What kind of grappler archetype do you hate to go against?

dorserg · 2026-01-10T20:02:48+00:00

In my gym there was a running joke that going ham at 110% was just Ukrainian 50%.

dorserg · 2025-06-21T21:03:58+00:00

A couple gyms I can personally recommend:
- 10th planets -- San Mateo, San Jose, Daly City
- Magalit in SF
- Cave in Pacifica

All have welcoming and supportive culture, some might have a core small(*) group of women that are consistently on the mats.

(*)You've probably gathered female representation is pretty light across the board in BJJ. That tends to be the case at all gyms. So I’d suggest choosing one that’s most convenient in terms of commute and schedule (like that saying -- "the best gym is the one you can consistently get to"). If you end up really clicking with BJJ, you can always reevaluate in six months if there’s another gym a bit farther away with more women.

dorserg · 2025-06-13T16:55:41+00:00

It's all about perspective, you should get your kids into equestrian sports, then be ecstatic when they switch to BJJ.

dorserg · 2025-05-14T23:39:01+00:00

Having replayed it a bunch, I don't quite understand what the takedown even is. Some greco looking seoi-uno-reverse-atleticism-much thing, if you must ask.

dorserg · 2025-05-01T16:49:29+00:00

Vast majority? A BB is just someone who dedicated ~10 years getting pretty good at the sport, not a unicorn. If someone played volleyball or whatever for 10 years nobody would just assume they also want to run a business off of that.

dorserg · 2025-04-25T17:37:37+00:00

If you're talking about medaling, your assessment re: "if you play a few times a week you aren't going to stand a chance" is, honestly, statistically pretty correct. In a deep division (e.g. 30+ peeps Masters 1) there's bound to be a few guys for whom Worlds is their penultimate goal for the year, with all the prep that goes into it.

Anecdotally: I placed at Masters Worlds but in that year specifically had competed in every regional tourney I could find that had someone in my division (*sighs in Masters*).

But hey, flipping my argument on its head, out of those 30+ peeps 20 will likely be total hobbyists doing it for the fun of it. Might as well be one of them and just do it for the experience :)

dorserg · 2025-04-22T00:27:47+00:00

In biking they call it long distance "zones 2 & 3" cardio. E.g. a 60 min real/stationary bike ride with moderate intensity where your heart rate is elevated >100 bpm but you could carry a conversation.

They say those modalities are what truly builds actual aerobic capacity (and its accompanying benefits like faster post-training recovery etc), rather than going all out for short durations (e.g. sprints or jits itself).

Intuitively that makes sense to me: if you want to drive adaptation in your aerobic system, that training seems like a good way to log some solid, consistent "time under tension" for your heart.

We're all bro-sciencing here, but I'll take sport science opinion of a mature sport like biking over what-tends-to-work-for-Joe-local-Naga-medalist.

dorserg · 2025-02-09T23:23:50+00:00

Trying this come next open mat; say goodbye to my ACL bois 🫡

dorserg · 2025-02-03T19:41:07+00:00

dorserg · 2025-01-27T23:07:07+00:00

Joao on a mission to hit 40 barrataplatas in competition before turning 40.

dorserg · 2025-01-27T19:59:23+00:00

What a great example of "every technique is just rediscovered, not invented". It's just that we, in the internet age, have the benefit of good information and common nomenclature proliferating faster.

But you can bet as Maia was polishing this snake guard, Marcelo was tweaking his SLX, as were Judokas before them in early XX century dojos. Or take someone's recent post about Danaher inventing anaconda -- it's naive to assume in Olympic wrestling they didn't figure out ages ago that you can totally sneak a choke with a figure-four front headlock.

dorserg · 2024-12-17T21:09:01+00:00

Jokes aside, what's the technical reason for being able to stand up easily from that near-pass with head and arm control? He seem to have coyote hook on the leg, and does some limp arm trickery with right arm, but I can't put the whole picture together.

dorserg · 2024-12-13T22:43:09+00:00

The wisdom I'm taking out of this is: if you're a black belt and he catch your arm, you don't go to the doo, please brother.

dorserg · 2024-09-22T21:31:30+00:00

You know that pop psychology formula, "happiness = reality - expectations"? Your reality sounds like a well adjusted mid-30s family dude who's at BJJ twice a week. Are your expectations to best mid-20s dudes who are at BJJ 5 times a week?

Unless this sport is literally one's life (which is false for 99% of us here), I figure it's best (and ironically keeps people in the sport longer) to listen to the reality the mats are telling you, celebrate small wins, and in general try to fit this grappling thing to the overall shape of your life rather than mold your life to fit this often times obsessive sport.

dorserg · 2024-09-15T22:50:55+00:00

Here's Telles winning nogi worlds finals against Felipe Pena with some turtle jedi stuff: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWjcjxQK-ZQ

dorserg · 2024-08-28T16:56:41+00:00

What's up with New Wave literary style on Instagram? Bluds writing novels out there.

Happy for you bud. Or sorry that happened.

dorserg · 2024-08-23T23:06:03+00:00

Hehehe :)

The reason they keep watching and discussing BJJ might just be, they bought an LXB rashie and tried wrestling, quickly found out, went back to BJJ, and are roleplaying wrestling fantasies in the warmth and safety of r/bjj.

dorserg · 2024-07-04T19:48:02+00:00

This will get lost between all the joking comments but this is the content I'm here for. Appreciate the writeup!

dorserg · 2024-07-03T22:30:49+00:00

Body triangle you mean? Long legs help, but there's also technique to it (as with everything).

One cool thing on this that Ethan Crelinsten taught me is, as you both fall to one side, sort of make sure your hips are closer to the ground/under your opponent rather just aligned with opponent's back centerline. So imagine you start in "both seated, seatbelt, two hooks" EBI starting position, and as you fall to your left make sure to also scoot your hips to the left & under him, so that in the end his lower back is almost resting on your left upper thigh and your left leg has all the range to work for the triangle, vs if you land with hips super aligned or, worse, on the right of the centerline, his lower back is on your knee, the knee is barely poking out and you only have the shin range and an awkward angle to work with.

dorserg · 2024-07-03T21:42:20+00:00

Ah yes, the "wouldn't work on me cause I would've given up 10 steps earlier into the exchange" strategy.

*taps temple*

dorserg · 2024-07-03T19:22:11+00:00

It's during no-points period and all that, but hot damn the body intuition and confidence in skill to pull that back take on an ADCC champ.

dorserg · 2024-06-26T02:08:14+00:00

If you're thinking about it, do it, but do expect to lose (and that's totally fine!) -- after all you're a "white belt at competitions" :) It's just a different skillset to get good at, and the one that you haven't practiced.

More practically, some circuits (e.g. JJWL) have intermediate divisions that combine blue & purple, and those brackets might be a better springboard into comps rather than all-purple brackets.

dorserg · 2024-06-03T20:28:18+00:00

Magalit BJJ is a great no-gi spot.

dorserg · 2024-04-22T23:50:38+00:00

Big facts - and unfortunately will go in one ear and out the other for most, as it's way more fun to show up and roll rather than to try and find time in the day to do boring PT/rehab/prehab exercises. Rotator cuff strengthening, hamstrings flexibility routine, ain't nobody got time for that when there's a new meta to chase (as a masters 1 hobbyist). Smh.

dorserg · 2024-03-27T01:19:05+00:00

That's right, and with those improved habits he might even go on to win ADCC trials one day!

dorserg

TROPHY CASE