Rickson Gracie seminar

[Dmitri]

...just got back from it.

Noted the following terms mentioned a lot/points stressed again and again:
- connection (inside yourself);
- relax;
- from your feet to your hands (elbows, shoulders, etc.);
- feel;
- connection (to your opponent);
- whole-body movement;
- "can't really learn this stuff from a video."

Sound familiar? Felt like I was at some "internal" seminar. Unfortunately I also think most of that went over a lot of people's heads... (I think. May be wrong, who knows.)

When personally correcting people, he would often tell them to close their eyes and feel what's happening.
He talked about "invisible jiu-jitsu", i.e. stuff that can't be seen but only felt.
Some cool drills almost identical to those we have in taiji class/curriculum.

Reinforced my attempts to "marry" my taiji with the GJJ I've been learning... A lot of this "high-level stuff" he was talking about was very clear/sounded very familiar to me. Most of what we were doing and what he talked about I found directly relating to (stand-up) taiji work, applied (partially) on the ground.

Great guy to boot, also. Very in-the-moment/"present", clear in expression of thought, great teacher, mentally balanced, and radiating physical and mental health, -- which I can't say, unfortunately, about majority of teachers (in any art) out there.

In other words, that was cool as hell.

Anyway, just wanted to share.

[GrahamB]

Sounds cool. When he said:

"- connection (inside yourself);"

in what context was it? And also what do you think he meant (i.e. not what you mean by it)?

[Dmitri]

Just basic connection from foot to hip, chest, shoulder, elbow, hand, or whatever other part of the body needs to be "present" for the action.

One particular example was where you're on your back and the other guy on top of side-body, controlling with a "scarf hold", something like:



One of the ways to escape that is to push with the left part of your chest on him, then tilt your hips sideways (left hip on top), push forward and up with the hips to create some space and then slide your right hip under his right hip, and from there it's very easy to just pull him over to the other side and now you're on top of him with side-body control.

So the emphasis was on HOW you move, not just WHAT moves you make. E.g. that first push into him with the left side of your chest (and/or left shoulder) as you tilt your hips, is actually coming all the way from the left foot, through the body directly where it needs to go -- as opposed to "just turning" which is what most people try to do, i.e. disconnected turn towards him which is much easier for him to neutralize.

That sort of thing... hope it makes some sense. IOW some of the push-hands basics, only on the ground.

P.S. One caveat -- that particular wording ("inside yourself") is mine; I just wanted to differentiate between the two types of the term "connection" he talked about (which he mentioned a lot). One he used the most was the one to/into your opponent; the other one was by reference in regards to getting "feelings" through your body.

[Fubo]

Thanks Dmitri,

I read an interview quite a while ago where Rickson Gracie attributes Taiji as one of the things which helped his art.

I agree with the relationships between BJJ and Taiji when the person trying to marry the 2 knows what ground fighting, and it's techniques, are about, as oppose to some attempts to just try and apply Taiji push-hands on the ground without much experience in actually ground fighting (not naming names here ).

[mixjourneyman]

as oppose to some attempts to just try and apply Taiji push-hands on the ground without much experience in actually ground fighting (not naming names here ).

I know that guy!!

[Fubo]

Yes, Mix, the infamous tai chi push hands ground fighting vid... I'm still speechless.

[Dmitri]

Yeah, there shouldn't be any confusion between "applying push-hands on the ground" and "applying push-hands principles on the ground".

[mixjourneyman]

;D Yes, Mix, the infamous tai chi push hands ground fighting vid... I'm still speechless.

The funny thing is that in my neck of the woods he is an ultra super mega revered god of everything taijiquan.
Though to be fair, when he was younger he had some sweet SC and even fought in a "sparring" tournament or two.
i think its just that the common fate of middle aged men who practice TJQ befell him. that would be making the assumption that because you got it to work in some capacity when you were an athletic young guy, it must then work for you in every capacity as a seasoned vet. Which of course is hogwash.

[Fubo]

Yeah, I've seen one clip of the younger him, and indeed it was nice to see some of his SC in competition. Too bad about the ground fighting attempt. I also think that when some people get the "Tai Chi" ingrained in them they think they can apply it to "everything" before understanding the different contexts, which unfortunately ends up diluting their art into a mish-mash of generalizations.

[gzregorz]

I've been teaching some jits and what I tell my guy is that we could go all out and make it about who wins or we can make it about developing good habits and good technique.

So when we roll we experiment and try new things. Even when I submit him I stop, go back and have him figure out the escape.

I basically use the same spirit to teach jits that my teacher used to teach me push hands and it's already done a lot for my game because I try a lot of things I wouldn't try in a competitive match.

In those situations it's the opposite, I only do my best moves.

[Frazetta]

Cool. Rickson is best of the Gracie family. Did you get to roll with him? If so, how did he feel? Did you choke him out? You did, didn't you? You can tell us, Dmitri.

[GrahamB]

Just basic connection from foot to hip, chest, shoulder, elbow, hand, or whatever other part of the body needs to be "present" for the action.

One particular example was where you're on your back and the other guy on top of side-body, controlling with a "scarf hold", something like:



One of the ways to escape that is to push with the left part of your chest on him, then tilt your hips sideways (left hip on top), push forward and up with the hips to create some space and then slide your right hip under his right hip, and from there it's very easy to just pull him over to the other side and now you're on top of him with side-body control.

So the emphasis was on HOW you move, not just WHAT moves you make. E.g. that first push into him with the left side of your chest (and/or left shoulder) as you tilt your hips, is actually coming all the way from the left foot, through the body directly where it needs to go -- as opposed to "just turning" which is what most people try to do, i.e. disconnected turn towards him which is much easier for him to neutralize.

That sort of thing... hope it makes some sense. IOW some of the push-hands basics, only on the ground.

P.S. One caveat -- that particular wording ("inside yourself") is mine; I just wanted to differentiate between the two types of the term "connection" he talked about (which he mentioned a lot). One he used the most was the one to/into your opponent; the other one was by reference in regards to getting "feelings" through your body.

Thanks Dmitri. From what you said I'm getting that he means "Connection" in the sense of moving the body together, rather than as separate parts. Would that be a fair description? (I always find the word "connection" odd, because, obviously they're connected, or your foot would be hanging off )

[yusuf]

well done Dmitri.. the guy is on my list of people to train with.. but I am wondering where JAB is .. i mean he should have posted by now telling us how xxx hundred dollars is way too much money for a seminar...

[Dmitri]

Did you get to roll with him? If so, how did he feel? Did you choke him out? You did, didn't you?

Of course, I immediately challenged him to a death match on the spot, but unfortunately he just didn't have the time...
I did get to "touch" the guy as he was going around the room correcting things, but it wasn't free-style (I wish ) so the "feeling" was specialized for particulars of the move, therefore I can't answer the ultimate IMA "how he felt" question.

From what you said I'm getting that he means "Connection" in the sense of moving the body together, rather than as separate parts. Would that be a fair description? (I always find the word "connection" odd, because, obviously they're connected, or your foot would be hanging off )

Yep. But again, most of the use of that word was the "connection" to the other guy/opponent. E.g. when you hold the gi you don't just hang on to the cloth, you are feeling the guy's movement... (I just now realized that intent/yi, though indirectly, did actually come up in a lot of what he said, it's just that it wasn't as obvious/stressed like it is with IMA.)

...telling us how xxx hundred dollars is way too much money for a seminar...

It was indeed the most expensive one I ever attended, but it was worth every penny IMO. The man's providing for his family, so if there's a market why not? And if anyone deserved it, it's him; he's certainly not selling hot air like so many other "overpriced" seminars do.

[neijia_boxer]

Nice! I love finding Tai chi principles in other martial arts