Comments on: Advice for Beginning Students

By: BartB

BartB — Tue, 17 May 2011 19:39:00 +0000

Sean,

That’s a solid recommendation. The first time I ever rolled with a grappler would have been so much better if I only knew I wasn’t as good as I thought I was. I would have learned a ton more.

Thanks everyone for contributing – there is a lot of wisdom that you guys are pouring out on us!

By: Sean

Sean — Tue, 17 May 2011 15:17:54 +0000

All the points you make are dead on, I would just add one thing. Humbleness.

Many people come into martial arts, boxing, jiu jitsu, whatever it may be, thinking that they will be better than they are. It’s a rude awakening when your getting choked out routinely and punched in the face without being able to return anything.

Being humble will help you gain perspective and take the good with the bad.

By: Paul M

Paul M — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 02:54:04 +0000

Your comments regarding relaxation and tensing up are spot on with regards to my reactions. I find as I tense up then I make another mistake, I try and use brute force to fix my problem. From what I see these two things go together, especially when you find yourself on the defensive. The article that Catie posted from badmartialarts.com was extremely helpful for me conceptualizing what happens to lessen my effectivenes while fighting.

By: Mitch

Mitch — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 01:23:05 +0000

Good read. I think the relaxing part is something I need to work on. Like Karli said above some people (myself included) in class try to use strength over understanding which is just a terrible idea. In addition, the concept of writing what I learn down is a great one, and something I never thought of. It will be something I do from now on though. Overall, this was great advice and has been a great class.

By: Karli Mcmillan

Karli Mcmillan — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 01:09:31 +0000

I love this class at the University of Utah. I am just a beginner and I like these tidbites. After reading this I have started practicing with my roomates. I am trying to go over all of the moves i have been learning with them. However, there are some times i dont get how to position my body to get into a full mount or half mount. I have to keep trying different things with them to try to get to understanding it. This is kind of hard though because they don’t really want me to try these moves on them. HA! I also like how the class is based for the topics above. Some of the guys i practiced with in the class (SORRY GUYS!) really want get into the more difficult stuff too fast. When they don’t even have it down they have a tendency to think “If i use more strength then i can do it better” and will use strngth over understanding. Dont get me wrong a lot of them get the move down fast and then want to try it in real life. I also dont understand that these guy (and some girls) think that they can start hardcore MMA with only a couple of months when it takes professionals years. Everyone seems to be in a rush but I really want to understand the basics. I don’t know about any martial arts or even any boxing so even holding my hands up to my face is new while fighting is new (yeah i know that wierd). I think a lot of the guys that have been doing MMA for a while asume their partners know it. I will say though that after I tell them to relax and go slow so i can understand it, they help instruct or (more often then not) roll there eyes while instructing me. RELAX guys! I love this class and i will be continuing classes like it in the future. I also am going to use the acronym K.I.S.S. for other times. I like it! SEE YOU IN CLASS

By: Darron Brown

Darron Brown — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 04:50:02 +0000

How are you doing Bart? Taking this course was one of the best decisions I have ever made. The martial art I am most familiar with is Shotokan. This mainly deals with striking. One of the main reason’s I enjoyed this class was that it introduced me to multiple grapple, and submission techniques. One of the main topics you express in your blog was to stay healthy, and relax. I can recall time during your session where you had to repeatedly remind us of that. Sometimes being overly aggressive, too soon, can lead you to getting submission kicker. Staying calm was one of the key component to learning and being successful. Asking question was very important as well. I asked at least five questions a class. I wanted to make sure I perfected the little stuff, before we learned things more difficult. This course was more about defending then actually attacking. Overall, I thought the class was great and I look forward to continuing it in the future.

By: Alex Quitiquit

Alex Quitiquit — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 04:48:03 +0000

I’m glad that I had the chance to read this article. I feel like I really need to do a few of the things on this list, including relax. I have found the class to be pretty intense and I may need to focus more on technique rather than the exercise. I have been sharing my techniques with friends and I’ve actually convinced one of my friends to join. The safety paragraph was also revealing, and I will make a greater effort to keep my body focused and in shape.

By: Richard Coleman

Richard Coleman — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 16:52:17 +0000

Thanks for taking the time to type this all out for us, Coach. It’s all good advice, but my favorite is the “A tight fist can hold nothing; a relaxed hand can accept.” Really shows us newbies how to think about training.

It also helped put training into perspective when you said that it’s better to know five moves you can actually use than to vaguely have 500 in store. In a real fight, you should be able to disable your opponent or take an opportunity to run away before even a beginner exhausts his spectrum of techniques (usually one or two hits), therefore it is much better to fully know how to utilize five than know 500 in theory.

Finally, the “write everything down” idea is one of the best I’ve ever heard. If you have to stop training for a period of time (like I do as I only signed up for the half-semester class), you can review the techniques you’ve already learned in your spare time, then you are ready to start right back where you left off when you’re able to train once more.

Thanks, Coach!

By: Eli Iacob

Eli Iacob — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 04:02:42 +0000

The article certainly provides a rich amount of advice. There are several points made in the text that are more easily understood during instruction and below are thoughts of how I think the class organization has helped me as a beginner. We all have a sensei, a teacher, someone who guides us. Therefore, for me the student approach to the teacher and the attitude during instruction will yield motivation, energy, and productivity in the class. A semi-structured class for me both energizes and facilitates progression.
Early warm-ups with an increase in heart-rate wake everyone up. Then, often the sensei has focused on a single or group of movements theme to each class. During this time students should ask about the basics and fundamentals with the emphasis on the movement rather than application variation. It is the role of the instructor to encourage students to both question (like you say) but also in a manner consistent with focusing on the movement under study. It is the responsibility of each student to understand this approach and respect the process. Still, as many may admit, one of the motivational aspects of study is submission and application. Therefore, it is also essential for students to gain experience with grappling and sparing, which integrates the new movement. More importantly, grappling demonstrates how we must transform strength and rigidness to plasticity, yielding, and softness. The combination of individual instruction and grappling is essential. Build your knowledge base with the individual movement and be receptive to what your body is lacking, not just specifics such as “from the back”, half guard, etc., but also the disconnect between mind and body. The main aspect of my previous martial arts experience I practiced some years ago was body unity with ankles, knees, shoulders, elbows, all connected but still yielding and malleable. A student should always seek the larger muscle group involved which the sensei repeatedly reminds us such as turning of the hips, breathing from the stomach, twisting, and yielding with the opponent’s force. Practice with others both in class and outside should also focus on this transfer, for example I think that two-person pushing hands is a wonderful exercise for this concept.

I was very impressed with your emphasis on safety not just in the article but also during the class. During the class, the instructor reserves the right to completely stop practice if the students are practicing unsafe. It was almost a rude awakening when following poor form grappling was stopped. Beginners should take this very seriously. The art has great power and one can get carried away using it unwisely and unchecked.
As a personal opinion therefore, the beginner’s attitude and approach in the class are paramount to a successful experience. An emphasis on learning in increments that is slowly incorporated into the whole will serve both as motivation and excitement in the art as well as a sense of progression.

By: Carolyn W.

Carolyn W. — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 03:28:31 +0000

I agree that relaxing is huge, and so is respect — for yourself and your practice buddy. When you relax, you can find the natural strength points of the techniques that compensate for your own lack of strength, and then you can throw someone who’s double your own weight. Respect creates trust, and then you can work out the correct way to do the move with your training buddy so no one gets injured and everyone’s happy.