The very first black belt I trained under was Rodrigo Vaghi. When I was a white belt Rodrigo was at the gym before a seminar. He was watching me roll with another white belt. After the round was over Rodrigo took me aside and said "When you are rolling, if the guy opens your legs, you are getting passed. But, if YOU open your legs, you are playing open guard. Do you understand?" I said yes. I understood the words that he said. What I didn't understand was the MEANING of the words that he said.
I said I understood, because, if you take the words at pure face value, the meaning is obvious. To the uninitiated, someone telling you that is kind of a "duh!" moment. To the uninitiated, they may even think that if their legs are opened they are playing open guard.
What he was telling me, however, had nothing to do with how to enter in to open guard. What he was trying to tell me about was the Initiative. When rolling, the person who is enacting their plan and working their game is the one in control. Thus, if you are training correctly, you should bet thinking a step or two a head of your current movement. In this case, opening your legs to start open guard. Therefore, your opponent has to react to your movement, and is therefore a step behind. In this case, YOU have the initiative.
Conversely, if you have your legs opened, your opponent has the initiative, and is working towards the pass. YOU are reacting to him by moving in to open guard, and therefore are a step behind him.
The initiative changes back and forth in a good roll. As you become more and more experienced, you learn ways of countering movements, and regaining the initiative, and you learn and experience typical ways to defend or counter movements and you are then ready to defend against these movements and maintain the initiative.
This is a difficult concept to grasp. I don't normally tell white belts about it. They just don't have the experience to get what I am talking about. The talk of the initiative, goes right above their heads. I normally introduce this to my purple belts. They typically have enough experience to start to grasp what I am talking about. It is at that belt, normally, that they begin to understand drilling just isn't something you do in between the warm up and rolling. Drilling is that vital time where you learn the basics of a movement and how to execute it in a situation. The more you drill, the more automatic your movements become. The more automatic your movements become, the less you have to think about them, and can, therefore think more steps ahead, and therefore, maintain the initiative.
Let's take a simple movement, and start on the ground. My movements in a scissor sweep begins by off balancing my opponent, opening my guard and putting my legs in to the correct position, while controlling the outside arm. I then move my opponent's center of gravity up on to my leg, and sweep with the outside leg. As my opponent falls, I move forward strongly in to mount, still controlling the outside arm. As I complete the mount movement, moving my knees as high as I can in to my opponent's arm pits, I push what was the outside arm across my opponent's body and move into an "S" mount. Finally, I finish by swinging my outside leg around my opponent's head and finish with the armbar.
Easy enough? Now I drill that over and over and over and over again. Until I don't need to think about the movements. When I hit this series in rolling, I don't need to think about anything, it just happens. My opponent goes from being in the top position to defending an armbar before he knows what happened. This is the initiative.
If the initiative changes, the situation changes completely. A common mistake for lower belts to make is once their guard is broken open, they move their legs in to a scissor sweep position. Then they wonder why their scissor sweeps never work. They have lost the initiative, and are several steps behind. They are fooling themselves in to thinking they are playing open guard, when they are, in fact, being passed.
I think a lot about who has the initiative after rolls. I try to go over in my head where I gained and lost the initiative during the roll. It helps to figure out where I need to work and how my game needs to adjust to different body types and styles.
Monday, June 10, 2019
Wednesday, May 29, 2019
Being "Dangerous"
Men, often young men, want to be thought of as "dangerous." They do things to make them selves look intimidating. Lift weights, shoot guns, train martial arts. The want in their head the thought of "I'm a bad ass."
Many martial arts feed of this desire. Interestingly enough, nearly all martial arts gym have something in their advertisement about confidence and self defense. Unfortunately, most martial arts do not do what is necessary to ensure that their practitioners are actually dangerous. It takes hard work to be dangerous. It takes constant testing and preparation. The simple and unavoidable fact is that many martial arts are as easy as possible because they want to give their students a feeling of being dangerous, with as little exertion as possible.
This is spoke about and hidden within the walls of the gym as how to keep membership. A typical BJJ gym is not run like a collegiate wrestling team because the vast majority of paying members would walk out if it was. Many "fighting gyms", gyms that support and train actual sport fighters, have classes and sessions for "normal" members, and competition classes for their more elite fighters. Competition classes, just like the collegiate wrestling teams, are normally by invitation only. The intensity is much higher, and so is the repetition.
In a typical Judo class, you might work on 3 to 4 techniques in a class, then do some rondori to work out how the throw might work in a live environment. Same with a typical BJJ class, Tae Kwon Do, you name it. You get a few reps in for each technique, before moving on to something else.
The overall result is that you know a good deal of techniques, but you don't really know how to execute a single technique very well.
In a competition class you are likely to work a single technique until the point of exhaustion. The focus of the competition class is to be able to execute that technique perfectly in all situations.
This kind of thing does not, and never will sit well with the general public. If you take martial arts, take a look around at everyone after a technique has been demonstrated. Questions will be asked about "how many times do we do this?" After executing about 5 to 10, students will be looking around the room wondering "what's next?"
In my own class, I became dissatisfied with showing a series of techniques over the course of a week, then asking a student to review and do the techniques of that week towards the end of the class on the last day. Many could not recall or execute the techniques. This told me that they weren't learning. If they weren't learning, they couldn't incorporate the techniques in their own game, let alone defend against them.
So I changed it up. I started doing one technique a day, with the focus of the week on expanding on that one technique. Many more repetitions.
I implemented 2 weeks of technique, followed by two weeks of sparing with questions.
What I found was that the technique taught in class was used during the two week sparing sessions. I found that the techniques were retained and incorporated. I found that students were much more confident in the techniques, and were able to try them out in their typical games.
I also found that the students felt much more "dangerous." The felt like they could actually DO the technique against someone.
All was not rainbows and unicorns, though. They didn't "like" the drilling weeks. Those were "boring." They would much rather have the sparing weeks. However, most realized that without the drilling weeks, they wouldn't have had the new techniques with which to use in the sparing weeks.
It solidifies a single idea. Men wish to be dangerous. But many don't want to put the time and the effort in to being dangerous. To defeat other men in physical, unarmed combat, you MUST be able to work your techniques against a strongly resisting opponent. A man will never, ever just give you his back. You must TAKE his back. To take his back, you must drill and prepare and be ready for his resistance and defenses. You must be able to take his back with him actively NOT wanting you to take his back.
That takes time and practice. The group of people willing to put in that practice is thin.
Many martial arts feed of this desire. Interestingly enough, nearly all martial arts gym have something in their advertisement about confidence and self defense. Unfortunately, most martial arts do not do what is necessary to ensure that their practitioners are actually dangerous. It takes hard work to be dangerous. It takes constant testing and preparation. The simple and unavoidable fact is that many martial arts are as easy as possible because they want to give their students a feeling of being dangerous, with as little exertion as possible.
This is spoke about and hidden within the walls of the gym as how to keep membership. A typical BJJ gym is not run like a collegiate wrestling team because the vast majority of paying members would walk out if it was. Many "fighting gyms", gyms that support and train actual sport fighters, have classes and sessions for "normal" members, and competition classes for their more elite fighters. Competition classes, just like the collegiate wrestling teams, are normally by invitation only. The intensity is much higher, and so is the repetition.
In a typical Judo class, you might work on 3 to 4 techniques in a class, then do some rondori to work out how the throw might work in a live environment. Same with a typical BJJ class, Tae Kwon Do, you name it. You get a few reps in for each technique, before moving on to something else.
The overall result is that you know a good deal of techniques, but you don't really know how to execute a single technique very well.
In a competition class you are likely to work a single technique until the point of exhaustion. The focus of the competition class is to be able to execute that technique perfectly in all situations.
This kind of thing does not, and never will sit well with the general public. If you take martial arts, take a look around at everyone after a technique has been demonstrated. Questions will be asked about "how many times do we do this?" After executing about 5 to 10, students will be looking around the room wondering "what's next?"
In my own class, I became dissatisfied with showing a series of techniques over the course of a week, then asking a student to review and do the techniques of that week towards the end of the class on the last day. Many could not recall or execute the techniques. This told me that they weren't learning. If they weren't learning, they couldn't incorporate the techniques in their own game, let alone defend against them.
So I changed it up. I started doing one technique a day, with the focus of the week on expanding on that one technique. Many more repetitions.
I implemented 2 weeks of technique, followed by two weeks of sparing with questions.
What I found was that the technique taught in class was used during the two week sparing sessions. I found that the techniques were retained and incorporated. I found that students were much more confident in the techniques, and were able to try them out in their typical games.
I also found that the students felt much more "dangerous." The felt like they could actually DO the technique against someone.
All was not rainbows and unicorns, though. They didn't "like" the drilling weeks. Those were "boring." They would much rather have the sparing weeks. However, most realized that without the drilling weeks, they wouldn't have had the new techniques with which to use in the sparing weeks.
It solidifies a single idea. Men wish to be dangerous. But many don't want to put the time and the effort in to being dangerous. To defeat other men in physical, unarmed combat, you MUST be able to work your techniques against a strongly resisting opponent. A man will never, ever just give you his back. You must TAKE his back. To take his back, you must drill and prepare and be ready for his resistance and defenses. You must be able to take his back with him actively NOT wanting you to take his back.
That takes time and practice. The group of people willing to put in that practice is thin.
Thursday, February 14, 2019
Old Man Meniscus Tear - Getting Back to BJJ Part 4 - Cleared for Return... Sort of...
I am cleared by the surgeon to return to sport!! But... He didn't like where my VMO muscle looked like. So he wants me to wait a few more weeks to build it up some more.
The knee is still sore in the medial side I can't yet do a full pigeon pose, or sit comfortably on my heels. That is just going to be how it is. It takes a very long time for me to heal now, and that is to be expected. What we did prove is that I CAN heal. It just takes a good long time. Surgeon says that I should be back to pre-injury levels of pain and flexibility in a year. Until then... Keep stretching. Keep working.
I have a plan to come back. I'll start with movement drills and basics. It will be about 7 months out, and I have lost everything. Timing, cardio, flexibility, you name it. I'll need to start from near scratch. That sucks. But that is the way it is. The good news is that I'll be getting a really good workout for the next several months before my cardio catches up and I get back to some form of equilibrium.
I won't roll for another two or three months. I'll drill during the rolling sessions. The guys can use me as a rest period as I work on recovering. Then I'll start rolling very very very carefully. I foresee lots of tapping.
The knee is still sore in the medial side I can't yet do a full pigeon pose, or sit comfortably on my heels. That is just going to be how it is. It takes a very long time for me to heal now, and that is to be expected. What we did prove is that I CAN heal. It just takes a good long time. Surgeon says that I should be back to pre-injury levels of pain and flexibility in a year. Until then... Keep stretching. Keep working.
I have a plan to come back. I'll start with movement drills and basics. It will be about 7 months out, and I have lost everything. Timing, cardio, flexibility, you name it. I'll need to start from near scratch. That sucks. But that is the way it is. The good news is that I'll be getting a really good workout for the next several months before my cardio catches up and I get back to some form of equilibrium.
I won't roll for another two or three months. I'll drill during the rolling sessions. The guys can use me as a rest period as I work on recovering. Then I'll start rolling very very very carefully. I foresee lots of tapping.
In Trouble Again...
I'm in trouble at work again... I should learn just to keep my mouth shut.
I went in to the office kitchen to make a sandwich for lunch. A woman, she is single, obese, and trying to find someone, was there. As I walked in she looked me up and down.
She remarked that she thought I had lost weight.
I said that I had dropped about 10 pounds.
She asked me how, because she knew I had been injured and haven't been doing my regular work outs... And then she began to cry. She told me that she had been trying to lose weight for so long, but she just can't. It wasn't fair for someone "thin" like me to be able to lose weight so quickly, easily, and without working out.
She was crying... I took pity on her, and I wanted to help. So... I took a look at her lunch. Fried chicken tenders with Cheetos and a small spinach salad with ranch dressing. Total calorie count something like 900 to 1000.
My sandwich and potato chips about 500 calories.
So... I said that the plan for losing weight is deceptively simple. You need to take in fewer calories than you burn. I told her that it is easy to find a rough estimate of her Resting Metabolic Rate, to give her an idea of how many calories she burns in a day doing nothing. Take that number, and take in fewer calories that that. Because she spends the day doing more than nothing, she will always end up with a net calorie deficit. Her body will take care of the rest. Losing weight is an energy problem, nothing more. Nutrition is a completely different story.
She looked at me slightly offended, and said that it wasn't easy to lose weight. I said that I knew that very well. I said that the plan is simple. The execution is difficult. Your body doesn't want to lose weight. It likes the weight.
She is now looking at me more than slightly offended, and said that her body doesn't like the weight! But it is hard to lose weight because she gets hungry.
To that I said, trying to use logic to soothe the offence, that hunger is the tough part. You have to have the will to get past the hunger for to get to your goal. The hunger is the worst as you start. It gets better as your body adjusts to the calorie deficiency.
She is more offended now, well... No longer offended. Now she is angry. She asks if I think that "overweight" people don't have self control or discipline.
Well, fuck, I think to myself. I've stepped all the way into it now. There is no way to extract myself at this point. Well intentioned or not, I've managed to hit the hot button on all fat people. Discipline and Self Control. If you had more of both, you wouldn't be fat. The simple answer is "yes" but as all things, it is more complicated than that. The problem is that your body is sneaky. Like I said it WANTS to keep the fat. It LOVES the fat. Back in the good old days it NEEDED the fat, because it never knew when it would get fed again.
I said that I didn't mean for it to sound like I was saying she was not disciplined or had no self control. What I was saying is that hunger is hard to deal with. I told her what I do. I pointed to her lunch. I asked if this was a typical lunch.
Very angry now, she said that it was. I said that if this was typical, then why not try to reduce it by one chicken tender and 1/4 of the Cheetos? That isn't that much food overall, but, if that is typical, the reduction in her weekly calorie count would be significant. Overall, she would sacrifice nothing in terms of taste or restricting what she wanted to eat. Eating a slightly smaller portion would make a good difference in her overall diet.
At this point she just left the room. I knew I was in trouble, because she was angry. Sure enough, I got called in by my boss. I was fat shaming her. I don't even know what that means.
The long and the short of it is this... Keep your mouth shut, and weigh loss is an energy based problem. With an energy based solution. Take in less than you use. The bigger the deficit, the more weight you will lose as your body fights to get in to equilibrium.
Not taking in as much as you use has two avenues to success. Burn more, i.e. exercise and move more to increase energy demand, thus burning more, or control your self and take in less. In both cases self discipline is at the core of success. What does that mean for the overweight? You have to have MORE self control than the person NOT losing weight. To be truly successful, you must eat less and exercise more, at first. Then, when you have reached goal weight, you must maintain your lifestyle at that level. If you exercise less, but keep taking in what you were, you will gain weight. If you eat more, but exercise the same, you will gain weight. If you body metabolism changes for the worse, you will gain weight. Keep a scale and weigh yourself regularly. Make little changes when the scale moves too high. This is lifestyle change, and self discipline.
I wasn't fat shaming the poor woman. I wanted to help her. But, people want to hear comforting lies over the hard truth. They want you to say, "Oh, I'm sorry for your glandular problem." Not, your glandular problem is an excuse that you use to over eat.
I went in to the office kitchen to make a sandwich for lunch. A woman, she is single, obese, and trying to find someone, was there. As I walked in she looked me up and down.
She remarked that she thought I had lost weight.
I said that I had dropped about 10 pounds.
She asked me how, because she knew I had been injured and haven't been doing my regular work outs... And then she began to cry. She told me that she had been trying to lose weight for so long, but she just can't. It wasn't fair for someone "thin" like me to be able to lose weight so quickly, easily, and without working out.
She was crying... I took pity on her, and I wanted to help. So... I took a look at her lunch. Fried chicken tenders with Cheetos and a small spinach salad with ranch dressing. Total calorie count something like 900 to 1000.
My sandwich and potato chips about 500 calories.
So... I said that the plan for losing weight is deceptively simple. You need to take in fewer calories than you burn. I told her that it is easy to find a rough estimate of her Resting Metabolic Rate, to give her an idea of how many calories she burns in a day doing nothing. Take that number, and take in fewer calories that that. Because she spends the day doing more than nothing, she will always end up with a net calorie deficit. Her body will take care of the rest. Losing weight is an energy problem, nothing more. Nutrition is a completely different story.
She looked at me slightly offended, and said that it wasn't easy to lose weight. I said that I knew that very well. I said that the plan is simple. The execution is difficult. Your body doesn't want to lose weight. It likes the weight.
She is now looking at me more than slightly offended, and said that her body doesn't like the weight! But it is hard to lose weight because she gets hungry.
To that I said, trying to use logic to soothe the offence, that hunger is the tough part. You have to have the will to get past the hunger for to get to your goal. The hunger is the worst as you start. It gets better as your body adjusts to the calorie deficiency.
She is more offended now, well... No longer offended. Now she is angry. She asks if I think that "overweight" people don't have self control or discipline.
Well, fuck, I think to myself. I've stepped all the way into it now. There is no way to extract myself at this point. Well intentioned or not, I've managed to hit the hot button on all fat people. Discipline and Self Control. If you had more of both, you wouldn't be fat. The simple answer is "yes" but as all things, it is more complicated than that. The problem is that your body is sneaky. Like I said it WANTS to keep the fat. It LOVES the fat. Back in the good old days it NEEDED the fat, because it never knew when it would get fed again.
I said that I didn't mean for it to sound like I was saying she was not disciplined or had no self control. What I was saying is that hunger is hard to deal with. I told her what I do. I pointed to her lunch. I asked if this was a typical lunch.
Very angry now, she said that it was. I said that if this was typical, then why not try to reduce it by one chicken tender and 1/4 of the Cheetos? That isn't that much food overall, but, if that is typical, the reduction in her weekly calorie count would be significant. Overall, she would sacrifice nothing in terms of taste or restricting what she wanted to eat. Eating a slightly smaller portion would make a good difference in her overall diet.
At this point she just left the room. I knew I was in trouble, because she was angry. Sure enough, I got called in by my boss. I was fat shaming her. I don't even know what that means.
The long and the short of it is this... Keep your mouth shut, and weigh loss is an energy based problem. With an energy based solution. Take in less than you use. The bigger the deficit, the more weight you will lose as your body fights to get in to equilibrium.
Not taking in as much as you use has two avenues to success. Burn more, i.e. exercise and move more to increase energy demand, thus burning more, or control your self and take in less. In both cases self discipline is at the core of success. What does that mean for the overweight? You have to have MORE self control than the person NOT losing weight. To be truly successful, you must eat less and exercise more, at first. Then, when you have reached goal weight, you must maintain your lifestyle at that level. If you exercise less, but keep taking in what you were, you will gain weight. If you eat more, but exercise the same, you will gain weight. If you body metabolism changes for the worse, you will gain weight. Keep a scale and weigh yourself regularly. Make little changes when the scale moves too high. This is lifestyle change, and self discipline.
I wasn't fat shaming the poor woman. I wanted to help her. But, people want to hear comforting lies over the hard truth. They want you to say, "Oh, I'm sorry for your glandular problem." Not, your glandular problem is an excuse that you use to over eat.
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