Chess with the human body

Keenan Cornelius is a world class blackbelt in jiujitsu. His skill level is sufficiently high that he can verbalize his tactics in real time as he rolls with lower belts.

"He's trying to bump me off mount, so I'm shifting my weight to my left knee to keep my weight off of his hips. But once he gives me an opening I'm going to slide under his lapel to finalize the choke..." Sometimes he is several moves ahead of his opponent!

Roy Dean does something similar, but with narration added in post-production, here. Roy's video is more precise (for one thing, he's not out of breath) but what Keenan is doing is super impressive :-)

Ice Cream Kron

First UFC victory by a Gracie since 1994! Congratulations to Kron, son of Rickson Gracie. His nickname, Ice Cream Kron, means Cool Under Pressure. Ironically, you can tell that he's a sensitive guy and that fighting takes a huge toll on him.

He won in old school fashion. The progression was classic -- something I taught to Yale BJJ club students in the mid-1990s. Caceres throws a right, Kron ducks under to get the clinch, hiding his head under Cacere's arm. Kron takes the back, entwines his leg and uses his bodyweight to take Caceres to the mat. Kron moves smoothly into a rear naked choke, hiding his hands from Caceres. Almost no energy expended by Kron. Alex Caceres, an athletic UFC veteran, defeated in 90 seconds with a minimum of violence.

Jiujitsu, the gentle art.




Some background on Rickson and Kron, from Eddie Bravo and Joe Rogan. Kron's submission grappling fights against Garry Tonon and Marcelo Garcia are unbelievable.

Mama Said Choke You Out

If you do Judo, MMA, or BJJ you've probably seen someone choked all the way out. In this video CrossFit athlete Brooke Ence learns how to do hadaka jime (naked choke) and goes out herself. Very interesting if you've never seen it before :-)

Judo/BJJ chokes block blood flow to the brain, not air flow to the lungs. Deprived of blood (hence, oxygen), the brain transitions to unconsciousness quickly and rather abruptly, with interesting effects on memory and awareness.

I trained for years with a former Navy SEAL who would fight a submission to the end, so I choked him out on a number of occasions. Sometimes he would wake up afterward and ask me what happened. He also made the same little gurgling noise that Ence makes in the video.

See also Mama said knock you out and here for the LL Cool J reference ;-)

Kosen Judo and the origins of MMA

When I was in Japan in the mid-1990s almost no one outside of a small group of MMA fans had ever heard of BJJ or Gracie Jiujitsu. Sometimes when I went to a judo club to practice I would just explain that I was a "newaza specialist" (ground technique specialist) or even that I wanted to do Kosen-style judo.

The Imperial Universities that specialized in Kosen judo did so partially because they were nerds! One could become adept at newaza with less natural athleticism and less practice than was required to become a true tachiwaza (standing technique = dynamic throws) specialist. A relatively small amount of training in ground technique allows a fighter to completely dominate an untrained opponent. The Kosen competitors would simply drag their opponent to the mat without using any flashy throws or takedowns, and then submit or pin them. More video.

I cannot really tell from the video whether these Kosen practitioners have also adopted techniques from modern BJJ. I see some spider guard, but apparently that is an old Kosen style! Don't let the black belts fool you. In Japan you go from white to black belt directly, and 1st dan black belt just means you know the basic moves and are still very much a student. These guys in the video don't look all that advanced to me for the most part. (It's not easy to be admitted to Kyoto University, by the way.)

Here's a top-level Kosen guy. He's destroying those scrubs in Canada ;-)

Wikipedia: Kosen judo (高專柔道 Kōsen jūdō) is a variation of the Kodokan judo competitive ruleset that was developed and flourished at the kōtō senmon gakkō (高等専門学校)(kōsen (高專)) technical colleges in Japan in the first half of the twentieth century. Kosen judo's rules allow for greater emphasis of ne-waza (寝技, ground techniques) than typically takes place in competitive judo and it is sometimes regarded as a distinct style of judo.

Today, the term "kosen judo" is frequently used to refer to the competition ruleset associated with it that allows for extended ne-waza. Such competition rules are still used in the Nanatei Jūdō / Shichitei Jūdō (七帝柔道 Seven Imperials Judo) competitions held annually between the seven former Imperial universities. Similarly, there has been a resurgence in interest in Kosen judo in recent years due to its similarities with Brazilian jiu jitsu.

Brazilian Jiujitsu (BJJ) was introduced to Brazil through the Gracie family by judoka Mitsuyo Maeda. Maeda had significant experience fighting wrestlers and boxers; from this experience he developed a theory of combat that has evolved into modern MMA.

According to Renzo Gracie's book Mastering Jujitsu, Maeda not only taught the art of judo to Carlos Gracie, but also taught a particular philosophy about the nature of combat based on his travels competing and training alongside catch-wrestlers, boxers, savate fighters, and various other martial artists. The book details Maeda's theory that physical combat could be broken down into distinct phases, such as the striking phase, the grappling phase, the ground phase, and so on. Thus, it was a smart fighter's task to keep the fight located in the phase of combat that best suited his own strengths. The book further states that this theory was a fundamental influence on the Gracie approach to combat.

UFC 221: Rockhold vs Romero

Two superb athletes will meet at UFC 221 for the 185lb championship. I'd say 65% chance Rockhold wins, but I won't be shocked if Yoel explodes and KOs Rockhold with little warning.

Like Chael Sonnen (below) I am really excited to see them grapple -- one of the top MMA BJJ talents (Rockhold) versus a former World Champion in freestyle wrestling. Rockhold's top game is very strong -- he might be the first person ever to control and finish Romero.





See also Yoel Romero, freak athlete. He's 40 years old!

Great analysis of the fight from Firas Zahabi (Georges St. Pierre's coach) and Chael Sonnen:

The Jiujitsu Philosopher: John Danaher

John Danaher is one of the deepest thinkers in combat sports, MMA, and jiujitsu. He has coached a number of world champions in MMA and jiujitsu/submission grappling (Georges St. Pierre, Garry Tonon, etc.). The recent leg lock technique renaissance is largely due to Danaher and his school.

Danaher was a philosophy PhD student at Columbia before discovering BJJ through Renzo Gracie's academy in NYC. When I was a Yale professor (in the 90s) I made trips to Renzo's for training. I don't recall Danaher (who would have been a student/instructor there at the time), but I do recall Craig Kukuk, Renzo's partner in the school and the first US blackbelt instructor. 

Kukuk had played linebacker at Iowa State University (where I grew up), and we spent time talking about Iowa (a big wrestling hotbed) and the origins of jiujitsu and ultimate fighting in the US. I had trained in Japan and so knew quite a bit about the relationship between traditional Judo and BJJ. At one time I probably knew as much as anyone about the relationship between Judo, BJJ, MMA, and US folk style wrestling.

See Mama said knock you out.

Will and Power

This video might help you with your New Year's resolution!



The claim that one has a fixed budget of will power or self-discipline ("ego depletion") may be yet another non-replicating "result" of shoddy social science. Note that the ego depletion claim refers to something like a daily budget of will power that can be used up, whereas Jocko is also referring to the development of this budget over time: building it up through use.

Jocko on BJJ and mixed martial arts:





See also My Navy SEAL Story.

Time and Memory

Over the holiday I started digging through my mom's old albums and boxes of photos. I found some pictures I didn't know existed!

Richard Feynman and the 19 year old me at my Caltech graduation:

With my mom that morning -- hung-over, but very happy! I think those are some crazy old school Ray Bans :-)

Memories of Feynman: "Hey SHOE!", "Gee, you're a BIG GUY. Do you ever go to those HEALTH clubs?"

This is me at ~200 pounds, playing LB and RB back when Caltech still had a football team. Plenty of baby fat! I ran sprints for football but never longer distances. I dropped 10 or 15 pounds just by jogging a few times per week between senior year and grad school.

Here I am in graduate school. Note the Miami Vice look -- no socks!

Ten years after college graduation, as a Yale professor, competing in Judo and BJJ in the 80 kg (176 lbs) weight category. The jiujitsu guys thought it was pretty funny to have a professor on the mat! This photo was taken on the Kona coast of the big island in Hawaii. I had been training with Egan Inoue at Grappling Unlimited in Honolulu.

Baby me:

Jiujitsu: the gentle art

The global jiujitsu phenomenon

This is promo footage for Polaris, a professional BJJ competition. The four competitors profiled train in Toulouse (France), Florida, San Diego, and NYC. Gezary Matuda reminds me of an old girlfriend who also trained.

One of the fights at Polaris 3 features 37 year old Jake Shields against 25 year old A.J. Agazarm. Both were college wrestlers before taking up BJJ. Shields has been a top MMA competitor for a decade now. It's funny that Agazarm wants to act tough because if this were a real fight he'd have been sent to the hospital. Warning, this footage may get taken down at some point.



Although I enjoy watching sport BJJ, a lot of the modern innovations are only suited to sport and would get you killed if strikes were allowed. If a match starts with competitors sitting on their butt and pulling guard (e.g., Miyao brothers) I usually turn it off.

See also Jiujitsu renaissance.

Jiujitsu: Kinetic Chess

These videos are from Roy Dean's BJJ academy in Bend, Oregon. In the first video Dean narrates each 5 minute match (shown first in slow motion, then at full speed), explaining the techniques, strategy, and mechanics of high level grappling. The competitors vary in style, skill level, and size (from ~160 to 220 lbs). The matches are what I would characterize as old-school (position --> submission) BJJ, not the boring win-on-advantage style that has become common in tournaments.

In the second video Dean pushes the action more aggressively, giving up a bit of the sparring "flow" found in the first.

"Like wrestling a martian"

Not too long ago a guy tried to cut in front of me in line for the bar at a fancy rooftop party. After a verbal exchange I squared up with him without even thinking. Actually, I was thinking Really?!? Do you know what you're getting into? Fortunately he backed down. It would have been extremely stupid to get in a fight over almost nothing. But those old instincts die hard.

The friend standing next to me (another scientist!) was amazed by the whole thing. I guess I was too.

Mama said knock you out.

Slouching towards the new year

Some recommended long form articles:

One hundred years of Gracie Jiujitsu

Teen entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley

Pro Gamers in Korea

What use is the media?

Why Some of the Worst Attacks on Social Science Have Come From Liberals

Cormac McCarthy: [1], [2]

See also

Dunning-Kruger and other memes

Champions: UFC 194

3 great fights tonight (counting Jacare and Romero). Weidman vs Rockhold too close to call. I wonder whether either of them could beat peak (TRT) Vitor, though. I'm guessing Aldo might beat Conor, but not at all sure.






BONUS: some great jits with Keenan.

Jiujitsu renaissance

John Danaher discusses his coaching philosophy. Danaher trained UFC champions Georges St. Pierre and Chris Weidman, among others.




Danaher student Garry Tonon on wrestling and jiujitsu. He's shown rolling with AJ Agazarm, a former All-Big10 wrestler and no-gi BJJ world champ.




These fights are from a no-time-limit submission tournament a few years ago, featuring the top brown belts in the world. Some of the matches lasted over an hour, others ended after only 5 or 10 minutes.  I like this style of competition much more than fighting for points.

Now go train jiujitsu: choked out terrorist edition

Spencer Stone (left) is a blue belt at Gracie Lisboa. He choked out the terrorist gunman on the Amsterdam-Paris train yesterday.

NYTimes: ... Alek Skarlatos, a specialist in the National Guard from Oregon vacationing in Europe with a friend in the Air Force, Airman First Class Spencer Stone and another American, Anthony Sadler, looked up and saw the gunman. Mr. Skarlatos, who was returning from a deployment in Afghanistan, looked over at the powerfully built Mr. Stone, a martial arts enthusiast. “Let’s go, go!” he shouted.

... In the train carriage, Mr. Stone was the first to act, jumping up at the command of Mr. Skarlatos. He sprinted through the carriage toward the gunman, running “a good 10 meters to get to the guy,” Mr. Skarlatos said. Mr. Stone was unarmed; his target was visibly bristling with weapons.

With Mr. Skarlatos close behind, Mr. Stone grabbed the gunman’s neck, stunning him. But the gunman fought back furiously, slashing with his blade, slicing Mr. Stone in the neck and hand and nearly severing his thumb. Mr. Stone did not let go.

The gunman “pulled out a cutter, started cutting Spencer,” Mr. Norman, the British consultant, told television interviewers. “He cut Spencer behind the neck. He nearly cut his thumb off.”

Mr. Skarlatos grabbed the gunman’s Luger pistol and threw it to the side. Incongruously, the gunman yelled at the men to return it, even as Mr. Stone was choking him. A train conductor rushed up and grabbed the gunman’s left arm, Mr. Norman recalled.

... Mr. Stone, wounded and bleeding, kept the suspect in a chokehold. “Spencer Stone is a very strong guy,” Mr. Norman said. The suspect passed out.

ROLL: Jiujitsu in SoCal

This documentary is about the jiujitsu lifestyle in So Cal. It starts old school, back in the day, when the Gracies were new to the US and teaching out of a garage.


I also recommend the video below (great little fight at the beginning, ending in a heel hook; you can feel the adrenaline). I never liked sport jiujitsu. We always rolled as if the other guy could throw punches, even if he wasn't.

16 years of training

Joe Rogan (UFC commentator) receives his BJJ black belt from Eddie Bravo.




Now go train jiujitsu.

Embrace the Grind

Talent, hard work, and success in jiujitsu. "Show up every day and keep pushing through."

Bring on Jon Jones

Great interview with former Olympian (freestyle) Dan Cormier after he submitted another Olympian (greco) Dan Henderson at UFC 173 last night. I believe Cormier can beat Jon Jones. Cormier is only about 5"10 whereas Jones is 6"4 (both fighting at 205). Previous fighters have been forced by Jones to play his striking / top control game. But Cormier is smart -- he didn't get into striking exchanges with Henderson, who has a dangerous right hand. He kept the fight on the ground and dominated from the top. He can do the same to Jones. Using this strategy, he can use Jones's length against him -- we'll see Jon Jones fighting off his back for the first time. What I like about Cormier is that he is really developing his jiujitsu. Many wrestlers are unable to capitalize on top position due to lack of high level submission skills.