How dare you associate emoticons with training

  • November 16, 2012

How Dare You Associate Emoticons with Training

I don’t like using emoticons.

It’s simply because it doesn’t feel natural. The reason that it doesn’t feel natural is because I haven’t done it enough.

It’s quite the little paradox. Something isn’t done because it doesn’t feel right, but it doesn’t feel right because it isn’t done.

The same kind of dynamic can be found in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu.

The Learning Experience

If you train, you’ve probably experienced that moment when you try a new technique and it just feels wrong. Everything’s not coming together right away, and you can’t quite figure it out.

It’s quite possible that you weren’t paying attention. There might have been some vital detail that you missed. But there’s another possibility as well.

It could be that you just weren’t used to the movement because it was such a departure from anything you’ve ever done.

It’s that last possibility that we’re going to focus on. Just for the hell of it, we’ll include emoticons in the discussion too.

The Dreaded Association

Look back at the reason that I gave for not using emoticons. In that situation, there are two options. I can either choose to continue not using them or I can start using them.

If I chose the second option, there would eventually come a point where using emoticons would be natural for me. On the other hand, if I chose the first option, everything would remain the same.

Now I’m cool with that when it comes to emoticons, but in BJJ, who wants to be stagnant?

The same dynamic is in play in both situations. You have the option to avoid technique that don’tt click for you right away. Or you can work on it, work on it, work on it until you figure out how to make it work for you.

The difference lies in the difficulty of getting over the hump.

The Challenge

If anyone made a choice to start using emoticons, it probably wouldn’t take that long before they would start using them without thinking about it. The same is not often true in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu.

It takes more time. It takes more effort. It takes more focus.

When you strip all of that way though, it still comes down to the same point. How willing are you to accept discomfort? Because if you stick in there long enough, you will become comfortable.

Then it will become natural, and you will become great.

What Would You Do If You No One Could Stop You

  • November 13, 2012

The Power Of Challenging Goals

Source: MSN

Take a moment to think about just one thing that you can do now that you never imagined yourself capable of years ago. I’m sure that you can probably think of at least one. It’s even quite probable that you can think of far more than that.

The point of that exercise was to highlight how difficult it is to accurately perceive what our limits are. Just because something seems impossible now doesn’t mean that it will be in the future.

That’s where challenging goals come into the picture.

They are goals that require you to expand your ability in order to achieve success. It doesn’t even matter what the goal is, All that matters is that it is difficult enough that success will require that you change for the better.

I’ll give you a quick example.

Sometime ago, I decided to challenge myself. The goal was to compete at the No-Gi Pan at a lower weight. It worked out to be a good challenging goal because it had certain components.

There was a firm deadline because I had to make weight before competing. Also the definition of the success and failure was clear and unambiguous.

I succeeded in that goal, but if I had failed, it still would have been beneficial. It was my first time cutting weight. The lessons I learned from the process were invaluable.

Also the mere fact that I was willing to take that risk and take it that far shows me that I can do it again.

It simply goes to show that challenging goals that motivate you to act in the present can take you further than you ever thought.

What You Can Do

For Brazilian Jiu-jitsu, some of the best challenging goals are physical in nature. For example, increasing your range of motion in certain muscles or mastering specific techniques or movements.

Those are two quick examples, but if you notice, they have a common link. Success or failure with those two goals are entirely within your control.

You control whether you succeed or fail, and you’ll reap benefit from the effort you put towards success.

Even with challenging goals that you can’t entirely control like winning tournaments or belt promotions, the effort is the most important thing. The effort you put in day in and day out are improving you in ways that you may not realize.

Remember that.

Teaching Self-Defense in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu

  • November 11, 2012

Take a moment and think about how Brazilian Jiu-jitsu is taught. There is generally a logical progression. You start off with drilling technique with no resistance then you drill it with varying amounts of resistance.

One of the best examples of that last step is rolling.  When you roll, you go against people with different skill levels and different body types. Each of them offers you unique challenges and levels of resistance.

That is how skill is developed.

Things are a little different when it comes to self-defense. The essential piece of training against resistance is often taken out. It makes it seem that there are two different arts within Brazilian Jiu-jitsu.

There’s the sport and then there is self-defense.

Does it have to be that way?

Think about that question. Also reflect on how much the sport of BJJ has grown and evolved over the years. What’s to say that the same innovation can’t be brought to self-defense?

Japanese Jiu-jitsu vs Brazilian Jiu-jitsu

Let’s switch gears a little. What is the main difference between JJJ and BJJ?

Yes, yes I know that JJJ is kind of a wild child. They seem to teach aspects of everything like throws, striking, small joint locks, etc. It’s like throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.

Still at a very fundamental level, there’s a clear link between the two arts. They both fell from the same tree. A lot of the techniques are the same. There is a difference though. It’s mainly in how they are taught.

I’ve seen this first hand. There’s a Japanese Jiu-jitsu club that I’ve visited many times over the years. I’ve been able to mirror my progress against some of guys that train there because of that.

Also it’s given me some perspective on the differences in teaching methods. What I noticed is that the progress there has been slow. It’s not because the guys are untalented or the teachers are bad.

It’s simply because the methods used weren’t the best for preparing students to perform against resistance.

Improving Self Defense

Right now, I’m in the position where I will have to teach more self-defense at Evolve. The goal, of course, is to help as many people as possible develop skills that are useful to them.

I don’t believe that it’s enough to just drill technique with no resistance though. It doesn’t matter if the focus on self-defense or not. All that matters is the progression of learning.

For the sport, I’ll give a quick illustration.

There’s a beginner class at Evolve. In the class, rolling isn’t a part of the class structure. Now, there are students who only come to that class, and they’ve been doing it from some time.

Over time, I have been able to see a clear difference between the students who roll and the ones that don’t. It’s not a question of who has been training the most. All that matters is how they train.

So when it comes to self-defense, resistance has to be incorporated in the training.

One way that I think it can be done well is to just take it out of the Brazilian Jiu-jitsu curriculum altogether. Instead, a MMA class should be created with a focus on self-defense.

Take what’s useful for self-defense from BJJ. Include useful techniques from other arts, then train it all in probable situations.

Oh, and please don’t forget the resistance.

[important]Both of the videos above delve into similar topics. Check them out.[/important]

Another Brazilian Jiu-jitsu Thought Experiment

  • November 5, 2012

Another Brazilian Jiu-jitsu Thought Experiment

Imagine this.

There are two entirely different individuals. One is extremely athletic with significant experience in sports. The other is out of shape and has never played in any sports seriously before.

Now take both of those individuals and introduce them to Brazilian Jiu-jitsu at the same time and at the same gym. Inspire in them a passion for the art and watch how they grow.

Let’s say that 6 months passed. Which one of those individuals would mostly likely progress the most? There is an obvious assumption to make. Whether it’s true or not doesn’t matter so much.

Now a local tournament is coming up, and their gym is really beating the drum trying to build up interest. So both decide to sign up, and they significantly increase the amount of time and effort they devote to training.

More time passes. The tournament is quickly approaching. They’re both improving even at times when it isn’t quite so apparent.

Then finally the day arrives.

It’s finally time to put it all to the test. They go out there, revved up, and they both……… get smashed, utterly and completely.

It’s a demoralizing event. No one likes losing. It hurts, especially when you know that you put forth every effort to succeed.

Both of these individuals suffer the same crushing defeat. There is one thing that is different between them though. It’s how they choose to respond.

The Different Responses

The Athlete chooses to rationalize the lost. They focus on factors that were outside of their control like the time that their opponent has been training. They choose not to analyze themselves to discover specific areas that they can improve in their skillset and mindset.

The Average Joe chooses to learn from the lost. They focus on factors that they can directly influence to improve their performance in the future. They spend time thinking about how they can shape their training in the future to fix the issues that they noticed in their match.

Things to Note

In this thought experiment, it is assumed that all factors are equal except the starting points of each individual and how they chose to respond to failure. Also there is no causal relationship between what each individual is classified as and the response they chose.

The roles and responses could have easily been reversed.

[important]After this event, a year passes. Which individual will have likely improved the most in that period of time? The Athlete or the Average Joe? Why? [/important]

Rundown of What Went Down at the No-Gi Worlds

  • November 5, 2012

I had a plan. It was simple and elegant. It just didn’t work out the way that I wanted it to.

Oh no, I’m not talking about the tournament yet. We’ll get there, but first we’re going to go a little further back in time to that Friday night.

I arrived in Los Angeles around 8 pm local time. The first goal was to get from there to my hotel without spending much. To achieve that objective, I relied on past experience.

In my mind, I remembered the transit route that I had taken with a teammate over two years ago to get to the same hotel. I thought it was so simple that I didn’t even spend much time verifying it.

So I got off the plane, got all my bags and hopped onto the shuttle to get to the green line. Ended up going in the wrong direction on the metro, so I had to hop off and correct that little error.

Alright, alright, now we’re moving.

I transfer from the green line to the blue line then hop off at Anaheim not far from 7th St. The hotel was located on 7th St, and I thought that I didn’t have far to go….

Once I got to 7th St, I started in one direction. It felt wrong. So I turned around and asked someone which direction leads to Cal State Long Beach since the hotel was right next to it.

I’m glad I did since that allowed me to fix one small error without much pain.

Anyway, I continued along, and I still hadn’t let go of the idea that I didn’t have far to go just yet. One block turned into two then three and so on until I got that sense that something was wrong again.

I called the hotel and told her where I was to get an estimate on how far I had to go. The first response was that I was about 5 miles away. Whoa. That didn’t match well with my memory, so I restated my location and asked again.

This time, she told me to just keep going.

Alright, so I kept walking and once again one block turned into two then three and so on. At some point, I got the urge to actually look at a sign to see which block I was on.

The sign read 2700 and the address of the hotel was 5665. By that point, I had already walked a good 15-20 blocks. So I had already completed roughly 1/3 of the journey.

At that point, I could have made the rest of the journey easier for myself. I could have called a cab or I could have walked to the other side of the road and caught a bus.

Either option would be been easier, but I chose the hard path because I wanted to see if I had the will to keep walking. And I proved that I did. And that made the experience worth it.

The Day Before

On Saturday, I decided not to go to the venue because I wanted to focus on mental preparation and stimulation. I happened to have some good books on hand to help with that task as well.

The first task was to finish up Slow Down, Sell Faster. It was a great book. I just happened to find it in the airport. After that, I breezed through and read a section in As We Speak that focused on peak performance and psychological state over and over again.

I also applied some of the lessons found in that last book to prepare myself for the task ahead.

The No-Gi Worlds

The first challenge in the tournament for me was John Hansen. I had to beat him to get into the medal rounds, and I went into that match in a good state of mind.

I really wish that I had video of the match since it was competitive. The balance tipped back and forth, and in the end the outcome was decided on a small margin. The score was 4-4 2-1.

There are of course things I can critique, but the past can’t be changed, only learned from. I’ll take what I learned and apply it to my training from here on out.