Great Stuff
I'm no one special in BJJ but I trained with Henry Akins a bit and personally think he has a lot of valuable stuff. Not that he is the only one who can do it, but he's one of the few who can and will actually take the time to teach it. There's nothing mystical about it but he pays attention to a lot of finer points that are rarely taught.
Generally in BJJ once you "learn" a technique its kind of up to you to get better at it. You drill it and use it when rolling to make it work properly. That process is also learning, but you're teaching yourself small details of angle, pressure and timing that aren't easy to describe. Henry tends to look at that stuff a lot more closely in my experience, and he accelerates that fine tuning process. He doesn't just talk about it, he will get on the mat with you and push your limbs into position. That doesn't come across on video so well maybe! He is much less about showing new moves than improving the kind of stuff you use all the time.
In reference to what someone said above, no he's not very polite sometimes! If you do something sloppy he'll tell you. Then he'll sit down on the mat and make sure you get it right. I'm OK with that. 
I don't live in California or have the privilege of training at all the top schools. I live in Canada, not Toronto or Montreal either.
But I do get to train with Shane Rice, a Rickson Gracie BB and friend of Henrys.
If you doubt the myths, the legends of invisible jiu jitsu, go down to Krons academy and train with Rickson. Go to Henrys and train with him.
High level guys, I don't need to list the names, they all recognizr Rickson as on another level. This stuff is why. Go see for yourself.
I've been doing jiu-jitsu for 18 years and I think Henry's a great teacher with a lot to offer. If his style of communication isn't for you, so be it, but that doesn't detract from the information he is imparting.
The Milkman - I'll chime in here. I'm a black belt. This means little other than I've been doing this stuff for a long time and I'm getting old. I've trained with world champions, Gracies, old-school masters, etc. I've also had the pleasure of training with Henry. I'm not his student (wish I were). I did not get my black belt from his lineage. I've got no dog in this fight. I'll tell you this about my 10 hours or so learning from Henry. It was mind-blowing to me. I will submit that watching his videos was intriguing to me prior to learning from him in person, but I did not fully grasp or understand what was going on. I did after taking some time with Henry. Now, those videos have much more meaning to me. Henry, for me, is a fantastic instructor. I greatly look forward to learning more from him in the future. The "connection" concept is very real and, once you understand it, not very mysterious.Post your review! I'd be very interested in reading it.
My belief is that while most people, including Rickson himself, spend most of their time trying to improve their jiu jitsu, Henry spent his time, while with Rickson, trying to figure out what exactly it was that made Rickson's jiu jitsu so effective and superior to that of others. That is the basis for what I believe is Henry's superior understanding of jiu jitsu.
As far as Henry being conceited. He is a calm, introspective guy. He is a bit guarded I suppose, but if you hang out with him a bit, that fades quickly. I did not find him the least bit conceited, though I think he is resolute in his belief that he knows a lot that others do not. Again, I found him very nice. Keep in mind, he is a black belt in Brazilian jiu jitsu. He's not a Brazilian. LOL. Let me point out another thing. He spend 10 hours teaching me what could be considered fundamentals. I'm sure he's taught the same thing many, many times before. Yet, he was FULLY ENGAGED EVERY MOMENT, making sure my partner and I understood EVERYTHING. There were no phone calls taken, no walking off the mat to chat with other people, etc. I went there to learn what I could in that time and Henry in no way disappointed. It was the best BJJ learning experience of my life. Again, I've been doing this a long time.
Ultimately, if you choose not to learn from Henry, that's your choice. I just think it's not a very good one if you want to learn some unbelievable material. I wrote up a long-winded review of my time with Henry (he did not ask me to do so). If anyone wants it, PM me.
interesting thread.
dmoralesf, how do I post it here?
In like sin.
dmoralesf -Yes! Post it here please.The Milkman - I'll chime in here. I'm a black belt. This means little other than I've been doing this stuff for a long time and I'm getting old. I've trained with world champions, Gracies, old-school masters, etc. I've also had the pleasure of training with Henry. I'm not his student (wish I were). I did not get my black belt from his lineage. I've got no dog in this fight. I'll tell you this about my 10 hours or so learning from Henry. It was mind-blowing to me. I will submit that watching his videos was intriguing to me prior to learning from him in person, but I did not fully grasp or understand what was going on. I did after taking some time with Henry. Now, those videos have much more meaning to me. Henry, for me, is a fantastic instructor. I greatly look forward to learning more from him in the future. The "connection" concept is very real and, once you understand it, not very mysterious.Post your review! I'd be very interested in reading it.
My belief is that while most people, including Rickson himself, spend most of their time trying to improve their jiu jitsu, Henry spent his time, while with Rickson, trying to figure out what exactly it was that made Rickson's jiu jitsu so effective and superior to that of others. That is the basis for what I believe is Henry's superior understanding of jiu jitsu.
As far as Henry being conceited. He is a calm, introspective guy. He is a bit guarded I suppose, but if you hang out with him a bit, that fades quickly. I did not find him the least bit conceited, though I think he is resolute in his belief that he knows a lot that others do not. Again, I found him very nice. Keep in mind, he is a black belt in Brazilian jiu jitsu. He's not a Brazilian. LOL. Let me point out another thing. He spend 10 hours teaching me what could be considered fundamentals. I'm sure he's taught the same thing many, many times before. Yet, he was FULLY ENGAGED EVERY MOMENT, making sure my partner and I understood EVERYTHING. There were no phone calls taken, no walking off the mat to chat with other people, etc. I went there to learn what I could in that time and Henry in no way disappointed. It was the best BJJ learning experience of my life. Again, I've been doing this a long time.
Ultimately, if you choose not to learn from Henry, that's your choice. I just think it's not a very good one if you want to learn some unbelievable material. I wrote up a long-winded review of my time with Henry (he did not ask me to do so). If anyone wants it, PM me.
The Milkman - dmoralesf, how do I post it here?Just copy/paste it onto a reply here.
meatballcheeze - "Try it for your self and see if it works."<br /><br />Everyone who practices jiu-jitsu is already using connection. Every time you do a butterfly sweep you are using this mysterious "connection", only nobody calls it that. When I sprawl on someone who is trying to take me down, I am using connection, one could say. <br /><br />I was just watching Ryan Hall's guard passing dvd, his theory is truly top notch, he is battle tested on the competition scene, and has done mma, he is the real deal.
If by connection, you mean specifically stating that you tighten your knees to create a better connection and take out the slack of your guillotine?
It seems you are ignoring all the details, and pretending that all Henry does is say the word "connection" and expect the student to gain knowledge.
He does go into specific details, it is different than other people's technique, and YOU ARE a whiny bitch who should give up.
It's about 2 or 3 pages long. I don't think that's the best option. If you post your email, I'll send it to you. Does that work?
I'll be in LA in April, I will hopefully drop by Henry's school for some classes and see for myself.
That all looked good to me.
Sorry for the FRAT, but I feel this is valuable to the discussion. As a physicist I don't know why the term "connection" needs to be used.
connection - The mechanics of rigid bodies. The direction of force, center of mass (which is slightly different than center of gravity) and the MOMENTS OF INERTIA!
Bjj people talk about leverage all the time. What they really mean is torque. Torque is force as it relates to rotation of an object around an axis. You can increase torque by either increasing the force or by applying that force further away from the axis (ie increasing the radial distance from the axis of rotation such as an elbow). If you apply force at zero distance from the axis then there is no torque relative to that axis. It is a linear force that may or may not cause a torque around some other axis...so torque = force x radius (ie distance from axis)
However for all this talk about leverage, it seems that no one consciously considers a closely related concept called the moment of interia. This is different than inertia (body at rest stays at rest... etc) itself. Moment of inertia (MOI )is the concept of how mass is distributed around an axis of rotation. Is most of the mass close to the axis or far away?
If you had two solid doors that were each 2' wide and weighed the same. One door has the hinges on the side and the other door has hinges on the top an bottom along the center line....If you pushed on each door exatly 1' away from the axis of rotation where the hinges are, it would be more difficult to push the door with the hinges on the side.... Oh no! What about leverage? In both cases you are just as far away from the hinges?! Force equals mass x accelaration and both doors weigh the same?!... The issue is that one door has greater moment of inertia. For the door with the hinges in the middle, all of the mass is within 1' of the hinges. For the other door, the hinges are on the edge so some of the mass is up to two feet away from the hinges. It's moment of inertia is greater.
Multiple axes?.... If there was a huge doggy door built into these doors, then your pushing force would be divided. Some would go into rotation around the hinges on the side and some would be applied to rotation around the doggy door hinges and the door would partially flip up.... This is essentially what Henry was using to describe "connection" on the mount example in the first video... The human body can change is moment of inertia and it can also choose to keep certain parts rigid and create/allow certain axes of rotation. The torso has a couple of natural hinges for axis of rotation. rotation over the hips (axis is left/right through the side of the hips). The other is shoulder rotation where the axis is along the spine. At first the uke stiffen and pushed in the center of the chest and knocked Henry backwards. There was no torque to cause shoulder rotation because the force was directly through the spine axis (radius =0... no torque). There was only torque around the hips causing him to fall back. In the second case Henry rotated his own shoulders. This deflected the hand (really before it got to the axis since the chest is a few inches in front of it). Once the hand was deflected this cause the force to be divided between rotation over the hips and shoulder rotation around the spine... Since total angular moment (motion/momentum around all axes) is conserved, he "absorbed" the force by allowing most the motion around the spine axis rather than over his hips.
This is a bit over detailed for this one simple example. However I think it shows just how intricately bjj relates the classical mechanical dynamics. We say that bjj is supposed to improve our lives in many ways outside the mats. I think it would help us all to understand and appreciate the mechanical science behind bjj (ie classical physics) if we all made a better attempt to relate it in these terms rather than some catch all terms that show that you know what to do, but can't really tell you why.
It´s not just mechanics when it comes to connection because unlike a mashine levers in humans are often depending on muscular tension. The way you organize your muscle tension will give you certain levers. Here is some more explanation to the connection from the mount:
In this drawing you the the perfect escape for the Bottom guy. The guy on the bottom knows how to connect his own body and does not push from the shoulders but from his center of the body . His force is shown with the green arrows. His strength goes from his center directly into his hand and not in his shoulders which are relaxed. Therefore his Center of Gravity stays low. His force goes from his center directly to the opponent.
The opponent has no idea of a connected body and is tensing up the point of contact which is the chest and shoulder area. The blue arrow shows the force the top guy is using to tense up his contact point in his upper body. The blue arrow acts now as a lever and top guy change his center of gravity from his middle part of the body to his shoulders.
The bottom guy is whith his force now under the top guy and can easily push him over with his power from the center. That´s how it should be done and the connection is the basically the feeling from your center to his center shown with the green arrows.
Now you see what happens if the top guy has connection and the bottom guy not. The bottom guy is pressing not from his center but from his shoulders so his upper body and arm tense up and his center of gravity raises up. You can see his force in the blue arrows. He pushes into the chest of the guy on top not to his center.
The top guy is connected and creates an internal path from the contact point to his own center. He is not tensed up so his center of gravity is not raising up because no tension acts as a lever.
His center of gravity is lower than the center of gravity of the bottom guy and so he pushes with his hips into his opponent to pin him on the ground. Which you can see with the with the green arrows.
The bottom guy can push as much as he want since his tension has raised his center of gravity he is always above the center of gravity of the top guy who is connected and so the bottom guy can´t escape.
Just some ideas. For me I don´t need to understand it too much since it is first and foremost a feeling thing but it may help others......
Zero1 -
It´s not just mechanics when it comes to connection because unlike a mashine levers in humans are often depending on muscular tension. The way you organize your muscle tension will give you certain levers. Here is some more explanation to the connection from the mount:
In this drawing you the the perfect escape for the Bottom guy. The guy on the bottom knows how to connect his own body and does not push from the shoulders but from his center of the body . His force is shown with the green arrows. His strength goes from his center directly into his hand and not in his shoulders which are relaxed. Therefore his Center of Gravity stays low. His force goes from his center directly to the opponent.
The opponent has no idea of a connected body and is tensing up the point of contact which is the chest and shoulder area. The blue arrow shows the force the top guy is using to tense up his contact point in his upper body. The blue arrow acts now as a lever and top guy change his center of gravity from his middle part of the body to his shoulders.
The bottom guy is whith his force now under the top guy and can easily push him over with his power from the center. That´s how it should be done and the connection is the basically the feeling from your center to his center shown with the green arrows.
Now you see what happens if the top guy has connection and the bottom guy not. The bottom guy is pressing not from his center but from his shoulders so his upper body and arm tense up and his center of gravity raises up. You can see his force in the blue arrows. He pushes into the chest of the guy on top not to his center.
The top guy is connected and creates an internal path from the contact point to his own center. He is not tensed up so his center of gravity is not raising up because no tension acts as a lever.
His center of gravity is lower than the center of gravity of the bottom guy and so he pushes with his hips into his opponent to pin him on the ground. Which you can see with the with the green arrows.
The bottom guy can push as much as he want since his tension has raised his center of gravity he is always above the center of gravity of the top guy who is connected and so the bottom guy can´t escape.
Just some ideas. For me I don´t need to understand it too much since it is first and foremost a feeling thing but it may help others......
Your first sentence was correct.... The human body can create different hinges through muscle tension. It can also change it's moment of inertia (Think about swinging a golf club that is 3' long with a soft rubber shaft. When you swing it, it bends and so some of the mass is no longer at a distance of 3'. It is closer to the handle having a smaller radius ie distance from the axis of rotation, so smaller MOI ).... After that most of what you said was pseudo mumbo jumbo without using the word connection. Sorry, I know you are trying to be helpful but those pics and force lines are completely incorrect.
"Force acts as lever" is nonscientific way of saying torque. This force is only the component of force acting perpendicular to the radius.
Center of mass is fixed. You can't change that without moving. It is just a way of saying that since the mass is not all at a single point, if you took the average position of all the mass where would that point be. Whether or not your muscles are stiff is totally irrelevant.
The major effect is that you are changing where the hinges in your body are. The means the the torque changes (read above torque=Force x radius). It also changes the moment of inertia (which is the total sum of each piece of times its distance from that hinge mass1 x dist1 + mass2 x dist2 +....).
With all due respect Meatgrinder,
You make jiu-jitsu way more complicated then it has to be, and way more technical then it should be.
Joseph Gutierrez - With all due respect Meatgrinder,
You make jiu-jitsu way more complicated then it has to be, and way more technical then it should be.
I was explaining the physics behind it in written word without diagrams or pics. I would not attempt to teach it this way.. Have you ever seen any of my videos and heard my teach a technique?
https://www.youtube.com/user/coneryj/videos
I'm sorry but bjj is that technical. That is why we can spend a lifetime learning it. You don't need all that technical depth at one time, but it is there. You want to go to the pub. Have a beer and play shoot some pool. English?! What? That's making pool way to complicated. I'm just going to adjust my shot a little to compensate because for some reason, the ball just barely misses the pocket when I bounce it off the bumper.
white belt.... I'll just keep missing and blame it on the beers.
blue belt....Okay maybe I'll adjust the angle of the shot a little to make up for it.
purple belt...Hey when the ball spins a little in the opposite direction that it's moving, that kind of makes it go the way I think it should.
brown belt... Whoa... How much I need to spin the ball (english) seems to depend upon that angle that I'm bouncing off the bumper. Seems like I need more when the ball is moving more paralell to the bumper
black belt... The speed of rotation needs to be opposite in direction but exactly the same in magnitude as the component of velocity of the ball paralell to the bumper.
IN for classical mechanics!