For those whom it concerns:
Fall semester started Monday, and MMA classes begin tonight (Tuesday) at 8 PM.
Tags: Classes, fall 2010, u of u
Disclaimer
Let me make this ULTRA clear. I am not a doctor. Just as one does not receive a black-belt from watching youtube videos, one also does not get medical advice from a blog. If you have a health question or problem, go see a doctor.
Preamble
If you’ve been training for any serious length of time, chances are you’ve contracted ringworm or someone you know has gotten it. Gross, abnormal, itchy red rash thing.
If you’ve got it, DON’T TRAIN. Get it 100% resolved before resuming. If you have a reasonable suspicion that someone else has it, don’t train with them either. In fact, you should probably offer that they excuse themselves from training. One careless person can get a whole team of fighters infected. I’m not giving you permission to be a dick, but your health is important. MMA is dangerous and gross enough without ringworm.
What is it, exactly?
For many its called jock itch(tinea cruris) or athletes foot (tinea pedis). If it is on your arms or legs, it can be called tinea corporis, but all of these are types of ringworm, which is general name for it.
Contrary to the name, it’s not a worm, but a fungus that lives on the top layer of your skin. It is not immediately life threatening. Ringworm is part of a group of fungi called dermatophytes, which basically means that the fungus eats, lives, and dies on your hair, nails and skin.
The fungus really only hangs out on the top layer of your skin and doesn’t invade deeper, living tissues unless you’ve got really weakened immune system. The good news is that it isn’t burrowing down into your flesh like a creepy alien from an X-files episode. The bad news is that because it’s a surface dweller, it is easily spread and the ugly is visible to everybody. And yes, ringworm can scar your skin for good.
Identifying Ringworm
If you’re not easily grossed out, Google images can give you some fairly good pics. A word of warning though, many photos will be the extreme and rare cases, which you probably will never have and may serve to freak you out into a scratching frenzy. As I mentioned earlier, if you ever have a concern, go see a doctor. They can do a skin test and tell you what is going on.
The major identifiers are inflammation, redness, itchiness, and the tell-tale ring shape. The outer edge will be raised – making it look like a crater on the moon. What is happening is that the fungus is spreading out, like a ripple from a drop of water. The outer realm is going strong, but your body is fighting and killing the oldest instances of the fungus – the interior –making that crater. If you happen to get it in your hair, you may go bald there. If you have it in the nails, it can make them colored, brittle, and weird.
For the most part, your first sign is a really persistent itch.
A word of caution though – in the early stages, ringworm and a staph infection can seem similar. The difference is that ringworm is an annoyance, and staph, depending on the strain (MRSA), can paralyze or kill you. Often, staph infections will start off like a spider-bite. Staph may (but not always) ooze a golden puss, get crusty, grow to be a huge pimple like swelling. They can be red, itch, and ache/throb. If you want to compare, check out MMA fighter Mayhem Miller’s staph infection on his neck. If there is any doubt, get thee to a medical professional.
In my limited experience, the difference was the puss and the pimple like shape (for the staph) vs the crater/ring formation (ringworm).
What is the cause of ringworm? Where did I get it?
You probably got it from the gym. Could be the dojo, public showers or the weight room. It could have come from the mats or a person you came in contact with. To narrow it down further, you probably didn’t get it while you were outdoors. My father once told me I was going to get it by running around barefoot in the grass. Thankfully, he was wrong, which brings the running total up to Dad:2,328, Son:5. Its also possible to get it from animals, but let me confine myself to the human to human stuff.
Its most likey that you got ringworm from skin to skin contact with someone who already has it. Since wrestling, MMA, and BJJ involve a good amount of this, ringworm comes with the territory. Don’t be surprised if you get it – it’s pretty common and non-life threatening.
Often, ringworm will take hold in a sweaty, warm place; webbing of your toes, armpits, groin. Other times it will find its on to you because you a weak spot on your skin – a cut, scar, burn, or zit. If you’ve had ringworm in a spot before, that area can have a weakened defense and get it again later.
If you got it, it doesn’t necessarily mean your a dirty, bad person or you train at an unclean gym (although this can be the case). Sometimes you just get it. There doesn’t need to be a “cause” – just the presence of the fungus.
Ringworm Treatment
I talked to three doctors, a nurse, a pharmacist, numerous bjj/wrestling coaches and players, an alternative medicine cultist and the internet. In general, there are two camps: the medical science and the natural alternative. Both can work, but if you want a more or less guaranteed fix, go with the medical science route.
A word about healing time: It varies from person to person, but 2-4 weeks is pretty standard. A moderately severe case can last 6-8 weeks. Severity is determined by the number and size of the patches; two or more silver dollar sized spots is bordering moderately severe. Nail and hair infections last normal than their skin counter parts.
Another word about clothing, bandaging, scratching, etc. You don’t want the ringworm spreading. Bandage the infected area. If you’ve got athletes foot, put your socks on before your underpants as not to drag up ringworm into your crotch. Don’t itch the spot and then touch other parts of your body. Wash your clothes. Wash your hands.
Traditional Medicine Options
Within this route, there are three choices. Anti-fungal topical Creams, powders/sprays, and pills. Many of these can be bought over-the-counter.
Name brands include, Tinactin, Micatin, Lotrimin-AF, Lamisil, or Monistat-Derm (not just for the ladies!). You can find some of these on the cheap by their active ingredients, Terbinafine or Clotrimazole. If its athletes foot, go ahead with the athletes foot stuff. Otherwise, I’d go with the more specific ringworm stuff. If I had to choose just one, I’d go with the Lamisil, because I’ve used it and it worked.
For the oral prescriptions, you’ll need to go see a doc. The meds may be something like Diflucan and Griseofulvin. From my understanding, the oral stuff is for more serious, widespread ringworm. If you are really curious, go check out common ringworm medications via WebMD.
Whatever you go with, make sure to see it to the end. Don’t quit early and have the fungus return.
Alternative Medicine Options
Maybe you’d like to go all natural with your remedies, or maybe you’re just poor. Maybe you’ve tried some of the regular OTC treatments and weren’t excited about the progress. You can always try one of the dozens of alternatives. I can’t say that they all work, every time; what I can say is that these ringworm treatments have worked for some people at least some of the time.
These treatments haven’t undergone the same kind of scientific rigor that the above mentioned cures have, but don’t discount them. I’ve done a few of them and personally seen the use of a dozen more , and they worked. To summarize: your mileage may vary.
Also, use common sense. If something seems to be unduly irritating your skin, or you are allergic to it, stop. If you think more/less of the treatment is necessary, adjust. Unlike the directions on prescriptions, I can only offer you sugguestions.
Vinegar/Lemon/Lime
The basic strategy behind this old school remedy is fungus can’t live in a hostile, acidic environment. Normally, your skin is slightly acidic anyway, and this amplifies that. Use a cotton ball or clean rag to soak up your preferred acidic liquid, non-diluted, and hold it on the ringworm patch for 30 minutes. Some minor stinging may occur. Do this 2 times a day for a week or so.
Bleach
Yes, I know it’s not really “natural” in the same sense that these other ringworm treatments are. But it is do-it-yourself, cheap and effective. I learned about it from a football coach, but have heard high school wrestlers use a similar approach. The method is this: Scrub the ringworm patch with a wet washcloth until the whole area gets pretty red (exfoliate). Take a cotton ball, clean white rag, or q-tip soaked in bleach and put it on the ringworm. Hold the bleach on the patch for a few minutes. How long is up to you, but you should hold it there until it “burns”. Since the ringworm lives just on the surface of the skin, it will get nuked by the bleach-bomb, if you hold it there long enough. I have heard reports of people taping a bleach-soaked cotton ball to the area and leaving it on all day, kind of like a band aid.
There is no definitive length of time for this treatment, but 2-3 applications a day for 3-4 days should probably do it. Follow your instincts.
Yes, this approach hurts. But what are you, a wimp? (Says the football coach) The burning isn’t such a terrible thing, because there is a sense that the pain is a good thing, a proof that you’re burning out the fungus. Be warned, the bleach actually does burn your skin, and can scar you. If you burn too much, you’ve opened up a wound that can later get re-infected by the fungus.
Ginger Poultice/Garlic Paste
Both of these food items double as a natural anti-fungal. Ever notice how the out last other foods in the fridge from getting the moldy fridge fuzz?
Basic procedure: before you go to bed, grind up the clove/root and put a small spoonful on the affected area. Hold in place with a band-aid or tape of some kind. Keep the poultice on all night, use the poultices for about a week.
Use in a similar fashion to the aforementioned bleach remedy. The only suggestion I have is that the Betadine solution (pictured above) is a good choice from among the varieties of iodines.
Other Remedies
Green Walnut hull juice, from your local walnut tree.
UV lights, from a tanning bed or the sun. UV will often kill or deter fungal growth.
Aromatherapies: Lavander, Thyme, Myrrh, Tea Tree, Ginger.
Vics VapoRub.
Grapefruit, and grapefruit seed extract. The fruit has anti-microbial mojo; can be eaten or put on topically.
Prevention, the best of all cures
Best of all, is to never get ring worm.
A few things will help you immediately. Wear a long-sleeve rashguard, and gi pants even if you are doing no gi.
Shower at the gym, if they have the facilities. Waiting too long can allow ringworm to take hold. It could be completely made up, but I’ve heard that you’ve got 30 minutes before fungus gets rooted in the skin.
On a granular level, there are two camps of how you should shower. One is the super-scrub camp, the other is the let-the-water-do-the-work camp. Depending on how old you are, and how vital your skin is, the super-scrub routine can make you worse off than before by habitually breaking down your skin, making it prone to attack. I talked to my personal doctor about this one, he says that you should use soap on the groin and underarms, but nowhere else, especially if you have to shower more than once a day. Also, if you must shower more than once, make one of those cleanings a sponge clean, to minimize the wear and tear on your skin. You may be interested in looking up the limited or no soap philosophy, (”going animal”) online.
Although I’m not a huge fan, but some people swear by the use of Defense Soap to stave off the fungus.
In the shampoo department, Nizoral is the choice for your head.
Bandage up scars and wounds. Have a consistent shaving schedule. If you shave erratically, your skin doesn’t adapt well and can be weakened, prone to infection. Also, enough with the shaving your whole body thing. Forest Griffin sounds off about this in his book, Got Fight – leave the collar popping, fake tanning and shaved arms for the douche-bags at the local bar. If you actually need the competitive edge that a slippery, hairless body gives you, I forgive you. Chances are you don’t, so don’t be one of these guys below.
Eat well and sleep well. A healthy immune system helps keep this kind of stuff at bay. In this regard, here are some diet tips. Avoiding sugars, refined wheat products, junk food, nitrates (bacon). Do eat garlic (crushed, and as uncooked as possible), no-sugar added yogurt, kefir, kombucha, any priobiotics in general (acidophilus pills), brown rice, lentils, raw nuts (sunflower, pumpkin and walnut), and eggs (zinc rules!). Don’t drink alcohol.
Get those mats clean, and keep them that way. If nobody is doing it, volunteer to do it. Bug management in a nice way. It has to be done. Keep shoes off the mats. Separate the boxing part and the BJJ part – I’ve heard gyms doing this and pretty much eliminating ringworm problems immediately. After you clean the mats, let them dry before putting them away. Wet dark areas are happy spots for fungus and microbes.
Use a broad spectrum cleaner when washing the mats – a virocide, fungicide, disinfectant. I know KenClean and BioNet are decent stuff. If you have any question, find out what your local hospital uses to clean their floors with and use that.
Clean your GI for goodness sake! See my article on taking care of your training gear. Also, don’t share gear, razors, soap, etc.
You can use protective pre-workout spray, like KS Kennedy spray. The stuff is made specifically for wrestlers to help them NOT get the skin problems we’ve been talking about. Kinda pricey, but neat.
Wash your hands regularly and wash them right. Do the S-grip beneath the finger nails scrub like doctors do. Lather for 20-30 seconds. This isn’t rinsing, this should be washing.
One last note: Many gyms have those alcohol hand sanitizer pumps available. I think they do help keep fungus at bay, but I don’t think its a 100% thing, especially for staph, which can be resistant. From my knowledge, Hibiclens is a top notch, medical oriented hand cleanser. If the generic stuff isn’t solving the problem, consider upgrading.
Tags: illness, prevention, ringworm, staph, training
So I just returned from the movie theater, and let me tell you. My. Mind. Has. Been. Blown.
Enough to over use the periods in a trendy, ungrammatical way, something I almost never do. To put it in non-nerd terms, imagine your brain after seeing The Matrix for the first time.
Yes.
Whoa.
That type of mind-blow.
Anyway, there is this scene where gravity in the dream world has broken down and Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Arthur) has have a bad-ass anti-grav fight in a hotel hallway (pictured above). As the title suggests, there is a choke out via the cobra choke. The cool thing is we just practiced this choke up at the U of U MMA class last week! Fortuitous, right?
The cool thing is that there is an awesome transition from an arm triangle attempt. Imagine you just can’t finish the arm triangle – it happens. Instead of losing a really nice dominant position, you just reach around the head and grab the wrist, then feed your hand through his arm to grab your own forearm.
Now to finish, pull your opponents wrist towards the back of his head to snug up things, but don’t roll them over. The real umph is dropping your elbow towards the ground across the neck. As long as the arm holding your own arm is anchored, you’ll be surprised how quickly cutting your forearm down forces the tap. Like I said, too much pulling the opponent’s wrist behind the head actually sabotages your choking. I think that this error comes out from guys who do gi jujitsu, because this choke is a lot like a scissor collar choke.
Remember though, the one arm (at least IMO) does the choking and the other stabilizes.
Here’s a vid showing a guy pulling off the cobra choke from the guard.
If you want more instruction on it, pick up a copy of Karo Parisyan’s book about Judo in MMA.
Tags: chokes, inception, Karo Parisyan, mma in the media, No Gi, submissions
Image above from pic of the week, www.grapplearts.com
Preamble
The triangle is perhaps the most definitive move in Brazilian Jujitsu. (So say the Gracies, anyway). In mixed martial arts, the triangle has earned its spot as one of the most effective submissions in the game.
That being said, I’ve been studying the triangle so I can get really good at it. There are a lot of good resources, and of the ones I’m familiar with, Ryan Hall’s triangle course is by far the most insightful. If you’re in the market, I wouldn’t consider anything else – it’s put together well, the instruction is clean, and the tips are great. A+. Once an assistant instructor started tapping me hard with Ryan’s version of the triangle, I was sold – I’ve escaped a number of triangles, but not these ones. In the video’s Ryan talks about biomechanics of posture, leverage, and other stuff that’ll blow your mind. Of course, if you want a free resource that is also super awesome, you could just consider reading the rest of the post.
Anyway, there are several elements that make a good triangle. Setups, head control, arm control, attack angle, hip placement, etc. You don’t have to everything right to tap someone, but the more elements you master, the higher your finishing percentage will be. If you have learned 2-3 things and apply them really well, you’ll be tapping out a lot of dudes. If you have 4-5 elements mastered, your triangle will be feared.
The Basic Move
The essence the triangle choke is trapping the head and one arm between your legs and then increasing pressure on the neck. Yep, that its it. Everything one does should revolve around that. The entry, the positioning, the finishing touches – it should all enable or amplify compression on the side of the neck after you cage up one arm and the head.
Below is a two-minute videos that goes over the basic move, just in case you need to be brought up to speed.
Setting up the triangle
There are many ways to setup the triangle, all of them revolving around the prime directive – to isolate the head and arm between your legs. Here are some of them.
Setup – Stuffing the arm :
Below, Bas Rutten grabs the wrist and jams it into their chest. Then you can pop up your hips and bite down with your legs into a triangle. This is a decent response to guys who try that elbow-grind guard pass.
Setup – Kicking the face:
Context – a guy is trying to punch in your face and you’re in various stages of the guard. Below, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira gets inside positioning – hands on shoulders/biceps – to block the barrage of punches. He creates space pushing off the hips and then kicks to the face as the attack tries to continue striking. He then drags the arm and pops his hips up to properly cage the head, and finishes. This upkick-to-triangle is how local fighter DaMarquez Johnson won his break-through fight at UFC 107.
Setup – Open guard/Knee weave to triangle:
Instructor Frank Benn opens his guard and shrimps out his hips to one side. Then, he weaves in his knee under the arm and pushes the arm out with his shin. It’s kind of like pummeling with you legs. Video below.
Setup – Rubber Guard Triangle “The Meat Hook”:
In the this one get the triangle by breaking down the posture and holding it with the rubber guard. Also, you use your hand to hook the shoulder, which helps you “thread the needle” ie: slip your leg under the armpit and up through. The kicker is how your grab your ankle to and slip it underneath to lock the gate. The video below is one of the best I’ve seen – short, sweet, and tons of technical goodness is going on. We’ll elaborate on some of those details later.
Caging the Head AKA Sealing the Circle AKA Locking the Gate
Whatever you choose to call it, this is basically the process of locking up the triangle. After you basically pull guard on your opponents head and arm, you need to get your ankle into the back of your opposite knee. When the the ankle – or shin – gets there, you fold down your outside leg to keep your foot from going anywhere.
Notice how the fighter above is grabbing his shin and pulling it down. Even if you don’t have your legs closed via ankle lock, you can reach up and seal the circle, pull your opponent down into and then get the outside leg up and over to lock the gate.
There are different schools of thought when it comes to pulling the leg horizontally behind your opponent. I really like how Nogueira grabs his ankle from the outside, but sometimes it’s just not going to happen that way. Two tips though – don’t grab your foot (only the shin or the ankle) and grab your leg palm facing down as seen above. This isn’t rubber-guard mission control – heck even Eddie Bravo grabs palm down. Below is Eddie doing the aforementioned meat hook triangle.
The whole point is to have a locked up close guard around the head and arm, not an open guard. One other thing, if you want the triangle choke, lock your legs towards your outside leg (the one that’s not over the opponents neck).
Get those hips up – butt off the floor.
Don’t try to pull an opponent into a crappy triangle. Lift those hips, bite down, seal the circle if you can, and then pull them down. Otherwise, your hips will be can easily be controlled, and even if you’ve locked your ankles, the space where the choking is supposed to be happening is huge. “The noose is loose”. Below to the left, Nogueira is placing his right foot on his opponents hip to lift himself up. Examine how close his hips are to his training partners head. Below to the right, Rich Franklin’s submission coach Jorge Gurgel has popped open his guard and swung his hips high, almost like a jump. You can watch a triangle video here to see the explosive motion to get his hips up.
Bite Down with the Legs / Point the Toes
This is a basic thing – when you get your hips up, point your toes toward your knees, tightening your calf muscles. Above, George McGinnis from York MMA is choking the life out of his training partner, both sets of toes pointed up.
This makes the leg-gate you’ve locked up that much more difficult to break and it allows you to “bite down” with your legs. Once you get your hips up, your opponents will typically try to get posture and spaz out. If you point the toes, you can really clamp down on them like a bulldog, preventing their escape – even if you haven’t sealed the circle/caged the head.
Tightening the noose
As I have mentioned before, the triangle choke is a noose around your opponents neck. Often, you don’t get it tight from the get go – you have to make adjustments to get the noose tight. Above, Erik Paulson is escaping the triangle because the noose is loose. To prevent a guy from escaping – and simultaneously making it very tight – Steven Kesting gives corrections to the 4 most common triangle errors in the video below.
I’d like to recap the above video as well as add a few things.
Bury the shoulder:
If you can see that shoulder, you have a problem. Here, even though Dean Lister has cleared the arm across, his training partner Jimmy still picked him up for a slam. Your legs must be over the shoulder. Maybe you can bury the shoulder as you’re doing the move, but most of the time when you start to get the triangle your opponents will freak out and their shoulder will pushing through. Dean Lister solves the problem of the shoulder next.
Readjusting, getting an angle:
Dean has control of his opponents posture, and can safely open the locked ankles. Then, he plants the foot on the floor and pivots into his opponent. Relocking the gate, his triangle is much tighter. Alternatively, he could also hit an armbar as a backup submission.
Don’t be straight and aligned with your opponent, as Kesting explained above in the video. Maybe you can tap a guy with strong head pulling action, but the 6 o’clock position is much easier to escape, and not as tight. Above, Lister is in the preferable 3 o’clock position, below, Kesting in the 6 o’clock position. (Well, he’s really in the 7 o’clock, but close enough.)
Lock the ankles correctly:
Below, the guy has the lock reversed, and although there are submissions from this position, it’s not the triangle. If you don’t do it right the first time, when you switch the locking orientation it gives escape opportunities. If you just proceed with the move, you’re not going to choke them.
“Windshield wipers” the legs:
You want to have your legs “swished” over to one side, like when you turn on the windshield wipers in your car. Your outside leg is using your pointed up toe’s as a fulcrum to crowbar your outer leg into his neck, in turn pressing his neck into the inside leg – making the choke much tighter.
Pulling the head down:
Don’t be fooled, pulling the head down isn’t the coup de grace of finishing the triangle. Yes, it works. However, if you don’t already have good mechanics going on, the triangle becomes a smother into your crotch, instead of blood choke. Again, if you just have the head pull mechanic working for you a grappler can resist the smell of your sweaty crotch and escape. It’s not choking him unless you are pulling your opponents head over something. And no, your crotch doesn’t count as something. Below is the Undertaker pulling a wrestlers head over his shin – aka the gogo-plata aka the devil’s triangle.
Squeezing the knees together- the Teepee:
Ari Bolden from the submission 101 crew goes over a different finish to the triangle if you just can’t seem to lock the ankle gate.
Also, some people have success by squeezing the noose tighter with their arms and extending their legs like the teepee, hooking the head and their inside knee but keeping their 3 o’clock positioning.
Control Posture/ Get a proper angle:
I know we’ve sort of covered this already, but getting a proper angle is perhaps the most vital tip to tapping someone to the triangle. Not only does it naturally help tighten the noose, but it helps to prevent stacking, slamming, and nerfs strikes to your face. Your success or failure of the choke will based upon posture control and angle. It is the grand mastery key. I used to think that pulling down the head was the key, but now I’ve changed my tune thanks to one of my instructors and Ryan Hall’s videos.
Arm control
There are three schools of thought to this.
Clear the arm across your body and pull the head down over it – shown above.
Tightly under hook the near side arm and extend your legs. This type of triangle is currently my favorite, because I can create immense amounts of pressure by using my hamstrings and quads – the strongest muscles in my body. Above, a Sambo practitioner shows this method.
Who cares where the arm is? method. Just keep it off your body – as to not allow the opponent control of your hips and possibly escape – and pull down on the head like crazy!
Dealing with the Freak Out / Stack:
In the video below, the Gracies deal with how to keep the triangle when an opponent is freaking out, trying to regain posture and escape. The solution? Shoulder-walking.
My favorite Gracie quote from the movie: “People aren’t machines, people are people.”
Conclusion:
There is a ton of information here, I know. There’s even more out there to overwhelm you – but don’t worry. Just pick one or two things and play with them for a few weeks. Don’t worry about doing all the right things all the time. If you have good training partners, they’ll let you develop skill in these areas without crushing and escaping every triangle you throw up. Just work an element until you get to know it like a friend. Then move on to another aspect.
If you do want even more (what? you thought I knew it all? hardly!) check out Ryan Hall’s triangle DVD’s.
The triangle choke: Know it, Love it, Do it.
Tags: Ari Bolden, Dean Lister, Gracie Triangle, Steven Kesting, submissions, triange choke
The martial arts are challenging and rewarding. More than just a sport, martial arts is a form of self defense, fitness, opportunity for competition, an outlet of philosophy and artistic expression. As a coach, I respect the reasons a student may have for choosing to study martial arts and try to provide a framework where they can pursue their specific desires.
However, I have rules, regulations, and teaching ideals that remain constant throughout the different martial arts I teach, regardless or gender, age, or experience level of the students. My hope is that these rules and ideas assist all of us live, grow and love the martial arts. The study of martial arts has been one of the most positive forces in my life, and could be a defining element of joy in a student’s life as well.
Teaching Ideals
Safety is priority number one. No goal, however worthy, will be worked on unless it can exist in harmony with this prerogative.
My martial art classes are not a place for rehabilitation, mental or physical. True, martial arts strengthen the body and mind; but there is a base-line of personal well-being that must be maintained in order to maintain safety of the instructor and students. Serious emotional or physical injury need to be taken care of by a competent professional.
We strive to respect others and ourselves. We cannot truly have one without the other.
Our class is an environment of learning.
We leaving our ego at the door. This is not a trite saying– we train in a space of safety and respect, so there is no need to prove anything to anybody. We know ourselves and accept ourselves with our combination of flaws and strengths. We do not compare ourselves to others for the purpose of creating a pecking order.
All those in our classes are teammates and not competitors. We share knowledge, experience, and respect liberally with each other. The stronger our teammates become, the better off we are for it. We accelerate our growth collectively.
When we train hard with each other, it is still in alignment with our views of safety, respect, and ego. When we compete, we do not deviate from our philosophies.
As an teacher, I try to perpetually focus on fundamentals and strive for principle based instruction. As a shining example, I quote martial art instructor Matt Thornton, “The entire curriculum … revolves around the fundamentals of the delivery system. And because of this, each individual athlete is given the freedom needed to develop his/her own style; one that is optimum for their own body, mind and temperament. In a Gym that focuses on fundamentals, as opposed to a technique-by-technique template, each [student uses] very different types of games. And this not only produces better athletes/technicians quickly, it also helps impart and preserve the core Art (delivery system) itself.”
Martial arts is a way of life. Our training is not a compartment our being, it is a fiber that runs throughout. If we are jerks outside of class, we bring that to the mats. Likewise, if we keep our cool, show respect and determination on the mats we will take that everywhere we go and to everyone we meet.
Life is about joy and martial arts reflects that. We train hard, yes, but we laugh, play and relax in the joys of it. Our team is primarily a group of friends with a common interest in martial arts.
Rules, Regulations, and Expectations
Arrive on time to class and notify the teacher if you must leave early.
Wear appropriate training clothing. Sport shorts, athletic pants, or martial arts uniform (gi) are acceptable. Shirts are required. No clothing with metal zippers, rivets or buttons are permitted.
No shoes of any kind are allowed on the mats.
Body piercings and jewelry (including watches, wedding rings, necklaces) of all kinds are to be removed before training begins. They are safety hazards.
Students “going too hard” in training will be reminded to relax first. Next they will be asked stop participating for a time if they cannot or will not control themselves. Repeat offenders will have private talks with the coach to determine if they can continue to train with team members.
Students are expected to communicate with each other about how comfortable they feel about training intensity. Honesty-with-self and lack of ego make this easy – it is never a problem to say to a teammate, “I need to take it light today.”
Cursing and vulgar language is not permitted.
Remarks or gestures of a sexual nature will not be tolerated. I take such offences very seriously– depending on the instance, there may not be opportunity for students to remain training with the team. Our ability to grow as a team is affected when individuals create such discomfort.
Students are expected to clean, take out, and put away the mats as necessary. This is a form of respect for self, team, and our environment.
If students are found instigating fights, inside our outside of class, they will not be allowed to train with the team. True warriors save it for the ring.
If students are sick, they are invited to watch but not participate.
If you have medical conditions that could get others sick – hepatitis, various rashes, warts, etc – the instructor and training partners need to be aware. See below.
Students are NEVER expected to share details of physical illness, disease, injury (emotionally or physically), but are expected to take responsibility for their own well being and sit out when necessary.
If students are uncomfortable for any reason, they are not required to participate in the activity and may sit out.
Students are expected to be clean physically for practice. Proper showering, usage of deodorant/antiperspirant, and oral hygiene are not just social conventions, but standards of safety and respect. Infractions will be brought up in a confidential manner.
Fingernails and toenails are to be trimmed neatly; if they remain sharp, a nail file is to be used to smooth them.
Training clothing is to be washed regularly, immediately after each use if possible. Just because you don’t sweat or they don’t smell does not give you permission to bend this rule. This is a matter of safety, not social convention.
Students are expected to learn and apply the team training philosophies on their own, in addition to the instruction they learn.
Students are expected to ask questions.
Students are expected to inform the instructor if something un-safe is occurring.
Students are expected to support teammates with positive reinforcement, never criticism. If you cannot offer a technical pointer without offense, don’t say it.
Students are expected to have fun.
Assignment for U of U students:
After reading, you are required to write one comment about 50 words long. Use your first name and last initial so I can give you credit. As for the content of your comment, it’s up to you, provided it moves the conversation along. Question, disagree, ask for clarification, add your own thoughts. I’m sure I’ve missed something – illuminate me!
As we’ve talked about before, the “Cool post bro” response is inadequate.
Also, consider other teammate’s comments when you write your own. Feel free to address them and exchange ideas.
Tags: game, Philosophy, theory
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