Comments on: How Much Do You Really Need?

By: OldDog53

OldDog53 — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 17:25:46 +0000

Private lessons are keeping me on track. It’s hard to screw up so badly when you have one to one time with a good instructor.

By: OldDog53

OldDog53 — Fri, 18 May 2007 21:56:16 +0000

Now that I’m deeply committed to fundamentals, group classes are all about spider guard and other complicated stuff.

Go figure.

On the other hand my private lesson drilled my ass off with escapes from side control and mount. I was really tired. Then I was really frustrated. Then really tired and really frustrated.

By: tsneds

tsneds — Thu, 17 May 2007 00:48:30 +0000

One more thing: I was at a leadership conference once and heard one of the speakers
say that he regularly read between 150-200 books per year. During
the break, he was swamped by people asking him how he read so many
books and wanted to know what speed-reading program he used. So,
he revealed his “speed-reading” secret in the following four steps:

1.He picked a book.
2.He found a quiet spot to read where he wouldn’t be

disturbed.
3.He started reading the book.
4.He didn’t stop reading until he was finished.

And that was his “speed-reading” secret. Of course, most of the
group was disappointed in the answer (just like you probably were
after I told the story), but I got his point. People spend a lot
of time looking for overly complicated solutions to problems that
they don’t even consider following the simple instructions they were
given to succeed.

By: tsneds

tsneds — Thu, 17 May 2007 00:31:34 +0000

”...in an information-rich world, the wealth of information means a dearth of something else: a scarcity of whatever it is that information consumes. What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention and a need to allocate that attention efficiently among the overabundance of information sources that might consume it”

– Herbert Simon

My personal filter is to heavily prioritize information that comes from “Real World” Practitioners

It’s that simple. I’m sure that I miss out on “some” information by ignoring other sources—but I think it’s an acceptable trade off

This is a great source for techniques,reviews,etc but I know where you’re coming from,Lloyd Irvin put’s it this way:

“don’t get bored with something that you’re doing well now
because you can carry it all the way to Black Belt and beyond.

It’s really easy to get sidetracked with trying to learn the
next new move of the month and 5-10 years later you realize
you’re really good at NOTHING.

there are moves you’re doing really well in class
but they may not be working as well as they once did. Don’t
worry, it may just be that your entire school is on to your
game and your particular move. But trust me, if this is the
case, your move will still work if you go somewhere else. Don’t
give up on it, just make some new combinations to confuse your
teammates.

You’ll find that the new combinations that you make up to counter
what your teammates are doing will broaden your arsenal
even more.

There are many students that will give up on a move that could
very well have taken them to the Black Belt level but somewhere
along the way they lost confidence in it.

Understand this principle. There’s a reason that the Champions
always do the same move, the same pass, the same take down, the
same sweep, the same choke. It’s their move. Of course you can
try to add new moves here and there but they must fit into your
game. The problem is that people are trying to put a game piece
into their arsenal and it just doesn’t fit. As a matter of fact
it’ll end up unbalancing the entire game sometime.

What’s your move?

What’s your sweep?

What’s your takedown?

What’s your guard pass?

If you don’t know, make sure that while your practicing that you
look out for them.

If you know what they are, you need to continue to develop them and
remember that you’re trying to get them to work on the Black Belt
level students. Once you make it work on your own belt level
classmates make sure you keep tweaking it because you’ll always
have room for improvement. Talk to you Soon.”

By: OldDog53

OldDog53 — Wed, 16 May 2007 16:52:52 +0000

I’ve decided to work on the “blue belt curriculum” one academy has published and go through 3 moves a week until I’ve been through the list once, then go back and start over. I need some solid fundamentals. I’ll do this in a private lessons setting so I’m not just jerking off with another student (blind leading the blind).

By: bert

bert — Tue, 15 May 2007 14:01:03 +0000

I would like to say that often I watch instructionals just to get motivated. I work 5 days a week and train 5 days a week. Sometimes I just don’t seem to have the energy to even put my gi in my bag. But then when I see someone do jiujitsu I’m all fired up.
Also, it’s not allways about the single technique but about seeing the underlying principles.
In my opinion you only suffer from information overload if you want to imitate every move you encounter. If you’re aim is to apply the correct principles behind the moves you can finetune your game without adding even one move.

By: burien top team

burien top team — Tue, 15 May 2007 03:56:32 +0000

I won’t pretend not to have enjoyed specific techniques (i.e., “How to Be a Better Butt Scooter”). But mostly I read to learn about the journeys other jiu jitsu players are going through. Not so much “what” is working for them, but for the fun of reading how other people figure out what is working for them is what I like about jiu jitsu blogs.

For me, the fun in jiu jitsu is in learning how to win with the most basic submissions possible against the most difficult opponents possible. That idea is what originally fascinated me about jiu jitsu and I haven’t gotten over it.

I couldn’t agree more with the primacy of “having fun” while learning jiu jitsu.

By: Castaway

Castaway — Sun, 13 May 2007 20:45:48 +0000

I would say that believing in “the move” is one of the most important things in BJJ. I know this one guy who beats guys who are, in certain ways, WAY better than he is. However, he performs every move like there is no fukcing way it could ever fail. He never gives up on anything. I, on the other hand, have a contrasting style, where I give up on a move I’m performing if I reach the slightest resistance. I want everything to be perfect, but face it, it’s never going to be, so I’m trying to adopt more of his tenacity in my game.

By: Frofsa

Frofsa — Sun, 13 May 2007 16:38:35 +0000

My two cents: I am one of those folks that, when I am interested in some thing, or in the case of BJJ, slightly obsessed, I like to find out as much about it as possible. Let me mention that I am very new (less than a year) to BJJ. I go to class anywhere from 3-5 days per week. But, sometimes when I’m not in class my mind starts replaying rolls where I could not get something to work or something worked really well. For either situation I feel like I need to pinpoint why. It’s just the way my brain works I guess. But, because I am so into BJJ it becomes tortuous to have to wait until the next class to work stuff out-that’s where the web instructional material comes in. I am a technician at heart and want to dissect what’s going on down to the most mundane detail so that I am more apt to reapeat it (in the case where something worked really well) or tweak it (when it is not working). Many people might say that I’m dooming my training by watching so many videos but I am not just watching them-I am trying to take a body of data on, say guard sweeps for example, and analyse it. Basically, distill all of it down to common themes or principles. Guard sweeps is a pretty broad topic but you get the point. I am too new to BJJ to get caught up in thinking that one move or another will help me to beat all the other white belts in class. Anyway, I just wanted to share what I feel is my way of “responsibly” collecting techniques… and maybe I’m also hoping to get a little affimation that I am not dooming my training.

By: OldDog53

OldDog53 — Fri, 11 May 2007 15:42:50 +0000

Ok, the first thing I notice in my self-inventory, as prompted by this article, is that I do NOT take ownership of group class moves, and even have problems taking ownership of private lesson moves.

I’m still stuck in the residual egomania of thinking I’m smarter than my instructors (although rationally I realize I’m not, there’s still the “little egomaniac inside” that won’t relax, chill, and get with the program).

Now in my defense part of my reluctance to take “ownership” of moves we are learning is due to the fact that when we drill them, we are also learning how to spoil them or shut them down, so when it comes time to roll and try them out, not only is the element of surprise missing, but our rolling partners know what we are going to try and how to best oppose us.

Still, I don’t take ownership.

For example, if we are working a pass that is basic, I tend to tell myself “this won’t work for me, I’ve tried it before and it doesn’t work. I need something a little trickier.”

Or if we are working on a pass that is complex, I tend to tell myself “this won’t work for me, it’s too complicated and the simpler passes are the way to go.”

I think I am afraid of failing.

My instructor has told me “you need to believe in the move!” but I thought that was some metaphor or Zen-like thing he was saying.

Ok, I don’t have an answer, but I’ve found a problem.

I’ll keep working on this and report back.

(BTW, on a side note, it isn’t all dismal. Moves that failed me countless times in the past, like a simple escape from mount, work now. Sometimes.)