How many times have you heard somebody say, “Whew!!! I had a hard practice today!”
If you live in the competitive circle like I do you hear it all the time. You hear it from Mixed Martial Arts fighters, wrestlers, grapplers and Judo players.
But how often to you hear, “Whew! I had a smart practice today!”
NEVER!
You NEVER hear that, and you know what? That’s a doggone shame.
It’s especially shameful in the judo community. Because, unlike wrestling, where you can, most certainly, ‘go harder’ and perform better, such a strategy for judo more than likely will not yield a favorable outcome.
What will most likely happen is that you will be slammed ‘harder’, choked ‘faster’ and armbarred ‘quicker’ by going ‘harder’.
The key to becoming a better judo player is practicing smarter. Sometimes practicing smarter means that you have to miss a workout or two to heal up. Sometimes it means that you have to do more drilling than randori. Sometimes it means that you have to study video more than you fight and sometimes it means that you have to practice strategically and tactically. Whatever the case, you CANNOT dictate how you want your practices to go if you cannot control the practice environment.
One of the few ways that you can ‘control’ the practice is by gripping. When you are a good gripper, you fall less and throw more. This means that after practice you actually feel better and are able to work on your tactics and strategy deployment and implementation more than defending and trying not to get thrown.
Actually, when you can grip fight and ‘control’ your practice, you really open up a brand new world for yourself in practice and your practices will actually become more productive.
If you don’t believe me, just do this for me.
In your next practice, make it very grip intensive. Meaning during randori, don’t do anything until you have dominated the grips and DO NOT SETTLE for a undesirable grip. Fight until you get EXACTLY WHAT IT IS THAT YOU WANT!
If you find that you are able to do this, notice how much easier practice is.
If you find out that you cannot do this, then please DO SOMETHING SMART today and go here >>> http://www.GripFighting.com
There’s nothing wrong with become a smarter and more seasoned judo player. It’s better to skip some steps and skip out on some unnecessary falls than to learn judo the “hard way”. Why not just learn it THE SMART WAY?
Take care,
Rhadi Ferguson, Ph.D., CSCS
2004 Olympian
4-Time National Judo Champion
BJJ Black Belt
http://www.GripFighting.com
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