Taking Control ... ???

One of the supposed benefits of BJJ training is that, over time, we learn to exercise control; control over our physical abilities, control over a potential antagonist and control over our emotions. Of these three, the latter is by far the most difficult to acquire; at least that has been my own experience - and it is talked about very little, at least in BJJ circles.
Each of us, at some time or other, experiences hurt, disappointment, frustration, fear and a swag of other negative emotions. My martial arts training over the years had taught me many, many things; perhaps one of the most important is that whilst we may develop the ability to exert physical control over other people, we cannot (nor should we) control how other people act, react or live their lives. The thing we truly can control, is how we act, how we live in the world and to some degree, how we think about things.
It is even difficult to control the outcomes of things; we can plan and act, but then we must develop a certain level of acceptance regarding the outcomes of those plans and actions; especially so, if we want to be happy. Many people take up martial arts training because they want to feel empowered in some way; perhaps they want to feel a little more control in their own lives and feel they can shape the way their lives will unfold and to some extent, the world in which they live. The reality though, is that there are simply an infinite number of things we cannot ever control; in short, we can control our own actions, and that’s about it!
Learning to accept that many things are beyond our control, is I believe, an important lesson to learn if we are to live truly happy lives. This doesn’t mean we need only sit back and watch the world unfold around us; not by any means. What it does mean, is that we make decisions, take action and then try to develop a certain level of acceptance regarding the eventual outcomes of those actions. We cannot control every element of every situation, and trying to do so will only lead to unhappiness and frustration. I like to say, act and behold. Sometimes the outcomes of our actions are highly favourable, sometimes less so and at other times, disastrous. We should all learn to take action and then accept, with dignity, the consequences of those actions. By practising a little Buddhist acceptance, we can live lives that are more full of happiness and less replete with frustration and anger.
Life can be a struggle; and martial arts training teaches us how to deal and live with struggle; but life is also about being happy, living with less angst and realising that we cannot control everything. A little acceptance, a little less attachment and the realisation that nothing lasts forever can go a long way to making the living of our lives a joyous and more wonderful experience.
JBW

Back to the back ...

In BJJ - if there is any such thing as an iconic position - it would have to be Back Control.
In my own case, I definitely misunderstood this position for many, many years. Lately, I have been trying to make sure that my own students don't walk the same torturous path that I did in the first decade of my BJJ training.
Back control is such an important position because it affords us such dominant control over our opponent - and provides the opportunity to apply the coup de grace of BJJ - the back-choke.

In bJJ, as most of my readers should know - the first three tenets are: position, position & position. We must get the position, then keep the position - and only then, we squeeze the juice out of the position by applying a finishing move. There are a lot of technical aspects to fighting the hand-fight and applying a good back-choke - but the most important thing by far is simply that you must spend a lot of time getting peoples backs and keeping that position - and then you will eventually work out how to apply a good back-choke.

The more roads we have available to us to arrive on our opponent's back, the more likely we are to arrive at all. Can we get the back from side control, from the mount, from the guard, from head-to-head? But what about the back control itself - what are some of the finer details? here are my two cents on the subject - things I worked out only after I was wearing my black belt ...

- back control is not so much about the 'hooks' as it is about the 'seatbelt grip'.
- the seatbelt grip (one arm over and one under his arm) will keep our chest attached to his back
- we must have a willingness (and the technique to back it up) to follow the opponent as he moves
- once our hooks are in, we must be willing to take them out to re-position at any given moment
- the more we use our feet and hip movement to follow the opponent, the less strain we place on the seatbelt grip system
- learn to go from no hooks to one hook and from one hook to two hooks
- the seatbelt grip should be close to the opponents neck so that we can capitalize quickly with the choke if he lifts his chin

There is a load of technical training and technique that goes along with each of tese points but hopefully some of them will provide you with food for thought.
best of luck with a new improved back-control and back-choke for 2010!
JBW

Puzzle Answers.

I hope you enjoyed the not so difficult challenge.
best wishes
JBW

Puzzle me this ...

I am heading away this long weekend to hit the wilds of the remote central plateau in Tasmania. I won't be in range of any type of technology until tuesday night. So here is something to keep you scratching your heads in the meantime ... actually, it's pretty simple to solve. I will though, post te answers up on my next post, upon my return ... sorry the pics are a little small - just drag each of them onto your desktop and print them out. Though I am sure that most of you have much better things to do ...
Best wishes
JBW

Would you buy your coach a cup of coffee every day?

I think it worthwhile putting the whole 'training or membership fee' concept, into some kind of perspective.
Let's say the average cost for training is around $100 per month - cheap I know - but we'll use that as a base-point. This comes down to about $3.30 pr day - to belong to a club, receie all the tuiton, and use any faciities the club/academy may provide.
Now, the last time I checked, this is about the price of a cup of coffee, bought down the street.
In any teacher.student relationship - you would have to agree that to buy the teacher one cup of coffee every day, would represent a pretty good deal for the benefits received in return. Thats' right - ONE CUP OF COFFE A DAY! So next time, you are wondering whether you are getting a good deal for the training you are getting - ask yourself - are you getting value from your teacher that is commensurate with buying him a cup of coffee every day?
Many people swear that their martial arts training has changed their lives ... but quite often, these ver same peole, want to put their memberships on 'hold' while they get over their flu or go on holidays ... come one ... if you value the relationship you have with your teacher, think about buying him (or her) the cup of coffee every day - even on thse days when you have a dose of the flu.It's all a matter of Perspective!

JBW

Healthy Perspective

The new year is well underway ... and many of us have probably taken the opportunity to take stock of where we are and where we are likely headed over the year that lies ahead of us. The year ahead will be full of surprises, both good and bad; and full of new interactions with other people - and probably more than anything else, it is just these interactions that will ultimately determine, how the year pans out for each of us. How we connect with others will ultimately determine how happy we will be over the course of the year ahead; how we connect with each other in training, at home with our families and in those great moments spent with the best of friends. Life, though sometimes bumpy, is always full of possibility at every corner.

Most people go through hard times of some sort or another, but I think that most of them also lack perspective. The world is full of people who wonder about where their next meal is coming from, or worse, they wonder about where their children’s next meal will come from. If you are reading this blog, you are probably living a relatively affluent lifestyle when compared to the greater population of the world. Things are rarely as bad as they seem, even in times of struggle.
Life is much more about relationships that it is about money. The things that truly count in life are the feelings we have and the times we spend with other people. Money certainly opens up our options, but in my experience it certainly doesn’t buy happiness.

Money is just a means to an end. I have never been driven by money, or the need for it. I have always been driven by other forces; forces like passion, wanting to see what’s over the next hill, challenge, love, friendship, purpose, etc. I have always understood that we get money for doing things that we are good at doing but have never been obsessed with the need to become a millionaire or anything like that. And yet I have pretty much always considered myself to be a very happy person.
The fact is that I personally know quite a few millionaires who say they would love to be able to do the things I now do just in the course of my everyday life. An interesting question to ask is ‘what stops them from doing just that?’ The answer, as sad as it may sound, is that once people have a million dollars in disposable assets, they feel a need to acquire two million; once they have two million, they need four, and so on. Greed can certainly work as a motivational tool to get you moving, but to let it control your existence is in some ways as crippling as poverty. Human beings were not created to make money; we are here to experience, to live life in a state of excellence; these and the other truly important things have nothing to do with the number at the bottom of our bank statements.

I have a great week of training ahead of me and the third book in my Rogue Black Belt series to get off to the print-house - at the end of which I am leaving for four days of hiking into a very remote part of the Tasmanian wilderness to celebrate with a bit of fly-fishing with a good buddy of mine - awesome times ahead.
I hope you all have as much fun as I plan to have over the remainder of this, the first month of 2010!

JBW

The Phalanx ...

I am often asked to elaborate on the pros and cons of two seemingly different approaches to the development of ones personal game on the mat. Is is better to pick one idea (say: Back-choke) and focus all of your attention on that one thing - or develop a wide variety of techniques instead. On the surface, it can seem that these are two mutually exclusive ideas. my view is that this is not necessarily the case.
Instead of choosing one or the other (obsession with a single technique vs a wide variety of techniques) I think we can have the best of both worlds in a single approach. What I call the Phalanx Approach.
By this I mean that we can put our focus one a single technique - sat back-choke for example - but think of everything else that we know, and can learn, as a way of improving our chances to make that back-choke happen. So the tip of our Phalanx is represented by the back-choke - but every sweep, transition or other attack, can be used to better drive our opponent toward the back-choke.
Marcelo Garcia (one of the worlds most technical BJJ competitors) for example, often finishes with a back-choke. But it is his whole game that drives the fight to that inevitable conclusion. His hook guard, forces his opponents to try to back away and control his legs - this gives him an opportunity to arm-drag and get the opponents back - which in turn gives him the opportunity to execute his back-choke.
The more we learn, the more options we have to drive the fight to the conclusion we want.
Another way to think of it is like a game of chess. In chess, there is only one way to win - Kill the opponents King. But how many possibilities and howe many different ways of moving all the different pieces are there - to achieve that same simple goal. So the goal itself may be one, relatively simple idea, but the almost infinite variety of tools, moves and strategies we use to achieve that goal is what makes the whole think s complex - so interesting - and so mjuch fun.
best wishes
JBW

Pumped and good to go!

Well, the new year is fully underway.
For me this means getting back into the routine of running my evening classes - and I am very much enjoying it. Personally, I find it fairly easy to get all excited about classes - I have always been passionate about training, and it is a rare day indeed when I find myself simply going through the motions. In fact, if I identify that I am in that kind of mood - I would rather not put myself in front of people. I have seen too many so-called professionals, lapse into this type of mind-set - the just another day at the office mindset. I find that to be quite sad - because very often, these people were once very passionate about their chosen profession - but after a while they become a little bored and then they begin to lose their passionate edge. Sad.
In my own case, I am always trying to update my own training ideas ... thinking about or working on, new ideas - for both delivery and execution. This keeps me fresh - if I am fresh and fully engaged, then how can I not be excited about teaching classes. So, 25,000 odd classes into my martial arts training - I am pumped and good to go! can't wait for this evening ...
JBW

Back on deck ...

I arrived back from Bali on the weekend - and despite a nasty bout of the dreaded Bali Belly, got back into my regular routine this week. Classes resumed at my school this week, and I have very much enjoyed being there. Tonight's classes were Novice BJJ and MMA; I had an absolute ball!
This week I have also finished a few more chapters of the third and final installment in my Rogue Black Belt series. I have done 15 out of 2o chapters. I hope to be finished by the end of next week. The it's another few day of laying it all out and designing a few internal pages, etc in readiness for the print house. After that, it'll take about two weeks to get printed, bound and delivered. I am excited about the prospect.
I am off to a great start for the new year - my calendar is pretty full till at least the end of April - but I am excited about the way it all promises to unfold.
Here's a short installment from my next book - an excerpt from chapter four - I hope you enjoy it.
JBW



Each of us brings something to the world. When people interact, they leave their mark on each other. The most content, fulfilled and happy people I know are also the ones that treat others with respect and kindness. In my experience, treating others with respect and kindness is not a result of being happy but rather a cause of being so.


Best of the best

In the months to follow, I played a far more active teaching role at the Wall Street Village Academy. The word was beginning to spread within the Los Angeles martial arts community, and some big names were walking in the door. I had the pleasure of teaching people like Chuck Norris, Howard Jackson and others who were also bitten by the BJJ bug. When compared to the Brazilians living in LA at that time, my physical skills were average at best; my teaching skills though, were another matter entirely. Although I was a relative newcomer to the art of BJJ, I had by that time developed some talent at ‘glimpse analysis’ and I could impart the understanding that I gathered from that analysis in a meaningful way to other people. It was on the back of those teaching skills that I have since built my life as a professional martial arts and defensive tactics instructor.

It was, I am sure, no coincidence that those martial artists who came, tasted what we had to offer and stayed, were also the nicest kinds of people. Chuck Norris is a perfect example of this.

One day, around lunchtime, I was teaching Chuck and his friend Bob Wall. I had neglected to lock the door, as was my usual habit when teaching private classes, and so it was that two kids walked in. They were youngsters, perhaps ten or twelve years of age. The older of the two took one look at us on the mat, stopped dead in his tracks, pointed accusingly and said ‘You’re Chuck Norris!’
‘Hey there’ replied Chuck.
‘What are you doing?’ asked the boy, blithely unaware of the protocols that would have silenced an older person.
‘Brazilian Jiu Jitsu’ answered Chuck. ‘Would you like to learn?’
In a flash both boys, having the sense to remove their shoes, scrambled onto the mat.
‘Do you mind?’ Chuck asked me.
‘Of course not’ I replied, secretly admiring Chuck’s generosity.

A half hour later with the class finished, we left the mat and saw the kids out the door. Chuck gave one a baseball cap and the other a t-shirt, but not before adorning them with his signature. I have since wondered whether Chuck, realising that their story may not have been believed upon their arrival home that day, gave them the gifts as a kind of proof. He is a genuinely wonderful person: an inspirational martial artist in every respect.

Forming friendships with people like Chuck has been a huge validation of my choice to make my living from the martial arts. People like Chuck, Richard Norton, David Meyer, Howard Jackson, Benny Urquidez and many others have lived their lives by a code of integrity and honour. Such role models have positively affected the lives of countless others by living their own according to conscience and a strong moral compass. The people we surround ourselves with have a profound effect on how we live our own lives; and so I have long since learned to discriminate when it comes to who I spend time with.

Rigan Machado is another wonderful example of a person who possesses a heart of gold. Anyone who has met Rigan will attest to what a genuinely nice person he is. In fact, his warm and generous personality can easily distract you from the realisation that he is one of the most talented grapplers on the face of the earth - a real genius in fact.

I had been privy to plenty of evidence as proof of Rigan’s amazing abilities, but it somehow became even more evident several months into that particular training trip when he and I travelled to Kentucky for the National Sambo Grappling Championship
Sambo is the national combative sport of Russia. Its technique has evolved out of a hybrid mix of Judo throwing, wrestling takedowns and Jiu Jitsu groundwork, including submissions. Although many of the BJJ techniques, such as choking and guard-work are disallowed in Sambo competition, there were in fact quite a few similarities.

Rigan decided to enter the competition and asked if I wanted to accompany him up to Kentucky for the weekend. I wanted to compete as well, and so despite the fact that we didn’t even know the rules at that time, we jumped on a plane and made our way north.

Arriving in Kentucky that evening, we met with officials and filled in the appropriate paperwork. Rigan asked me to learn the rules and then explain it to him. And so after a quick conversation with the somewhat bemused president of the American Sambo Association, I formulated a sketchy idea of how it all worked. The rules, as it turned out, were quite a bit different from those used in BJJ competition, but it didn’t seem to matter much to Rigan.
‘Just find out what I am allowed to do’ he asked, ‘And I will just do that!’
I was dubious, but Rigan’s confidence was infectious and I soon found myself looking forward to the tournament.

I entered the lightweight division and Rigan entered the Open Heavyweight division. The tournament turned out to be a gathering of the various state champions from the length and breadth of America. A lot of Olympic wrestlers and Judoka also joined in as a way to rack up more competition experience. I knew it was going to be a tough day.

Rigan was called up first and walked out onto the mat with his usual quiet confidence. The match didn’t last long, with Rigan submitting his opponent in a minute or so. Submissions, though legal, were not the most common way a match was won, so there were some surprised looks among the spectator’s after he won in such short order.

Then it was my turn. My opponent was a good wrestler from America’s heartland. Unfortunately, he threw me easily in the first few seconds of the fight. Takedowns were a very weak part of my repertoire at that time. Once we hit the ground though, even though I hit it pretty hard, I was in my element and quickly dominated him. The match stalled a bit with me trying to finish him but also being distracted by Rigan yelling out ‘Don’t choke him!’ from the side of the mat. We were then stood back up to start over. The same thing pretty much happened two more times: my opponent taking me down, me dominating once the fight hit the ground. However, a near finish and dominating him on the ground didn’t score me the points he scored by taking me down. He was declared the winner.

Rigan smiled as I walked off the mat and pointed out that I needed to work on my takedowns and perhaps more importantly, my defence to them. Despite my loss, I felt good about my effort. We were still learning the rules.

Again Rigan was called up, and it was almost an exact replay of his earlier match, although perhaps a little more comical. Rigan took his opponent down easily and pinned him to the mat. Then, seemingly ignoring his opponent’s frantic and futile attempts to escape, he started up a conversation with the referee about whether it was legal to apply this lock or that. The highly perplexed referee made the situation seem even funnier by answering Rigan’s questions. To put the icing on the cake, Rigan paused to actually thank him before dispatching his hapless opponent with a shoulder lock.

Having a better understanding of the rules allowed me to win my second and third matches with armlocks. I was very happy with my performance, but had no hope of fighting in the finals as I had lost my first match.

Rigan kept doing his thing and worked his way, with little apparent effort, through his entire division. As the day drew to an end, I fought my final match to determine the third and fourth places in the lightweight division. Again, although I dominated on the ground, the wrestler’s takedown at the start of the fight gave him the points he needed to win, giving me fourth place in the overall tournament.

Rigan, on the other hand, had a very different experience. He was now fighting in the final and was paired off against Ron Tripp, five times winner of the Nationals and top American Judoka. Despite Rigan’s impressive series of wins, the crowd was still expecting Ron to once again take out the tournament.

I walked up to Rigan and told him to be careful; warning him the Ron was very good.
Rigan put his arm around my shoulders and asked me to pick any finish I liked, claiming he would win with my chosen technique. And so I did. And so he did. Thirty-nine seconds into the match, I took a photo of Rigan tapping Ron out with the technique I had selected. Rigan was a true virtuoso.

Not only was Rigan the best of the best from a technical point of view but he had a heart of gold to go with it. This was made even more evident the next morning as we ate breakfast in the cafeteria.
Ron Tripp walked in and came up to our table.
‘Hi’ said Ron. ‘Our match yesterday was a little crazy. That was some weird position we ended up in. What a freak accident.’
I couldn’t believe my ears; he actually thought he lost the match because of some freak accident. I was just about to open my mouth and educate him when Rigan said ‘My friend. Sometimes it just goes like that. Next year you will win.’
Rigan was such a nice person, he didn’t want Ron to feel bad about his loss. Such is his humility.

Rigan had consummate ability when it came to wrestling and a heart of gold when it came to dealing with other people’s feelings, but he was absent-minded in the extreme.

That afternoon we headed to the airport to catch our flight back to Los Angeles. We sat down in the departure lounge and Rigan took out his video camera. We began to watch the recordings we had made of our fight and Rigan broke them down as we did so. When it came to the study of grappling, Rigan was a real academic. He picked the matches apart in fine detail and gave me advice on how to do better. I thought I’d better get up and check our departure time but Rigan told me not to worry and had me sit back down and pay attention to what was playing on the video camera. Ten minutes later, I was determined to go and check on the departure time, and again Rigan told me to stay focussed on the video. I should have ignored him.

Finally, ignoring Rigan’s protests, I got up and went to the counter. We had missed our flight by thirty minutes! I returned to Rigan, who was still sitting on the floor staring into the viewfinder and said ‘Rigan, we have missed our plane!’
‘Don’t worry about it’ he said, not taking his eye from the camera. ‘Take another look at this takedown.’
I actually became a little mad at him; we had missed the last flight back to LA for that day, and he didn’t seem to care in the slightest. He would very happily have sat there on the floor all night, watching those videos. Time and tide mean nothing to Rigan."

Another lap around the sun ...

Once again, the blue spinning marble that we live on has made a successful revolution around the giant thermonuclear reactor that is our sun. Another year gone, another ahead – and usually the juncture of the two serves as a reminder for us to take stock of what transpired during the last 12 months and what we have planned for the year ahead; chance to re-invent – a chance to improve our situation.
If we hope to improve our situation without knowing what it is we want to change – then it all just falls to random chance. If you want to have some say in over which direction your life moves – you’ll need a plan. The simplest of plans is to adjust our compass so that we eradicate the things about our lives that we don’t like and build on those parts that we do like.
This is a simple lesson that I have learned on the mat … to improve your BJJ Game, the easiest approach is to develop a more deliberate focus on the techniques you want to use – while at the same time, working on eradicating the one or two main weaknesses of your game.
We can use the same simple strategy for improving our day to day lives; just pick one or two things that we want to get done in the new year – and think deliberately about how we are going to achieve those things. At the same time, it’s worth thinking about eradicating one or two behaviours that don’t sit in accordance with the realization of those goals. In other words - import a couple of good habits – and export a couple of bad ones.
Of course, we don’t have to wait until New Years Day to make these changes – every single day is an opportunity to re-invent ourselves, our behaviour’s, our thinking and the way we live in the world; but if not now – at the beginning of a new year – then when?
Here I am, sitting out on a verandah, overlooking the jungle in Ubud, Bali. The sun is coming up and a new day is underway. I’ll be back home soon, after taking this week away with my family to rejuvenate before 2010 kicks off! Last year was a very busy one for me, so I am guessing this one will be too. In 2009, I visited 10 countries throughout the year – taught 100 seminars – and got a lot of other things done. And 2010 is shaping up to be just as busy – but for right now, I am enjoying the quiet of the mountain air as I wait for the little gangs of monkeys to scamper past my room on their way to forage amongst the little offerings to the gods, that the locals put out each morning. Another day – another year … another infinite set of possibilities …
Warmest wishes
JBW