Tony's Submissions Blog

Renzo Gracie Discusses Stopping Muggers, Live Tweeting About Incident

2012-09-07T15:21:00.001-07:00

Awesome Judo Highlight

2012-08-30T11:53:00.003-07:00

Judo Newaza

2012-08-22T20:53:00.000-07:00

Some beautiful Judo newaza, or ground fighting. Some beautiful transitions to submissions. Judo Newaza has a much faster pace then BJJ due to the time constraints in JUdo competition.

Turtle Sweep and triangle attack against turtles opponent

2012-08-07T15:01:00.000-07:00

Stephan Kesting of grapplearts.com and Mike Lee show some turtle techniques. I really like the judo tie in here. Judo and bjj are two sides of a coin and really complete each other.

Damian Maia triangle from half guard

2012-07-26T14:23:00.000-07:00

Strength or conditioning?

2012-07-25T06:52:00.001-07:00

What do you think is more important? I have always been biased towards strength. Part of that is based on my natural preferences and strengths. I prefer lifting to running. However, since my main focus has always been self defense, I feel strength is more crucial. As one of my online buddies has often said, " in the real world, relative strength doesn't mean shit". It is much more likely for some one to over power me in a street altercation then out last me. I figure if I can go hard for 3-5 minutes, my conditioning is good enough and I can spend more time getting stronger.
Now if competition is your goal, conditioning is way more important. Weight classes limit the strength difference and more fights have been lost to gassing then anything else. If you are still going strong late in the match, you will be more effective.

What are your thoughts?

Tito Ortiz Highlight

2012-07-08T12:41:00.000-07:00

In honour of Tito Ortiz' Retirement fight last night here is a highlight I found. Tito was a MMA pioneer and a warrior who fought the best of the best his whole career. Although he lost last night, it was almost the perfect way to go, losing a close fight to another former champion. Enjoy.

Gordo Half Guard sweep #3

2012-07-05T12:54:00.000-07:00

Third sweep in a series of Half guard sweeps by one of the pioneer's of the offensive half guard Roberto “Gordo” Correa.

Gordo Half Guard sweep #2

2012-07-01T17:18:00.000-07:00

The second in a series of Half guard sweeps by one of the pioneer's of the offensive half guard Roberto “Gordo” Correa.

Gordo Half guard sweep

2012-06-26T14:28:00.002-07:00

The first in a series of Half guard sweeps by one of the pioneer's of the offensive half guard Roberto “Gordo” Correa.

What he is still updating this?

2010-03-12T20:20:00.001-08:00

I don't update this very often anymore there are two main reasons. The first is that becuase of a military course and an injury sustained on that course I have trained in a couple of months. The second is that prior to going on course I was more in a refining stage rather than a learning stage. I primarily post new things up here as a journal and maybe for people who stumble on my blog to learn a couple of things. Well today I learned something new. Even though I am still out of training for (hopefully only) a few more days, I converse with a few very intelligent people by the names of Cecil Burch and Jerry Wetzel on a regular basis. Cecil and Jerry are trainers for Crazy Monkey Defense (CMD or CM) a striking style devised by Rodney King or south africa. On the surface it looks very much like a mix of boxing and MT and the question was put forward recently, what is the difference between CM and western Boxing. Rather than try an explain it myself, I am going to post a few of the better quotes to help people understand the difference.

Cecil Burch:
Most systems pay lip service to defense and emphasize the offensive part. So when a newbie gets to spar for the first time, it is going to be hard enough to maintain his protective wall. Add the fact that he is most likely going to be thrown into the deep end under extreme pressure, the situation is worsened. In CM you are exposed to pressure right away, but it is just enough to push you without overwhelming the person and collapsing the structure you are attempting to internalize.

The analogy I use to give people an idea of what pressure to use on their partner is that we are pushing the envelope as much as possible without tearing the paper. So as the person gets grooved in, the pressure can progressively (and continuously) increase.

Jerry Weztel:

The fundamental goal in CM is to provide a solid defensive structure that is behaviorally congruent to what we do under pressure while at the same time keeping things simple and efficient. Traditional slip, parry, catch, and bob and weave take a very long time to develop if they do develop and in the mean time people are going to take a lot of punches. Most will end up quitting long before they develop this skill. Furthermore, even if these skills are developed, the addition of kicks, clinch striking, and takedowns make these not the safest options to say the least. There is still slipping and ducking, but it is modified to fit with the rest of the game plan. The cover is different to what is taught in boxing due to the square stance and is taught differently.

This is not to say that CM is just about defense. Having a bulletproof defense allows for strong offense. Rather than having to sit back and wait for a break in the opponents offense, the defensive structure allows one to come forward aggressively without worry about counters. There are a few strikes that would be considered unorthodox to someone from a western boxing background as well.

If you are looking for a striking game that is not attribute based and is based on tight defense, CM is a great option. You can check it out here:
http://www.crazymonkeydefense.com/site/

Daily Submission

2009-10-18T19:56:00.000-07:00

After a really long couple of weeks which saw me spend 6 days in Yakima Training Center in Washington state with the Army, I finished up the week at the open gym period on Friday night. I rolled with a fellow soldier who is a member of the Canadian Special Operations regiment. They are very similar in to the US Army rangers/ Special Forces Teams. They are highly trained and incredible tough guys. He was a little smaller than me (maybe 10 pounds) but in incredible shape. I would have to say his BJJ was a little better than mine, technically. He was a really tough roll but very good for me. We went back and forth a few times. He tapped me early on with an interesting bicep slicer from inside the guard. I probably could have fought it and in a competion, I may have but the only way I would have got out of it was to brute force it and I usually tap to that kind of stuff in the gym. As a general rule, if I can't get out of it was a technique of some kind, I chalk it up to a learning experience, tap and move on.

He was really tough and constantly moving, so I had to stay real tight with my transitions. After that first sub, there were no more submissions. I almost got a kimura from top side, (which I have been focusing on) and he almost got me in an armbar from guard, but we both managed to reverse them at the last minute. We rolled for about twenty minutes. It was a great roll. My cardio held up, which is good. Every time I take a break from training, I have to re build my cardio.

I also got some tips from one of our blue belts on defending the deep half guard. Once I have it down a bit more I will post it here.

On a side note, my gym is really starting to attrack some great athletes. I recognized Dustin Oliphant, who I did judo with years ago at the gym on friday. Dustin won a bronze at the 03 national judo championships. We also have tarek gebali, who is now 3-0 in MMA who competed at the National level in Judo. We also have at least 1 national level wrestler whose name I can't remember for some reason. It is great having these elite level athletes at the gym.

Three thing to improve your boxing

2009-10-03T22:20:00.000-07:00

Here are three things you can do that will improve your boxing by your next sparring session:

1. Focus on your platform. Your striking platform is your foundation. Just like a house, if the foundation is weak everything will fall apart. I use Crazy Monkey as my striking platform. I conciously focus on keeping my hands high and moving, elbows tight to my ribs, hunchback stance, and hips square. Everything else flows from there.

2. Concentrate on what you want to do. Rather than reacting to what your opponent gives you, be proactive. This is important even if you are a counter fighter. If you want to counter his right hand, look for it, try to force it but don't jsut try to react when it comes.

3. Don't get in a fight. This is especially true in sparring. The point of sparring isn't to win. If it was you would have a ref and judges. It is to perfect your craft under pressure. To often people get their adrenaline flowing and start trying to beat the other guy. When this happens, your platform falls to hell and you start reacting. Sure maybe you can out tough the guy or out punch him but are you learning anything?

Try this the next time you spar. I think you will find that you feel much better about your performance and you will tighten up your game.

Daily Submission

2009-10-02T15:46:00.000-07:00

This week I learned two pretty cool combos while boxing. The first is a Floyd Mayweather favorite that I had to modify for south paw. The combo starts jab, cross, take a big step to the right to get the angle, left hook to the body, right cross, jab out. Because I am a lefty if I simply swapped left for right, I would be stepping right in to his power. For me the combo goes like this: cross, right hook as I step to the right (it is almost like a right cross), left hook to the body, right hook, left cross, spin out. The other went like this. Jab, parry the return jab and immediately throw the right cross, left hook to the body, right cross, jab out. I ended up with two combinations when switching it to south paw. The first was slip a cross, left cross, right hook to the kidney, right hook to the head (the angle was wrong for another cross), cross, jab out. The other was to jab, parry his return jab down and throw and overhand left, and then finish as per the other combo. Both looked very promising and I will try to work them into my sparring sessions.

For jits, we learned to half guard passes which I have post videos of. They are not exactly the same but pretty similar. The tripod video stands out the most. Against a decent half guard player it won't be as easy as in the video. If you take his hips away from you, he loses the power so you can get the knee out then finish the pass.

Rolling went well. I rolled against a karate black belt who was adding some BJJ to his game while is in town for school. He was really fit and had good balance. He was very tough to finish but I got a really solid 20 minute roll in and got to work on a lot of my sweeps.

Daily Submission

2009-09-28T20:49:00.001-07:00

A little late on this one but better late then never. Rolled no-gi last thursday. Prior to class I spent about 20 minutes working on my shot. I don't get to drill it enough. The speed is coming back now I need to start training it with a partner. Technique wise we worked off the arm drag in butterfly guard. The first technique was the armdrag to the back. It can be seen here:

Incidently, the guy being demoed on is Stephan Kesting who, like my coach Adam, is a Marcus Soares Black Belt. His stuff is great, check out grapplearts.tv for more.

Then we worked a simple counter. When he arm drags, we post that arm and hope over to the other side, landing in side control.

Next was a re-drag counter, which ended up with the guy on top taking his partners back. Tough to explain. Basically, as he tries to take your back, you re-drag his arm and slip behind him. I can't explain it more because I still suck at it.

So on to rolling. Rolled with this dude Dan, who I don't really know. I think he started at the gym during my absence and he comes on different days then me. So basically, I had no idea what to expect. He was pretty good. I had my wrestling shoes on since I was practicing my shot earlier and I somewhat made a transition back to wrestler. Not a bad thing really as I almost never rely on my wrestling. He was good. His half guard was sick. I have posted on my half guard phase and how I focused on it exclusively for like a month. I have a pretty decent handle on it. He was on another level. Sweep me twice with it, even though I saw it coming. Hit a nice flower sweep on me, which is difficult because I have a pretty good base. Tapped me a few times, once with a darce.

I felt I did OK. I got his back once, passed his guard once. I really had to focus on my defensive game. Spent a lot of time on the bottom in a front head and arm. I hit my spin out (armspin) once but he stuff all the rest of my tricks. My peek outs were good but not good enough. I managed to shut down his darce attempts for a long time before he finally hit it.

But the bottom line was I got my butt kicked. I felt a little better after talking to Adam. I had asked if Gavin one of our senior Blues was up for his purple any time soon. He said after Dan. As far as he was concerned he was a purple already, he was just waiting on Marcus. So I got beat by a (almost) purple belt. No shame in that.

Daily Submission

2009-09-16T21:58:00.000-07:00

Was sparring tonight and I think Crazy Monkey Defense is finally clicking for me. For the first round I was really focusing on keeping the CM structure tight and cycling my elbows. I think I got hit like three times. Once I started to realize how safe I was, I let my offensive open up. I got crowd him and I landed some real solid combinations.

One thing my partner mentioned was that I was, in effect, elbowing his hands. He could feel them through the 14 ounce gloves we were using.

For the jits practice, I got to work a little X guard which I don't do that often. We worked of a butterfly sweep where the guy posts his leg to prevent the sweep. You transition to X guard and sweep him back, then moving to side control. I will try to post a video of it a little later. It is a slick little sweep and I found it pretty simple.

I am a celebrity!!

2009-09-13T21:36:00.000-07:00

Ok, I am not even a minor, failed reality show contestant level, celebrity but I did find my name popping up on fighter profile sites the other day. Here I am at MMA core
http://www.mma-core.com/fighters/_Tony_Manifold?fid=109647
and Sherdog
http://www.sherdog.com/fighter/Tony-Manifold-29259

And here is a little 16 second clip from the fight they mention

UFC 102

2009-08-30T19:17:00.000-07:00

Rough night for me last night. Not one of the guys I wanted to win came out on top. Damien Maia was a particular disappointment. I was really looking forward to a great fight between those two. Randy Couture and Mintauro was a great fight and I was really worried about that fight because I hate it when fading legends fight. I hate seeing guys on the tail end of their careers getting beat badly. Luckily, that didn't happen to either of them Nog took the win but Couture was competive and even looked like he was going to pull it off at times.

Unfourtunately, it looks like he did too well. At 46 Randy is starting to show his age but he just signed a new 6 fight deal through 2012. That would put him at 49. I hope he quits before he does perment damage to himself.

On the other hand, how good is his jiu jitsu. He escaped a lot of position against one of the best MMA BJJ guys. I was seriously impressed.

Armegeddon FC recap

2009-08-23T19:56:00.000-07:00

Last night I went and watched the first edition of Armegeddon Fighting Championships. Two guys from my gym fought on the card (although we were supposed to have about 4). Both Gavin Niel and Nick Driedger won their respective fights. Gavin won a one sided decision and Nick finished his opponent by ground and pound in the first round. Zuma was well represented in the crowd as both fighters probably got the biggest appaulse of the event.

We had 12 fights with only one going the distance so it was a very large card. Fighters ranged from first fighter newbies to journeymen fighters and there was decent action from start to finish. There was only one disappointment. The teammates of Duncan Wilson, embarassed him with their actions. In the section next too me there was a whole row of people wearing "Team Wilson" shirts. When Duncan Wilson was stopped after a valiant effort against a larger man, his team took acception with the call. The Ref was John Alessio and very, very experienced fighter who knows a thing or two about the fight game but they didn't like it. They threw their beer at the security gaurds and one guy jumped the glass the seperated his section from the floor seats and then tussled with the security guards. The ones that stayed the rest of the guard continued to make asses of themselves. I feel bad for Duncan Wilson because not only did he lose but that kind of action from your team will not help you get more fights.

For a fight by fight recap of the event check out MMARingReport (that is where I got the photos).

Armegeddon FC

2009-08-22T16:56:00.001-07:00

Off to watch the fights tonight. Good luck Zuma crew. Report tomorrow.

First Grappling tournament video

2009-08-18T19:07:00.000-07:00

I posted about my experience at the Submission Series in Vancouver last July. You can find it here. I now have a video of my first match which I have posted below. This was in the 200 lbs and under intermediate no gi division. I was about 187 and this was my first sub grappling event. I am the guy in the white t-shirt.

Video page

2009-08-18T19:04:00.001-07:00

I have labeled all the video's on my page with the video tag so you can go directly to them by following this link:

http://tonyssubmissions.blogspot.com/search/label/video

Daily Submission

2009-08-18T13:03:00.000-07:00

So I had a hellasious work out last night. There was not a lot of new tecniques becing taught because we have a bunch of guys fighting on Saturday (check out http://armageddonfc.com/ for more info). However we did a lot of pad work and really pushed the pace. By the end of the Muay thai portion I was sucking wind pretty hard and sweating enough to save a small african village from a drought.

The BJJ portion focuse on a couple of butterfly guard passes. One of them was the pass described here: http://tonyssubmissions.blogspot.com/2008/04/daily-submission_14.html . The other one was dceptively simple. Reach over his back with one hand and grab the gi. With the other hand (right in this case) reach under his legs and grip the far side gi by the ankle. Post your right leg up and pull his legs to your right as you pull him in with the left. You end up o Knee on belly. Pretty simple and effective.

It was a rough roll last night because I was so tired. I rolled with a guy who was probably about 20 pounds lighter than me and I admit that I bullied him around with my size a bit. I tried to stay technical but when i get tired I wrestle rather than focus on BJJ. Another thing I noticed is that when I am tired, I can be tapped just by smothering my mouth and nose. At one point I was working a double underhook pass and he triangled my head. Normally, I just slowly work to shuck his legs off and get the pass but I guess I was really hurt for air so I ended up tapping for lack of oxygen. Other than that it was a good roll, I had some good submission chances and a couple of nice sweeps and passes. As I get in better grappling shape again, I am sure I will get up to snuff.

Useful BJJ video

2009-08-18T12:45:00.001-07:00

Here is a very useful video concerning your gi. It is pretty funny too.

Daily Technique

2009-08-16T21:05:00.000-07:00

Normally in my technique posts I post a video but in this case I will post a link to the Sherdog.com striking forum. I have a thread there that is consolidating all the info I can find on fighting southpaw, or left handed. I fight southy ever though I am a right hander for a couple of reasons. One being that I wrestle and grapple right foot forward and the other being various injuries make it harder for me to fight orthodox, or right handed.

Fighting Southpaw

Take a look and I would love to here of any other resources.