Dear Readers,

My very good friend Master Paul Greenhill wanted me to share some insights on this subject. The timing couldn’t be better as I have been spending this week competing at the European Championships in Lisbon Portugal. While on this trip I have been discussing some of the main points author of the book “Outliers: The Story of Success” Malcolm Gladwell makes about why certain individuals become successful with coach and mentor Julius Park.

I won’t go into details but you may want to check his site for more on this subject : http://www.baltimorebrazilianjiujitsu.com/ you can find very insightful information there and he promised me he will write more in depth about this subject. Today I will write about my own personal experience with the hope that it can help others.

There are certain ingredients that a person needs to become successful:

1. Drive/Passion/Perseverance/Will Power: and a similar of character traits that are found within a person.

2. Intelligence/Decisions/Common Sense/Logic: and a bunch of intellectual traits found in the athlete that will help him maximize the resources around him to  the best extent possible.

3. Circumstances/Resources/Mentors: and real world situation based advantages that a person could obtain over his/her opponents.

I personally believe that to make it as an athlete in any sport you need at least 2 of the 3 ingredients above. Why? When I analyze all the possibilities:  (1&2), (1&3), and (2&3) assuming that they had extreme advantages in those 2 areas I can find a way in which the athlete can overcome the lack of an advantage in another area. For Example:

Case  (1&2) : A hard working individual , training hard, and studying matches, and saving money to buy each years matches of the world championships to be able to research the best moves can make it to the top. I know one person that did this and came up with a system that anyone can do an achieve similiar results. His name is Lloyd Irvin.

Pros.: The student will arrive at a huge understanding of the art that will allow him to become an exceptional teacher.

Cons: The lack of a mentor or good instructor will waste much time in reinventing the wheel and it will be a close race to accomplish certain athlete oriented goals as the lack of time is always a constraint.

Case (1& 3): Is probably the best scenario for a coach that wants to develop the best athlete if he had to pick from the 3 cases. Why because he will listen to the coach like an android. Sometimes athletes that have their IQ’s a bit higher but not high enough to understand that more gains can be obtained by behaving like an android rather that questioning and challenging proven methods will lose the interest of the coach and their own time asking questions instead of learning the basics well. No great coach will waste time with non-believers and doubter versus those that are true followers of the system.

Pros. Athlete will get really good really fast at alarming speeds.

Cons. Bad decision making can eventually put him in deep debts, or other life factors that can jeopardize his athletic career and training. Because everything has been almost spoon fed by the coaches, these group of athletes might experience difficulty later on becoming a successful coach themselves. A lot of coaching is troubleshooting, understanding and relating to what your students are going through.

Case  (2&3) : Extreme Intelligence with great resources can lead to deep understanding of the subject. Which means corners can be cut and tricks and gimmicks can be developed to achieve success at high levels of the sport, specially in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in which strategy plays a huge role.

Pros: The deep understanding of certain areas of the art can lead to big success at any single level.

Cons: It is usually short lived as hard work will overcome talent as talent refuses to work hard. In other words the weakness of this type of athlete is arrogance and believing that they know more than they know, and that they have a superior understanding that does not require  hard work in areas like conditioning, drilling, etc…

My Personal Approach

I will tell you that I try to improve in all of the 3 ingredients mentioned above at all times. It is essential to improve on those three  areas. It is important that as athlete you believe that you are destined to do big things. That your will power can overcome anything, and that circumstances are the creatures of man , and not the other way around.

When I opened Third Law BJJ I did it out of necessity. I was a young purple belt , very naive about what it takes to win at the highest level in the sport. I thought it was way easier than what it is. Anyways I started my school and soon I found myself lacking ingredient  #3.  I studied instructionals, matches, drilled, trained multiple times a day and I did surpass many peers with better circumstances than me. Nevertheless there those who had all of the ingredients. Even though I thought I was harder working and smarter than them, I could not overcome the mix of their good enough will power, good enough common sense and logical thinking power and great resources.  Once you view your situation  this way is very easy to really understand what is going on. It can also be intimidating when you know some of the people you compete against are training with Multiple World Champions.

Nevertheless the answer to my problem was always the same: “work harder and smarter than everyone else by doing things more efficiently while at the same time trying to make the resources around you better.” Therefore I started to develop a good team in Naples, FL . As my students get better so did I, but this was too slow of a process and sometimes students quit , determination drops leaving you short from training partners. So this alone was not alone.

Then I tried competing a lot to make up for the difference but then I couldn’t do this while leaving the school behind without falling apart. That’s when I realize that my success dependent on having a functional automated business for my martial arts school. As I started to accomplish this things became easier as  had  more money to  travel and compete and visit my mentors. This is where I am at currently, constantly improving on all of the 3 ingredients, but specially on number 3.

The funny thing is that ingredient 3 teaches me how to become more efficient in the other areas. It is a never ending cycle.

I want to end this article by saying that an athlete above all things must believe in the power of the human mind and will power and the ability of humans to overcome obstacles regardless of how big they may seem from the distance. It is true that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, and that is the journey where the true prize lies, and not the destinations ( titles , gold medals, etc..). It is in the journey that you will learn the most about yourself, character, discipline, honor , and self- improvement.

Sincerely,

Roberto Torralbas

The BJJEngineer

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Ok so before I begin I will tell you that it was not my best tournament. My first match started with me being a little bit nervous. I had to catch myself from over-gripping in unnecessary situations…which was a sign of improvement in my BJJ because I have never caught myself paying attention to this in a tournament. I was very slow in applying the techniqueshat t I am very comfortable in the roomh wit. Nevertheless I manage to win my first fight 6-0 with two very close attempts to choking from the back.

My second fight was a little bit tougher… The guy didn’t want to attack from the feet and wasn’t easy to take down, therefore I pulled Open Guard. I went from Margarida Guard -> to De La Riva Guard -> to Deep Halfguard-> To Back take from Halfguard -> Single Leg.

I finish the sweep/take-down to win 2-0. A lot of the match was spent me trying to take his back and him defending with a bit of a wild ending as the opponent tried to get on the board with a minute remaining.

My third match was one that I will never forget vs. Bruno Concalves. That’s because I lost a judges decision I thought I definitely won. Even the other competitor thought he lost. Pretty much he pulled and manage to sweep from a Quater Guard. I went to close guard then had a Triangle attempt-> to Omaplata- >to De La Riva- to Margarida Sweep.

So I swept him and the score is 2-2 (0-0). I am attempting to pass he is defending. At the end of the match I manage to get to the other side and get his legs folded. Time ran out and I could had swear that if there was any doubt of me being able to fold his legs would had closed the deal. Nevertheless the referee surprised me…An important lesson from this match is not to leave the decision in the referees hand. This was to go onto the semifinals and if I had gotten the decision I would had at the very least gotten a bronze medal at the Europeans.

I will post the match here to hear your opinions on this referee decision.

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When I started my school I was a purple belt. About 1 year old purple belt with some championships under my belt.  Nevertheless I had many students that resisted learning from me because I was not a “BLACK BELT”.  That did not stop me from believing in the encouragement my instructors gave me and from following the example of Julius Park who successfully has build and empire at Crazy 88 BJJ in Baltimore, MD a school he started also as a purple belt.

Brown Belts will come to my school, Black Belts and even Blue Belts would come and train with me and some of my white belts that would really give them a lesson on “standards” ( I don’t want to brag, I try to keep it as humble as possible, but we need to speak the truth in here), but there was an issue training under a purple belt.

I COULD CARE LESS. I went on building my White Belts and eventually they became White Belt Champions , then Blue Belts and Blue Belts Champions, and now school Coaches. I am also very proud to say I have an amazing coaches. The truth of the matter is:

Smart Followers follows Smart Leaders to become Smart Leaders one day themselves. The truth is if a student can’t see technique and only train under a certain guy because of a piece of cloth tainted black…then you probably don’t want him anyways.

Now that I have Blue Belt Coaches and work close with them to make them the best coaches in the worlds I decided to write about all the things a Blue Belt Coach can do to make better students than a Black Belt instructor. IMPORTANT NOTE: The Blue Belt Coach  must have a desire form improving his technique day in and day out and lead by example. He mus train twice as hard as his students, have determination of gold, maturity, humility, and pass on unselfishly everything he learns without exception and believe that its all a TEAM EFFORT.

Instructors and Coaches Bible ( A method use by http://www.TeamThirdLaw.com). 25 Tips for Successful Teaching

1. Remember everyone name
2. Call fellow Instructors Coach.
3. Address your students as sir  or mam.if they come up to you and say hey,  correct them nicely : “No sir its Coach _____”.
4. When the student is doing good in class call them by there last name.
5. Proper match-ups in grappling matches
6. Identify everybody in class
7. If there is any problem with a student pulling aside and fix the problem.(I’m here to help you)
8. Remember school founded to help everybody improve
9. Do not leave a mess after, clean the school, so its clean when you start.
10. Say “Ouss” after every technique and get the students pumped for drilling
11. On top of that  say : “All right guys on 3. One, Two, Three Clap.  This  gets the students more involved in the class and pumped for training.
12. Other techniques: “When I say GOT IT you say GOT IT and I say  GOOD!  GOT IT! GOT IT! GOOD.”Another way to get them more involved.
13. Be “Exciting” on the beginning of CLASS. “Today I will teach the best class of my life”
14. A.B.P ( Always Be Promoting) the news at school (competition results, events).Tell students about announcements in the school in the beginning of every class.
15. Be friendly!
16. Are you asking the students questions, keep them awake keep them engaged. Ask question around class to make sure they are paying attention to the details of the technique.
17. When someone asks you how is your day  say : “I am having a fanstastic day!” Always remain enthusiastic, positive because it rubs off on your students and pre-frames a great class. Awesome day never a bad day or a long day.
18. No cursing
19. Beware of non verbal communication :Words are 7% ,Tone of voice is 38% , Body language is 55% of how humans communicate. Therefore Smile  A LOT!
20. Facial expressions are most important
21. Use hand motions. i.e “tom Cruise in a Few Good Men”
22. When explaining technique give a history. This ismy favorite technique, or i used this technique when I ____.
23. SPOTLIGHT.Pick a student and say “everybody stop and watch______. he/she is doing this perfect.  give them a 123 clap. Make sure to give honest PRAISE.
24. Don’t ever praise falsely. Your word is everything to your students.
25. Incorporate games with class.

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Let me give you the inside scoop on how it all happened. I have been in  GOAL ACHIEVING mode. I have been writting about it all over the place. I even started a website dedicated to achieving goals; www.GoGetterLifestyle.com ,but not only that  I wanted to demosntrate to my students that writting goals down and goin over them daily turns them into reality. Here are my goals: http://www.gogetterlifestyle.com/?page_id=10. I am still working on even streamlining the planning.

So one day in class I decided to go CRAZY, and I asked my most gogetting student what was something that he wanted to do before he died. Joey Ruggiero, of italian heritage, said he wanted to go to italy. I made things a bit more exciting by telling the class we will do this within three months of his announcement and that this had just become one of my goals in my BUCKET LIST. Anyways here is a funny video of Joey:

Personally I thought it would be cool to grapple inside the coloseum ( a modern gladiator fight…lol). I also

I also thought it would be cool if we did some training down tehre check a school out or a tournament I would like to visit Naples, Italy since we are from Naples, FL . I thought it would be cool. I can be a nerd at times !  But for the most part I am just going to play tourist and let Joey decide the fine dining.  Here is what he has planned so far lol:

JOEY’s PLANS

Italy Trip

In January, Roberto Torralbas put Joey Ruggiero (me) on the spot in front of class and asked him what he wanted to do before he died and I said go to Italy… So instead of waiting forever to get something like this done and then maybe never get it done Roberto pushed me to achieve this in three months. So In March me and Roberto will be going to Italy to be able to check that off my my bucket list.

Now that you know the background of where this story is coming from I want to share with you some of the places we are going to be visiting on this awesome trip…

On the top of the list is the Colosseum a place where gladiators fought and many events were help a super important stop on the trip. Were also going to see if they’ll let us grapple inside the Colosseum. Making sure to represent Team Third Law BJJ in Italy very well. Leading us to the next stop on our trip being.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="City of Rome"][/caption]

The city of Rome has a HUGE amount of things that you can do but mainly has some of the nicest spots to eat ever. Then after seeing all that rome has to offer, maybe visit some of the museums to see some of the sculptures, just try to see as much as possible.

These are just some of the things that we plan on doing when we get to Italy doing as much as we can as fast as we can because time is limited. More ideas on plans for Italy and PLEASE!! leave in the COMMENTS some ideas that you may have for us on things to do.

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So Hopefully you read: Improve Your BJJ While Driving http://bjjengineer.com/?p=343. Well while at the gyms laughing about it, and discussing how important is to with a busy day make things automatically and efficient we thought of other places when one person can improve BJJ while doing other daily activities. We add it this one.

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Today I had an epiphany.  I had my good friend Mike Atkins from Crazy 88 BJJ and MMA of Baltimore, MD visiting. We where hanging out and doing some errands. I am currently in the habit of running 7 minutes every morning before breakfast ( breakfast becomes the reward). So I started my day with Mike Atkins:

-Running 7 minutes ( to accelerate the metabolism)

-Then I ran to throw the trash right after , and did some high knees because i was feeling energetic.

- We went for a ride and had to stop at CVS and I ran in and out to grab a memory card.

-Then we stopped at my condo and I ran up and down the stairs a couple of time to get ourselves going back on the road…

The Mike Atkins said…: “Roberto I can keep up with you , you run everywhere”

I wasn’t running because I wanted an extra workout, but I have so many challenges with my coaches to complete that I have to squeeze everything in a day. I also have to stay in chape for competition. Nevertheless when Mike said that I realize that running small distances is very doable. Back in the day we used to walk now everyone rides a car. Therefore walking and running which are essential exercises for everyone is harder to do.

I am all bout simplifying things, setting systems, and rules to make my life more efficient, to make my jiu-jitsu better. Here is a a new rule I think we should all adopt:

Running Rule: Athletes run every time they can instead of walking. They don’t go up the stairs they sprint. Use every opportunity  you have to get a good sprint. Obviously use common sense, but don’t let the fact that others will look at you weird like if you where crazy keep you form doing it. Being normal and average is not a good thing. You wnat to be crazy and exceptional as an athlete.

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My friend Marcos Avellan from Team FFA in Miami send a newsletter out where he released 12 goals for 2010. Here are his goals:

1. Fight and Win 3 MMA fights
2. Release two unique instructional DVD sets (one MMA instructional and another business instructional)
3. Reach 200 students in my new Davie gym
   
4. Start an After-School Program in my Miami gym and establish at least 30 kids
5. Coach three fighters in the UFC, WEC, or Strikeforce under the FFA flag.
6. Set up at least 20 fights for my team this year and finish with at least 18 wins (we did this in 2007)
7. Promote a new black belt, two new brown belts, five new purple belts, and ten new blue belts.
8. Write a book
9. Release an audio CD
   
10. Get 50 paying members for my new online MMA video site
11. Get four new members to my exclusive Masters Club
12. Graduate 20 new students into our Instructor Program

At the end of this year I will come back to this list and see how well he did. I decided to make this more exciting and put more challenging goals out there:

1. Fight and Win 1 MMA fights, and receive 3 International BJJ Medals
2. Release three unique instructional DVD sets
3. Reach 350-400 students at my school in Naples
4. Start an After-School Program in my Naples gym and establish at least 15  kids ( he got me on that one lol )
5. Bring Home 3 International Medals from my students
6. Visit Lloyd Irvin to train 12 times this year and travel 3 times to Brazil
7. Become European, Panamerican, World Champion and Brasilero Champion.
8. Write a book
9. Release 2 audio CDs
10. Get 51 paying members for my new online BJJ video site
11. Double the gym space of my school
12. Start my instructors program and double the number of instructors at the school

Ok so its kind of hard to keep this similar since there are somethings that we both are shooting for that are a bit different, but I thought I kept it competitive.  I am going to publicly make it more exciting by putting a:

$1000 Dollar Challenge

Now let me tell you a little secret about Marcos…He has way more resources than me and should be able to kick my butt easily in this contest, but I am putting the money anyways..Why? Because the way I see it is:

• If he gets all this done more than me… I will be happy for him and I should get him a gift
• If I beat him he should be embarrassed and pay me  JK
• $1000 dollars is only $83.33 dollars a month, that will serve as the best reminder ever

We will both benefit. Whether he PUBLICLY accepts my challenge or not I will still do it. The rules are :

Rules: Who ever achieves more goals out of the 12, wins. VIDEO PROOF MUST BE PROVIDED

Now how about you guys FOLLOW along with me in this awesome journey and write down your goals!

You can add more goals along the way, but go ahead and  send a comment  with 5 goals you have for 2010.  Why ? Couldn’t you just write them down in a personal journal?  First of all, by commenting them in here, you are writing it down, which is a form of commitment… and second, by declaring this publicly to me, you are definitely committing yourself even more!  By talking the talk, now you will have a pressure to back it up!( Marcos I know I copied that paragraph but it sounded good ) Look what I learned from Marcos today:

“Famous inventor Thomas Edison (inventor of the light bulb) was known to make public press releases on new great inventions before they were invented!  For instance, if he thought of a new gizmo, he would announce that the gizmo will be released any day now… and THEN would begin trying to design the gizmo!  He would do these public announcements to put himself on the spot so that he would have no choice but to deliver on his word.” -Marcos Avellan wrote on an email

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All my life I have been addicted to BJJ, and anything that involves self improvement. I started reading books like “The Automatic Millionaire” or “The Millionaire Mind” or “The Millionaire Next Door” or “The Effective Executive” or well you get my point. Then when I realized that they make most of these books on audio tapes I started listening to them every time I could.

Not too long ago I started to take trips to Miami to train with friend Marcos Avellan of team FFA. He let me borrowed some audio books and CDs and then I discovered my car had 6 CD Disc Changer lol. I put 6 cds of the 8 of the famous book “Think and Grow Rich” and everything was great, every time I sat on the car I would listen to pieces but made sure I  really absorb it. Nevertheless because there where 8 CDs and I had 6 CD disk changer when it was time to change the CDs to put the last two it will really stop and affect  the learning flow of the material. It will take me a day or two to do such a simple action.
Master Lloyd Irvin has over and over told me about the importance of making things automatic, and this is a perfect example. It may sound silly but I am turning my driving time into BJJ and Self-Improvement time and I suggest you do the same. Did you know that:

“The average person spends about 2.5 or 3 hours per day driving”

or that in a lifetime:

“The average person spends ten years driving”

If you don’t believe me Google it. It sounded about right for me. Send me a comment and let me know in a week how much time you spend driving per day?

How would you like to turn that into incredible productivity.

I have already contacted an Audio Shop to put a crazy LCD to watch JT Torres all day long doing back takes as well as other BJJ starts to pick up a thing or two. Every little effort adds up my friends. I asked the shop to find me the biggest DVD/CD changer they make and make sure i have a way to plug hard drives and USB Flash Drives. I’ll show you the pictures once is done.

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Make sure you read part 1 here:   Invisible Jiu-Jitsu http://bjjengineer.com/?p=341

I wasn’t even planning about writing about this subject a second part, but I ran across some interesting articles I want it to share with you from: http://elementsfitness.blogspot.com/2009/01/invisible-jiu-jitsu.html

Invisible Jiu Jitsu

In a recent interview Rickson Gracie let it be known that he has returned to Brazil to live and has begun conducting a series of seminars which focus on what he calls “Invisible Jiu Jitsu.” This is, as far as I can tell, the first extended interview Rickson has given in over 3 years and while many topics were covered, the concept Invisible Jiu Jitsu is what truly captured my attention.

For those of you who have been living under a rock for the past ten years, Rickson is the son of Helio Gracie, he holds a 7th degree black belt in BJJ and has a rumoured 400 + combined wins in Jiu Jitsu, Wrestling, Sambo and Vale Tudo matches. He held the middle weight and open weight World Jiu Jitsu titles for two decades and also has a professional Mixed Martial Arts record of 11-0. He is regarded as a legend in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu circles and is often held up to be the epitome of technical skill and fighting spirit.

Invisible Jiu Jitsu was only lightly touched upon during the interview but, as far as I understand it, I took Rickson to mean that the most important parts of Jiu Jitsu are the bits you can’t see. There are, I think, three main categories that Invisible Jiu Jitsu covers:

1. Things about you that you can’t see.
2. Things about your opponent that you can’t see.
3. Things about your technique that you can’t see.

Things About You That You Can’t See
Balance and leverage are things that cannot be seen but play a vital role in the successful execution of any technique. Being balanced is a fundamental part of grappling – or fighting in general for that matter – and being the slightest bit unbalanced dramatically increases the amount of effort required to perform any technique and leaves you disproportionally vulnerable to your opponent’s attacks. Leverage is what makes Jiu Jitsu work; the greater your leverage the more effective your Jiu Jitsu. Your use of leverage determines how well you can control and attack your opponents limbs, the amount of strength needed to execute a technique and whether or not you will able to defeat a larger, stronger opponent.

Things About Your Opponent You Can’t See
‘Feeling’ is an important aspect of BJJ in a number of ways. The most straight forward application of ‘feeling’ is that you are frequently unable to see what your opponent is doing – Are they blocking my hip? Are their legs flat? Is their chin tucked? – and must work out what’s going on purely by feel. An application of ‘feeling’ that is considered less often, but is no less important, is determining the state of your opponent. Working out whether they are tense or relaxed, balanced or unstable, even where they are strong and weak can only be done by ‘feeling’ your opponent (not like that you gutter snipe).

Things About Your Technique You Can’t See
The single biggest factor that holds back your technique development is the mistake that you don’t know you are making. This problem – termed ‘unconscious ignorance’ in skill acquisition terms – is best remedied by listening to what your coach says you are doing wrong then – and this is where most people fail – actually doing what they say. If you are convinced that despite what your coach says you are in fact doing the right thing tell them your reasons and if your coach knows their stuff they should be able to explain why you should do it their way. If they can’t, don’t just assume that you’re right, do some research and bloody well find out for certain.

There you go; a brief explanation of my understanding of the main concepts of Invisible Jiu Jitsu. I hope you understand that this article is made up of my thoughts and my words, not Rickson Gracie’s. Rickson, through both an unwillingness to discuss the finer points of his ideas in such a public forum and due to language difficulties, is a little unclear on what exactly Invisible Jiu Jitsu is. That being the case I think it is best to leave you with something that is not an interpretation or an extrapolation but with something that is all Rickson.

“It is only with a lot of training and dedication that we can achieve something. A brave man, a real fighter is not measured by how many times he fall, but how many times he stand up. Always be ready to fight, to win and to forgive when necessary. Good luck and train hard!”
- Rickson Gracie.

If you wish to hear the interview with Rickson you can find it here.

By the way probably the best Grappler in the world right at the time of this writing is Braulio Estima. He has also decided to talk about this subject. Here are some of the videos he has released under the name “Invisible Jiu-Jitsu”

Videos:

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Last night I was having a late dinner with Coach Julius at the Double T Dinner in Baltimore, MD. It has become a tradition, last training session of the trip from 10:30 pm to who knows when followed by the late dinner discussion about where BJJ is going and sharing thoughts.

In our conversation we started talking about how everything for both of us has changed now that we are upper belts. How back in the day it was so simple.. just watch instructionals, but now there are no instructionals for what we need, only Master Lloyd Irvin seems to have the answers to many of our BJJ problem and capable of enlightening us when time becomes available, but when he is not around its hours and hours watching tape, and competition footage trying to zoom in on elbows and knees and figure out the details like a Sherlock Holmes epsiode. Hours spent studying for just a tiny detail.

So much is part of Jiu-Jitsu: Fundamentals, Techniques, Strategies, Positional Advantage, Conditioning, etc…Its a crazy system.

We then spoke about the legendary  Rickson Gracie. There is a myth out there that says that Rickson Gracie was interviewed and asked why doesn’t he ever release an instructional DVD set. His answer was that the real Jiu-Jitsu can be taught by instructionals that it is very incomplete, that it has to be taught person to person. We both agree on this subject. There are so many details, so many things to learn. Maybe one day things will change with the evolution of technology, but for now there is no instructional DVD that teaches what I teach my students at Third Law BJJ of Naples, FL in the most advance classes. It may look like a simple comment or remark but in reality there are details that are being transferred in in this causal conversation.

I had the same realization yesterday when Lloyd Irvin taught me a very important aspect of BJJ I had never understood before and I don’t know how many years wit would had taken me to study it on my own, and have if ever figured it out.

I will be releasing some videos categorized as Invisible BJJ in the near future. Just to give you a better idea of what I am trying to explain.

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