February 04, 2010
Never Satisfied!
Today, at the gym, a young grappler asked me a question he'd obviously been wondering about for a long time.
"How long did it take until you had grappling all figured out?"
I told him that although I started grappling (in the context of Judo) almost 30 years ago, I still didn't have grappling all figured out...
"OK, OK," he replied, "but how long did it take until you were satisfied with your ability?"
"I'm still not satisfied with my ability" was my answer.
Now I wasn't just being coy or deliberately dense. I've been a black belt in BJJ for a while now, and have trained in lots of other grappling systems. But I really am not satisfied with my ability, nor do I have it all figured out. Nor should I be satisfied!
There is ALWAYS something to work on: whether it be incorporating a new technique into your arsenal, or refining a technique that has recently stopped working for you, or working on a weak part of your game.
In fact, I can guarantee that as long as you're still testing yourself on the mat with actual sparring you're always going to have strengths and weaknesses. Pick a random subset of your grappling skills - mount escapes, half guard sweeps and triangle choke entries for example - and it's inevitable that one of those areas is going to be less developed than the other areas.
Sometimes it's reassuring to beginners to know that grapplers, fighters and competitors at the highest level also deal with this! Marcelo Garcia has areas he's weak in (at least relative to the areas that he's great at). Rickson Gracie is better at some things than others. And some aspects of Georges St. Pierre's MMA game lag behind as well.
But always having something that you suck at (or - more correctly - suck at relative to your other skills) is a good thing - now you have something to work on! If you don't know what to work on in your grappling development, then take what you're worst at and work on that! (Often your fastest progress comes from working on your weakest link).
If you're entirely satisfied with your game, and if you don't have any areas that need refining, then you haven't actually reached perfection. You've just stopped growing.
Complacency is death!
"How long did it take until you had grappling all figured out?"
I told him that although I started grappling (in the context of Judo) almost 30 years ago, I still didn't have grappling all figured out...
"OK, OK," he replied, "but how long did it take until you were satisfied with your ability?"
"I'm still not satisfied with my ability" was my answer.
Now I wasn't just being coy or deliberately dense. I've been a black belt in BJJ for a while now, and have trained in lots of other grappling systems. But I really am not satisfied with my ability, nor do I have it all figured out. Nor should I be satisfied!
There is ALWAYS something to work on: whether it be incorporating a new technique into your arsenal, or refining a technique that has recently stopped working for you, or working on a weak part of your game.
In fact, I can guarantee that as long as you're still testing yourself on the mat with actual sparring you're always going to have strengths and weaknesses. Pick a random subset of your grappling skills - mount escapes, half guard sweeps and triangle choke entries for example - and it's inevitable that one of those areas is going to be less developed than the other areas.
Sometimes it's reassuring to beginners to know that grapplers, fighters and competitors at the highest level also deal with this! Marcelo Garcia has areas he's weak in (at least relative to the areas that he's great at). Rickson Gracie is better at some things than others. And some aspects of Georges St. Pierre's MMA game lag behind as well.
But always having something that you suck at (or - more correctly - suck at relative to your other skills) is a good thing - now you have something to work on! If you don't know what to work on in your grappling development, then take what you're worst at and work on that! (Often your fastest progress comes from working on your weakest link).
If you're entirely satisfied with your game, and if you don't have any areas that need refining, then you haven't actually reached perfection. You've just stopped growing.
Complacency is death!
Labels: bjj, sparring, the mental aspect, training
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January 11, 2010
Successfully Dealing with Claustrophobia in Grappling
Once upon a time I had an MRI.For those of you who've never had this diagnostic procedure, you start by lying down on a narrow board. Then they slide you into a narrow hole within a gigantic donut-shaped machine. And then you lie there, very still, for a long time while the machine scans your body using a gigantic magnet.
Have you seen the movie Avatar? It's like the little pod from which the hero pilots his alien. Except the space inside the MRI is even smaller, and nobody has any furry blue tails.
After the procedure I chatted with the MRI technician. One thing she mentioned was that about 3 in 10 people have problems with claustrophobia in this machine, and about 1 in 10 people freak out and are unable to complete the procedure.
So if somewhere between 10% and 30% have problems with an MRI, then how many people have problems with claustrophobia in grappling? I'd guess it's roughly the same number...
I'm not claustrophobic myself, and so this topic was largely off my radar until I found out that a friend and fellow grappler used to struggle with claustrophobia on the mats. And then a reader contacted me with the the same problem. And then I found out that I had a SECOND training partner who was also claustrophobic.
I did a bit of googling, and found out that there wasn't too much sport specific advice on the topic. So I asked the Grapplearts readership for tips and advice on dealing with grappling-induced claustrophobia, and was stunned by how many other people face the same challenge (read the whole article on how to deal with claustrophobia in BJJ and grappling here).
But here's the cool part: BOTH of my claustrophobic training partners have tackled this problem head on. And mostly dealt with it. And both of them have done very well in high level grappling competition. And both of them competed successfully in MMA, each with 10 fights or more!
From all accounts, claustrophobia is a horrible feeling. But I've seen first-hand that it CAN be overcome.
Not everyone is claustrophobic, but it's fair to say that we ALL have our fears, challenges and perceived limitations. I'm proud to know these grapplers. They're an inspiration to me.
Labels: bjj, claustrophobia, submission grappling
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