You Vs. Time

BJJ is a great reminder about time. There's many great lessons I learn from BJJ that I apply to life. When people ask me why I train or what I want out of it, its hard to explain. BJJ now to me is a series of abstract movements. If I mastered all these movements, I don't know what I would be. In that community I would be regarded highly but the rest of the world wouldn't take much notice. What a lot of us Jiu Jitsu players don't realize, and it took me a long time to realize is, it's all gibberish. It's all just moves that you can't really use anywhere else. Some of it you can use for self defense or fitness but now there are so many moves, most of them have no application outside of the training hall or competition.

But then...when you unfocus your gaze on the moves, and just look at the overall picture, or in BJJ terms, just try to feel it, you will understand all the concepts it is trying to teach you. It's all the unspoken intent in BJJ. It's probably why Rickson sounds like such a mystic when he speaks about his art. When you see it in that way, there is so much you can learn from it. So then if someone is better than me at these moves or can tap me out, that's not what's important to me. What's important is how much of it I can walk away with and apply it that day to my life. So ever person who taps me out teaches me a great deal. Every person who shows me a detail teaches me. My teachers teach me in all the moments in between their words and phrases.

What I am learning these days from BJJ is that every day I am playing chess. But not chess with any one person or persons. I am playing chess against time. Every time I procrastinate, every time I hesitate, wait, or get scared to act, time takes another one of my turns. Its a game of chess where time has the ability to take their turn and take my turn for me.

I think about this when I am sparring with someone. I think about a move, I have it. I wait to do it. I am waiting for the right moment, the right time, maybe smoke signals, or a sign from God. I wait. It literally is about 1 second of waiting but in my mind it feels like an eternity and I waited too long and my opponent has advanced on me. Still not too late, I think of my next move. Key word is thinking, not acting or doing. It's not that my opponent is moves ahead of me, it's that while I am thinking of things, he is just doing it. Because that's what he's been trained to do. Whether he does that outside of class in every aspect of life, I don't know.

It's what I now train myself to do. Every day I try to do Jiu Jitsu whether I am in class or not. I hesitated and once lost over 10,000 dollars in the stock market. I waited to start my strength training business and lost years of opportunity and money. I should have stopped watching so much BJJ and started just listening to BJJ years ago.

About the Author:

Sam Y. is a Personal Trainer, Coach, Performance Enhancement Specialist, Corrective Enhancement Specialist, Yoga and Pilates instructor, and holds multiple certifications. He is also an avid Martial Artist, training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Kickboxing, Boxing, and MMA. He is also the author of the popular fitness blog All Out Effort as well as the popular martial arts blog Inner BJJ. You can find him in the Los Angeles area personal training his clients, or at home annoying his wife, or on Facebook at his personal fitness page.

March 12, 2008 Atlanta

Back in March 12, 2008 I got to train at Alliance Atlanta with Cobrinha and Jacare. It almost sounds like I was training at the zoo, as both their nicknames are based off of animals.

It was part of a 4 month 40 state road trip I decided to take, living out of my car, training at every possible academy. Here is what I wrote about the experience.

"I finally got the chance to train at Alliance BJJ. I had heard about it for years. Jacare is the head of Alliance Team and they have produced a lot of champions like Jacare himself, Chris Moriarty, Marcello Garcia, Franjinha, Fabio Gurgel and Cobrinha.  Their academy is top rate with some great techniques. 


They were getting ready for the Pan Ams when I arrived. Everyone was working hard and I learned some invaluable lessons. They had a great mix of older and younger grapplers. This academy produces champions as they say. 


They had us work a lot of takedowns, which were great. Every time I just grabbed any old way, I was corrected. Proper grips! They are highly technical. 


There were also a lot of Brazilian guys there. There's a lot of brazilians in Atlanta? I never knew. Jacare's guys were all tough. He pairs everyone up and has us do 10 min rounds and oversees and along with Cobrinha coaches everyone. It was really great to know the instructors are watching and observing you at all times. Makes it safer and makes you better. 


They were generous and we talked about the person in common we knew. Jacare even gave me a souvenir. And I left a toe nail there as a souvenir haha. Hopefully some day I will come back." Read the original post here.

It's poignant now that I reread this because I have now had the opportunity to be coached by Franjinha and Cobrinha. My last statement was of wanting to come back was quite ironic because it ended up Alliance came to me, and Cobrinha moved to LA. The attention to detail and flawless technique I remembered then still remains present now under Cobrinha in his own academy.

About the Author:

Sam Y. is a Personal Trainer, Coach, Performane Enhancement Specialist, Corrective Enhancement Specialist, Yoga and Pilates instructor, and holds multiple certifications. He is also an avid Martial Artist, training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Kickboxing, Boxing, and MMA. He is also the author of the popular fitness blog All Out Effort as well as the popular martial arts blog Inner BJJ. You can find him in the Los Angeles area personal training his clients, or at home annoying his wife, or on Facebook at his personal fitness page.

Will And Desire

About the Author:

Sam Y. is a Personal Trainer, Coach, Performane Enhancement Specialist, Corrective Enhancement Specialist, Yoga and Pilates instructor, and holds multiple certifications. He is also an avid Martial Artist, training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Kickboxing, Boxing, and MMA. He is also the author of the popular fitness blog All Out Effort as well as the popular martial arts blog Inner BJJ. You can find him in the Los Angeles area personal training his clients, or at home annoying his wife, or on Facebook at his personal fitness page.

Where Does Dedication End?

Recently I started training BJJ again. Not nearly at the level of commitment I had before. It's fun again. I had stopped training all together for a while and when I came back, I decided this time around my life wouldn't revolve around this art. Somewhere along the line, at least for me dedication turned into obsession. It's a fine line where someone can really admire your dedication, but when you cross over to the other side, your family and outside friends may consider you to be a bit obsessive.

Really when I see a room full of young BJJ players, I really can't tell who is just truly dedicated and who is just obsessed. Maybe there is no difference. Maybe you have to be a bit obsessive to get that good. It's like they say, programmers need to be a bit autistic to be able to program for 12 hours straight.

Maybe it's a good thing we have so many obsessive, crazy, addictive personalities involved in this sport. Without them this sport wouldn't be where it is today. MMA wouldn't be where it is today. We wouldn't have all the new moves and all the new rules we have today.

And without obsessive programmers, the internet wouldn't be where it is today. So maybe they are a necessity for the cause. As for me? I'd rather observe and have some fun.


About the Author:

Sam Y. is a Personal Trainer, Coach, Performane Enhancement Specialist, Corrective Enhancement Specialist, and holds multiple certifications. He is also an avid Martial Artist, training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Kickboxing, Boxing, and MMA. He is also the author of the popular fitness blog All Out Effort as well as the popular martial arts blog Inner BJJ. You can find him in the Los Angeles area personal training his clients, or at home annoying his wife, or on Facebook at his personal fitness page.

Former King of Pancrase

Guy Mezger saves girl and pummels knife attacker.

http://www.cagepotato.com/awesome-story-of-the-day-guy-mezger-saved-a-woman-from-knife-wielding-scumbag-last-month/

No Limitations

Ben has a great story. I tell his story to all my other clients who are self doubters. He was a DJ, he didn't know how to play one instrument. He taught himself how to use a computer program to make digital music and now he is a highly sought out producer for digital music on commercials.

The other special thing about Ben is that he was involved in a car accident. His left leg got smashed. They saved his foot but they had to fuse it to his ankle. Goodbye mobility. He had a life long obsession with martial arts but he was never able to train. Too fearful, and no school would take him because of his limitations.

Somehow he came to me and we started to work together. I was an established Los Angeles Personal Trainer but he was one of my first martial arts clients. When I filmed him working the pads with his pad holder Matt, if I didn't know him, I would have no idea he had any issues.

He doesn't let stuff like a fused ankle stop him from strengthening his mind, body, or doing kick ass moves.

If you really want something, is there anything that would stop you?



About the Author:

Sam Y. is a Personal Trainer, Coach, Performane Enhancement Specialist, Corrective Enhancement Specialist, and holds multiple certifications. He is also an avid Martial Artist, training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Kickboxing, Boxing, and MMA. He is also the author of the popular fitness blog All Out Effort as well as the popular martial arts blog Inner BJJ. You can find him in the Los Angeles area personal training his clients, or at home annoying his wife, or on Facebook at his personal fitness page.

A Man Earns BJJ Black Belt At 78

http://www.dailypilot.com/news/tn-dpt-0114-blackbelt-20120113,0,1768188.story

Best Martial Arts Shoes

On a whim I ordered some shoes from RMAX to wear at my gym. I needed something for both martial arts and fitness. I have 4 different kinds of barefoot style shoes, but none of them were a good cross trainer for fitness AND martial arts. I read the reviews, saw the endorsements, especially from a lot of BJJ guys including Steve Maxwell who is also a world renowned strength trainer. You all probably know his son Zak as well.

I LOVE these shoes. Best shoes I've worn. It molds to your feet. Feels like your wearing nothing, but feet still feel protected. If you need shoes to spar in, unlike wrestling shoes, these won't hurt your ankle or knee because of the excess traction that sticks your foot to the mat. That's the main reason I didn't like my other shoes. On my rubber plyomats, whenever I pivoted, it hurt my knees. Not with these.

Click on the picture below to pick up a pair.

A Class With Cobrinha

I was fortunate enough to take a class with the legendary "Cobrinha" Rubens Charles Macial the other day. In watching him teach and move, I got a small glimpse into why he is as good as he is. It's impossible for me not to look for efficiency issues everywhere. So I am going to break down Cobrinha as an athlete and his ability to generate strength.

The Athlete

Cobrinha is not just a great BJJ player, he's also a great athlete who could have excelled at many sports. All BJJ (Brazilian Jiu Jitsu) is, is a series of movement patterns. No matter the physical activity or sport, all movement patterns obey the same laws of physics and biomechanics.

I mentioned in an earlier post about the importance of proper movement, energy leakage, and BJJ technique. Better aligned and straighter movements can create more force. Misaligned and rounded movements leak energy, and you can lose 50% of your strength and feel overpowered. Or with proper movement, feel that much stronger.

For you to constantly stay aligned, you also need great flexibility and body control. 99% of the BJJ players out there look like this when they bend over to pass the guard.

Us Mere Mortals

Not to throw my buddy Budo Jake under the bus here but this is how most of us do it. Look at his back, its round. Any lifter would tell you, you will not be able to get to your maximum deadlift or squat with a rounded back like that. You are leaking 30%-50% of your energy. Not only that, you are more likely to tire your back out and also cause injury to yourself. But our posture is poor anyway. We sit at a desk all day, we are rounded forward, and this is what is comfortable and what we know. If I told someone to flatten their back and bring it to a neutral position, they may not know how to send those signals to their body.







World Champion Level

As I was searching for images, almost every competitor at black belt in the worlds could maintain a neutral spine now matter how bent over they were or how squatted they were.

As bent over as Cobrinha gets to show a move, his back stayed neutral. He can generate a lot of strength for lifting or driving here, while keeping his back from getting tired and relying on his main muscle driver, his glutes.

Probably at this level of competition, if YouTube videos are any indicator, the guys who do this full-time also have access to strength coaches who can show them how to generate more power and assess them for functional movement pattern distortions.













Same Move In the Strength World

In the example shown above, it looks a lot like this technique that Pavel Tsatsouline is showing. A variation of the Zercher squat, called the Zercher dead-lift. Pavel is generating a lot of force here, enough so that they are studying how he is able to manage such strength in that awkward position.

But look at his back, how neutral he can maintain his back. Observe his neck, he is looking at the floor, so his cervical is also more in lined with his spine. As opposed to looking off to the horizon.









Putting It All Together

Now look back at Cobrinha. He is also looking down and keeping his thoracic, cervical, and lumbar spine in alignment. An athlete of Pavel and Cobrinha's level who are already gifted, who are aligned, can generate a lot of force here. In Pavel's case he can lift a lot of weight. In Cobrinha's case he is generating a lot of pounds per squat inch pressure onto his opponent.

How We Train

It reminds me of all the terrible conditioning I see at gyms and martial arts academies where everything is misaligned, and its hackneyed strong man moves with none of the proper technique. You end up with some decent cardio and strength, but your energy leakages also get strengthened that much more.

Strength is definitely also a skill, like BJJ, that needs to be drilled perfectly over and over and over.

About the Author:

Sam Y. is a Personal Trainer, Coach, Performane Enhancement Specialist, Corrective Enhancement Specialist, and holds multiple certifications. He is also an avid Martial Artist, training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Kickboxing, Boxing, and MMA. He is also the author of the popular fitness blog All Out Effort as well as the popular martial arts blog Inner BJJ. You can find him in the Los Angeles area personal training his clients, or at home annoying his wife, or on Facebook at his personal fitness page.

How To Get Up

In a previous post I mentioned what matter's most in training. The ability to stand up under duress, and to keep yourself safe while doing it. One for fitness and weight loss and one for self defense.

Here are some examples and drills you can do on your own.

About the Author:

Sam Y. is a Personal Trainer, Coach, Performane Enhancement Specialist, Corrective Enhancement Specialist, and holds multiple certifications. He is also an avid Martial Artist, training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Kickboxing, Boxing, and MMA. He is also the author of the popular fitness blog All Out Effort as well as the popular martial arts blog Inner BJJ. You can find him in the Los Angeles area personal training his clients, or at home annoying his wife, or on Facebook at his personal fitness page.

Judo Champion Vs BJJ Champ And MMA Contender Demian Maia

Energy Leakage And Efficiency

We talk about being technical all the time. So why is that so important? Why can't I just spaz and power moves? It can't be just a matter of pride, or showmanship. There must be an ultimate reason. The reason is effectiveness. Moves done technically are just plain more effective no matter how strong you are, if you do it more technically, it will be more effective. What does being technical mean? It means my movements are efficient and use economy of motion. So why is efficiency so damn important for martial arts?

So it boils down to the idea of energy leakage. When you do something efficiently, its only efficient because you are using most of the energy applied. If you did it without efficiency, a certain percentage of your strength will be lost in the move.

For example you would leak 40% of your energy doing a deadlift with a rounded back. Where does that energy go? It has to go somewhere. It goes the the apex of where you are rounded, and most likely will leak itself into an explosive injury. Same with knees and joints in other athletic movements.

So there's no point in even training to get stronger, if you leak so much energy because of poor technique. Trying to strength yourself without addressing your leakages, would be like pouring water into a jug that has a hole in it. Not only that the more water you pour, the bigger the hole will get.

It is important to get stronger, but the first priority is to deal with any amount of inefficiency and energy leakage.

How do we do that? It comes back to technique.

In all things, when they use the term technical, from dance to fighting to sports, it is the athlete's ability to move or create straight lines. Moving straight vertically, punching straight, making a neutral spine, straight legs, standing straight, etc. Because the fastest way from one point to another is a straight line.

Curved lines like I said have an apex of the curve where it is weakest. It could mean rounded backs, it could mean knees bent laterally. It could mean your armbars are not straight, it could mean you don't aim true when you punch, it could mean you don't shoot straight through your target, etc.

Before you correct me and give me examples of when there aren't straight lines, yes those are examples but not the general rule. Even a circle needs a focal point. From the focal point out to the circle is still a straight line.

So before you go out and try to do all this conditioning that you saw on Countdown To UFC, make sure all your techniques are correct before you try to strengthen them. From your martial arts techniques to basic lift movements. One other point, sports specific movements do not work.

Man In Wheel Chair Uses BJJ To Stop Robber

Worry

"Worry" is a total waste of time. It steals your joy and keeps you busy doing nothing.