I tell them it’s a great way to build a positive relationship with physical fitness and have some level of competence in self defense. 

Then I usually talk about Russ! I tell them jiujitsu is awesome because it forces you to be physical, but it’s really about the technicality of the sport. Because it is so mentally demanding, you can never judge who is going to beat you up. “Russ is one of our black belts. He’s a pharmacist by day and he looks like it. Genuinely nice guy….doesnt give off any sort of negative or dangerous vibe…  But he could turn you inside out and wear you like a boot and there is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING you could do about it.”

Come check out our new class: nogi fundamentals!  I’ll be teaching it on Tuesday and Thursday nights from 6-7. We will be teaching the opposite curriculum of gi fundamentals, so if you stay for Gi fundamentals with Coach Pete from 7-8 you will practice all 6 of the weeks techniques. See you on the mat!

First it was “are your elbows in? Or are your elbows out?” That really solidified my defense and put me in a position to advance my position and start going for sweeps and subs. Now the key concept has moved to “are you on your back or in your side?” This has defensive applications and has made my submissions more effective and available. 

I’ll drink coffee anywhere, but where do you practice archery around here?

I love this question! It reminds me of the conundrum "If you could only eat one thing, what would it be?"

I would say arm bar! similar to Kimura's , you can hit them anywhere! On top of that, for self defense situations, you can isolate the dangerous limb and disable it without the liability of choking someone unconscious. And if the other limb becomes the dangerous one, you can switch to that one next! If necessary, you can apply the same lessons learned from the arm bar and apply it to the legs. Knee bars anyone?!?! Plus the variations from different positions and entries almost make it an endless pursuit.  Even if you spent a year only practicing arm bars, I think you would be discovering new ways to hit it.  It's the same reason if I could only eat one food, it would be "sandwiches". Egg sandwich for breakfast, cold cults for lunch, steak sandwich for dinner, meatloaf sandwich when you have leftovers, pepper and egg sandwich during lent, and burritos when you want to bend the rules.

Feedback. Verbal and non-verbal. 

We can judge the pace and slowly increase the intensity without saying anything. But when we reach an impasse, it’s awesome to be able to say “I don’t know what to do from here” or ask “why isn’t  this working?” and have them help you work through it.