FIGHTER PROFILE - JASON SAMPSON

Local fighter profile: Jason Sampson By Andrew Plante


Jason Sampson is an up-and-coming fighter in the local MMA scene. He recently won his first professional fight at SWC 9 in dominating fashion. He's back in action at SWC 10 on Jan. 16, facing Josh Montoya.


Not unlike many MMA fighters, he is driven because of life experiences. His mother left him and his two brothers when Jason was 7. Since then, stepdad Greg Kimbrell has been his sole parental figure. "I consider him my dad," Sampson said. "He's been pushing me and supporting me. ... He's a blessing and inspiration in my life."


Sampson was a self-confessed troubled kid, getting in trouble for fighting in school and experimenting with drugs. He has two brothers in jail because of their involvement with crystal meth. He uses all of these experiences to maintain his focus on becoming a better person in life and a better fighter in the cage.


He began wrestling at the age of 11 as a way to stay out of trouble. He quickly found out that he was pretty talented -- even winning a Pan Am title in 2006 -- and the sport could keep him on the right path if he stuck with it.


In addition to Kimbrell's support, Sampson has numerous friends and family who are helping him to succeed, including girlfriend Monica Mendoza -- who he says "has been pushing me and encouraging me all the way" -- and grandmother Jackie Kimbrell, who "has always been there for me as both a grandmother and a mother." He is dedicating his fight to Mendoza's daughter, Victoria, who turns 14 the day of his next fight.


Coach Allen Mohler from Mohler Jiu-Jitsu probably has been the biggest influence to Sampson's MMA path.


"Coach Mohler has given me a second chance at life by letting me teach at his gym," Sampson said. "He saw things in me and allowed me to have a career. I was going down the wrong path, but Coach Mohler saw good qualities in me -- like my wrestling skills, my heart and my teaching ability -- and gave me a shot. I am the person I am because of Coach Mohler."


Sampson's ultimate goal is to make it into the WEC. Whether or not he gets to that level, Jason has a very good attitude about his life.


"I've bounced back from drug use and a troubled childhood and now have an opportunity to follow my dream," Sampson said. "Not many people get to do what they enjoy every day. I'm lucky to be able to do that."
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I have started to manage Jason and had the chance to have a sit-down with him and William Campuzano, as well as Jason's girlfriend (and the one who keeps him together!), Monica.

Jason is an extremely outgoing individual and has alot of drive to succeed. He looks at a goal, tackles it to the best of his ability and immediately sets another goal. His determination and work ethic have already made him a success, no matter how far he goes. His next fight is tentatively scheduled for May, with a title fight looming in the last week of June.

Guest blog- Confidence in grappling

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Confidence in Grappling
Author: Jason Scully

"Kill the snake of doubt in your soul, crush the worms of fear in your heart, and mountains will move out of your way" ~ Kate Seredy

Yesterday I was rolling with one of my students in class who has about 3 years experience and when we were rolling I noticed something, and I realized that this is actually an issue with many grapplers out there. As we were rolling I was paying attention to his movements and his facial expressions and it was clear that he was missing something very important. What was he missing? He was missing his confidence. That's right, it was his confidence that he was missing.
There's so many times when I train with someone and they don't seem confident at all in what they're doing. Even if they know a ton of techniques they hold themselves back because they don't trust themselves that they'll execute those techniques properly.

When you're in practice you should never have to worry about if something is going to work, or if your opponent is going to counter your attack. You should just go for it with 100% confidence that you are going to make something happen. That no matter what, even if your opponent counters your movements you should have 100% confidence in yourself that you can counter right back.

You see many times it's not the moves you know that makes the difference it's the trust in yourself that makes a difference. There is so many people who can execute moves perfectly when drilling, but when it comes down to performing them in a live situation they either freeze up, don't remember them, or they don't have confidence in what they know.

Have you ever rolled with someone more experienced then you and you were weary of coming forward and you had a technique or plan that you wanted to execute but you weren't sure if it was going to work? You ended up taking a second to think about what might happen and by the time you're done thinking your partner or opponent has already made his move, because they were more confident then you were. That's what can make the difference of being steps ahead of your opponent or not.

The person who is 2, 3, and even 4 steps ahead of their opponent is the same person who is completely confident in their abilities and their techniques. They don't care if they know what's going to happen or not, because regardless their going to MAKE THINGS HAPPEN. There is no waiting, pausing, or thinking about what might happen they just go and take that chance knowing that no matter what they trust in themselves that they will be the ones to come out on top every time.

Even if what you tried didn't work you still believed in yourself and you now know what would have happened because you went for it instead of just sitting back and not taking any chances at all and not even knowing.

This is also a very common when you roll with someone who is much more experienced then you or a much higher rank then you. Let's say a blue belt in BJJ pairs up with a brown belt. Many times that blue belt is already thinking of ways that the brown belt can beat him before they even started rolling. They beat themselves before the match even started. They never gave themselves a chance and counted themselves out right from the beginning instead of starting with their head high and their confidence in full affect.

When you are confident in yourself regardless of your technical ability you will:

Think clearer.
React faster.
Feel better about yourself.
Breath better.
Be less conscious.
Make things happen.
Be steps ahead of those who aren't as confident.
Attack better.
Defend better.
Trust that you can deal with any situation in the moment.

As your techniques and strategies get better and better and you mix that in with being confident in yourself you will be much more successful in your rolling sessions.

Before we finish up, I just want to clarify what being confident is not. Being confident IS NOT:

Being cocky or over confident - just because your confident doesn't mean you should be cocky. Confidence will help you improve your overall game, but it's not the only thing that will make you the best. Being lazy - being confident doesn't mean you are lazy and you shouldn't work hard. Being arrogant - A person can be confident in themselves without being arrogant and boastful. Show your confidence with respect and work to help others be confident in their grappling as well. Don't under mind your partners and look down on those less experienced or even less confident then you may be. Comparing yourself to others - Don't compare your confidence to others, and your abilities to others. Just be confident in what you know and your potential and you'll be well on your way to a successful and most importantly FUN grappling experience. Having an Ego - One can be confident and not have an ego. Always trust in what you do and regardless of what happens whether it is a positive or negative, be humble in your experience and see every opportunity as a learning experience.
To sum things up: The point is to trust yourself and what you know. Trust that even if you don't know how to do something that you will one day. If you don't have confidence in yourself, then you don't trust yourself. If you don't trust yourself, then who can you trust?

"Experience tells you what do to do, confidence allows you to do it" ~ Stan Smith

Thanks for reading!
Jason
 

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Guest Blog: Caleb - Phalanx BJJ

Evolution

My name is Caleb and I first met and trained with Brad about 3 years ago. When I first started I really had no idea how to do any escapes, sweeps or submissions. I'd seen them on youtube and in the UFC, but my first day of class when someone asked me if I wanted to roll I had no clue what to do. I remember grabbing onto his neck and squeezing with everything I had dying to make someone tap out my first try, but to my surprise I squeezed and squeezed and nothing happened, he eventually got out and he WAS able to squeeze my neck properly and force me to tap out which was especially confusing because I outweighed the guy by at least 60lbs.

After that day I started learning some techniques but I wasn't able to pull them off yet. I knew the moves, but there was a lot more I didn't know about control, pressure, balance, leverage, and counters to the counters of the techniques I'm trying to implement. Even though I've become much better than I was before, those are the same things I have to work on now, because when I learn a new lesson and get better at a certain technique I end up in a different place and have to learn the concepts and techniques from there. That's what I love about grappling, I learn the same lessons every day of training in a new and fresh way. It fascinates me to see how my grappling game evolves in a short amount of time. I have days where I feel great and days when I am frustrated and just can't seem to do anything right, but I look at the bad days as one down and one less to have. I feel that to be REALLY good at something like grappling or fighting, you have to try and fail many times, I always say you have to take at least 10,000 ass beatings to be great and after I take one I say it's just one less I have to take.

Today I told Brad at lunch that I needed some help on a half guard sweep and it's actually a position I used to feel good about when I trained with smaller guys, but against Brad or Paul (Buentello) it was obvious I was missing something. Having to go back and look at the small details of a position is an example of that evolution I find exciting about training. I started with nothing, learned that sweep, was able to get it on some guys. Now I have to learn how to do it to someone who knows the defense, and once I've done that I have to prepare for the next position or a different opponent, but before that even, I have to learn minor details while still learning the basic fundamentals, and fail several times before I can get it to work.

I have a perfect example from another situation today. I usually pull guard when Brad and I start from the knees. He's bigger and stronger and is best on top where he can make any control position painful, so I figure I will benefit most from having to deal with the skills he's best at so when I fight someone my size and experience level I am confident that even if I am in bad positions they won't be able to crush me like he does. Anyway, I did do some guard pulling, but later on he either pulled guard or gave me position so I could work more control from the top which is something I have been sucking at. I was trying new things in side mount and I was making mistakes, he would get back to half guard, sweep and pass. The past several weeks I've been trying to force a lot of action and movement and never relax in bad positions, and I tweaked some things and got a couple arm in guillotines, so when I've gotten in top half recently I've gotten over excited about the guillotine and had bad results. I'm at a point in the evolution with this technique now where I need to focus on the details and apply the common concepts of grappling. I wasn't cinching up tight enough and my transitions are sloppy, leave a lot of space, and are off balanced.

Every time I went for the choke Brad was using an underhook and an arm between my legs to roll me over his opposite hip, and I had finally failed in that position enough to learn how it felt when he was getting ready for it. I continued going for my guillotine and I paid closer attention to the details I needed to correct. I felt better, I felt like I was playing a tighter game and was going to stop the sweep and get the choke. He went for the sweep, it was close but I balanced myself just enough to keep from going over...right before he immediately went the other way and came out the back door.

I still got swept, I still got tapped, but if I fail and try again enough times I won't get swept or tapped by the same things. That's part of the evolution of the game and that's why I love it.

New Forum to check out

My good friend, Brian Long, has just started a new forum for serious BJJ players. This forum is the perfect plae to get help and give feedack on BJJ techniques, and the mental aspect of the game.

For anyone interested in getting on a forum and getting real assistance from Black Belts and pro's, as well as just some great BJJ players, then go log on and register to :

www.jiujitsuunderground.com