Tuesday, May 26, 2009

If you don't jump in the river you'll never get wet.....

It's freaky, I had a similar conversation with Jeroen last Tuesday (when only a couple of us turned up to training!!) about this very topic. Turning up the heat is necessary for many valid reasons least of all to give yourself the best opportunity to succeed!!!! Comfort zones are fine but I don't think I'd ever use the word comfort, comfortable or comfy when describing the sport of BJJ!!!! Certainly not at my level and realistically unless your Coach Donague there's always going to be someone out there who can squash the shit (or stink as in Marco's case) out of you!!

The following are some very wise words from Stephan Kesting at Grapplearts.com

One of the best, and worst, things about grappling is that the feedback is quick, direct and brutally honest.

Take ANY technique - be it an armbar, a guard pass or a pin escape - it's easy to find out if you're doing it right: just go out and try it in sparring!

If your new killer technique is a big flop and you get crushed, then you've got some additional work to do, don't you?

This process is a great motivator, but it can also be hard on the old ego sometimes.

So, as we get more experienced as grapplers, we often start using little tricks to save our egos from the ravages of all this brutally honest feedback.

One of these tricks is to ALWAYS go easy when you're sparring. If you're never really trying your best then it gives you wiggle room to make excuses.

If you do this then you always have a convenient excuse.

"Sure he passed my guard, but I was only going at 50%..."
Well what if you go 100% and your opponent STILL passes your guard. Wouldn't that tell you something about the state of your guard game?

Now I'm the last person to say that you should go full throttle every time you spar. In fact, if you go hard every time then you're going to overtrain and get injured. But the reverse is also bad: if you go easy every time then you're never exposing your skills to the harsh light of reality...

So, on some days you just have to grit your teeth and tell yourself that NO-ONE is going to pass your guard today, or that you WILL tap someone out with your new technique.

Making this commitment ahead of time focuses the mind wonderfully.

Always going easy with your students is a common trap that coaches fall into. When someone is sparring in coaching mode then they usually give their student/opponent room to escape their pins and submissions, and maybe even feed them the opportunity to apply their own submissions.

This is very kind and considerate. I do this myself some of the time.

But... (oh f#@*k god help us all......)

Once in a while put the coaching to one side and concentrate on your own training!
I have a friend called Ritchie who teaches BJJ and MMA. He has a tongue-in-cheek way of describing this mindset. On days when he's going to spar with intention he calls it being "Ritchie the a$$hole."

Of course this doesn't mean that he uses full power heel hooks, or malicious techniques like driving his chin into his opponent's eye socket. But still, on those days he's out to pin and submit everybody!

By never going into high gear you always have an excuse for your technique failing. That might make it easier on your ego, but it's also going to hold you back from making progress.

Stephan Kesting
Grapplearts.com

Friday, May 8, 2009

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

You Can't Beat Cubic Inches - Well you can it just takes a while!!!

The following pics are of a guy I rolled with in the Philippines last year. As you can see he's got massive wrists and I made the mistake, first time round of pulling guard on him!!!! What was I thinking?? Took forever to get out from under him. Hell of a nice guy though.