Showing posts with label Beginner Advice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Beginner Advice. Show all posts

Thursday 30 June 2022

How to get your BJJ Black Belt.


                                    

BJJ differs from other martial arts in that there are no clear requirements for getting your black belt or if there are, they vary from school to school. 

https://acsamelbourne.com.au/brazilian-jiu-jitsu-classes/

Other traditional martial arts, on the other hand, usually have very clear-cut criteria about what you need to do to achieve each belt on the way to becoming a black belt. In karate, for example, there are certain techniques you have to be able to demonstrate and katas you have to perform before you can move up a belt. Even in Judo, which is the closest thing to BJJ, there is a progression path used all over the world for accumulating competition points, demonstrating certain techniques, and then performing the Nage no Kata to obtain a black belt.
Grading requirements can vary greatly from place to place in BJJ. Some schools measure belt advancement solely by the amount of time served and classes attended, while others focus on the number of techniques demonstrated for each belt. Others, such as my original academy (Carlson Gracie London), based belt progression on performance in competition. If you didn’t win a tournament at your current belt then you don’t progress to your next belt.
Your instructors will pick the best grading criteria that work for them, and your school will probably have its own variant, but in general, there are several keys to making progress in BJJ.
Don't focus on the belt.
Instead, focus on improving and learning. It usually takes 8-10 years of consistent training to achieve black belt status. Some people get it faster if they train full-time. Others, like myself, will take longer. (12 years in my case). If you enjoy the training and it becomes a part of your life, you won't care if it takes 3 years or 25 years. The journey is more important than the destination.
Avoid Burn-Out
Aim to train consistently rather than overdo it at the start. Don’t train 7 days a week for 3 months and then quit. Train 3 times a week for 7 years and then you’ll achieve your goals.
Compete.
I’ve been training in BJJ for approximately 22 years. The people who compete always make more progress and stick with their training. You don’t have to be a full-time competitor or quit your job to focus on BJJ competition but my advice would be to compete at least a few times at each belt level along the way to get accurate feedback on your strengths and weaknesses. 5 to 10 minutes in real competition can be the same as 6 months of relaxed training in terms of your development.
Real Training
Be clear about what counts as training time. If you’ve been training in BJJ for 8 years but have had several 6-month breaks or periods where you only trained once a fortnight then that doesn’t count as 8 years of training. Also, if your training session consists of you trying to overpower and tap out the new white belts rather than focusing on your learning and development then that also doesn’t count as real training.
Be a good training partner.
Your coach has your best interests at heart. They want you to make progress and eventually get your black belt because it reaffirms to them that they are doing a good job as a coach. However, they also want what’s best for the other nineteen students on the mat. If you’re a crappy training partner or even worse a dangerous training partner who risks injuring the other students there’s a good chance the coach doesn’t want you on the mats and won’t promote you. Learning how to be a good training partner is perhaps the most important BJJ skill you can learn.


Come try out my BJJ classes at Australian Combat Sports Academy in Thornbury, Melbourne.

https://acsamelbourne.com.au/brazilian-jiu-jitsu-classes/

Sunday 6 September 2020

MMA Training : FOCUS ON TECHNIQUE

MMA Training Melbourne

FOCUS ON TECHNIQUE

One common theme that you will notice when you look at the top-level fighters in MMA, Boxing, Muay Thai or any other Combat Sport is that the best fighters always have perfect technique. Fitness, strength, and determination will get you far in the fight game but usually, it will get you to a point where you come up against someone with equal levels of Fitness, Strength and Determination but who has also put years of diligent practice into developing flawless technique.
If all the physical skills are roughly equal the person with the better technique will always win.
This is relevant for fighters and competitors but is equally applicable to non-competitors who are just looking to get the most out of their martial arts training
There are many different aspects of martial arts training. These include Physical training, Mental training and Technique Training.
The area from which you will get the most return on investment is in focusing on your technique.
Strength and fitness are very important. There is no excuse for a Martial Artist or Fighter to be unfit or out of shape.
However, You will reach a threshold for your physical attributes, a certain level of strength or fitness that it will be difficult to move beyond without requiring you to focus exclusively on strength or fitness training.
The good news is that that type of effort is usually not required. The most successful competitive fighters across all sports do not usually look like power-lifters, marathon runners or the world's strongest man.
The reality is that it won't really make much difference how strong or fit you are if your technique is breaking down under pressure or if you are making basic mistakes such as not keeping your guard up.
Another reason why I would put technical training above strength or fitness training is that with fitness training you will lose the benefits of it very quickly if you stop doing it. If you are running every day and then take a month off you will lose all the gains that you have made.
Compare that with technique training. When you learn a technique properly, understand every tiny detail of all the movements which make the technique work and then practice it thousands of times, it is very unlikely that you will forget how to do it.
TECHNICAL TRAINING VERSUS SPARRING
How much time should you spend on technique training compared to Sparring? What is the point of having perfect technique if you can't apply the technique under pressure?
This was a common problem with traditional martial arts training. There were many experts with perfect technique who never sparred or pressure tested their technique to find out if they were actually able to use it against resistance.
The opposite is commonly seen these days in the MMA era. Fighters who don't even understand the basics but spend all their time sparring instead of technical training which would actually improve their overall performance and results.
A lot of the sparring and training footage that I see from other gyms it is actually detrimental to their fighters development. The fighters are actually ingraining and hard wiring bad habits that will become even more difficult to correct.
Every fighter only has a finite number of sparring rounds in them. We need to weigh up a cost-benefit analysis of what are we actually gaining from these ten rounds of sparring.
Is the fighter preparing for a specific upcoming fight a few weeks away? are the rounds being used to develop a specific technique or game plan? are they sparring just to improve fitness or mental toughness or is there no clear purpose behind the Sparring at all?
This has to be weighed up against the ‘Costs’ of the sparring rounds. These include risk of injury, risk of fatigue, risk of developing bad habits or risk of wasting time on sparing that could be better spent on specific technical training which would lead to better results over the long term.
I think when we weigh up factors like this you will almost always come to the conclusion that you should be spending a lot more time on technical training than on sparring.
If you want to get the most long term benefit out of your training make sure you focus on your technique.


Sunday 30 August 2020

Kaizen - Constant daily improvement




One of the most important martial arts concepts which can also have a positive impact on your life away from the gym is the Japanese idea of Kaizen or continual daily improvement.

Constant gradual improvement even if only by 1% per day or week is much better than no improvement at all.

Two mistakes that newcomers to martial arts make are firstly believing that they do or don’t have any talent for martial arts or fighting. Secondly, the belief that if they go all out for a short period of time they will get a black belt or become a world champion within three years.

Firstly, there is no such thing as having a ‘talent’ for martial arts. Beginners often mistake having the ability to beat other untrained people as having a natural fighting ability. Being able to beat a trained opponent who is well prepared in a competition is much different from sparring with other beginners.

The skills and mentality to be able to compete and win against good opponents is not something that comes naturally to anyone. It must be developed gradually over months and years of training.

The second problem is with the idea of trying to do too much too soon.

I’ve been a full-time martial arts coach now for over ten years. I've had many students ask me what they need to do to get to the top level.

I explain to them that there are no short cuts. Come in and train every day, don’t take time off after fights, don’t go hard for a few weeks then slack off for two months only to repeat the cycle again and again.

If you stick to the plan you’ll be a top-level fighter competing and winning in the UFC in ten years.

Everyone who tries to take short cuts in their training, Looking for the martial arts equivalent of a get rich quick scheme always ends up quitting and never gets anywhere near their potential.

Forget about talent and shortcuts.

Focus on what you can do every day to make yourself 1% better. One year from now you will be 365% better than you are today. In ten years you will be a world champion.



 


Thursday 27 August 2020

Interview with MMA Coach Ian Bone


MMA Melbourne

Heres a short video Interview I did with my good friend Coach Ian Bone. Ian is a multiple time Australian MMA champion, BJJ Brown belt and is now heavily involved in the Japanese Karate / MMA hybrid style of KUDO.

https://www.facebook.com/coachbonecourage/videos/2614198028830557 


Learn MMA in Melbourne

Sunday 2 September 2018

How long does it take to get Good at BJJ?


Recently I was asked an interesting question by a new student. This student had considerable experience in other martial arts and had just completed the trial week on our BJJ program. He had obviously enjoyed his training over the course of the week and was excited to continue. He approached me at the end of the class and asked ‘ How long does it take to get good?’ 

Since becoming a full time coach I’ve spent 100’s of hours attending Martial Arts and Fitness business courses focusing on Marketing, how to convert trials into students, upselling and many other related topics. I knew there was a perfect way to ‘re-frame’ the question, get him signing up and resulting in a high five and three year commitment to getting his black belt, however the question came at the end of a long week of tough sessions, teaching classes, training fighters and also working hard on my own training so I gave him the honest answer.

It might take your whole lifetime to get good and even then that might not be enough. What I meant is that Jiu Jitsu isn't a sequence of secret moves that you can memorise and then you’ll be invincible and receive your black belt in three years. It's tough, you learn the moves but your training partners learn the moves too so they can shut you down then you keep battling back and forth night after night, week after week for years and years until eventually one of you quit.

This is the reality of Jiu Jitsu training that separates it from many other martial arts. It is relatively ‘safe’ so you can go pretty hard almost every time you train without needing to pull your punches. You cannot comfort yourself with telling yourself that I would’ve won that match if I’d hit him with my power kick. You will get tapped out a lot on your way to getting black belt and you need to develop an ego that will allow you to deal with this short term inconvenience for your long term benefit.

I also explained to the new student that even though it sounds hard that the training is fun and enjoyable, and that's why people stick to it. Before long you forget about far off goal of getting a black belt and just enjoy the process of getting on the mat and testing yourself and your skills.

Afterwards though I realised that there is another way to look at the question “how long does it take to get good at Jiu Jitsu?’ This is an interesting question because it's very subjective, one person's idea of ‘Good at Jiu Jitsu’ may be very different to others. Some may think being good at Jiu Jitsu means winning a world title at the Black Belt division whereas another may define it as the ability to defend yourself.

In my opinion very few people get involved in Jiu Jitsu because they want to win world titles. Most people begin training because they want to get fit, lose weight or learn self defence. 

My own definition of being ‘good’ at Jiu Jitsu is simple. Can you defend yourself and defeat a larger and stronger opponent using Jiu Jitsu techniques? If you can then your training has worked. One of the strengths of Jiu Jitsu compared to other martial arts is that it is possible to achieve this goal in a relatively short time (6 months to 1 Year). With other fighting styles it is much harder to achieve this goal. Styles such as boxing or karate take much longer to get the same result. It's possible that some students can hit very hard and defend themselves after six months of boxing or karate training but it's always difficult to say if that is due to the training they received or just down to their natural power. With Jiu Jitsu the results are very consistent. Everyone can learn the same basic strategy and the techniques aren’t complicated.

Another way of looking at this question is relevant to fighters and martial arts from all styles and backgrounds. The important goal is not to just get ‘Good’, the goal is to keep continually improving. To get better than you were last class, or last week or last year or in your last tournament. Even if you’re winning every match, is there anything you could be doing better. Making that armlock tighter, finishing that sweep or improving defence.

So in short it should take around six months to one year until you can defeat an average untrained opponent using Jiu Jitsu (Provided you are being taught correctly and are training consistently) however you can spend your entire lifetime improving and perfecting your Jiu Jitsu.




Tuesday 22 May 2018

White Belt Advice


White belt is the make or break stage in your Martial Arts journey. BJJ has a very high drop off rate and the majority of people who begin training don't make it past the three month mark. There are a variety of reasons for this but quite commonly students quit because they feel they are not making any progress.

There are several common problems that I see with most beginner students and in this article I will offer possible solutions that will help you improve and make progress in your martial arts journey.

Some Beginners will never suffer from these problems, particularly so if they are athletic or have a background in other combat sports. They may not get exhausted or stuck in bad positions when rolling with other beginners, however, I think its actually beneficial for students to go through this frustrating process and to get used to it. This is something you will have to experience again and again throughout your training career. The sooner you can get comfortable with being uncomfortable the more benefits you will get in the long term.

Gassing Out... 


The first problem for many beginners is lack of fitness leading to exhaustion during sparring. Don't base your entire BJJ game around fitness and outworking your opponent at the expense of proper technique, however, it will always help to improve your fitness if you feel you are struggling during sparring rounds. 

To achieve this I recommend simple solutions such as getting up half an hour earlier and going for a run, bike ride or swim twice a week. Yes there are more scientific and technical ways of maximizing your fitness but as a White Belt you aren't trying to win the Olympics just attempting to build your gas tank so you can roll at a sensible pace without feeling completely exhausted and having to sit out rounds.


Another tip to avoid gassing out is to make sure you roll at a pace that is suitable for your fitness level. If you find you are breathing heavily and exhausted within 30 seconds you need to slow down and concentrate on what you are doing. Don't waste energy relentlessly squeezing your opponents head when you should be figuring out how to move your hips and legs to escape.

Getting Stuck in Bad Positions...


This is one of the most common questions I get asked by beginners. They get stuck under side control or Mount for every round of sparring and never get a chance to use any of the techniques they have learnt. 

My first piece of advice is to learn and drill the escapes from these positions then practice them in isolation sparring. This involves rounds of starting from side control and once you achieve an escape or reversal resetting and doing it again. This method will improve your escapes 100%.

Another useful idea is to occasionally just ask your training partners to reset once you've been stuck under side control or mount.  Getting better at escaping especially against heavier and more skilled opponents is a time consuming process and you can't expect results overnight. For this reason I would advise new students to just ask their training partners to reset in a different position and work from there rather than wasting valuable training time.

At a slightly higher level the biggest key to avoiding getting stuck in bad positions is to avoid ending up there in the first place. The key to this is Guard Recovery and Guard Pass Prevention. The better you get at preventing getting your guard passed the less time you will be spending in bad positions. As mentioned previously this is a long term process but the earlier in your grappling career you get started on it the better results you'll get.

Can't get any Submissions...


Another problem is that the typical BJJ student learns or is at least exposed to dozens of submissions in their first few months of training but when they try to apply these techniques in live sparring they never work. This is because all the other students have also been taught the same techniques during the same period and so they are aware of them and are ready to shut them down. This often leads to the less than ideal 'Youtube Arms-Race' scenario where ambitious White-belts will scour the internet for secret techniques to catch their training partners unawares rather than just focusing on learning how to do the fundamental techniques properly. 

I advise beginners to follow the BJJ maxim - 'Position before Submission'. Focus on building your game, at least in the early stages, of getting to solid control positions such as Side Control, Mount and Back Control and then the opportunities for submissions will begin to present themselves. I also encourage building your game around submissions where you will not lose position if it doesn't get the tap. For example if you cant finish the Rear Naked Choke you are still in Back Control so you get to try it again and again until the end of the round.

Can't remember their techniques when Sparring...


As previously mentioned during your first few months of training you will be exposed to what seems like an endless amount of techniques. It is usually too difficult to remember everything you learn and it will be almost impossible to recall and use it effectively when needed in live sparring.

The first stage in the solution to this problem is to try to retain as much information as possible. Make notes on everything you learn as soon as possible after learning it. Drill the technique as much as possible after your Instructor shows it then try to drill it again a few times later in the class e.g. before each sparring round or a few reps at the end of class. This will help keep it fresh in your memory. Its also a great idea if you get to class early to grab a partner and do a few reps of the techniques you learnt in the previous class.

The key to being able to use the techniques in sparring is to find a way to speed up the decision making process. You need to write out a game-plan of exactly what you will do in each position and in each scenario. For example, when on top in Side Control rather than attempting to remember and choosing between twenty different submissions you will have one designated attack to go for. If the opponent defends this you will then transition to your secondary attack. As you progress and get more experience you will gradually expand and adapt your game-plan but you need to start somewhere or you will waste years sparring ineffectively.

Not sure what they should be doing during Rolling....


When watching beginners rolling its clear that their only objective is to win the round by any means necessary and this is something which will usually be detrimental to their long term progress.

If your're unsure about what you should be doing when rolling then try to spend some time watching the higher belts at your academy. Don't look out for spectacular techniques or trick moves but rather how do they do the basic moves, how do they move and react when they are defending a guard pass or any other common situation that you are likely to find yourself in, what sort of pace and tempo they are working at?

If possible try to video yourself rolling so you can get a clearer view of what you are actually doing in sparring compared to what you think you're doing.

Finally, try to have some objectives for each round of sparring or training session. For example, I want to use my Double Under Guard Pass or my Scissor Sweep. The afterwards go back and if possible analyse your video and see if you achieved your objectives and how you can improve upon your performance for next time.

My most important piece of advice for beginners who feel that they are not making progress is that they should not become too demoralized. All combat sports take a long time to get good at and you will go through periods where your progress plateaus and you don't feel you are making improvement. 

Over the last 20+ years of grappling training I've seen many people who looked very impressive after a few months of training but usually these same people were the ones who quit after a year or so because they stop improving at the same rate they initially did. 

Its not about who is best after six months, but who's best (and who's left) after ten years.

Please comment below if you have any other White Belt Problems not covered here that you'd like me to discuss in a future article and also please check out my other article on how to improve your BJJ Training here


How to improve your BJJ training


Thursday 30 July 2015

Improve your BJJ

Every JiuJitsu Student wants to improve their skill level and reach their full potential. Everyone has different goals and ambitions, they might aspire to be world champions, achieve a black belt or maybe just to land a submission on one particularly tough training partner.

BJJ is a very efficient form of martial art so it follows that if you keep training then you will improve and develop your skills but what if you want to maximise your potential?



The best case scenario:


The optimal conditions for BJJ training where an athlete has unlimited time, money and resources would be as follows :
· 6 hours of BJJ training per day 5 days per week (plus additional strength and conditioning training.)
· Structured one on one session with an experienced coach every day who analyses videos of your sparring matches and videos of upcoming opponents then shows you exactly what you did right and wrong and what you need to work on and improve.
· 2 hours each day practicing the techniques suggested by the coach with a drilling partner under the supervision of the coach to ensure you are performing every repetition perfectly.
· 2 hours of sparring against training partners of a similar or higher level than yourself. Using timed rounds to simulate competition conditions.
· Ideally you would be competing regularly (almost every weekend ) and periodising your competition schedule so that you peak for the most important competitions and use the smaller events as tests and practice matches. The reality:
However, the reality is that BJJ is an amateur sport with very few full time athletes. The vast majority of BJJ students and most competitors train recreationally so the conditions described above are usually impossible. The more realistic scenario is that...
· Most BJJ students are able to train a maximum of 3 times per week due to commitments like work and family.
· BJJ classes are not usually structured in a way that maximises competitive improvement for each student. Most recreational students want to learn new and interesting techniques each time they come to class. If each session was just focused on drilling the few high percentage techniques that win matches it would make the classes boring and after a few weeks students would stop showing up for class.
· There are so many positions and techniques to cover that there is insufficient time to practice all of them effectively. Your instructor may show an important guard pass at four sessions during the month, but if you miss one of those classes then you may only get to practice that important technique for a total of 15 – 20 minutes in one month which obviously isn’t enough.
· Most BJJ students don’t get the opportunity to compete very often. This makes it difficult to determine if they are improving and progressing. Sparring with your training partners is usually not a good indicator of progress.
· Most BJJ students don’t have enough time to attend classes as often as they would like let alone have enough time to do additional strength and conditioning training. How can the average student get the best results from their training?
In spite of these limitations some recreational BJJ players can still get impressive results. It helps if you are naturally athletic or if advanced students give you extra assistance and advice to help you improve. However, what about for the average beginner who wants to increase their rate of improvement? Here are some tips which you may find useful. Take Notes
Make notes on every new technique you learn, this will make it much easier to remember important details. Don’t assume being shown a technique and then practicing it a few times will be enough. Build Muscle Memory
When you learn new techniques you need to build the new complicated movement patterns into your muscle memory. This will allow you to access the techniques when needed in sparring. Here is a useful routine to help build a new technique into your muscle memory.


Coach shows a new technique:



Drill it with your partner in the usual way



At the start of the sparring rounds ask your sparring partner if you can practice the new technique on him for 2 repetitions to refresh your memory,



At the end of class try to get someone who isn’t in a hurry to leave and practice the technique 10 more times,



Go home and write notes on the technique



In the next class grab a partner and practice the move 10 times (this may be useful for the training partner too because maybe he missed the previous class and hasn’t seen the technique)

This method will help you remember new techniques much better than if you just drill it a few times then forget about it and don’t see it again for 6 months. Game-plan
Organise your techniques into a game plan. This will comprise of your ‘go-to’ techniques which you will always try to use in competitions or sparring. Get used to working off your game plan when you are sparring. This really helps because it cuts down on the time it takes to make decisions and speeds up your reaction time. You no longer have to sort through twenty different options of what move to go for as each position will dictate what technique you are going to use. Purpose
Set a purpose for each round of sparring. For example, one submission or guard pass which you want to use or a position that you want to practice escaping. This is more useful and productive than trying to win or to survive the round. Try to choose around three different things to work on in case your opponent makes it too difficult to practice certain techniques. It’s a good idea to not explain what you are trying to do to your partner as he may react in an unrealistic way or be overly compliant to allow you to successfully pull off the move. Just let them think it’s a normal sparring round. Video
Whenever possible video yourself rolling. This is very helpful as what you imagined you were doing during sparring and what you were actually doing can sometimes be very different. Analysing video of yourself sparring will help you pinpoint what you did right and wrong and how you can improve. Extra Training
For most beginners the activity that will give the greatest crossover benefit is to focus fitness and endurance. The simplest way to do this is by getting up 45 minutes earlier in the morning and go for a run. This increase in endurance will help you last longer and think more clearly during rounds of sparring which will help your BJJ improve. This is preferable to just lifting weights to get stronger which may make sparring feel easier but can lead to becoming overly reliant on strength rather than using technique. Goals
Set Goals for your training. Have specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time based goals for your training. For example, this month the goal is to learn two new open guard passes, practice them 200 times and pull each one off in sparring at least once per class by the end of the month. Don’t be too competitive
When practising new techniques in sparring you may risk ending up in bad positions or you may get submitted. Don’t let this deter you from attempting new techniques and don’t allow your ego to hinder long term improvement. Use the information to determine where you went wrong to improve for next time. Choose your training partners
Practice your new techniques against less experienced partners until you are proficient at them and then try them against more challenging sparring partners. If you try to use techniques that you have not yet mastered against experienced opponents you could easily get shut down and miss the chance to practice anything. Keep track of your progress
Finally, keep track of your progress and monitor what is working, what is not working, how many submissions, guard passes and escapes you are successfully pulling off. This will provide an idea of whether your training is moving in the right direction and what you need to change or do differently.


Wednesday 22 July 2015

Getting Better at BJJ Faster

Speed up your Learning Curve with Isolation Sparring





Finding Better Ways to Train



Throughout my martial arts training and especially since I’ve been coaching I’ve been interested in investigating more efficient ways of training. I’ve never been convinced by people who say ‘this is the way they’ve trained in Japan/Thailand/Brazil etc. for 100’s of years’. Interestingly this doesn’t happen in other sports. Golf coaches don’t stick to the same coaching methods that were used in 15th Century Scotland, Soccer and Rugby coaches don’t use the same training methods that they used 100 years ago so why should training for Martial Arts and Combat Sports be different.




In my opinion a lot of traditional training methods such as (in the case of striking sports) doing 30 minutes of skipping, endless rounds of bag-work and then live sparring are inefficient. The majority of people who train in this way will not enjoy the training, they will not make any progress and will eventually drop off and quit. If only a tiny percentage of the people are getting any measurable results it indicates that there is a fault in the process.



Using techniques against Resistance


Another problem is that students spend a long time learning techniques and are often able to perform these moves perfectly on the punch bag or against an un-resisting partner but then as soon as they try to spar it all goes out the window.

One alternative which can be fun for the new student is to not spend too much time practicing technical skills and just do lots of sparring to get used to the speed and pressure right from the start. This often leads to the student not spending enough time actually practicing and perfecting techniques and instead relying on instinct and athleticism. They may also fall into the trap of becoming over reliant on their favourite techniques and avoiding their weak areas. This can leave huge holes in their game which may be easily exploited in the future by more experienced and well rounded opponents.

Speeding up Reaction Time


Another major problem that students experience in sparring is remembering which technique to do at which time. At the end the round the student realises that they could have used a specific technique which they had been practicing for all of last week. Too many techniques and positions at the early stage means there is too much to think about which slows down the students reaction speed and decision making.

The best way I've found to overcome these issues and to bridge the gap between practicing techniques and then using those techniques in sparring is to use a concept which I borrowed from the Straight Blast Gym. It is called Isolation training and involves zeroing in on just one aspect or skill and focusing on improving it under sparring conditions.

Isolation Boxing Sparring


An example of how this works can be seen in boxing sparring. A group of students have just spent the class working on their jabs and then moved onto slipping jabs, head movement and counters. Now if they go straight into boxing sparring it is likely that everything they have been working on will go out the window, they will be throwing lazy jabs and forgetting how to slip. The alternative is that we go into 'Jab Only Isolation Sparring'. I have found that this leads to much better results as there is less to think about and allows the student to just focus on and perfect one aspect of their game.

Isolation BJJ Sparring


There are many variations of these types of drills, some of the most successful that I have used in the past are BJJ positional sparring drills. A good example of this is the side control sparring progression drill. One person starts off on top in side control and just has to maintain the position while the other tries to escape, as you progress you can add other variables to the drills such as the person on top cannot use hands, person on top has to switch position every 5 seconds, person on top has a specific objective such as getting to mount or knee ride position.

Other good ideas for BJJ drills are sparring from just one specific type of guard e.g. De la Riva guard then going back to the start as soon as either partner achieves their objective which could be getting a sweep or passing the guard.

This idea can also be useful for getting students working on finishing submissions and escaping from submissions at the same time. One student starts with the submission such as a Triangle Choke semi locked in. He then tries to finish the submission while partner works on escaping. If either of them are successful they just reset and try again or reverse roles.

Benefits for Both Training Partners


The great thing about training like this is that it's beneficial for both partners rather than just one person doing the techniques while the other is the dummy. Also, training like this can be better than sparring if there is a big difference in the skill level between students. In a sparring situation the less skilled person would never get a chance to do any attacks of his own and would just spend the entire time unsuccessfully defending attacks.

There are infinite options for these types of drills and are only limited by the imagination of the coaches and students. It is important though that that you don’t just do drills for the sake of it. Ask yourself is this drill developing a skill which is transferable and effective in live sparring and competition . The objective is always to improve real fighting ability rather than to just get better at drills which look impressive but ultimately have no crossover benefits for real fighting ( which is where many traditional martial arts styles have gone wrong in the past)

Don't Try to Win The Drill


Also, within every group of students the majority will see the benefit of the drill and have 'lightbulb' moments (‘oh yeah I do struggle to regain half guard/check kicks/move my head… this drill will really help’) but there will always be one who tries to ‘WIN the DRILL’ by finding loopholes in the rules rather than using the drill the way it was intended. So make sure everyone is clear that the objective is to learn & develop skills rather than just trying to win. Like the person in this clip.




Monday 17 March 2014

Martial Arts Success

Why do some people succeed with their Martial Arts training while others never get anywhere?

Over the years of running our gym I’ve seen lots of different students coming through the doors. Many have gone on to be really skilled & some have been successful as competitors & fighters. Others have turned up trained regularly at first then dropped off after a while and are really no better at martial arts afterwards than they were before they started training.
What are the qualities that make the successful competitors improve so much while the other guys don’t get anywhere? Are they turning up for secret invite only training sessions? Are they taking some kind of new supplements that make them better than everyone else? Are they just genetic freaks who are physically gifted with superhuman strength, speed & ability to learn & use martial arts techniques?
The successful people had just the same access to the training sessions, classes & instruction as everybody else. They had the same amount of hours in the day as everyone else. The difference comes down to what the unsuccessful people didn’t do. I have seen many talented people come into the gym who would have gone on to be international competitors by now if they hadn’t done the following things to sabotage their own progress.

A – Lack of motivation & consistency.

As an adult its your job to motivate yourself to turn up to training so you can improve. At first everyone is excited about a new activity when they start doing it. The problem is that when the novelty wears off you need to be able to keep turning up & putting in the hard work. This isn’t a problem if you are just training for fun or recreation. However, if you have ambitions of one day becoming a black belt or a competitor you need to be able to force yourself to turn up to train even on the days when you don’t feel like it & it won’t be as much fun. This is the number one key to achieving success. When kids don’t feel like going to school they are forced to go by their parents & teachers. When you become an adult you are given a choice over what to do with your time however there are always consequences to the choices you make. I’ve never seen anyone improve who doesn’t turn up to train consistently.

B – Waste time working hard on the wrong things.

Spending too much time at Fitness First pumping weights in front of a mirror is really good if your only ambition in life is to take lots of pictures of yourself to put on Facebook. If you are serious about becoming a fighter or a skilled martial artist then its a waste of time. I’ve been doing this a long time & I would advise anyone who is serious about improving their skills to only do weight training or other types of conditioning if you are 100% certain that it won’t interfere with your skill development/ Martial arts/ fight training. People who devote a whole two or three days of their week to only lifting weights end up looking good but they don’t win fights.

C – Taking time off

Sometimes its just impossible to train due to life & work commitments, injury, needing to rest after a long period of training & competing. But even in those situations you have to weigh up the cost of taking time off against the benefits. Ask yourself, does this slight injury really justify taking three weeks off training & losing all the progress that I’ve made over the last nine months? wouldn’t it be better to just come along to class and do whatever I can so at least I can try to keep on improving? If a high school student decided to miss out on three weeks here and there very few months would you expect him to pass his exams at the end of the year?

D – Focusing on the wrong results & being too competitive.

Martial Arts training & fighting often looks like its just two idiots rolling around trying choke or punch each other. The truth is that its usually the smarter people who make more progress. If I turn up for my first ever Jiu-Jitsu class & manage to headlock one of the other guys I might be happy with the result & feel pretty pleased with myself. However, if after six months I am still trying to squeeze out that same headlock then, even if I can tap a few people out, I’ve pretty much wasted six months. Try to avoid relying on your natural attributes. If you are already naturally strong when you start training try not to rely on using strength when you are sparring. Try to use the techniques that you have spent all this time learning. Focus on working on your weaknesses. Winning & Losing in training means nothing, the only people who think it means anything are the same ones who will only ever be able to win in their own gym against their training partners.

F – Not listening to the coaches.

There is only one reason why we as coaches teach certain techniques & give advice to correct peoples movements & skills. It’s because we think what we are showing them will give them the best chance of winning in a fight. When we give advice such as ‘ keep your hands up’, ‘Don’t change stance’, ‘stop trying to bench press your opponent off mount’ its not because we are trying to withhold some secret advanced techniques that you’re not ready for. The real reason is that we want to avoid that awkward moment after you lose a match due to making a stupid mistake where we have to put our arm around you and give you the ‘don’t worry buddy, we’ll get them next time speech’. We want our fighters & competitors to dominate their opponents & win every single time they step on the mat or in the ring. Obviously this is going to be difficult to achieve but you have much more chance of success & improving your skills if you listen, try to understand & act on the advice given to you by the coaches



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