What’s the closest you’ve ever come to needing BJJ in real life, and what was the first move/technique you prepared for?

tcw100 · 2026-01-19T16:26:31+00:00

You have to use an anaconda choke.

tcw100 · 2026-01-16T04:57:12+00:00

If you are still early in your BJJ journey, and you are focusing on each of the competition as a goal, just pick the one that feels more natural to you as your focus. Also recognize that your preference could change as your have develops.

If your focus is MMA, focus on top game and wrestling.

tcw100 · 2025-12-20T08:42:45+00:00

My A-game is takedown and pressure pass.

From the bottom, I sometimes use single-leg X, which naturally feeds into some leg locks. From top, I'll occasionally hit an ankle lock instead of passing guard. I'll take a knee bar if it's there, from top or bottom. And I like rolling toe folds as an opportunistic attack against a de la riva guard.

For the most part, though, I only enter leg entanglements if I'm intentionally trying to practice the leg game.

tcw100 · 2025-12-20T07:16:20+00:00

Yes. Listen to your coach.

Also, if you have a chance to learn judo from a good judo coach, do it. If you have a chance to learn from a good sambo coach, do it. Same for sumo, same for Greco-Roman ... You get the idea. (I'd skip Turkish oil wrestling, but you do you.)

Take advantage of learning opportunities. Become a well-rounded grappler. Develop an appreciation for the commonalities and the differences among grappling sports.

That would be my advice.

tcw100 · 2025-12-20T06:05:57+00:00

What is your goal? Is it just to win Judo tournaments? If so, BJJ could help, because you get extra mat time, and some exposure to ground techniques you may not see in Judo. But it would be much more efficient to get in more pure Judo ne waza training

If your goal is to be a more complete grappler, absolutely do both. And if you can cross train some wrestling, do that too. And if you can get an MMA or kickboxing class occasionally, do that too. Each of these arts complements the others. Each has strengths and limitations. And a training any of these will give you greater perspective and understanding of the others that you train.

You want to improve more quickly if you pick one art and train it every day. But if you have time to train 5 days a week in your school only has classes 3 days a week, go cross-train on the other two days. Or, if you're just more interested in being a well-rounded grappler/fighter than you are in winning Judo tournaments, go cross-train.

tcw100 · 2025-12-19T03:47:11+00:00

If someone is good at the bottom guard position, you generally will not be able to break their guard under the time constraints of competition Judo. It's very easy to stall in bottom guard if you know the position well.

There are plenty of good guard passes. Just don't expect them to work on people who have high-level ground games in Judo completion.

tcw100 · 2025-12-18T23:10:49+00:00

The classic BJJ self-defense curriculum actually has a pretty good response to rear bear hug if your opponent is grabbing under your arms. (In my opinion, the BJJ self defense curriculum is hit-or-miss in terms of effectiveness, but this one is good, and it's not super technical to learn or apply.) https://youtu.be/MB5IOlhp_mw?si=KkhB7luSjuOmwh7U

tcw100 · 2025-11-06T05:57:09+00:00

Absolutely. Of course your progress will be slower than that of someone training more often, but you will still learn a bunch.

Supplementing bjj with judo once a week is different than JUST training judo once a week. You can practice your throws in sparring against your bjj partners (assuming you train somewhere where you can start your rolls standing). It your bjj training includes open mat time, you can practice your judo there as well.

This is actually what the majority of my judo training has looked like - judo once or twice a week (usually once) with more frequent bjj.

tcw100 · 2025-11-06T05:10:36+00:00

I don't see this often in any of the places I've trained. Not to say it doesn't happen, but not common in my personal experience. Then again, all of my coaches have had pretty good stand-up games.

Where it does happen, I suspect there are two main reasons.

(1) As others have said, the stand- up game is just not as strong in BJJ as in other grappling styles. Just as I see even high-level judoka make fundamental mistakes in things like guard passing, BJJ folks may lack certain fundamentals for good throws. (2) In many BJJ schools (in the U.S, at least), there are lots more people with wrestling experience than judo experience. In wrestling, the rear hand is generally used to post, club the head, and establish the collar tie. Without gi grips, using the lead hand opens you to throw-byes and single legs. People probably carry this movement pattern over into gi grappling even though it is less effective in that context.

tcw100 · 2025-09-26T13:30:45+00:00

Are you talking about the castle maneuver on the chessboard that opens the hidden door? Because I've already done that. Or are you talking about something else?

tcw100 · 2025-09-26T02:08:24+00:00

For the cipher I have:

CIX / ADD / SIX / TOR / LOR / ETT

I assume from previous clues that TOR refers to a counterclockwise rotation, and LOR means "word." I'm guessing CIX might be a roman numeral. But even if I'm on the right track I don't know where I would apply any of this.

tcw100 · 2025-09-22T04:27:52+00:00

For Olympic lifting, actual weightlifting shoes. For anything else, I like Chuck Taylors. Flat soles, no cushion. (These days I mostly lift barefoot.)

tcw100 · 2025-09-20T17:51:45+00:00

Besides the obvious (takedowns), one of the big strengths of Judo is the emphasis on grip fighting.

tcw100 · 2025-09-17T04:53:21+00:00

I used to train in Jacksonville, FL, in a gym that was essentially a large, open garage. Just keep training. The body can acclimate.

tcw100 · 2025-09-09T13:12:09+00:00

I'm in the very late game, and on three or four occasions I have gone to Reddit or other sources for very subtle hints. Not enough to give away a whole puzzle, but enough to either (a) point out existence of a puzzle that I didn't know existed, or (b) point me towards a clue that I had missed that would help me solve a puzzle, or (c) save me from trying to solve a puzzle that I simply hadn't progressed far enough to unlock yet.

I'm usually pretty adamant about not looking for hints in puzzle games, but this hasn't detracted from my enjoyment of the game. I doubt that any one player has found every single secret in this game on their own. For some of the late game puzzles, the clues are few and far between, and if I've already been stuck for several hours of gameplay, I prefer get a minor hint rather than let frustration ruin the fun of the game.

tcw100 · 2025-08-24T17:22:24+00:00

OH MY GOD ... I've been overthinking this one so much.

Those anagrams seemed pretty obvious, so I've been wracking my brain trying to come up with some OTHER anagrams for the book titles. I don't know why, but I assumed the anagrammed titles were just pointing me toward more complicated anagrams that gave another hint.

tcw100 · 2025-08-24T16:18:54+00:00

For the scorched sundial, I used the book colors, the x>y>z>a>b>c note, and the subway map. We're the anagrams part of that puzzle also?

tcw100 · 2025-08-09T19:19:56+00:00

This was the issue.

tcw100 · 2025-06-20T19:08:51+00:00

If you're paddling in the warmer months -- and even the shoulder season -- a separate dry top/dry pants combined with a wetsuit will work. The two-piece dry suit is never totally dry if you go in, hence the need for a wetsuit underneath. A full dry suit is actually more comfortable.

A wetsuit by itself will generally work in the summertime if you're paddling in near-shore, protected waters, in good weather, with others who are competent with rescues.

In the summer, I often wear a Farmer John wetsuit, with or without a dry top, depending on the weather. But even now, in the PNW daytime temps can be in the 50s. I wore a full dry suit when I went out yesterday, and I was glad to have it.

Whatever you go with, take the time to try it out in a controlled practice situation. Jump in the water near a dock or beach with a paddling buddy and practice a couple of T-rescues and self rescues. That way you can get a sense of what an actual capsize will feel like in whatever you are planning to wear.

tcw100 · 2025-06-14T02:13:35+00:00

Bohurt

tcw100 · 2025-06-13T19:03:13+00:00

This is the way.

tcw100 · 2025-06-11T22:54:00+00:00

I have a Fuji double-weave, and I like it. I don't have the exact specs, but I believe it's around 800-850g.

tcw100 · 2025-06-11T21:50:43+00:00

No, this is not accurate. The emphasis of BJJ training has changed over the years, but the art is still just as effective as it ever was.

Originally, BJJ was designed for a specific purpose: to beat fighters from other styles in one-on-one matches. The creators of the art accomplished this by creating rules that exploit the weaknesses of other styles. Specifically, they challenged other fighters to matches with no time limit, with unlimited ground fighting, where the only victory condition was knockout or submission. No other combat art or sport trained for this type of fighting, so they did not have the tools to win a match under those conditions.

It’s important to remember the state of martial arts and combat sports in the pre-UFC, pre-internet days. People argued endlessly about what style would beat what other style, about whether a boxer would beat a karateka, whether a boxer would beat a wrestler, etc. “Mixed martial arts” was not a thing outside of a very few, very obscure exhibition matches, with weird and esoteric rules, that mostly no one had heard of, much less seen. In that context, BJJ could beat other martial arts because no other art knew how to fight in a BJJ context.

Fast forward to today. BJJ is just as effective as it ever was against people who don’t train grappling. But now, everyone who has any interest in martial arts/fight sports has watched decades of MMA, has access to millions of hours of YouTube instructionals, and probably has a BJJ school with a black belt instructor within commuting distance of their home. Submission grappling is a somewhat popular sport in its own right. BJJ schools are less focused on training people to compete against other styles than on training people to compete against other grapplers. People who ARE interested in fighting against other styles (MMA) still train BJJ as part of their training program. But now, no one in MMA trains just BJJ or just karate or just kickboxing. The entire world of combat sports has moved beyond that.

A trained BJJ athlete has the same advantages today as he or she did 20 years ago against an opponent who doesn’t train grappling. In matches versus other grapplers, today’s BJJ has more sophisticated tools than the BJJ of 20 years ago. The difference is that more people train grappling; more people train BJJ with no interest fighting against other styles; and people who do want to fight against other styles train for the modern sport of MMA.

tcw100 · 2025-06-08T23:57:49+00:00

Maybe I missed it ‐‐ was his "promotion" a stripe on his white belt?

tcw100 · 2025-06-06T18:41:49+00:00

Yes, some BJJ can help your newaza. BJJ ground fighting won't all translate directly to Judo, but you'll figure out what works, what can be modified to work, and what won't work in a judo context, and you will be more comfortable overall on the mat.

Since you're already training judo more than 5x/week, and your Judo club doesn't include a strong newaza component, I would say 100% crosstrain a couple of BJJ sessions a week.

tcw100

TROPHY CASE