Listening to American Olympic judo silver medalist and BJJ black belt Travis Stevens will make you want to get up at 5 a.m. and train five times a day. He talks to us about goal-setting, work ethic, and determination — and recounts matches that are years in the past with an emotional resonance that suggests they happened yesterday. Listeners submitted dozens of questions for Travis, and he answered them all in the way you’d expect him to — directly, thoughtfully, thoroughly. We go over his thoughts on how you should approach learning and practicing takedowns; what it takes to keep up his famous training volume, and his approach to avoiding injuries while clocking so many hours on the mat; what he really thinks about self defense; advice for judo teachers with jiujitsu students; and how the training at the Renzo Gracie Academy in New York compares to international judo training. Be sure to stay tuned for the brutal story of his 2012 Olympic semifinal, where the judges went against him in a controversial decision against Germany’s Ole Bischof.
A Ronda Rousey Throw
I was disappointed that the Internet seemed focused only on the Ronda Rousey’s armbar against Miesha Tate (and on Anderson’s devastating leg injury). Hence, I took it upon myself to make this .gif of Ronda’s sick throw.
Hypnotic, no?
A little vacation Judo
One reason I started this blog now is that I have time to do some posts. Usually, work, school and training pretty much covers all my free time, and I’d rather be training that writing about training. But now, I’m on vacation for five weeks or so.
All the training I’m going to get in is judo (there is no BJJ instructor in Palau, where I am, but there is a national judo team), and the rest of my jiu-jitsu time is going to be spent catching up on the litany of DVD instructionals I own.
This means:
* When I get back home, I intend to do some “training log” posts about what we go over in class, but for now, I’m going to post about other things I’m working on.
* Expect the occasional DVD review post in the next month or so. First one coming in the next day or two.
When I visited last, I trained with the judo team. They were kind enough to show me a few things. Unfortunately, two of my favorite training partners just left for the Olympics (Good luck, Jen!).
Fortunately, I can still get a little judo in, which I want to do so I can improve my options while standing in the gi. I did some wrestling in high school, so I’ve always had some takedowns. But the gi changes things, and can impede the kind of shot-based takedowns I’m best at. Some basic judo techniques will diversify my standing techniques.
What I’ve learned so far: short, stubby legs suck for foot sweeps; morote seio nage is my favorite throw, because it looks cool and you don’t run as much risk of getting your back taken; and tomoe nage is a terrific option for “I’m not *really* pulling guard, but yeah, I’m pulling guard.”
Got any favorite judo throws I should drill while I’m here?