Prison Rules: The Not-So Gentle Art of Jiu-Jitsu
Martial arts have been a big part of my life for over 30 years now. My first book, On the Warrior’s Path, was about philosophy and martial arts. My latest book, Not Afraid, also contains quite a bit of martial arts-related material. Over the years, I’ve enjoyed training in a zillion different arts—mainly San Soo, Brazilian Jiujitsu, Judo, MMA and boxing, but also Taiji, Bagua, Xingyi, Shuai Jiao, a Japanese style of Jujitsu, Escrima, and probably a bunch of others I have forgotten about now.
One thing that became clear to me early on was that I was never going to be able to dedicate as much time to training as some other people. Between working, writing, family life, trying to breathe life in a whole bunch of creative projects (and, of course, later, parenting) I was lucky when I could train three days per week. The ‘every day, twice a day’ kind of training could never be a reality for me. So, I figure that the only way for me to be able to occasionally compete successfully against people who trained more than me and were ultimately better was to focus on often neglected parts of the game. In my early grappling days, I focused primarily on leglocks because back then most people didn’t pay them much attention. The result was that if I were able to bring a fight to a leglock scramble, I could beat people who otherwise could kill me when it came to upper body joint-locks and chokes. This is no longer true, since now leglocks are fairly mainstream in grappling, but I managed to get lots of miles out of them for years. Even now, the principle still applies though. Since I can’t compete with ultra-athletic people who are much younger than me through sheer speed or strength, my focus is on evil tricks that most people are not aware of.
Recently, I had a blast putting some of my experience to work in creating an instructional for BJJ Fanatics. At a time when physical media was dying, the guys at BJJ Fanatics hired some of the best teachers in the world to create instructional videos and revive the genre. Through their sister sites, they also did the same thing for other combat sports such as Judo, Boxing, Kickboxing, Muay Thai, Wrestling, etc. Considering the level of instructors they usually feature, it was an honor for me (a huuuge honor, as Bernardo Faria would say) to work with them.
The video is entitled “Prison Rules: The Not-So Gentle Art of Jiujitsu” and it focuses on all the dirty tricks that I regularly use in my grappling game. As much as I try really hard to be kind to people, my jiujitsu game... well... it doesn't go well with this commitment. No standard, pretty jiujitsu in my rolls. For some reason, my game leans toward nasty, horrible things... wrist locks, reaping heel hooks, neck cranks, cradles, stockades... you name it. I seem to gravitate toward anything that is painful and makes training partners miserable. I'm a horrible person... I know. If you are ready to take a journey through the dark side, check this out. Here’s the trailer:
And here is the link to the instructional video. Right now, the site has a storewide sale with a 48% discount with the code MEMORIAL2024. But even if you read this after the sale is over, they often have sales throughout the year.