Wednesdays with Coach Tim: Consistency is Key

I'm a big philosophy nerd, and one of my very favorite quotes is one a lot of trainers use to encourage their students.




Since I started training jiu jitsu, I've found this to be particularly true. At our academy, we focus as much (perhaps more) on drilling as sparring. We try to get reps in. Over and over and over. I've been through the curriculum so many times that I've lost count. I've never had a moment where I noticed things suddenly click, but I have had moments where I realize I am doing things without thinking that used to cause me a lot of problems; arm-across sweeps, holding mount, and lately omoplatas. 

So, the more we train the better we get. This is not an earth-shattering concept. But BJJ is a rough sport, even when you are learning it at a courteous and friendly gym -- there's really no way around how sore you are going to be after being cross-faced repeatedly. I've talked about learning the difference between an ouchie and an injury, but seriously, Coach Tim, how often should someone starting out train? How much training time should be devoted to sparring? How much to drilling?

In addition to trying to figure out exactly how much training I should be doing weekly, I've noticed that my issues with being consistent/inconsistent seem to center around the following:

(1) I can only train at night, because of my work schedule. I often find myself completely gassed out or starving by the time class starts. If I've had one of my really bad days, I will forgo training in order to eat. I've yet to figure out the how/what/when to eat before I get on the mat. In general, I (and lots of students) have a hard time figuring out how to train consistently when work is going nuts.

(2) Soreness. If I am sore, I just do not want to do it. I've sort of solved this by having the 3-5 week rule, since that puts about one day in between sessions, but I still struggle with it.

(3) Learning plateau. There will be months where I feel like I'm not getting better at anything at all, and that tends to discourage me from getting on the mat. I usually get over it by reminding myself that if I'm not having fun, I'm not doing BJJ.

(3) Mental block. I've struggled with depression and anxiety my whole life, and sometimes it is just plain hard for me to get myself out there. Some days the last thing I want is to be in close proximity to another person -- let alone being smashed by one. I've managed to get past this hurdle by reminding myself how good I feel after a roll, that I can sit out if I'm starting to panic, and that often just getting on the gi and stepping on the mat is the hardest part.

Since I've had such a hard time with consistency lately, I asked Coach Tim to weigh-in and give some tips on the optimum amount of training for a newbie and how to stay consistent.

Coach Tim's Advice:

To quickly address one end of the spectrum - can one train too much?

You cannot over-train, only under-recover. If diet, sleep, and stress are under control, do not fear two or three training sessions per day.

One caveat: often students are very enthusiastic about their training from the beginning and set lofty goals for themselves. They train twice a day, everyday, for two weeks. This is great, except that if they miss a class during week 3, they feel like a loser. Had they set a more modest tempo to their training, this would have never been an issue.

Managing Expectations:

The issues Veronica set out above are related to this key component of training: expectations. If we don't meet our own expectations, we are more likely to stop, giving in to the fear of failure. Instead of measuring training in number of days per week, it is often more productive to measure it in number of hours.

The solution: set a number of hours you would like to commit to training at the beginning of the week and stick to it. Let's say we want to commit to six hours per week. This is approximately 3 classes, if we include the time spent lingering around after class (sitting in traffic doesn't count! Otherwise we all effectively train full-time just living in Los Angeles!).

Now, lets say you are extra sore from a hard session, or a work issue comes up, or you become ill, etc. Instead of meeting that six hour goal in class alone, come to a open mat and make up a hour drilling, watch a hour of high-level competition footage, take notes during a class instead of training that day, and try and fit in two 30-minute sessions of conditioning (obviously this varies depending on what is preventing you from coming to class). These are just examples of how we can adjust very quickly when we modify our expectation to measure hours, not classes.

Of course, not all hours spent are equally productive, but the same can be said of class time. The crux of this method is to remember that when life shifts our priorities, the dedicated individual sees a new challenge to be overcome - how to make use of the 24 hours in a day that we are allotted, and tries to find a workable path.

Find a Way to Train

The worst injury I have incurred in grappling was to my left shoulder - it so painful that I could not get out of bed without using my leg as a pendulum to swing up, clench my teeth and accept the pain. I could not spar for approximately 3 months. I was competing at every tournament in California and trying to accelerate my progress so I could move up to the black belt level, and here I was, stuck. At this point I was a brown belt and I had no understanding or application of the leg drag. I was determined to not let the injury stifle me, so I began drilling a technique that I could do without further injuring my shoulder: the leg drag. Over and over. And then some more. Then, some more. Then, more. More. I timed myself and I could complete 100 leg drags in 7 and a half minutes. I would aim for 500 a day, then 750, then 1000. By the time I could spar I was leg dragging like it was my best guard pass!

Inspirational Resources

Once again, Tim and I didn't manage to get our shit together for the Wednesday post, but that's OK.  I'm having a minor kitty cat crisis at home, and my head hasn't really been focused on BJJ.  However, these resources came across my desk in the last few days, and I just had to share.

Check out this blog post on what it's like to start BJJ as an overweight person -- and get ripped! Though she is writing from the point of view of someone who started out very overweight and out of shape, her points apply to everyone starting out in BJJ.

I thought this blog post was incredibly informative about the dangers of unrealistic and dangerous expectations about our bodies and what they are capable of.

Happy Thursday! Tomorrow is Friday! Hooray!!

Wednesdays with Coach Tim: You Can Breathe

Coach Tim and I were both insanely busy last week, and I couldn't think of anything to write about, so we skipped it.  I've been asking the new white belts at my academy what they want to learn more about and this week the request was unanimous:  How do I breathe?

It seems like a really silly question, right?  I like to joke that I was so bad for the first year or so that I was training that one of my coaches only had one tip for me:  Breathe.  We'd be rolling, and afterward, he would look at me very seriously, lean in, put his hand on my shoulder and say (in his awesome Brazilian accent):  "Veronica, is okay.  You can breathe.  You must breathe."

He was right.  I was concentrating so hard on not being choked, not being arm-barred, not being swept, and -- let's be honest here -- not being outright KILLED (because that's what rolling feels like when you first start out) that I had forgotten to do the most basic thing:  Breathe.

I'm not ashamed to say I spent a good deal of time during that first year making sure I was breathing.  I'd been on the sidelines when Coach Tim was giving a post-match talk to my husband, and Coach Tim told me my job was to remind my husband to exhale.  He told me the important thing was for him to exhale in order to calm down and cool down between matches.  He explained that the body will always inhale enough to keep going, but sometimes we forget to exhale.

Now when I'm rolling, I sound like a leaky tire.  I'm constantly making a sscchhhhhhhhh sound -- a really steady exhale.  When I'm caught in a submission attempt or a tight hold and I feel my body starting to freak out and my mind starting to believe that feeling, I focus on a slow inhale and slow exhale.  If I can breathe, I'm alright (unless we are talking about an arm-bar, but that's for another day).  If I can breathe, there is no need to panic and I can get back to the business of defeating the submission attempt.

Coach Tim's Advice on Learning to Breathe in BJJ:

Holding your breath is problematic during grappling because the lack of respiration deprives your energy systems of oxygen. Further, since many breathing issues in grappling are associated with excessive muscular tension, holding your breath will impede your movement. Lastly, this one fabricated off of pure speculation - holding your breath probably makes it more difficult to process the problems we encounter during grappling.

Generally, students hold their breath less during drilling than sparring. This is because holding your breath is a signal of another problem - lack of adequate tension and torque and inefficient movement patterns (more vaguely and commonly called "incorrect technique").

This is why more experienced students will generally have better breathing patterns - a more effective movement pattern will enable you to more predictably create and remove tension/torque during your sparring and this efficient use of energy gives you more breathing room than less experienced students are permitted.  Dominant positions are also a great place to stop and catch your breath, provided you have the right movement pattern and positioning to precisely stifle your opponent's escapes.

So, how do we fix breathing problems? Awareness that you are not breathing is the first step.  The second step is to exhale; not breathe in and out, just exhale. Your brain and lungs have a pretty good thing going - they tend to fill with as much oxygen as needed when we inhale. If you focus on somewhat forcefully expelling your breath, your breathing pattern will become more regulated.  Also, be sure to incorporate an awareness of breathing into your drilling - start with your best positions and attacks and try to drill with your breaths happening at the same, appropriate step - the moments during a technique that you are allowed to release the tension in the grappling system between you and your partner.

Wednesdays with Coach Tim: Tap Early, Tap Often

Last week, I was rolling with a new white belt.  He doesn't have a lot of technique yet, but he's strong.  I've been struggling with being too passive lately, and he got me in positions that would have ended me if another blue belt or higher had gotten them.  He was trying really hard to beat me with awful chokes that were uncomfortable (my cheekbones hurt the next day), but not dangerous.  At one point, he was trying to secure my back and he crossed his ankles in front of my waist.

Never, ever, ever cross your ankles directly in front of your opponent's waist if you have their back.  This is why: 

The moment I realized he had crossed his ankles in front of me, I scooted my butt down, and crossed my legs over his ankles.  I kept the hold tight, and modified the hold so that I was in a figure-four lock (his ankles were in the crook of my left knee, and my right knee was securing my left ankle).  The instant I secured the figure-four lock, he stopped trying to choke me.  He stopped really moving.

But even though it hurt enough for him to stop trying to choke me, he did not tap.  I know how to finish that ankle lock, but he's new, and this particular lock is dangerous.  So, instead of finishing it, I made it tighter.  He still did not tap.

I was torn on whether to let it go, tell him it was dangerous, or finish it because finishing that ankle lock can break the ankle.

I decided to finish it by lifting my hips.  He tapped.  And then he limped off the mat.  I talked to him on the way out, checked to make sure he was alright, and told him to be careful about where ankles are crossed when you have someone's back.

I felt awful.  Had I done the right thing?  Was I just being a bully blue belt teaching a young, strong, white belt a lesson?

I still don't know.  But the whole thing got me thinking about the mentality of tapping, and I asked Coach Tim to give advice to new BJJ practitioners on knowing when to tap and when to hang on and try to get out of a submission.

Coach Tim's Advice: 

At what point in sparring / competition is it appropriate to tap and end that particular grappling instance? Obviously, each individual will have different answers for different occasions. For example, tapping during the demonstration of a technique is much different than tapping out during the finals of the black belt Mundials at the Pyramid.

Tapping signifies that you and your partner must stop grappling for the safety of the person tapping.  Problems with learning to tap arise in two ways:  (1) students refusing to tap despite immediate danger of injury and (2) students who tap to the slightest amount of discomfort and pressure.

Solving the problem requires coming to a universal solution to both ends of the "never tap" and "always tap" spectrum.  Coach Tim has grappled with this idea (and would like you to know that there is super extra pun intended, since he'd been thinking of this pun all morning because it's so bad.) throughout his training and coaching career.  Thus far, Coach Tim's conclusion is that the appropriate time to tap is about tempering the ego (for the "never tap" candidates) and cultivating durability (for the "always tap" cadets). 

Just like other aspects of Jiu Jitsu, the mental apparatus has physical consequences - drilling and sparring (physical) with proper intention / visualization (mental) will foster your own powerful growth. In the case of tapping / submitting, tapping early will stifle your growth by slowing your body's adaptation to the physical stress of the Art. On the other hand, tapping late will result in injury and, more subtlety, the more experienced students, the ones who are able to submit you, will begin to avoid training with you. I have never met a student that likes to injure their fellow students and it is a disservice to lose more experienced training partners because submitting during training causes duress.

The Take Away: 

Do not let your ego keep you from tapping, because not tapping can keep you from being able to train and scare away higher level training partners.  Conversely, do not let discomfort or pressure cause you to tap, because tapping before you are in actual danger or unable to escape the submission will stifle your ability to adapt to the physical aspects of BJJ.

SoCal Women's BJJ Open Mat

Today was like my BJJ Christmas came early.  This month's SoCal Women BJJ Open Mat was held at my academy!

SoCal Women BJJ is a Facebook group run by Jill Baker, a brown belt training out of Bakersfield Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Riveters BJJ.  Once a month, Jill picks a SoCal academy and rally's the Facebook group to meet up at the designated gym for a three hour open mat.

Today was our turn, the second time Robot has hosted.  I think we had a pretty great turn out!

52 participants! Can you believe it!?  Every belt level was represented today, from all over SoCal.  I don't have words for how happy days like today make me.  Osss!

For My FemmeBots

This article is important.

It isn't about jiu jitsu, but it is important. I've starved myself before eating 800 calories a day of fish and lettuce while doing three hour workouts 6x a week just to see the scale move a few pounds and hope that maybe I'll get back down to the Size 2, 105 pound, 15 year old body that I had when I met my husband. It didn't work. It made it worse. It made me hate myself. 

You know what makes me love myself? Being able to do whatever I want to do physically, having my doctor tell me that people would kill for my cholesterol and blood sugar numbers, even though I still think I'm 40 pounds heavier than I'd like to be. No number on any scale makes me love me. No bikini I can wear without cringing makes me love me. Being exactly who I am makes me love me. 

Each and every one of you is beautiful, inside and out. Each and every one of you is different, and inspires me in a different way to train harder, be kinder, and love more. Be healthy, be strong, and be happy. 

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.