Quality not Quantity

People who excel – really excel, are not necessarily doing more work more practice, more more, more … they are, rather, doing things differently, better, better, better. It is usually the quantitative difference and no the qualitative difference that sets true champions apart from other people – in most aspects of life. People who do marriage better than everyone else, are doing it differently, people who are doing fitness better than everyone else are doing it differently, people who are doing jiu jitsu better than everyone else are usually doing it differently. World-class Jiu Jitsu athletes (or any other world class athletes for that matter) are not just doing more (quantity) of the same thing that other hobbyist athletes are doing – rather, they are doing things diiferently; ie: better, more deliberately, more accurately, always refining, etc. Another thing that differentiates world-class athletes, (or again, any other experts for that mater) from the ordinary or mundane, is the fact that they usually spend time in the company of like-minded people; others who take a deliberate and refined approach, who want to excel and improve the quality of their practice. Better practice – quality practice means more focused practice, more deliberate practice, more well-designed practice and practicing with the right kind people. We don’t want to just ‘spin our wheels’ – we should think it through and be deliberate, and focused in how we spend our time – big results await. JBW

Rollercoaster

Life has it's ups and downs - few of us, if any, feel great all of the time. We have good times, then bad, invariably followed by good again. This happens in most areas of our lives - in the sharemarket, with our health, in our relationships, and on the mat. Sometimes, we are down, other times we are up - the thing to keep in mind, especially when times are not as good as we would have them be, is that EVERYTHING has a 'use by' date - even bad times. When we are ill - it's hard to remember what it feels like to be in full health - but most of the time, we come back to full health - eventually. When the stock-market crashes - everyone panics and sells - forgetting that, the on tens of thousands of other occasions, it came good again. When we are having a hard time in our personal life - it can seem like we are getting nowhere and are cursed by bad luck (as if such a thing had a life of it's own and was out to get us) - and we can find it hard to imagine that good times are waiting, often just around the corner. On the mat, (and in martial arts training in general) there are times when we all feel we are not making improvements - and at times like these it is important to push on, because invariably, improvements are right around the corner. There is NO SUCH THING as STEADY UPWARD IMPROVEMENT - at least not in my experience - training and life are both a bit of a roller-coaster ride. And, in actual fact, we need those downturns, so we can appreciate what it's like to head upward a moment later. Take the temporary downturn with upturn, the loss with the gain, the rainy days with sunny ones - it's all temporary - nothing is forever: JBW

Partners ...

Much of life is about relationships. Great ones make our life a joy - bad ones make out life a misery. And it's not all tat different on the mat. Great partners are those kinds of people that will work with us to help us solve problems - and we are great partners when we respond in kind. Problem solving is more often than not, a collaboration. two minds working on a problem are far more likely to come up with a workable solution than is a solitary effort. A great training partner has us leaving the mat with a smile on our face and looking forward to geting back there as soon as possible - a bad training partner has exactly the opposite effect. Before we start looking around for that perfect training partner - we should perhaps stop for a moment and ask ourselves this ... what kind of training partner are we ourselves? be the first on the mat to be a great training paertner - the idea will catch on - and soon the culture on the mat will improve for the better. I have seen this effect take place on even the worst of mats. it always starts with ourselves! JBW

Skill up ...

This is the one thing that none of us, except perhaps those living in poverty, should baulk at spending money on – skill acquisition. Our skills - to a large degree, define who we are. Over the millennia, one’s skill-set within the tribe has to a large extent, determined our status – our importance to the tribe as a whole; no skills, would often mean early death; sought-after skills, would guarantee security, basic necessities of survival and the esteem of peers. I like to skill-up; on many things. I find learning to be a very enjoyable experience; and I am very willing to pay good money for any investment in my self. There are so many things to spend money on nowadays; so many commodities, things, stuff … but to spend money on ourselves; to invest in ourselves – this is perhaps the very best way to spend money of all. JBW

Two Creatures ...

Rigan was talking to a few of us this morning - about how we are composed of 'two creatures' - the mind - and the body. The mind - may fully remember a technique; it may understand how it works; the underlying mechanics and leverage of it, etc - but that doesn't mean much when we lack the physical experience of the technique. That's where the other 'creature' comes into play - the body (muscle memory). This creature needs to feel the success of the technique; because if it has a bad or negative experience - say by trying the new technique against a larger, stronger or more experienced grappler - then it's natural tendency is to want to discard it as an ineffective survival strategy. Rigan says we need to 'trick' the physical creature into accepting the new technique as being effective - and the best way to do this is to try it with beginners - ideally, lighter and smaller novice students, until we get the 'taste of success'. The mental creature is the easy one to convince; it is the physical creature that we need to trick - we do this by repetition, drilling and easy and progressive trials against opponents who present little or no difficulty. JBW

In the Arena

One of my favourite speeches - by Theodore Roosevelt "It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by the dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who, at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly; so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat." -Theodore Roosevelt

The Gathering ...

What a weekend. We had an absolute blast, with competitors coming from Australia-wide and of course, New Zealand. The competition ran perfectly smoothly and we were treated to some excellent matches. Rigan MAchado commented how he thought it was getting better and better each year. The next morning, we were treated to a couple of seminars - where our advanced group learned a stack of new and novel set-ups and entries for the Darce Choke - followed by some Deep Half Guard work. Then Rigan taught a white-belt seminar, where he went through a progressive series of drills to develop armbar and triangle combinations. The feedback I have already received has been overwhelmingly positive - I am getting requests from people asking if they can reserve their spots for next years session. unfortunately, we cannot do that - next years session will be held on a first come, first served basis. First 60 people turning up for each seminar will get a spot. Rigan will be here for the remainder of the week, before heading to Perth to visit four of our academies over there. Have fun everyone. For results of the competition - see the news page on our website.

COUNTDOWN ...

I just picked up Rigan Machado from the airport - and we are now in final preparations for this weekend. It's a hectic 72 hour hours ahead of us - beginning with a big day tomorrow (we'll slip a H.I.I.T training session in there in the morning) with comp draws and set-up. Then the big day itself on Saturday - with the kids competition kicking off at 9am - followed by adults at 11am. Entries close midnight tonight - and draws will be done tomorrow - so if you want to be a part of it, get online right away and enter. Our bonus - Competitors Edition Omoplata/Kimura DVD is ready for each and every competitor! REGISTER ONLINE NOW! On Sunday, Rigan will be teaching his annual seminar at Dominance Mixed Martial Arts Academy at 555 Victoria St - in Richmond. Coloured belts at 10:am - followed by white belts at 12 noon. Don't miss out, on this opportunity to train with one of the best competitors to ever come out of Brazil - and more importantly, in my opinion - one of the most sincere and nicest coaches you could ever hope to meet. I have often talked about opportunity - and what it means to notice and act upon the opportunities that cross our paths during the course of our lives - well THIS IS ONE OF THEM. This is OPPORTUNITY KICKING YOUR DOOR IN AND WALKING UP TO YOU, AND SHAKING YOU HARD! Take full advantage. Have a great weekend everyone - we do this for the benefit of our extended BJJ family. Make sure you chat to some people you don't know - mingle - network - compete - learn and enjoy! We will dedicate this event to the Loving memory of our fallen brother - TROY FLUGGE. See you there: JBW REGISTER NOW!

I WANT MY OLD SKILLS BACK - or some superior approximation thereof.

Of late, I seem to be bumping into more and more martial artists from the past - most of whom are now, for one reason or another, shadows of their former selves. For many, life has simply gotten in their way - many are overweight, out of shape and have slid into a side-line teaching role - or have let their martial arts practice completely go. Now - I am not judging - because maybe they have 'made up for it' in other aspects of their lives; but the actuality is this - it doesn't take all that much time and effort to improve our fitness or our skill-sets ... even one training session a week is infinitely better than none. But seriously, who hasn't got three hours a week to spare? The right blend of martial arts training and supplementary strength and conditioning work can produce amazing results. Life is simply too short to accept mediocrity - particularly, when it costs us so little to 'rise above'. Most people pay insurance premiums of one sort or another - and get very little, if anything, back for it. Well how about paying a three hour a week insurance premium, which we will call 'training' - and reaping the benefits from it, every day of our existence. JBW