BJJ Trip Journal - 1

After closing down the class at Bidakara last month, I finally begin another chapter in my martial arts journey. As I am now placed as part of a "regional" team on my new workplace, I can have more chance to go to different countries and train in different places, which may be the best way to learn as I get so many different perspectives.

This month, I was placed in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and so far, I went to 2 different schools so far - BJJ Malaysia in Desa Sri Hartamas, and Malicia BJJ in Ampang. NOte that I went to Escobar BJJ during my last trip to KL in Feb/March, but I only had the chance to have a free sparring session - something that I may want to do this weekend.

So far, my experience has been nothing short of insightful, especially my last session with Samir on Malicia BJJ. We spent 2 hours sparring with gi - something that I haven't done for ages. Given that the Indonesian system promotes submission with the rule (6 minutes sub only, then sudden death), some guys like me tend to be a bit lazy. We just defend while frustrating and exhausting our opponents, then when the opportunity arises we go for a sweep or a submission. Under such rules, we never meet one type of opponent: point collectors, and sparring with one after so many years is truly an eye-opener.

Why?
1.) As I waited for an opening (something he didn't show much) while Samir is racking up points, I realised that given this is an MMA or a streetfight, I will be in such a S**tty situation with him on top and me not able to escape and kept on the ground.

2.) Point collectors tend to be defensive - they're sensitive to any changes in pressure, grip changes, etc. I mean, I caught people with a shoulder lock from the BOTTOM of the side control to many people by relying on the false sense of security that no attacks can be executed from bottom of side control. Now, with defensive players, they'll sense these sneaky attacks and will counter you instead.

3.) Do not, and I say, do not forget to train with your gi. I know, I know, it's the good ol' argument of gi vs no gi training, but I guess Niko Han told us to train with gi so many times, but we kinda get into our comfort zone and train no-gi most of the time. Gi is a good way to "learn the steps", as you'll have less chance of out-powering or out-muscling your opponent with all that friction from the gi. This forces you to do things right and have all the steps in place.

So overall, so much to learn, and I really need this lessons of humility to put me back into the fast track of the learning process.

Gracies on Gracie Jiu Jitsu

For those who just begin their class, I believe these quotes best describe the philosophy of Gracie Jiu Jitsu. Special thanks to Niko Han for compiling these quotes.

"If it's not street applicable, energy efficient, and based on natural body movements, it's not pure Gracie Jiu-Jitsu." (Gracie)

“The most important thing when training Gracie Jiu-Jitsu is that you should effectively prepare yourself for the worst case scenarios. Make sure that every technique you learn can be applied on bigger, stronger, faster opponents in the context of a real fight. If you learn a technique that is not street applicable, forget it as soon as you can.” (Gracie)

“Always assume that your opponent is going to be bigger, stronger and faster than you; so that you learn to rely on technique, timing and leverage rather than brute strength.” (Gracie)

“The Gracie Jiu-Jitsu principles of precision, timing, leverage and efficiency that can be used to achieve victory in a fight can also be used to achieve victory in every aspect of life. Focus on using your knowledge of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu to effectively strategize your life.” (Gracie)

“Mastery is not perfecting a technique so that you can apply it at all times against anyone (this is impossible), it is perfecting your understanding of the applications and limitations of a technique so that you know exactly when it can, and can’t, be applied during combat.” (Gracie)

Ever wonder why.....

BJJ Guys always point out at the other guy with a wierd hand signal when their pictures is taken? Read this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaka_sign

Thanks to Tom "BVLGARI" McCawley for pointing this out.

Why we need to get our butts kicked...

The Indonesian Submission Championship 2010 has been completed, and the event was a huge success – the record number of participants, more clubs and countries represented in the competition, and the dominance of Synergy BJJ on ISC were pretty much broken at that tournament. To put it bluntly, we got our asses kicked. Before this year’s ISC, I think many of us were complacent at the start of the tournament. How many of us come for open mat sessions and exchange techniques? How many were preparing specific gameplans and train with other schools, some out of pure laziness and/or complacency, others due to fear of others acknowledging their gameplan and prepare a specific counter for the game plan. Personally, I see that lots of us are losing that fire that we had even a year ago, and we’ve paid the price.

Is it all that bad? Definitely not! Complacency is the enemy of progress, and the cure for that is getting our asses kicked. Without it, we’ll drive into a comfort zone, feeling that we’re on top of the world. Even champions like Georges St. Pierre need some ass-kicking to keep him from slowing down (ie: the first fight against Matt Serra where he lost the belt). Like all champions, GSP didn’t spiral downward into depression, but instead, he came back, better and stronger than ever, get his belt back, and pretty much cleaned out the division of potential challengers after 5 successful title defenses.

The key is how we response to get our asses kicked. We can either go into a downward spiral, or we can took the lessons from it, learn from them, and come back stronger than ever. So, where does this ass kicking put us Synergy guys into? Being what we are, we got that fire back! We want to regain our dominance in our own event. Hell! Some of the guys wanted to go overseas and compete overseas, and some will travel to Bali more often and plan weekend bootcamps with Niko – an idea which previously labeled as not cost-efficient last year.

So, let me ask you this again? Is it all that bad in getting our asses kicked? Definitely not! We need them to remind us to keep improving, and get us out of the comfort zone. The question is, are we able to keep that spirit of improving and not moving back into the comfort zone? Only time will tell, and I do strongly hope we don’t sit back and spiral downward into the comfort zone again.

The arts of MMA

I had a student once asked me why many BJJ guys took muay thai classes for their standup skills. To answer that question, I believe this article from Kenny Florian's website answers the question perfectly:

http://kennyflorian.com/the-arts-of-mma/


Enjoy!

Striking - an essential part of BJJ

After all the pre-fight trash talking from James “Lights Out” Toney’s and match against the old man Randy Couture, we’ve seen how Toney lived up his nickname during his fight on UFC 118, by getting close to “lights out” himself via Randy’s side choke in 3:19 into round 1 after taken down to the ground in less than 20 seconds. Trash talking James Toney aside, we’ve seen how striking is practically useless without the element of ground fighting in the world of MMA, which I believe to be the closest to the real world situation.

Now, let’s turn the tables around – how effective is BJJ without learning the striking element? True, most fights end up on the ground, but how many fights start on the ground? Close to none, I say (for exceptions, click here). Most fights will start when one of the parties start throwing strike(s), be it be headbutts, haymakers, elbows, while the clinch, takedown, and ground fighting happens after the initial strike.

Having said that, we need to know how to avoid and/or counter these strikes, and in order to properly do so, we need to learn how to strike properly and learn how strikers think. Without them, grappling art will be watered down into another sport and become useless in real life situations where we can face limitless possibilities.

The aspect of incorporating striking into grappling arts is the pressure that a grappler will face when facing a striker. The same as pure strikers will feel like fish out of the water once taken down to the ground, pure grapplers are not accustomed in taking hits and get disoriented easily when hit, forget the techniques, and open themselves up for a combo. I remember my first MMA fight in MMA Showdown 1 (click here for videos), and I remember getting so disoriented with Ivan’s punches raining down on me while I tried so hard trying to get him to the ground despite doing 6 years of BJJ at the time of the fight. I even got disoriented so much that I can’t even do technical standup properly.

However, implying striking into grappling does not necessarily mean transitioning from a grappler into other type of fighters. It simply adds another dimension of practicality into your grappling game. A prime example is Demian Maia on his fight on UFC 118 against Mario Miranda. He uses his striking to setup takedown and submissions instead of becoming another Anderson Silva and trying to look for a KO punch on Mario Miranda.

To conclude – striking is an essential part of as it introduces you into other aspects of self defense which are not met by simply grappling on competition mats, and these aspects are crucial in keeping BJJ effective where it really counts.

Why you should NOT afraid to compete

I stumbled across this interesting chart from Jacky Riawan’s facebook page:


Provided that you keep your mind open about why you lose, this chart is very true from my experience. When you win, your gameplans, your techniques, etc. tend to go your way, and there are lesser things to learn from it. On the other hand, when you lose, it’s easy to point out what went wrong, especially when you lose badly, since you tend to have your opponent point those weaknesses to you, and these tend to be the weaknesses that you don’t realize during training.

Take my game against Roy Hermawan last year in ISC:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yaKeLvjI9M


I’m too notorious on pulling guard on people, and I believe Roy knows this. Now, what I notice is that Roy prevents me from taking any of the guard positions, holding me in an “inbetween” positions – one leg in butterfly, one leg above his hips. From this position, he prevents me from getting him into my playing field and set me up on one submission that I have not focused on – heel hooks.

Now this simple loss opens up my weaknesses within less than 2 minutes, and as much as I hate to lose, I left the competition with lots of insights to improve my game. So, think positively! Join tournaments and open mats! Whenever you’re afraid to compete for being afraid to lose in front of public, think of losing as having someone point out the weaknesses to your game and give you directions on where to improve – meaning that the more competition you join, the more opportunity to have your weakness pointed out to work on and improve.

So, get out there and start competing in tournaments!