I've posted a little bit about Maia and his half guard game courtesy of a "Judo Chop" from the good people at Bloody Elbow in recent days. What I haven't posted about has been my re-reading of BJ Penn's Mixed Martial Arts: The Book of Knowledge.
As far as I'm concerned, everything that Saulo Ribeiro's book, Jiu Jitsu University does for jiu jitsu people doing jiu jitsu, BJ's book does for jiu jitsu people doing MMA.
A part of what put me back in the BJ Penn section of my jiu jitsu library were Marc Laimon's comments in a recent interview with Jordan Breen of Sherdog.com. Laimon has always been a big protagonist of only remaining on the bottom for as long as is necessary to sweep, submit or stand. And it was fascinating to hear him talk about BJ Penn - BJ of the incredible natural flexibility - as having one of the best "stand up from guard" games in MMA.
And sure enough on page 185 of The Book of Knowledge is "Getting Up 101":
A lot of people wonder how I get up from the bottom guard position when the fight goes to the ground. The answer is I utilize this technique. It's one of the first moves that you learn in jiu jitsu, but a lot of jiu jitsu practitioners don't practice it on a regular basis because they are content working off their backs, which often gets them into trouble in MMA.I want to add Or when grappling larger opponents. Or when grappling better skilled opponents. Or when grappling when fatigued ...
That's no fatwa on the guard. But to the degree this approach correlates with my own attributes (and lack thereof), it is worth keeping in mind. If BJ Penn, with some of the best hips in jiu jitsu AND mixed martial arts, has no problem standing out of the guard then, to steal a line, why oh why should I?
Even more to the point, the guards that BJ Penn shows in his Book of Knowledge: the Sit-Up Guard, the Damn Good Guard, in no way take advantage of BJ Penn's most apparent physical attribute (his hip flexibility). That is stunning to me - and potentially invaluable. Because BJ Penn, whose jiu jitsu skill is unquestioned, doesn't take on positions or approaches based on his physical advantages, the only explanation for his effectiveness lies in the techniques, the tactics and the strategies he chooses. The Sit-Up Guard, which is another version of my King Crimson suite. The Damn Good Guard, which is "just" Rap Star with a different way of controlling the far arm (BJ uses the inside shin, I use the sticky paw grip).
Rickson in the movie Choke makes the point that "the techniques are great", but what makes jiu jitsu special is the "sensibility". I've tried to access this sensibility, "the Force" a few times over the years and it is pretty clear that those "great techniques" are more or less a prerequisite to accessing any type of genuine jiu jitsu flow. But that said, the more I flesh out my jiu jitsu - especially the flow chart stuff I've been doing in my notebook on Rap Star - the more comfortable I feel about focusing on sensibility as much as technique.
That said, still far more the latter than the former, which is fine. I'm doing a halfway decent job of staying aerobic and thinking binary, trying to be as efficient as possible on the mat and remembering that if I feel any real, extended exertion, there's a good chance I'm doing something I shouldn't be doing (although "wrong" could include insufficient conditioning if I'm not careful).
Back on the mat tomorrow. Did a fairly intense LSD9 session earlier today. I'll spend May transitioning from standing only to mixed conditioning, and maybe even throw in some trial lactic capacity interval work to see if it will fit for the real 8 Week wind-up for the July Revolution.
