Time is something we wish we had more of. I believe the same is true of money, women and beer, but that is a story reserved for a day when my wife isn't reading this. I'm only joking (seriously, honey). No matter how hard you train, time seems to go by like a rocket strapped to a cheetah.
So how do you take advantage of the precious moments you have? Attribute specific training. Yes, running and lifting weights are important, and no, reruns of Married With Children are not (ok, maybe they are, but you get the point). We tend to complain that we don't have enough time to do what we want, but then we sit on our ass watching our dog lick his balls (oh, I'm the only one? Nevermind...)
I have broken down what I believe are the six main attributes of a Level 10 Jiu-Jitsu Character (nerd reference, bite me). They are:
EXPLOSIVENESS
AGILITY
FLEXIBILITY
TECHNIQUE
CARDIO
MENTALITY
On a scale of 1-5, where do you rank yourself in each of the categories?
EXPLOSIVENESS ___
AGILITY ___
FLEXIBILITY ___
TECHNIQUE ___
CARDIO ___
MENTALITY ___
Where were you the weakest? Start there. Let's pretend you have a workout planned with 15 minutes dedicated to each of the attributes. In fact, better yet, don't pretend, fucking do it. Maybe you will do splits for 15 minutes, then work guard passes with the family dog, followed by explosively flipping the coffee table end over end until you are nimbly skipping your way to the divorce lawyer after your wife sees what you did to the house.
Or maybe you can think of some better exercises that don't result in losing half of everything you own. The point is, if your flexibility is lacking, spend more time stretching, and less time lifting tractor tires. If you are feeling winded recently, forgo your benchpress, and jog up Mount Olympus to kick Zeus' ass.
I want to point out one very important attribute that most people neglect to train: mental toughness. Yes, it is something that you are constantly dealing with while training other attributes, but I believe it should be trained seperately as well. Meditation, books, and positive thoughts all play their role in developing your mental strength.
Keep all of these attributes at the center of your training, and it wont be long before you are slaying dragons, and dethroning kings.
Here we have another well-written post! Outstanding! Training should be specific. So much to a point. That it is a game plan for success. One should always strive to be good at all the attributes you mentioned. But they should always strive to master the basics. So many times I've read forums and things are this to submit or that to submit blah blah blah! I believe a lot of guys get focused so much on techniques, that they get overload from it! The past 2 weeks I focused on control! Control will lead to a submission one way or another. ( God I hope so!). My brother, Whom I feel is a high level bjj practitioner and my teacher can hang with anyone that’s for sure and he prove time and time again, But told me he could not reguard me when I was in side control and my control was outstanding. (I felt proud and honored)
ReplyDeleteSo you see! War is mans most natural state of being! If not then why do we always have a constant battle to not go to war with some jerk that is a smart ass, or the guy who said something inappropriate to or in front of your wife. Or it could be a rude ass in Wal-Mart on Sunday! So that’s why we train! Cause if the war starts, I'll control it then win it!