I’ve seen a lot of courageous sport acts in my day.

I’ve seen Michael Jordan play with the flu.

I watched Kerri Struggs compete at the Olympics and win the Gold Medal on a broken ankle.

I’ve watched Apolo Anton Ohno come from behind to secure a win in the Winter Olympic Games.

I’ve watched this year’s Super Bowl and saw how the Steelers just turned it up one notch in order to get the job done.

And now I have seen a person compete in a Brazilian Jiujitsu match with just one leg.

I have to admit, that I have seen 1 legged wrestlers compete…. and dominate.  But I’ve never seen a person with one leg compete in BJJ.

Why is this significant?

Well it speaks to surpassing limits, ignoring limitations and provides a reason for many of us to stop making excuses.

It also speaks volumes about her instructor who has to find a way to tweak techniques in order to make moves work just for her.

I also speaks volumes for their being more than “one way”  to do things.

If there is one thing that I have really been trying to stress over the pass couple of years is this:

If you judo, bjj or grappling game is “crippled” it may be something that you can fix or it may be something that you can’t but the bottom line is that YOU MUST find a way to compete, become competitive and win. And if you look for a way you can find a way. This is why I promote the judo and grappling products that I have so hard. It’s because I was “crippled” with not having a large array of techniques, but I found a way to win. I didn’t make excuses, I created options. And that’s what you have to do in life”

Please watch this video and allow it to inspire  you as it did me

And if you have not already, please make sure that you visit http://www.MoroteGari.com so that you can see that there are other ways available for you to win if you look for them.

Take care.

Rhadi Ferguson (a.k.a. “The Judo Crusader”)
2004 Olympian
http://www.TheJudoCrusader.com
http://www.MoroteGari.com

P.S. If you are not on facebook, you need to get on there right now. It’s an absolutely amazing place and I’ve put up some great pictures and videos on there.

So go over to http://www.facebook.com and become my friend and get access some exciting things that I have going on – on facebook.  >>> http://tinyurl.com/bp3wc9

http://drannmaria.blogspot.com/

Recently she wrote a blog post on the title:

If I Have to Explain It, Maybe You Can’t Understand?

Which I found to be a phenomenal piece of written articulation.

I found the piece to be informative and enlightening. I don’t agree with everything that she wrote, but then again, when in the heck does anyone agree with everything of someone. I’ve been married for 7 years now and my marriage is awesome and my wife and I don’t agree on everything. In Ann Maria’s post she stated that champs have something different in them that the non-champs don’t have. With this I have to agree. HOWEVER…… and that is a big HOWEVER.

(and this is a philosophical argument/discussion that I can’t wait to have with Ann Maria over a cup of coffee. Whether some of you know it or not she is very pleasant to speak with and highly intelligent).
As I digress…

However, I believe there is on element that we must discuss that wasn’t discuss in her post. That is the element of chance.

After reading books like “The Strategy Paradox” and “Fooled by Randomness” and after coaching for a period of time I now see that things some things that we would like to attribute to causal relationships (cause and effect) are really just luck. Our brains try to fit things which happen due to randomness into a box where we can figure that it happened by design.

This a very hard concept for some people to mentally digest, agree with or even accept. Especially when we are taught that good things happen when you work hard… the concept of meritocracy. As a matter of fact, many books like the millionaire mindset are written from this thesis. The problem with that is that many people negate the fact that many who are dead broke HAD THE SAME MINDSET of the millionaire. Some get lucky and some don’t, but both sets of people BET big and risked much.

Now please understand, my post is not to refute anything that Dr. DeMars has stated. I just wanted to add another perspective in the internet dialogue with the hopes that some of you would pick up some of the aforementioned text and also stop by Dr. DeMars blog on a regular basis because there is some very good reading over there.

I just wanted to let you know that many times that we would like to attribute that acquisition of medals to hard work and perseverance, when quite honestly the hardest worker and the person that persevered the most IS NOT THE PERSON THAT ONE. I know that’s not the “for TV movie” story that you want to hear, but that’s the truth.

I agree with Dr. DeMars when she says that about only 3% of the population has the TALENT to be a world champion. The fact of the matter is this…. The people in that 3% aren’t the only people who show up to world class competitions. The hard workers are there too. And sometimes the hard workers win and sometimes they lose depending on the talent disparity or the many other variable which come into play during competition.

Case in point:

At the 2004 Olympics, I sat in the stands and watched a woman from Cuba by the name of Anaisis Hernandez compete. I was looking forward to seeing her fight because I had watched her tear up the Pan American circuit and she had been doing well internationally. In 2008 she won a silver medal in Beijing…. I just thought that I’d mention that as I continue…And in her first match in Athens she fought against a women from Angola. Nobody was really paying attention because the woman from Angola had not won very often, but here she was at the Olympics.

Well you know what happened…

http://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/he/anaisis-hernandez-1.html

The competitor from Angola beat Anaisis by Ippon. It seemed like a fluke. A medal hopeful was out.

Had the person from Angola trained harder?
Maybe, maybe not

Was the person from Angola in better shape?
Maybe, maybe not.

What we do know is that she won and the draw sheets for the day were different than what some people planned. And if someone got “lucky” in the match before hers and then thought they were going to have a short day because they were going to meet Anaisis, well…… they got a treat. And not only a treat but they just got a match that was not going to be anywhere as long or as hard as the match that they could have had. This changes the whole day. The whole bracket. It changes everything.

And it doesn’t have ANYTHING to do with working out hard.
Randomness occurs.

We do the best we can do to reduce it.

But let me assure you. If you are a World Champion, and no World Champion wants to admit this, you may have just gotten lucky …….. And maybe not. But please don’t think that everything happens just because of hard work and skill. Those are only 2 variables in the gigantic equation.

And for those of you who don’t know…. Lee Kemp was wayyyyyyy better than Dan Gable, but many of you would never know that. RANDOMNESS. The 1980 Olympics were boycotted so many of you don’t know how great Lee Kemp is or was. Kemp beat him everytime they wrestled. Kemp was a World Champion (multiple time), but luck was not on his side and the 80 Olympics were boycotted by the USA.

Also Gable tried to make the Olympic Team in 1976, but lost to Kemp in the trials.

So you see, luck has her hand in sports. And dare I say that if we look at population, survivor bias, strengths of subset populations in sports based upon gender and population distribution per weight class. You will see that being dominant at the two extreme weight classes 48 &60 and heavyweight is easier (and I use that term very loosely and scientifically, I am not saying by any means that it is easy). And if you look at the population of athletes to choose from you will see via gender that, globally there are more men which practice judo than women so the sample population at events like the worlds or Olympics creates an unequal grouping in terms of the strength of the populations if you look at the 66kg mens class and the 52kg womens class. But people will say… yes BUT it’s still equal for that group.

And YOU are correct. But it is unequal within the group because the “strong” or “talented” person in the group on the female side enjoys more of an advantage based upon the talent differential between her and the sample population.

Thus the argument that you hear in judo about mens and womens judo.
I don’t really care myself. I’m just EXPLAINING to you the argument as it was explained to me from a statistical point of reference.

And to hammer home the point that if there is a weight class where talent counts WAYYYY more than other classes, it is at the ends of the weight classes where the population of quality players is less (statistically speaking). We can all agree that 73 and 81 kilo are the TOUGHEST weight categories in the world. If you want to know what just research the normal weight for a human male and you can do the rest of the research yourself.

So with that being said, there are so many more things that we need to look at when it comes to competition.

As I said for this post was to expound on what Dr. DeMars said, not to refute.

Take care and enjoy your day.

If you haven’t seen this video yet then it is about time..

This video is a trailer from the 6 DVD Set Underground Gripfighting Secrets.

This DVD set is absolutely amazing and it is something that you will want to get your hands on and sink your teeth into.

The only problem is this…. after today I’m going to snatch it off the market again and you probably won’t see it again until the summertime or even later.

I don’t provide chances at this until there have been a massive number of individuals who have invested in Grip Like A World Champion so that they will actually be able to receive the full benefits from this DVD series.

I mentioned earlier that I would open the floodgates from February 5 to February 9th and today is the 9th so please be rest assured that at 11:59pm EST tonight, the doors will be shut and the gates locked.

If you want in, get in now.  >>>  http://www.rhadi.com/ugs_off <<<

I’m telling you right now that this is not one that you want to miss.

This statement has caused quite a stir in the judo community and I can see why.

To the cognitive peon who gets caught up on the word Judo he will most likely ask EVERY judo person that he knows and solidify his position statement by saying that a “10th degree so-and-so told him this and an 37th degree so-and-so to him that about judo” when the operative word in this statement is WINNING.

To understand “winning” you must study winning. If anyone has ever read “The 4 Hour Work Week” by Timothy Ferris, you will undoubtedly run across a passage where Timothy talks about the time that he bet his friends that he could win the Chinese National Kickboxing Championships.  The funny thing is that he wasn’t a Kick boxer and he never practiced the sport.  He spent time reading the rule book and showed up and ended up winning. People were pissed, but that’s how it goes….everybody isn’t happy when you’re the champ. But I can guarantee you one person who is happy…..The Champ.

To the person who wants to understand how to win there are various texts out there that will teach it on the beginner level.  Texts such as Sun Tzu’s “Art of War” and “The Book of Five Rings”.  The Art of War is mandatory reading for all of my clients. Why? Because The Art of War will clearly explain to you how to prepare and how to win and it doesn’t have the word uchimate, taiotoshi, or newaza anywhere in it.

“Learning Judo has to do with Judo”
Becoming good at Judo has to do with Judo”
“Winning at Judo has NOTHING to do with Judo”

Winning is something all by itself. It is an art form that only some have mastered and others have not.  It is why some have been relegated to the “winninghood” and others have not.

It is why I can open up my dresser drawer in my closet and see championship rings from college football, a wrestling conference championship from college, an Olympic watch, an Olympic Ring, credentials from UFC from various athletes that I’ve coached.  It is why Brian Picklo, a Division 1 All American in wrestling came to me OUT OF EVERYONE ELSE IN THE UNITED STATES to prepare for the Olympic Trials, because he knew that there was only one person who could prepare him in 4 weeks time and take someone who had never made a world team and earn them a medal at the Pan American Championships and have them beat every previous national champion and world team member on the same day at the Olympic Trials.”

===============
Pay Attention to who
Is in your group
================

When I want to learn about winning, I don’t go talk with 10th dans, 25th dans, etc..,  I call people like Melvin Douglas, Israel Hernandez, Kevin Jackson, Lloyd Irvin, Eddie Liddie, Jimmy Pedro, Brian Picklo, Terrence Trammell, David Oliver, Sasha Spencer, Cara Heads and people of the like.

When I want to get some information about winning…. I GO TALK TO WINNERS!!!!!  PERIOD.  If I want to learn about uchimata, I’ll talk to Inoue and Suzuki.

When I want to know about winning, I’ll go and read, “The Winner Within” by Pat Riley.
If I want to know about having a good fighting spirit then I’ll grab a book by Yamashita.

It’s that simple.

There is an art to knowing how to win.  I was speaking with Eddie Liddie on the phone the other day and he was telling me that when people ask him who has been one of the toughest coaches that he’s ever had to coach against and/or who is one of the best judo coaches in the United States, he immediately puts my name on the short list.  He says people look at him in shock and they in his words, “Just don’t get it. I told them that some people master the craft and you have mastered the craft.”

If you want to learn Judo, you go right ahead. I have. I’ve studied the newaza game, hell, I even have a black belt in BJJ and its not because I don’t like newaza, I love it. I attended practice everyday and didn’t miss unless I was hurt, but I do know this.

I WOULD NOT TRADE IN THE SCIENCE of winning for anything.

If you want to learn how to win, then I’m here to help. If you want to learn judo, I’m here to help. But if you REALLY want to maximize the knowledge that you have and couple what you have with what I have, then I’m really here to help.

I’m just not able to understand why people can’t understand.

Everything in life is not an “either this or that” situation.

YOU can essentially learn what I have to provide AND learn what you have been doing.  If you’re doing judo and what I’m teaching you has little to NOTHING to do with judo, then what are you worried about?

 I’m on a Judo Crusade over here. I want to create as many NEW thinkers as possible. And I want to teach those who want to be taught. Unfortunately, “only when the student is ready, will the teacher appear”.

===============
Now Please go…
===============

Go Immediately to http://www.rhadi.com/ugs_off and get your hands on Underground Gripfighting Secrets and learn how you can literally stop your opponent from EVER throwing you so that you can win more and lose less. You have until February 9th and then this offer will be pulled off the table.

Underground Gripfighting Secrets will allow you to walk on the mat and literally “take control” of the situation.

Dedicated to your success,

Rhadi Ferguson
2004 Olympian
4-Time National Judo Champion
http://www.Rhadi.com

Yesterday I alerted you to the fact that I was going to open the floodgates and re-release Underground Gripfighting Secrets.

Well here it is.

http://rhadi.com/ugs_off/

========================
“Underground Gripfighting
Secrets put the icing on the cake…”
=====================

I thought I learned it all in, “Grip Like A World Champion” , but “Underground Gripfighting Secrets” put the icing on the cake. The techniques and strategies shown in this video have already helped me frustrate more technically proficient and physically stronger players in just two workouts. My understanding of gripfighting has been increased 1000 percent. To those of you who want to compete at any level the information contained on these disk is indispensible. After you watch these disk, watch them again and again. Then, go watch a judo tournament and see how the techniques apply on the mat. You may not necessarily see the sequences shown by Jimmy and Rhadi ,but you will have a better understanding of the 75/25 principle which is the key to thowing your opponent.

Tim “OSOTO GARI” Francis

>>>>  http://rhadi.com/ugs_off/ <<<<

Take care,

Rhadi Ferguson
2004 Olympian
http://www.rhadi.com/ugs_off/

I thought that I’d get Naked today and fully expose myself… so here it is.

==================
Here’s the UNADULTERATED
TRUTH
==================

You’ve heard me say it before and I’ll say it again, “The eyes can only see what the mind can comprehend.”

This morning I was up walking. I run in the morning sometimes and on some mornings after a hard run the previous day, I get up and walk.   This morning while walking I was listening to one of my favorite ministers, Bishop Noel Jones.

I was having a great time walking and listening and getting myself ready for the day with some early morning devotion and while I was walking something that stopped me dead in my tracks.

He spoke about how it is very difficult for people to value a thing which they have not sacrificed for and that unfortunately when they do want it they want to either tell you how much they are willing to pay for it (which is more often than not a mere pittance of what you had to invest) or they want you to give it to them for free.  What is even worse is that the thing that you are trying to give them in order to help them is the same thing that they will condemn you for having. What he basically said is that people will condemn you for trying to share your gift(s) with them and then devalue your gift because they don’t understand what it took for you to get it.

I have experienced this in many areas in my professional life and it is because I haven’t been more vigilant with my particular gifts.  There is a level of information that I share and then there is another level of information which I cannot and will not share because people will not be able to respect it the way that I have and the reason why I respect it the way that I do is because I have sacrificed in order to gain it.

With that being said, this is why I provide people with an opportunity to jointly sacrifice with me by investing in products in order to gain access to the information which I have been blessed to receive and acquire. Unfortunately everything is not for everybody.

Let me say that again. EVERYTHING IS NOT FOR EVERYBODY. If a product costs too much for you, then there is no problem with the seller, nor is there a problem with you. The bottom line is that… that particular product is NOT FOR YOU.  And it WILL NOT BE until you say it is.

===============
Do You Drive A Ferrari?
===============

For example, you can not realistically walk onto a Ferrari car lot and tell the salesperson that, “The cars here are too expensive.”  The cars there are what they are. The cars are where they are supposed to be, the only problem is that YOU DON’T belong on that car lot…. At least not yet.  When you create a “Ferrari-mindset”, and create a “Ferrari disposition”, and start reading “Ferrari materials” and studying Ferraris and then you will be ready to start living a “Ferrari” lifestyle.  Until then, don’t hate people who drive Ferrari’s. Just watch them ride by and be happy where you are.

============
On Another Note
============

Do NOT confuse one gift over the other.

Recently someone on a website compared me to Kosei Inoue and basically said that they wouldn’t bother practicing or training the technique Morote Gari because my winning record was not as extensive or colored as Inoue’s and since Inoue practiced uchimata, that would be where he will spend the bulk of his time and where others should as well.

This comment could very well be a good approach.  I wouldn’t disagree.

However, here’s the mistake. Or should I say, here’s one of the mistakes.

I was a world class judo player.  I wasn’t the best in the world but I was a world class judo player. That is a fact. I wasn’t a world class judo player because I practiced judo all of my life. Because if you know my story, you know that I practiced judo from the ages of 7 to 13 and then didn’t return to judo until I was 22 and then made the Olympic Team in 6-1/2 years.  Returning to judo at 22 was like starting from scratch.   Any local neighborhood idiot knows that you CANNOT develop a blistering Taiotoshi or Uchimata in 6 years. The intuitive thing is to know that at 22 and to start shaping your training at that time to make the Olympic Team and to win 4 National Championships along the way.

The focus on not having an Uchimata is myopic and shortsighted at best.  The focus should be on how one can do that so fast and what areas did I focus on and develop to get that good, that fast.  Once you understand this, you will understand that keys to my products, my approach and how I can sit in the coaches chair and take a man who has never won a National Championship and have him beat everyone in the weight class at the Olympic Trials in one day and come from the lowest seed possible and get in the finals.

=============
Here’s What I Found
Out
=============

I discovered over the years that there is more than one way to skin a cat.

At the end of the day our outlook on a situation shapes the way that we address a situation.

When it comes to judo, people believe the the objective of competitive judo is to score ippon. Nothing can be further from the truth. The objective of competitive judo is to advance to the next round by any means necessary.  Well that’s how I see it. With that being said, people hire me and have hired me because they don’t have to abandon what it is that they do in order to utilize me, they can essentially just add me to their current process or allow me to help, aid, or head their preparation process. Why? Because what I bring to the table anyone can use, once they are open to look at other ways to win at judo.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again.

WINNING AT JUDO HAS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH JUDO!!!  NOTHING!!

My former client and good friend, 2000 Olympian in the sport of weightlifting Cara Heads said it the best when she told me,  “Rhadi, now I see what you mean. You are right.  Being a good weightlifter has absolutely nothing to do with weightlifting. Nothing.”

If you are still scratching your head, then you don’t get it yet. And that is okay. Only when the student is ready will the teacher appear.

And if you understand that concept, you now have to ask yourself, “What other stuff are you talking about?”

And this is where we are and this is where I want you to be. I want you to get to the point of Socratic questioning, of a higher order and level of thinking. To the point where you realize that self-actualization and self-realization are necessary parts of growth and that your old way of thinking about sport has to die so that that the new YOU can develop.

You CAN go to the dojo everyday.

You can do uchikomi until your biceps burn, the skin wears off your feet and your lungs feel like they are on fire.

And  you know what?  You may just win. You may.

Or you can spend some of your time doing that and the rest of your time which will make your training time more effective by becoming a “marksman” on the mat by knowing when to pull the trigger and when not to and knowing what to target and why.  And I guarantee you will win more matches.  And beat everybody else that just trains the other way.

This is what many in the Judo world are missing.  There many countries that have “this”.  France is one of them. The United Kingdom has it in some areas. There is one person who I’ve read online on the Judo forum that understands this. Other than that, most are oblivious.

My competition record is insignificant. Most people who have coached Olympic Champions and World Championships NEVER won a World Medal or even ever made an Olympic Team. Knowing how to teach lies within knowing how to teach and what to teach.

=============
Here’s what I Love
To Do
=============

I really love coaching.

Right now I coach high school wrestling.

I also coached and/or consulted for 9 athletes that attended the 2008 Olympic Trials in 4 different sports!

I’ve coached and consulted for some of today’s biggest names in Mixed Martial Arts.

And I really love it. But what I like more is creating products so that I can have a massive amount of effect on a large population of people.

This is what I like. With that being said, my products are not cheap. I don’t provide anything that is cheap.  I don’t think that people deserve things that are cheap.  People deserve quality, they deserve great content, they deserve bargains, they deserve to be over delivered to and they deserve honesty. This is what I provide, but cheap is something that you can find on a street corner at 2:30am.   I don’t have anything cheap for you and wouldn’t insult you by trying to give you something cheap.

With that being said, I am in the process of rolling out some new products in 2009 and I am going to re-release some of my previous products.

===============
The Game Changer
===============

The first product that I am going to re-release is Underground Gripfighting Secrets.

I’m telling you right now that if you are looking to develop your judo game and take it to another level, this is the DVD set that you want.

I’m not going to try to convince you of this. You can read the testimonials and endorsements for yourself.  There is also some great video links if you do a search of Google for “judo grip fighting”.

Check them out.

=================
Unsolicited Endorsements
=================

http://judoforum.com/index.php?showtopic=21484

http://thejudopodcast.com/?p=350

http://rhadi.com/griplikeaworldchampion/gripfightinguniversity_free_lecture/

http://www.adrr.com/bengoshi/010.htm

http://ethesis.blogspot.com/2008/10/rhadi-ferguson.html

=============
February 5th 2009
=============

Tomorrow I am going to open the flood gates for Underground Gripfighting Secrets until the 9th of February. That’s it.

Then I’m going to shut the door once again.

So look out for my email and/or blog post tomorrow about Underground Gripfighting Secrets.

=======
Closing
=======

Pleae be on the lookout for my email tomorrow entitled: “Underground Gripfighting Secrets Now”

Take care.

Rhadi Ferguson (a.k.a. “The Judo Crusader”)
2004 Olympian
4-Time National Judo Champion

P.S. If you do not have Grip Like A World Champion, please DO NOT INVEST in Underground Gripfighting Secrets unless you are going to buy Grip Like A World Champion at the same time. You NEED to get Grip Like A World Champion in order to gain the maximum benefit from Underground Gripfighting Secrets.