Chapter 39 – “Handicap” Training for the Ground
In the mind of Rickson Gracie, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is not about winning trophies or tournaments but rather functional self-defense for the street. His brothers and contemporaries were and are calibrated differently. They enjoy friendly competition, etc… Rickson, however is wired differently, and like myself, the art is out of practicality. Speaking of practicality… one thing that we know in a street fight is that there are no weight classes. How this fact empirically translates into functional self-defense implies that in any position we are “handicapped”. Simply put… in 98% of Rickson’ 400 fights he was out weighed by 40 lbs or more. And therefore Rickson more so than most people in Brazil at the time was known for being David, of David and Goliath.
His legion of black belt students were notoriously known to be meticulous. They were all there for the subtle “nuances” between Rickson and the rest of the world. These were the nuances that enabled he and his coderay of students to all fight outside of their weight class. And the very diamonds that I spent 6 and a half years under the man collecting. I personally have taken these collection of gems, prioritized, collated, organized, defined, and eventually taught them. And the best vunakular that I can come up with is the word Handicapped. So what I am about to do is share with you some of his gems that again I classify as handicapped training.
Step 1 – Put your training partner in your guard and spend the next hour fighting him from the guard. If he passes your guard, do not keep training. Instantly and seamlessly go back to the guard. The person on the bottom, look for your triangles, look for your sweeps, bust all of your moves, relax, and enjoy yourself. Oh Yeah… I forgot one thing, you don’t get to use your arms.
(If you think it is demoralizing getting beaten by your teacher in the first 10 seconds of training, try getting beaten in the first ten seconds of training and looking over and he is not even using his arms.)
Step 2 – Go cross side on your opponent, the person on top is doing the training. The person on top is getting handicapped, your goal is to keep your partner pinned to the ground and of course the catch 22 is you will have your hands behind your back. If your partner pulls you into the guard or oopas you off of him, start over. When one has spend a full hour keeping someone pinned to the ground, without the use of their arms they are turbo charging their attributes and will find it exponentially easier once they can eventually use their arms again. (Not to mention their teeth).
In conclusion it is important that you understand the catalyst that makes this training method of Rickson’s eventually harden and internalize is flight time. Flight time is not ambiguous, not vague, not esoteric. (When you tell somebody you have studied 20 years, is that an hour a day, a week or a month). Flight time can be measured, quantified, and defined in an empirical schedule. So here it goes… 50 hours gets you your handicapped Blue belt. 100 hours gets you your handicapped Purple Belt. 150 hours gets you your handicapped brown belt. 200 hours and presto converto, you are a handicapped Black Belt. Now get to work !
Please check the Table of Contents for links to other chapters of this Online Book.
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