--Dan Inosanto
That's my sig on every post at every jiu jitsu/mixed martial arts message board I subscribe to. I was impressed during my last visit to the doctor for my eye injury when the nurse described my low pulse as "athletically low." It's nice to think that if I never get anything else out of jiu jitsu training, the fact that it's helped clean up my diet and put me in the best shape I've been in since my senior year in high school will remain much appreciated.
Weariness dragged down my performance at last night's training--a particularly uncomfortable moment in Jeff the White's closed guard with Mamazinho exhorting me to pass. Uncomfortable because if I died tomorrow, "smart guy, couldn't pass the guard" would be a legitimate epitaph for my tombstone. Uncomfortable because all four of my tournament losses in the past year have come because I was unable to pass the guard. Uncomfortable because I know that guard passing needs to be a priority for me, as a top player, and because I think I've broken down what I need to do to be able to even think about passing the guard.
But, there's this:
"If you are tired you're not strong. If you are tired you're not fast. If you're tired you don't have good technique. If you're tired you're not even smart."You could argue that my problem isn't so much in passing the guard as it is in opening the closed guard. But even then the fact that I've been submitted in tournaments from the guard (three armbars and one triangle) suggests that even when the guard is open to attack me with a submission, I'm not exploiting that moment to pass. I've got to do better here. I'm pretty confident that I can roll with anybody within a weight division or two at my skill level if I pass their guard. But I've got to pass the guard to get to the promised land.
I guess that means, in a sense, I can't blame weariness. It wasn't exhaustion that kept me from passing the guard in tournaments--or at least not as much as it seemed to last night. One of the things I've got to remember about jiu jitsu is that technique allows you to not be as strong, or as fast, as you might prefer to be. Of course, as Inosanto rightly points out, being tired attacks the mind as much as the body, making it harder to think straight.
But technique is still that "rope ladder" across a chasm of adversity--whether that adversity comes in the form of an opponent's superior size, strength, speed or endurance. I rolled with Pete (?) a big white belt (at least two bills) who I did some no gi with before. He murdered me in no gi and last night he caught me with that thrusting choke that I never use but probably should. But I was able to reverse him once or twice, and that certainly wasn't because I was stronger. It was that basic "Gracie Brothers" pole vault, bump and roll escape from mount that did it--and continues to be my best tool against the mount. Pure technique gets me out from under more often than not. And I can't lose faith in that.
