BJJ / Grappling tips: Stop Wasting Time in Jiujitsu!

Do you want to stop wasting time while training jiujitsu? Spring Clean your life!

An old saying goes: You don’t measure water with a sieve! In other words, in order to know how much time you will need to get something done, you have to manage where your time is disappearing.

We grow attached to clutter. It’s a simple as that. Garfield the cat says in one his cartoons: Food a funny thing, because the moment you are full it turns from temptation to garbage. The same goes for objects. The moment we attach a value to them, we practically hand them an unquestioned invite to clutter our lives (and steal our valuable time).

An excellent example is the £2.99 I paid for one of the best Judo books ever published: The Secrets of Judo: Text for Instructors and Students: Test for Instructors and Students. It's where I learnt all my top game pressure principles. I got it at the local used-book store. Whoever owned prior to me had not attached any further value to it and was happy to part with it (or perhaps they loved it but it was time for it to make its journey to me!)

Here is something that I recommend you do at least once and preferable 2ce a year. I call it the Spiritual Spring Clean:

• Take a hard look at everything you own (and I mean everything!)
• Within 2 seconds place it in one of the following three piles:

1. Keep for a specific (near-future: upcoming 6-months) purpose
2. Give to someone specific
3. Throw away in the bin

(PS. These piles are listed in increasing order of size!)

Uncluttering your life will have a trickle down effect on your mental state and help you re-focus your training.

Remember the Pareto rule? 20% of what you own will provide 80% you need (and 80% of your issues are born out of 20% of your activities!)

While you chew on that, watch professor Ryan Young's analysis of what's fundamental in jiujitsu and what's advanced. This may help you "spring clean" your arsenal of jiujitsu techniques.

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ZHOO ZHITSU IS FOR EVERYONE!

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Local Karateka gets a taste of the skill of a Royce Gracie Jiujitsu Blue Belt

I've visited Royce Gracie Lancashire, aka Força Combat Academy a couple of times, taught there and trained with their head instructor my good friend Ross a bunch of times. Over this time, I've come to know and really like the team there so when Ross told there had been a "situation" with one of the Jiujitsu students, John, I had to do a piece! The altercation was of a friendlier nature than good ol' Gracie challenges, but there was still some foul play and dirty tricks. Read below to see for yourself how Royce Gracie Jiujitsu did. 

Does Brazilian Jiu Jitsu work in real life self defence?

Hi John. How long have you practiced jiu jitsu?

I've trained Royce Gracie Jiu Jitsu for two years at Força Combat Academy. I received my blue belt from Royce Gracie a few weeks back.  

Cool. I believe you've recently been involved in an incident. Tell us in your own words what happened.

I went for a workout at the gym (ed. note: this is a separate leisure centre and not Força) and on the way out noticed a small number of guys getting changed into Gis, one was a purple belt and one was a two stripe brown belt along with a couple of guys with them who must have been starting. Interested to see what martial art they were doing I decided to watch them for a while with my brother, who also trains Gracie Jiujitsu. I asked the Brown belt what martial art it was and he told me it was Shotokan Karate, he then explained that they would do some body conditioning (which turned out to be him battering the other students with different strikes), some techniques (calling them everything when they got it wrong, such an inspirational instructor...) and then some "ground fighting". To which I said "can I watch?". I watched for a while all of their different techniques and then came the ground-fighting. 

BJJ / Grappling Tips: Efficiency vs Effectiveness

Helio Gracie is quoted to have said: “Jiu Jitsu is personal efficiency to protect the weaker, which anyone can do. It is the force of leverage against brute force”.

We throw these words around sometimes, whether at the gym, on the BJJ / grappling mat or even in the office. But what do they really mean and are they interchangeable?

Efficiency is using less energy to provide the same level of energy service.
Effectiveness means the capability of producing an effect.

In other words, you’re effective if you get the job done but you are only efficient if you do it with less energy.

In BJJ / Grappling, being effective means you escape bad positions, dominate people and tap them with submissions. Being efficient means you don't expend too much energy while doing so*.

The goal in BJJ/Grappling is to, ultimately, be both. But it’s not going to be easy and it’s not going to come overnight!

So where do we start? I believe that the goal initially is to work on your effectiveness, but keeping efficiency in mind. You come to the gym to learn grappling techniques that work (effective). The goal is then to try to do them with less and less energy (efficiency). Once you pass that blue belt stage, I feel it's most beneficial to stop hunting more techniques and focus instead on efficiency with the techniques you already have. Investigate the different ways people with a variety of body shapes and builds perform the same technique and it will add richness and depth to your understanding of these techniques and your efficiency with them.

While most people know that and aim to do it, some confuse the two.

BJJ Tips: Watching Instructional DVDs & How to best learn from them (Part II)

In my previous post I outlined a set of rules that I follow when watching new instructional BJJ / Grappling DVDs. These rules where ideas based on my years of experience, both as a team manager and qualified teacher and the concept that learning is learning irrespective of the material being learnt. I also promised to talk more about the best way to actually take in what you are watching and incorporate it into your practice and eventually your game.

As said before, watching BJJ / Grappling DVDs is no different than any other learning activity and hence the same rules I learnt as a language teacher apply to it.

The second set of rules applies to what you do after the DVD watching session. I strongly recommend that you:

1. Repeat what you just watched without a partner
2. Identify 3-5 make-or-break focal points about the technique and keep them as your mental hooks when watching or performing the technique. For instance, if you are looking at Side Control Top maintenance, your points could be killing the arms, blocking the hip and applying a cross-face.
3. Put a buzzer on your phone to remind you just before your session to practice the technique on your own before or after the session.
4. Schedule at least 30 minutes where you go to a rolling session and just look out for this technique. See how people of different skill levels, shapes and sizes apply (or fail to apply) the technique and figure out whether or not they applied the 3-5 pointers you outlined above.
5. Make this technique your focus for 1-2 months.

This, in my personal opinion, is the best way to get a wealth of knowledge out of a 10-15 minute segment from an instructional BJJ / Grappling DVD. The trickis having the patience and discipline to stick to the plan rather than rush through the DVDs justin order to go and order a new one.

Additional Bonus: Once you are good at the technique you should start breaking down the appropriate defence and reverse engineering that goes with it. Continuing with our Side Control example, when you realise the importance of killing the arms from the top, focus on freeing the arms and posturing when working your SC escape game. Not bad for 15 minutes!

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Liam "The Part Time Grappler" Wandi

Proudly sponsored by Predator Fightwear: Built for the kill and Brutal TShirt: Made By Grapplers For Fighters

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BJJ Tips: Watching Instructional DVDs & How to best learn from them (Part I)

I recently received Combat Base Brown Belt Adam Adshead's BJJ DVDs "50 Common Mistakes To Avoid In BJJ" and, eager as a... ehm… grappling beaver, I couldn't wait to open and pop the instructional DVDs into my laptop. The only thing was, I had a million and one other things I needed to do. I revved up my time management engine and started thinking about how and when to best make time for them. I suddenly realised that part time grapplers need a different approach to watching DVDs (or any other BJJ / Grappling instructional media such as online learning...etc.). I'm not saying other grapplers wouldn't benefit from this approach but someone who has a lot of time on their hands can do things at a more leisurely pace and still get away with it. You and I probably can't.

The way I see it, watching Brazilian Jiu Jitsu DVDs is no different than any other learning activity and hence the same rules I learnt as a language teacher apply to it. I will present these rules over two posts.

The first set of rules applies to the instructional DVD watching session itself. It needs to be BFII:

1. Brief: the brain will start switching off after approximately 15-20 minutes, sooner if the instructor is not the engaging type. There's no need to watch for longer at any one time, unless watching for leisure.
   
2. Frequent: because all u need is 15 minutes you should be able to squeeze 3-4 such sessions in a week.
   
3. Individualised: jump straight up to the section you need to review, treating this as a private session with the author. If you are currently working on your passing game, pop the passing DVD in first even if it's number 5 in the series. Luckily, these DVDs were chapterised by position / topic.
   
4. Interactive: straight or very soon after watching the technique, simulate it on your own and make a note to practice it with a partner in your very next session. After all, you've paid for your DVDs and that’s wasted money unless you learn and incorporate the new techniques into your game.

In my next post, I’ll talk more about the best way to actually take in what you are watching and incorporate it into your practice and eventually your grappling game.


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Liam "The Part Time Grappler" Wandi

Proudly sponsored by Predator Fightwear: Built for the kill and Brutal TShirt: Made By Grapplers For Fighters

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