Today I want to write about a theme in many boxing movies. The best boxer in the world who came out of the the worst part of town and now is comfortable in his new mansion. He doesn’t run to the gym any longer, now he drives his Bentley.

He doesn’t sleep in the same room with his older brother and mom and pops arguing on the background. Now he sleeps in a king bed with an 62″ LCD TV hanging from the wall that plays commentator talking about his next fight with a new up-incomer fighter. He looks at his opponent and something looks familiar. He reminds him of him 5 years ago. You know how the story goes and ends.

As we get better in the sport it is super important to keep the fire burning. An easy way to take out the fire is to surround yourself with too many luxuries and comforts that where not there before. It is very important that throughout your Jiu-Jitsu career.

Having too many options , having to much too lose can be such a hard obstacle  to overcome for some athletes. The athlete that feels that he/she has only but one way to survive in life in a way has burn all the bridges and there is only now one direction to move on towards his/her goals…FORWARD!  Its like having a gun to the head.

So what to do?… SIMPLE … Start donating to charity everything you have.

Just kidding.

I personally believe that you just have to be aware of the situation and be disciplined. I like to reward myself after accomplishing training goals. It can be something big or small like:

1. After winning a major tournament I like to eat and drink like a pig.
2. I won’t travel or take a vacation until I achieve a major competition goal .
3. I make crazy challenges with coaches to motivate me ( Like if I don’t do this every day I’ll pay yo $500, attn: you have to make the bet big for this to work)
4. I remind myself of what it was to have nothing at one point in my life over and over again until I am  paranoid of ever being back there.
5. I think of my competition training when I ma getting lazy or inefficient, and I get back on the fast track.
6. I compete regularly and I don’t miss a major tournament.

These are some of the ways I use of the top of my head to keep the fire burning. I also have coaches that know how to push my buttons. I am the type of athlete that works hardest when he is told that he “CAN’T ” do something. I like to prove myself.

One thing that I really want to start implementing is to write my goals daily to help my mental training and record them in my subconscious. Make sure you read: (Goals for Athletes http://bjjengineer.com/?p=328)

In a previous article It is not all about jiu-jitsu (http://bjjengineer.com/?p=333) I talked a little bit about the importance of not giving up. There is a book out there that I really recommend everyone to read it. It is a masterpiece. Napoleon Hill’s “Think and Grow Reach” teaches you what is necessary to become a successful person in any area you desire. It is directed more towards a business oriented crowd, but it is mentioned in the beginning of the book that many people have had success by following it in many different areas of their lives.

Today I want to share one of the stories form this great book: 3 Feet From Gold. It is a true story so read carefully:

“During the Gold Rush Days a man was caught by Gold Fever and he west of Colorado to dig and grow rich.  He had never heard that more man has been mined from the thoughts of man that has ever been taking from the earth. He stayed to claim and went to work with pick and shovel. After weeks of labor he was rewarder by the discovery of the shining ore. He needed machinery to bring the ore to the surface. Quietly he covered up the mine and return to his home in Williamsburg, Maryland. He told and a few neigbohrs about his discovery.  They got together the money for the machinery and got it shipped. They first piece of ore was mined ans shipped to a smelter, the returns proved they had one of the richest mine in Colorado. A few more pieces of that ore will clear their debts, then will come the big killings in profit.  Down when the drills, up when the hopes of the man…then something happened…the vein of gold ore dissaperead. They had come to the end of the rainbow and the pot of gold was no longer there. They drilled on desperately trying to pick up the vein again, all to no avail. Finally they decided to quit. They sold the machinery to a junk man for a few hundred dollars and took the train back home. The junkman called in a mining engineer, to look at the mind and do a little calculating. The engineer advised that the project had failed because the main was not familiar with fault lines. His calculations showed that the vein would be found just 3 feet  from where the man had stopped drilling. And that is exactly where it was found. The junkman took millions of dollars of ore from the mine just because he new to seek expert council before giving up”

The story goes on to explain that the man had a nephew that was helping him with the drilling. He goes on to become extremely successful as he discovered  that desire and ideas can be turned into gold as long as he never quits. Never stop 3 feet away from striking gold!

I thought this was a great story that all athletes can learn from.  In our BJJ ( Brazilian Jiu-jitsu), and/or MMA ( Mixed Martial Arts

Roberto Torralbas

The BJJEngineer

Here is a quick chart I did to see how the intensity of my training, standards, and competitive drive has increased through out the years.  Check it out:

It is my opinion that the better we get at BJJ the more we should compete …and not the other way around. Unfortunately this doesn’t seem to be the case for most practitioners and here are some reasons or excuses why this has happened.

Reasons for not competing.

• Lack of money (can be fixed)
• Injuries ( sometimes the biggest lie and excuse out there )
• Job has the person tight down (can be fixed)
• Family requires too much time (can be fixed)
• Loss of Motivation / Depression (can be fixed)
• Loss of Skill (rarely admitted) (can be fixed)
• Too Hard to Come Back to the Level once achieved and the road back is too spiritually crushing ( an ego problem) (can be fixed)
• Belt Color does not match skill level of competition/ Bad Promotions ( a huge reason at purple , brown and black) (can be fixed…but difficult)

And many more…but I want to focus on the last one. There is a huge jump from blue belt to purple belt in international ( IBJJF) level competition and if you don’t have the skill you will take a lot of losses just to become competitive at purple belt. Usually if the instructor promoted the person without realizing this and will be likely to promote  too early (for lack of better word) at the later belts as well; the problem becomes even bigger and almost impossible to fix by then.

My recommendation to new competitors out there is to set a goal of competing every year more and achieving more championships every year. Also try to double or triple your championships from Belt Level To Belt Level. At the very least we should have one more championship per belt level!

For Example less use the “tripling” concept:

White: 1, Blue: 3, Purple:9: Brown: 27: Black: 81

Example of the “doubling” concept:

White: 1, Blue: 2, Purple: 4 Brown: 8: Black: 16

Example of the “plus 1″ concept:

White: 1, Blue: 2, Purple: 3 Brown: 4: Black: 5

MUCH, MUCH, MUCH better than:

White:  16, Blue: 8, Purple:4  Brown: 2: Black: 1

I will like to hear the stats of some competitors out there…Please leave your comments below

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  that resisted learning from me because I was not a “BLACK BELT”.  Now and days I am a brown belt with higher credentials as a teacher and athlete  than most black belts in the country, and now and again I still hear the nonsense but he  not a “BLACK BELT”. I don’t say this to brag but to illustrate how clueless people can be about the topic at hand.  Nevertheless that did not stop me from believing in the encouragement my instructors gave me( Example 1-):Julius Park mentor and instructor  successfully has built and empire at Crazy 88 BJJ in Baltimore, MD a school he started also as a purple belt. Example 2-) Mentor and instructor Lloyd Irvin started his school as a blue belt and if you havent heard of him you probably living under a rock ).

How did I deal with this annoyance?

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, Blue Belt International 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

Now that I have Blue Belt Coaches and work close with them to make them the best coaches in the world 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 for 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 it’s 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 their 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 fantastic 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 is my 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
26. NEVER FORGET THIS LESSONS WHEN YOU BECOME A BLACK BELT DON’T GET LAZY!

Dear Readers,

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 get over his/her opponents.

I 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 person , 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.

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 carry out 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. Because everything has been almost spoon fed by the coaches, these group of athletes might experience difficulty later becoming a successful coach themselves. A lot of coaching is troubleshooting, understanding and about 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 need  hard work in areas like conditioning, drilling, etc…

My Personal Approach

I will tell you that I try to improve in all the 3 ingredients mentioned above . 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 naïve 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 instructional videos , matches, drilled, trained multiple times a day and I did surpass many peers with better circumstances than me. Nevertheless there those who had all 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 carry out this things became easier as  had  more money to  travel and compete and visit my mentors. This is where I am at now, 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 that humans have 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

2010 European Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Championships

Ok so before I begin I will tell you that it was not my best tournament. My first match started with me being a 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 techniques that I am very comfortable in the room with. Nevertheless I manage to win my first fight 6-0 with two very close attempts to choking from the back.

Roberto Torralbas - Third Match of the European Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Championships 2010

My second fight was a 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. I spent  a lot of the match 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 judge’s 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 sworn 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  to 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.

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.

City of Rome

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.