Read Online Fighter's Mind, A by Sam Sheridan - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Sam Sheridan
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him fight your fight.
Simply put, jiu-jitsu is at the heart of MMA. The art today is essentially interchangeable with submission wrestling, or grappling. At this point it’s semantics, although jiu-jitsu usually includes practice in the gi. The gi is the white judo kimono and is how jiu-jitsu was originally taught, but in MMA the rules have been changed so the gi is not allowed. Fighters learn a style they (inventively) call “no- gi .”
No- gi is quite different than gi. The gi training utilizes the fabric—sleeves, collars, pant legs—to control the opponent, while no- gi is submission wrestling, with no fabric grabbing allowed. I personally don’t like training in the gi because it negates all my natural advantages, strength and slipperiness and conditioning. And my first day in it, in Brazil, I tore my rotator cuff.
I am focused almost entirely on no- gi, and that’s what I will primarily be referring to from now on. Modern MMA mixes the no- gi game with punching, kicking, elbows, and knees; grappling for MMA is quite different than grappling for no- gi competition, where there are a lot of slick moves that won’t work if someone can punch you in the face.
A simple rule change to the sport-fight world—allowing fights to continue on the ground—opened up infinite possibilities. Ground fighting is part of the open-ended nature of MMA, a huge part of what makes the sport so exciting.
At its core, jiu-jitsu is about applying leverage, creating mismatches, through superior position. I find a way to isolate my opponent’s arm and attack the elbow with my whole body. Maneuvers range from wrenching arms out of sockets to cutting off blood flow to the brain (“blood” chokes are allowed, while attacking the trachea is not—temporary versus permanent damage). Viable targets are almost any large joint, from ankles, elbows, and knees to shoulders and neck. The experienced ground fighter has thousands of ways to wrestle his way around an opponent (or to cause his opponent to fall into these positional “mismatches”). He doesn’t match strength for strength, which is what collegiate or Greco-Roman wrestling is, and why wrestling is so exhausting. Though there’s a deep technical game in wrestling, the end goal is physical domination through powering the shoulders to the mat (though there is a lot of wrestling in jiu-jitsu, and strength and size count for a lot). Jiu-jitsu’s goal is harm, and it makes for a completely different game because there are ways to avoid harm without expending lots of energy.
A submission wrestler tries to choke or threaten such grievous injury that the opponent is forced to “tap” and concede victory (or accept the injury). This is the submission, and the beauty of it is that no real permanent damage is done as long as you submit. It’s by far the most benign way to win an MMA fight. Orthodox wrestling has only a few ways to win—points or a pin—while jiu-jitsu has thousands and thousands of submissions and positions.
One of the fascinating things about jiu-jitsu or submission wrestling—or catch wrestling (for Josh Barnett, a modern MMA fighter who maintains that his submission wrestling is “catch-as-catch-can” dating back to Burns and Gotch)—is that it is almost wholly about knowledge. It is one of the few pure arts where a more knowledgeable small man can destroy bigger, stronger, faster men, as Royce Gracie has shown. Renzo Gracie (a younger cousin), one of the great practitioners in still fighting, said, “The beauty of the art is that it is so efficient. It molds itself to whomever is practicing. As long as you stick with it, you can be a good fighter. It’s not only certain body types or athleticism. I’ve seen guys that couldn’t run or jump for shit, with no coordination at all, become unbelievable champions because they dedicated themselves. The other fighting arts, even judo, wrestling, boxing, they all depend on athleticism. I train judo my whole life
Simply put, jiu-jitsu is at the heart of MMA. The art today is essentially interchangeable with submission wrestling, or grappling. At this point it’s semantics, although jiu-jitsu usually includes practice in the gi. The gi is the white judo kimono and is how jiu-jitsu was originally taught, but in MMA the rules have been changed so the gi is not allowed. Fighters learn a style they (inventively) call “no- gi .”
No- gi is quite different than gi. The gi training utilizes the fabric—sleeves, collars, pant legs—to control the opponent, while no- gi is submission wrestling, with no fabric grabbing allowed. I personally don’t like training in the gi because it negates all my natural advantages, strength and slipperiness and conditioning. And my first day in it, in Brazil, I tore my rotator cuff.
I am focused almost entirely on no- gi, and that’s what I will primarily be referring to from now on. Modern MMA mixes the no- gi game with punching, kicking, elbows, and knees; grappling for MMA is quite different than grappling for no- gi competition, where there are a lot of slick moves that won’t work if someone can punch you in the face.
A simple rule change to the sport-fight world—allowing fights to continue on the ground—opened up infinite possibilities. Ground fighting is part of the open-ended nature of MMA, a huge part of what makes the sport so exciting.
At its core, jiu-jitsu is about applying leverage, creating mismatches, through superior position. I find a way to isolate my opponent’s arm and attack the elbow with my whole body. Maneuvers range from wrenching arms out of sockets to cutting off blood flow to the brain (“blood” chokes are allowed, while attacking the trachea is not—temporary versus permanent damage). Viable targets are almost any large joint, from ankles, elbows, and knees to shoulders and neck. The experienced ground fighter has thousands of ways to wrestle his way around an opponent (or to cause his opponent to fall into these positional “mismatches”). He doesn’t match strength for strength, which is what collegiate or Greco-Roman wrestling is, and why wrestling is so exhausting. Though there’s a deep technical game in wrestling, the end goal is physical domination through powering the shoulders to the mat (though there is a lot of wrestling in jiu-jitsu, and strength and size count for a lot). Jiu-jitsu’s goal is harm, and it makes for a completely different game because there are ways to avoid harm without expending lots of energy.
A submission wrestler tries to choke or threaten such grievous injury that the opponent is forced to “tap” and concede victory (or accept the injury). This is the submission, and the beauty of it is that no real permanent damage is done as long as you submit. It’s by far the most benign way to win an MMA fight. Orthodox wrestling has only a few ways to win—points or a pin—while jiu-jitsu has thousands and thousands of submissions and positions.
One of the fascinating things about jiu-jitsu or submission wrestling—or catch wrestling (for Josh Barnett, a modern MMA fighter who maintains that his submission wrestling is “catch-as-catch-can” dating back to Burns and Gotch)—is that it is almost wholly about knowledge. It is one of the few pure arts where a more knowledgeable small man can destroy bigger, stronger, faster men, as Royce Gracie has shown. Renzo Gracie (a younger cousin), one of the great practitioners in still fighting, said, “The beauty of the art is that it is so efficient. It molds itself to whomever is practicing. As long as you stick with it, you can be a good fighter. It’s not only certain body types or athleticism. I’ve seen guys that couldn’t run or jump for shit, with no coordination at all, become unbelievable champions because they dedicated themselves. The other fighting arts, even judo, wrestling, boxing, they all depend on athleticism. I train judo my whole life
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