I Had No Idea What Hard Training Was

I used to think I knew what hard training was and how to prepare for a tournament. Now that I've seen people put in 7-8 hr days, 5 days a week, and a couple hours on Saturday and sometimes Sunday, I realize I had no idea. To go in there training once a day 5 days a week. And that was a lot compared to others. Even if you train twice a day, 4 hours a day isn't the same as 7-8 hours. And you have to compete against those guys. And even if you beat one of them, you got more of them to beat in your bracket and though you got past the last one, he tired you the hell out and you didn't dominate him, you "caught" him. Now you are dead tired. If you're lucky you get paired against someone who trains 3 times a week.

But if you are one of those guys who put in that amount of time before the tournament, you go in there not feeling like you have to beat those monsters. You go in there knowing you ARE one of those monsters. And if you trained harder than everyone else, you are THE MONSTER, the one everyone has to beat. But they have no chance. Because they didn't put in the time like you did.

It's really won in the preparation. And I thought 2-4 hours a day 5-6 days a week was a lot. And if I didn't do well I would get frustrated because I "trained so hard." I had no idea. But you can't be mad, the guy who beat you did train his ass off.

PAN AM CAMP FOR TEAM COBRINHA/ALLIANCE

One of the things I noticed is that when competition time comes around, there is a lot less rolling, especially hard rolling, and a lot more drilling, especially specific position drilling. Leading up to a tournament there are certain key positions that Cobrinha envisions seeing and he will have his students drill those over and over.

A lot of other places it is different. They roll harder as it comes closer to a tournament and only start to lighten up the pace, or flow train, or slow roll the week of as to stay sharp and not get injured. Cobrinha still has people move with intensity, just focuses them into key scrambles and transitions. It is tempting to keep going from there and start to roll, but he forces everyone to be disciplined. Because doing that would be easy but Cobrinha would rather that you get better.

CONFIDENCE FIRST TECHNIQUE SECOND

As martial artists we may laugh at these techniques, but I think before you can develop proper technique, you need confidence. You can have all the moves in the world and it won't matter if you don't have the confidence to use it. Secondly in an attack situation for women, whether they fight well or not, a woman who fights back at all has an exponentially better rate of escape than someone who doesn't try at all.

I think for a lot of people, there is some psychological barrier, politeness, programming that prevents them from going all out in trying to defend themselves or their loved ones. So for that reason I share this video. Confidence is paramount prior to technique. You talk about technique because you make the assumption the person has the confidence to use it.

HEY IT MUST BE NICE BRO TO TRAIN ALL DAY

As an adult is it really possible to train all day and have no responsibilities or bills to worry about? I see that assumption made all the time but I wonder how accurate that assumption is? Is it that they have no bills and responsibilities or they ACT as if they have no bills or responsibilities?

In this capitalist world, there will be a day of reckoning.



As people train for the Pan Ams next week, I was watching this video. One of the lines that stuck out was, "it was hard to train when I used to have a job."

I AM A BJJ NERD

According to Dan Faggella. Who is Dan Fagella? He's a martial artist, public speaker, business owner, and grad student. He seems to be one of those people who get it. What martial arts is about. It's not just about being good at your specific martial art, it's about using your martial art to be great at life. There are thousands of people who train BJJ, and possibly only a handful who understand that.

Dan has a great site at www.ScienceOfSkill.com. According to Dan , The Science of Skill's goal is:

• To Revolutionize The Effectiveness of Combat Sport Training Worldwide 
• To Encourage Athletes to Become More Engaged with Their Training Methods, and so Get Better Results, Faster – and More Personal Satisfaction and Grown from their Sport

It's a very popular site full on insight. He wanted to compile the a list of the top BJJ nerds on the planet. After extensive research, guess who made the list?

Top BJJ Nerd: Inner BJJ. It's a great write up that delves into what my goal with this site is. We have a lot of similar ambitions with our art. Obvious differences are, Dan is a much more accomplished competitor than I. Actually I don't even bother competing anymore. Dan's a brown belt, owns his own MMA/BJJ school called Black Diamond, and has won No Gi Pan Ams as well as getting third in the IBJJF Pan Am Championships back in 2009.

BJJ is all about efficiency. He owns his own business, goes to school, trains, speaks, and wins. So what's your excuse?

BLOG ROLL

I want to make a blog list on my site of all the great blogs dedicated to BJJ. If you would like me to include yours, please submit it here in the comments section. All I ask in return is if you also have a blog link list, that you make a link to Inner BJJ as well.

KRON GRACIE VS. ZAK MAXWELL

RECAP OF A JOHN DANAHER SEMINAR

The Ramblings of a Genius or of a Lunatic — A day with John Danaher

COBRINHA VS. JEFF GLOVER

KRON GRACIE VS BENIEL DARIUSH

MIYAMOTO MUSASHI

RYAN HALL SUBDUES ASSAILANT WITH BJJ

XANDE AT ADCC TRIALS SAN DIEGO

WHY YOU WILL FAIL AT BJJ UNLESS...

STAY CLASSY AL

ED O'NEIL

RONDA ROUSEY MIESHA TATE GRACIE BREAKDOWN

BJJ TRAINING CIRCUIT

Saw this video and I wanted to like it because I am a martial artist but I don't. I love circuits but the forms are terrible, the likelihood of injury high, knee caving in during box jumps, that is not a proper power clean, nor is it even on bumper plates to do a power clean, and whats with all the bicep curls? You don't get hurt during competition, you get hurt before it. It just sometimes happens to get inflamed during competition.

GREAT INTERVIEW WITH LEGENDARY TRAINER JOHN DANAHER

EDDIE BRAVO MEETS MARCELO GARCIA