Samantha Faulhaber

A fun concept. What would I go back and teach myself and how can I apply these thoughts to the people I teach today? My bias towards long-term health shows up strong in this journal entry. My priorities are on making a better, more durable body that will support any technique you show it. And some techniques too.

When I started this article I brainstormed what I think the most important principle for someone to get a grasp of might be. This is what I came up with. A list of the principles I would teach myself if I could start back at the beginning.

Mounted, with their hands pinned on either side of their head. Think about it. It’s usually the first place people get really “stuck”. Even brand new people seem to instinctively try and put other people in this position to control them. Having your hands pinned to the floor makes you feel totally helpless. Bump and roll can’t save you. Because it’s so easy to get stuck there I think it’s important to show this position to new people of all ages as part of an introduction to the sport.

“Fast” and “Crush” are the two names I loosely apply to my two modes of training. Which one I use depends on my opponent and what I’m working on.

Playing on top is one of the best ways to immobilize and submit your opponent. Keep these tips in mind when you are developing your game:

Unconventional Progress Measures: If you train often and recover properly you will see results. Here are a few progress markers that aren’t as obvious as “tapping people more often”.

When you prepare for a tournament, you get ON POINT with your body care, don’t you? You restrict your diet to only healthy foods (eventually, when the scale really won’t budge), you get more sleep, you’re working out strategically around training, you take supplements like BCAAs and fish oil to help your joints and muscles recover so you can accommodate a higher training volume, don’t you?

Sometimes it feels like training is awful. Nothing is working. Step back and assess. Something needs to change, but you don’t know where to start. Ask a few good questions and you’ll give yourself some specific information to work from.

When you get enough sleep, your body is healthier. When you get enough sleep, your brain works more clearly. When your brain works more clearly, you get things done faster and better which makes the waking hours of your day more productive.

When you understand why you’re doing something, you can forget a specific or two and still get to your destination. I have to take out someone’s ability to post and then knock them over in that direction. Great. Here’s 542 ways to do that where every millimeter counts. When I teach I try to prioritize why each thing is happening.

I’ve learned over the years that focusing solely on winning is generally detrimental to my training. There are times that I do it and feel good about it, but when I do too often I tend to get emotional and attached to the idea. While I think you win and learn AND lose and learn, I often try to either take away the win and lose portion entirely and only focus on the learn, or narrow the idea of winning. Focusing on “winning” is too general. There are too many dynamic options in Jiu-Jitsu for that to last long, especially when you don’t have an advanced enough game to flow without really thinking at all.

I get it. You don’t want to stop training. Nobody wants to stop training. I’m here to tell you two things:

I think about injury prevention through strong active ranges of motion all the time and how to get people there. I also train Jiu-Jitsu a lot, which is a nice place to contemplate such things around people that need it. Your friendly neighborhood beginner is at risk, and I’d like to offer some suggestions about what you can do to help.

Ignorance and fear typically rule the way people deal with Jiu-Jitsu injuries. Some glorify them as a badge of honor, some quit altogether, some take a middle ground and just hope for the best on a wish and a prayer that the body will fix itself. None of these will actually get you out of pain. If it seems like they do you are probably just riding borrowed time before you get the same injury again.

Jiu-jitsu culture seems to glorify at worst and passively accept at best that injuries are just going to happen. Everyone will have bad knees and shoulders and aches and pains together. In some ways, that’s true – you’re doing an active, tough sport and...

When you grab somebody by the end of their arm, you’re more likely to get the armbar than if you grabbed closer to the shoulder. You’re closer to the end of the lever, which means the strength differential is in your favor.

Measure your progress by how much range you get in belly expansion and depletion, the amount of control you have in lengthening the rate of forceful inhale or exhale, and the amount of time you’re able to hold.

What’s a big guy (or girl) to do? Jiu-Jitsu was designed so that other people can defeat you. You’re always going to be a measuring stick for other people’s effectiveness. You’re not going to get a lot of sympathy when you lose. Here’s a few things I sympathize with people I don’t feel so friendly towards when they’re sitting on top of me:

Guys that skew towards smaller in the academy have it the toughest of all, in my opinion. Here’s why.

The break itself isn’t the hardest part, it’s coming back from it. I’ve divided these slightly, but all advice has its place for all people, so don’t think it you don’t fit under the bold heading that it’s not meant for you. If it makes sense, that’s all that matters.

I just got back from an 11-day trip. I didn’t pack a gi. I didn’t train. It was great. There was a stretch of several years where all of my travel was devoted to Jiu-Jitsu. Anyone who has been to the Pan American or World Championships in California can relate to the story of coming home and having to explain that your California “vacation” was spent having no idea if the sun was shining or not inside of a college gymnasium time warp.

You were a star athlete. You worked really hard for your skills and you should feel good about them, even as you’re being brutally crushed by a 120-lb brown belt. Somehow, you ended up walking through a Jiu-Jitsu academy’s doors. You might not have expected it to be easy, but you were optimistic. You’re an athlete! People don’t even run in this sport. This won’t be so bad. A little weird but I’ll be up and running in no time. Unless you were a wrestler, you probably had little idea what you were in for.

Jiu-Jitsu is Getting Better. We Have it Pretty Good: The market has expanded. Kids these days have it so good (grumbled the 13-year veteran). Choices are everywhere. I swear to God that today’s blue belt World Champions would have been brown belts five years ago. The rising quality of competitors arising from all over reflect the rising quality of competition for your loyalty and dollars.

Over the next few weeks Digitsu will be rolling out some articles I wrote on a few specific BJJ reasons different people have a tough time. The overall realization is that everybody has difficulties, not just the subsets I wrote about in (hopefully) realistic and amusing ways. Everybody brings their own trials and tribulations to the mat area. I’ve included a couple of tasks in here that may help you reset when you’re feeling things tilt towards the difficult side.

Universal What Not to Do in the Academy: Academies differ in style, personality, and formality, but here’s a list of things I’ve collected over the years that I think most people and training partners would agree are good etiquette guidelines. Some probably are, but some aren’t always written down where you train. Feel free to share with new students or anyone you’d love to get the message!

When you’re a white belt beginner, everyone is a wizard. You don’t know what’s happening. You’re tapping all the time. You feel helpless. What a weird sport to get addicted to. You look up to everyone. They’re amazing. Everyone you tap to must have fountains of information to share with you about how to be so great. You thank everyone profusely for spending even a little time with you, and apologize to everyone you’re partnered with because you’re obviously wasting their training time. You’ve placed the whole damn sport on a pedestal. Frankly, you’re vulnerable to being taken advantage of and your whole mindset is setting you up for disappointment when you realize everyone is human. You’re people too, Mr. or Miss White Belt.

Put Your Child in BJJ -- it will teach them discipline, respect, problem-solving…. You’ve heard all this before, especially if you’re reading this article, listed and promoted by a Jiu-Jitsu website. You’ve heard these arguments before for a number of other things marketed to your child, too.

The best way to lose a Jiu-Jitsu competition (if there is such a thing) is that you gave your best and someone just happened to be better than your best on that day. Here’s a few other ways to lose that are more in your control:

Your coach is yelling at you. You’re three minutes into a match and stuff is happening. Lots of stuff. The venue is loud. Some guy is mumbling into a microphone. The ref is standing over you. Your hands are holding tight to…something. You may have some idea of where your legs are. Or is that your opponent’s leg?

You’re doing Jiu-Jitsu! The most empowering, fun, exciting, fitness-having, ego-smashing, be-like-a-kid-again-but-more-dangerous rootin tootin sport you could have ever chosen. Don’t you feel awesome every day knowing that you’re studying and getting better with every class?

The night after a tournament is rough no matter what the outcome. If you won, you did stuff wrong. If you lost, you did stuff wrong. To me this is why none of it matters all that much win or lose. The result is the same, an introspective sleep-deprived night coming down from an adrenaline high.

“Don’t Accept!!!” Words you can expect to hear at any BJJ tournament. This may be one of the absolute pillars of the sport, with a nod to the arguments you can make that it applies to sports in general. Like I’ve previously written about, you can teach heart.

Our sense of humanity and unity is at its height when tragedy strikes. Imagine if we could capture a little more of that when everything is going pretty ok.

Multi-tasking doesn’t work so well. We’ve been duped. It sure seems like we’re doing more if we’re listening to a podcast and writing an article, but in fact we’re kidding ourselves and half-assing both projects. I’m going to assume that everyone reading this knows both their ABCs and 123s, or at least enough to do this simple exercise.

Years ago I read in some fitness magazine that Kelly Slater (often cited as the best surfer out there) thinks of every wave as a series of individual flat planes. This idea stuck with me for whatever reason. A big wave isn’t so big if it’s just one little piece after another to deal with. Taking a step back and looking at the big picture can often be very helpful for perspective, but this article is focused on the importance of the little picture.

“The mats don’t lie.” You’ve probably heard this quote before. You can actually lie plenty on the mats. You can lie anywhere you want to - before, during, and after training. You can make up reasons why you lose or even deliberately hold back. People are just fairly adept at judging your skillful value and whether or not you’re lying to yourself. People also lie all the time. Just because we train Jiu-Jitsu doesn’t mean we’re all saints, as much as many would like to think. Please teach your white and blue belts this before they’re easily influenced by others.

The next time you sit out a train, take a look around the room. Look at the faces of the people rolling (eye contact still unnecessary here, don’t make it weird) and analyze what you see. Most likely you will notice that the higher the rank of the person, the more relaxed their faces. Look again. I’m right, aren’t I? The huffing, puffing, and straining of the beginner students almost uniformly gives way to zen-like demeanors even as the instructor or other advanced belt is smashing the crap out of people. Kind of sinister, isn’t it? Don’t you want to be that creepy? Haha

It’s very tough to dredge up motivation to learn something after you’ve accepted that it’s not going to happen. Much tougher than it is to keep moving forward in the belief you just have to keep trying. Both are uphill climbs, but to give up rolls you all the way back down to the bottom to begin again. Maybe even farther down than you started from. Optimism is a powerful tool. Since (hopefully) we are not under real physical threat in the Jiu-Jitsu gym our motivation must come from a desire to learn and win the game. The effort put in this controlled, predictable environment will determine how well we perform in an uncontrolled, unpredictable environment like an actual street attack.

What constitutes a “basic” move in Jiu-Jitsu anyway? Basics are the building blocks upon almost everything is built. You can take any problem in life and break it down to its components to figure out what you need to learn to succeed

You go to class 4x+ per week, you’re on time, and your drilling is accurate. What else can you do to take yourself to another level?

I aspire to train like a ghost. Being smaller and only recently working on my strength, I can’t count on controlling a lot of people with my muscles anyway. Above all this means that I’m cultivating the skill of letting go.

There’s a reason the wrestler hits the ground running (so to speak) when he starts Jiu-Jitsu. Ok, there’s a lot of reasons. But the overarching one is that of prerequisites for success. Both neurologically and physically, he or she has adapted through training to jump right into the fray. It would be more confusing if they didn’t do well after training similar, transferrable movements for x number of years. They have recent experience squatting, bending, bridging, and rolling with speed and explosiveness.

I just stopped by the [Cal State Uni Long Beach gymnasium] Pyramid for the first time after having really excited thoughts about competing tomorrow. My knees didn't start getting shaky until I was at the venue. The two hour drive from San Diego probably didn't help, but it was definitely my first touch with nerves. I saw, hugged and/or high-fived almost everybody that will be in my division tomorrow - Tammi Musumeci, Mackenzie Dern, Karen Antunes Borges.

A great benefit and stress-relieving quality of Jiu Jitsu is its power to put you in the NOW. Most people have never had anyone try to choke them before they stepped on the mats. But what happens when you find your mind wandering and become a less present individual during training?

I am always trying to figure out better ways to describe Jiu-Jitsu to the uninitiated. How do you tell somebody about this super fun thing that on its surface looks brutal and personal? How do you convey that this will "change their life", bleeding...

There are two common types of Jiu-Jitsu beginners, a classic tortoise and hare story. Tortoises are meek, possibly kind of giggly, and act lost all the time. They crawl along, afraid to try almost anything and say "sorry" a lot. The hares are people that hold on enthusiastically for dear life, pushing and pulling with vigor and trying to bench press people off of them. They move forward eagerly regardless of their knowledge base. As unskilled beginners, they both have some big challenges in the first two months or so of their training.

Raise your hand if you knew who Mikey Musumeci was before the American Nationals this year. If you need an introduction - Mikey Musumeci is good. He's a 19-year old phenom and the younger brother of Tammi Musumeci. He won four World Championships in a row while rising steadily up the ranks. He received his black belt on the World's podium this year after winning the brown belt light featherweight division. If he's lost a tournament match in three years I can't find it. Mikey's dominance has limited his fame. Up until a week ago people probably knew him more as Tammi's brother or for the fun berimbolo-in-public videos the two put on Instagram. There was nothing exciting to report because he won all the time against a lot of different people. Being good is one thing, but rivalries make for better stories

When I had the pleasure of presenting at a local school's Career Day about my Brazilian Jiu Jitsu experience, one perceptive kid asked, "how often do people get hurt?" My response was, "it does happen. It's a contact sport, but it's very safe. I would say 90% of the time when someone gets hurt it's because of somebody's ego. Does anybody know what ego is?"