Shooter, Graham, JAB, strawdog and others discuss things

[everything]

The truth is, I went to train with those groups with one or two ideas in mind.

I am often trying out only 1 or 2 ideas in some other context. I think it's really helpful, not just with a taijiquan "energy" though the energies in the abstract seem to start appearing everywhere.

[Mut]

From my own experience, I have taken the principles from my art and rolled with BJJ dudes.... not much though. I found that they often had a hard time submitting me (a purple and black with ease, another purple and blues hard) until I would gas, as I had no fitness specific to ground play. I found trouble in the fact that I have no idea of submissions, I could often gain reasonable position for G'n'P but that is about it. I would love to have some more time to explore ideas on the floor and even to learn some of the ground game (hell I would love to go through and get BB in BJJ but that is unlikely anytime soon) . Fortunately some of the guys I train with are doing BJJ and are willing to roll once the school is matted,l so hopefully I can become more comfortable down there should I need to. I agree with shooter that it can be done with IMA principles, though I am lazy and would rather learn the BJJ as a seperate thing influenced by my other training.

just a side note though.... . X-training to me is more training in different arts not training with different arts

[BruceP]

Mut wrote:

..X-training to me is more training in different arts not training with different arts

Yep, intel-gathering is one approach to sealing your leaks. One of the most important things is to be able to provide your training partners with good emulation of the types of attacks they will likely encounter. It only makes sense. Good on you, Mut

[everything]

Mut, I'm another bjj beginner but if you can get to gnp position against a purple and the blues you're doing just fine. The bjj folks themselves will say position before submission, but as a beginner and "internal" guy, I'd rather focus on sweeps and positioning anyway. Playing a submit from guard game is a much more specific technical skillset.

Like a lot of you who've used mainly previous IMA training when rolling, I find some of the bjj folks are missing a lot they could get from just looking at taiji "energies" and applying those. When I don't know what to do in a specific position, I find wardoff, pulldown, rollback, and press are usually present and allow for some good intuition on what to do to keep flowing. Of course eventually the 'shen fa' is there but the "energies" are useful to consciously train...

[Mut]

everything, I would not even consider myself a BJJ beginner at this stage. I think the concept of positioning is no different either standing or laying down... The difficulty is in understanding your environment better. So for me getting more exposure on the ground with (semi-)skilled ground players is important. I went through a stage where I rolled whenever I could but for the last 18 months or so I have been constantly injured first with a knee injury from aforementioned purple belt and later with my lovely shoulder that seems like it will hamper me for a while yet. I don't want to leave an impression that I am any good on the ground, but I did not suck quite as much as I thought I would.

Cheers Shooter, personally I think that is what makes an art traditional (at least part of the equation), being willing and able to test your stuff outside the confines of your own school/system and purge it of the dogma that comes with not testing things.