Drills!!!

Last night, during a light end-of-class rolling session, one of my new students tapped another student. Big deal, who cares, I know. But this specific incident illustrates something I've been trying to impress upon my students for a long time now.

Just under three minutes into the round, the student pulled off a perfectly executed triangle choke. It came fast and unexpected. The submitted student admitted that he never saw it coming. The student who did it said he didn't think he had the skill to do it, and was amazed he pulled it off so smoothly. The only one who wasn't surprised, I guess, was me.

The student who pulled off the submission has trained the triangle for two days. That's it. So he didn't know he had it in him. But I didn't understand why he didn't understand. We had been working that technique for two days straight. And I consistently tell my students that "drills breed skills." Everyone wants to spar. There's too much sparring in a lot of the MMA gyms. You need to spar, don't get me wrong. But if you're sparring without first having skills, then you're practicing bad habits. It's that simple. (A lot of gyms use sparring as a filler. They don't want to lose students so they keep them active. Or even worse, the instructor doesn't know the fundamentals himself).

If you take the triangle and drill it for two whole classes, you'll have a fairly decent triangle. You really will. I know it's boring, but "it's through the corridor of boredom that we reach the room of skill." (Corny, I know). I've visited a lot of gyms where students don't grasp the fundamentals. (And the triangle is THE fundamental). That's because they've been spoiled with the more exciting aspects, such as sparring and learning technique upon technique. That's too bad. They should really drill, drill, drill.

If I haven't got my point across yet, I never will. I've harped on this for years. But let me say this: Drill the triangle from the guard for two or three days. Then drill the armbar from the guard for two or three days. Then drill the omoplata for two or three days. After that, drill them together for about a week. Then, and ONLY then, spar. You will be amazed at your submission abilities. Then, go back and do it again. Two or three days on the triangle, etc. Then mix them back up. And I don't mean work a thousand setups for each, I'm talking about just sticking to the basic triangle, armbar, and omoplata, with the basic setups. Nothing fancy. If you do this, despite the boredom, your game will jump exponentially. And then sparring will be much more enjoyable when you get to it.

Base

Everyone should have a base, a foundation upon which his MMA game rests. Wrestling is a very popular base. As is Muay Thai. But for me, Jiu-Jitsu is my base, and it's what I try to instill into all of my fighters. But I will never try to replace a person's base if they come from a different background. If a wrestler comes in, we will work on his wrestling skills in an MMA context ... and build-out from there. If a boxer comes in, we'll maximize his hand skills while rounding him out. As is the case with any other base.

The Jiu-Jitsu guys seem fewer and far between. When someone comes in to be a fighter, I seldom find them with a Jiu-Jitsu background. I don't know why this is, but it's happening a lot lately. I get a lot of high school wrestlers, just like a lot of other gyms get. And next in line are the Muay Thai guys. But where have the JJ guys gone? Maybe they're sticking with NAGA, or other such submission tournaments. Or maybe there are so few good JJ schools out there that the exposure is minimal. But I find that hard to believe in a way. I thought JJ was taking over?

Everything has to have roots. Wrestling is a decent root, but I've found very few wrestlers who could fight from their backs. Muay Thai is a good root, but there has to be a lot of mat time to make up for the lack of grappling experience. To ME, and this is just opinion, give me a guy who can fight from his back, and we're already three quarters the way there. This is why Jiu-Jitsu is so important to me. I feel it's better to learn the guard and then build from there. Of course this is just my opinion, but it's based on a lot of observation.

I like to give my guys a solid Jiu-Jitsu base first. Those who come in without ANY background tend to be my best learners. I start them at Jiu-Jitsu then work our way up. They tend to be the best fighters. But I still spend a lot of time on Jiu-Jitsu with the guys rooted in other arts. And usually when a guy comes in with "jiu-jitsu" skills, I have to spend weeks and months breaking him of his sport jiu-jitsu habits. They're often shocked to find out their no-gi grappling, no matter how badass it is, is greatly compromised under the heat of striking. (When I say I teach Jiu-Jitsu, it's the jiu-jitsu that's designed to handle everything. Sport Jiu-Jitsu is one thing, Jiu-Jitsu for MMA and the street is another).

Have a base. I prefer Jiu-Jitsu. But if you can't get that, get wrestling, Muay Thai, boxing, sambo, maybe judo. (For God's sake don't come in here relying on your tae kwon do). But what's better than coming in with a base at all is starting from the ground up. In other words, Jiu-Jitsu. Just my opinion.

The Most Difficult Thing

This isn't about boxing, so bear with me ... A boxer only has a few skills. He's got the jab, cross, hook, uppercut, overhand, footwork and body movement. That's it. But look at a good boxer and he'll seem to have hundreds of options. That's because he's spent time with these fundamentals. He knows the ins and outs of them. His intimate knowledge of them allows him his own personal variations and on-the-spot adaptations. He hasn't spent years piling on layers of techniques; he spent those years refining the nuances of each technique. That old adage "Less is more" rings most true.

I tell my students from day one that "The slower you go the faster you will learn." I'm trying to stress taking time with the fundamentals. But for whatever reason, call it youth, testosterone, or performance anxiety, few students heed the advice. Too few. Three years later they look back and think, "Geesh, Bill is still harping on slowing down." Can you imagine their progress three years later if they actually heeded my caution?

MMA is (rather you want to admit or not) a fairly simple sport. Of course there are more things you have to worry about (punching, kicking, clinch, ground and pound, submissions), but if your instructor has taken his time and really considered the whole art, MMA can be boiled down to just a few moves. Once this is done, each student can work on these few techniques just like a boxer works on his.

The other night I was teaching the evening Jiu-Jitsu class. I showed the students that just like a boxer uses one stance, the groundfighter can use just one "stance" for everything. Once this "stance" has been worked out and used in a variety of situations, you will seldom be caught with your "guard" down. Just as a boxer shouldn't drop his hands, a groundfighter should never drop this multipurpose/adaptive position. I was trying to show that you don't need a lot of things. You just need to get really good at a few things.

Surgical precision. Airtight technicality. Call it what you want, but it's important to stay focused on a select group of techniques so you can gain depth and range of understanding. As Royce Gracie said "I'd rather you be 100% good with 20 techniques than 20% good with a hundred techniques." (This might be a slight paraphrase).

The hard part is knowing what should be concentrated on; knowing what the highest-percentage techniques are. (Good thing that hard work has been done already). The easier part is slowing the hell down, concentrating on each technique as if you aren't going to learn any more. This is easier said than done, but it's vital. I read an article recently that read: "You shouldn't practice something until you get it right, you should practice it until you can't get it wrong." A subtle shift in thinking, but a huge change in results.

The most difficult thing is convincing students to slow down and work on precision. But as instructors, this is our most important goal. However you need to do it, do it. Focus on a core of related yet comprehensive techniques. Make sure each student has a firm grasp on them. And rather than show flying armbars, scissor leg takedowns, and all that twister stuff, how about focus on things like replacing the guard, escaping from all positions, escaping from all major submissions, dealing with ground and pound, breaking the opponent's posture, and a series of simple yet highly effective submssions? Ten or twelve techniques is all anyone really needs. If you haven't been able to boil your teaching into this small arsenal, you don't grasp the material yourself. Krishnamurti said "Simplicity is the height of perfection." Until you make things precise, how can you expect your students to?

Convincing students to work on the fundamentals is the most difficult thing. But it's the most important thing. No excuses. Drill the fundamentals even at the risk of having your students leave you for a more "exciting" school. A school that teaches a handful of different techniques each night doesn't truly understand the art. Each and every night a lot of review is necessary. Don't stray from the core.