BJJ

A simple recipe - one head and one arm - only two ingredients needed; but we have a number of variations on how these ingredients can be woven into some of the most commonly employed and highest percentage chokes in BJJ. They give us the Darce, the Anaconda, the Kata Gatame and the Triangle.   Many times I have quizzed students on the differences between them - and have received a number of answers (arm penetrates from armpit to neck, visa-versa, the spelling is different, etc) But I am here to outline the most meaningful difference (because there are differences indeed, but most of them are, in my opinion, simply not very meaningful). The meaningful difference between the Darce, the Anaconda, the Kata Gatame and the Triangle is to have an awareness as to which part of the choking mechanism stops the opponent from escaping/resisting the choke.   In the Darce - it is the chest; in the Anaconda it is the inside of our thigh; in the Kata Gatame it is our head or our hip (depending

The first thing that coaches and teachers need to realise is this: the value of other peoples time.   It frustrates me when I see coaches step onto the mat without realising this most simple and important fact. Coaches who just go through the motions - and coaches who think their mere presence on the mat is worth the money that people pay to spend time with them, are worthless coaches in my view. Each of us is the centre of our own universe. We are all important. The time that is allocated to each of us is valuable beyond measurement. Coaches need to ‘get’ that people are trading a significant amount of this valuable resource to spend time with them; students trade their time to make the money they need to pay for the class/seminar, etc - they then trade more time to travel to the training space, and then they trade more time to listen to what the coach has to say ... that there, is a load of time.   Coaches - pay attention to the real and actual cost of the deal made for this o