10th Planet Watch – 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu Van Nuys Blog

Comedian, actor and entertainer Joey “Cooo” Diaz, had me on on his podcast, “The Church of what’s happening Now.” If you are a martial arts enthusiast, you know him as Joey Karate. To be a guest on his show was an absolute pleasure. Joey is one of my favorite people on the planet. It was tons of fun.

CLICK HERE to check out the show!

UFC veteran and TUF (The Ultimate Fighter) season 6 winner, Mac Danzig will be teaching a Striking for MMA Seminar at 10th Planet Van Nuys on 5/17/14. Don’t miss this special event! Whether you want to sharpen your skills or just add another tool to your game, this is the event for you. Modern MMA has forever changed the landscape of martial arts. You can no longer be a one dimension martial artist. There’s always somebody who will expose your lack of skills. To be able to use your Jiu Jitsu effectively now, you must use your striking to set up your takedowns. The alternative is to eat lots of leather on your way in, and wake up staring up at the lights asking yourself what happened!  CALL us and book your spot today, there are limited amounts of space, so act now!

You ever roll with the guy who says let’s go light, and then proceeds to grab you and drive you over 3 sets of other people rolling? They then smash you into the wall, grab a heel hook and crank it wildly as hard as they can. Before you can tap, you’re knee pops 5 times. “Thanks knee for tapping for me, I was just about to do that, but this gorilla didn’t give me a chance.” I used to have of trouble with guys like this. Ultimately, it’s the instructors/owners burden to keep everybody safe. Reckless training would lead to unhappy or to injured students. That would lead to bad attendance due to injury. Which would lead to less training partners coming to the gym, which would lead to uninspiring classes. That would lead to guys not progressing as quickly in their training. Not to mention it would lead to less money coming in. No money, we can’t pay for lights, water or a space to even train in.

After years of not knowing what to do, I decided to change it up. Now, everyday before rolling, I do a quick injury check. I ask who has any injuries, which helps people remember that some people can’t go super hard, and lets the class know the instructors are paying attention, and we’re care about safety. After that, I give a speech to the class about our number 1 priority, taking care of your training partners! This is your number one job as a member of the team. If you let them get hurt, you got nobody to help you out. If you injure people, it will spread quickly and soon people will avoid training with you.

The Next thing I do puts how hard you should go in perspective. I preface how hard the roll should be by breaking it down like this:

If you are going to go…

-100%, it’s only if you’re fighting for your life against Nazi war criminals, evangelical leftist rapists or an equally threatening foe.
-80% is for fighting for the UFC championship belt.
-70% competing at a friendly Jiu Jitsu tournament.
-60% solid training for a competition or fight. This is reserved for people who understand the risks of training hard and accept the risks, I keep this separate usually.
-50% good old competitive everyday training. This is for 90% of the people. Under most circumstances, training at this rate, you should be able to get up and go to work the next day, and train again tomorrow. It’s competitive, it’s challenging, yet it’s good natured, and enjoyable.

It works extremely well at our gym. Injuries happen much less frequently at 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu now days. It’s not the good old days of MMA/BJJ, we’re much smarter now. Therefore we have to be more responsible with our health.

10th Planet Van Nuys Presents a free lockdown seminar April 19th, 2014.

Friendly reminder, the Lockdown seminar is this weekend. Please R.S.V.P. to ensure you spot. This event will fill up, and we cannot admit anybody more when it hits capacity.

Call to book your appt. now A.S.A.P. *818* 781-5487

Location 10th Planet Van Nuys

In Van Nuys, CA

April 19th

12pm-3pm

So, I initially found MMA Surge when I saw a ton of people sharing their Lockdown video. I thought, no big deal, Eddie just used the Lockdown against Royler Gracie, it’s a hot topic. On further inspection, I saw some negative comments relating to the video, ok now it peaked my interest. Since I only respond to negative feedback, I clicked on the link.

I had to say, at first glance it looked like a pretty polished product. The video was well put together. They had a nice camera, and it was well lit. They had multiple camera angles. The audio is good, there’s no background noise, and they had production sound, it doesn’t sound like the shitty built in camera mics that most videos are shot on. The editing was good, they cut between the different cameras. They even had some special effect cuts. They had animations and some cool logos and stuff. Andrew “The Squid” Montinez is a good looking kid with charm and charisma. He’s well spoken and conducts himself professionally.

Now I’ll start with the critiques. Somewhere there’s a group of break dancers angry with Andrew “The Squid” Montinez. The production team obviously stole their cardboard and used as a gym mat alternative. The location was interesting. Instead of using a traditional played out gym environment they opted to use the crack house location from “Jungle Fever.” I was halfway expecting Gator and a strung out Halle Berry to walk in the frame at any moment.

The title of the video is “Spider Web Position UFC MMA Jiu-jitsu.” I think somebody heard that if you use keywords in the title, the Google spiderbots will find your videos and rank them higher so you can get rich from advertising. SEO can be done tastefully without looking like spam. I kept thinking the vid would cut over to a penis enlargement pill or a webcam girl ad at any moment.

As for the actually content of the video, well I’m speechless. If you know the 10th Planet system, you’ll be very familiar with the Spider Web. It’s a well defined position with a particular group of moves attached to it. This video is NOT the Spider Web position. It has similarities to it, but the entire reason the spider web is the position it is, is because of the control it uses on the lower body. “The Squid” failed to show the detail that separates the Spider Web from a regular arm bar. 2 seconds of research on the internet would have shown that. I won’t comment on the validity of his techniques, as I haven’t drilled them or tried them, but judging on his lack of research, I’ll just take a wild guess and say they’re not well thought out either.

It seems like a lot of effort production wise, just to show a bunch of techniques that are not what you claim they are?

At Metamoris 3, the whole world watched as Eddie Bravo dominated Royler Gracie using proprietary 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu techniques, specifically the Lockdown. In the match, Eddie was able to control, sweep, and pass Royler’s guard, something he wasn’t able to do the first time they competed. He almost submitted Gracie for the second time, but Royler was tough, and refused to tap even though his knee nearly exploded from “The Vaporizer.” At the end of the day, the match will go down in Jiu Jitsu history as one of the biggest, most anticipated, and most exciting grappling matches of all time.

With all the interest in 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu, specifically the Lockdown, I wanted to do something as a show of good faith for the BJJ community.  I’ve been practicing the 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu System for nearly 10 years, and I’m in a unique position to be able to share my knowledge.

That said, 10th Planet Van Nuys is proud to offer a FREE, one time, very special event. We are going to Unlock the Secrets of the Lockdown!!!. This won’t be broadcasted, and it won’t be taped, the only way to be a part of it, is to be there live in person, so don’t miss out!

In this seminar, I’ll be breaking down the little known details that you have never seen before. You may think you’re familiar with the Lockdown, there’s information out there about it. The difference is, I’ve dedicated my entire life mastering the system, and I’ve had the privilege to have learned it directly from the source. Don’t be fooled by cheap imitations and johnny come latelys. I’ve logged tens of thousands of hours studying, training, and teaching these techniques over the years. I know how this game works inside and out.

The Lockdown isn’t just a bunch of random moves, It utilizes a unique philosophy. It’s creative, and out of the box. Just when you thought you understood it, you realize how intricate it can be.  You’ll learn the system of entries, controls, defenses, sweeps, counters, recoveries, transitions, and submissions,

This event is limited to less than 40 spaces. We require you R.S.V.P. If you do not secure your space, we will not be able to accommodate you. We want to have room and for the event to be comfortable. We are already 2/3 of the way full, so don’t wait! Book your spot today. It’s first come, first serve.

There’s no tricks, we won’t harass you with emails, pressure you to buy anything, or sign up at our gym. Honestly, what are you waiting for? Call us today at (818) 781-5487.

• Location: 10th Planet Van Nuys
• Date: Saturday April 19th
• Time: 12pm-3pm Followed by an open mat.
• Cost: FREE!!!
• R.S.V.P. Required,
• Capacity will be reached well ahead of the date, Call now to reserve your spot. If you cannot make it. ***Please Cancel 24 hours in advanced to allow for others to take you spot if your cannot attend.

*PLEASE NO RECORDING DEVICES ALLOWED

10th Planet Van Nuys, Milton Arguello’s post fight interview with Dawna at the U of MMA. Fresh of his triangle submission win, he looked amazing. Look for much more of this kid in the future!

Want to learn Jiu Jitsu? www.10thplanetvannuys.com

Awesome match from 2 extremely high level Grapplers.

Speaking of Javier Vasquez, we’re having a seminar with him at 10th Planet Van Nuys August 31st, 2013 at 12pm. For more information click here, or call us at 818 781-JITS(5487)

Want to learn the 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu system? <a href=”http://www.10thplanetvannuys.com” title=”10th Planet Jiu Jitsu in Van Nuys, California” target=”_blank”>www.10thplanetvannuys.com</a>

Javier “Showtime” Vasquez will be teaching a seminar at 10th Planet Van Nuys, August 31st! He will be going over his SES method, a system based on the opponent having you in side control. For those of you not familiar with Javi, he is one of the most legit guys out there. He’s well versed in self defense, wrestling, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (gi and no-gi),  Submission wrestlilng, and MMA. He’s competed at the highest levels of those sports in ADCC, King of the Cage, Grapplers Quest, Shooto, UFC, and WEC. I couldn’t be more stoked to have him coming down to our gym. CALL TODAY to reserve your space. This will sell out! (818)781-(JITS) 5487

Javi’s Bio
“Born in Santiago, Cuba on April 27, 1976, Javier Vazquez came to the United States at the age of four. He grew up in El Monte, California and started wrestling as a sophomore at Arroyo High School at the age of 15. In 1994 he placed 3rd at the CIF wrestling tournament and continued his stellar high school career by placing 4th in the Southern Section Masters tournament. He was just one match away from placing in the high school state wrestling championships, ending up in the top 12 in the state at 130 lbs. He was voted team captain in both his junior and senior years. He continued his wrestling career at Mt. San Antonio College where he again proved himself to be one of “the best of the best” by finishing 7th in the state and being voted team captain for his leadership on and off the mat.” click here for full wiki

Want to learn Jiu Jitsu? www.10thplanetvannuys.com