bushido_man96

I think you nailed it. I think it ends up being a psychological thing more than anything. Flipping a training switch, in a sense.

Quick update here. Kendall pulled out a third 5th place finish at the Salina Tournament of Champions two weeks ago, and this last week both Kendall and Kenneth placed third at Plainville. Kendall's year is tough, but he's doing well for the challenges he's facing. His main challenge is cleaning some things up in practice and not letting himself get beat mentally. Kenneth is still learning, and is coming along a bit better every week. We are taking the next few weeks off, regrouping a little, and also trying to get everyone in the house past the cold and flu going around.

The Eagles’ defense wasn’t exactly stellar either. They made one big play. Granted, it was at the most important moment (which is what makes great “great”), but I think both teams struggled defensively. Struggled might be a strong word though. I think both teams played very conservative on defense, trying not to give up too many big plays. It seemed like they were ok with allowing a long drive and tried to tighten up significantly in the red zone. The 1,100+ yards of combined total offense makes me think both teams were playing a “bend but don’t break” defense. Add to that both QBs had stellar games and the receivers didn’t drop anything. I agree with you here. This game came down to who was going to have the ball last, and when the Eagles scored but gave Brady and the Pats a little over two minutes to drive, I was sure they were going to score and win. That fumble happened right when it needed to for the Eagles. Congrats to the Eagles and their fans on winning their first Super Bowl. Hopefully, they won't wait as long as the Chiefs do to win their second... Congrats to Tom Brady on playing in 8 Super Bowls. Think about that, that is half of a regular season's worth of games played in the Super Bowl! He's played almost a full season's worth of games in the AFC title games. It will be interesting to see how much longer he can keep this up.

The playoffs have sorted themselves out, and now we have the 2005 Super Bowl rematch of Pats/Eagles. Who you got? I'm taking the Patriots. It was a nice run with Foles filling in for Wentz, but I think the ride is over now.

Why am I moved down a level when I dominate secondary level guys who apparently block with their head and can't parry a jab?? Why aren't they moved down? Isn't it more important if you can actually fight? I have seen their bag work, and some of them where quite good and fluid. It didn't matter one bit once we sparred. That would be a great question to ask your coach. It could be that the difference between the secondary level and the intermediate level is that much greater.

Anytime!

Another tournament down, and this one was pretty rough. Kenneth was doing well in his first match, and he probably could have won it, but he was in a scramble and ended up grabbing the kid's head, and the kid ended up taking him to his back and pinning him. He lost his second match to a much taller opponent, and then won his third match, who was a pretty spunky little gal with just a few practices under her. Kendall had a really bad day. To start things off, he was put in with the weight group above his, so he was giving up weight a few times. I don't know what the deal was, but he didn't wrestle well at all. He is either afraid to tie up, or afraid to shoot, or both. And when he takes his shots, he's taking bad ones, and then he gets landed on, worked over, and eventually pinned. One kid he has beaten twice threw him in a headlock and pinned him in the first few seconds of the match, which was his second loss of the day. His first match, he seemed like he didn't want to tie up, tried to avoid the kid, and it just didn't end well. So, we've got a project ahead of us, most of all to get his confidence back. It was an 0-4 day, which is not typical at all.

Yes. Often seen from two different perspectives. One is a skilled fighter who, lacking takedowns, pulls an opponent on top of them in order to initiate a ground game, albeit from their back. The second is what I had initially mentioned- people with limited ground experience (often striking or something else) who learn grappling so as to avoid it. Pulling guard seems to kill the idea of avoiding the ground, but often done because they see high level guys do it, so they assume that it must be a good idea or the guard is a good place from which to fight. Ah, I gotcha now. As one of those stand-up guys that has limited experience in ground fighting (although not from lack of trying), I would much rather be in the mount than try to pull a guard. If I'm going to take someone down, I'd rather end up in the dominant position than in the guard.You would think, right? That's the reason for the question- wondering if anyone belongs to any school that teaches that and what the reason for it might be. Some of the very basic (hehe, there's that word again) grappling that I've taught in the course of law enforcement defensive tactics has been covering techniques from the guard, but I don't teach to pull guard. They are basically taught from the perspective of "if you end up here." I don't tell my guys to try to get there.

A well-put response. This is a great summation.

1/11/2018 Strength Training Incline Bench Press: 45x5x2, 65x5x2, 95x5x2. My right shoulder really doesn't like it. 1/17/2018 Strength Training Press: warm-ups: 45x5x2, 65x5, 85x5; work sets: 115x5, 115x5, 115x5. Squat: 135x5. Just to move the knees through the range of motion under a load. Deadlifts: 115x5, 135x5, 170x3, 198x5. MA Training TKD Class: 6:00 - 7:15 pm. Basics, stretch, forms (Choong Jang), one-steps (some white, lo blue belt), sparring (three rounds, felt really tired, but was doing ok). We had three new adult white belts in tonight, which was great to see. 1/23/2018 MA Training I went to the school this morning do a solo workout. I did Do-Kang 1 and 2 (our "black belt basics"), Chon Ji, Dan Gun, and Bo Chung forms, then did some bag work. I worked on some offensive footwork, moving around the bag and working with both round kicks and spin side kicks. Then I did the footwork up and down the floor, getting a feel for it. Finished with a stretch. About 10:15 - 11:00 am this morning.

Yes. Often seen from two different perspectives. One is a skilled fighter who, lacking takedowns, pulls an opponent on top of them in order to initiate a ground game, albeit from their back. The second is what I had initially mentioned- people with limited ground experience (often striking or something else) who learn grappling so as to avoid it. Pulling guard seems to kill the idea of avoiding the ground, but often done because they see high level guys do it, so they assume that it must be a good idea or the guard is a good place from which to fight. Ah, I gotcha now. As one of those stand-up guys that has limited experience in ground fighting (although not from lack of trying), I would much rather be in the mount than try to pull a guard. If I'm going to take someone down, I'd rather end up in the dominant position than in the guard.

Welcome to KF!

Congrats!

Yeah, I agree, I think the Rubic's cube is a bit of a reach. I think it could teach perseverance, for sure, but I wouldn't want it taking up class time.

I'm with MatsuShinshii on this one. It sounds to me like you are trying to suggest to your coach/instructor where you should be training level-wise, and your instructor is telling you otherwise, but it sounds like you are not listening. So it sounds to me like he is going to give you what you want, whether you truly realize what it is you are getting. A more traditional-style instructor might view this as being somewhat disrespectful. That could be how this coach is viewing it. Just food for thought on your approach here. I don't think the coach is setting you up for failure. I think he is putting you where you think you want to be. Either way, after all is said and done, you'll know the answer. Please keep us posted.

Perseverance is the key. That's one of those "aha!" moments that Sensei8 talks about. May many more come your way!

Ok, I'm a bit slow keeping up here, so here's a quick update. We've had two more meets now, one in Great Bend, and one in Ellis, a small town in my jurisdiction here. Kenneth placed 3rd at both, and at the tourney in Ellis, he started to put some things together it seems. At Great Bend, I told him he needed to start going faster, and not working in slow-motion, and it seems to have clicked a little bit for him. At Ellis, he wet 2-2, and I saw some improvement, so that's good. Kendall is doing well, considering the size discrepancies he is running into in his competition. He went 2-1 in Great Bend, and the match he lost was to a kid who was really pretty good, although he was a lighter weight. At Ellis, Kendall went 2-2 and got 4th place due to the funny way things work out with Ws and Ls in a round-robin format. But, he had some good matches against competition he will face the rest of the season and at districts, so its what he needed. We go to Norton this weekend, and I'm sure Kendall will see much of the same competition he did last week. So, we'll see how much he's improved. Kenneth, I'm not sure what competition we'll see for him there yet.

I'm not much of a grappler, but I am familiar with some of it. When you say "pulling guard," does that mean you are forsaking any other position and attempting to pull someone into your guard, onto your back, as opposed to any other kind of takedown attempt?

Now we’re starting on the same page... So, TJ, since you started this up, I'm assuming you have an answer to your own question. As an instructor/trainer, what do you consider to be the basics of BJJ? Say its my first class, what should I expect to learn? And what do I expect to learn that first month to 6 weeks, as per the basics?

Congrats!

Different styles and different schools are going to have different basics. This is just human. Ultimately, I don't think it's important to have unification at the onset. With martial arts, it's the whole journey that matters, and in the end, you'll find some sense of unification, as it seems that's when the collection of principles merge. Not everything fits in a nice little box. It's a big world out there, and sometimes you'll have to expect some grey area. I see what both of you are saying here. However, I do tend to agree with what TJ is getting at. In TKD, I classify basic kicks as front kicks, side kicks, and round kicks. Everything else I can build off these three kicks. In my limited BJJ experience, I would tend to believe that there are some BJJ basics out there that most instructors would agree on.

Thank you everyone!

I honestly think that is a part of the test. Its easy at times to say something like "when I go to my MA class, I can leave the rest of the world behind for that hour or hour and a half, and it is such a great release for me." I'm sure many of us have said this and felt this way at some point. But, on the other side of the coin, how many of us have actually stated that the Martial Arts are a part of who we are, part of our lifestyle, and we couldn't change it if we tried? Well, if that's the case, then we take our Martial Arts with us along with every other aspect of our lives, including the stress, the pressure, and the distractions. I think in the end, we have to decide to overcome.

Ok, this is coming from the TKD guy, but I'll chime in. I do think that the old adage of "the basics are important" is at times a cop-out, and I feel like I fall victim to that in my classes at times. Our TKD classes start with "basics" every class. To run down a really boring list of floor drills we do: Sitting stances and punches (in 1s, 2s, and 3s). Then break. Stepping an punching down the floor, then down block/reverse punch back the other way (done in front stance). Then break. Knife hand strikes in back stance, stepping forwards and then backwards. Middle blocks, done like knife hand strikes. Then high blocks in front stance, down the floor and back. Then break. Double knife hand blocks in back stance, stepping forwards and then backwards down the floor. Then upset knife hand strikes in front stance (lead hand going down, reverse hand going back). Finish with double forearm blocks in front stance, down and back. Then break. Now kicks. Front stance, stretch kicks down the floor, then front snap kicks going back. Then outside crescent kicks done on each leg. Break. Sitting stance, advancing side kicks. Two times down and back. Break. Fighting stance, jump front snap kicks, down and back. Break. Combinations. Fighting stance to reverse punch in front stance, back leg front kick, continuously down the floor. Then back and break. Same setup follows with reverse punch followed by back leg round kick, down and back and then break. Then reverse punch, back leg round kick, hop side kick down and back, break. Final combination is reverse punch, back leg side kick, spin side kick, down and back. After all that's done, the class bows, and the low ranks start their forms work, and this is done in groups by rank. At any rate, I'm sure that was riveting reading brought by the non-grappler of this crew, but its to make a point. We do this in every class, because they basics are important. However, we don't spend much time working on more "advanced" techniques in the class. Like what? Like 360 degree round kicks, or jump spin side kick, or twisting kicks, etc. Now, I'm sure to most grapplers these techniques would appear to be pretty pointless, but never-the-less, they are techniques that many younger and skilled practitioners like to learn to do, and some of the techniques are useful in sparring as counters and finishers in combinations. Aside from that, there are other factors I experience in the class, too. Our one-steps, for instance. I've always viewed (some) of them as a good starting point in learning self-defense, but its important to advance from the one-step model into a more interactive model for learning good self-defense. Yet we don't do that, either. High rank one-steps start like low rank one-steps. I don't think that should be the case. If you want your students to get better, the instructor has to move things along.

I do enjoy Kane and Wilder books as well. I have several of them.