B. Neil Brown's Blog, page 2

Could you live without grains?

So about two months ago I competed in a tournament in North Carolina where I also got to hang out with my good friends Max and Brian, both wheelchair bound jiu-jitsu players. I came home with silver and bronze, but

What competition teaches you

I have always told myself that competition wasn’t important to me in my GJJ journey. I wanted to learn some self defense, work on my fitness, and just try to be the best no-legged version of myself I could be.

Train out of your element

You would think being a triple amputee that trains in Gracie Jiu-Jitsu that every day that I get on the mat with able-bodies that I am totally out of my element. My fellow mat rats at the academy have all

First Tournament of 2016!

I haven’t competed very often while training Jiu-Jitsu, and that’s for a good reason. I train for fitness and defense, and sport BJJ while great for fitness might leave out a few things in defense for a guy with no

Guest Post by Sensei Eric Myers – Don’t Call it a Comeback

This weeks guest article is by Sensei Eric Myers. Eric has been training in the martial arts since the age of four years old, and holds multiple black belts in the arts of Shorin-Ryu Karate (6th Dan), Nihon-Ryu Jujutsu (5th Dan), Dai Yoshin-Ryu Aikijustu-Aikido (3rd Dan), Shotokan Karate (2nd Dan), ISTJ Judo (1st Dan), and

Video: Double leg sweep from the seat

So I spend a lot of time on my hind end on the mat, and really my only two options are my knees or my butt. I stay off my knees mostly because the ligaments and tendons that hold my knee/patella together are basically wrapped around and tied off. I really don't want to be […]

Double leg sweep from the seat

So I spend a lot of time on my hind end on the mat, and really my only two options are my knees or my butt. I stay off my knees mostly because the ligaments and tendons that hold my knee/patella together are basically wrapped around and tied off. I really don’t want to be

Adaptive BJJ Fundraiser for NubAbility Campers

While sitting in a coaches meeting during the 2015 Nubability Athletics Camp last year we were discussing all things Camp. What they would be doing, where they would be staying, all the different sports and activities, and funding.

I don’t remember Momma Jana’s exact words, but they were along the lines of “We get more kids every year, and we love it! Getting the money to put this together is hard, but we always seem to find a way by the grace of God.”

NubAbility takes care of the lion’s share of the camp cost per child, and NubKid parents cover the rest with set fees. As an amputee myself, I know what it costs to be like I am. I sometimes have a tough enough time taking care of my needs by myself, and I couldn’t imagine being a parent carrying all the normal day to day family living expenses ON TOP OF having to pay for doctors visits, prosthetic care, and all the other things involved with being an amputee, or having a limb different kiddo.

So there I am sitting in my chair at the meeting, thinking about what a parent must go through scraping together enough money to even the camper fee to get their aspiring limb different athlete kid to class. When the meeting was over I told Jana that I would commit giving some camper parents a little help by taking care of the camper entrance fees for a couple of kids in 2016.

I want to cover the camper fees of at least three NubKids this year, and I’m asking for your help. Feel free to donate whatever amount you like! If you donate “Silver” I will send you one of my awesome Adaptive BJJ Gi Patches, and if you donate “Gold” or higher, I’ll send you a patch and an Adaptive BJJ decal.

Help me help out some parent, and their awesome kids in the process!

Help Adaptive BJJ send limb different kids to NubAbility Athletics Camp
$40.00 of $300.00 raised








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All net proceeds from this fund raiser will be donated to NubAbility Athletics!

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Guest Post: Brandon Ryan – How jiujitsu teaches us to communicate our needs

My name is Brandon Ryan, I am a 30 year old martial artist who has Cerebral Palsy. The following few paragraphs will summarize my Martial Arts history and current endeavors. I started my martial arts journey in the early 90’s along side my father (Guru Robert Ryan). We have had the amazing opportunity to train along side two of Bruce Lee’s original students (Guru Dan Inosanto and Sifu Larry HartSell), along side these two legends my father and I have spent time under the knowledge of grappling sensation Sensei Erik Paulson. Being that I was born with a condition such as cerebral palsy, grappling became my first love, it wasn’t that I couldn’t understand elements of stand up fighting, I could explain and teach it well to able-bodied students, grappling however, was where I felt most comfortable, its where I excelled. At present time, I am a 3rd stripe brown belt under my father, who also founded Lopaka Ryu martial arts, a conceptual systems that longs to promote personal liberation and expression among students. While simultaneously breaking away from any fixed patterns.

Furthermore, I am a blue belt in 10th Planet Jiujitsu, under Eddie Bravo founder of 10th Planet Jiujitsu. I have been training under the 10th Planet banner for four years and have helped teach kids Jiujitsu and self defense classes. I am also a multiple time gold and bronze medal winner, most recently, I traveled all the way to New York, to compete in the first ever Grapplers Heart Jiujitsu tournament, a tournament dedicated to special needs grapplers. I am proud to say that I came home with a bronze medal and the fastest submission victory. When I am not training at 10th Planet Omaha, I am full time college student studying Psychology and teaching a self defense class on my college campus. I also am currently working on putting together self defense clinics for the special needs community under my own brand called Adaptive Defense.

How jiujitsu teaches us to communicate our needs

I was asked to write about how others might perceive rolling with me on the mat. Honestly, I haven’t run into many problems, many of teammates treat me the same. However, communication has been a huge part in how I and my teammates interact. There have been times where I have had to openly tell people to “bring it” during live rolling. Many times if people are holding back, then I won’t be ready for real thing come tournament time. I can remember my friend Dave say to me once “I bet you wished that someone would try and kick your ass, right?” My short answer to that is yes. For the simple reason that my life has not taken it easy on me, therefore I want nothing less from my partners in Jiujitsu.

The key element has been finding the right training partners. Josh Barrnet has a simple rule of thumb when it comes to his training process: Don’t train with assholes. What I believe he means by that is, don’t train with people who are out to stroke their own ego’s and don’t train with people who simply want to hurt you. In the 10th Planet Family, we tend to be more aggressive when we roll, but even with such a reality it does not mean that self-control goes out the window. This is a factor that goes for the defensive and offenses.

A) you have to know when to tap and-

B) you have to value your training partner if your applying a submission of any kind.

Many of my teammates know that I am very stubborn when it comes to tapping from a choke, I’ve lost count of the times I’ve gone to sleep because of it. Still, a lot of my teammates will let up for a second to check on me, and I’ll calmly tell them to go back to strangling my neck.

There have been other times where I have had to tell people to slow down and not try and rip my head off. Being that we are human, we sometimes forget the way of Jiujitsu, which is technique over strength. The same can be said for other grappling arts like Judo, Sambo and even Catch Wrestling. This is where I have a huge affection for the Gracie family, because they emphasize playfulness in Jiujitsu, having fun and making sure no one gets hurt.

I know that I just mentioned rolling with intensity and being strangled by my teammates, but there is a healthy balanced perspective to be had still within the Jiujitsu community. I want to be doing this until I’m ninety-some years old, this largely has to do with how and who you train with. I’m pleased to say that I have some awesome teammates that want to see me succeed on and off the mat, regardless if I win or loose in competition. I’ve been blessed with one of the best wrestling coaches in the Midwest, who has taught me so much and has given me the creative liberty to find what works and doesn’t work for me. My encouragement to any physically challenged grappler, is to seek these kinds of teammates and coaches out. You might not find them right away, but rest assured they do exist. It might take some time, but do not give up the fight.

If you are BJJ instructor with a physically challenged student, please be patient with them. Read up on their condition, be willing to learn about their mobility and dexterity. Don’t be afraid to push them, but within reason. Encourage, motivate and inspire them to go far and beyond what they ever thought was possible. Teach them to live out the Jiujitsu way. –Brandon Ryan

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The importance of time in injury recovery

Recently I had the honor of being asked to instruct limited mobility crossfitters in self defense at the Working Wounded Games 2015, in Washington DC. It was a great day, my techniques for simple wrist lock controls were on point, and I was feeling pretty good about how things were going.

That is, of course, until I took a fall. A bad fall.

It was my own fault, I failed to pay attention to the particular mobility level of the young lady I was working with, and we both went down. I landed directly on my tail bone and totally blew out my back. That was three weeks ago, and I have yet to get on the mat and train since that happened.

I have a few other issues as well, all totally related to simply being an amputee. As an amputee I walk on the parts of my legs that were never meant to bear weight in the way that they do now, and occasionally I get what we call in the amputee game “skin breakdown.” Breakdown is similar to a friction blister, and they hurt. A lot. So that has also affected my ability to not only get on the mat, but even get to the dojo!

Three weeks I have been out of training, and I so want to get back to training, but my body simply isn’t ready. I need a little bit more time to completely heal, and as much as I dislike it, I will take that time to completely heal.

If you are injured, then you should give yourself that time, as well.

Rolling while still healing can be the worst thing you can do to yourself. As much as you want to keep on training, re-injuring a partially healed injury can put you back months. I’m not saying you can’t go to your academy and participate to a certain extent with class or instruction, but know your limits, and the limits of your injury. If you have a popped intercostal rib muscle, you don’t need to be hammering out crunches during warm ups. If your knee is blown out, maybe you shouldn’t try that throw your coach is teaching to everyone else.

When I am injured but still able to walk I make it a point to try and make classes. I generally don’t dress out, and more than once I have had to pull a chair out onto the mat because an injury prevented me from getting up and down off the ground. But I didn’t train. I observed. I was giving myself time to heal.

When you are like me, healing takes a lot longer. And I don’t mean being an amputee….. I mean being in my 40’s. The older you get, the longer it takes for injuries to heal. You youngbloods out there who think it’s manly to work through the pain and heal quickly, that won’t last forever. You really ought to think about following better injury healing practices now. Ask anyone over 40 in your school, and they will tell you that old injuries from their younger days DO come back to haunt you.

Down time is never fun, but it is necessary.The mind is always ready to train, but the body may not be. Give yourself all the time you need to heal properly, and stay off the mat until your body is ready to train again. Your jiu-jitsu game will thank you for it, and so will your injured body.

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