"Even if it seems certain that you will lose, retaliate. Neither wisdom nor technique has a place in this. A real man does not think of victory or defeat." From The Hagakure: The Way of the Samurai
My partner last night was Warren, a Tech student who is studying IT. We started talking about that before class, and he asked me some really good questions about the work that I do. When it was time to line up for the beginning of class, we both stood up and noticed that we're pretty close to the same height (although I'm guessing that I'm about 40 pounds bigger), so we decided to train together. He's been practicing Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu for about three years.
"What night are we up to, mate?" Tony asked as he walked down the line at the beginning of class.
"Eleven."
"Very good," he said, with a smile.
That made me smile, too. I think he's surprised (as am I) that I've stuck with class for the entire month.
As class began, Tony raised a good point about the nature of training. When each class focuses on a couple of individual techniques or positions, it's easy to start thinking of each of those things in isolation. But a fight is not a series of isolated movements, it's a fluid thing, filled with constant transitions. To build confidence in our transitions, we worked on two main things last night: escaping when your opponent is in the mount position over you, and then quickly moving yourself back into an offensive position.
The mount position is basically the worst place you can be if you are on the bottom. (Behave yourselves, Ali and Roy.) You're flat on your back, and your opponent is seated on top of you, free to do whatever he wants. If his knees are high enough under your armpits, you won't even be able to use your arms. You can't use your strength to get out of it, because as long as he has good balance and center of gravity, he's not going anywhere. Maybe, while reading that last sentence, you figured out what has to be done in order to escape - disrupt your opponent's balance.
Here is a thing that still amazes me about this class. So many of the things we learn don't rely on strength at all, just physical principles. If you perform action X, your opponent's body will have reaction Y. One of the escapes we learned last night started by bridging your hips into the air and pulling forward on your opponent's hamstrings. You don't even have to pull hard, the guy will fall forward every time. Every time! From there, we learned different ways to attempt to open space between yourself and your opponent, so that you can either work your way out or work your way into a more advantageous position.
One more lesson, and then I'll post my wrap-up this weekend. I also have an exclusive interview with Tony Bonello coming soon!
3 comments:
Ali and Roy, (and Dan) you have no idea how hard it has been to refrain, but I have. So, just want it noted that they are not the only ones. :)
I have no idea why I was called out in this post....
But I'm flattered to be included with Ali!
tongue. teeth. blood.
(and, roy... awww. shucks. ;)
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