Wednesdays with Coach Tim: Balancing Act

One of my very favorite things about working with the new white belts at Robot is how much I learn from them.  Things that my coaches have been telling me to do for years are seeming to finally make sense as I roll with new white belts and see where they are struggling and answer their questions.  This week, the importance of keeping your balance and keeping good posture has been in the front of my mind.

Keeping my balance has been something I have struggled with from day one. For the first year I trained, I'm pretty sure I swept myself more than my partners swept me. The most common thing I would hear my coach telling me during a sparring session was "don't fall, don't fall, don't fall!"  I just could not get a handle on how not to fall over when I was trying to get out of someone's guard.  I still struggle with being the standing partner for Spider Guard and De La Riva drills because I seem to be the human equivalent of a bowling pin -- designed to topple over!

At Robot, when someone is being coached on how to stay balanced and grounded, they hear a coach telling them to "posture up."  When I hear "posture up" I instantly note the alignment of my head and spine and I make them as straight as possible.  I square my hips, square my shoulders, relax my neck, and typically look at the ceiling (which for some reason seems to automatically cause me to straighten up and become stronger).

This week, I've asked Coach Tim to give some advice on the importance of keeping your posture while training -- even during the most basic drills.

Coach Tim's Advice on Posturing Up: 

The number one issue with posture is that we all unintentionally come to understand posture, for example during guard passing, as having your head above your hips and your back (spine) straight. This is only partially true and is the center of problems for students of all levels.

What Does "Posture" Mean?

The first step to unraveling this issue is to understand that the term "posture" as "to engage the entirety of your core in a manner that stabilizes your spine against faults in positioning."  

What in the crazy does that mean? 

It means that your brain likes itself. It doesn't want to get hurt and it doesn't want its precious spine being hurt either. Selfish, yes, but guess what else? Your brain makes sure that your arms and legs do whatever it takes to keep the spine (from the skull, through the upper torso and down into the pelvis) in a strong, braced positioned.

Legs tend to flail and arms push frantically for space when someone applies strong, twisting pressure to the head or the hips because the brain is making sure your arms and legs are trying to keep your spine straight. This can result in a sweep (when the other person is unable to use their legs to catch their balance), a guard pass (when the other person is unable to use their arms to push and create space), or submissions.

How to Properly Posture

Instead of thinking of posture as "head above your hips and your back straight" just think that if you can engage (flex) your butt, hips, stomach and lats, then you are either in good posture, or very, very close to it. This is because engaging those particular muscle groups is only possible when your spine is in a stable position.

The next time you are in Spider Guard and your elbow is separated from your side, try to engage your lat.  You will find that you are unable to engage your lat in the same way you would if your partner didn't have their hooks + grips.  The inability to engage your lats means you have poor posture in that moment.

It is important to remember that good posture during guard passing doesn't require your hips to be directly under your head.  For example, one of the purposes of the using the Spider Guard, transitioning to the Leg Lasso and then moving into the De La Riva is that the first two guards (Spider -> Lasso) will cause your opponent to begin stepping their feet towards you if they: (a) begin to tire, (b) don't understand how to pass, or (c) use a posture that requires them to get their hips under their head.  If you've worked on controlling Spider Guard, you've probably worked on getting your hips forward (under your head).  Once the guard passer walks in, the guard player can transition to the De La Riva or Reverse De La Riva and begin a series of back attacks, submissions and other sweeps.

A more effective strategy than putting your hips under your head would be to create stability in your entire body by ensuring that your hands are always gripping, your elbows are always twisting in towards your hips, your glutes, stomach, and lats are stabilizing your spine and your feet are straight. More precisely, the big toe and knee joint on both feet are pointed towards whatever surface your are using as a fixed point on your opponent. From here, you can more effectively apply torque to your opponent and pass their guard, keep your balance, etc.

tldr; The Take-Away: 

Keep in mind, "back straight, head up and over the hips" isn't wrong, but rather that positioning is not the only way to achieve good posture.  Rather, an understanding of what "posture up" is actually referring to will help the individual decide what exact expression of posture is most appropriate for that moment.

Posture is constant because the core muscles are always engaged, but what proper posture looks like changes continuously because the positioning of the hands and feet change as the sparring develops.  Since the positioning of the feet, knees, hands and elbows all determine your ability to engage the muscle that brace your spine, it follows that your limbs must maintain proper posture as well (this is where "elbows in" comes from: you cannot engage your lats effectively with your elbows away from your body).

Posture exists in all positions and should always be checked, adjusted and then re-adjusted as necessary because often we think we have good posture when in fact, elbows are slightly separated or our back rounds under stress, etc.  If you cannot hold the position you are in comfortably for a long duration of time, your posture is off and needs to be readjusted.