Gui Mendes Seminar Sat Jan 12th 2013

I think I've mentioned this seminar in about 10 blog posts over the last few months. Man, was I excited to train with Gui for 3 hours. Too bad I couldn't because of my stupid head. Anyway... The seminar was AMAZING from the sidelines, I can only imagine how excellent it was to actually drill the techniques and have a master like Gui helping you fix them.

The pace of the seminar was great; it was 3 hours, so pace is important. No precious time was wasted on warm ups, which I think surprised a lot of people, but was appreciated. People didn't go to the seminar to run around the mats and shrimp. The flow of the techniques was good too, they progressed nicely.

The first half was bottom stuff, all starting from De La Riva guard, well, pulling DLR, then starting from there. Apparently there is a lot more to pulling guard then just sitting on your butt and hoping for the best! Who knew? One of the most important concepts that was reiterated over and over, for pretty much every technique was controlling the distance.

So, they did...
1. Pulling De La Riva
2. Switching from regular DLR to inverted DLR
3. DLR sweep
4. Berimbolo
5. 2 back takes from DLR
6. double under / stack pass and back take (starting from inverted dlr)
7. I think I’m missing something else.
Having been to the Art of Jiu Jitsu, and with Pura being a Mendes affiliate already, I had seen a lot of the DLR sweeps and back takes already. But there is always a detail or 10 to pick up, and tweaks that they have made over time to make them better. An example: for the berimbolo posting your foot on the mat to help you spin faster was a detail that I had forgotten.

The double unders/stack pass stuff was brand new for me. Not that I've never done a double under pass before, but the way Gui is doing it now, man oh man, completely different, and ridiculously effective. I cannot wait to try to remember it, drill it, and crush people’s dreams using it. I'm not going to get into the details of it, I would explain it all wrong anyway, but the most interesting part was that he kept a grip on 2 collars. There is probably video of it on their online training site. If not, go do a seminar and learn it from them. I really can't explain it.


The other cool thing with when Gui (and Rafa) do seminars and classes is they like to roll with as many people as they can. On Saturday Gui did 6 rounds straight. This is after flying over night, dealing with flight delays, driving from Toronto to Hamilton and arriving with 20 min to spare. Then teaching for 3 hours straight. What a machine. I'd be like "Nope, I'm going to bed now". It was really neat watching Gui execute a lot of the exact techniques that were shown in the hours previous. I'll be honest it was pretty entertaining watching my team mates fighting valiantly if not effectively.

Gui also spent a good amount of time answering peoples questions. They didn't have to have anything to do with the techniques that were worked on, or even things that he is known for using. People asked questions about defending the leg drag position, baseball bats, and a bunch of other things, that I forget. The Q/A sections helped pace the seminar nicely. It gave people breaks to rest a bit and catch their breath. Working DLR and all the getting up and down that goes with it can be pretty tiring.

I'm not sure I'm going to survive the week on the sidelines. It's so fucking depressing to not be training with such a great coach/Sensei. The worst thing is I'm totally not a visual learner. I can't even visualize things when someone is trying to explain it to me. Ask Jon, he gets so frustrated with me when he tries to explain something he wants to try, or something that he did. It's annoying, but it’s just the way I'm wired I guess. Even worse, my short (and medium, and long) -term memory seems to have been affected by the concussion and I'm finding myself not even being able to remember the techniques that are shown an hour or two after a class. I'll be honest, my memory has been not excellent for a while, but it seems like since December it's gotten a lot worse.

Anyway.... There are still plenty of opportunities for you to train with Gui this week...

Tonight: 7:30 PM
Tuesday 6pm
Wednesday 12:30PM and 7:30PM
Thurs 6pm
Fri 12:30PM

If you can get to any of these, you will NOT regret it. $70 is a steal for such a great opportunity.

Oh, I forgot.  Here's my facebook album of pictures from the seminar:

The Importance of Game Plans

This is part 4 of a series on the mental side of fighting and training.   Make sure you read the first 3 parts!

1. Intro and Goal Setting
2. Visualization and Positive Self Talk
3.  Fight Day Strategy

I touched on having a game plan a little bit in the visualization part of the series, but didn't really get into it much. Just said that you should be visualizing yourself executing your game plan. So, what exactly goes in the game plan and what do you do with it?

Your game plan should be simple. Those t-shirts and internet memes that say "Pull. Sweep. Submit" aren't far off from a solid game plan. It's a tad on the simplified side, but here is what you don't want your game plan to look like: "First, I'll grip with my left hand, then the right. If they step with their left, I'll go to the right. Then, I'll step in with my left, and scoop up their right leg for a single..."  Get the idea? That is way too detailed, way too much information.

Game plans can't account for every single scenario either. There shouldn't be 1000 "ifs" in your plan.  One or two is OK, but if your plan involves a lot of "ifs", then you are counting on your plan not being effective, and you need to go back to #2 and get that head on straight. Here's an example of an OK "if" in your game plan.  "Double leg straight to side control. If they get a guard, pass right away before they can close it. Follow with knee on belly to cross choke / armbar sequence.".  As you can see, there is one "if" but it resolves to the same place so we don't have a million branches.

So you've got a plan, now what?

Drill, Drill, Drill. You know the saying, "you fight how you train" or "perfect practice makes perfect" or "drill to win". All of these apply.  You need to drill all aspects of your game plan, individually, and together.    If your game plan is to get a double leg, you need to start standing when you roll.  If your game plan is to do a triangle from side control, don't pull guard every time you roll.

Now, it's important to note that I'm not saying always roll exactly what you want to do in a fight, because then you will never expand your game and never really learn jiu jitsu. But the week or two leading up to your competition should be full of very focused drilling and rolling. This is not the time to be experimenting with new techniques and playing around in your rolls. 

When your drilling your game plan, work together with your partner, let them know your game plan, so they can help you. Have them purposefully throw a wrench into your plan by reacting differently, so you can work on your reactions to all situations. Jiu jitsu may be competed as in individual sport, but it is most definitely a team sport. You will need your team mates to help get your game plan sorted and ready, and you will need to help them with the same!

There are some people out there who are against having a game plan. They feel like if they have a game plan, and something goes wrong, they will be lost like a fish out of water. But, in my opinion, if you don't have a game plan, you are already that fish out of water. If you are just reacting to what the other person does, you're going to be one step behind, the entire match. There may be a time that your game plan doesn't work out. Maybe they pulled guard faster then you could, maybe they've got legs that are a million miles long and got their guard around quick before you could pass. It doesn't matter why; at this point, you just go back to the jiu jitsu you know, and get yourself to a point that your game plan comes back into play.  

Like all the other factors in the mental side of the sport, this is going to take time to develop and work into your training and competition habits. Having a game plan will help you visualize more effectively and help you become more confident in your fights. 

So, what's your game plan?  How are you training to be able to implement it?  Where are you going to give it a test next?

See you on the mats!