January 28, 2008
Jiu-jitsu and Physical Attributes
Physical attributes are things like balance, neck strength, limb length, explosiveness, leg flexibility, and percent body fat. Your physical attributes are the foundation of what you can do with your body, and are influenced by genetics, training, age and injuries
Some instructors teach as if everyone, regardless of age, build and flexibility, can use the same techniques. Well I'm here to tell you it's not true: physical attributes do strongly affect which techniques you'll be able to use against a struggling opponent. How your body is put together is an important factor to consider when you build your game.
The rest of this article will take a look at some concrete examples of how physical attributes aid, or hinder, the performance of specific techniques.
First of all, many attributes can be changed: flexibility, strength, endurance, speed, and balance can all be improved with training and conditioning.
Secondly, you can build your 'A game' around your strong attributes and figure out how to avoid depending on your weaker attributes.
Third, there may be technical answers to your problems. Talk to your instructor, ask your training partners and look on the internet for ideas. For examples of how the internet can help I'll point you towards three threads discussing adaptations to help short legged people develop effective triangle chokes: thread 1, thread 2 and thread 3.
In closing, let me emphasize that you should still spend some time learning and practicing techniques that aren't well suited for your body. Doing this will tighten up your defense: by practicing techniques, even ones that don't fit your body, you sensitize your spider sense to tingle when people are getting ready to try those technique on you. Also keep in mind that you may end up teaching some day, and you want to have techniques to show people who are physically dissimilar from yourself.
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Some instructors teach as if everyone, regardless of age, build and flexibility, can use the same techniques. Well I'm here to tell you it's not true: physical attributes do strongly affect which techniques you'll be able to use against a struggling opponent. How your body is put together is an important factor to consider when you build your game.
The rest of this article will take a look at some concrete examples of how physical attributes aid, or hinder, the performance of specific techniques.
- Explosiveness and endurance are prerequisites for a 'mobility' game. If you don't have these attributes then you're still left with the option of a slow crushing 'positional' game.
- Different throws require different attributes. Great balance is critical for some throws like Uchi Mata, but others like Seionage require explosiveness. Timing is great to have for most throws, but some throws like footsweeps just won't work without it.
- People who regularly apply successful collar chokes tend to have killer grip strength (which can be improved by exercise)
- Standing guard passes require more balance and leg strength than do kneeling guard passes
- Longer legs are great for applying triangle chokes, and short-legged grapplers definitely need to make some adjustments in order to finish this submission
- Leg length is important for some, but not all, footlocks. The most leg-length-dependent footlock is probably the straight ankle lock (but Andre Arlovski proved me wrong by ankle locking giant Tim Sylvia in the Octagon). Leg length is a bit of an asset for heel hooks, but less so than for the ankle lock. On the other hand, leg length doesn't have much to do with successfully executing most kneebars, hip locks and calf cranks
- If you want to master the rubber guard (example shown here) then flexibility is very important; at a minimum you probably need to be able to put one foot behind your head and touch both knees to the ground when doing the 'butterfly' stretch.
- Strong arms can make some submissions more effective, including most guillotines, the Brabo choke, and the Kimura. Arm strength isn't as important for performing the armbar, but it is very helpful when it comes to defending the armbar.
- Leg length amplifies the effectiveness of the spider guard, but is relatively unimportant when it comes to using the half guard and X Guard
First of all, many attributes can be changed: flexibility, strength, endurance, speed, and balance can all be improved with training and conditioning.
Secondly, you can build your 'A game' around your strong attributes and figure out how to avoid depending on your weaker attributes.
Third, there may be technical answers to your problems. Talk to your instructor, ask your training partners and look on the internet for ideas. For examples of how the internet can help I'll point you towards three threads discussing adaptations to help short legged people develop effective triangle chokes: thread 1, thread 2 and thread 3.
In closing, let me emphasize that you should still spend some time learning and practicing techniques that aren't well suited for your body. Doing this will tighten up your defense: by practicing techniques, even ones that don't fit your body, you sensitize your spider sense to tingle when people are getting ready to try those technique on you. Also keep in mind that you may end up teaching some day, and you want to have techniques to show people who are physically dissimilar from yourself.
Labels: conditioning, Injuries, physical attributes, techniques, training
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January 16, 2008
Thinking Inside The Box
A few weeks ago I was doing some standing pummeling; both my partner and I were fighting to get underhook positions in the clinch (some things you can do from an underhook). On my way to class I'd thought up a new way to get the underhook and now I wanted to try it out on someone in the flesh. As we were tussling back and forth I tried my new technique and felt a slight 'pop' in my shoulder followed by some sharp pain.
At first I was confused, since we weren't going particularly hard and my opponent hadn't cranked me or used a dirty trick. As I rubbed my sore shoulder I figured out what had happened: my new method for inserting the underhook involved turning my body to the left and reaching my right arm out to the right. My arm was cocked out to the side of my body like a hitchhiker on the side of the highway, instead of being in front of my body (like holding a mirror up to my face). This sideways arm position took my shoulder close to the limits of its flexibility where it needed only a very small amount of clockwise rotation to get tweaked.
I then realized that I should have known all this already from my whitewater canoeing and kayaking days. Informed paddlers are usually quite conscious to keep their arms inside the so-called paddler's box, which Bruce Lessels defines as "...an imaginary box in front of your chest. The sides of the box are the planes that hold your arms. The front of the box if your fingertips. The back of the box is your chest, and the box moves as your rotate your torso left or right."
Paddlers use this concept because it helps keep their strokes efficient, and also because it helps keep their shoulders safe from being dislocated, which is unfortunately a fairly common in the whitewater paddling community (see the fifth point).
If you are a grappler you won't always be able to keep your arms in this imaginary box. Arm and body positions in grappling are a lot more variable than in kayaking, and also there are people actively trying to force your arm into a compromised position. You should be aware, however, that your arms are strongest, and your shoulders the safest, when your arms are in this imaginary box, and try to keep your arms within the box whenever you can. Think of the common shoulder locks like americanas, Kimuras and omo platas - they all rely on forcing the arm out to the side of the body, out of the relative safety of the box.
Should your arms drift from the box (or be forced from the box) and your shoulder get injured, paddlers also have a lot of good information on shoulder rehabilitation (see this previous tip for more info). My shoulder feels 100% again, so I don't have to use this information this time, but it's nice to know that it's there if I need it.
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At first I was confused, since we weren't going particularly hard and my opponent hadn't cranked me or used a dirty trick. As I rubbed my sore shoulder I figured out what had happened: my new method for inserting the underhook involved turning my body to the left and reaching my right arm out to the right. My arm was cocked out to the side of my body like a hitchhiker on the side of the highway, instead of being in front of my body (like holding a mirror up to my face). This sideways arm position took my shoulder close to the limits of its flexibility where it needed only a very small amount of clockwise rotation to get tweaked.
I then realized that I should have known all this already from my whitewater canoeing and kayaking days. Informed paddlers are usually quite conscious to keep their arms inside the so-called paddler's box, which Bruce Lessels defines as "...an imaginary box in front of your chest. The sides of the box are the planes that hold your arms. The front of the box if your fingertips. The back of the box is your chest, and the box moves as your rotate your torso left or right."
Paddlers use this concept because it helps keep their strokes efficient, and also because it helps keep their shoulders safe from being dislocated, which is unfortunately a fairly common in the whitewater paddling community (see the fifth point).
If you are a grappler you won't always be able to keep your arms in this imaginary box. Arm and body positions in grappling are a lot more variable than in kayaking, and also there are people actively trying to force your arm into a compromised position. You should be aware, however, that your arms are strongest, and your shoulders the safest, when your arms are in this imaginary box, and try to keep your arms within the box whenever you can. Think of the common shoulder locks like americanas, Kimuras and omo platas - they all rely on forcing the arm out to the side of the body, out of the relative safety of the box.
Should your arms drift from the box (or be forced from the box) and your shoulder get injured, paddlers also have a lot of good information on shoulder rehabilitation (see this previous tip for more info). My shoulder feels 100% again, so I don't have to use this information this time, but it's nice to know that it's there if I need it.
Labels: Injuries, techniques
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December 30, 2007
How To Use Instructional BJJ Media
Stephan's note: today we have a guest author, Nicolai Geeza Holt, sharing his thoughts about a topic near and dear to my own heart: learning from instructional material. Nicolai trains with Niko Han and currently has 47 wins by submission in competition. Check out his online video collection on youtube.
The most important point to understand before you build up a big library of BJJ instruction material is this; the books, videos and DVDs you buy will not solve the practical problems you are having on the mat. Your practical problems can only be solved with practice. And you cannot practice in books or in DVDs. Practice happens on the mat.
So what are instruction materials good for?
Instruction materials can give you a big picture general idea of the kinds of things you need to master and understand over your long BJJ learning process. There are four key areas you have to master in BJJ and I will list them in order of how well BJJ instruction materials cover them.
First, techniques; BJJ instruction materials are good databases of both basic and advanced techniques.
Second, fitness; some instruction materials are specifically prepared to help you to prime your body for strength, cardio, flexibility and coordination with exercise routines, while others focus on diet or overall health.
Third, preparing your mind; some of the most insightful and useful BJJ instruction material (once you have trained past the basics), relates to how you manage what is going on in your head before, during and after marshalling on the mats.
Fourth, some BJJ instruction materials cover fight or competition strategy. This last area of knowledge is the least well covered. Strategy is rarely dealt with as the main topic and it seems to crop up as side-points to other points a teacher is making. You have to dig hard for this last kind of wisdom.
Even though the area best covered in BJJ instructional material is technique, every submission or escape, or way to improve your position, or way to prevent your opponent improving their position, takes place in a particular situation. In competition or sparring every sequence happens exactly that way only once; kind of like that old saw – you can never step into the same river twice because the river is always changing (of course this is not to say that you will not get stuck at the same old positions with some of your regular training partners). Therefore, no book or DVD that can cover more than a small fraction of the exact sequences that occur in real live situations. Because each specific sequence of moves occurs only once, most BJJ technique material breaks the knowledge down into individual submissions, holds, sweeps and moves. It is rare that more than 3 or 4 techniques are shown in sequence, and generally instructional material focuses on the details of a single technique. But good instructional material will not only outline suggestions of things to do in precise situations, it will also state the general principles that underlie the practical steps suggested.
How do we learn BJJ?
We learn BJJ by imitation. Here is a little neuroscience to explain how we imitate. In the frontal lobe of the brain is a region called the motor cortex. It is involved in the planning, control, and execution of voluntary motor functions. Meanwhile, the pre-motor cortex is an area of the motor cortex responsible for the sensory guidance of movement and especially the core trunk muscles of the body. In the pre-motor cortex there are cells that fire when we move our limbs, shrimp or grip. The pre-motor cortex also has groups of cells called mirror neurons that fire we watch someone else move their limbs, shrimp or grip. Mirror neurons are critical to imitation. The more you watch other people do BJJ, the more your mirror neurons fire. The circuits are automatic and they bypass conscious mediation.
Typically most people can copy complex sequence of actions after they have seen them 3 times ( i.e. fired up their mirror neurons 3 times!). BJJ superstars (or any sports superstar), naturally has extensive networks of mirror neurons. The good news is that anyone can build their mirror neuron networks with practice. The point of all this is that the more visual that the learning materials you use are, the easier it is to fire up your mirror neurons and consequently the easier it is to imitate what you just saw. So just watching others doing BJJ can help your own BJJ.
Which one to choose? - BJJ Books versus DVDs versus YouTube
BJJ Books are good because they give you time to think about what is being taught you, they have visual content in the form of pictures and their written word is carefully thought through, well articulated and edited. The weakness of books is that still pictures are less effective at firing up your mirror neurons and frequently the author has a self-congratulatory tone as opposed to a simple genuine desire to spread knowledge.
DVDs are good because they are highly visual in a way specifically designed to fire up your motor neurons and they present a coherent body of knowledge. The weakness of DVDs is that they are expensive, they are extremely mixed in terms of quality and they often have lots of filler techniques that no-one ever uses.
YouTube is good because it is free, you can search for a specific technique and get a variety of insights from many different teachers, you have easy access to all the info, it is highly visual, and you can get both theory and practical content. (Try searching for rear naked choke in YouTube to see the wealth of knowledge available). The weakness of YouTube as a BJJ learning tool is that it is an incoherent collection of videos, good in some areas and weak in others, and you can easily get side-tracked in your learning process.
Some other bullet points on BJJ instruction material
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The most important point to understand before you build up a big library of BJJ instruction material is this; the books, videos and DVDs you buy will not solve the practical problems you are having on the mat. Your practical problems can only be solved with practice. And you cannot practice in books or in DVDs. Practice happens on the mat.
So what are instruction materials good for?
Instruction materials can give you a big picture general idea of the kinds of things you need to master and understand over your long BJJ learning process. There are four key areas you have to master in BJJ and I will list them in order of how well BJJ instruction materials cover them.
First, techniques; BJJ instruction materials are good databases of both basic and advanced techniques.
Second, fitness; some instruction materials are specifically prepared to help you to prime your body for strength, cardio, flexibility and coordination with exercise routines, while others focus on diet or overall health.
Third, preparing your mind; some of the most insightful and useful BJJ instruction material (once you have trained past the basics), relates to how you manage what is going on in your head before, during and after marshalling on the mats.
Fourth, some BJJ instruction materials cover fight or competition strategy. This last area of knowledge is the least well covered. Strategy is rarely dealt with as the main topic and it seems to crop up as side-points to other points a teacher is making. You have to dig hard for this last kind of wisdom.
Even though the area best covered in BJJ instructional material is technique, every submission or escape, or way to improve your position, or way to prevent your opponent improving their position, takes place in a particular situation. In competition or sparring every sequence happens exactly that way only once; kind of like that old saw – you can never step into the same river twice because the river is always changing (of course this is not to say that you will not get stuck at the same old positions with some of your regular training partners). Therefore, no book or DVD that can cover more than a small fraction of the exact sequences that occur in real live situations. Because each specific sequence of moves occurs only once, most BJJ technique material breaks the knowledge down into individual submissions, holds, sweeps and moves. It is rare that more than 3 or 4 techniques are shown in sequence, and generally instructional material focuses on the details of a single technique. But good instructional material will not only outline suggestions of things to do in precise situations, it will also state the general principles that underlie the practical steps suggested.
How do we learn BJJ?
We learn BJJ by imitation. Here is a little neuroscience to explain how we imitate. In the frontal lobe of the brain is a region called the motor cortex. It is involved in the planning, control, and execution of voluntary motor functions. Meanwhile, the pre-motor cortex is an area of the motor cortex responsible for the sensory guidance of movement and especially the core trunk muscles of the body. In the pre-motor cortex there are cells that fire when we move our limbs, shrimp or grip. The pre-motor cortex also has groups of cells called mirror neurons that fire we watch someone else move their limbs, shrimp or grip. Mirror neurons are critical to imitation. The more you watch other people do BJJ, the more your mirror neurons fire. The circuits are automatic and they bypass conscious mediation.
Typically most people can copy complex sequence of actions after they have seen them 3 times ( i.e. fired up their mirror neurons 3 times!). BJJ superstars (or any sports superstar), naturally has extensive networks of mirror neurons. The good news is that anyone can build their mirror neuron networks with practice. The point of all this is that the more visual that the learning materials you use are, the easier it is to fire up your mirror neurons and consequently the easier it is to imitate what you just saw. So just watching others doing BJJ can help your own BJJ.
Which one to choose? - BJJ Books versus DVDs versus YouTube
BJJ Books are good because they give you time to think about what is being taught you, they have visual content in the form of pictures and their written word is carefully thought through, well articulated and edited. The weakness of books is that still pictures are less effective at firing up your mirror neurons and frequently the author has a self-congratulatory tone as opposed to a simple genuine desire to spread knowledge.
DVDs are good because they are highly visual in a way specifically designed to fire up your motor neurons and they present a coherent body of knowledge. The weakness of DVDs is that they are expensive, they are extremely mixed in terms of quality and they often have lots of filler techniques that no-one ever uses.
YouTube is good because it is free, you can search for a specific technique and get a variety of insights from many different teachers, you have easy access to all the info, it is highly visual, and you can get both theory and practical content. (Try searching for rear naked choke in YouTube to see the wealth of knowledge available). The weakness of YouTube as a BJJ learning tool is that it is an incoherent collection of videos, good in some areas and weak in others, and you can easily get side-tracked in your learning process.
Some other bullet points on BJJ instruction material
- If your own instructor makes a DVD definitely buy it – it will greatly speed your learning process.
- Watch the whole DVD in one sitting first time through to understand the full set of ideas the instructor is proposing.
- It is a business. Being a BJJ teacher is not a well paid profession and therefore the best will try and supplement their income by selling instruction material. What gets a product sold is not always what will help your BJJ.
- It takes a long time to learn BJJ and nothing can beat a good instructor giving you good drills to do with a good training partner.
- BJJ instruction materials can give you new ideas when you are getting stale.
- Think of BJJ instruction material as being analogous to vitamins in your diet – you need all the basic stuff in your diet and vitamins add that something extra for top performance.
- Most BJJ instruction material is weak on counter techniques, so make sure you ask your instructor for the defence each time you learn a technique.
Labels: Grapplearts DVDs, techniques, training
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December 18, 2007
Golf and BJJ
I don't like golf. I'll probably receive a large batch of irate emails because of saying this, but I don't like playing golf, I don't like watching golf, and I'm befuddled by its current popularity. I do think, however, that grapplers can learn at least one thing from golfers: intense analysis of basic posture and movement.
Unlike many other sports, golfers, even recreational golfers, spend a lot of time analyzing the most minute details of basic moves (i.e. their strokes). They worry about weight placement, body angles, finger placement, torso rotation, head position, stroke follow-though, etc. Perhaps it helps that success in golf is so easily quantifiable: if you normally drive the ball 250 yards, and changing your finger positions increases that to 270 yards, then you know that you are probably on the right track.
I think that many of the very best grapplers combine a high level of athleticism with an intensely analytical approach to performing their techniques. Ideally we would apply this in-depth scrutiny to every technique -submissions, sweeps, escapes, takedowns, guard passes, etc.) that we've ever been taught. In reality this is impractical. There are so many more techniques in BJJ than there are strokes in golf that to analyze every technique would several lifetimes.
We CAN apply this level of analysis to our favorite techniques though - the "go to" moves and techniques that form the core of your particular game. The exact list of core techniques will vary from grappler to grappler (and will change over time for a given grappler). Whatever your list, you should learn the biomechanics and principles, variations, setups, counters and recounters for each of your favorite techniques.
Some of the submissions in my game that have occupied a front and center position have included the rear naked choke, the omo plata, the kneebar (and see this article too) and the ankle lock. For each of these submissions I went through the process I described above.
In grappling an inch can make the difference between winning and losing. Moving your hand on your opponent's lapel by one inch can make the difference between securing a choke and getting squashed yourself. How you wrap your toes around an opponent can make the difference between maintaining and losing a dominant position. Some of my most satisfying moments on the mat have come from finally realizing how a small adjustment can bring a formerly moribund technique to life.
Most 'normal' people (i.e. non-grapplers) would consider worrying about the details of lapel gripping and toe placement to be on the verge of obsessive-compulsive, but I have the feeling that golfers would understand.
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Unlike many other sports, golfers, even recreational golfers, spend a lot of time analyzing the most minute details of basic moves (i.e. their strokes). They worry about weight placement, body angles, finger placement, torso rotation, head position, stroke follow-though, etc. Perhaps it helps that success in golf is so easily quantifiable: if you normally drive the ball 250 yards, and changing your finger positions increases that to 270 yards, then you know that you are probably on the right track.
I think that many of the very best grapplers combine a high level of athleticism with an intensely analytical approach to performing their techniques. Ideally we would apply this in-depth scrutiny to every technique -submissions, sweeps, escapes, takedowns, guard passes, etc.) that we've ever been taught. In reality this is impractical. There are so many more techniques in BJJ than there are strokes in golf that to analyze every technique would several lifetimes.
We CAN apply this level of analysis to our favorite techniques though - the "go to" moves and techniques that form the core of your particular game. The exact list of core techniques will vary from grappler to grappler (and will change over time for a given grappler). Whatever your list, you should learn the biomechanics and principles, variations, setups, counters and recounters for each of your favorite techniques.
Some of the submissions in my game that have occupied a front and center position have included the rear naked choke, the omo plata, the kneebar (and see this article too) and the ankle lock. For each of these submissions I went through the process I described above.
In grappling an inch can make the difference between winning and losing. Moving your hand on your opponent's lapel by one inch can make the difference between securing a choke and getting squashed yourself. How you wrap your toes around an opponent can make the difference between maintaining and losing a dominant position. Some of my most satisfying moments on the mat have come from finally realizing how a small adjustment can bring a formerly moribund technique to life.
Most 'normal' people (i.e. non-grapplers) would consider worrying about the details of lapel gripping and toe placement to be on the verge of obsessive-compulsive, but I have the feeling that golfers would understand.
Labels: techniques, the guard
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