How to Start a Jiu Jitsu Blog with WordPress

Blogging about Jiu Jitsu has become one of my favorite things to do. I’ve stated in other areas of this blog that I started it as a way for me to keep track of all the internet links I was finding, and all the stuff I was learning on my jiu jitsu journey. It’s evolved to be more than that at this point though. It’s truly become a labor of love.

Anytime I learn something new that I think could help my jiu jitsu I try to document it here. Whether it’s a new way of eating, a different way of working out, details about moves that I hadn’t known before, or just sharing cool videos I found online, I write that stuff in this blog. This blog has become like an online jiu jitsu diary, that I get to share with all of you.

In addition to being a good way to catalog information about jiu jitsu, blogging can also earn a little extra cash, through affiliate links or advertising fees. It does cost a little bit of money to run a blog, so if it’s possible to recoup some of those fees via affiliate links it certainly helps to keep the blog running.

It’s pretty interesting to read some of the income reports listed on other blogs. The amount of money that blogs can earn varies wildly, but here are some fun figures from some of the more popular blogs:

Monthly Income Reports of Popular Blogs

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Jesse Delgado Funk Roll Study

DPS Breakdowns just posted a video breaking down how to do and use a Funk Roll in grappling. If you’re not familiar with DPS Breakdowns, you should head over to their YouTube channel, tons of great videos, a lot of very technical, high quality analysis. Dan from DPS breakdowns is a high level competitor in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and has great insight into the finer details of the game.

The Funk Roll is a roll that according to Dan has 3 objectives:

  1. Disrupt the opponent’s base, by doing the Funk Roll and achieving hip and ankle control.
  2. Prevent the opponent from regaining base.
  3. Either score or force a stalemate.

From the video blow it seems like an important aspect of the funk roll (or arguably the sole reason to do this move) is to counter a take down with the funk roll, and then establish control of your opponents leg(s) or hips so that they can’t establish their own base, which kills subsequent take down attempts and opens other possibilities.

See the full breakdown below:

Hurricane Jiu Jitsu: Student Video Analysis

Hurricane Jiu JitsuIn this video John Lawrence from Hurricane Jiu Jitsu does an analysis of one of his student’s competition footage. Lawrence has a long competition history and his experience enables to him to see details in this video that I would have missed.  He breaks down what it would take for this student to finish his sweeps and control his opponent better by controlling his opponent’s posting hand and stabilizing his opponents core by gaining grips on two opposing corners of his opponent’s body.

North South Escape using Elbow Push vs Side Control

marcelo-garciaI find myself getting stuck in north  south and side control a lot lately (again). While searching for ideas on how to escape north south I found this video of Marcelo Garcia showing how to escape by getting back into side control. He says that he’d rather be in side control than in north south, so doesn’t mind escaping to that position, where he can work on escaping side control via an elbow push.

Chris Haueter Seminar January 2019

Chris HaueterI just got back from a seminar put on by Chris Haueter at the Fight Gym in Chagrin Falls, Ohio. This is the second seminar I’ve attended with Haueter, and I said the same thing last time, I wouldn’t miss a Chris Haueter seminar when he comes around. Both times that I’ve attended his seminars I’ve had several “ah-ha” moments, which totally makes the price of admission worthwhile.

This seminar we focused on the rear naked choke. We spent a little time in the beginning of the seminar after our warm up talking about how to control our partner when we have back control. Haueter spoke about the importance of controlling our partner’s hips by pushing our hips right against their tail bone and using our legs to keep their hips pulled back into ours and to the ground. We spent some time with our partner trying to escape while we attempted to hold them in place. It was pretty amazing how much control we had this way, without even really needing to use our arms that much to control their upper body. Typically we’re taught to get a seat belt grip to maintain control but by controlling their hips with our legs we didn’t seem to need that grip to maintain control.

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Beating DLR With Old School Pressure

Hurricane Jiu JitsuJohn Lawrence from Hurricane Jiu Jitsu shows a pressure pass when confronted with a De La Riva guard. Pressure passing is my favorite way to pass so I’m especially interested in this way of beating the De La Riva. I have been trying to step out of it with varying success, I’ll be curious if pressuring in will increase my success with passing this guard.

Kuzushi in the Guard

Scott BurrScott Burr from the Fight Gym discusses Kuzushi (unbalancing an opponent) from the closed guard.  This is an important concept, not only because breaking an opponent’s posture is important when they’re in your guard, but also because doing so leaves you vulnerable to headbutts. I’ve almost received accidental headbutts when rolling from trying to break an opponent’s posture when they are in my guard, so I can imagine in a real fight that a headbutt would be a real option for someone if they wanted to do some damage from that position.

Check out the details in the video below:

Scott Burr is a Jiu Jitsu Black Belt, Judo Black Belt, Steve Maxwell certified trainer and  a black belt in Kuk Sul Do. He is also the author of the novel “Bummed Out City”.

The Omoplata vs the Marceloplata vs the Baratoplata

Stephan Kesting BaratoplataMy daughter is growing fast in her jiu jitsu practice and she found this great video where Stephan Kesting shows variations on the Omoplata by transitioning to the Marceloplata (created by Marcelo Garcia) and the Baratoplata (created by Rafael “Barata” Freitas)