Meditation/Mentality/Energy Levels

[dragontigerpalm]

If you Google "Mindfulness in Plain English filetype:pdf" it will lead to a pdf file of a practical book about meditation. As the title suggests the book is about the Mindfulness type of meditation. The reason I mention it is that scientists recently discovered that monks who meditated this way had changed the structure of their brains.

Basically there is a part of the brain called the prefrontal cortex: high activity on the left side of it fills you with positive emotion; high activity on the right has the opposite effect. In fact too much right side activity leads to anxiety and depression. Anyway, in everyone there is a balance, or set point, between the two parts and that set point generally determines our level of happiness/contentment or otherwise with the world. Using magnetic resonance brain scans scientists have found that by using the mindfulness technique you can shift that set point to the left and that after a period of time the change is permanent. Unfortunately they reckon it takes about 10,000 hours meditation for the changes to be permanent, but that significant improvement can be made with much less effort.

The book itself is one of the finest I have ever read on the subject and I would recommend it to anyone.

From what I've read so far this appears to be a great find. Thanks for posting the info.

[I-mon]

mindfulness in plain english is one of the best books out there.

[Johnny Drama]

Got absolutely wrecked last night. This is a good thing though, and I think I know why.

I ate big time on Sunday and went back knowing I'd have to deal with that. Also did other stuff...anyway, I have been meditating a lot though...I'd say at least 45 minutes of the day are devoted to meditation.

My first roll was easy, I handled a white belt who comes off and on. My second roll was against a tough blue, I swept him really quick but then stalled out in his guard for the rest of the match. He threw sub after sub at me, and I would get out of them and then do nothing and allow him to recompose guard and start. The next two matches, against white belts (who are tough) I had 0 gas and allowed myself to get mounted and manhandled over and over. Again, I stalled out in their guards, never really passing, just staying there. When I broke out of sub attempts I didn't capitalize, I just stayed there and waited for them to come again. Then I went up against a really heavy blue belt who was very good, far better then the whites. I took his back, it moved to half guard, and I went for the d'arce for the remainder of the match.

Here is what I took away from this and how it relates to meditation.

I never really attempted to break the other guys guard last night. I was afraid that I would expend to much energy, so I just stayed inside fighting off sub attempt after sub attempt. This led me to use far more energy then it would have taken to break the guard and pass.

Somehow, I've fallen into a trap. My half guard is good. I can sweep most people from it, regardless of skill level. I've also learned how to hang out there and just relax. I've become so dependent on it though, that I've severely neglected the burst energy it takes in BJJ to pass. I'd rather pull half guard or allow myself to be swept and work it then try and pass and maintain control. I'd even allow myself to be put in side control and mount, rather than fight to get position. I'd allow myself to let my partner recompose his guard so I could buy time on the clock and work to open it again.

I was doing all this out of fatigue/fear of fatigue. I realized I've been hiding on the mat.

So, I'm going to be working passing and breaking open the guard almost exclusively. I feel fine about other parts of my game. Submissions, and all my top positions are solid. Its making the effort to get there.

This has been largely a technical post. But, last night I did put myself in a lot of embarrassing situations I would have hid from before. I picked guys I knew who could make me look bad. I realized why they were doing it. Instead of playing a very safe game against them that could have nullified their attempts and made me "the winner", I worked on my weakest part. This sounds like what sparring should be, but I haven't used it right out of ego. Also ,while meditation hasn't brought me the aerobic energy I need (yet), it has given me the experience to realize what is lacking so I can build it up.

[neijia_boxer]

johnny drama- if you dont have it already- get a copy of the Grappling Gameplan by Lloyd Irvin, it is for all martial artist not just grapplers and has a ton of mental training.

you can thank me later.

[Johnny Drama]

I'll thank you now. I'll pick it up, thank you.

[kreese]

I really enjoyed your training review, JD. We need more of this kind of post.

[Johnny Drama]

I really enjoyed your training review, JD. We need more of this kind of post.

Thank you. I'm training hard the next two days and will post my experiences.

[Royal Dragon]

I also sit at the computer for long periods of time which leave me feeling exhausted.

Reply]
Get a pair of light UV sunglasses and wear them every time you are infront of the computer screen. You will see a huge difference in how well your energy levels are maintained.

I did this originally because the screen on my laptop made my eyes burn, similar to welding without a helmet, only to a lessor degree, so i figured some eye protection might be in order the same as when you weld.


The burning sensation went away instantly, and i noticed a marked improvement in how much energy i had after being on for a long time as well. The result was astounding.

I won't look at my screen without eye protection any longer.

Cheap UV sunglasses are 9.95 at just about any gas station.

[mrtoes]

JD: Thanks for sharing your posts about meditation. I enjoyed reading your blog as well. I have neglected meditation as part of my practise (hsing i/bagua) because well, it's "easier" for me to concentrate on hitting hard, rather than putting in the hard work to explore what is going on inside. But I am finding that this is limiting me in various ways, for example I'm pretty easy to tense up which allows people to take control of me in roushou.

As an aside, how do you find your internal arts training works with your BJJ? You probably already know if you spend a lot of time on the net but there's a chap called Tim Cartmell who has had success combining IMA and BJJ, he has a site at www.shenwu.com. There's a Gracie BJJ class near where I live and I was thinking of popping down there and seeing what it's all about. Do you do a lot of standing grappling or is it mostly just ground work? I really like the idea of constant sparring which seems to be a big part of it. Plus right now I know that if anyone ever got me down on the ground, I'm toast

[Johnny Drama]

Interesting, Royal Dragon. Thank you.

Mrtoes, thank you. I appreciate the interest in my post and my blog. This has been a really good post for me, I've learned a lot and am studying quite a bit.

how do you find your internal arts training works with your BJJ?

At first I threw out all my internal training. I had no athleticism whatsoever, and when you are sparring guys who live this sport, it really makes a difference. I've begun to bring back a ton of my internal training now though, and I see a lot of benefits.

The biggest benefit I see is "base". I'm not sure if you are familiar with this term, but it basically means balance/weight when you are on top of someone or in their guard. My coach tells me he finds its impossible to teach base, that its something learned through sparring. I have a very good base when in someones guard though, I'm very hard to sweep. It is a catch twenty two though, because I will hang out in peoples guards with them unable to sweep or submit me, and then I'm dead the next round from taking punishment. But, its really cool to be able to resist scissor and hip bump sweeps.

On a side note, I'm going to stand up immediately in everyone's guard I spar tonight. I don't care about submitting. I just want to stand and pass, over and over so I get rid of that "hanging out". Hanging out will inevitably get me choked out by an x-choke from guard or caught with a sloppy triangle or armbar from a tenacious fighter.

I've also got better take down defense then most guys I train with. A good Judo player can take me down though. But, they have to be good and most peoples takedowns are very easy to sprawl against or control in the clinch.

Theres also a knee/elbow connection that is stressed in guard passing that is definitely familiar from IMA.

I'm stronger than a lot of guys. When we first started doing kettlebells I could do the full body kettlebell exercises better than a lot of guys who were starting out as well. Now, I can still lift them better. I don't bench press more than people, but I'm one of the heaviest kettlebell lifters. I think the IMA body mechanics had a huge influence on that.

Theres a ton of stuff that is different though, especially in gi jiu jitsu. Just learning effective gripping strategy is a whole different world. The cardio intensive work out is the hardest change. And, the training methodologies are very different from the IMA I learned. Getting used to "fighting" every class was very nerve wracking at first, I still get butterflies.

Do you do a lot of standing grappling or is it mostly just ground work?

We do a fair amount of standing. I think more than the average BJJ school. There is an emphasis on competition in my place, and getting the takedown is huge. We also have good Judo players and wrestlers who are willing to share. Whats cool about finding the right grappling school is you run into all sorts of stylists who will show you interesting moves and explain different theories.

Lots of high percentage Judo and wrestling takedowns to ground work is trained to compliment the BJJ, its really cool.

[DeusTrismegistus]

If you want to train "base" take up horse riding. Trains that kind of thing very well.

[everything]

jd, that is excellent. The way you're training is the way I want to train. It's tough because my judo and bjj classes are totally separate. We have ex-wrestlers at judo and bjj, but few judoka at bjj. The bjj school is not as competition oriented. The judo school is, but is mostly kids. Taijiquan and baguazhang - forget about it. Almost useless by comparison except that I know what I want out of it - similar things to what you're talking about. Will check out your blog. Really great thread. Thanks a lot.

[Butterball]

In relation to your first post , JD, I spent a lot of time working on my defense and positional escapes and that helped me relax alot when sparring and save lots of energy so I don't gas so quick. The reasoning behind it is that once I got to the point where I could defend and escape from bad positions against decent guys with confidence, then I started to relax more when attacking/guard passing/maintaining positions on top or from the guard because I wasn't as concerned about getting put in a bad spot. That's what helped for me anyway, with gassing.

Btw, do you train at Studio X?

[Johnny Drama]

jd, that is excellent. The way you're training is the way I want to train. It's tough because my judo and bjj classes are totally separate. We have ex-wrestlers at judo and bjj, but few judoka at bjj. The bjj school is not as competition oriented. The judo school is, but is mostly kids. Taijiquan and baguazhang - forget about it. Almost useless by comparison except that I know what I want out of it - similar things to what you're talking about. Will check out your blog. Really great thread. Thanks a lot.

Long winded post alert-

Glad you are getting something out of the discussion, thank you. It took me a long while to find a school that worked for me. I really do love IMA, I find the concepts are excellent and some of the practical applications I have experienced from them are very impressive indeed. I'm excited about seriously studying them a long with my grappling. But yeah, I left my old IMA teacher for a number of reasons. One of them was I didn't find that much value in the training methods. Part of that was immaturity and not being able to see things I can now, but another part was the lack of realism. I just hated seeing guys who had studied for a number of years turn into tense, stiff corpses when sparring or fighting came. Also lack of good, tried and true methods that produced results were sorely lacking.

It wasn't that I just jumped into grappling and found my niche though. I had experimented with it before. I joined my first school mainly because I knew I wanted to be a grappler, and it had Marcelo Garcia teaching. I still felt like an outsider in some ways though, this is something I see time and time again. New guys coming in, looking terrified. Regardless of belt, if they have some experience they just act tough. Its a scary thing stepping on the mat with people you don't know and wrestling. So, I try and talk to people and get them to loosen up. Anyway,my original grappling training heavily emphasised conditioning more than technique. I felt so in over my head. Especially one occasion where I didn't eat breakfast and went to one of Marcelo's private conditioning classes. I almost fainted and was made to sit out. At that point I started learning about nutrition.

Time went on, things changed, and I made a jump to a different place. It changed a lot of things for me. I feel very secure with the place I train. I am at home on the mat. A big thing about training is it has to be fun. People seem to neglect this, a lot of people want to be macho and make it unfun for people. Fun does not imply being lazy, we train really hard. But, you have to want to show up every day. Marcelo was good at doing that. You just wanted to be around him, and he was always doing ridiculous drills that made people laugh from how hard they were.

Thats the real thing. Something challenging and fun. I hope you find it. Its great to have people from all styles with no ego just trading information. Breaking it down, revealing all the little tricks that make it work. Its really awesome how fast guys get good. I feel like I skyrocketed when I started training in this type of environment, and I watched others do the same.

I haven't updated my blog in ages, but I will.

In relation to your first post , JD, I spent a lot of time working on my defense and positional escapes and that helped me relax alot when sparring and save lots of energy so I don't gas so quick. The reasoning behind it is that once I got to the point where I could defend and escape from bad positions against decent guys with confidence, then I started to relax more when attacking/guard passing/maintaining positions on top or from the guard because I wasn't as concerned about getting put in a bad spot. That's what helped for me anyway, with gassing.

Thank you for the advice. I get a lot out of your posts. I actually feel ok with being in bad positions. My half guard is probably my best position, I can sweep a lot from there. My mount escape is pretty decent, but my side mount, ugh. Its more a mental thing, I accept the pass after a long fight and then I lay in side mount. When knee on belly or mount comes, that's the "oh shit" button and I get out of there immediately. I have to change that.

I trained a lot last night. Its definitely my guard opening/passing that needs the most work. What happens is I will often sweep someone from bottom, and then lay in their guard taking punishment. I really worked on that last night, with some good results. I got armbarred so fucking fast when I had shitty passing posture while I stood up at one point though. Posture, posture, posture. This goes back to a question before about how IMA relates to grappling, and again the point of body mechanics and keeping elbow/knee connection while moving in low, powerful stances was stressed to me.

The guy looked at me and said "Why did you bend like that? keep your posture". I later on told him the trouble I was having, and he calmly looked at me and said "So pass". I like it when people keep things simple. Thats just how he thinks, and he gets results.

As far as meditation and progress go, I did notice one thing last night that really helped my gas levels. We were starting sparring from half guard. Prior to that we had worked on Kimura set ups from mount. I could see how the half guard pass flowed perfectly into the various kimura's we had worked. While I was setting up the pass, I could see in my mind the gripset I wanted in side control, and the kimura I would attack with after. That is to say while I was passing, I had the setup for the next two moves (control, then finish) in my mind. So I was doing three moves, the pass, control, then finish all together. I've chained moves together before, but never mentally during the match. Before they just happened. Thinking this way, it gave me a lot of confidence, and made me feel like there was a destination close by. So I could go hard physically, but still paced myself mentally.

It was far better than just doing one move and changing here and there as the situation dictates, not knowing where your going. That leaves me stressed and unsure. But having knowledge of the situation and the variables, that's a huge confidence booster. I think the improved concentration from meditation especially helped with this.

Btw, do you train at Studio X?

Yes, I train there under Josh Griffiths. My name is Sebastian. I see you train at Balance? We had a bunch of Balance people for some sparring and belt promotions during the opening of our school.

[Butterball]

Hi JD/Sebastian,

I do train at Balance, my name is Josh. My instructor Phil heads up to Studio X sometimes and has brought some of our guys up there to train. Everyone that I've talked to has said great things about the new space and about Josh Griffiths' skills on the mat teaching and training; sounds like you found a good spot! One of the guys that used to train at Balance (Erik Stafford I think his last name is. Very tall skinny friendly guy with a good guard) trains there now.

BTW, that's awesome that you got to train with Garcia. I would love the chance to train with him and regret not having stopped by the school when he was in NY.