Survival Training

Working defence is a great way to BE on the mat. It’s easy to do, as most opponents are more than happy to attack you if given the opportunity. It’s also a less-competitive way of rolling and therefore a good alternative if you have an injury or for some reason or other want to back off a little on the ‘pace’.
By digging ourselves a deep hole (letting our opponent really consolidate their position) and then finding our way to escaping – we develop strong ‘last-chance’ escape skills. I like to call this ‘survival training. My coach Rigan Machado used to have us work this way on a regular basis. He also used to put us in an opponents guard and just stay there and ‘survive’ while our opponents did his best to attack or sweep us. In doing this, we were able to focus all of our attention on what was going on, rather than spend any of it thinking about what we wanted to do – in other words, it kept us ‘in the moment’.
Survival training can be just that – just survive – don’t let the opponent submit us or improve his position. Or it can be taken to another level, in that we can not only survive – but we can try to improve our situation while doing so (escape, etc).
One thing for certain, survival training improves our confidence in bad situations. This can be a very empowering experience – more so, in many ways, than learning to improve our attack capabilities.
JBW

The evolution of a technique

Techniques evolve over time, for the same reasons that anything evolves, as a result of how well it performs in a given environment. In short, if it keeps working, it stays the same; if not, it changes, evolves or it gets dropped from the menu.
All that is pretty straight forward – it goes like this: a technique is thrown onto the mat - someone starts executing it on everyone – some people begin to develop counters to it – and now, if the person trying the technique wants to keep doing it, they need to modify it and develop ‘work-arounds’ for the counters – we have evolution. Simple.
But now for the not so obvious …
Most people think that the final ‘evolution’ of a technique is the best one – after all, the best athlete is doing it ‘that way’ so shouldn’t we do the same? The answer to this question is more often than not – no! But why …?
The final evolution of a technique is usually one that addresses the latest (and very specific) counter-measures that our class-mates have developed as a response to our efforts; mostly though, the most basic ‘model’ of the technique is all that is needed against the majority of opponents – in fact, the most basic ‘model’ of the technique may be even more suited to ‘usual’ circumstances than the latest evolution of itself. Quite often, things can evolve to become ‘highly specific’ – and by this I mean ‘too specific’ for general use. Food for thought
JBW

Simplicity/Complexity

What is it about BJJ that is so very addictive? What is so intoxicating about this art that attracts tens of thousands of people to the mat and keeps them there long after they have acquired the skills to defend themselves?
These are difficult questions to answer. For me, one of the most attractive and fascinating things about BJJ is that it embodies a beautiful balance between simplicity and complexity.
In the beginning, it’s the simplicity of the BJJ basics that are so appealing. A basic understanding of how to effectively transition from position to position and how to prevent our opponent from doing so can be a very empowering process. The beginner has many a ‘wow – I can do this’ experience when they begin their BJJ journey; and that in itself is a powerful motivator.
Later on, as understanding and skill increases, the complexity is what appeals. There never really is a sense of total mastery, there is always more to learn, new problems to overcome, new strategies to master. In this way BJJ is like the strategic game of chess – the challenges are never-ending; the complexity draws you in.
Both the simplicity and the complexity keep you there; and in being there, spending time on the mat, you cannot help but learn and improve.
JBW

Delight in the simple things …

Being childlike in our training attitude is a wonderful trait to nurture. A child doesn’t think too much about winning or losing – a child just delights in the action. A child doesn’t recoil from the unknown – a child explores and discovers. A child doesn’t need complexity for complexities sake – a child can wonder at the simplest of things. A child doesn’t need to have a reason to do something – a child will wallow in experience for it’s own reward. A child doesn’t fall from the bike never to alight it again – a child will fail, try, fail, try, fail and try again. Perhaps most important of all, a child doesn’t spend the larger part of their time dwelling on the past or worrying about the future – a child finds it easy and natural to live fully in the present.
JBW

Looking for patterns

Imagine this – you are hired to do a study on traffic patterns; you need to identify certain patterns at certain times of the day; perhaps how flows on one road, effect flows on an intersecting road, etc. Anyway, you’ve got he idea …
Now the question is this: do you undertake this study from within your moving vehicle, as part of the traffic problem or from the comfort of your deck-chair from a point removed from the traffic. No trick question here – the obvious answer is that we would want to be outside of the thing we are studying.
Now let’s apply this thinking to grappling. If you want to study the patterns that unfold during the course of grappling, it is often very useful to observe these from the ‘outside’. In other words, when you aren’t overly concerned about the outcomes, you can free up a larger part of your awareness and just watch your opponent. Now you can do this anytime you like – the trick is to just ‘flow’ and not worry too much (or at all) about trying to win.
As a coach, every now and then I try this strategy with my class: they pair off, play paper,rock, scissors to determine who will win the match (not unlike WWF) – and once that’s out of the way, there is absolutely zero-pressure for the person who lost the game – and they can just kick back, relax and watch everything their opponent does as he sets out on his quest to win. Zero-pressure equals more free brain power available to observe and ponder – and those are great skills to develop. Food for thought …
JBW

Just for the sake of it …

Some people, many people in fact, seem to need a clear, concrete reason to train, to be fitter, to stick to their diet … perhaps something along the lines of ‘I am training three times a week so I can win an upcoming competition’ – or lose this amount of weight, etc. I DO NOT!
Although it’s certainly okay to have goals to work toward – but if these goals are the only reason we are doing the work, then what happens when we achieve those goals – what happens to our motivation.
For myself, I like to train just for how it makes me feel, for the intrinsic value that I get from it whilst doing it. I like to eat well and work on my fitness just for how it makes me feel; not because I am trying to hit a certain weight, look a certain way or get ready for a particular event. I like learning, just for the sake of it; for how it changes the way I think; not just because I have to pass an exam, etc. I like improving myself just for the sake of it; the fact that I get certain other ancillary benefits is a total bonus.
It’s a great thing to be able to find joy in the simple doing of things. A big part of what it takes to be happy.
JBW

The Fluid Game

Over time, we all collect techniques, some of which click together well to form solid combinations, others seem to be only suited to very specific situations, others still have perhaps novelty value alone.
Eventually, driven by environmental factors (on the mat this = partners we are rolling with) we sort and collate our collections of techniques into little game-plans. Eventually we develop little game-plans to cope with the most commonly arising situations – and we call this – our Game.
Over time, as we refine and further develop our Game, we construct a kind of structure upon which we can add other new, compatible techniques. Our Game grows but it also becomes a ‘storage mechanism’ for more and more information.
Tiny drops (techniques) become larger blobs (mini-plans), which in turn begin to form the basis of our Game. Techniques are not all that flexible/adaptable – games on the other hand, by very definition, can adapt and change moment by moment – driven by the forces of the struggle. Games should be, by their nature – very fluid.
JBW

Learning Techniques VS Developing a Plan.

When we start out in BJJ, we begin a journey of collecting techniques. With enough of them under our belt, we eventually become Blue Belts. Tis begs the question: where to from there? Is a Purple belt just a blue belt with more techniques in his collection - or is he/she something more?
In my view, the approach to purple is very different from the approach to blue. For me, this part of the evolution marks the transtiion from learning techniques, to developing plans. In an ideal world, the purple belt doesn't just have (for example) a 1/2 guard technique - he/she has instead, a 1/2 gard plan; a passing plan, a side control defence plan, a turtle plan, etc. This takes time and experience and that's why it is usually around purple belt level that we start to formulate a large enough series of plans that we tend to 'FLOW' from one to the next as the fight evolves and changes.
The transition from TECHNIQUE to PLAN can be likened to the difference between having work for one day or having a fulltime job; like having a fish or learning how to fish, etc. it is a very big transition in the evolution of ones game - and one that should be understood. Eventually, over time, we develop different plans for different situations; ideally, for every situation (again, this takes time) and over even more time, those plans each become more clearly defined and can be executed with increasingly greater levels of skill.
For those who are just beginning to make such a transition - start building your first plan around the situation that comes up the most when you wrestle. Then, over time, build other plans, for other common situations that occur; eventually, having a plan for every situation. Then you are living in what is known as - a familiar landscape.
JBW

High percentage techniques …

Some techniques are high percentage while others are difficult to pull off.
While it is true that with enough practice and enough repetition, we can make almost anything work for us – some techniques are just easier to make work than others.
Most techniques require the correct execution of a series of small steps; if the technique is relatively simple, it might be two or three steps; if fairly complex it might be six or seven steps. In my view though, whether the technique is easy to execute does not so much depend on the number of steps but rather how easy it is to execute that single, all-important, first step. If the first step in a series of steps to any given goal is difficult then the chances of most people achieving that goal is fairly small; if on the other hand the first step is quite manageable, then the chance of actualizing the goal is fairly high.
That first step – is VERY important. What stops people from achieving is INERTIA. Once we get going, we are hard to stop.
With any technique (or goal) get real clarity on that first step (grip, position, etc) and put all of your efforts into achieving it. From there, it’s just practice.
JBW