BTG 95 - The Quickest Path to Mastery

Hello and welcome to Breaking the Guard. Today I'm not going to cover any news. Uh if you're here in the States, you probably know like it's been madness uh with what happened. Uh and I didn't watch any events. I was actually immersed in my own projects. I will say that the thing I want to talk about is the path the quickest path to growth in particular with sports, right? Since we're martial artists and this is going to be something that's obviously very subjective. It's going to depend on who we're talking about. But conceptually, what we want to do is figure out our area of greatest weakness and target that. Now, this is not always intuitive to people because they feel like if I'm really good at something, I want to get even better at that part. But if you if we grade ourselves from zero to 100% where 100% would be a mythical level of skill, if I'm somewhere around 80, I'm already excellent at something, right? And for me to move from 80 to like 85 going to take a good amount of time, like months, maybe years. the level of skill to make that jump from 80 to 85 or 85 to 90 is huge. Whereas if I'm very low in skill in something completely new where I'm around a 10, the level to go from 10 to 50 is maybe the span of a few months. So because you know very little about something, it means that the learning curve is actually you get to jump up really fast. Anybody that's done, for example, weightlifting knows this, right? If you've never lifted weights before, the first time you go to the gym, it might be humbling because you're barely pushing the bar, you know, and you're curling 10 pound weights or whatnot, right? And you're like, man, I'm weak. But you stick to it for like four weeks and now you're double tripling your numbers. And the illusion you might have is, oh, I'm going to become a Superman in no time because I'm just I'm growing really fast. And then after a couple months, you start plateauing and you're like, "Oh, I'm doing something wrong. I gotta change things up or it's like and that's not what happened." Basically, you just got to the zero to 50 and now that's when that mountain gets really steep, right? And most people usually quit around there, right? Or they just get stuck and stay there forever. And again, this is why I mentioned quickest path to growth is find your weak points because those are usually your low skill areas and you'll make up a lot of ground very quickly to get up to higher skill. Now, if you've been in the game for a long time, you might not have any low bearing fruit, right? Like there's no low skill areas. You're you're at a minimum of, you know, 50 60 all around. So now this becomes a little bit more strategic and then you would have to think a little bit further like okay I I'm pretty wellrounded. Maybe I'm a purple or brown belt or even a black belt u but I feel like uh I still have a lot of room for growth. Well then the question would be where do you get beat? I would analyze my matches and I would look where am I losing matches or where am I losing roles or where am I ruling sparring sessions, right? Because that those are going to be the weaknesses that are being exploited, right? Uh and usually you're going to find a common theme, right? And it's going to be that weakest link or the the most easily accessible link, right? Like you may have I'll give you an example, right? Let's say you are a world-class wrestler and you're doing MMA training. Your weakest skill might be escapes off your back or playing your close guard because you never do. But that might not be something that you actually have problems with because no one's ever able to take you down, right? So even though that is your weakest link, it's not exposed, right? It's well guarded by your wrestling ability. Um so you might not see that as an issue for growth, right? And you might wonder in that case like is it even worth working on? And the answer might be no. Maybe it isn't. Right? If you never foresee a circumstance where you can get taken down because your wrestling skill is just so amazing, then maybe your time is better invested in working on other skills. Now, in my opinion, to be a complete martial artist, you will learn everything. You're not going to be a specialist, but you know enough where I would feel like you're at a 50% level, right? Like you know how it works. You're not an expert, but you know how to handle yourself there. So, uh, when we're thinking about practical skill progression, we will want to find our most exposed weakness, right? So, in that same case, maybe that wrestler uh has a weakness to, let's say, leg kicks, right? He doesn't know how to defend kicks well and he's getting chopped up. So, now that's a weakness that's exposed that then that needs to be addressed. Okay, he needs to know how to check kicks. he maybe needs to be able to use a switch stance every so often. Uh circling away from that kick or, you know, stepping into it to get into clinch. Whatever, you know, uh countermeasures that you would figure are things that you would have to work on. But that would be another way of looking at things rather than just that first option. Your weakest link is addressing knowledge base, right? But now if we have to be a little more pragmatic because we don't have infinite time and I want to make really good use of our time then we would go a step above that which is most weakest exposed uh area and that's what we're going to choose to work on and there's going to be something for everybody right even if you're you know Hixon Gracie he has some weakness because at some point he's struggling in the match And that would be the area to focus on, right? Uh or just positions that you get stuck in a lot, right? Um and if you have those, then obviously those are things that need to be worked on, right? Because you should be able to move from position to position or be able to work on something to try to get you to move. If you get somewhere and you just end up not being able to do anything, obviously that's a problem, right? So that would be the next thing to work on. Now, if you do want to go, and again, mind you, this is not the only way to do things, obviously, and I've not done this all the time either. Uh I this is simply the quickest path to growth, right? Because usually the weak areas are faster to grow than your strong areas. Now there is a benefit in working on your strengths right and some people might say well you know at a certain level the more time you spend is diminishing returns and it's 100% true. However, at a certain skill level, the returns that you get are as far as the execution and the the success of the technique become monumentally higher, right? Um I use this example with my Kimora trap system, right? And particularly with the kimora most like I have a kimora from side control and especially if you're on the David MMA just look up ninepoint kimora or topside kimora and you'll see my breakdown. It's in the Kimura fundamentals course, the very first video, and that one's free. So, even if you're just a guest, you can look at it, right? Um although I think that one might have been seven points at a time. I uncovered nine points now. And basically, it's nine details that are levers of success for the kimora. And each point that you have increases your level of success with the hold. I estimate that most people I encounter have somewhere from three to five with like a black belt having around five to six, right? And that would be like a highle black belt that really likes kimoras. Um, and this is not just me pulling a, you know, hat my ass, right? Like I've spoken to lots of people. I've taught many kimora seminars all over the world and I haven't gone to a seminar where everybody knew all nine. It hasn't happened yet, right? Uh and the ones that they usually don't know are some of the most crucial ones, right? Uh that even though it's just one out of nine, it results like in a 30% improvement of the technique. So I only got that proficiency by continually to specialize on a technique. So I was working on a strength instead of working on a weakness. Right? But I feel if you can breach 85 90% proficiency because no one's going to have 100%. That's perfect. Not going to get there, right? You're going to get close but you're not going to get there, right? And by close, I mean you're probably somewhere if you're like a 95% level person in my judgment, you're like legendary, right? I don't even think I'm there, right? And for Kimoras, right? I think I'm in the 90s somewhere in the 90s. But 95 plus, you're just totally unstoppable. Um, no mistakes. Every catch is a is inherently a finish. So that would take lots and lots and lots of time to be able to get there. But you can get to the 80s and 90s in years of time. But you can get there and I say years that's also subjective because it's based on the amount of math time and experience that you have right also some just genetic learning or you know whatever nurture based skills you develop that you're allowed to learn quickly right but Matt time is going to be the big uh predictor of growth there. If I've trained for 10 years, but once a week, it's going to take me much longer to get there, obviously, than the guy that trains two times a day, every single day for a year, right? He's going to basically get it's not I think there's some time factor besides Matt time as well as time off the mat to like get the things to soak in your brain. But nevertheless, while it's not a direct correlation, there's defin it's close to it, right? Uh and Matt time is a huge factor. So the more matt time you can put and basically the more time you could drill or execute that hold that you want to get better, that technique, the quicker you're going to gain proficiency. Mind you that you're doing the techniques correctly. Somebody who's doing a technique incorrectly many times is actually doing like negative work, right? Like they're learning things the wrong way. Which brings up a point because how do you learn to get better at a technique if you don't know what the better technique is? If I am stuck at let's say at a McDojo that's teaching me garbage kimoras and I train for like seven years an hour every day it's kind of worthless because I'm training wrong an hour a day for seven years right so this is also an important factor is that you have to have a good source of knowledge a good model a good understanding of how the technique should be and Then this might puzzle you like, well, isn't this kind of like a uh what came first chicken or the egg argument? Like if I knew how the perfect technique worked that would imply that I'm already perfect when I wouldn't I wouldn't need to know how to do it, right? Uh and there's a gray area there, right? I can see how a technique can be done perfectly yet not be able to do it. For example, I could watch somebody do a backflip and can see how that's I could see how that would work and the type of explosiveness you would need to have to get the acceleration to clear and some fearlessness as well as not being afraid to, you know, fall, you know, hit your head or whatnot. But that doesn't mean that I would be able to do it, right? because maybe I don't have that explosiveness or maybe I don't have that fearlessness to be able to trust myself to jump and roll back, right? Uh so you can definitely see and understand how a technique can be done perfectly without being able to do it perfectly, right? Uh that said, the guy who was in a bad place doing kimoras incorrectly for seven years, even then I feel like he would get better. Right? Because he would probably learn along the way, much like I have that after doing the technique many, many, many times, I realized, you know what, I realize when I do this grip instead of this grip, I, you know, maybe I leak a little bit of power or maybe if I choke up on the elbow, like I did it by accident and it worked better and now that's all I do. So, you will definitely learn along the way. As long as you are, you know, keeping your mind open, you will learn even if you don't have a perfect teacher, right? It just takes longer, right? And for me, that was the path I took. I started getting into Kimoras just because I felt that uh when I did a mind map, I realized I could do Kimmoras from every position of combat, right? I can do them from top, I can do it from bottom. Guy can have a buy a lock from the front or buy a lock from the back and I can still hit a kimora, you know, off a shot, I can do it. I can do it from north south, you know, I could do it from everywhere. So, it seemed like a practical submission to work on if my goal was to be dangerous from every position, which is what it was. I wanted to have a clutch submission hold from anywhere uh for not from anywhere, from as many positions as possible, right? like it doesn't make sense to me to focus on doing a flying plata. I could become amazing at a flying plata, but there's very few use cases for it, right? Like basically I have to be standing and I'm going to need some type of under hook uh or a strong whizzer side position to be able to jump it, right? Not very practical. Um but if my specialty submission is something that's accessible for many positions, Armbar was my number two candidate, right? and armar kimura also go very well together then I'm dangerous everywhere right but I wasn't training with anybody who was a super kimura guy right I did see one guy really hammer it down which also helped get this ball rolling which was Rodrigo Dam he was I believe in the Brazilian Ultimate Fighter I met him back like in 2006 I think in St. Petersburg and I saw him kimoring everybody and he was doing kimor to back kimort armbar um and religiously doing it and it got me thinking okay like this is something I really need to work on and so I started from there and um I just kept trying and again I told you I picked this up back in like 2006 and it wasn't until 2012 where I had the cumor trap system fleshed out and distributed to people, right? So, because it took like five years in the lab to figure it out, right? Uh I was using it in competition back in 200 I first attempted it in 2007. Uh and if you've read my Kimmor Trap story, then you know how that went. And then 2009, I executed it successfully and in the in the worlds and won a match because of it. uh and then 2011 is when I started preparing the course to be shared with the world. Right? So me training every day in my 20s for like six years to get to a level of mastery where if I rate myself back then 80%. Right? And maybe to some of you that's a shocking number to hear. Like, wait a second. Yeah. Because I Mike Mike now versus Mike Kimora back in 2012. Not in the same league, right? Not in the same league at all. My Kimura back then was probably a six-point kimora. Yeah, sixpoint kimora. Right? It wasn't even seven or eight. It was six. And it was more of what the average black belt had. Not the average, but a very good black belt. That's what that would be their understanding of the kimora, right? And I gained the other I gained a couple of points shortly after, right? Like a year later as I started teaching it more. I'm like, oh, I picked up a few nuggets. And then uh maybe a couple years ago I picked up a couple more. Right. Uh so the more it's not that you don't know things also sometimes you just don't recognize what you're doing. So when I talk about understanding techniques, and this is another part of progressing faster is being able to conceptualize a move and understand the levers or the trigger points that make a move more effective. Right? And I'll use the kimora for example since I'm all about it and we I've been mentioning it so much. I said nine points, right? The the first point, no thumbs grip. Okay? Second point, motorcycle grip. Third point, hand is pinned to the mat. Fourth point, their arm is shaped like an L. Fifth point, my elbow is on the mat. Sixth point, I bring my elbow towards towards their elbow. Seventh point, my elbow towards their ear. Eighth point, chest pressuring into their shoulder. Ninth point, elevating their elbow over their wrist. Right? If you followed that um my Kimor TRA system course and if you've seen my 9 point Kimora, you understand what those things do, right? But if you haven't, basically each one of those moves impact the success rate of the of the submission. And as I told you, most people are three to five black belts maybe or a really good guy. Kimora guys is five to six, right? So you can achieve success without 100% understanding. This is something that is built into what I call basic moves. And you've probably heard me say this before, which is basic moves or moves that are so powerful that even without a full understanding, you can achieve success. A guillotine is a great example. I can get an average guy in the street, have him wrap around my neck and tell him just to pull up in my hands and he might be able to finish the choke, right? And he doesn't even understand how to sink his shoulder or how to close the bicep, how to pull the hands in, how to get the elbow high, you know, the type of grip to have, where his chin should be, right? Uh that doesn't matter because the move is so effective that even with just like one or two points of understanding, you'll achieve success, right? So when I identify the kimora with nine points, I'm basically saying there's nine areas that we can focus on that will bring results that will get you closer to the submission. Right? My job as a master is to uncover more, right? Like I told you, I probably started with five or six and over the course of now almost like 19 years, uh, wait, did I do the math right? No, I'm sorry. 14 15 years. Um, I'm getting lost on 2006 14 No. Yeah, it's like 18 years, man. It's a long time uh of working on this particular sequence. I've uncovered three or four more points, right? So, it takes time and my goal is to find the 10th point, right? What is an additional point that we can apply leverage to or focus on that is going to make the submission more effective? And if you can take this type of approach to any technique, you will find growth. Right? If I'm doing an arm bar, okay, what are the points that make it more effective? Well, let's say we're talking about a mounted arm bar where I went to the mount, fell to my back, and did the arm bar where the opponent's still on his back, right? Well, I'll tell you the points that I can think of. One, proper control of the wrist, right? If he's able to roll his arm, he's going to escape. I like controlling the big uh the thumb with my hand because if I have his thumb in place, his amount of rotation is going to be very limited because basically I'm holding him here. So, he's not going to be able to rotate 180, right? which he's going to want because again, typically for most people again, thumb up means the elbow's pointed down, my hips are going up, and I'm pulling the wrist into extension. Uh, I mean, and the the arm to extension. So, that's going to get me the break, right? But if he's able to, you know, roll his thumb all the way through, you can see my elbow starts pointing out, right? Especially if we go the other way, elbow starts pointing out. Now, the pressure is not great. But if I can control that thumb right now, it makes it hard to turn. and I use my other hand to control the wrist. Right? So that's one point. And the second point there is I always keep my hands close to my chest. Right? If my hands are out away from my body, my pulling force is very weak and I'm put myself mechanically in a very weak position. So whenever I'm trying to pull, I don't want to cover my mic there, but I want to have my hands tight to my body. That's going to increase my engagement of my lats and my and my pulling muscles. Right? It's the second point for an arm bar. Third point is I always want my chest forward. And by that, what I mean is that a lot of people when they pull with their armbar, especially from a seated arm bar, they have their back flex like a cobra, right? Where it's like concave and then they fall this way, which one puts you into extension, right, with your arms. And two, I'm creating space, right? I want this is another the fourth point his elbow on my chest. Right? If I'm moving my chest away as I'm trying to pull him in, what am I doing? I'm creating space. Now that elbow has a chance to slip from my hips under my groin and then he's out. So, I always want my chest forward, right? I'm jamming into his elbow. So, his elbow gets stuck, right? And I mean, mind you, his elbow is not going to be on my chest. is going to be probably somewhere around my hip, but the rest of his uh tricep and his arm is going to be on my chest. And you'll find that this also helps set up bicep slicers and it keeps your lats stronger. You're again, this is not a good pulling position. This is a better pulling position here. Right? If you do a seated row, you understand mechanically I want to be here and row right, not here. Uh that's another point, right? Uh I've lost track of a number of points I was mentioning. The leg work is important, right? We all know about pinching the heels to the butt so that we keep the head down and we control the rib cage, but there's also pinching your knees together. Your knees should be pressed super tight. This is a big point that a lot of people miss. That kills the shoulder, right? A lot of times if you see like Vinnie Magales when he got armed by by Fabishio or nearly got arm barred when he got caught on the armbar, Vinnie turned away from him and got on the side of his body, right? And what that does, it raises his shoulder really high above his elbow. And what that does now is when you try to start cranking on his arm, you have to first extend the shoulder, right? because the shoulder is higher now than the elbow. And in order to get the arm to really extend, the shoulder has to go all the way back first. And if you have mobile shoulders like Vinnie does, you're going to have to go really far. And you're not going to have the range, right? And that can be mitigated by pinching your knees because by pinching your knees, you're basically trapping the shoulder down and taking it out of the picture. So now when you pull the arm back, you're extending the elbow first rather than extending the whole shoulder and then the elbow. Huge point, right? And again, that's one that a lot of people don't know. And that is probably one of the bigger levers of the armbar than anything. And that's why now you see guys like Gordon and the New Wave crew, they do the triangle arm bar. not I forget what they call it, but it's like they do a triangle on top of the shoulder here and then they press down into it and they're getting good success with it. People like, "Oh, it's amazing." It's the same concept, right? Because you're basically killing the shoulder so the shoulder can't elevate. All right? If the shoulder can elevate, it's going to relieve pressure because basically if you look at my arm, I could pull this wrist all the way back and I'm not getting into terminal extension of the elbow until this shoulder reaches his end range. Now, when I start extending, I can like arm myself here, right? But from out here, you really can't if the shoulder's free to move, right? Because when you're pulling here, shoulders going to want to go back before the elbow goes back. Another big point, right? And of course, hip extension is another lever, obviously, a huge one, right, for the arm bar, especially if we're trying to get a good break. Now, I went through a lot of mechanics here, and if you weren't particularly interested in doing a jiu-jitsu lesson right now, uh it might have been okay, I get it. You know a lot about the armbar, too. But the point is, uh if you understand those details, you can enhance them, right? Because now I know like, oh, okay, how do I get more out of the hip extension, right? or how do I get more out of the wrist control aspect of the arm bar? Right? Or how do I get more out of that knee pinch? Right? So, when you're going to identify key parts of the technique that enhance the move, you will get better faster because you'll understand where to prioritize your efforts. If you just look at the move as a whole, it could be difficult, right? because I'm just saying arm bar and I'm just trying to do everything at once. But you have to realize that every move is a component of its parts. And when you can break it down to the pivotal parts, now you can enhance the technique of the move. Like I was telling you with the kimora, the stronger parts, the more pivotal ones were the ones I found out later. All right? And if you remember, I just list out those nine. One of the most pivotal ones is the chest over the shoulder. because it's the same thing as the arm bar. When you try to cumor somebody, the shoulder rotates and you'll notice their shoulder always pops up first, right? That's because it wants to relieve pressure. And most people response to that was, "Oh, step over their head." So now their head can't raise. Even though their shoulder still going up, they they're a little bit more limited and you'll eventually get the finish. But if we were a little more clever about it, we just stopped the shoulder at the beginning and then like right here, the tap happens, right? Like I always get people surprised because like I barely move them when they're tapping, right? And I could tap you with a kimora just by lifting up your elbow. Uh you know, there's a lot there's like three different ways you can finish a kimora uh as far as the mechanics, right? And like I said, I uncovered those three towards the end. I mean, the first one is everyone knows about the rotation, but not a lot of people know that I can tap you just by pressing down here or by lifting your elbow over your ear, right? Um, so I've uh I hope I made those points clear, right? I know I tend to ramble quite a bit and I got in a good string here, but just to recap, if we do a summary, quickest paths to growth. Number one, focusing on your weakest areas. More specific, focusing. Number two, focusing on your exposed weaknesses, areas that you get forced into that you struggle with. All right? And in general, these could be the ways people beat you or just positions that you get stuck. But these are exposed weaknesses. Then the number three option was expanding and growing your strengths. Okay? So going from a 50 to a 60 or 60 to 70, 70, 80, 80, 90, right? And in order to do that efficiently, you have to identify the move and break down its fundamentals. All the different points that make the move work. Write them down a list. All right? And then once you have them on a list, you can kind of sort them from the what you perceive as the order of importance. Like which of these points is the most important to focus on? And it might be dependent on the situation, right? Um, it might be when an opponent's configured in a certain position, point number three is the most important, but when they're in another position, point five is the most important. Being able to understand that is only going to make you better at that move. Right? And then the question is, okay, I have identified nine points. Is that all of them or is there a tenth? Maybe there's even an 11th. Right? So our job for seeking mastery is to try to find more points and if you can't do it on your own which it's not ideally yeah I would like to find everything right but it's going to take a lot of time like I told you I've been doing kimoras now with a focus on being a kimora specialist since 2006 right and um yeah so it's 18 years right and I'm still I'm still working at it. I I think I'm in the 90s and I'm being modest here in like 90s because I could be less. I might be even in the 80s, high 80s, right? And I'm the best Kimmora person I know. And I've rolled with all the best people, right? I rolled with Gordon, I rolled with Gavalo, I rolled with Zanji, I rolled with I'm the best Kimora guy I know, right? So, uh, I say that because there's always room for growth, right? I I know my kimor could be better. And I know that because I don't have 100% finish rates. I have a high finish rate, but not 100%. Right? And again, that's that that unachievable goal of perfection, right? Like, I'm going to get closer to it. Now, um, with all that being said, I hope that gives you a little bit of guidance on how you can improve your game, right? And how to invest your time in your training. I always tell people this as well. Whenever you go to training, there should be a purpose. There should be a goal that you're working on. If you just show up to training and are like, "Surprise me with what I'm going to learn today." That's not a great way of going into a training session. That would be like uh Oh, and and people do this though. I mean, I have people that, you know, schedule pirate lessons with me and then I generally ask them in advance, what do you want to learn? Because I'm going to write a lesson plan so that I know exactly what I'm going to teach you. And then you're going to be provided with that at the end of the class so that you have notes. And people like, uh, just show me whatever you want. Well, you know, it does work because I if you tell me that, I'm going to ask you a couple quick questions and then I'm going to figure I'm going to guesstimate what I think would work best for you uh that I can give you, right? But that's not coming very prepared, right? Like uh if I show up to a class without any preparation beforehand, I'm coming underprepared and I'm not going to get the best results, right? So yeah, typically when I have someone ask me for a pirate lesson, I want I actually if you guys have looked on the website now, David May, you can schedule pirate lessons. You can schedule online private lessons as well. So even if you're not here in Vegas, you could train with me. There's a box there that says topic of lesson, right? Or something to that effect. And I want you to put in there what it is that you wish to learn from me, right? I'm not just going to come in and wing it and teach a lesson to you, right? And you know, I know I'm not cheap by any means. So, I don't want to waste your time. Uh, I want to make sure that that I teach the best possible lesson I can teach. So, for me, that means having a lesson plan in advance, right? So, this works on the other side too. If you're a student, come prepared. You're coming to training ideally because you have some type of goal to be better. Right now, you might be vague in your goal. Like you say, "Oh, I want to be a black belt." And great, that's a noble goal. But what's it going to take to be a black belt? Cuz we'll have to have better skills all around. In what areas? Well, uh I suppose I need to have be a better guard passer in what area of the guard passing, right? Like you got to really drill down and laser in that focus. Uh now, can you get to the finish line without being that laser focused? Yes, and people have. But is it going to take you longer? 100% it is. Are you going to be as good as a guy that's laser focused? Not likely, right? And does it take a little more effort before class to come in focused and prepared? Yes. Is the effort justified? In my opinion, 100%. Right. I come into every training session stretched now. Like you guys probably heard me. I do my little bed yoga routine. Takes 20 30 minutes and then I start going to class, right? Like if I'm going to train with Jake at Extreme, I'm here first 30 minutes in my garage. I loosen up. I mobilize. Then I start driving over there, right? Uh why? Because I know when I do that, I don't get injured, right? So, how important is it for me to improve my level of not getting injured? Extremely. All right. So, I'm going to invest that time every time. And if that means that I come in late to a class because I had to mobilize longer, that's the price that I'm going to pay. Now, I don't come late to class, but I'm trying to make a point. I prioritize the mobilization heavily for myself, right? Uh but at the same time, if I'm going to a class, I should also have some type of development goal as well. Not just coming to the class physically prepared, but coming to the class mentally prepared, right? What is it that I want to pull from uh today's lesson? Now, of course, as a student, you don't really know what your instructor is going to teach unless they're teaching on the curriculum. I think that's a benefit for at least the type of training that we run at my gym, the Freestyle Fight Academy. We have a monthly curriculum. It's posted so the students know in advance and they could even watch the videos so they know exactly or more or less what the instructor is going to teach so they're not completely surprised and maybe they even practice on their spouse at home, right? But uh that's going to give them a little more clarity on what to expect in a lesson and also to be able to pay attention a little bit more into the details because now I know, okay, uh Dave is teaching Kimmoros this month. I really want to focus in on the areas that I struggle like you know every time I do a kimor the guy post on my hip and blocks me how do I counter that now I have a good question ready right but if I don't know what the instructor is teaching and I just show up I have to kind of add li and figure it out on the fly which of course is doable but not ideal right but even outside of the instructor and the learning goal there's also some type of performance goal that you might have for yourself which is what part of the game do I want to challenge in my sparring today, right? And for example, uh the other day I was working on smash passing, right? Because I think I talked about that I picked up something from Jake Shields after like training with him for a few years. I picked up his two like strong techniques and I just light bulb. So now in training, that's what I'm going for, right? I'm trying to really sit now that I have a conceptual understanding of how the move works. I want to have the executable understanding now of being able to execute it repeatedly. Uh ideally with the level of success that he has when doing it. So again uh other goals that we can have right is not just having a physical preparation goal. There's a mental goal there's also a learning goal. There's then the execution right? You might be, man, Dave, this is a lot of work. Like, is this what it takes to get good? Yeah, that's why not everybody's great, right? Uh, it takes some planning, takes some insight, but I can guarantee you that the time invested in getting to this level of achievement and understanding and preparation is much less time that it takes to try to get good without it. Right? So, if you're going to if you decided you came in, you know, I want to be a black belt in the martial arts, right? Might as well start by working like one today, right? Why wait until you're a black belt and then achieve that understanding of, oh, I should really be a lot more technical and uh methodical with my my training time, right? Start now because you're going to save yourself so much more time later down the road, right? Uh I say this because I came into this sport from a wrestling background where it was a lot more about toughness, right? Uh uh my wrestling coach Tearso, amazing guy and he shaped my brother and I for who we were. But at least at the time or what I took from it, my Yes, I had some great wrestling techniques. Very basic, right? And again, not in a bad way. Basic's good. under hooks, head inside single legs. Those were my my things, right? I didn't develop a good like Greco Roman game or upper body like suplexes or lateral drops. I hit a few lateral drops, but not like my strong suit. Really don't really know how to leg ride well or I didn't learn that in wrestling, you know. So, like uh but what I did learn greatly was toughness and resilience. and I was able to endure lots of punishment and be able to push the pace hard. So from a competitive standpoint, I would be competitive in any sport just because of mindset that I developed. That's what I learned from wrestling. And I carried that on through my grappling pretty quickly as well, which is I used a lot of toughness and just brute force and cardio pacing to defeat opponents. Right now, I did have some technical advantages because the my first MMA coach, Renie Abero, was training us MMA back like in 1998 before the term even existed. I was doing heel hooks and neck cranks with random pound drills on my very first day of training with my brother and Randy. So, my brother and I struck success quickly with heel hooks and leg locks because most people weren't doing them. They were taboo, right? But I didn't really while I was able to learn the techniques, I wasn't thinking like I am now, right? I wasn't thinking what are the different levers that make this move work? How can I make it more effective? I was just like, okay, I know this works and this is what I do and I'm just going to really do it hard and fast. So I mean I if I look back now and rate my leg lock understanding back in 1999 2000 even 2001 40%. Right? And you might be thinking what like what's your level now? Uh maybe 70 maybe. Right. Uh, it's good, not at the level my Kumora game is, right? And there's definitely areas where I could get choked up, especially when I work with a guy who's a like a 10th planet dude. Uh, and very uh Jordan knows who he is, right? Uh he's a very dangerous guy to roll with because he just does all sorts of funky positions and he's like a human octopus and he could put you in positions where you're like I I think I should be ahead on this but it doesn't feel like I am, you know. Uh so I'm not fully versed enough to consider myself higher. But I do understand a lot of the fundamentals of the submissions. But my understanding of how to apply leverage now is so much better than it was back then. It's not even funny, right? Like it's leagues above each other. And mind you, early 2000s, I was submitting everybody with heel hooks and straight ankle locks, knee bars, right? Never got a tow hole in anybody in competition that is, but the other ones, yes. Uh, and that was with a very low level understanding. So, I know sometimes people say, "Oh, you know, you were ahead of the leglock game before I was." I'm like, "Uh, not really. I mean, my brother and I were good at leg locks compared to a crowd of people that knew like like 10% level of leg locks. So, yeah, if you're 40%, you're amazing compared to those. But guys like Gary Tone and you know, and Gordon and all the new generation guys like Craig Jones, their leg lock games are very high. they got to be pushing the 80s 90s you know like they are quite deadly there and uh it's a whole other level so that's just again I got kind of ramble off there but basically what I was trying to say was I didn't start with this understanding of highle technique breaking down the technique all this functioning components and then analyzing how to get it better I got there Later down the road, like probably 20067 when I started working this Kimor trap system is when I decided to become a technical grappler, a technical martial artist. Before that, I wasn't that technical, right? I didn't I was a competitor that was focused on cardio, endurance, and toughness. I had technical advantages. My knee cut passing was great. I had good takedowns, you know, uh I knew how to scramble well and I had decent leg locks, right? So, I was doing well competitively. I wasn't 80CC, you know, beating world champions like uh Zay Hero, but um I wasn't a technical grappler. My level of technique from like the end of 2006 to um even moving to 2009, I was like light years ahead of myself, right? Uh, and it just came through mental shift. So, don't wait until you're an expert to start thinking like one. Start thinking like an expert now and counsel with people, right? Talk to your instructor who hopefully is useful for you and he's able to teach you things. And then you got resources like people like me online and all the the greats, you know, like Gordon and Craig. They're teaching stuff. There's videos all over the place. Like there's no reason why you can't be the best version of yourself, right? Like there's you have countless levels of resources. Utilize them, right? I promise you the time invested in being better prepared and strategic is worth the squeeze.