I want to give a special shout out to all the members of our Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu team that are out today fighting for cancer! Tap cancer out is not only a great competition for out team to get some practice in, but it is an amazing fundraiser for cancer. Too many people are loosing the fight to cancer everyday. I’m sure we all have had an experience with a cancer patient. We need to do all we can to help these people. And what better way then combining our favorite sport with a fundraiser? There is also a way for people who cannot or don’t compete to just donate a little money. People fighting cancer are giving everything, even their last breath to try to make a break through for someone else. Let’s keep fighting the fight. Dragon within teaches Brazilian jiu-jitsu not only for a street fighting stand point, but will also teach anyone who is willing to learn, the fundamentals of competing. We will make you the best competitor you are capable of. If you’re willing to put in the effort, we will take you the distance. Way to go team dragon for competing this weekend and for fighting in the fight against cancer. You truly are an inspiration to those less fortunate.
Tap out cancer has only been around since 2011, but has already made a huge impact. Together with donations, these competitions have raised over $135,000 for numerous cancer causes.
Statistics show that over 560,000 people lose the fight against cancer every year. This equals to 1,500 people a day. Can you imagine how many 1,500 is? That is a lot of people to die in one day. Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States. This is equal to 1 out of every 4 deaths are due to cancers.
“At Tap Cancer Out, believe that the jiu-jitsu community can come together to help raise money and awareness to support these organizations, hospitals, doctors, researchers and volunteers who won’t quit until they’ve forced cancer to tap out.”
We need to make people understand that BJJ is not only about fighting and being big and strong. It is not as intimidating as some make it seem. Bjj students are like a family or a unit. They take their skill and turn it into a way of life for themselves. Bringing all these families together to raise money is the same as bringing the running community together to run 5k’s for cancer.
“Tap Out: A combat sports term for yielding to the opponent, and hence resulting in an immediate defeat.“
The guard is a significant part of the Jiu Jitsu game since it offers both offense and defense on the ground even while situated on your back. The ability to pass the guard gives a Jiu Jitsu player an edge as well. Through being able to consistently pass the guard, the offensive and defensive capabilities of an opposing Jiu Jitsu player become less effective. Becoming talented at guard passing does not refer to learning a ton of different guard passes and merely memorizing them. Good guard passing skill is based on understanding a number of basic principles and being able to effectively execute them.
This is not always safe. At Dragon Within, we understand that without decent control of an opponent and good posture on your part, a weak guard pass leaves you vulnerable for sweeps and submissions. The process of passing the guard the properly begins with establishing good base and posture. Base refers to maintaining both stability and a low center of gravity, two traits critical to prevent from being off balanced or swept. Posture means your positioning protects the neck, arms, and legs from attacks. Once your posture and base are solid, the time comes to control the legs and, if the guard is closed, uncross the ankles.
Opening up the closed guard requires putting some level of pressure on the legs to force the ankles to uncross. Again, without good base and posture, this is not going to be easy at all. Once you have opened up the legs, you must control them along with the hips. With the open guard, you do not have to uncross the ankles. You simply go right into controlling the hips and legs, although this can sometimes be difficult based on the positioning certain open guard present.
Whether you choose to go over or under the legs, you positively must put pressure on your opponent. Controlling the hips is important to prevent an opponent from putting you back in the guard, although focusing solely on the hips while ignoring the importance of pinning him can make a guard pass weaker. The finishing positions of a guard pass is a pin be it side control, the scarf hold, or even the North/South position. To make a pin work effectively, you have to really anchor your weight down. This process has to start during the guard pass because, quite simply, a loose guard pass is not going to help keep anyone in place for a pin.
Among the best ways to become better at guard passing is to drill. Your training partner can put you in a number of different guards. While the partner offers moderate resistance, you work on guard passing and pinning. Correct your flaws and mistakes and try to improve with each training session. Your guard passing skills might increase immensely as a result. And great improvement could come far quicker than you ever imagined.
No one likes to be pinned down in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Pinning and holding is a large part of the game so anyone interested in learning Jiu Jitsu must learn how to deal with pins. The various top positions such as mount, side mount, north/south, scarf hold, and even knee on stomach are all designed to keep someone in place so in order to be submitted. Escape is the goal when you are pinned, but escaping is not always easy to do. You could end up being pinned for several minutes. To help reduce the chances of being submitted, your posture has to solidly defensive while also creating the best leverage for escaping.
Keeping the elbows close to the body would be among the most important of all posture considerations. There are two major problems present when the elbows are too far from the core of the body. The first is the arms are very vulnerable to submissions. An opponent can easily wrap under the elbow and go into a spinning armlock. The reason it is so easy to wrap the arm is the distance from the elbow and the body presents a significant amount of space.
The second problems is the arms lose a great deal of strength since supporting muscle groups cease to be involved. As a result, forcing the arm down to execute a bent shoulder lock is not all that tough. An opponent on top has a lot of leverage. Having weak arm posture further reduces the ability to defend the arms. Pulling the arms and elbows in towards the body makes attacking them dramatically more difficult.
In order to escape from the bottom, your elbows must press into points on the opponent’s body in order to create space. This is very difficult to achieve when the elbows are even slightly out of position. When they are too far from the body, they can offer no effective leverage at all.
Does this mean all hope is lost when your elbows are out of position. No, it just means you must make it a priority to bring them back in. Performing a simple short bridge to bump an opponent up can create enough space for just enough time to return the elbows to their correct position.
*We put together a team of hard working students. They worked after class to prepare for a demo at the 8th annual Culture fest. These martial artists are truly inspirational.*
So at Dragon Within Mixed Martial Arts, We could have basically taken all of our students and made a fantastic demo team. We have approximately 100 child students in 3 different age groups. These age groups make up our 3 classes; Little Dragons, Juniors, and finally Young Adults. Our little Dragons are 4-6 years old. Our Juniors are ages 7-10 years old and our Young Adults are ages 11-14. We gathered as a team and hand picked 15 kids from all three classes to perform in the demonstration.
We pair up all our students carefully with each other to avoid any size or strength issues. No child is set up for failure!
We keep them motivated with rewards and special attention and praise all the time. We even offered a snack in between classes because they get hungry after all that exercise.
-Baylie walks down the street and yet again, runs into that mean ol’ bully of her, Autumn. Autumn puts her hands on her one more and time and Baylie has had enough She defends herself with a crazy monkey in 50/50 then a take down. But she doesn’t stop there, no she mounts and pins that mean bully. She takes total control of the situation and then calls for help. This is great way to assert yourself against a bully with our hurting them. Remember our intention is not to hurt anyone, but do defend and evade the situation.
-Sarah and Steph (one of our adult students) demonstrate a little competition mixed with some real life skill. The show walking teep kicks into roundhouse kicks. This shows a more traditional Thai Kickboxing and what its all about.
Each student looks absolutely adorable up on stage, and not one student got stage fright. They were all excited and pumped to perform!
The Dragon’s at Dragon Within have been involved in martial arts training for over 50 years combined. This school has been alive for more than 10 years and is constantly growing. Our philosophy is to teach students self defense within the Art. The staff and students show compassion when training in the Dojo.
We believe that within the structured class our students develop self-confidence, motivation to set and reach goals, respect, discipline, and self control. Our class is taught at a pace, which allows students to advance in their belt over time. The time and work it takes to stay in class and earn a higher rank is what grows character, self-discipline, and patience. We understand that it is a difficult thing to stay motivated towards, which is why it is such a great achievement when they receive that belt. We stay focused on the Art and the way our curriculum is designed helps develop positive characteristics in our students over time.
Our kickboxing class has the same mentality. The curriculum is designed to keep you focused and motivated. You will feel like you have accomplished something new after each class whether it be physically or mentally.
If you have a Facebook and would like to see a recent album or see the flow of the way we operate please find us at facebook.com/dwmma . We also post schedule changes and member notifications there as well so definitely a good idea anyways!
We have experience with students of all backgrounds and maturity levels. Even children with social disorders and anxieties tend to thrive at Dragon Within
Our goal is to help our members to develop, grow, and improve both physically and mentally through their progression in Mixed Martial Arts, Krav Maga, Thai Kickboxing, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Self defense and Fitness Training. We accomplish this by offering the most functional, realistic, innovative, and enjoyable martial arts and fitness training available.
**We would also like to give a special thanks to Miss Jess, kids program coordinator and lead instructor, for putting together such an amazing show. And huge thanks to the A3D for hosting the 8th Annual Culture Fest in downtown Salem and inviting us to be a part of it.**
Guard passing remains one of the most important skills to develop in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. The guard is a significant part of the Jiu Jitsu world since it offers both offense and defense on the ground even while situated on your back. The ability to pass the guard gives a Jiu Jitsu student an edge as well. Through being able to consistently pass the guard, the offensive and defensive capabilities of an opposing Jiu Jitsu student become less effective.
Once your posture and base are solid, the time comes to control the legs and, if the guard is closed, uncross the ankles.
Opening up the closed guard required putting some level of pressure on the legs to force the ankles to uncross. Again, without good base and posture, this is not going to be easy at all. Once you have opened up the legs, you must control them along with the hips. With the open guard, you do not have to uncross the ankles. You simply go right into controlling the hips and legs, although this can sometimes be difficult based on the positioning certain open guard present.
Does this mean all hope is lost when your elbows are out of position. No, it just means you must make it a priority to bring them back in. Performing a simple short bridge to bump an opponent up can create enough space for just enough time to return the elbows to their correct position.
All of this takes practice and experience, but that is what training is for. As long as you continue to focus on good posture on the bottom, the chances are likely you will improve in no time.
A man in Texas went on a killing spree after his wife put out a protective order against him. This man went looking for her anyway. When he couldn’t find her, he lost it. 6 people were murdered and 1 more in critical condition. I commend the survivor (age 15) for calling 9-1-1. But what if there was a way the other 6 could still be alive? Sure there is no dodging a bullet from this sick individual. And according to CNN news, he had been known to beat his wife and drag her around the house by her hair, while the kids watched. But what if that could have been avoided? Now this is just my honest opinion, but what is a piece of paper to a sick man like him? Also what is dialing a phone going to do when you have to wait up to 10 minutes for a response? It only takes less than a second to fire off a bullet from a gun. But what if these victims knew how to defend themselves? There are many methods of protection against a brutal man, and even knowledge of weapon control and how to handle a situation when a gun is present. There is no getting rid of guns forever, and even if we did, people would find something else to kill with. It is encoded in our DNA like wild animals. Now most of us can control our inner animal. But we can learn the mind-set of how to handle a situation. It takes a lot of training. It takes a lot of discipline and mind control. Now who knows what the exact situation was when this man walked into the house and shot everyone. I do believe there may have been no avoiding it. As soon as anyone sees a gun, they tend to freeze. Some of our highly trained military and police sometimes have a moment of uncertainty. All we can do is prepare mentally and physically.
Police say the suspect is described as a black male in his 20s. Anyone who was in the park at the same time as the attack is asked to call the Boston Police Department at 1 (800) 494-TIPS.
Okay let’s face it, we have all had confrontation at some point or another. We have all had that irritating person in line that picks a fight for no reason. Or have had to deal with a client that we would love to take outside and teach them a lesson. Everyday we face these people. But how is it we don’t act on our instincts? In the animal kingdom, animals fight all the time to the death. But as humans, we are expected to hold it together.
Truth is, it doesn’t always work. As humans we sometimes don’t hold back our manors. We act on instinct to kill. And some of us do just that. Then someone else evaluates them and has every excuse in the book as to why they did it. Okay great, but now how are the rest of us supposed to just deal with that? I mean it’s a vicious cycle. We witness ones family member be attacked and we want to attack someone else. So instead of giving in to these disobedient humans, we could always learn to adapt. We could learn to defend ourselves, while building discipline and confidence to be able to handle ourselves. And that is what Dragon Within aims to do.
So now your wandering is the world really that bad? Well why take the chance. Take the time and have the dedication to mentally prepare yourself for what is really out there in the world. We are only evolved animals that have not lost all of our animal instincts.
Forged Bjj Krav Maga Self Defense Salem MA 