Comments on The Jiu-Jitsu Fighter: Jiu-Jitsu Secrets of The Incredible Hulk

That thing Rickson does with his stomach is freaky...

2008-10-24T20:21:00.000-05:00

That thing Rickson does with his stomach is freaky. I'm waiting for the creature from Aliens to pop out. Hulk vs. the Alien. I'd go to that movie!

I may be an oddball as far an Junior members go, b...

2008-10-24T15:09:00.000-05:00

I may be an oddball as far an Junior members go, but I look forward to the oppertunity to roll with the most experianced guys in the class. I have no aprehensions in going against Brent, Justin, Ray, or Conan. And I will not lie, I am looking to submit all of you when we roll! I don't know what there is to be afraid of, you may get submitted, buy like Conan said you are going to learn from it in some way or another. Why on earth would you not want to roll with your instructor? Conan does give one on one insites when you roll. Every Veteran member does, that is the coolest part of our group. I know I have only been here for 3 months, but when I roll with a new guy I feel confident enough to walk him through moves while we are rolling with out being condesending. I will even have them go so far as to let them get the submission as long as they are performing the proper technique, why not? They are learning and I am refreshing the move in my mind. One last thing, if the Hulk did walk in to class...I would be the first to roll with him, he is awsome!

I was guilty of this last time I rolled with you g...

2008-10-24T02:35:00.000-05:00

I was guilty of this last time I rolled with you guys. I realized itat teh time and gave it quite a bit of thought. Most of it was fear of being dominated and pride, especially being a blackbelt from another art and represting that art. Some of it was also not wanting to waste others time because they were getting ready for a tournament.

After reading a lot of the mindset posts on here I have a new outlook on martial arts in general. I've really been working with my attitude and changing the way I train and teach. I'm thankful that I got in touch with Conan and visited the school. Hopefully I will be theremore often in the future because I see the ground game as being where I need the most improvement and this seems the best place to do it.

andy,
i worry that i didn't come across the way...

2008-10-24T00:06:00.000-05:00

andy,
i worry that i didn't come across the way i wished. i'm not saying we shouldn't go for submissions! from your post, i gather that i came across this way.
let me clarify:
what i am saying is that we should think of jiu jitsu as more than just submissions. if a couple years down the road i can hang with conan for 10 minutes before he taps me, that's huge improvement. even if he still taps me, the degree of improvement is significant.
i am just trying to emphasize that we should think differently about the jiu jitsu game than it seems we sometimes do. instead of defining our progress by submissions only, we need to look at much more.
this was the difference between royce gracie and ken shamrock when they fought so many years ago and between renzo gracie and frank shamrock more recently.
long story short: we should gauge our success in smaller steps of picking up many technicalities (whether they are parts of submissions or not). i worry that we forget those things sometimes. then when we get tapped, we feel that we haven't progressed.
not disagreeing about going for submissions (but i don't think i argued for such), but that there are other things to master along the way.
we can't get a submission if we can't first obtain and maintain control (unless you're sakuraba).
i think what i'm saying actually fits in well with your discussion of working on details in open mat. what you describe is exactly what i see as the antidote to the problem of gauging one's success only on ending up with subs.

garrett,
communism forever! j/k.

There is to much emphasis in winning and losing so...

2008-10-23T21:11:00.000-05:00

There is to much emphasis in winning and losing sometimes but I will have to disagree with you somewhat on the submission aspect of the game Brent. I think it's vital to actually apply the submission and force your opponent to tap when applicable. That is how you learn the technique and the partner learns to defend. My goal is not always to tap my opponent out in practice, but let's face it, it's part of the process. I try lots of new stuff and sometimes it works and other times not. Bottom line, we all need to work together on our weak areas and communicate to our partners better in some cases. I quit often ask my partner if there is anything they want to work on so by no means is winning my goal. I think the biggest mistake new guys make is to not speak up and tell their partner what they would like to work on. We are all responsible for our own improvement so everyone needs to speak up when it comes time to have open mat and directly work on some of those weaknesses.

Andy

"we live is a dog-eat-dog capitalistic society" B...

2008-10-23T20:46:00.000-05:00

"we live is a dog-eat-dog capitalistic society" Brent don't talk bad about capitalism again or we can't be friends anymore. lol j/k

I think a lot of what your saying Brent goes back the George Washington Juijistu post.

I sympathize with the beginners that do this though (avoiding the more experienced grappler). It sucks going to the gym day after day getting tapped out and dominated. Of course after you aren't the beginner anymore, you should be jumping at the opportunity to roll with the more advanced grapplers

that picture is awesome. only rickson could get aw...

2008-10-23T10:11:00.000-05:00

that picture is awesome. only rickson could get away with wearing a hat during a match. it puts a different context to the hulk's rage. instead of screaming in anger, he's screaming due to the pain of a rickson armbar.
every conan article i read becomes my fave, but i think this one is it. i try to add a couple things below, just a few thoughts:
i think part of the problem is that we see open mat as a contest, as a real confrontation. this is a bad frame of mind. but, i don't think we can totally blame ourselves. we live is a dog-eat-dog capitalistic society. the point: we are prone to constantly weigh ourselves against others. that is how we are taught to determine our worth.
we need to adopt a completely different paradigm of thinking when it comes to jiu jitsu. i think some of the best moments in open mat are when there's no submission. this doesn't mean a stalemate when both grapplers are out of gas, but an understanding that our open mat time isn't the ufc. we're not getting a 60K win bonus.
what i mean by not getting a submission is that there are other parts of the jits game that we also need to think about in open mat. if we get a sweep in open mat, is that not a big accomplishment?! absolutely! what about being able to hold mount, or to keep someone from passing your guard for a good amount of time (which is my bane)?
i think in open mat we make the mistake of determining our success or failure on submitting or being submitted.
i'm learning to think differently. if i employ a more complex sweep or keep someone in my guard for a while, that is just as much of a victory!
what i'm trying to say is: we shouldn't worry so much about being submitted, etc from a more experienced person. i always look forward to rolling with conan for the sake of working on my bottom game. conan can hold me in side control for hours. but, as i slow down and try to think through things, i am starting to get a feel of where my arms should be, where my hips should be, etc.
we should use open mat as a place to use the mind, not necessarily to exhaust the body to the point where the brain stops functioning due to the body's exhaustion.
just a few thoughts to add.
nice article conan . . . its much needed!