SW Portland Martial Arts Blog

Technique

November 3rd, 2025

Martial arts isn’t all about technique, but it’s the most important thing we can deliver as teachers and it’s the thing that will matter the most over the long haul.

If you’re not fast, strong, or big – that will only make technique more important. Indeed, it is often those folks who aren’t physically gifted that end up with the best technique because they have no other tools to get the job done.

So how do you get good technique? Go to class, do the drills, ask questions, and train consistently. It’s the same for kids and adults.

Interested in kid’s classes? Check out our schedule here.

Posted in Kids, Martial Arts | 0 Comments

Kimura Escape

September 22nd, 2025

One way to think about escaping a submission is to practice a little bit of empathy. What does the person trying to finish this submission want? Well if they want X,Y, and Z then I should probably try and stop those things from happening if I don’t want to get submitted.
Is that really empathy? Maybe not in the way we usually think about it, but figuring out what your partner is trying to do in martial arts is a huge key in getting better at martial arts.
Let’s get more specific. Suppose your partner is trying to get the Kimura. In order to finish the Kimura, one thing they need is to have your elbow controlled. Therefore, if you can slip your elbow out of the lock, they can’t finish the Kimura.
The whole idea of reverse engineering submissions in order to practice submission escapes is brilliant and I can’t pretend to take credit for it. Credit goes to John Danaher and his excellent video, Submission Escapes.

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The Press Family

September 12th, 2025

Meet the press family. There’s shoulder press, push press, push jerk, split jerk, and squat jerk. All of them share the same finish position, the bar overhead such that if you were to draw a line starting at the middle of the foot, go through the knee, the hip, the shoulder, and then finish at the barbell, it should be straight.
Why should it be straight? So that we’re supporting the weight with good structure. If the bar is behind that line, it puts a strain on the low back, increases the risk of injury, and possibly causes the bar to crash to the ground behind us. If the bar is in front of that line, it puts a strain on the shoulders, increases the risk of injury, and possibly causes the bar to crash to the ground in front of us.
That’s why today we spent a bunch of time focusing on how to find the correct finish position. Technique is strength. Strength is skill. Work hard in the smartest way possible.
Interested in our CrossFit classes? Come try a free week. The schedule is here.

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Guard, Trap Triangle, and Triangle

September 9th, 2025

The longer you train in BJJ, the more you should be able to see variations in the positions. As a novice, it’s all a mess of limbs. With some experience, you start to pull out the some major positions: guard, side control, mount. Tonight, Coach Alex had the class look at the difference between how to defend when you’re in a trap triangle versus how you defend when you’re in the triangle.
What’s the difference? A trap triangle means you’re close to being choked. A triangle means you are actively being choked. Most of the time, the trap triangle proceeds the triangle. Heed the warnings! Defeat the trap triangle so you don’t have to fight desperately to survive the triangle.
Even better is to know what your partner needs to do to set up the trap triangle when you’re still in guard.
Interesting in trying out classes? All students are welcome to a free week. Come on in and check it out.

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Sparring in Kids Class

September 6th, 2025

Thursdays is our sparring class for kids. What’s that mean? It means we put on the gloves and the shin guards and we play. We don’t go hard – and that’s not just because it’s kids class. We don’t go hard in adult class either. We keep our sparring light.
What’s “light” mean? Light to us means touching the head. Light to the body means a hit that can be felt but doesn’t push the body out of alignment. Light to the legs means the same kind of thing – you feel it but it doesn’t hurt.
We believe that in order to learn functional martial arts, there needs to be contact. We also believe that hard contact, especially to the head, and especially in children, is counter productive.
It’s definitely true that the body and legs can adapt to contact – meaning if you train over time, you can get used to harder contact – but that’s only something we do in adult classes and even there we take our time, never cross anyone’s limits, and never go hard to the head.
Interested in our kids martial arts classes? Check out the schedule here.

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