Links
Oct
20
Transition, Position, Submission
Filed Under Uncategorized
The other day I was watching an old Abu Dhabi DVD with Jean Jacques Machado in it. The guy is flawless. It got me thinking about, what I think, the three keys to jiu-jitsu are: transition, position, and submission—in that order. You start standing or from any position; you transition to the ground; you get a new position, and then you go for submissions. It’s pretty straight forward, but when I was watching Jean Jacques he never seemed to establish a position; his style seemed to be transition to submission. His opponent would move, he’d counter but he would never set up, he would instantly go in for an attack while he was transitioning—it was beautiful, it was amazing.
I’m not to that point. I’m still doing the same ol’ three-step—transition, position, submission, and there’s nothing wrong with it. I haven’t perfected it, so it would be impossible for me to emulate Jean Jacques’ style—one day, but not today. So I’m going to really concentrate on getting position. I’m going to master the three keys.
Last night while training, I noticed my self out of position (not in a solid position like mount, or guard, or having the back, or even crossbody top). I was in no-mans-land. A place in between my comfort zone and confusion and I wasn’t sure what to do. I decided last night that I was like a man lost at sea. I was in a dingy way out in the ocean, and what I needed to do was find land, and land was position. For example, I was in crossbody bottom—no-mans-land, lost at sea—I needed to get to land to save myself. I needed to get to guard, or sweep to mount, or get to my knees. I needed to get to land; from there I could work, otherwise I was lost.
Once I got position then my training took over, then it was easy. Then it was action.
I guess what I’m really talking about are my transitions– the movement to get from one position to the next. I feel good when I’m in a position, but when I’m not, I feel lost. That’s it! It’s my transitions that need attention. Getting from the life raft to the shore, and that’s what Jean Jacques does; he’s an expert at being in no-mans-land. He is out to sea, but he’s not lost, he’s comfortable there. His world starts and ends in the chaos of the transition. I guess I need to spend more time at sea, more time working on my transitions.
Jiu-Jitsu is like life . . . if you hold on too tightly, it all slips away.
Jean is handicap. He has to fight through a disability. It is a good practice to use the handicap rule in training. Rad band on a wrist. or an ankle to make you subconscious about limitations, and how best to make it work to your advantage.
Scenerio 1: Broken hand, How to continue in the fight to force the opponent to loose.
Scenerio 2: Broken foot, Knee, how can you escape the fight. But how do you force the opponent to loose so you can escape.
When you spend your time focused on making the best of a limitation, your transitions become flawless.