3 and Out

Over the years I have noticed something interesting in sparring. People will try a move three times and if there is no success then they will give up on that move. Turns out that this trait is hard wired in to our mammal DNA.

Dr Jaak Pankseep a famous neuro scientist who studied how they brain affects behaviour, as in what part of the brain affects what. In one of his studies he observed that rats would box and wrestle as part of play. They rats would stand up and swat and grab with their front legs while trying to get the other rat on their back. Being on their back is a submissive behaviour as with all mammals, so it would mean a loss. There would also be some playfull biting on the ‘defeated opponent’. The main objective in the game was to get the other rat on their back. Sometimes the smaller rats would ‘play’ with the bigger rats, as size is a factor in these matches the smaller rats would almost always lose. The bigger rats would sometimes let the smaller rats win and this would motivate the smaller rats to keep trying, thus giving more practice / play to both the bigger and smaller rats. However if the big rats did not let the little rats win more than 30% of the time the little rats would give up and stop playing. This means that given a little success the rat will keep trying, but take that little success away and they will stop. Interestingly this is what poker players do as well, they let a weaker player win every now and then so they are more likely to stay in the game and make more money out of them.

Now we are not rats and I have not wrestled a rat but that success ratio seems to be alive and well in us humans. Think the last time you wrestled and you shot for a double and get sprawled on, you think that is not so bad. You go for another double leg take down and get sprawled on again now you are really thinking about your set up and that seed of doubt shows itself. You work your set up go for the third double leg and get sprawled on again you are now second guessing yourself and will likely switch to something else. One part of it is missing the double leg, another is getting sprawled on as that sucks, that there is getting out from underneath the sprawl and that takes a lot of energy. The chances are you will not go for more than 3 double legs in a round with out success, this lack of confidence will flow on to the other rounds. There are some might be who are able to rise above it but most go to plan B and find another way.

In sparring the system I have seen used to great effect is get someone up against the cage wall and take them down then they try to get back up so you take them down and punch them. They usually try second time so you take then down again and punch them. Then comes the final attempt for this I give my biggest effort on the takedown and really try to punish them after the takedown. At the point you will see most people stop trying to stand back up and they will instead try to improve their position on the ground, or to put it bluntly stop getting punched. At first I thought this was a fitness / effort equation, as in they can’t keep giving all this effort for no reward as they will run out of gas. However there are plenty of people out there with massive engines that I have seen stop and stall in this situation. Then I wondered if it was a belief thing, as in this guy is better I want be able to get out so I will just stay here (as in on the ground). But it turns out that it runs a lot deeper than that. If we as mammals don’t succeed 30% of the time we don’t want to play any more.

There will be a bunch of fighters thinking I will never quit, you could take me down all day and I will try and get back up and so on. With this it goes a little more than that, in terms that once you have failed on three attempts it doesn’t mean you quit, all it means is that you stop trying that particular move and look for something else. That is after the 3 efforts people don’t just roll on their back and give up. However it seems that after three efforts you do not try the big move any more, rather most will try to establish a better position through smaller efforts to a position from where they can work. The fighters that say they will not quit you are right, all that happens is you change your effort in to something that could work rather than something that did not work.

This effect does not happen in striking, maybe because it is easier to try different things and the effect of missing a punch isn’t so bad at all (unless you get countered). That is compared to wrestling where you miss a takedown you can get sprawled or get taken down yourself. Also in BJJ where an escape attempt can open you up to be submitted or risk of your opponent upgrading their position. In striking where the negative outcome is in milli seconds the risk of repeating that behaviour is going to be high as nothing really bad happens. The lack of success is defintly more in wrestling and BJJ as the effects are more pronounced and last longer than in striking (in general terms). Next time you are grappling or wrestling and you have an opponent in a bad spot count how many times they try to escape before they give up and try something else to get a better position – I am betting it is 3