Famous Jiu Jitsu instructor to visit IU

The instructor tells his students the proper way to put opponents into a choke hold after pinning them down. The first thing the instructor tells them is to cross their opponent's arms so each is firmly under the jaw and their thumbs are on the chest. He then instructs the students to push their arms down and elbows up.\nAt this point the opponent is at the mercy of his captor.\nInstructor Tim Sledd is not promoting violence, he's promoting protection. He does it by teaching Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.\nSledd's club will hold a seminar with world-famous Jiu Jitsu Instructor professor Carlos "Caique" Elias Saturday at the School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation. Caique is a fifth-degree black belt who has been hailed as the best trainer outside the martial arts founders.\nBrazilian Jiu Jitsu is a combination of traditional Japanese Jiu Jitsu and Judo that focuses on "the efficiency of movement and the focus on minimizing the damage to both people," Sledd said \nAfter the Japanese introduced Jiu Jitsu to Brazil, local politician Gastao Gracie picked it up and helped it spread.\n"They looked at it, tweaked some of the techniques and really made it more adaptable to the street fights that were more common in Brazil at the time," Sledd said. \nAfter Caique moved to Los Angeles in 1997 with one of the Gracie family members, he started a school of his own. IU shaped its own Brazilian Jiu Jitsu program after Caique's school.\nSaturday's seminar will be split into four one-hour blocks. The first hour will focus on defense against attackers.\n"We will do punch blocks," Sledd said, "techniques for getting the fight to the ground, how to break someone choking you from behind and we also go over positioning drills."\nIn the second hour, Caique will go over fundamental Jiu Jitsu techniques such as sweeps, arm locks and chokes. During the third and fourth hours, he will go over the same things as he did in the second hour; however, this time he will combine the techniques and build them off each other. The final hour will include a promotion ceremony during which some of the members of the club will get promotions if they are able to impress Caique, Sledd said.\nPromotion, Sledd said, "is a subjective criteria, not an objective criteria, which is frustrating because a lot of people ask 'What's it going to take?,' but I can't really tell you except that you have to impress him to a certain level each time." \nCaique is the only one in the Caique School of Jiu Jitsu who can do promotions to blue belts and beyond.\nThe IU club, which has about 30 members this semester, trains in "certain aspects of self defense, mainly if someone gets a hold of you, if they're grabbing you or attacking you, how to survive using some Jiu Jitsu," Sledd said.\nHe said the club builds up a lot of camaraderie. \n"There's really a good relationship between the instructors and the students," Sledd said. "People really train hard; they come willing to learn; everybody checks their egos at the door; and we just practice hard and we respect each other well."\nSenior Will Buck, who has been in the club for a little more than a year and recently received his blue belt, said the club builds friendships.\n"I really enjoy the exercise aspect of it," Buck said. "It keeps you in shape. You work up a good sweat whenever you step on the mat. I've met a lot of friends through this club and feel stronger, and I feel like I could defend myself in certain scenarios. It's a nice confidence builder."\nAnyone interested can visit \nwww.iubjj.com for more information.\n-- Contact Staff Writer John Wustrow at jwustrow@indiana.edu.