Saturday, April 4, 2009

Being 'Technical'

Rhadi Ferguson is a guy with a Phd in education. A CSCS, who's worked closely with some of the top names in Strength and Conditionig in the States. He's coached UFC fighters and Olympians.
He's the only guy I can think of who's hit 'the triple crown', if you will, of grappling by competing in the ADCC, Mundials and the Olympics in Submission Wrestling, BJJ and Judo respectively.

I pride myself on shutting the fuck up and listening when someone like this wants to say something about being a better competitive grappler.

Here's a recent post from his blog;

The Technical Myth

Most people I know with experience in martial arts, particularly the more traditional of the three of those mentioned above, insist that 'Technique' is key. I agree. Sort of. Rhadi agrees. Sort of. He mentions the French system of training Judo specifcally. I think more of the Russians.

I don't want to get into it, because I think really if you care at all about being better at what you do(whatever it is really) you should take a minute to read it. But to save us both some time, I will give you the gist of it;

If your definition of 'technique' is perfect mimicry of some famous asian master from long ago, you probably suck in competition.
If your concept of technique has evolved into 'the most efficient way for me to do what I want/need to do' then you're probably on your way.

The sad truth is, if you are 'ready' to hear this, you probably already know this. If you're not, you probably won't read it. If you do, you'll argue with it; deny, avoid, discredit etc. That's cool. Maybe later.

Whoever you are, it'll take 10 minutes to read, and can't be all that bad. When is more information or insight into someone else's opinion all negative?


No comments: