Atlantic Mixed Martial Arts Media

Over the past few days I’ve been exchanging emails with Serra Jiu-Jitsu’s Billy Hofacker, Billy Ho (cool nickname right?) is a Matt/Nick Serra brown belt and runs a site called TrainingforMMAFitness.com. Not to mention he manages a Serra Jiu-Jitsu location and instructs there.

In those emails we’ve been dis… (Read more)

A facebook friend posed this question to me. Below is his full question and my response. Forgive my grammer and punctuation I just wanted to post it as is. Feel free to chime in with your thoughts in the comments or twitter or facebook or wherever you’re reading this…I’d like to know your opinions!

_Hello Jonathan, this is Anwar, I read your info that you post here on Facebook quite often and was wondering if you woul… (Read more)

Whether it be after a takedown or by guard pass, sometimes you’ll end up in what’s called the half guard.

It’s when you’re only able to capture one of your opponent’s legs. Control over one leg is better than control over, well, NO legs.

There are a couple different ways to maintain the position and prevent him from passing both legs, but I think below is the most common.

Half Guard Principles

... (Read more)

A while back I had an opportunity to get Stephan Kesting of BeginningBJJ.com on the phone so he could highlight the 6 main grappling positions for us MMA beginners.

I think before you even step foot on a mat you should at least have a decent idea of what you’re trying to accomplish.

There’s no better place to begin than with a basic understanding of … (Read more)

Open guard is kind of difficult to define in the sense that it’s dynamic (constantly changing or moving) and not static like much of the closed guard position.

So if the closed guard is when your feet are hooked together around your opponent’s … (Read more)

I’ll be taking you guys through all the basic brazilian jiu jitsu positions, but we’ll start with closed guard. Defining what it is, what it looks like, and following that with your strategies from the top and bottom.

Defining the Closed Guard

In the closed guard you have your legs wrapped around your opponent on the ground with your feet hooked together behind him.

Which fighter has… (Read more)

On Today’s MMA Podcast:

• Our guest is Paul Greenhill. Paul is a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu instructor, a Lloyd Irvin blackbelt, and runs a great site called TheWiseGrappler.com.

• In the interview we talked about the difference between BJJ Champions and everyone else and Paul’s answer may surprise you (here’s a hint…it’s not talent)

... (Read more)

On Today’s MMA Podcast:

• Our guest is Serra Jitsu Manager/Instructor and TrainingForMMAFitness.com owner Billy Hofacker

• We talk about a bit about why Gi-work is important for MMA fighters, what parts of BJJ are of the most importance to the mixed martial artist, and why UFC middleweight Demian Maia has made a su… (Read more)

On Today’s MMA Podcast:

• Our guest today is Caleb, host of The FightWorks Podcast, a popular BJJ radio show.

• I asked Caleb if it’s beneficial to the Mixed Martial Artist to roll with a Gi, how much training time should be devoted to drilling, and what would happen in a possible grappling match between Fedor and Dean Lister

• (You can… (Read more)