To be what you want,

You must be what what you want

Did that heading make sense? No.

Fear is a specter inherent to both combat and combat sports. In Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, fear can manifest as a fear of stagnating progress, fear of competition loss, fear of injury, just to name a few.

Addressing fear starts with an understanding of what fear is. Today I will briefly discuss one dimension to the problem of fear and one solution.

One definition of fear is that we avoid results that conflict with the image of ourselves that we wish to maintain. For example, we may see a lack of technical development as an indication that we are unintelligent; if we currently see ourselves as smart and capable individuals, then we may be fearful that a plateau in our Jiu Jitsu is an indication that our intelligence is compromised on the whole.

Many methods used to overcome this anxiety involve willpower. If we simply continue to grind away, the reasoning goes, then our fear will be negated by the (hopefully) emergent evidence that we ARE, in fact, making technical progress. The problem here is that we have handed over responsibility to the ebb and flow of willpower.

My suggestion is to first eliminate the image and actions of ourselves as fearful beings. All too often we expect a change in thought to result in a change in actions. Then we wait for these changes in thought to catalyze change in action. Instead, we should change our actions and follow through with them until our actions become habits and our habits contribute to a new thought-pattern of ourselves. To continue from our example, do not maintain a self-image of someone who would enjoy technical progress but is also at risk for stifled progress. Instead, project an image of yourself as someone who consistently makes progress, regardless of other circumstances. From there, carry yourself in a manner that aligns with this self-image. This is just an introduction to this type of thinking, we can expand on these ideas at a later date.

I was initially fearful of writing this entry because my last entry was well-received and I wondered how this entry could live up to the standard. Then I realize that most people speak, read and write in Chinese and all was well again. :]

Marcelo Garcia and John Danaher

Exploring Differences in Excellence

Marcelo Garcia

I have spent the last few days in New York and had a chance to seek insight in a comparison between Marcelo Garcia, who has a school in New York and John Danaher, who teaches at the Renzo Gracie Academy in New York.

Marcelo is primarily known for being one of the best competitors in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and submission grappling in our time, if not the history of the sport. John is not as widely known because he lacks a competitive record, but those who have studied with him ALL regard him as one of the best instructors, if not the best, in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.

I wanted to briefly place Marcelo and John side-by-side and take a look at how their teaching styles are a reflection of their personal learning style.

One reason I find this topic interesting is because of a discussion I had with Josh Waitzkin (pictured above), author of the Art of Learning. I was asking Josh about Marcelo’s training regime and he commented that Marcelo, unlike everyone else at the academy, did not drill. He did not have a strength and conditioning routine. He described how and why Marcelo’s ability to learn in a purely kinesthetic/tactile manner is perfectly suited for Jiu Jitsu. He does not study his opponents’ games, he simply draws them into his own game. Instead of drilling, he simply finds movements that “feel right” to him and then re-creates situations in sparring where he can practice these movements over and over.

On the other hand, I spoke with John and we discussed various useful approaches for studying different grappling competitors: how to analyze their movements, what movements translate to technique, what technical “chunks” to look for specifically, how to practice these techniques, what scenarios to mimics, and so on. John’s method of increasing his expertise is nearly the opposite of Marcleo’s. John prefers to find the highest percentage submissions, sweeps and guard passes used at the adult black-belt level in the World Championships and then reverse engineer his way to the proper execution of these techniques.

When Marcelo is teaching, he clearly illustrates what the opponent will try to do, what the likely avenues are that will follow their initial technique and then he will demonstrate sequenced movements that are effective for stopping/countering these attacks. You accept that Marcelo covers counters that are workable because he has overcome the best competitors in the game; you know his insight is relevant because if there was something missing from his insight, one of his opponents’ would have capitalized on it at some point. Marcelo’s subconscious ability to “perform a technique correctly based on feel” allows him to use techniques at a high-level that he never uses in competition. For example, if a student needs to improve their ability to remove spider guard hooks, Marcelo seamlessly applies the spider guard as if he had been using it since he was a white belt.

If you were to learn the same spider guard techniques from John Danaher, you would come to know the spider guard through a different path. While Marcelo would prefer to pull you into a round of sparring and repeatedly sweep/submit you from the spider guard and correct you throughout, John would first present the problems encountered when trying to pass the spider guard. It might be a clarification of the purpose of hooks and grips from the spider guard or an idea about the proximity to the opponent’s hip/knee-line that indicates whether you are in danger or safe. From there, a small, specific set of methods for unraveling these problems would be presented and then expanded upon. Instead of a subconscious awareness being translated to the student by Marcelo, John provides a conscious understanding of the problem and solution. Since this solution is conscious, it is not yet automatic, so a significant amount of time should be devoted to drilling these responses to make them useful for the student.

I would like to expound on this topic again but for now I will stop here and let these thoughts digest.

Take care!

:]

New Training Style

Back to the Grind!

The first week of post-Mundials training has come to a close and I have received a lot of positive feedback regarding the changes made to the class structure.

Next week I will begin introducing new techniques again; during the past week we had not covered that much new material, instead I wanted everyone to focus on getting used to the new format of the class itself. The overall structure of the class will be the same moving forward, but there will be a portion of the class devoted to the learning new movements.

With that said, I hope everyone is enjoying the sunshine and resting up so we can get back to some hard training on Monday. See you then! Oss

Thank You to Everyone

Back to the Grind!

Hey all

So, the World Championships have come and gone. I lost in the first round by advantages to Theodoro Canal, who is a great competitor with many championships under his belt.

What were the lessons to be learned? I noticed a definite improvement in my pacing and conditioning from training with Master Lloyd. I did not cut weight properly and so my overall explosiveness was hindered but at no point did I feel winded or tired even though I had not eaten much of anything in the two days beforehand. So, managing the weight cut better would have provided a better result in my performance.

In addition, there were a few positions that I had been caught in when training with Team Lloyd Irvin that came up again during my match. Fortunately, I did not get my guard passed at all; when these same techniques were used against me at Master Lloyd’s school, the guard passes came frequently.

All in all, it was a great experience. I am a firm believer that attitude is everything and instead of dwelling on my loss, I am focusing on the mistakes that can be corrected and being happy for all of my team mates from Lotus Club who did exceptionally well, especially my instructor Laercio Fernandes who made it all the way to the finals before losing a referee decision to Guilherme Mendes. Also, Keenan Cornelius, DJ Jackson and others from Team Lloyd Irvin did extraordinarily well at the competition, so I am happy for them as well! :]

We had some great visitors last night at Robot! Three excellent black belts from Japan that are in town post-Mundials came by and did a mini-seminar for the students before training with the team. Great guys, very humble and fun to have around. There are pictures on our Facebook page, which you should be “liking” if you haven’t already!

I will be taking it easy the rest of the week and then get back into training next week. This will give me a chance to implement many of the things I learned while training with Team Lloyd Irvin and make sure everyone understands these changes before jumping back into the training myself! Take care everyone :]

New Training + Mundials

It’s all coming together

Hey everyone!

I’m back in California and we have started implementing a lot of the training methods that I picked up while training with Team Lloyd Irvin. Everyone is already starting to see a huge improvement! I will continue to keep y’all updated on how the new class/training format works out for us.

Tomorrow is the first day for the black belts at the Mundials. I’m very excited to be competing and to have the chance to test out the new pacing that we trained while I was living at the Jungle. I am also excited to watch JT compete as well as the other black belts.

After the tournament, I will need to buy a plane ticket back the Jungle, ASAP!

See all of you at the tournament tomorrow! Oss

Final Preparation for the Mundials

Then We Bring it Home

Hey everyone!

These last couple days have been the culmination of our training for the Mundials.

There has been little positional sparring, mostly drills for warm-up and then many rounds to keep our conditioning strong and allow people to continue dropping weight if they need to.

Everyday this week, Master Lloyd has put on his kimono and stepped on the mats with us. Sometimes it is to critique our technique while drilling/sparring and at other times he will spar with other students and competitors. It is incredible to watch him work! He is both an excellent coach and practitioner of the art.

Diets have come to the forefront of each athlete’s attention, with most of the guys weighing themselves two to three times a day. Conversations have changed from technical insight to strategy and food fantasies.

We had our last practice today and then closed out class with some inspiration for each individual’s performance. Then there was a great promotion for Master Donnie and Master Marcos to first-degree black belt.

See you guys soon! Oss

Last Week of the Grind

Then We Head Home

Hey all!

So, we are getting into the last week of training for the Mundials and the workouts have changed a bit.

We are down from 3-4/day to 2 a day. One interesting development is that instead of being allowed to stroll in 10-15 minutes late, anyone who is late this week is not allowed to train. Master Lloyd said this was because if you are late to your match at the Mundials, what happens? You get disqualified. Interesting idea.

Another development is the workouts have shifted in schedule. Instead of 10AM, 4:30PM and 8:30PM, our workouts are now at 10AM and 5PM. I think this is to give the guys a chance to start acclimating to the time change.

Most of our training this week has been live sparring. Drilling is now relegated to warm ups only and the workouts themselves are a bit shorter overall. The intensity has not dropped, though. Everyone has the same mindset that their weapons are as sharp as they are going to be for the Mundials, now it’s time to make sure your weight is right and your conditioning stays strong.

While this week is not over yet, I am already starting to miss the time here. All of the guys have great personalities and interesting quirks that make them fun to be around. I hope I will have a chance to come back and visit/train soon!

Take care! See you soon

Resting Up

Riding on the Metro

Hey everyone!

Today the guys from the Jungle and I took the metro into downtown D.C. for a bite to eat and some adventures.

Once we were in D.C., we wandered through different stores and consumeries (a consumery is a place you go to consume things). Different members of the house would pair up and hang out for a bit before switching off to hang out with someone else. I spent some time talking to Frank Camacho about his view on MMA and JT Torres and I spent some time talking about what he prefers in a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu kimono.

Frank is a fan of Vale Tudo and would like to compete under a rule set that allows head butts, soccer kicks and knees to the head on the ground. Brutal! JT prefers rope-style drawstring for kimono pants instead of the canvas-style drawstring. Not so brutal.

It was an interesting day; I enjoy seeing the contrast between training days and rest days. It is as if everyone’s personality can shift instantly from laser-focused training to completely relaxed and easy-going. I’m certain that all of the guys in the Jungle genuinely enjoy each other’s company and since they all know the importance of recovery, they maximize their enjoyment when they’re able to rest.

They also get into a lot of spontaneous fights with each other. Slap boxing, grappling, etc. at the drop of a hat. Day and night. They never seem to get enough!

Oh, and I was lucky enough to be greeted by a zealous man on a crate! He asked if I was going to heaven and I said, “yes.” Then there was some shouting. Wild!

Resting at the Jungle

Sleep, Sleeping, Slept

Hey everyone,

We have all been training hard and so today we were given the day off. It was needed! A bunch of the guys went to a pool to hang out and I stayed in and caught up on sleep and some work.

Yesterday was fairly straight to the point with our training.

We had three workouts, the first one was a guard pass to back take live-sparring session for an hour.

The second workout was another sprint-drilling session. During this session, Master Lloyd corrected fine details on each individual’s technique. It was useful and interesting to see how vast his knowledge is of each and every position in Jiu Jitsu. It’s as if he has everyone’s entire game in his head, all at once.

The last workout of the night was also straight-forward; instead of specific scenarios for our sparring, we did eight rounds of sparring from standing. Good workout and it allowed us to rest a bit so we can put in more work next week during the last part of the grind!

Take care!

Sometimes Bump and Scrapes

Require Attention

Also, Klondike bars.