Henry Akins is the third American to receive a Brazilian Jiu-jitsu black belt from legendary fighter Rickson Gracie. Akins trained under Rickson Gracie for 15 years. Akins became the head instructor or “Professor” at the Rickson Gracie Academy from 2005 to 2008 before resigning due to a back injury.
Henry Akins was recently a guest on the best BJJ podcast Grappling central podcast where he talked about various interesting topics: escaping bad positions, using your opponent’s grips against them, developing a mind map and why he feels positional training is so important.
SHOW NOTES:
- His upcoming Pan Pacific seminar tour
- The rapid growth of his website HiddenJiuJitsu.com
- Universal concepts of escaping
- Concepts for escaping the bottom side mount
- Developing multiple options in Jiu-Jitsu vs looking for the easiest way out
- The battle for the under hook
- Recomposing the guard from bottom side is not the only escape option
- Maintaining guard / using the passer’s grips against him
- The fundamentals of passing the guard
- Master Rickson’s advice on passing the guard
- Why learning a concept is worth 100 techniques
- Understanding transitions / developing a mind map
- Why both he and Master Rickson believe so strongly in positional training
- Starting rolls from the feet / learning take downs
- Why not every self defense situation is appropriate to take to the ground
- Standing grappling concepts for self defense
- The Tom Deblass Walmart incident
- Hidden Jiu-Jitsu defined
- Teaching Hidden Jiu-Jitsu without physical contact (online/on video)
- Game plans for non-flexible people
- The intelligent use of strength and energy
- What he feels is the hardest aspect of Jiu-Jitsu to perfect
Check out the episode:
