It hit me today.  I was thinking about rolling (like usual).  I wondered what I would be without speed.  I imagined rolling with a high level blackbelt, would they use quickness against me?  Would they need to?  It occurred to me that better players don't need their quickness against me.  Sure, they may move fast at times.  Sure, they may need every ounce of speed against high level players, but certainly not against me.

When I strip away speed, what is left?  My technique.  What I know and can do mindlessly - what I have understood from teachers like Matt Thornton, Dave Camarillo, John Frankl, Roy Dean, Paul Schreiner and others.  I know none of them would ever need a bit of speed to wrap me in a pretzel.

With that in mind I rolled slowly tonight.  Deliberately.  I am not sure I did any better or worse, but I was thinking more.  There is something to a quiet mind.  I think I'll try that again...

When I first started bjj I was obsessed with learning as much as I possibly could.  I asked questions all the time, watched a ton of videos, went to seminars, and more.  The questions that occupied me oftentimes were like the following:

• How do I start from the knees?
• How do I get away when I have been crossfaced?
• What attacks do I have from <insert postition here>?
• Which palm goes up or down when going for chokes?
• What is the exact percentage of effort I should give when drilling?
• Should I roll hard or just play?

More recently I have been asking questions like:

• How do I take top position from anywhere?
• How can I transition to the back from anywhere?
• What is the key to controlling this position?
• What is the controlling hub I want in this position?
• What is my next attack if they defend this one?
• How can I use my lower body in this position?
• How can I eliminate their defenses to gain an advantage?

I am not saying that one list is better than the other - they are snapshots at a point in time in my development.  What questions are you asking of yourself or your instructors?  Sound off in comments, I'd love to hear...

See you on the mat.

I was recently reading the requirements for Brown Belt that Roy Harris puts on his website.  Roy has always done a great job laying out a clear and complete curriculum for his students.  One of the lines that struck me was this one:

I want the student to be able to effectively and efficiently use their feet, shins, knees and thighs for MOST of the control.

I found it interesting since over the last month our club has been working a lot on using the lower body much more from every position.  In my experience, when people realize they can work with more than their hands and arms it is a big day for their game.  Everything gets better for them, and much harder for their opponent.

Using the lower body can come into play in a ton of positions, but I used to just think about it for passing the guard, sweeping my opponent or performing some escapes.  We have been finding a good amount of success with using the legs to create attacking advantages as well.  In this case, I mean advantages in the sense that you can gain a superior attacking position by eliminating some defenses of your opponent. 

Here are two examples:

First is finishing from the back position.  My inspiration on the back has been the Demian Maia set.  He shows a simple way to use your overhooking arm (assume a harness grip) to control the opponents wrist just long enough to trap it with your leg.  This is pure gold and sets up an immediate attacking advantage.  You can now work your armlocks, chokes, etc with both your hands while the opponent has just one to defend.   This is now what I do immediately when taking the back.

Second is finishing from side control.  My inspiration here has been the Robson Moura set.  Robson gives a few ways to trap the opponents near side arm with your knee/shin.  From there you begin your attacks.  I can tell you attacking and controlling gets a lot easier when you have this type of control.  Becoming proficient at this is a bit harder than the back control discussed above, but when you get it you become a nightmare.

Obviously, the ideas of using your whole body or removing opponents defenses are not new ideas, just something we have been doing with good success recently at the gym.

I want to give a special thank you to Alicia of AliciaPhotos for letting me use this image.  She takes the best BJJ and Submission Wrestling photographs, so check out her site for some fantastic images!

 

I was watching Deepok Chopra speak today on public television.  I am generally lukewarm to his work, but he had a great analogy that of course I related to bjj.  He said "We cannot see ourselves except through a mirror.  The tooth cannot bite itself."

This got me thinking about my own game and how it is really just a reflection in itself.  Try this...Think of your game.  What is it?  How do you define it?  I imagine if you think about it, you come to ideas about your game that are really just a reflection of your experience rolling.  In essence, you are seeing your own game through the eyes of your opponents.  Many sports rivalries are this way;  Cal and Stanford come to mind.  To many their annual battle is the only game of the year that matters. 

Another angle on this idea is for that of the coach or teacher.  Look at how your class rolls.  Are they rough?  Do they help each other out?  Are they technical or brutes?  Do they laugh and smile?  Do they socialize on their own?

Every coach must help foster their own gym vibe and in my experience the students are a very accurate reflection of their instructor. I certainly found this to be true at SBGi, AKA in San Jose, and even today training at OneWorld in Union City.  All places where people are immediately friendly on the mat.  Very cool.

One last note.  If you are looking to join a gym keep this concept in mind - Attend the free class, roll, and watch the people.  You'll feel the vibe pretty quickly and know if you'll thrive or flounder in that environment.

See you on the mat!

I think everyone has heard Marcelo Garcia talk about "imposing his game" on his opponents.  It makes perfect sense.  Put them in a reactionary mode.  Pretty soon, they will either run out of counters or counter too slowly.  A relentless attacking game has seemed to work pretty well for him. Duh.

Of course, we'd all like to have Marcelo's skill, but that won't happen.  What we can have is his mindset of driving our own agenda when we roll.  As I thought about this and got excited to roll it hit me.  To push your game, you have to know what your game is.  Am I going to pull guard and work to climb to armbars?  Will I go for the back and finish with collar chokes?  

For me personally, articulating my game has been a current project and thinking about Marcelo has just brought to light the importance of me knowing what I really do and what I want to do.  I have already started writing up what I do in each position as a personal project.  My goal is to have a clear idea of what I do from everywhere.  No more ending up in a position and then thinking about it. 

See you on the mat!

A couple months ago I decided to get back in shape.  I posted a bit about my quest for a solid Crossfit style garage gym.  As it turns out, when I added up the numbers for a basic set-up (Olympic weights, squat rack, basic bench and spotter racks) I was at about $1,500.  I really couldn't justify the expense so I joined one of the no frills gyms around town paying a whopping $12 a month.  Sure there are no showers, but they have the basic gear I need to get in shape.  In fact, in the short time I have been going I have dropped about 6lbs and increased all my lifts.  The good news is that if I really prove my desire and commitment, I can always set up a garage gym - it's doesn't work so well the other way around.

One of the exercises I now do often is the pull-up (I also do chins on the alternate days).  Given my size (about 200lbs), this has always been a tough one for me since I passed 8th grade. In fact, I would say that even though I train bjj 3-4x a week, I could only muster about 2 reps.  That said,I have always admired those who can crank them out in style.

Recently, I started to work hard on this weak point.  In addition to the usual squat, deadlift, bench, etc - I have done 5 sets of chins/pullups every workout.  This may sound like a lot, but I am only doing weights 2 days a week (ie. when not training bjj).  This gives my body some time to recover.

It struck me last workout when I did 7 pull-ups.  That is a pretty huge leap from 2 a short time ago.  Hey, I thought, pull-ups are starting to get fun.  But you may be wondering how this relates to bjj.  Well, I know that personally I have in the past spent a lot of time looking for the "perfect" approach to everything.  The idea being that I didn't want to waste my limited time or have to unlearn bad habits (again due to time wasted).  So I would search for the best way to do drills, the best balance of trying to win while rolling vs. playing, the best way to do repetitions, the best angle to hold my wrist in a choke, and of course, the best exercise routing to increase my pull-ups.

What I realized was that "the best" is a diversion - a ruse.  It's just noise.  All that time I wanted to save, was wasted looking for something instead of doing something.  Instead, I should have just taken a basic plan, maybe perfect, maybe flawed, and ran with it.  Just as I did with pull-ups.  I simply started doing them consistently.  No magic there.

Now in bjj I need to do the same.   Getting on the mat and doing doing bjj - no toiling over the best way, just doing a way until another comes along.

See you on the mat!

image credit to : hrtmnstrfr

Evan Tanner passed away recently.  It is a loss not only for MMA but for humanity.  Watch these videos of his philosophy - some great ideas for bjj and for life.