It's often discussed how intensely you should be rolling in class to get the most out of training.
I believe there is a time and place for very hard, competition style training but ama firm believer that at least 70% of training should be with lots of control and very little ego.
The idea is to be in as many situations as possible in training to gain as much experience both defending every conceivable situation but also attempting your posisitions and techniques without the fear of failure or injury.
The reason for training is to get better, not prove to ourselves or whoever that we are better than our training partners and friends.
I came across a great clip of Ryron Gracie (Helio Gracie's grandson) training with a student and explaining his mindset while training with a student. It's a longish clip, around 8-9minutes or so but worth sitting through, and getting a glimpse into the thought processes of a higher belt practitioner while training.
Would you say it's ok if you're training with someone of a 'lower rank' belt, that it's acceptable to let yourself be tapped out if it helps bring them on, or should one just not let it happen? Thanks.
ReplyDeleteI definately think it's acceptable!
DeleteOur role as "higher belts"=more experienced practitioners are to help improve the newer students, we should create openings for them and help them to recognise those opportunities and capitilize on them, for example if mounted by a white or blue belt I may push at there chest with a straight arm to see if they recognise the opportunity to go for an armbar.
As they become more experienced the "opportunities " you give them should be smaller and less obvious so that their ability to recognise them improves.
Until they start to catch up with your technical ability.
It helps everyone long term as the better they get the better the potential training partner you will have one day.
I think too many instructors are so worried about having their ego's dented they would rather never tap and often just smash whoever they roll with, that doesnt prove anything in my mind.
It would be like teaching my 2 year old daughter to play chess, then the moment she get's the basic concept of the game I go out of my way to destroy her every time we play. I start by making obvious mistakes that she can recognise and capitilise on, then I make those smaller and smaller so she gets better at picking them up.
With time, if she still enjoys chess :-) and keeps playing, her ability to recognise those situations get to the point where she will give me a tough time when we play and I now have someone who shares my enjoyment of the game AND is a good opponent to push my own ability.
All goes back to training without ego I guess. Thanks for answering!
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