Alright, everyone, I'm excited to announce a couple additions to our schedule.  The following classes are in effect as of now! New kickboxing class:  Sundays at 5 pm.  Description:  This class will be taught by Aaron's son, Aaron.  It will focus on fundamentals, with an emphasis on kicks.  For more info, talk to either Aaron! New Jiu Jitsu open mat: Sundays at 6 pm.  Description:  An open mat for higher belts who want a roll on the day of rest.  An opportunity for our new belts to drill and ask questions about the previous week's lessons from Joe Castillo and yours truly (Q&A w/Greg and Joe).  For more info, show up man!   Read the rest of the entry...

As we are working on opening the closed guard this week, I thought I'd kick my two cents worth on the subject.  The best piece of advice I have received since I started training has been to stand up in the guard.  What I mean is essentially what you guys have learned this week: getting a frame, maintaining good posture and then standing up.  This is easier said than done.  When I first tried to stand up in someone's guard, all I got was broken down and swept.  When I tried the next time, I got arm-barred or horribly choked, no big deal.  This continued to happen and continues to happen to this day.  But eventually I started standing up in my friends' guards and eventually I started breaking those guards.  It is not easy to stand up, and it's not a silver bullet, but I believe it is one of the most effective ways to break a guard. When framing off, keep one hand on your partners chest/sternum.  With your other hand, monitor his hip.  By setting up this frame, you can react to your partner's leg and hip movement.  With a gi, I'll grip both of my partner's lapels, ...  Read the rest of the entry...

This one's with Tristen Moore vs. Seanna Widjaja, the Bens: Ben Murphy vs. Ben Dickinson, and Mary Jornales vs. Adrianna Friedland. Hope you enjoy! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RZ_0P7DIsU   Read the rest of the entry...

Hey guys a few of us headed down to Long Beach to compete in the Grappling X tournament. All of us did very well and the team results were just posted, Paragon with only 5 competitors took 3rd as a team!!!!! Great Job Team Paragon!!!! GZ RESULTS UP FOR LONG BEACH Author:  XMEDIA Date: 10/28/2009 Updated: 10/29/2009 1st Subfighter 2nd Brazilian Top Team 3rd Paragon   Read the rest of the entry...

One of the key factors in having a solid guard in BJJ is good fundamental hip movement.  A great drill for you guys to practice is the double under pass hip escape.  The way to do this drill is to have your training partner pass double under but allowing some space for you to move your hips easily.  The bottom man is going to block the hips while doing a quick hip escape away creating just enough distance to slide the near leg inside.  After the near leg works inside the goal is to toss the outside leg over your training partners head which will successfully block his guard pass.  The purpose of the drill is for you to then allow your partner to pass to the other side where you can repeat the drill over and over for about  2 min ( this should be a good workout so move quickly).  Another great drill you can do by yourself is to hip escape to your stomach as we do in the warmup.  You should be able to get to your knees fast by scissoring your legs low to the mat.  I good tip to remember when on bottom is ...  Read the rest of the entry...

Hey guys check out this article on attacking fundamentals in Jiu Jitsu   Read the rest of the entry...

The focus of this article will be to explore the many uses of the half guard position and why it’s so critical to know. The key idea with the half guard position is to think of it as a transition position. The half guard is the key link between the closed and open guard, side control, mount, the back, and even the turtle and front headlock position. Thinking of it as a key link means that if your half guard is weak, then ones transitions between all these fundamental positions will also be weak. This is especially true when it comes to the fundamental escapes. For instance, when one escapes the mount position the first step leads to the half guard, from there one typically looks to attack or transition further to the full guard. Now, if one has a weak understanding of the half guard the escape would be halted right then and there, and the attacking opponent would move back to the dominate mount position. The same would also be true of the side control position, the back, the turtle, and the front headlock position. The half guard position has ...  Read the rest of the entry...

Hey Sean- Those articles you write are pretty helpful and I think I speak for quite a few of us that we want to see more. Suggestions: Diet, Alliance history, Importance of competition, etc. Thanks-   Read the rest of the entry...