Brazilian  Jiu-Jitsu has been in the United States since the late 1970’s and early part of the 1980’s in very small circles in California.  It wasn’t until the 1990’s that Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu became popular as a fighting style worldwide because of its success in Mixed Martial Arts events held on Pay-Per-View television.  So what has been happening with Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu since 1993?

The sad fact is that Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu instructors have not been teaching the self-defense and combatives strategies that helped Jiu-Jitsu become so successful in the Martial Arts community.  9 out 10 Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu school curriculums have been focusing on sport aspects for competition.  Around the country it’s very difficult to find an instructor that teaches self-defense and street combatives techniques.

Further in these academies, the competition techniques and strategies are from the late 90’s.  The result of these curriculums leaves a student with limited to zero self-defense skill.  For competition if this is what students desire as a goal has them involved  with outdated and an old looking expression of jiu-jitsu.  It is sad to watch.  New techniques and strategies make a big difference in competition.

At Elite Training Center, our Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu curriculums give a student a well rounded education in Art, Self-Defense and Combatives.  For advance students that are interested in competition, Prof. “little” Tony Pacenski is known in the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu community for having a rich history in traditional approaches to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and can play in the modern styles.  He has been showcase on Budo Videos.com, Rolled Up,  Mat Time Radio, Inside BJJ, Endless Blogs and Jiu-Jitsu forums for creating specific full curriculums for modern jiu-jitsu practice and theory such as: The Sao Paulo Approach To Passing The Guard; The Berimbolo Attack Game and The 50/50 Guard for Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu competition.  These video-instructionals and seminars have sold out internationally and continue to influence jiu-jitsu instructors, curriculums and academies all over the world.

Elite Training Center 1628 South Pacific Coast Highway,
Redondo Beach, CA 90277
(310) 543-1600
www.elitetrainingcenter.net

Sparring class looked fantastic on Monday night. Everyone’s kickboxing is growing in a positive direction. Impressive output from the students in the Krav Maga class afterwords as well. That night’s lesson covered a little bit of ground work and defending from the bottom position. You guys rock keep up the great work!

-A. Haro

Train daily. Create something habitual that can benefit not only you, but others as well. Easier said than done? Not really.

By instituting something physically and mentally stimulating the benefits are tremendous. As we’ve discussed in previous posts, the mind-body connection is the greatest gift one can give to not only the self, but to others.

At Elite Training Center in Redondo Beach, CA we practice various martial arts with varying degrees of intensity. Krav Maga, a very intense and brutal martial style works off of instinctual movement. In order to make it work though the mind and body must work in harmony to be successful.

In Muay Thai Kickboxing, technique is everything (this does not negate speed and power). To ensure that a punch is deployed properly can also give reassurance that the striker is actually protected by keeping the jaw line covered with the shoulder.

In Kali the use of angles is extremely important. To not be in the line of an attack, particularly an impact weapon or a blade must be understood. This transition can be applied to simple life experiences.

MMA and BJJ share many attributes regarding technique. In guard positions, it is the more skilled and patient practitioner who can be comfortable on their back and wait for their top positioned opponent to make a mistake. It is not without lessons learned and the manifestation of the mind-body connection that allows to see an opening.

Regardless of what discipline you train in, it isn’t simply about “showing up.” It is about showing up, listening with attentive ears and seeing things with clear eyes that leads us to make the connection of the mind and body.

Erik Paulson is returning to Elite Training Center for a 3-hour seminar on May 12th! This martial arts event for students of all levels offers everyone the chance to learn from a MMA master & founder of the Combat Submission Wrestling system.

Elite Training Center is proud to bring you another opportunity to study under the champion expertise of Erik Paulson. Sign up to learn from a real MMA pro for three hours at an astoundingly low price. SPACE IS LIMITED SO RESERVE YOUR SPOT TODAY!!!

Inside Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.com conducted an interview with Elite Training Center instructor Prof. Tony Pacenski.

Check it out: www.insidebjj.com/2012/04/29/17-tony-pacenski

Elite Training Center 1628 South Pacific Coast Highway,
Redondo Beach, CA 90277
(310) 543-1600
www.elitetrainingcenter.net

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At Elite Training Center (Redondo Beach, CA), we stress the importance of being a good training partner, but what does that specifically entail? How do we ensure that we are not “that guy” or “that girl” with whom no one wants to train?

The basics for all classes, from Muay Thai kickboxing to Kali Silat, are simple: Always change shirts before and between classes. If you tend to sweat more heavily, bring a towel. Keep your skin clean…if you can, showering before class is a great idea. Replace your equipment before it begins to smell horrible…and speaking of smells, a little gum before class can go a long way towards freshening up your breath!

When it comes to classes that involve ground techniques and fighting, such as Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, MMA, and Krav Maga, in addition to the above “good partner basics,” it’s especially important to keep your fingernails short (and I’ve always found that filing them to round the cut edge helps even more). If you have long hair, do your best to keep it back and out of the way when training. But guys, be patient if your partner has to pause to re-tie her hair…chances are you’re sweating more than she is and she’s being cool about it, so give her and her hair a break!

Beyond those basic courtesies and hygiene, to be a good partner you have to communicate and work at your partner’s level. This means you must slow down if warranted, and it also means that you need to let your partner know if he or she is going too fast or training too hard. If the training is too one-sided, with one person dominating the other, then no one learns anything of positive value. The “conversation” and cooperation back and forth between partners are crucial to both parties’ advancement.

This brings up a comment that I hear a lot. “As a beginner student, I don’t want to partner with more advanced students because I’m afraid to ‘hold them back.’” You must not worry about it!! In martial arts, it is the duty of the senior student to work with junior students and help them along their paths. To deny more advanced students this aspect of their training is to rob them of some very important lessons with regards to teaching and character development. Every black belt was a white belt at one time, struggling to put together the mechanics that make a proper jab or a basic arm bar. Everyone should remember that struggle, and as students we shouldn’t forget how great it felt to have a more advanced student work with us and share their experiences with us. So don’t be afraid to partner with someone with more experience than you…it’s a good thing for both of you!

Practicing with many people is crucial to your martial arts training. Working with different body types and skill levels helps you learn to adapt your technique to your partner, which better prepares you for a hypothetical future opponent or attacker. So branch out! Don’t always pair up with the same person. And always make sure you’re someone that others want to train with by having a positive attitude, communicating well, and keeping those basic rules of partner courtesy and hygiene.

See you in class!
Katie

Today Team Elite went outside our local community in search for those who need martial arts most in their lives.

Venturing down to a church in South Los Angeles, we met an amazing group of young teens we will never forget. Introducing ourselves we went straight into the demo and immediately captured their attention. This group of kids were respectful and welcoming the second we got there. We spent the next hour sharing our knowledge and love for the martial arts.

Never forget a martial artist’s purpose is to protect and serve his community. The martial artist’s life is dedicated in service to others. When you truly grasp and live this principle you will experience martial arts the way it should be and to the fullest.

All in all everyone had a great time. Very impressed and proud of Maddie, Brooke and Selah for representing the school and leading by example. Instructors as a Team worked together to share our experiences and knowledge to the best of our ability to represent who we are and what we stand for.
-A. Haro

Everything has a humble beginning. We’ve all heard the cliche phrases, “He/She/It comes from humble beginnings…” Whether you train in Kali, Krav Maga, Muay Thai, BJJ or MMA at Elite Training Center (Redondo Beach, CA) it is important to understand that most martial arts started small. In keeping with the humble accordance, it is the essence of the true martial artist to adhere to a lifestyle that is rich with humility.

As we grow as martial artists we must keep one another in check. It is the acceptance of the opinions of others that can empower the esteem of the practitioner or negate their progress completely. “Don’t get cocky.” We’ve all heard it and we’ve all said it. Confidence in one’s skill set and the boasting of what we have done to achieve said skills can be a gray area for some and black and white for others.

As a student who is continually on the path of reaching higher levels, never waiver from your path. Your responsibility is to smooth out the bumps to get there. Don’t let your ego drive. Put it in the back seat and tell it to get in the back and keep quiet until you get to your destination.

Everyone has something to teach. This is such a great, understated truth; understanding it and embracing it can improve your skills so much faster than when you allow your ego to hold you back. Unfortunately ego is something we all eventually have to learn to rein in! No competitive person likes to lose, but if we don’t discover where our weaknesses lie and learn ways to improve them, how will we ever progress? At Elite Training Center in Redondo Beach, we have a structured learning environment that fosters cooperation among the students, with everyone supporting one another and helping each other progress by building fellow students and working together, not by simply dominating those who are weaker.

My husband, George, recently returned from teaching a grappling seminar in Latvia, and one of the students present was a Sambo World Champion. (For those of you unfamiliar with Sambo, it’s a martial art developed in Russia that, in its sport form, focuses on throwing, groundwork, and submissions). At 5’10, 200lbs, and incredibly strong, the man could have been a nightmare to have at the seminar, but George was struck by how humble and unassuming the champion was. He was far more open minded and interested to learn than instructors of lesser abilities that George had encountered on his European tour. The champion asked intelligent questions, worked hard, and made every session; afterward, he told George that he had learned a new arm bar, and he said that if he could learn one new thing from a seminar or class then it was always worth the time. The ability to control his ego in order to learn new things is probably a large part of why he’s been so successful.

Everyone has something to teach…keep this in mind when you’re training and you will progress much more quickly. Whatever martial art(s) you train, whether it be Muay Thai kickboxing, MMA, Kali Silat, Jiu Jitsu, or Krav Maga, eventually you will practice at a sparring pace…this is when it’s important to remember to stay calm and humble. Tempers can flare and egos get challenged, but learning to overcome your weak spots is essential to improvement. So take a step back. If someone is better at something than you, then learn from him or her so that you can progress. And also remember that you have something to teach someone else. In fact, teaching and working with your partner will not only improve his or her skill set but your own as well.

One final thought: At the Latvia seminar the youngest participant was a 16 year old boy, and the rest of the men picked on him and gave him a hard time. At one point George taught a technique that the boy was too tall to do successfully, so the boy modified it and figured how to make it work in a way that none of the very experienced people in the room (in addition to George and the world champion, a Sambo European champion was also there) had ever seen before. Don’t think that your lack of experience means that you have nothing to offer, and never believe that you are too experienced to learn something new…make an effort to put your ego aside and be open to new things. After all, it’s not only how we grow on an individual level but also how our martial arts’ systems evolve over time!

~Katie T.