Training both sides

This is something that comes up a lot when I'm teaching, and it's an important issue for drilling. Should you train everything both sides or not?

I definitely believe not.

Now, some things you do have to train both sides. If you can't bridge and shrimp escape both sides you are in big trouble. Same goes for any escape, especially when it comes to submissions. Generally, escape options are highly limited from any position (because so much of your body/movement is being controlled) so you should know them all well from both sides.

...but in attacking positions you always have a wide range of options and variations on them all. So if you're in a position where you're in control you should do what feels natural. That might mean you do drill something both sides, but if you find you really suck at something on one side, or you know you would never do it that side, spend the time drilling it on the good side. Why waste 50% of your time training below par?

If you're novice enough that when you drill something one side you just can't get it, but the other side you're ok, then getting really good on one side and rubbish on the other is definitely going to benefit you more than being ok on one side and still rubbish on the other.

If you're more experienced, so you can do a movement both sides but it feels much more natural on one, then as long as you have good attacking options from each position both sides, it doesn't have to be the same one. When you are fighting hard you will attack with what is natural to you.

By the time you get to an advanced level, you will pretty much be able to do everything both sides with relative ease as far as drilling goes, or at worst not take long to get the hang of it... but you'll still attack what is natural when fighting hard :)

Tough times

What's happening dudes? So I've had a long time between blogs again, apologies! My training has been terrible for the last two months; I had my knee surgery (3 weeks out) then it was the quieter xmas/ny period and I also had a cold so barely trained, then as soon as I got back to full training I had an infection in an ingrowing hair... nightmare. It's over with now though, so all good.

I stayed off blogging during this time because I get really frustrated easily when I can't train properly (ask my wife, haha). As it's my job I have to teach no matter what, but just teaching isn't enough to replace the desire to roll, and can make things worse. So I avoided writing about jiu-jitsu as it would have only increased the frustration at having been off proper training for so long... 3 weeks off after surgery I could just about cope with (as I knew it was coming up ahead of time) but almost 2 months is unbearable.

Tough times are really what jiu-jitsu is all about though, if it's not tough something isn't right. If you leave training feeling fresh then you probably haven't improved much; you either haven't done enough training, you haven't rolled with the right people, you haven't put yourself in bad positions during sparring... or maybe all three. You always have to try to push yourself, both physically and mentally, every session. If you always pick sparring partners who you know you can dominate you'll gain nothing, if you sit out rounds you're limiting your growth, if it's the last round and you're tired, your grip is dead and the only partner left is a higher belt the last thing you should do is not roll.

Competition is probably the toughest part of jiu-jitsu, because everything is magnified. If you tap you do it in front of potentially hundreds of people. When you lose you don't just restart and try again or move on to the next opponent, you go home. You might have trained specifically for the comp for weeks or months, dieted to make weight, driven hundreds of miles or more to the competition... and you face the prospect of losing in 10 or 20 seconds. It's a tough thing to do, so why do it? Because it's tough! It makes you stronger mentally, dealing with the nerves in the build up, having to face unknown opponents, dealing with the losses and disappointments.

Overcoming adversity will only improve your jiu-jitsu, and in life in general will make you a much stronger person. So the next time you feel like taking the easy option in something, take a moment to reconsider and think about which choice will really be the best in the long term.

Back to more regular blogs now, so check back soon :)

So it's the new year and all that

I guess this is the time for looking back at the year which has just finished and planning for the new one yeah? Well, ok then...

So to review 2013, it was pretty awesome all round really. Two big things happened in my jiu-jitsu life; I got promoted to black belt and found out I would be running my own academy in 2014. The black belt was obviously a good feeling, but not due to the belt... just because it means Braulio is happy for me to represent him as a black belt, and I now get to fight the toughest guys in competition. Getting to run my own academy is awesome and something I have always hoped for since I started teaching full-time. I've always enjoyed the teaching side of jiu-jitsu and put more effort into it than my own competitive career, so to take charge of an academy is something I can't wait to do.

My own competition success was as minimal as it gets, just one silver medal, but I was sidelined a lot of the time through injury and hope to make amends for this in the coming year. However, as an academy, our competition success was absolutely immense. Our students won a total of 212 medals (74 gold) and we had 111 different medal winners (52 champions!) - only including adult grappling competitions. Most amazingly was that our overall top medal winner was a 16 year old girl who won 5 adult competitions, plus took 2 silvers and a bronze. Unreal performance for someone who is only barely in the juvenile division.

I've also seen a lot of my most committed students win medals and my classes have all grown and developed amazingly throughout the year. As much as the style I teach (a small amount of techniques each class with lots of tough sparring, as I was taught) must definitely put some people off, it is working well in the long-term... producing medal winners, tough fighters and breeding a great sense of team spirit and pride.

On the issue of not competing much due to injury, I had surgery on my knee a few months ago and it seems to have healed fairly well (although I have had some soreness the last few days). Hopefully it's all good long-term and my training won't be as fractured going forward.

Outside my jiu-jitsu life I had many great moments... I have seen my son grow and develop at a great rate, starting school and getting on really well. He's also done his first jiu-jitsu lesson which I hope will be something he will love as much as I do. I also celebrated my 5th wedding anniversary and 10th year of knowing my wife... still loving every day too. I feel lucky that all I do with my time is spend it with my family or train jiu-jitsu, it surely doesn't get better?

So, the year ahead... straight away I can tell you I don't do new year's resolutions. Goals can be set at any time, and setting goals means nothing, achieving goals is what is important. I made some of these a while back before my surgery and that's still my current set of goals, with the addition now of some involving running my own academy (usual stuff; produce good fighters, have students win a lot of medals, grow the student base etc).

But about goals/resolutions in general... I have a few which I always live by;

- don't be an asshole, unless it's necessary
- treat people kindly, unless they don't deserve it
- improve myself in everything I do
- always look to learn and experience new things

And that's it.

Now, there's nothing wrong with setting goals, but if you want to then make sure you do the important part and actually try to achieve them. Setting goals accomplishes nothing.

Other stuff on promotions...

I've seen a few discussions on forums/facebook etc recently, all about who should give out belt promotions.

To start, black belt is the most important promotion no doubt. So who should promote someone to black belt? Ideally it should be someone who has seen that person develop from the start of their training and given them every belt... but that can be impossible for a huge number of reasons. It should definitely be someone who has been teaching that person for at least a few years, otherwise what meaning does the belt have other than an arbitrary indicator of ability? A black belt is a sign that the instructor is happy for the student to represent them in competition and teaching at that level. An instructor who has just met someone can't know enough about a person to make that decision in good conscience.

The most official reckoning on who should promote to black belt is the IBJJF who say 2nd degree black belt and I think that's a good rule to follow. For someone to be getting promoted to black belt they should really have a direct relationship with or one step removed to a 2nd degree black belt... otherwise what sort of set-up is an academy which doesn't have a link to a 2nd degree at all?

As for belts below that, I don't think it matters too much as long as a 2nd degree is happy with it under their name or the person promoting is a black belt. What is important is that someone who regularly teaches someone and is able to judge their ability is involved in awarding the promotion. Ideally this will be a black belt, but if it's a lower belt who has been authorised to do so then so be it. The only dodgy stuff is when people promote someone to a higher or equal grade than themselves, they promote without having legitimate lineage themselves, promotion is done during a seminar outside your instructor's lineage or money has to change hands for it to happen.

Giving out and receiving a promotion should be part of an instructor-student relationship. Within that, as long as promotions are being done for honest reasons then it should be all good.

It's been a while...

It's been two weeks since I last blogged due to preparation for Christmas and the big day itself (which is awesome with a three year old!) but I'm back teaching and training full-time following on from my surgery. Recovery has been great and since rolling I've had no problems whatsover... except seriously bad cardio haha

So that's what I want to talk about, returning from injury. I know a lot of people do this badly. Most important thing is, you have to rest and rehab some injuries, you CANNOT train. It could be due to severity or injury but there are plenty of things which are best given total rest. The more you train the more you'll understand what injuries you can train with, but if in doubt speak to your instructor.

I had a fairly minor op on my knee so the main thing blocking me from training after it was swelling in and around the knee. I could straighten it immediately after the op, but I had nowhere near full range of motion bending it. This meant that sitting in posture or doing butterfly guard would have put a lot of pressure on the joint and put it at risk of getting reinjured. So I waited until I could touch my heel to my ass (should I say bum? Too much American TV haha) before I started training... and that took about 3 weeks.

I know a lot of people have quite a lot of trepidation about restarting after injury, but I think if you are sensible about it there is no need for this. Think about what movements/positions the injured body part will have to deal with and what sort of range of movement and/or weight bearing you're able to do. How much can you protect the injury and the type of injury matters a lot too... you can usually train with ankle and wrist injuries without too much trouble, but anything in or around upper leg/hips/abs is difficult to avoid worsening. Muscle tears and really easy to make worse whereas tendon and ligament damage can be protected by training smart.

Training smart with an injury means you are going to have an ego check... there are a few ways you can lose to it here; one, you've just had time off and you're not 100%... that means some people might have improved enough to tap you and plenty will definitely be able to give you a tougher fight than before. Cardio is also going to be an issue, so tough sparring sessions are going to be really hard, especially the last few rounds. Make sure you don't sit out or avoid people because of this, yes you might get tapped more, or by people who couldn't before, but if you avoid any sparring for fear of losing you've lost to ego. The second way to lose is by using the injury as an excuse... you only got tapped because of the injury, you keep having to stop in the middle of a round because you're sore. Maybe you tell other people these things, or just tell it to yourself, it doesn't matter... just don't do it. Then probably the least common but most dangerous issue is not being prepared to tap due to an awkward position or when you feel damage to the injury. This is just silly... if you need to tap, tap.

Finally, when rolling after or with an injury I think you also have to be fair to your partners. I don't like it when people tell their sparring partner stuff like "Don't grab my arm cos..." or "Take it easy because...", if you want to roll you just roll, if you need to tap then tap. If something is bad enough to need to avoid someone touching it at all then you shouldn't be rolling and if you do choose to roll it's your problem, you shouldn't expect your sparring partners to have to avoid doing things which will be natural reactions. All I ever tell people before I roll is that I may have to tap unexpectedly so they should be ready to stop if I do.

As for me... I've done about 6 or 7 sessions of rolling since I started back and my knee feels great. I'm able to roll fairly hard without any issue, although I'm still avoiding any big pressure on the knee and it does feel slightly sore after training (but the soreness is decreasing). Absolutely chuffed with how the surgery and rehab have gone, I reckon I'll be back to a full schedule of training in the first two weeks of the new year... going to start seeing how triangles feel on the knee then.

I've had a big change to my teaching situation over the holidays and want to have a look back at what's happened this year, so the next few posts should be much more frequent!

Promotions

This is probably the part of jiu-jitsu which people concern themselves with way too much. People want to know when they're going to be promoted, why they haven't been promoted, what they need to do to be promoted, why other people have or haven't been promoted etc...

Most importantly here is that you shouldn't be concerned about any of these things. The only person who needs to think about these issues is your instructor, all you should concentrate on is training and improving. If you keep training you will eventually get promoted, whether it takes 6 months or 6 years doesn't matter.

But what does a belt represent? It's certainly no guarantee of anything, it's totally subjective and individual to your own instructor. So that's what it really means... it's a sign of your instructor's faith in your jiu-jitsu ability and most likely a judgement of your character. Each instructor will have their own reasons and requirements for promotion to each belt (training ability and attitude, competition record, personality etc); so just keep training and be happy whenever they do choose to promote you. Although one thing that will probably slow down your promotions, universal to all instructors, is asking about when you're going to get promoted.

I know that a lot of people get disappointed when they attend a seminar and don't get promoted, or when they see others get promoted who they feel they are equal to... maybe they have 4 stripes on their current belt, or they've just dominated at a competition or two, perhaps they've just been at their current belt level for a long time, or they have tapped a few people the belt above them in training. Whatever the reason, it's silly to be disappointed about not getting promoted because there are going to be many more times when you don't get promoted than when you do over the entire course of your jiu-jitsu training. It's not a criticism or negative judgement of your ability, it just means your instructor doesn't think it's the right time for you. Another step on from being disappointed is people who quit because they don't get promoted... now that is crazy. Someone doesn't get promoted so they quit, ensuring they will never get promoted!

So, what happens when you do get promoted? Why are some people so obsessed with it?

For the first question, pretty much nothing major! The only changes are... competition gets harder and under certain rulesets (IBJJF being the main one) you can do some different submissions. Really, that's it. Maybe some people in training will roll a bit harder with you, but really, in the grand scheme of things, nothing changes. You will still tap the people you tapped the day before, the people who tapped you the day before still will and the people who were tough, fairly even rolls still will be. So don't feel pressure to perform, if your instructor didn't believe you to be the level you've been promoted to, they wouldn't have promoted you (ignoring those instructors who promote for money!).

Now why do people obsessed with it? I guess it's a common human trait to like to be rewarded/congratulated, and there is nothing bad about this. I am sure some people enjoy a feeling of power or elevated status and this certainly is bad. Everyone should be equal in training, apart from the fact that the level of jiu-jitsu ability will vary. I do not believe any other sort of hierarchy is conducive to a good training environment... don't think that your belt means anything more than an indication of your jiu-jitsu ability.

Finally, if you do place a lot of importance on your belt colour, be prepared to be brought down to earth whenever you speak to people who don't know about jiu-jitsu. You will have conversations like these...

"So what belt are you now?"
"Blue"
"Is that a high grade?"
"No, one after white"
"So how long have you been training?"
"3 years"
"Oh"... cue awkwardness as they don't know how to ask you whether you suck.

and...

"So are you still doing that jiu-jitsu thing?" (possibly accompanied by a karate chop motion)
"Yeah, I'm a black belt now"
"Oh cool, my 8 year old cousin has a black belt in Taekwondo"

My advice, just enjoy training and don't worry about your belt. I've never asked my instructor about my belt, chances of promotion, how long until the next belt or anything like that. I've just trained and always tried to improve, whenever I've been promoted I've been proud that my instructor feels confident enough for me to represent him at that level.

Things that make you go "grrrrr"

As an instructor, there are plenty of things which students do which really annoy me. So try to avoid this stuff...


Not drilling...
This is a common one. Sometimes, it's not so bad; drilling for a bit but then stopping to talk, but some people don't even really start drilling, or just drill a technique once. Either they think they just need to see a technique and then they "know" it or a few times people have told me they don't want to drill something because they'll never use it! Simple fact is, you should drill as much as possible; every technique, every class.

Talking about who you tap or what you think of other people's skill...
Your instructor already knows who you can tap, they watch you roll all the time. They are also much better placed than you to judge the ability of others, so I guarantee they aren't going to be impressed overhearing you saying "I'm surprised so-and-so got promoted" etc.

Looking at your instructor during rolling...
This is something which really bugs me, mainly because I feel like laughing when I notice it. Is your main goal in training to impress your instructor, or do you only feel like you've accomplished something if your instructor is watching? Trust me, your instructor has seen a white belt mounting or tapping a white belt a million times... and yes, they've seen white belts tapping blue belts to, it's nothing special. Just get on with rolling, your instructor will be watching you anyway.

White belts teaching...
If I had a pound for every time I'd seen a white belt showing a really bad version of an americana from mount to someone on their first lesson I'd have somewhere in the region of £50, maybe even more. I can understand the desire to help someone less experienced but when you're a novice yourself you are more than likely to be showing poor technique and also have no real judgement as to what someone needs to learn (new students certainly don't need to know submissions straight away). Leave the teaching to the instructors and the higher grades.

Always picking weak sparring partners...
You get better by challenging yourself and sparring with high level students, not by always picking the smallest and lowest ranked students. Jiu-jitsu is about fighting and toughness, not about only picking fights you can win.

Ignoring advice...
If your instructor gives you advice, it's based on their years and years of experience; going through training as a student and training their own students. I guarantee you don't know best, you're not a special case which they don't understand. When your instructor gives you advice take it onboard and act on it.

Second-guessing your instructor...
This ties into the last point, but when your instructor is trying to give you advice don't interrupt them and guess what they're trying to tell you. You're probably wrong, and best option it's just rude.

Acting like you know more than you do...
Another similar point again. There is nothing wrong with being inexperienced, everyone starts out not knowing anything. The people who learn quickly are those who accept their position of not knowing anything and strive to take in as much knowledge from their instructor as possible.


There are no doubt other things which could go on this list, but they're the most common things which happen that I really dislike. Anyone doing them is just putting themselves in a position where I don't want to bother helping them out and certainly won't go out of my way to do so. They're also going to make me much less inclined to promote them.