Pulling for Grappling

Hey Y'all.

Hope you been doing good. Been a little while since I really put a lot of quality posts around here, but I am back at it. Schedule permitting, expect to see me put a new post at least weekly, if not more frequently.

OK!

So, now that's outta the way. PULLING FOR GRAPPLING?

So, I do Judo. Did Judo. That was where I started. Not a lot of Judo to choose from in my new town (the RVA). But there sure is a shit-ton of BJJ. So that's what I been doing. Mostly Gi stuff, b/c my Judo prepared me better for that, and I am a little apprehensive about strangers sweating on me THAT MUCH, so not a lot of No Gi for me. Secret time, I love no Gi, I just never seem to have free time when those classes are.

SO: In physically preparing for grappling, you gotta be functional, well rounded and have a good combination of power, strength, endurance and straight up cardio. If you have two or less, you gonna have troubles. In developing strength and power, there's plenty of literature regarding GREAT tools for hip extension power, like the squat, the deadlift, the olympic lifts and so on. There's guys that write whole books on the bench press. But what about pulling? Can't ever forget, grappling is a sport of controlling distance, and sucking people in to take away space, and using your upper body to pull is a big part of that. YOU GOTTA HAVE THE PULLING! In fact, every smart coach is going to tell you, if you can't pull a little more than you can push, you're going to fuck up your shoulder eventually.

Well, thanks to Greg Glassman, we all know the pull up. It's everywhere. No escaping it. But that's on the vertical plane. SHIT. If you have some BJJ match where you gotta reach up, grab some dude and pull him down or yourself up to him, JOIN ANOTHER TOURNAMENT! This one ain't right.

All kidding aside, vertical pulling is awesome, but what we REALLY need to address is horizontal pulling. So, over the next couple of posts, I am going to go over my favorite training tools for horizontal pulling for grapplers.

The first one is the RKC High Pull (RKC HP). Thanks Pavel and other senior RKCs for making this one a standard with good KB coaches everywhere. Jason C Brown has one of my favorite KB videos of all time where he shows how the teach the Snatch by learning the high pull first. It's great.

First off, the High Pull is built off the swing: if you can't swing (one handed or two or two belled) you don't need to be reading this post. Get your ass a coach and start with the basics!

Second: It's the one-handed swing that really matters, so this is an 'intermediate' move in my book. The RKC HP requires grip endurance, shoulder and elbow joint stabilization, good swing mechanics and all that implies, as well as strength and power in the shoulder joint and shoulder girdle. It's a coordinated, functional WHOLE BODY pulling movement that is at least 60% hips and only 40% arms. You hear me meat-head? It's not just your arms. Like everything in Judo(and thus in life) you gotta learn how to use your hips to minimize the work and maximize the results!

Take a LOOK:

The RKC HP also offers a lot of variety in training: you can use one KB or two, you can use the same weight, or two different weights, and finally you can vary the weight, the reps, the sets, the rest and more.

The key is to develop a plan for the energy system you need to develop, and work backwards from there. As a BJJ white belt or Judoka, your matches are 5 minutes. So having enough gas to blast through six minutes is 120%, it's overkill.

So here's what you do:

-build up to six minutes of work step by step

-then start taking away rest

-then start adding weight and playing with higher intensities

You can build up the total volume of work to six minutes in a variety of ways, but my favorite method is like this:

Monday: do 3 big sets

Wednesday: do 5 medium sets where the total time adds up to slightly more than Monday

Friday: 7 sets, again, total is a little more

the following week, you can start off where you left off Friday, or slightly less.

Example: you try out your KB, and you can do 25 reps on the strong hand and 20 on the weak hand. Here's what you do:

M: 3 sets of 15 (~150-200 seconds depending on height)

W: 5 sets 11

F: 7 sets of 9

Maybe give yourself 2 minutes rest between sets

next week start with 3 sets of 18-20

once you get up over the hundred mark, start reducing the rest time or get a heavier bell

Since this is low intensity, and high volume, you can use it as assistance work to other focused upper body strength training (talk about that later) as cardio after other training, or simply on it's own. These workouts will take about 15 minutes tops.

Try that out, see if that doesn't increase your wind, as well as reduce the fatigue you feel in your arms after a long roll. It's great for grip fighting endurance. GREAT.

Why doesn't Crossfit use the Kettlebell Snatch?

A question posed over at Byers Gets Diesel

Crossfit is intentionally broad, general and inclusive. The kettlebell swing is broad, general and inclusive.

The GS style snatch is not. Hand someone a moderate weight and challenge them to do more than 20 reps; they will end up bruised, callouses torn and cardiovascularly unchallenged and frustrated. It’s true that the barbell snatch is difficult, that thrusters are tough, that kipping pull ups take time to learn. It’s also true that there’s a shortage of qualified coaches in weightlifting and gymnastics. The problems of coaching, equipment and access to information are essentially the same. So what’s the difference?

Ignorance; most people consider the barbell snatch essential to the development of speed and power in hip extension. They often see the kettelbell snatch in the same way. Why use a kettlebell, which is typically restricted to 53, perhaps 70lbs? A barbell can be easily loaded with 95lbs and already the general benefits are exceeding the KB experience. Add to that the difference between “Ow my hook grip hurts” and “Fuck. I tore another callous”. Why even bother?

The kettlebell snatch is not a barbell snatch. Let me repeat this:

The Kettlebell Snatch is not the Barbell Snatch. Nor is it a substitute for it. They are not interchangeable and they do not address the same training needs.

snatch from AW on Vimeo.

(PS: I have no idea who this guy is, I just searched Vimeo and his was the nicest looking snatch that came up first. And really, it's pretty good. So kudos to you, AW. If you don't like your video here, I will take it down)

I hope the differences are obvious. Even though this imagery is immediately obvious to most, very few who are exposed to the Kettlebell ever attempt to time a continuous set, to do more than 20 reps on one hand or other aspects of Girevoy Sport that would be considered ‘introductory’ at most.

I believe that the quick answer is ‘because it’s hard to do/coach’. I believe that the harder/longer answer is that most people, including most Crossfit trainers who are not RKC/AKC/Jeff Martone certified don’t realize the differences between the barbell and the kettlebell. Anyone that asks you “Why not use dumbbell” is not experienced in Kettlebell training. Coach once said “I don’t know anyone that is GOOD at the Olympic Lifts that would argue that they are dangerous or don’t apply to athletes” (roughly). The same is very true. I don’t know anyone that can do a continuous set of 100 snatches that would say “This doesn’t help me develop the same power that heavy power cleans do”. Finally, Crossfit HQ has stepped away from WODs that are too coaching/equipment intensive. If you’ve been around for a while, you remember seeing things like Rx for swimming for instance. They have whittled down the tools to a core group: “the 9”. While they will make room for the Olympic Weightlifting barbell snatch, they are currently not willing to allow for the Long Cycle. That’s their call. Simplifying is a good thing. If you haven’t noticed, the workouts that really use the full lifts are not as frequent as thrusters, or SDLHP.

Take home message; Girevoy Sport is an intermediate cardiovascular sport that tests anaerobic endurance, lactate threshold, VO2 max, grip endurance, hip power, shoulder stability and perseverance. If you’re from the martial arts world, some teacher at some point has most likely made you hold ‘the Horse Stance’ for minutes on end. If you played Football, you ‘ran suicides’. The kind of pain that must be tolerated is very similar. It’s slow paced, and repetitive. It isn’t sexy. If you can do it, you are a better man/woman for it. Not everyone chooses training modalities based on the positive impact to their development as person, but minute nine of a GS set of snatches is spiritual. If you haven’t been there, you don’t know. I don’t blame you. I don’t look down on you. I just don’t think you’re qualified to speak on this particular subject. It’s entirely the same as saying ‘you do Crossfit’ when you’ve never been into an affiliate gym. You don’t know what the hell you are talking about.

So I have pointed out what’s wrong. How about a solution? I don’t know if there’s an easy answer. Do you have access to a qualified coach? Do you want to do it? Do you think that you would benefit from greater grip strength and endurance, repetitive hip power, greater resilience and flexibility in the posterior chain? Well, you can start in some of my earlier posts.

http://rivercitypc.blogspot.com/2009/01/high-rep-snatch-training-overview.html

this may help as a place to start

Not everyone will head towards 100+ reps of 24kg or 32kg snatches, as Valery was doing above. But any Crossfitter(male) can do 50 reps with a 24kg. That means you can do 100 with the 16kg without hurting yourself, and that’s a great way to replace 1000m row if you don’t have a rower, or 800m run if you’re smart enough to hate running. If you don’t know how to run, don’t have shoes and don’t have a good surface to run on, it’s not smart! Sub the KBs!