16. FEW SIMPLE HEURISTICS

When you’ve got a simple goal…Very often Jiu jitsu requires us to enter into fast and complex scrambles where it’s hard to know what to do because there are so many variables and so little time to figure things out.

My advice is this: play scrambles with a few simple heuristics - simple rules of thumb that give you a CLEAR SENSE OF DIRECTION in the most confusing scrambles.

Here, Georges St Pierre and his partner are in fast motion. 

There are good possibilities for both athletes. From Georges’ perspective the heuristic KEEP YOUR OPPONENTS HIPS BETWEEN YOUR KNEES gives clear and concise advise that will direct him through the scramble and allow him to finish in winning position. 

The more complex and dynamic the situation - the more valuable simple and effective rules become for guidance.






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

41. THE WEAKER YOU ARE, THE MORE YOU SHOULD KNOW LEVERS AND FULCRUM

Image
  Lever and fulcrum: Strength plays a big role in the outcome of matches.  Thankfully, however, there is hope for the weak - it’s not how strong you are per se, but how much strength you can APPLY in a specific scenario that counts. Y our APPLIED strength potential is very different from your raw strength.  There are many factors such as position, fatigue level, balance and stance that can make a weak man feel strong and a strong man feel weak - but chief among them is LEVER AND FULCRUM. Just as a weak man can use a long lever to lift a heavy rock that a strong man cannot lift with his arms, so too, a weaker grappler can use his body to create lever and fulcrum to overwhelm a stronger grappler. Again, your raw strength is not nearly as important as your ability to apply the strength that you have - and if you apply it at the end of the lever over a well-placed fulcrum - you will be plenty strong enough to get the job done against even your strongest foes. The weaker you ...
Read more

43. STRENGTH IS IN THE STANCE, WATCH PROS STANCE

Image
Your strength is in your stance:  It’s good to be strong. Strength helps almost every aspect of combat sports.  Understand however, that your greatest source of strength in a match is not from your muscles but from your stance.  Show me the strongest man in the room and make him perform in a poor stance and I’ll show you a man who gets manhandled by smaller, weaker opponents who hold a strong stance. In addition that strong man will quickly get exhausted as he compensates for failures in stance with muscular strength. If you want to increase your mat strength, your first step is to improve your stance. Understand that for all the major positions of Jiu jitsu there is an appropriate stance. If you’re just beginning Jiu jitsu and you have no clue what constitutes a good stance in a given position I suggest you watch footage of great champions in competition or even in training and watch not for the flashy elements, or who wins and who loses, as most people do, but rather, ...
Read more

38. WHATS GOOD ABOUT MOUNTS? - YOU SHUT DOWN ALL THEIR ATTACKS WHILE FREE TO SET YOURS

Image
  Making your mounted position intimidating (even when you can’t punch):  The original purpose of Jiu jitsu was to build a positional game where you attain what was considered the ultimate positions in a one on one fight without weapons - the mount and rear mount - from where you could rain down uncontested punches and elbows on an opponent to finish with either the strikes themselves, or submissions based on defensive reactions to those strikes. Now you have to ask yourself - are those positions still any good when you aren’t allowed to strike in grappling matches?  Well, obviously rear mount is still a great position since strangleholds from the rear are the highest rated finishing method in Jiu jitsu. What about the front mount? Is that still the best position when you are grappling?  At first look I would say no. The mounted position by itself is nothing special in a grappling match. It is actually less stable than most side or north south pins and offers fewer s...
Read more