Some of you may know of the show called "Fight Quest" where two hosts go around the world and spend five days learning an art and then take on two of the art's top practioners in a sparring match at the end of the five days.
Last night, 'Fight Quest' went to Brazil and trained with Rickson's team. It was quite good as both of the hosts are BJJ practioners (one is a blue and the other, a purple), so it made for some entertaining watching. What was personally interesting for me was watching how black belts rolled. The key differences that I picked up from the show were:
1) Black Belts (BBS) roll with a greater awareness of leverage and less strength
2) They also learn how to pace themselves
3) BBS seem to be calmer, but I guess that this is a function of mat time
4) Their sense of timing is superb
All in all, it was very enlightening from that viewpoint
Monday, September 29, 2008
Monday, September 8, 2008
And the blind will see..
I came up with a drill for BJJ one Saturday when I was working out Rizan, one of my BJJ training partners and one of the best people to work out with ever. It involves very simply, just rolling for 3 or 4 minutes with your eyes closed. This is done at about 50% resistance or even less if you haven't warmed up
The rationale behind this is that most times, we rely too much on our sight when we roll, and yet, unlike tennis or football where eyesight is paramount, the close proximity inherent in Jits should mean that there should likewise be a lesser dependance on the sense of sight and more on touch.
Thus, I believed that by relying what we see, we tended to take in too much information, more than what we needed to roll effectively and efficiently. Take a blind person crossing the room, he or she doesn't have the luxury of wandering around like a sighted person - the aim is to get to the other side safely and efficiently as every step taken frivolously could mean danger.
Now I am not saying that you have there is no room to play in Jits,; not at all. My point is that you don't realise how inefficient your rolling in in terms of physical exertion and breathing expanded until you are made aware of it. And I believe that purposely handicapping yourself is a good way of opening this kind of awareness
Don't take my word for it..try it!
The rationale behind this is that most times, we rely too much on our sight when we roll, and yet, unlike tennis or football where eyesight is paramount, the close proximity inherent in Jits should mean that there should likewise be a lesser dependance on the sense of sight and more on touch.
Thus, I believed that by relying what we see, we tended to take in too much information, more than what we needed to roll effectively and efficiently. Take a blind person crossing the room, he or she doesn't have the luxury of wandering around like a sighted person - the aim is to get to the other side safely and efficiently as every step taken frivolously could mean danger.
Now I am not saying that you have there is no room to play in Jits,; not at all. My point is that you don't realise how inefficient your rolling in in terms of physical exertion and breathing expanded until you are made aware of it. And I believe that purposely handicapping yourself is a good way of opening this kind of awareness
Don't take my word for it..try it!
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