6309 SW Capitol Highway, Portland OR, 97239
503 432 7450
info@southwestportlandmartialarts.com
What better way to start 2025 than by learning all the details of the armbar? (The correct answer, by the way, is that there is no better way.)
Okay. So maybe armbars are awesome but aren’t there like… other submissions in BJJ to learn? Absolutely. However, it’s not an unreasonable thing to claim that if you don’t have an armbar, you’re missing a major part of the game. Just digging through a list of statistics, the armbar is either the most common submission, or the second most common submission. In either case, it should be high up on your list.
Suppose you hate the armbar and feel dirty using it on people. That sounds rough, but even in that scenario, you should learn it inside and out because everyone else is going to try and do it to you.
If all those words don’t convince you then listen to these: the armbar sets up all sorts of other submission opportunities, as well as sweeps (assuming you’re trying your armbar from the bottom.)
Gi or no gi, let’s get those armbars locked in, people!
SW Portland Martial Arts Blog
January is Armbar Month
January 6th, 2025Set 2025 on Fire
November 30th, 2024
The hardest part of training is getting through the door of the gym for the first time. That’s why we’re thrilled to offer new students the easiest possible entry we can, with an offer of $25 to access our full schedule for the month of January.
This means, for only $25, you can take all our martial arts classes, all the CrossFit classes, and all the yoga classes. The only thing you can’t take is kid’s classes (they need less help getting started because they’ve got parents helping push them through the doors.)
We thought we’d time this with the new year, because it’s the time where folks think about trying something new. We’ve done our part by gathering all possible excuses into a pile and lighting them on fire. All you have to do is click here and then walk through the door.
Push Up Technique
November 15th, 2024
If you’ve ever watched someone do pushups, maybe you’ve been a nerdy enough CrossFitter or movement person to wonder if their elbows should stay in close to the body, or if it is okay for the elbows to bow out.
The answer is, as always, complex. However, I have found, over the years, that if I coach students to keep their elbows in close, they tend to experience less shoulder, elbow, and wrist pain. That’s good, right? The downside is that this style of pushup tends to be harder than if you let your elbows wing out. In addition, people with bigger wrists don’t tend to get much pain if they let their elbows wing out.
So what’s the answer? I recommend everyone try to keep the elbows close to their torsos when doing pushups. If flaring elbows hurts smaller wristed folks right away, I suspect that the habit may eat away eventually at folks with bigger wrists.
Another piece to add that will return some of the power to your pushup when you keep your elbows close is to externally rotate your hands into the ground while going both up and down in the movement. If you’re familiar with this concept from the squat (where you externally rotate your feet into the ground) just transfer it right over to the pushup and see if it helps. My experience of adding the twist is that you get a substantial boost in power.
Self defense and sparring
November 8th, 2024
Suppose you want to learn martial arts because you want to be able to protect yourself if you end up in a self defense situation… should part of your training involve working with actively resisting partners?
Yes.
Some folks will disagree, but I think if you want what you are training to have a better chance of working, it is necessary to test it under duress. Imagine you have two soccer teams, team A and team B. Both teams have 1 hour practice times 2 times a week for 6 months. At the end of the 6 months, they play a game of soccer.
Now, if you didn’t know anything else about the two teams, you’d probably say the odds are 50/50 that either team could win.
Consider the following scenario. Team A spends 30 minutes doing solo drills every practice and then 30 minutes scrimmaging. Team B spends 1 hour doing solo drills. By solo drills I mean the players are practicing ball handling, shooting, and whatever other things soccer players can do by themselves.
Now, given no other information, who do you think is more likely to win? I’d put my money on team A. There’s no guarantee they’d win, but it seems more likely, especially if we add in constraints like both teams being the same age, size, and athletic ability.
While the example is not a perfect fit, the point is this: if you learn a skill in isolation without the stress of someone actively trying to oppose you, the skill is more likely to breakdown under stress.
What do you think? Is sparring helpful or detrimental to functional self defense?
Yoga Special
November 6th, 2024
New to the gym? Want to try our yoga program? How about a 10 class yoga punchcard for $25? BOOM. That’s $2.50 a class. Here you go.
Our Yoga schedule is:
Monday, Wednesday, Friday @ Noon
Tuesday @ 9AM
If you’ve done our yoga before or you burned through your first punchcard, you can buy another one for $100. Still only $10 a class.
This punchcard is ONLY good for the yoga classes, not any of our other programs. Go to our events page to buy a card and get started.