Archive for June, 2011
What do I have to do?
This post is all about BJJ.
If you ask your instructor ‘what do I have to do, to get my next belt’ then that is a sure way that you are not ready for it. The beauty of BJJ is that you get your rank when you deserve it.
Now I am not that experienced with receiving belts as I have only been given two out of a possible 4 belts. (Not including the red-black and red belt as they are so far away for most people they are not going to be considered for this post). But I have seen similarities in people that seem to progress a little quicker than most.
1) Specialise, the good guys usually have a well rounded game but have a certain area where they excel as they understand that position a little more than most. From there the good guys work out how to get to that position from 100 different places, so as the saying goes, all roads lead to Rome. This means that when things are not going to plan they know that all they need to do is get back to their position and they will be fine.
2) Little Improvements, they are not looking for any big advances in their game. The good guys seem to look for the little moves which will help, this could be a different hand position or leg position that will open up more possibilities or make a current move more effective. They seem to understand that there are no magic moves that will change their game; rather they are looking to close down the little gaps that they may have. They believe that if they take care of the little details then it will be easier to make the big stuff happen.
3) Long term, they focus on improvements over months of training they do not focus on a session to session basis. This gives them the chance to really get involved with their position and figure out why things are not going quite to plan rather than getting caught up with winning each roll. As they know that there is about 2 years between belts they can focus on improving rather than winning.
4) Practice, very simple the better guys are the most consistent on the mat – simple.
5) Information, these are the people that ask the most questions and go to the seminars and read the books, as they are after those little details that will help them. After a session these guys will be going through the rolling in their head and trying to sort out the good from the bad and what made each position work better and what didn’t go so well.
6) Making others better, they realise that the better that everyone else is the better that they become. They help others and want them to get better, so that person can defend their moves and then they have to come up with a counter that way everyone gets better. I have not trained with “a good guy’ that has held back information, they are always keen to help out.
7) Train with the best, they are after the challenge. As their journey is not based on win / loss on the mat they seek out the best to test their skills against. Don’t get me wrong when they seek out the best they are trying to win, if they don’t then they know where to improve. These guys are not afraid of failing; they know that is just part of the journey.
8 ) On time, generally these guys are some of the first guys on the mat and the last to leave another simple one.
9) Don’t look for excuses, when someone beats them they are not looking for excuses such as he is bigger / stronger and so on. You will not hear these guys say “he just got me because of his flexibility” they will not blame being tired, having injuries or anything else.
10) Respect, they have respect for the sport, the club, the instructor and the other guys on the mat. They do what they can to make the sport and club stronger – that is it’s not all about them.
These can all be used for any of the other disciplines of MMA as well.
Gareth Lewis
Head MMA Instructor
It's in your head.
The best people that you have trained with usually have one thing in common, they don’t think that they are better they know that they are better.
To put this in perspective, when you are training with a person that is new to the sport and you get to roll, wrestle or spar with them you are not concerned about losing in fact that is last thing from your mind. Usually you get to practice your moves and positions against them without any fear of things going badly as you know they just don?t have the tools to concern you.
The best guys at your gym have that mindset against almost all the people that they are up against, and when they spar with people at the gym they are working on new skills and different positions to keep on top of their game. Sometimes they are working their defence which makes you believe that you are beating them that night, but you are not. Where this mindset comes in handy is when someone steps up against them, that is when someone decides that this is the night when they will go head to head with them and see what?s up, the top guys know that no matter how bad things get they will win as they are just better and when push comes to shove they will come out on top, because they are better. Of course this doesn’t work 100% of the time, but 99% of the time they will win.
Another thing that gives the good guys an advantage is everyone else treats them a little different, that means they go for their moves a little more tentatively as they are concerned about the repercussions if they miss it. If I hit him then he will get grumpy and hit me harder, is he leaving that arm there to set up for a magic sweep that I don?t know about. This hesitation will happen and when it does that is all the good guys need to get to where they will get the win. Knowing that they are better doesn’t make them complacent, they just know that sooner or later they will get that opening and will take advantage of it to get that win.
Overall the best guys have no concept that they can be beaten, even if they lost a fight they all believe that if they had a rematch in a month, a week, a day or right now that they would win. This is the mindset that competitive people have, and they need to have to strive to be better, to win, to be the best.
In short if you think you will win, of you think you will lose you are correct ? so make it a win.
Gareth Lewis
Head MMA Instructor
Try it out.
When you are travelling for either business or pleasure and you get a chance to check out a fight gym make the most of it and go train with some new people and get another perspective from another trainer – all of this will help your game.
There is some basic etiquette when training at another gym. Do your best to turn up in unbranded gear, that means try not to turn up with shorts and t-shirt branded with your gym logo. The reason for this is not to that you will offend people by having a logo form another gym but it is more about training under the radar and not attracting too much attention to yourself. Introduce yourself to the instructor and let them know that you train and are here to learn, then sit in the corner and shut up.
The actual training is the hard part you should train at your usual level or just below, if you are good you will find that everyone at the gym will have to show that they can match you so don’t expect to many rest periods if you are sparring / rolling. If you are being asked to sparr it is usually a complement as they think you are worthwhile. You need to let everyone you spar with set the pace and then maintain that level. If you follow this you should be ok at most fight gyms.
How to stuff it up. I have seen this with my own eyes and it was entertaining. I was training at a well known MMA gym and we where training striking that day. There was one guy there that was not great on his feet and got a little clip during the sparring, as the session came to end he said in a loud voice “see you tomorrow BJJ black belt”. Just after he left one if the top guys at the gym, who was a very good fighter, said “green light that mother f**ker” I didn’t take much notice of that and rocked up to training the next day which was grappling, when we went live it was starting from the knees grapple with GnP, sure enough one of the guys called out green light and went and put on his green shorts. They then went and partnered up with the loud mouth and destroyed him as in the went to knock him out. This gym was all about respect and if anyone stepped out of line they got brought back in a forceful manner.
This works on both sides, if a new person turns up to your gym make them welcome and train with them, if they turn out to be a dick then “green light” them and see if that sorts them out. All the fight gym I have trained out have been the same they like guys that have a good attitude and train hard, you do that and you will not have any problems anywhere. If you walk in thinking that you are the man and will show these guys a thing or two then be prepared for a bit of a beating or at the very least a session where no one wants to work with you.
Overall I think it is great for people to train at other gyms from time to time, there is a lot of skill and knowledge out there so you may as well get as much as you can by training with as many good people as possible.
Gareth Lewis
Head MMA Instructor
It's basic
When people have been training for a while they start to try all the new moves that they can find on youtube or training dvd’s and books. This means they are trying superman punches, spider guard and flying triangles from the clinch. These things are all great but if you do the little things right then everything will fall in to place.
With striking instead of looking to land combo’s make your jab more effective, work on the jab and you will find that the combo’s fall in to place. If you have a solid jab you can control the centre of the ring / cage as well as the distance that you want your opponent. If every time your opponent steps forward he gets a jab in the face they are going to start getting defensive very quickly. Once you established the jab the rest of the offence will flow on from there. The other sure way to make your striking better is to keep your hands up, if your hands are up you can block punches that haven’t seen that does not happen if you hands are low. When you get tired your reactions are slower so you need all the help you can get so keep the hands up and it takes away some of the concern of the defence. To make things simple if you land a good solid jab and keep your hands up your striking will be harder to deal with.
In BJJ there are two main things position and submission everything else is just window dressing. A white belt said to me that no one can keep him in side control and no one could escape his side control, if that is the case then he should be looking for a black belt not a blue belt. If you can keep position in BJJ then you are going to be very hard to beat. When you have good control in BJJ you will find that the person tries some stupid things to escape, this is when the submission opportunities show themselves. To become almost unbeatable in BJJ all you need to do is pass guard and keep top position and you will win 99% of the time. To make progress sometimes you have to take a step back to take two forward, regression can be great for your game go back to basics and work back up.
With wrestling all the top guys are great at single and double leg takedowns; this means that the match is all about the setup and getting your opponent out of position. You will not see big flash takedowns at the top level it is very simple and effective. When you are training wrestling make sure you have confidence in your single and double legs then you can build on them. To build on the single and double legs means to have two or three options from the opponents defence the more options you have gives you more opportunities to complete the takedown. With wrestling all it comes down to is drilling, drilling and more drilling and all the drilling is done on the basic moves so you get them right. A good single and good double and a good sprawl is all you need in wrestling so work on them to improve your wrestling.
Marcelo Garica is one of the best grapplers on the planet his main move is arm drag to rear naked choke, his opponents know it’s coming and they can’t stop it, it is a basic move done with precision to get the maxim benefit. The Klitschko brothers keep their hands up and punch hard and straight and they are both world boxing champions. Cael Sanderson is the only wrestler to finish college wrestling undefeated 159-0 he had a great low single and brilliant control and defence from head to head, people knew what they are up against and works. World Champions do the basics very well and work the smallest details to make sure it is as close to perfect as possible.
What can you take from this; if you make sure you do the little things right then your game will have big improvements. Don’t get too caught up in the flash techniques, to get the gains keep it simple and focus on the small things: Striking – hands up and punch straight and hard, BJJ – keeping position and passing guard, Wrestling – Singles, Doubles and Sprawls.
Gareth Lewis
Head MMA Instructor