Getting Punched Will Make You a Better Grappler

Do your training buddy a favor and smack the shit out of him next time you spar. Will he forgive you? Hell, he should thank you. Flow is great and technique drilling is absolutely important, but... 

if you aren't regularly putting yourself into the mindset of a real fight, you aren't preparing yourself for a real fight. 

...The easiest way to do that is to get your grapplers to hit each other.


Ground Rules

1. Partner up with someone you trust in your gym. You need to safely take each other just past the limit of your individual skills, but not too far.
2. Start from a disadvantaged position: a grab or tackle from behind, on the ground under the mount, or wadded up against the wall under a ground and pound assault.
3. Work this drill from the attacker and defender positions. Attackers will improve their top game and will learn how to control people from scrambling out of an attack. Defenders will improve their confidence and fight success.
4. Use a timer. Start at 1:30 and build every couple of weeks to work your way up to 5 minutes. Then add another round. I’ve found when you have a clock, there are fewer tap-outs from exhaustion or beat-down. When you train against the clock, you will typically try to “survive the round” rather than give up.
5. Keep the “tap out” escape hatch but understand that a tap-out in a real street fight is equivalent to a hospital or morgue trip: it means you gave up against a bad guy.

Drill Responses
The goal is to win in a encounter like this, or at least survive and escape. We drill these every week in our MMA class at Austin Jiu-Jitsu. Here are tactics in order of a prioritized “survival timeline,” where those you do first are most important to know and more likely to be successful. If you are going to drill one thing on the mat tonight, drill #1!

1. Scrambling out from under an attack. As much as we love BJJ and submission grappling, it’s not smart to stay stuck on the bottom. Drilling scrambling out of ground and pound attacks (from mount, side, half guard, and guard) will help you prepare for this. Scrambling out is different from sweeping in one important respect. In a scramble, you are explosively evading and pushing your opponent off before control position is established.
2. Tying up or slowing an attack. If you can’t scramble out, you’ll need to slow down or stop your opponent’s strikes. Do this to buy yourself time to sweep or scramble out.
3. Escaping control or sweeping your attacker. Once he gets control position, your ability to scramble is reduced. You will need to work hard to defend and tie up your opponent to buy yourself time to technically escape or sweep. This is a much more technical game than an explosive scramble, and as such presents more risk. You need more skill and often more time.
4. Submitting the attacker from the bottom. Statistically, this isn’t a great bet, so I’m putting it at the bottom of the list. Sure, a submission specialist and elite-level MMA fighter like Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira has found submissions in 2/3 of his fights, but you shouldn’t spend a lot of time getting hammered from the top unless you are truly great at tying up your attacker and nailing submissions. Submitting from the top is a great plan, so don’t mistake my point here; maintaining bottom position with a plan of submitting your attacker from the bottom is less likely to be successful than the other approaches described above.

As you drill each of these, make a note of which ones get you beat up the least. You’ll notice that as you go from 1 to 4, you get hit more and take longer to win or escape. Of course, in a real fight, you’ll employ many of these simultaneously. Chain the drills together and switch attackers based on who is on top. This will improve your ability to survive a real fight. Most MMA guys know this, but a lot of pure BJJ folks lack this experience and may make the mistake of focusing on submissions only. This is the same type of myopia that strikers without grappling experience suffer from. Don’t make their mistake in reverse. Prepare for getting hit by grappling with strikes allowed.

Parallax Error: Dangerous Assumptions We Make About Our Fighting Skills

Originally posted 7/11/2010

I remember being a 1^st kyu brown belt in Japanese karate back in the late 1980s. I was to be evaluated for my first black belt very soon. I was steeped in the detail of techniques, training intensity, and constant pressure of a student rising to his first dan promotion. I vividly recall my pride in ability. I felt I could fight off any attack, win any fight, and deliver ikken hissatsu: to kill with a single punch. I would talk to my buddies at the dojo and we’d discuss what we’d do in a real fight.

One of us would say,"I’d drive his eyeball into his brain with an ippon nukite uchi!"

The other would respond,"Yeah? I’d explode his kidney with a yoko geri then smash his nose into his brain with a bear claw strike!!"

Thinking of this years later, it’s almost as funny and unlikely as Brick Tamland stabbing a guy in the heart with a trident in Anchorman. Was I skilled in fighting or just good at karate? Was I too deep in one system of fighting to understand my general fighting abilities? Of course I couldn’t fend off any attack, win any fight, or deliver a killing blow. The irony is that deep skill in one fighting art and the lack of perspective about what you don’t know can lead to a dangerous general assumption that you are a good fighter. This is called parallax error, or an inability to see the real picture due to the participant’s point of view.

As we fast forward to the 2010s, it seems nostalgic and quaint that karate once dominated the self-defense landscape. Today, we are so much more advanced, aren’t we? We know the ground is where all fights end up, or at least that’s what the brochure said. Wake up: the problem with karate students in the 1980s is likely to be present with students of grappling sports today. Are we good fighters, or just good grapplers?

Today, I have a successful gym with a bunch of students who love to grapple, obsess over their matches, and count down the hours to their next training session. They are competitive and intense grapplers who are generally moving up the ranks as they make their way toward mastery. The problem is that, like karateka from the ‘80s, most grapplers today really don’t know how to fight. The good ones own the ground, but many aren’t consistently working on rounding out their fighting skills. I’ve wondered why 4 out of 5 grapplers never really learn the full set of skills to call them a fighter. Sure, these grapplers can thrive and enjoy all the beauty there is to find in BJJ, but don’t make the mistake of considering them fighters.

Making a Grappler into a Fighter

Grapplers that want to know how to fight should find time to work on these skills with their training partners. The list is ordered as a progression from most fundamental (simple) to most advanced (challenging).

1. Foot work, evasion, feinting, guarding, and blocking skills to avoid strikes
2. Working strikes! Punching, kicking, elbows, and knees
3. Take-downs against a resisting opponent
4. Take-downs against an opponent throwing punches and kicks
5. Defending strikes from the clinch (blocks, underhooks, takedowns)
6. Completing takedowns against a wall or corner
7. Controlling and positioning to throw strikes from a variety of ground positions
8. Standup boxing "flow" work – low intensity at first – to get accustomed to getting hit and get a different type of cardio workout
9. Fighting against a wall or in a corner
10. Fighting near obstacles: walls, furniture, people
11. Fighting to get out from under a ground and pound attack
12. Fighting 2 attackers from standing: positioning and exit
13. Fighting to get up from the ground with multiple attackers are standing above you
14. Weapons defense (sticks, knives, guns)

Notice that "fighting" doesn’t show up until the bottom half of the list. In my MMA program at Austin Jiu-Jitsu, we spent over a year working on the top half of the list, just to build the basic skills needed to get to the real fighting drills. Yes, the above drills are a part of many established and successful martial arts systems: Muay Thai, Jeet Kune Do, krav maga, kali, escrima, and boxing. But keep in mind the passion grapplers have for grappling. They want to be a part of a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and submission grappling program. As a by-product of all their hard work, time, and money spent, they also expect to know how to fight. A fight isn’t just a ground battle, and to be a fighter doesn’t just mean you know how to triangle choke someone. You must drill fighting scenarios that put you into a fight mentality and you have to do it often enough and with enough intensity that the training creates correct responses in a real fight situation. Without opportunity to train for real fighting, we aren’t creating real fighters.

I’m happy that many BJJ schools are creating MMA programs to help blend other fighting skills into their students and to finally correct this parallax error. Grappling students: take advantage of these opportunities. Learn how to fight!

Read other fighting drill ideas at BJJTech.com.

Flow on the Path to Mastery: Fun, Pain, and the Ironic Asymptote

Originally posted 4/10/2010


What drives us to train in this sport with such never-ending passion, spending a small fortune on training toward your black belt, burning thousands of precious hours away from work and family, at substantial risk to life and limb?

Do the math. A black belt could easily cost you $12,000 (10 years at $100 per month), not including travel and equipment costs. Getting there will take over 3300 hours on the mats, travelling to seminars, and competing. The math will invariably include a dozen injuries and bills from more doctors than you will care to recall. Of course, a black belt is by no means a master, really just a glorified beginner in the grand scheme of things. If you believe Malcolm Gladwell in Outliers: The Story of Success, this is a little over 30% of the way toward mastery. At nearly 15 years in the sport I’m about halfway "there." Wherever "there" is…

What motivates us to drive, drive, drive?

To summarize, we spend a ton of money and time to get ourselves beaten to a pulp for a level of mastery which may never happen. What motivates us to drive, drive, drive?

The payoff is mastery, which as I hint at above, is ironically something that is only asymptotically attainable. We can get close, but really never get there. But we keep driving anyway, getting our butts kicked by guys and gals who we can only dream of powning.

Where does motivation come from? How can we get past the plateaus and walls that invariably block our path over and over again?

I have previously discussed the importance of flow as a means of unleashing creativity, advancing new ideas, and physically preparing your body for full-out battle. Flow continues to be at the center of some of the most important growth moments for me in the sport. A recent book called Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, by an author with a downright Reservoir Dogs-esque name, Daniel Pink, illuminates this subject further with the help of solid research and engaging style. Pink, intrigued by the intrinsic and extrinsic roots of motivation, thoroughly covers the topic and ends up distilling the essential drivers for motivation along three lines: autonomy, mastery, and purpose. Mastery is a huge motivator for those of us in this sport.

The slow march towards mastery includes moments where your growth, energy, and motivation are at their greatest. Coincidentally with my discussions on this topic, Pink calls this "flow." He equates flow with play, in that the labors and efforts of the work you are engaged in become effervescent and lost in the moment of unconscious progress you enjoy in flow. How can you find your flow and how can you make this a means to accelerate growth and enjoyment? How do we work to get lost in the moment? Translated as a Zen kōan, we should concentrate maximum effort to release effortless play. The more you flow, the more you grow, and the more fun you have on the path. Having fun is a great counter balance to the pain of training hard.

Read my article on flow. Think about how you experience flow on the mats. Relax, be patient, have fun, and flow.

Ready for Battle

Originally posted 11/30/2008



The team is getting ready to head to NAGA next weekend. Here are some thoughts to help everyone get ready for battle.

1. Stay hydrated. Keep taking small drinks all day. You’ll need to use the restroom continually, but it will keep your body ready to go. Avoid soda and caffeine.
2. Food. Eat a good meal the night before. Carb load, but don’t eat a huge breakfast. Starting with breakfast on the day of the competition you should be having very small snack-sized meals. Once I get to the competition, I won’t put more than a bite of a protein bar or half a banana in my belly every 2 hours. Before breakfast starts wearing off, start eating small, healthy snacks. I like dried fruit, yogurt, trail mix, and nibbles of protein bars. Power Gel is one of the best ways of getting quick replacement without putting “pukables” in your belly. If you eat or drink too much, you will puke.
3. Prepare to wait. The waiting puts a huge strain on your brain and your body during a competition. Bring a good chair and entertainment. The bleachers are the pits. Not every venue will have space for you to set up a cozy folding chair, but bring them just in case. iPods, games, books, cards, …
4. Watch your competition. This is a crucial intelligence gathering opportunity. Where are they strongest? Weakest? What is their coach telling them?
5. Warm up. Don’t fight with cold muscles. You will tire much faster, be much weaker, less flexible, and less in the “fighting mindset” if you don’t warm up. Warm up and get psyched for your match. The first match is always the hardest. Trust me on this. You’ll be very tired after your first match and you’ll think “I can’t do that again.” But you can. As your body gets into “battle mode” it becomes easier to fight later matches. Flow rolling is great for warming up.
6. Know the rules. We’ve discussed them in class. If you have any questions, ask. There will be a rules review before the competition. You can ask questions of the head referee then.
7. Kids: stay close. It may seem like fun running around a big venue space on a weekend, but don’t roam far, and don’t get in the way of the other competitors or officials. Always tell a parent where you are going if you leave the mat area.
8. Fight intelligently:
   Tips to managing your match intelligently
   
   • Take the time to get your points on your way through the match.
   • Remember the 3 second rule: stay in position for 3 seconds to get your points.
   • If you are down on points, you must work hard to overcome this. If your opponent is winning, you may notice he starts to stall (he stops working and holds his position). It is crucial that you do your best to turn up the heat on a staller. Even though it is officially against the rules, most refs don’t take action against stalling (unfortunately).
   • Remember the knee on belly position. It is the easiest 2 points to get that most people never take advantage of.
   • Always defend yourself aggressively when you are in a bad spot. Kids: If your opponent puts a submission move on you (like starts an armbar), you must show the referee that you are working to escape it or he will stop the match even before you tap. This is especially the case for chokes. I’m glad refs do this, since it is the best way to be safe with kids on the mat.
   • Be technical, not sloppy. Set up a submission as technically as you know how to. Pass the guard the way your coach taught you. People tend to go a little too fast in competition; often this speed outstrips their technical ability.
9. The mind game. It is absolutely true that 80% of your fight is mental. It doesn't matter how tough your opponent looks. They all tap if you put the right moves on them. Trust your training and believe in yourself. Never let your opponent know you are nervous or tired. If the ref stops the match to restart you, jump up and show the opponent and his coach that you have enough juice left for 1000 fights (especially if you are just about out of gas!). It is especially fun if you stand up first and offer your opponent a hand standing up. It sends 2 great messages: you are a great sport, and you have more juice left than your opponent. Never groan or yell during the match. It may end the match immediately (a yell is a tap to most referees).
10. Bring cameras. There is nothing more valuable than getting your matches on video.
11. Cheer on your team. If you aren't on deck for a match, you should be at mat side when a team mate is competing. Give them words of encouragement, but don’t disrupt my coaching. If your coach is saying something, keep your cheers in check for a moment. We are a team in a sport of individual competitors. One of the only ways you have to show team unity is being there for your teammate's matches.
12. Keep your coach in the loop. If you are going to compete in the next 10 minutes or so, get word to your coach. If your coach is busy with another match when yours is called, tell the table officials (each mat has a separate table) that your coach is busy elsewhere. They will almost always delay a match (they'll bring the next match on) to allow for the coach to get there. Don't stress out about it.
13. Be a good sport. Shake your opponent's hand before and after the match. Also shake the hand of your opponent's coach after the match. Even if you’re upset about a loss or exhausted, crawl over and shake their hand and tell them “good match.”
14. Show up clean. Make sure your nails are cut and your gi is clean. A good ref won't let you compete otherwise.
15. Be on time, but don't be surprised if they don't start on time. They never start on time, but you should be ready anyway.
16. Don't worry about winning. Of course you want to win, but if this is your first competition, you will learn valuable lessons regardless if you win or lose. Enjoy yourself and try your best. You will make mistakes but you'll get them corrected over time. Tap if it hurts. No biggie.
17. Pre-register. Don't ever register the day of the competition. The reason these things never start on time is that too many people procrastinate getting themselves registered. This creates impossible problems for bracketing.
18. Train hard and get ready. Cross train for better cardio and strength.

Read more at here.

Let the Bodies Hit the Flow

Originally posted 11/20/2008


Flow rolling is to a grappler what improvisation is to a jazz musician. It's a fun, creative experience that develops your skills and helps you connect with your partner.

Every grappling gym has its own way to get grapplers warmed up and ready for maximum athletic performance and the rigors of the full intensity of ground fighting. I prefer what I call "flow rolling": a series of grappling rounds at low intensity with no submissions allowed and an emphasis on constant motion, cooperation, and resilience over static resistance and competitiveness. Since most grappling matches demand explosiveness, strength, and competiveness, flow rolling puts many students off their game, but the benefits can be substantial.

Here's my pitch for why you should flow roll every time you warm up:

• Maximize athletic performance. New studies of athletic performance have demonstrated that athletes who warmed up for 20 minutes just before intense athletic activity are actually stronger and have improved muscle flexibility.
• Expanded creativity due to lack of competitive pressure. When you aren't fighting off submission attempts or stuck inside a tight guard, your mind has more time to work though new moves, alternate routes, and unconventional ideas. You can improve your mindset and patience about working through disadvantaged positions. Creativity is limited when you are under pressure. Relax your mind and let the ideas flow.
• Improved mat dexterity and coordination. Watching 2 experienced flow rollers is really impressive. You can develop improved mat dexterity with consistent flow rolling.
• It's fun and develops teamwork. It's a nice change to roll around with your mat partners when you aren't trying to submit them. Put a smile on your face and enjoy the interactive dance. I tell the youngsters in my kids class "play like monkeys!"

So go ahead, improv like a jazz musician. Play like a monkey. Flow roll.

The Fungus Amungus!

Originally posted 11/20/2008

All you need is one case of ringworm to get permanently creeped out and paranoid about rashes. That happened to me about 5 years ago when visiting a grappling gym in the LA area. Ever since then, I’ve been proud to claim my Austin-based gym has never had an outbreak of any kind.

Don’t step on the mats if you have a rash that is undiagnosed or diagnosed as contagious. Be smart:

1. Get a diagnosis from a doctor and email your coach to tell him you are taking time off.
2. Make sure you get instructions from your doctor on how to know when the rash is no longer contagious and follow their directions on medication and treatment.
3. Do not return to the mats without your doctor's clearance.

There are numerous highly contagious skin rashes that can cause nasty symptoms that persist for months. Don’t be the source. It could get you banned from the mats, depending on the damage you cause.

If you have a non-contagious skin condition that looks like a rash on any skin surface that is visible, please inform your coach. People will get creeped out and suspicious if they see it, so get it out there and make sure people are comfortable before just jumping on the mats. You don't want folks getting the wrong impression and avoiding you for no reason.

Geezer Jitsu: Training for the 40+ Crowd

Originally posted 11/4/2008


I received this email and wanted to share it and my response with you.

Dear Mr. Thomas:

I regularly watch your BJJ videos on YouTube, and I notice that you are probably in your mid-40s. I’m 36 and started jiu-jitsu about 18 months ago. It’s tremendous fun and I hope to continue with it. Recently, however, I injured my knee (meniscus tear, not too serious) and my doctor recommends I consider pursuing something else. I understand the limitations when one is older, but I know I would miss jiu-jitsu terribly. Any advice for someone who hopes to continue training in middle age? 

Best,

Kevin

Hi Kevin,
That is surprising to hear your doctor suggested that. I’ve enjoyed this sport since 1995 with lots of small injuries; a half dozen doctors have never suggested such a radical change. Sure, if you had a life-threatening injury, consider retiring to your easy chair. But you are just getting to the good stuff! There is so much to learn. Make sure you have safe training partners that aren’t unnecessarily throwing risky moves on you. Rest, recuperate, cross train to strengthen your core, and push yourself just hard enough to get nice and sore, but not overly so.


I haven't discovered any age-based training limitations, but who knows, maybe in 10 years... My aerobic capacity is lower, so I can’ train at top intensity for as long, but I'm no more likely to get injured. In fact, I’d say I’m less likely to get injured. I don't have the same level of aggression as the younger guys and am far less likely to try something stupid/dangerous on the mats. I’ve got nothing to prove, I’m just here to learn and have fun. Maybe it’s all in the attitude...


You are lucky to have found this sport and smart to have committed yourself to it. Dive in, enjoy, and please keep in touch with your progress.


Read more about BJJ-related injuries and how to prevent them here.