of an ancient Japanese martial art.

Eddie signed up for lessons under the world renowned Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Champion, Jean Jacques Machado. Machado, along with his 4 brothers are Cousins to Royce, and the Gracie family. He is the Nephew of the BJJ co-founder and great Master Carlos Gracie. Jean-Jacques is also considered one of the best BJJ world champions to ever live. It was here at this school, Bravo excelled as a student of the art, and as a vicious competitor. He competed in many tournaments all over the world, and was known for his unorthodox approach, and exciting submission attacks. He became a household name in the BJJ community, and received his black belt after submitting Royler Gracie at ADCC (Abu Dahbi Combat Club). At this, the most prestigious Nogi grappling tournament on the planet, Bravo forced Gracie to tap to a triangle choke. Until that moment, Gracie had never even had 1 point scored on him. Bravo became the first american to ever submit a Gracie.

After this moment Eddie decided to focus on his own martial arts system. He was a huge proponent of No-gi Jiu Jitsu, a form of Jiu Jitsu that doesn’t use the aid of the traditional uniform, the gi, a.k.a. the kimono. Jiu Jitsu’s effectiveness had drastically declined in MMA, and he wanted to make a style more usable in the cage and in the ring. Bravo created a style based on clinching using underhooks, overhooks, collar ties and other grips that didn’t depend on the usage of clutching clothing to gain an advantage. It was a different philosophy, and was scoffed at by many traditionalist. Eddie would take huge amounts of criticism, but he moved forward regardless of the of what people said.

In 2003, Eddie founded 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu in a small Kick Boxing Gym, The Bomb Squad, in West Hollywood, California. With little promotion, It was a risk starting his own Nogi Jiu Jitsu gym, but on the first night 17 student showed up. That number has grown substantially over the years. There are now upwards of 40 schools around the world, and countless practitioners of the system from Melbourne Australia, to Van Nuys, California. 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu, although being a complete system of no-gi Jiu Jitsu is most known for its signature positions such as the Lockdown, a half guard system in which the bottom player configures his legs in a way that controls the leg and hip. The twister, a submission based on a wrestler’s guillotine, where the attacking person controls the leg and hip similar to the lockdown, but comes behind the opponent and attacks the neck and spine. Also, the Rubber guard, a clinching form of the guard in which the bottom player uses their leg to break the posture of their opponent.

Bravo is also an author and has published 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu books 3 books, “Jiu Jitsu Unleashed,” “Mastering the Rubber Guard,” “Mastering the Twister.” “Advanced Rubber Guard: Jiu Jitsu for Mixed Martial Arts Competition” is set to be published in 2012. Eddie has also released 2 DVDs, “The Twister,” a compilation of his matches from the beginnings, all the way through his submission of Royler Gracie, and “Mastering the Rubber Guard,” which was a DVD version of the popular book. Eddie also has a bi monthly web series, “Mastering the System” in which he gives an intimate look inside the 10th Planet System.

If you are near the Los Angeles area, and you’re interested in trying out 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu, please visit us at www.10thplanetvannuys.com or call us at 818-925-JITS (5487)

First, ‘Id like to give props to the 6 new blue belts! It’s not easy to get a blue under me, so when you do, you know you’ve earned it. Every student’s journey is different, for me, the criteria for each person to get their blue belt is different. I want to see the student is proficient in all the major positions, and submissions. I want to see a strict, consistent training regiment, even if it’s twice a week. I want to see them building a game plan and constantly revamping it. I want to see them helping their team mates, and having a positive attitude in class. Loyalty is big, are you helping the team get better, or are you only concerned with your progression? Effort, do you train hard, show up on time, go one more round even if your mind says no. The list goes on and on.

Not every promotion is a belt rank. Today, I promoted Mike Frausto to competition Co-Captain. Mike has shown amazing ability in competition, training and teaching. He has show exemplary leadership abilities and at the same time, remained humble and egoless. Mike himself has all the makings of a champion and a black belt, at the same time, he also has the traits to one day be a world class coach.

Congrats gang!!!

Blue Belts
1- David Alvarez
2- Gabe Calvento
3- David Hah
4- Bhimerjeet Kahlom
5- Bill Reusch
6- Daniel Godinez

***Competition Co-Captain – Mike “Lobes” Frausto

I had the awesome privilege of cornering the first ever Combat Jiu Jitsu match held at Nokia Theater in downtown Los Angeles. This may be the next thing that ties Jiu Jitsu into MMA. Maybe one day we’ll see big names in jiu jitsu use this as a stepping stone into getting into full blown mma.