"light bulb" moments

[Jeffo]

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. 

[Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu]

On 8/30/2020 at 1:43 PM, Jeffo said:

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). 

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. 

[Jeffo]

Yeah that's interesting, I can definitely see the parallels, funny but I guess I never even thought about the idea of disengaging in a muay thai setting.  That's something I have to remind myself I tend to sit in that range where I can get punched and kicked constantly, if I were to literally take two steps back that would force my opponent to close that distance if they want to hit me. 

You're definitely right about the ref's being one of sylvie's biggest opponents lol, watching some of her fights can annoy me because she often gives up a weight advantage, and an experience advantage (at least in terms of years having trained), and I know sylvie would never dwell on that stuff, but then you get a ref who completely seems to favor the opponent by not allowing sylvie to do the thing that she excels in (the clinch), its like damn. 

but it really makes me appreciate the good refs, some do a great job of popping the fighters off the ropes and allowing the clinch to develop which is great because so much of muay thai is clinch work, and it's actually the thing that attracted me to muay thai in the first place.  As a bjj guy who felt comfortable in the clinch, it was humbling to get my ass kicked when clinching in muay thai class, but it was cool and now I'm excited to learn muay thai 

Thanks for the reply, hope to see a new muay thai bones soon, i'm just about through all of them and i need something good to listen to on my late night drives. As much as i enjoy joe rogan, i'd personally rather listen to you and sylvie discuss muay thai and orcas lol

[SHELL28]

I second that re Muay Thai bones

[LengLeng]

For me it was when someone told me the best advice he ever got was to simply stay on your feet when your partner tries to trip or sweep you in the clinch. I realized there's this moment of giving up like "damn he got me" before tripping/falling and you can actually choose not to give up and stay upright. It was a complete game-changer for me. Suddenly the boys had to work hard when trying to sweep me because I wasn't "helping" them. 

[Jeffo]

On 9/5/2020 at 9:26 PM, LengLeng said:

For me it was when someone told me the best advice he ever got was to simply stay on your feet when your partner tries to trip or sweep you in the clinch. I realized there's this moment of giving up like "damn he got me" before tripping/falling and you can actually choose not to give up and stay upright. It was a complete game-changer for me. Suddenly the boys had to work hard when trying to sweep me because I wasn't "helping" them. 

I totally get what you mean here, sometimes i do the same thing. the thing is there's kind of this line we tow in training. We don't want to go to easy because we're doing our partner a disservice by not allowing them a real look, but if we go to hard we do them a disservice by not allowing them a chance to really practice. 

on a side note, I also had another little moment watching a video in the muay thai library. One of the trainers says there's only three punches, straights, hooks, and uppercuts. While this isn't a big deal for most people, I'm still new and needed to hear this, it reminds me that hey just cause punches can come from all sorts of angles and at times look different, they really aren't.

Thanks for your input.

[LengLeng]

3 hours ago, Jeffo said:

on a side note, I also had another little moment watching a video in the muay thai library. One of the trainers says there's only three punches, straights, hooks, and uppercuts. While this isn't a big deal for most people, I'm still new and needed to hear this, it reminds me that hey just cause punches can come from all sorts of angles and at times look different, they really aren't.

This is really interesting. What about the overhand punch, is it basically a hook?

[Jeffo]

30 minutes ago, LengLeng said:

This is really interesting. What about the overhand punch, is it basically a hook?

Yeah, I'm pretty sure he just considers it a variation of the hook. If you want to check out the private with sylvie i'm pretty sure it's episode #44 with ponsaknoi sit chang. 

[Oliver]

First ever lightbulb moment? That running is everything. Everything.

[Jeffo]

20 hours ago, Oliver said:

First ever lightbulb moment? That running is everything. Everything.

I'm beginning to see this lol. Do you think this is a good thing? Even despite the years of doing athletics, running has always been kinda rough on my body and it gets harder as the years go by. I don't mind doing it but I look at someone like Valtellini who says he never really ran but did cardio in different ways. Granted he was a kickboxer, so a different sport, but he found pretty good success pretty quickly and if it wasn't for concussions may have had a long and successful career. I wish the thais were more into swimming for longevity purposes, but I totally understand why they run. Thanks for the input.

[Oliver]

Yeah not sure dude, never did any cycling or swimming and stuff ever, but yeah ppl say that's all very good too.

Am no expert or anything, just tend do what the trainer says and don't think about it. But yeah in recent years there's been loads of sciencey people and various athletes coming out saying running doesn't work, running is bad for you, overtraining etc etc. But... cannot reconcile that with personal training experience. When running a lot and regularly, everything else feels easier and smoother in training. 10k every morning, and another 4k later in afternoon.

When first starting out? Felt nothing but hatred for running. Thinking, "Wait a sec, if I knew how to run I wouldn't have learned how to fight, wtf yo...". Just kept my mouth shut and did it anyway cuz the trainer was scary and didn't wanna get in trouble. Then, after first 3 years, started to love it. Like, really really really fucking love running, and will keep doing it until the old man days.

This is just one guy's 2 cents, but now it feels like the biggest benefit isn't even the cardio. Obviously that's super important, not denying it's good for that. But even better than the endurance it gives, it improves my concentration throughout the day and makes you really calm and balanced mentally. 

Plus it feels like the body kick and knee are stronger with regular running, but dunno if that's a placebo effect or not. But shit, even if it is, I'll take it.