UFC Submissions: Armbar, Kneebar, and Facebar

Posted on February 24, 2013 by Lex

UFC 157, yesterday, had a few interesting submissions and submission attempts. Spoiler alert. Ronda Rousey finished Liz Carmouche in the first round with an armbar. I might be biased but, to me, Ronda is just on another level in terms of grappling. Which is why it was surprising to see her almost submitted with a “facebar” (pictured left).

I am beginning to see more and more that you can’t defend a rear naked choke with your face. The force of the crank and the face crush can be just as effective as the clean under-the-chin choke. I couldn’t help but think that Ronda instinctually was not worried about this choke because she wasn’t used to it in judo (where any choke across the face is illegal).

I think Ronda Rousey is the Royce Gracie of women’s MMA. She is paving the way in a sport where technical brutality is the name of the game. It’s tough to do for a woman, because our culture doesn’t seem to like to watch women bloodying each other. Conveniently, Ronda can finish her opponents cleanly and lady-like by breaking their arm. I look forward to seeing her develop in MMA, but I’ll still be that bitter old man who wishes she competed in judo at the 2012 and 2016 Olympics and bring home the gold at both.

Kneebar from Back Control

The other interesting submission was by Kenny Robertson over Brock Jardine in the first round of their welterweight fight. He caught kneebar from top of back control:

I was skeptical and thought that this was just a trick that couldn’t work on a resisting opponent who knew this submission was coming. But a dear friend of mine offered to demonstrate (pictured left). That’s Josh of (Angela and Josh fame). Speaking of which thanks to them for having us over and making delicious food.

It was a bit surreal to have a black belt kneebar me from back control while wearing jeans and t-shirt. It was like a reminder that this grappling stuff is real and even a seemingly crazy submission might be an effective technique for outside the confines of the sport of jiu jitsu. There was tons of pressure on the spine and tons of tension in the hamstring.

For anyone reading this who is not aware of jiu jitsu, this is the kind of positions that are involved in the sport. Taken out of context, this will probably ruin my eventual bid for president, and increase my mom’s insistence that I find a nice Jewish girl to marry.

Add Submission Grappling to the Olympics

Posted on February 16, 2013 by Lex

I still can’t quite believe that wrestling has been taken out of the Olympics. It seems to me that the “dream” of Olympic gold in the minds young wrestlers today has been silenced. But perhaps as one door closes another one opens…

The growing popularity of MMA throughout the world means that even the youngest wrestlers are becoming aware of wrestling’s next door neighbor: submission grappling. Guillotines, rear naked chokes, triangles, armbars, kneebars, toe holds, etc. are all lurking in the shadows. The counter-intuitive notion that you can dominate an opponent off your back is no longer so counter-intuitive.

Maybe taking wrestling out of the Olympics is the first step in the sport’s evolution. The second step would be to add submission grappling. The more I thought about it in the last couple days, the more the ADCC version of the event seemed like a very real possibility:

Jiu jitsu is a little too boring for spectators. MMA is a little too violent. No-gi is (in some ways) the perfect compromise.

The only concern I have is the very fact that any of these changes are happening. For 70 years (since 1936) no sport was removed from the Olympics. Why are these changes happening now. If it’s because of “money”, why does money all of a sudden gain the power to change something that was unchanged for decades? The Olympics needs to be a slow-moving organization. It takes 15-20 years for an Olympic athlete to achieve world-class level from an early age. Changing rules (or worse, changing sports) throws a wrench into that very delicate process.

“Manly” Sports: The Vision and Purpose of Modern Olympics

Posted on February 14, 2013 by Lex

Side note: I don’t know a better word than “manly” to represent the kind of activity that requires incredible physical fortitude. Nothing to do with men or women.

Wrestling (both freestyle and greco) is out of the Olympics in 2020. I’m at a loss of words.

I feel like the old native american with a tear drop rolling down his face as he looks out over the land taken over by a very different civilization than the one he grew up in.

This USA Today article defends wrestling in a way that I would never defend wrestling, saying “sure wrestling isn’t popular, but it’s better than the following five sports that are still in: modern pentathlon, ping pong, race walking, trampoline, judo”.

Judo made it in their list of sports that no one cares about. That had me thinking all day yesterday. What if they are right? I live in a sports bubble where the “combat” sports are considered to be the purest representation of competition. I grew up in a world where the “manly” sports were at the core of the Olympics. My “manly” sports, I mean ones that have the most combative physical contact and/or require the most strength. In the winter Olympics it was hockey, and in the summer Olympics it was wrestling and weightlifting.

Perhaps, a lot of my views of sports has to do with the fact that I grew up in the former Soviet Union, or that I wrestled in high school and have participated in some kind of “combat” sport since age 12. But I also played tennis and chess for a long time, so I don’t know…

I have to step back and wonder how the rest of the world sees wrestling. Maybe the characteristics of a sport do not matter. What matters for the Olympics is that a lot of people do it and watch it. That way we get to see some incredible displays of will and skill. Synchronized swimming has been given as an example of ridiculousness, but those ladies probably practice as much as the wrestlers for their whole life. Maybe the activity doesn’t matter, and what matters is that we can excite a large enough percentage of the population to dedicate the first 20-30 years of their life to mastering this activity.

Like I said, right now I’m the crying Indian, in a state of disbelief, grasping at random clues in attempting to understand where our culture is drifting.

I leave this post with a few stats selected from this NWCA wrestling facts page.

Scholastic Wrestling

Scholastic wrestling ranks 6th of all boys’ sports in terms of participation at the high school level with over 272,000 nation-wide (behind football, basketball, baseball, soccer, and track).
Since 2002-03, the number of high school wrestlers has grown by over 30,000.
Over 10,400 schools sponsors wrestling which is the highest ever.
In 2008/09, 42 new wrestling programs were established in Arkansas and the Arkansas High School Athletic Association became the 49th state to sanction a high school state wrestling championship currently, Mississippi is the only state that does not.

Collegiate Wrestling

Intercollegiate wrestling has over 100 years of competition.
Collegiate wrestling typically ranks in the top 5 in revenue production of all NCAA Championships (2009 NCAA Championships set a NCAA attendance record).
81 new intercollegiate wrestling teams (all divisions) have been established since 2002.
Wrestling has very modest start-up costs and needs.

International Wrestling

Wrestling was included in the ancient Olympic Games, and was one of the select sports included in the first modern Olympic Games in Athens, Greece in 1896.
Over 135 nations sponsor a wrestling federation.
Wrestling is one of the top three medal winning sports for the United States.

The Best Judo of 2012

Posted on December 22, 2012 by Lex

The IJF released the updated ranking of judoka in the world in 2012. In this post, I’ll just look at the male side of the ranking, but of course I have to mention that our own Kayla Harrison not only won the Olympic gold, but also dominated for 2 years straight to get more points than any other female except Lucie Decosse of France who is another badass chick. Of course if Ronda Rousey was still competing in judo the Decosse vs Rousey match up would be great to see. Maybe they’ll meet in the octagon instead…

No One Country Dominates

At the bottom of this post I list the top 3 ranked male judoka in each weight class. In this list of 21 athletes, a total of 13 countries is represented, which is a great sign of vibrancy for an Olympic sport:

Russia: 4
Japan: 3
Uzbekistan: 2
Germany: 2
Korea: 2
Georgia
Mongolia
Azerbaijan
Greece
Cuba
Kazakhstan
France
Brazil

Are The New Rules Helping or Hurting?

The fact that Japan is not dominating the list above is a sign that the sport of judo has weathered the short-term effects of the rule changes made four years ago (about no leg grabs, etc). I am happy to see this, though I still am very much against the rule changes. But we should be careful to remember that the champions of today are the product of the rules and culture in place 10-20 years ago. The long term effects of the new rules may be felt many years from now in the number of people who choose not to train in judo but opt instead for another combat sport.

The Top 3 in Each Weight Class

-60kg
SOBIROV Rishod (UZB)
GALSTYAN Arsen (RUS)
MUDRANOV Beslan (RUS)

-66kg
SHAVDATUASHVILI Lasha (GEO)
MORISHITA Jumpei (JPN)
KHASHBAATAR Tsagaanbaatar (MGL)

-73kg
NAKAYA Riki (JPN)
WANG Ki-Chun (KOR)
ISAEV Mansur (RUS)

-81kg
KIM Jae-Bum (KOR)
BISCHOF Ole (GER)
MAMMADLI Elnur (AZE)

-90kg
ILIADIS Ilias (GRE)
NISHIYAMA Masashi (JPN)
GONZALEZ Asley (CUB)

-100kg
RAKOV Maxim (KAZ)
SAYIDOV Ramziddin (UZB)
SAMOILOVICH Sergei (RUS)

+100kg
RINER Teddy (FRA)
SILVA Rafael (BRA)
TOELZER Andreas (GER)

Jordyn vs Jordan: A Battle of Two Unstoppable World Champions

Posted on July 28, 2012 by Lex

If you hear “Jordan” in relation to the 2012 Olympics, what do you think of? The answer to that question depends on whether you enjoy watching people in tights flip around in the air or you enjoy watching people in tights flip others around in the air. I prefer the latter (wrestling) and not so much the former (gymnastics).

Jordan Burroughs is a dominant 2011 freestyle wrestling world champion. Jordyn Wieber is an even more dominant 2011 gymnastics all around world champion. Both are Americans, and both have been destroying the competition in a way that makes it difficult to imagine who can possible take the Olympic gold away from them. Not even the Russians!

Here’s a highlight of Jordan Burroughs (and his relentless double leg takedown):

Here’s a highlight of Jordyn Wieber:

I’m not a fan of watching gymnatics, but I am a fan of watching dominance in any sport. Also, I believe that gymnasts are some of the toughest athletes out there, because of how hard they train (especially through pain) and how much focus is required to achieve perfection in their sport. I love just watching the look of concentration on their faces. Some of these girls are just teenagers, but mentally they are seasoned warriors.

Comparing Top Salaries of Combat Sports

Posted on July 9, 2012 by Lex

There is an illusion that since UFC is “fastest growing sport” that its stars would be paid on the level of other professional. That illusion was shattered for me when I found out that the prize money for Chael Sonnen from this weekend was just $50,000 (source). Of course, he perhaps earned over a million dollars through sponsorship deals, but still.

The following are the top earners (based on approximate yearly earnings from their fights alone) from each of the sports in a recent year.

Boxing: Floyd Mayweather at $85,000,000
MMA: Rashad Evans at $710,000
Freestyle/Greco-Roman Wrestling: $0 (unless they medal, then some countries give bonuses. Russia is highest with $100,000 bonus for gold)
Judo: Teddy Riner was paid $100K without sponsors and then sponsors bring that up to a about $1,000,000.
Jiu Jitsu: ADCC pays $40,000 to the superfight winner. World Pro pays $30,000 to the winner of the absolute and $8,000 to the winner of the division. Ultimate Absolute pays $10,000 to first place. So someone like Andre Galvao who won almost all of these prizes, could earn $88,000 a year.

It’s clear that superstars in any sport get paid well. An example of that is judo’s Teddy Riner. But still, it surprised me that the top 10 earners in boxing still make more than the top paid UFC fighters.

For many Olympic sports, money is not the main motivator, which is why the Olympics often feel like the purest form of athletic competition. There’s something beautiful about a human being sacrificing the prime of his or her life for the singular (and nearly impossible) goal of a gold medal…

Brazilian Judo

Posted on June 27, 2012 by Lex

Guess what country has the most active judo players? You’ll probably guess China or Russia or France, but you’d be wrong. It’s Brazil. Yes, the country that gave birth to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is also the country that is training the most judoka in the world.

In 2012, Brazil’s olympic judo team has a qualified athlete (both male and female) in every weight category. That’s a rare, and a sign that their squad runs deep. The Brazilian women in particular have been dominating on the world stage, and are definite medal hopefuls for both the 2012 and 2016 Olympics. Just see them dominate in Moscow this month:

I think the popularity of judo in Brazil is facinating. I still think that judo and jiu jitsu are kept seperate in most academies in the world. But when BJJ grows enough to be respected all over the world, the scary day will come when an Olympic judoka will also be competing at the Worlds. And by “scary”, I mean “exciting”.

I hope that jiu jitsu rules will eventually be adjusted to penalize the guard pull (even if just with an advantage) and encourage the grapplers to go at it on their feet. If you watch the video above, that results in some big throws, and a more exciting sport for the spectators.

Olympic Judoka Pulling Guard in a No Gi Grappling Tournament

Posted on March 21, 2012 by Lex

The follow match is an Olympic judoka Travis Stevens (currently ranked 5th in the world) competing in a recent Grapplers Quest (in December, 2011). In judo, Travis is probably my favorite actively competing judoka to watch, partly because he goes for big throws and big wins, but partly because his judo game is very similar to mine, so of course it’s easy for me to like his game.

I gained even more respect for him when I watched him compete in 5+ divisions at that Grapplers Quest in both gi and no gi. In almost all the matches I saw he either pulled or jumped guard, not using his judo almost at all. I think that’s a sign of a true champion, willing to put ego aside in order to learn, improve, and grow from the experience. That said, he beat almost everyone. His open and closed guards are very difficult to pass. Moreover, he is very dangerous off his back, constantly looking for triangles, arm bars, and omoplatas. Here’s one of the only (if not the only) match he lost that day, tapping to a straight foot lock:

I wanted to post this match because it reminds me what local and regional tournaments are all about at all levels. The idea is to have as many matches as possible, do your best, but don’t take a loss too seriously, and more importantly, don’t let the possibility of a loss prevent you from taking risks and opening up your game.

If you notice, Travis smiles during the relatively intense attacks by the top guy. I’ve seen him smiling like this at the highest level of competition. I’m not sure what the intent of it is, but in my eyes, it definitely has a positive effect of showing his opponent that he is not tired (even if he is).

If an Olympic judoka doesn’t mind stepping completely out of his comfort zone and losing, the rest of us have no excuse. Get out there and compete!

Gold Medals

Posted on March 14, 2012 by Lex

Nick Delpopolo put up a picture of his gold medals in judo on facebook and it made me think about what judo and jiu jitsu means to me today and in the bigger context of my life in general.

I have a very similar collection of medals, as do many active competitors. Of course, Nick won them by fighting some of the best people in the world. (PS: Support Nick as he makes a run at the 2012 Olympics in judo.) But, we all had our battles, and these medals represent not just victories, but little snapshots in time along a seemingly endless pursuit of a dream.

The annoying thing is that they take up so much space My favorite kind of “snapshots” in my own life are the pins (aka safety pins) that I got in high school wrestling for every opponent that I beat by pinning them. I’ve had a good number of them. Somehow they told a more dramatic story than medals do. Every pin represented a battle that didn’t just end in victory, but in dominant victory. I always loved that. It’s a silly thing of course for a glorified computer nerd such as myself to assign much value to these pins, but it seems like the silliest things can sometimes bring the most pride.

To this day, I’m most proud of the wrestling battles I remember: both the ones I lost and won. But I’m not done yet. I still have a few left in me. I still have room for a few more gold medals in my closet

IBJJF is Going Down the Path of Olympic Judo

Posted on November 15, 2011 by Lex

One of the new rules in 2012 for the IBJJF is that black belts are required to bring a blue gi and a white gi to distinguish the competitors from each other. This has been also the practice in major judo competition for a few decades now.

When this new rule change (among a few others) is brought up among my fellow cross-training judoka, they are worried that international BJJ competition is going the way of judo, that is towards more and more restrictions.

I personally think that this new gi requirement, while a pain in the ass, is a great idea for the spectators and referees. However, I share the concern that the rule change was probably made by a small group of people that may or may not be representative of the BJJ community.

Last year, leg grabs (double legs, fireman’s carry, etc) were made illegal in judo. This is widely considered to be an outrageous decision by fans of the sport. But more importantly it goes against the spirit of judo as a martial art: a fighting and grappling system. I hope IBJJF will not embrace some of the same flawed restrictions, perhaps in the pursuit of being included in the Olympics.

Lex's BJJ and Judo Blog

A blog about trying to be healthy, keeping my ego in check, overcoming challenges on and off the mat.

Tag Archives: olympics