Leaderboard

So I've been training bjj for sometime now and early into my blue belt I had a light bulb moment that took my guard game from a level that felt terrible to a level that got me thinking "I'm not so bad at this." As dumb as this is going to sound, that light bulb moment was when I realized that I didn't have to play guard if I didn't want to. I didn't have to stay stuck under my opponent or try for sweeps and submissions. I could if I wanted to go another route and just disengage, find a way out and get back to my feet. As ridiculous as that sounds I suddenly found myself with a whole other world of options and suddenly my game flourished (at least my bottom game). Well now that I'm venturing into muay thai I'd really like to hear from everyone else about their "light bulb" moments within this sport. I'm not looking to sidestep the hard work involved in getting good at muay thai, but if I can avoid even one pitfall because someone gave me some advice, than the question would have served it's purpose. But yeah, anyway what's your "light bulb" moment, was it a concept? a technique? a tweak in your technique? a change to your training regimen or recovery regimen perhaps? Anything at all, if you felt it helped and could be of use to someone else at any stage of their muay thai development I'd really like to hear about it, even if it seems small and insignificant like in my story. Thanks. Also just wanted to say to sylvie and kevin, really love the content, the muay thai library is awesome and I think I might be addicted to watching your fights with commentary, it's awesome to hear your thoughts about the fights I feel like I gain a whole new level of insight watching those.

This isn't ridiculous at all, in fact it's something I'm trying to get Sylvie to realize to get her clinch to the next level. It's not the exact same realization, but related. One of Sylvie's biggest opponents is the ref. If in clinch you get to a stagnant position, especially for her, the ref will come and break. Upon break her actual opponent, who's game is to simply nullify the clinch, wins a very small style point...because she has reached a point of no progress for her. If Sylvie, who is usually relentlessly pursuing clinch and lock would push off, and disengage, attack, and then reengage, she would be triply hard to handle. She would be the one in control over when clinch is happening. On her terms. I write this in some sympathy because I think there are lots of habits like this, like the one you describe. If you are a clinch fighter you are supposed to be pursuing clinch at all (most) times. It feels counter intuitive to build in disengagements. But, disengagements will make you all the more exhausting as a fighter. Your opponent loses the chance to call on the ref to signal a moment of control. I don't know much about BJJ, but it sounds like a similar realization.

Three more vlogged entries in the experiment: