Tag Archives: wrestling

Can a Narrow Game Be Complete

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If you think of your jiu jitsu game as a building, and every new technique you learn as a brick, how many bricks do you need to build a house to live in for the rest of your life?

Before I write any more let me say that there are two approaches to learning in jiu jitsu: (1) learning for the sake of learning, and (2) learning for the sake of winning in competition. Many athletes do both, focusing on one or the other at various periods of their jiu jitsu life. This post is about the second one: designing a game for winning in competition. The other approach has a less well-defined goal of exploring the infinite universe of human chess.

Learning Jiu Jitsu

Most people learn jiu jitsu one technique at a time, without a vision of what their final game will look like. The “vision” often comes from the instructor, but it is usually based on their idea of what “works for most students”. That’s natural, of course, but it still makes me wonder whether a “complete” individual game can be built from the top down, and how narrow can that game be while still being successful in competition? The following is how most people (including myself) learn jiu jitsu:

  1. You show up to your first basics class.
  2. You learn your first technique, maybe something like a close guard split from the knees.
  3. Your knees might hurt, you feel off-balance, and maybe the technique feels like it will never work. “Splitting the closed guard is hard and useless”, you think.
  4. Next day, you show up and there’s another technique being taught. It’s your second one: armbar from closed guard.
  5. You drill the armbar a few times, and it seems to work perfectly. “Armbars are amazing!” you think.
  6. On your way home that night you decide that you will become the next black belt World Champion, submitting everyone with armbar from closed guard

Find the Flaws, Fix the Flaws

The above process continues as you pick up techniques that “click” with you and try to improve the ones that don’t. As you move through the ranks, and possibly compete, you identify “holes” (aka flaws, mistakes, etc) in your game. Your training is then defined by those holes. And then you spend a lifetime learning how to patch the smallest flaws with the tiniest details that you pick up through thousands of hours of training or watching countless hours of video or spending hundreds (if not thousands) of dollars on seminars, class fees, privates, tournaments, etc. I love that part of jiu jitsu, but what if my only goal was to win in competition? It’s not for me, but still that’s a very important question to consider. All of us like winning tournaments. It doesn’t have to be the #1 goal or even in the top 5, but it’s up there, and for most of us it’s a worthwhile pursuit.

A Complete Game with Very Few Techniques

As an example, the question is: can I win at the highest levels with the following game:

  1. Double leg take down.
  2. Guard passing from what Rafael Lovato Jr calls the “headquarters” position.
  3. Kimura from side control.
  4. Rear naked choke from back.
  5. When put on your back, constantly work to get back up and go to step #1.
  6. In any dominated position: escape until you can get up.

KarelinNever work on your butterfly guard, half guard, inverted guard, closed guard, except to learn how to get back up to your feet from that position. This game is not as simple as 6 steps. There’s still hundreds of details than need to be learned, tuned, and drilled ad infinitum. When someone shows you a cool foot lock, rolling back take, berimbolo sweep, etc, you ignore it. Never drill anything on the weak side. Drill bringing the game back to your dominant side (your “A game”) if it ever strays from there.

It’s just an example. Can a well-defined narrower game of this kind work? The assumption in the jiu jitsu community is it can’t. I tend to agree, but then again I see athletes at the highest levels in other grappling sports like wrestling and judo that operate with a mastery of just a couple techniques to defeat everyone the same exact way.

I understand all the complexities I’m washing over when I write stuff like this. But it is something I constantly struggle with in the context of competition. Given limited time to train, we are forced to choose. We all choose. And all of our games are narrow relative to the field of the possible. The question is: do we make that choice on a week-by-week basis or is a longer term top-down approach more effective? Is it even possible? Is it enjoyable?

Jiu Jitsu Fundamentals: An Argument for Berimbolo and X Guard

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Aesopian wrote an interesting blog post about where Berimbolo fits in with the “basics”, and it reminded me of something that I’ve been thinking about and evolving on for quite some time.

I have long heard instructors and top-level competitors teach the value of focusing on the “fundamentals” of jiu jitsu. When I first started training, I took that to mean doing a set of basic techniques of the kind Saulo Ribeiro teaches in his awesome book Jiu-Jitsu University. But it wasn’t the techniques that made that kind of jiu jitsu “fundamental”. It was having a complete cohesive set of underlying principles…

Some Basic Principles of Jiu Jitsu

  • Posture: Similar to judo, wrestling, and even olympic weightlifting, jiu jitsu has its own posture rules that have to do both with resisting off-balancing and applying maximum pressure with your hips through leverage. Posture includes the lower back, shoulders, neck, and hips, but every part of your body contributes (including toes, hands, eyes, quads, etc.)
  • Base and balance: Maintain balance throughout the entirety of a movement when you’re on top and work to off-balance your opponent when you’re on bottom.
  • Grip control: Use grips (gi or no-gi) on wrists, elbows, ankles, lapels, pants, belt, neck, etc. to control the opponent.
  • Use their force against them: Move around the force applied by your opponent not against it. When he pushes, don’t simply push back, push and pull and use the moment of defenselessness to transition into a more dominant position or to submit.
  • Protect your limbs. Elbows in. Heels in. No floating wrists and feet.

The above is just off the top of my head. I’m sure there are many more and the list is always growing. The above has a lot of exceptions, but the point is you can win 99% of your matches without knowing those exceptions. That’s what makes these principles fundamental.

Evolution of Principles

Just as new techniques rise into popular use in competition, new principles are also uncovered and clarified in our collective jiu jitsu mind. The community learns and shares new ways of generating leverage, of applying pressure, or utilizing grips for control.

In fact, I believe that ANY system of techniques based on consistent application of the above principles (and more) is what I would refer to as fundamental jiu jitsu. So in that sense, the x-guard is a fundamental technique because with the help of people like Marcelo Garcia, Fredson Alves, and a thousand other black belts, the x-guard system has evolved a set of rules to a point where you can have a complete game within just the butterfly guard and x guard positions. You very rarely have to venture outside that if you don’t want to. You can win with it at white, blue, purple, brown, and black.

The Future of Berimbolo

berimboloI believe the same is or eventually will be the case for the Berimbolo. This de la riva guard sweep system has evolved in the last few years from a set of technique to a complete system of principles. I believe you can limit your game to just the de la riva, reverse de la riva, and inverted guard and not have to venture outside of that 99% of the time. That’s fundamental jiu jitsu.

I think people freely (and I believe incorrectly) interchange the concept of “old school jiu jitsu” with “fundamental jiu jitsu”. I’m guilty of this as well. Probably because my favorite game to play and to watch is the takedown, smash pass, mount, x-choke game a la Xande or Roger. It’s tempting to assume that this game is somehow the closest to the underlying principles of what makes jiu jitsu work. But that’s, of course, not the case. The principles are simple physics. But like all laws of physics, it only seem simple once you discover it, and there is always more to be discovered…

Training Hard When Life Tries to Get in the Way

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I’ve been busy with work, sleeping very little. It’s a state of life I’m learning more and more about. The mental wear and tear of jiu jitsu gets amplified significantly when the stress of deadlines at work gets added to the mix.

For many people, jiu jitsu is a break from the outside world. There is something about grappling at near 100% that takes you away from the concerns and stresses of work, family, and life in general. On most days, jiu jitsu is that for me as well. But it’s not too rare when showing up to train hard requires a significant amount of willpower.

I think I read an interview with Carlson Gracie, Jr where he said that you should only compete when you are absolutely excited to be there. I think the same applies to training as well, except that if you are training for competition you shouldn’t just be excited to “be there”. You should be excited to try and work so hard that you hit your limit and are forced to overcome it or deal with the disappointment of having failed to do so.

It’s the Dan Gable ideal that he often talked about. Gable’s goal in practice was to work so hard that he would not be able to get off the mat on his own strength, but would need to be carried off. He never succeeded at that, but he always worked harder and harder to try to reach that point. The reality is your body can take nearly infinite punishment. It’s your mind that’s almost always the limiting factor.

I know this, but still it’s hard to remember it when after an hour of training, I feel my jiu jitsu game breaking down, frustration rising, physical and mental exhaustion seemingly setting in. And then the fact that I’m several days behind a deadline for work starts creeping in, and then life’s nagging questions start crowding my already weary brain.

I think about this a lot when I’m planning out my day, and I think anyone who is juggling priorities has to think about this and be brutal in saying “no” to things that take up time and do little to help you progress towards your goals (“enjoying life” being one of those goals).

Anyway, the two practical goals I would like to work on in training this week and beyond are:

  • Be quiet, train hard, and don’t be afraid to be friendly in conversation and drilling, and  yet intense on the mat (with good clean technique, and making sure to do everything possible to avoid injuring my training partner). I find myself at times unwilling to turn up the intensity especially against people who are much better than me. I owe it to them and to myself to try my hardest (again, with clean technique) to sweep them, to pass their guard, and to challenge them in whatever way I can.
  • If someone accidentally knees, elbows, or hits me in hard training, I will not complain, will not show it on my face, and will not take a break. But most importantly I won’t get frustrated. Frustration leads to bad technique, use off too much energy, and opens the door for ego to enter the session.

Jordyn vs Jordan: A Battle of Two Unstoppable World Champions

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If you hear “Jordan” in relation to the 2012 Olympics, what do you think of? The answer to that question depends on whether you enjoy watching people in tights flip around in the air or you enjoy watching people in tights flip others around in the air. I prefer the latter (wrestling) and not so much the former (gymnastics).

Jordan Burroughs is a dominant 2011 freestyle wrestling world champion. Jordyn Wieber is an even more dominant 2011 gymnastics all around world champion. Both are Americans, and both have been destroying the competition in a way that makes it difficult to imagine who can possible take the Olympic gold away from them. Not even the Russians!

Here’s a highlight of Jordan Burroughs (and his relentless double leg takedown):

Here’s a highlight of Jordyn Wieber:

I’m not a fan of watching gymnatics, but I am a fan of watching dominance in any sport. Also, I believe that gymnasts are some of the toughest athletes out there, because of how hard they train (especially through pain) and how much focus is required to achieve perfection in their sport. I love just watching the look of concentration on their faces. Some of these girls are just teenagers, but mentally they are seasoned warriors.

Gold Medals

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Nick Delpopolo put up a picture of his gold medals in judo on facebook and it made me think about what judo and jiu jitsu means to me today and in the bigger context of my life in general.

I have a very similar collection of medals, as do many active competitors. Of course, Nick won them by fighting some of the best people in the world. (PS: Support Nick as he makes a run at the 2012 Olympics in judo.) But, we all had our battles, and these medals represent not just victories, but little snapshots in time along a seemingly endless pursuit of a dream.

The annoying thing is that they take up so much space ;-) My favorite kind of “snapshots” in my own life are the pins (aka safety pins) that I got in high school wrestling for every opponent that I beat by pinning them. I’ve had a good number of them. Somehow they told a more dramatic story than medals do. Every pin represented a battle that didn’t just end in victory, but in dominant victory. I always loved that. It’s a silly thing of course for a glorified computer nerd such as myself to assign much value to these pins, but it seems like the silliest things can sometimes bring the most pride.

To this day, I’m most proud of the wrestling battles I remember: both the ones I lost and won. But I’m not done yet. I still have a few left in me. I still have room for a few more gold medals in my closet ;-)

Copa Nova BJJ Championships Video Blog

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I competed at the Copa Nova Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Championships last weekend. The tournament had a lot of good things going for it. First, the refs were top notch. They were following the IBJJF rules and were doing a damn good job of it. Because of that, there was a very professional feel to the event.

Also, the system for what divisions were assigned to what mat was well-oiled. The person making announcements about what divisions are up was really good. He was clear, and every correction to the schedule was announced. I hadn’t realized until this tournament how important it is to have a good announcer and a good sound system for him to work with. Lastly, tons of little stuff was great, like a warm up room, nice locker rooms, etc.

The attendance wasn’t as good as I had hoped but given how well the tournament is put together, perhaps it will grow with time.

I wish I had more matches, and I wish I performed better than I did. I won the no-gi advanced division, but fell short in the gi. But beyond the win-loss record, my mental game was not up to par. I was too relaxed and paid for it, and instead of coming back hard to win the match, I let my mind get frustrated. I’m glad I experienced that, and now have something to work on. No matter the situation, the goal is to stay focused, push the pace, and not let any little set back deter from believing that I can win the match if I work for it.

For the next tournament, I won’t be afraid to take risks, to go for the takedown, to believe in my wrestling. After all, I don’t do these tournaments to win through clever cagey strategy. I do these tournaments to have fun, put myself and my technique on the line, and hold nothing back. That’s how you learn. That’s how you get better.

I look forward to the next one.

Hanging out with Jimmy Cerra was definitely a good time. He is a true competitor, traveling all over for the chance to challenge himself, and fighting on through injuries and tough times.

The Jiu Jitsu Academy Brings Together an Interesting Bunch

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CustomProgrammingGood training at BJJ United as always today. Much like Ivan Drago (the Russian in Rocky IV), I had big plans for tonight. I brought two gi’s, because I was going to do the 6pm class, the 7:30 class, and the 8:30 one. However, much like the aforementioned Russian I failed in my plans. There are several reasons for this, but they boil down to the same thing… I need to grow a pair. I’ll have to fix this problem in the coming days.

Anyway, a guy in the locker room mentioned that he was impressed that I was staying for the next class given how hard the first one was. He mistakenly thought I was Rocky and not Ivan Drago… That led to a conversation about what we do outside of jiu jitsu. And it turns out that he is one of the original developers of Qt, which is a brilliant software system that I use in my daily programming work. This guy is the real deal. Program by day, kick ass by night. Now that’s the jiu jitsu lifestyle…

It’s amazing how many interesting, talented, and unique people the jiu jitsu academy brings together. And more than that, I noticed that people don’t really bring their work and off-the-mat life with them onto the mat. In a way, a jiu jitsu class is the great equalizer. I mean Al Bundy is a jiu jitsu black belt for f’s sake.

Now back to business… Jared showed the sprawl to the all-important back take. Good stuff. In the beginning he made everyone run backwards without looking back. I think that’s part of his twisted sense of humor, given that the room was packed. I thought it was pretty funny.

Jared always pushes the pace. That’s part of what makes BJJ United a great place to prepare for competition. But it was cool to see him stop the class and emphasize that we should not sacrifice technique for speed in drilling. Especially for stand-up (wrestling or judo) I find that people too often rush the technique or tense-up which breaks the crisp flow of the drilling.

Alright this post is already too long. If you read this far, you are probably my mom, in which case, I’m sorry about not calling more often.

A Good Idea for Finishing the Single Leg

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Ever since I was paired up with Wilson Reis a few weeks ago and we were doing a single leg takedown drill, I realized that I was lacking in knowledge and skill (to put it mildly) in the area of finishing the single leg.

I finished a few single legs in tournaments but it’s been an annoying scramble every time, and I’m always thinking “damn it, Lex, why didn’t you just switch to a double when you had the chance”. The single leg just never made sense to me. It feels like I’m trying to control a lion by its tail. The analogy probably makes no sense to you, but it works in my mind at this late caffeinated hour.

So, given all that, it was great to see Jared Weiner put up a technique of the week video (see below) with an awesome idea for finishing the single leg. Why is it awesome? Several reasons, but the main one is that it uses the same kind of idea that I like to use in passing the butterfly guard (in gi). The gripping and the body mechanics are very similar, so I can’t wait to try it if I ever find myself with just one of my opponent’s legs in my hands.

A Shot Won’t Save You From Being Taken Down

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This is the part of the blog post where I cry about little things that no self-respecting man should cry about. What I was dealing with last night:

  • Cauliflower ear
  • Trying to train in headgear so that the new cauliflower ear would heal up eventually.
  • One of my contacts fell out half way through training. Couldn’t find it.
  • Because of allergies my eyes were itching and nose was stuffed.
  • Only 4 hours of sleep the night before.

Okay now I will put my teddy bear and pink kleenex box down.

The no-gi training at night at BJJ United was solid as always. Hard warm up, and fast-paced technical drills for the first half hour.

One of the things Wilson Reis had us drill was the re-shot double. When the opponent shoots in for a double, you stop them with hooks and explosively lift them up a level to create the space for a re-shot of a double of your own. I really like this idea of shooting in on the opponent even if he shoots first. Usually, I sprawl and look to come around to the back, but if his shot is not low enough (or committed enough), then this is a great option.

Here’s a video of Dan Gable teaching a similar re-shot technique. Instead of lifting your opponent, in this case, he waits for the opponent to come back up on his own:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-BAya2rOuU

As always, thanks to BJJ United, they’re good people (Jared, Wilson, Sharon, etc). Email bjjunited@comcast.net or friend on Facebook.

I Just Tell Them I Wrestle

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I was asked by an athlete-type girl at seven eleven about why it is I had 4 apples in one hand and a one gallon jug of water in the other. The question caught me off guard so I defensively said that “I’m cutting weight”. She asked the natural follow-up: “For what?” At this point I came to a crossroads that I surprisingly haven’t come to often in my life. The problem was in explaining judo or brazilian jiu jitsu to a stranger with whom I’ll only likely have 30 seconds worth of conversation. I answer that question truthfully to friends and family with whom I can have at least a couple minutes to explain further if needed. But in this case, I thought about it and just said: “for wrestling”.

Her eyes lit up, and she said “oh cool, my brother wrestles”. And then, the seven eleven manager said: “Wrestling? My son is a wrestler”. Something tells me if I said judo or brazilian jiu jitsu, I would either get a blank stare or would have to hear about how they used to do karate when they were 8 years old.

Thanks to the UFC, mixed martial arts has exploded in the United States. So perhaps in the near future saying that I’m cutting weight for a BJJ competition will not need further explanation, but for now wrestling is the closest thing to BJJ and Judo that most Americans understand. So in the interest of small talk, I just tell them I wrestle.