Profile: Henry Akins

Henry AkinsHenry Akins is a Jiu Jitsu black belt under Rickson Gracie. He has the distinct honor of being the 3rd American to receive a black belt under Rickson. While training at the Rickson Gracie Academy he worked as a secretary, instructor and even as a training partner for Gracie to help him prepare for his fights in Japan. He earned his black belt in 2004 and was the main instructor at Rickson’s place until a back injury forced him to stop.

In 2010 he founded Dynamix Martial Arts with Antoni Hardonk. Henry maintains an active schedule not only teaching at Dynamix, but also travels the world teaching seminars, and has created an online site of paid video courses at HiddenJiuJitsu.com. A sub section of the Hidden Jiu Jitsu site houses a members only area, the Mind Blown Jiu Jitsu club, which features exclusive content, and gives members access to a Facebook Group where they have direct access to ask Henry questions, and discuss technique with other members of the group. Being a member myself I can attest to the availability of Henry to the members, and of his deep knowledge of jiu jitsu. He has stated that he wants his legacy to be to make Rickson’s style of effective jiu jitsu accessible to everyone, and the content that he is publishing is serving him well to this end.

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Foam Rolling for Hip Health

Lately I’ve been having a lot of aching pain in my right knee. I thought I had injured it, maybe waited too long to tap to a heel hook, or hurt it drilling take downs. It would start aching, I would dial back the intensity on the mats, it would get better, then as soon as I started ramping up the intensity it would start aching again. A few nights back I woke up in the middle of the night with my knee, quad and hip aching so bad that I couldn’t get back to sleep.

I had talked to some guys in class about this, and a couple of them had similar issues at one point in their training. The general consensus was that the issue may not be in the knee, but rather in the IT Band and/or tightness in the hips. Recommendations included using foam rollers and looking up Kelly Starrett mobility videos.

So I looked up some vids, bought a foam roller, took a night off of jiu jitsu and worked on loosening up my hips and quads.

I started with this routine:

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The Utility of Visiting Open Mats

This past weekend I went and visited an open mat at a new school that recently opened in my area. The new school’s owner was a friend and old training partner of one of the guys I regularly train with, and we thought it would be fun to check it out and to show some support for a new local school. Since this was the first week that this school was open we didn’t expect to see too many people, but luckily some guys from other gyms also decided to show up to see the new place. This turned out to be a friendly open mat with a variety of jiu jitsu practitioners from various schools in the area.

I don’t often hit open mats at other schools, so I don’t get a lot of chances to roll with people outside of the circle of athletes that I train with. But at this open mat there were people from at least 3 different schools, and when I rolled with some of these practitioners I got to experience different styles of rolling than I’m used to. The first thing I noticed was how contrasting most of the guys I rolled with were in terms of aggression, which was a little lighter than where I normally train. Our school is a highly competition oriented school, and though we have a tight knit group, all willing to help each other grow, the rolling style tends to be aggressive, with a lot of speed and smashing. At this open mat, however, most of the guys I rolled with had a smooth and fluid style that seemed to be more centered on waiting for you to make a mistake rather than trying to force you into making a mistake. Rolling against this more fluid style was a strange transition, in that I wasn’t sure how to counter some of their moves (or even effectively pass their guard) since the level of resistance I’m used  to wasn’t there. I had new puzzles to solve, and that made things challenging and a lot of fun.

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Ego is the Enemy of Progress

Jiu Jitsu is hard. This is what our instructor told us during belt promotion last night. It’s why we train so often. As he stated, “the hardest part of my day is training, after training everything else is easy”.  That’s the truth.  On days that I have class I will typically try to get to bed early the night before, consume the right amount of calories, at the correct times, take the right supplements, and generally psyche myself up before class to prepare for the grueling workout. And ego makes all of this harder.

I generally think of myself as someone who doesn’t let his ego get in the way of things. But I had a revelation this past week… I was getting more stressed about class than I needed to be, simply because I was concerned about losing matches to lower belts.

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Neil Melanson Closed Guard Techniques

Neil Melanson is a grappling coach who has trained under “Judo” Gene LeBell and has taught Chael Sonnen, Rand Couture, Frank Trigg, Vitor Belfort and many others. He specializes in catch wrestling and is known for his closed guard technique, which focuses on an MMA style guard, always protecting the head from strikes.

Luckily Neil has posted numerous videos available on YouTube, which provide insight into his unique grappling style. Spending some time studying these videos will give you a new perspective on how to use the closed guard. Particularly interesting is how he uses grapevines when he has someone in guard to control them.

Closed Guard: Getting off the Center Line

Another technique of interest is his way of controlling your opponent by locking your knee behind their shoulder for a shoulder pin. This gives excellent control and opens up numerous opportunities for attacks.

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