the rum soaked fist: internal martial arts forum

Good to hear!

I know I got a lot out of RSF too when I was rolling a lot.

Interesting how there is always something new or different in BJJ as it grows and evolves. Of course some of those "new things" are probably just old things which someone finally figured out how to teach. LOL!

It's weird isn't it.

On one hand there's nothing new, but at the same time people who specialise in one thing can create almost an entire new style based around it.

It interesting how you approach your own learning in that environment.

Two opposing views are 1) keep working on all your weak parts of your game, becoming ok at everything or... 2) work more on your strong parts so they get really good and you never need to worry about your missing areas.

Congratulations. That is no small achievement.

Now that you have a blackbelt in one kind of grappling are you giving any thought to branching out to other systems like catch wrestling?

GrahamB wrote:Two opposing views are 1) keep working on all your weak parts of your game, becoming ok at everything or... 2) work more on your strong parts so they get really good and you never need to worry about your missing areas.

Whenever it came to these questions I always enjoyed getting the perspective of my judo coach since bjj came mainly from judo. From him I remember him saying that most will only master 2 or 3 throws but that you still learn them all to find which works for you and learn the concepts since sometimes those "other throws" will work for you and from that I have to say that it is probably a little of both. Focus on your strengths but not to the detriment of everything else.

I also recall Ryan Hall eventually dropping the triangle because he wasn't learning anything else and didn't see the point since he was able to triangle everyone. He also seemed to carry the idea that there was no point in destroying someone with less skill but rather using it as an opportunity to learn or try something new.

For me, I actually enjoyed just playing with and toying with different concepts and the hyper competitiveness of most gyms just did not interest me because most guys would only rely on their strengths. I imagine that if you can find a happy balance you and your partners will enjoy rolling more than just using the same techniques all the time. In the end I did it for my own enjoyment but due to the crazy cost of living here I had to put it aside and focus on work and making money

Peacedog wrote:Congratulations. That is no small achievement.

Now that you have a blackbelt in one kind of grappling are you giving any thought to branching out to other systems like catch wrestling?

Thank you.

Honestly branching out into something else now hasn't even occurred to me. Jiujitsu feels right for me, and I don't see an end to the learning possibilities since you are encouraged to create new things for yourself within it.

Pete got his black belt recently too and he described it as the end of external markers to your progress. That's what I think too - it's more about internal goals now. I still have so much to work on and get better at that I don't see an end to this road.

grzegorz wrote:

GrahamB wrote:Two opposing views are 1) keep working on all your weak parts of your game, becoming ok at everything or... 2) work more on your strong parts so they get really good and you never need to worry about your missing areas.

Whenever it came to these questions I always enjoyed getting the perspective of my judo coach since bjj came mainly from judo. From him I remember him saying that most will only master 2 or 3 throws but that you still learn them all to find which works for you and learn the concepts since sometimes those "other throws" will work for you and from that I have to say that it is probably a little of both. Focus on your strengths but not to the detriment of everything else.

I also recall Ryan Hall eventually dropping the triangle because he wasn't learning anything else and didn't see the point since he was able to triangle everyone. He also seemed to carry the idea that there was no point in destroying someone with less skill but rather using it as an opportunity to learn or try something new.

For me, I actually enjoyed just playing with and toying with different concepts and the hyper competitiveness of most gyms just did not interest me because most guys would only rely on their strengths. I imagine that if you can find a happy balance you and your partners will enjoy rolling more than just using the same techniques all the time. In the end I did it for my own enjoyment but due to the crazy cost of living here I had to put it aside and focus on work and making money

Yep, that's one approach. But I'm also quite influenced by Marcelo Garcia's approach to grappling, mainly because we are a similar build, and his approach is a more reductionist one - he simply gets rid of stuff that doesn't work for him against *bigger, stronger people*, so he can get better at his "game" - the stuff that does work for him with his body type. If it doesn't work for you against bigger stronger people then get rid of it. For example, even if I decided to dedicate myself to nothing but the triangle for a year, then I can't really see that ever working for me against a guy 100kg and 6 foot 2 with experience.

You can't go with Marcelo. It sounds like he is saying the same exact thing as my judo coach. My judo coach never put it that way but that is a principle from judo which I am sure Marcelo got it from directly or indirectly. Of course my judo coach was telling me this as a white belt and not black belt to black belt.

In fact he said the way they did it in judo was that you would focus on a single technique and do it on everyone, like Ryan Hall's triangle, to prepare for competitions.

Obviously if you were not preparing for competitions then you didn't need to.