The “go to the ground” thing is interesting to observe based on backgrounds. I find, universally, all martial arts express the same thing. In a real life conflict, you don’t want to end up on the ground.
From there, the philosophies diverge. Striking arts say “Since you don’t want to end up the ground, we learn how to end the fight standing”. Grappling arts say “Since you don’t want to end up on the ground, we learn how to fight from there so we can escape it as fast as possible”
What’s equally fascinating is just how little proficiency it takes in the latter to be able to deal with someone that has NO proficiency. I was a terrible wrestler in high school, which was 25 years ago, but I can still use that skillset to put someone with NO wrestling training on the ground in pretty short order, and I can also escape from someone trying to do it to me pretty simply because I know how to sprawl. I feel like anyone that wants to learn how to defend themselves should have at least one season of wrestling under their belts.
I wrestled as an eight year old. Weekend tournaments at the local high school - hey, wanna wrestle?
Had a card and they would staple in a red or blue swatch of a ribbon based on a win (blue) or a loss (red). My dad would get me up and make me breakfast and drop me off and it was like a singles event - hey, wanna wrestle?
I had no experience and got my ass kicked. Rules and stuff.
But I went to an inner city school and had older brothers, so I could fight. All of those kids that beat me at wrestling were no match for me on the street. I could sprawl, but it never came to that.
Silly to talk about now, and my son still uses “Stop. I don’t want to fight you.”
In poker this phenomenom is very apparent. Sometimes it’s impossible to say what someone who does know shit about the game has in his/her hand, since their gameplay is so random. You can’t bluff them or read them.
TACTICAL BARBELL OPERATOR Week 6, Workout 4 part 1
Sandbag medley
3 rounds w/150lb bag
PM WORKOUT (1240)
PART II
SSB front squats
4x2x290
ALTERNATE W/
Axle strict press from rack
3x2x203
1x203
Chins w/1min rest
18,10,8,8,8
Notes:
Today was a weird day schedule-wise. Since I knew I had a half day, I slept in and got the carries done, because they’re a quick workout. I got home and got the majority of the rest of the workout done while waiting for the treadmill repair guy to show up. He came in right before my final set of presses, so I finished that out after they left. Since I wasn’t warmed up any more, I about blacked out on the first rep, so I called it at that point. Honestly pretty pleased I can press 203 for a strict single cold.
My right shin still hurts from last week, but those front squat reps were deep. I actually chuckled at “All Time Low” was playing during the set.
Shaved off the chins between sets to make the workout move faster, so tried to make some up at the end. Also opened up with a set of 18.
My lower back was STIFF going for the bag this morning (video is out of sequence btw, just for the sake of convention). My schedule is a little nutty, so hitting this workout after a deadlift PR was unique.
Weighed in at 83.7kg this morning. When I first stepped on the scale, it said 80.9, which was unexpected and led me to step back on and get 83.7 more consistently. Something to track. But bodyweight continues to trend downward, per the goal.
Tang Soo Do was not very intense last night. We’ll see how tonight goes.
This is one of the core differences between my first sport coach and second coach, who actually knew and taught BJJ as a fighting art. “Just stand back up” and the broader idea of “base” were core elements of their curriculum. The guard is still an important position to know, but it is an emergency position, not a go-to. TONS of sport-only guard work isn’t even on the curriculum there. You can still learn it at open mats, but no regular classroom time is dedicated to a shin-to-shin X guard entry, De La Riva guard, donkey guard, or a long list of other stuff that won’t work if you can strike.
Sprawls weren’t part of the regular curriculum at my first school. It got a bit of lip service occasionally, as did other stand-up, but it just wasn’t a mat time priority at all. I had a few hundred reps of a flower sweep and various other sport-only techniques, but maybe 5 minutes of total sprawl training.
Sprawls across the mat are a regular warm-up drill at the other school. So are shots across the mat and various other fundamental movements in grappling. The entire warm-up there consists of grappling movements.
@twojarslave It’s good to hear the evolutionary experience there. I know Judo is getting in a bad way that way as well: competition rules are really taking away a lot of the effectiveness.
@atlas13 It’s like the old WWII quote “One of the serious problems in planning against American doctrine is that the Americans do not read their manuals, nor do they feel any obligation to follow their doctrine”, haha. The original “Chaos is the plan”
Stuck with coffee for breakfast per it being Thursday rather than it being a training day. Dinner was unique. I have these Don Lee Farm’s chicken breast patties
In my adventures of needlessly using my sous vide, I set them up in the sous vide bath alongside a grassfed burger patty. When they were done, I sprayed the chicken with duck fat and the beef with Wagyu spray and pan seared them all for a minute. A slice of Jarlsburg lite swiss on the beef, and used the chicken patties for buns. Like an evolved version of the KFC double down
Funny you say that. In police training, that’s exactly where we want you to go. I imagine if I’m ever in a fight that I’m going to grab and slam the guy if I can. I’m not trained to go toe-to-toe like a boxer, so why try? I’d like to think the brute force and violent action would take the fight out of most folks..or at least stun them and give me the upper hand.
I was VERY strategic in my use of the phase “end up” vs “go to” for just this reason.
Getting to the ground should be YOUR decision: not the aggressors’. If I can slam a dude on the ground, that’s a win. But if he puts me there, that’s not good.
That is probably why the Highway Patrol had us spend so much time fighting on our back. Similar to some of your challenges at your class, we had days where you let a guy get full mount on you and you had 30 seconds to escape or win, or at the very least not lose your gun. Then we did it again with a fresh guy and again for three or four rounds.
Another fun day was when we went one on one until someone was unconscious or tapped out. The only tool we could use was neck restraints. There’s nothing quite like the feeling of screwing up and knowing it, and then being able to do nothing as your opponent slowly works his way into his restraint. I think I was able to stall for about 30 seconds before he got it locked in but that impending doom of knowing it was coming sucked.
@Frank_C Thinking more about it, context also plays a key here too. In your situation, I imagine the intent is to restrain/subdue the aggressor, and hopefully some backup will show up to assist, whereas for many in the self-defense sphere, it’s more about creating enough space to make an escape. Whereas others are trying to run FROM the danger, you are running toward it.
That is a very valuable drill there. You can’t be passive in these situations. There was an MMA organization back in the day called “Cage Rage” which had a 30 second timer for ground work. Once the fight went to the ground, the fighters had 30 seconds to finish before they were stood back up. Definitely encouraged aggression.
PM WORKOUT (1545)
TACTICAL BARBELL OPERATOR Week 6, Workout 5
“GO RUCK YOURSELF GENTLY”
3 mile walk w/20.4lb vest
Notes:
Had the day off work, spent it with the Valkyrie, got in a brisk walk in the afternoon, meeting the spirit of an easy conditioning week.
Woke up at 83.6kg. More slight regression on weight.
Right shin/knee seems to be getting worse. I’m going to try some Motrin to see if that helps.
Missed my timed holds the past 2 days, but did one while wearing the weight vest today. Also walked the family through another ABF workout.
Fasted until lunch. We went out to our favorite Hawaiian BBQ place. I had a loco moco (hamburger steak topped with a fried egg and beef gravy) and the Valkyrie shared some kabli ribs and BBQ chicken with me.
Valkyrie made breakfast for dinner. 2 omelets with 3 whole eggs, some 93% lean piedmontese ground beef, a slice of jarlsburg lite swiss and some ghee, topped with full fat greek yogurt and black salt, with 3 strips of beef bacon and a piedmontese jr grassfed beef hot dog.
Mindset is key, too. Some guys just tried to survive which is fine. One of my training partners had some experience from the Army and he made everyone but me tap out. He might have been on his back, but he was the aggressor. The only thing that saved me was my strength. He was about an inch away from locking in an arm bar.
His skill is also the reason I chose him as a partner. I didn’t win much - actually the only time I got him was in a 2 on 1 drill and he was focused on my partner - but I didn’t want to win in training. I don’t think it would have done any good for me to pair with the other tall guy just to throw him around like a rag doll. I outweighed him by 40+ pounds.
My training partner is now an Army Ranger so I guess I can at least say I got whooped by a worthy opponent.
This is a 3 second PR for the training cycle. Feeling lighter, leaner and lethal (Thanks Donnie!), and setting the mats a little further ahead meant I stopped running into the garage door motor.
Press returned quick from the top and the cleans were explosive for the most part. Caught a few on the chest vs the rack, but I’m pleased and feel ready for my comp.
This is the final workout of the training cycle. Bridge week next week, and then I’m deciding between 3 weeks of Operator Pro or going straight into mass protocol. I have 13.5 weeks until my next cruise, so it’s basically 3 weeks of Op Pro, 6 weeks Grey Man , 3 weeks Specificity, or lead with Grey man and finish with Op Pro. Somewhere in April will be a 10 mile race, so that’s something. I am excited at the prospect of growing and eating again, but I also know I already have the momentum going with Red Meat and Black Coffee and might just chase it to it’s logical end.
Breakfast was a repeat of Friday’s dinner. For Valentine’s dinner, I was a total catch and cooked for the family. Cooked a 3lb tri tip in the sous vide at 134 for a little over 7 hours with just a salt and pepper rub, then pan seared in wagyu tallow on my cast iron with a butter baste with garlic. Sliced against the grain, served alongside avocado, because Santa Maria of course. I also had 3 whole eggs and 5 whites, per standard.
Also picked up a Fallout Bobblehead that brings me joy and is hanging out next to my trophies.
Skipped breakfast and had lunch with the family at Culver’s. Got 5 beef patties and 2 packs of butter. We did an escape room later in the afternoon so picked up Mexican for dinner: carne asada, cheese and eggs in one burrito and beef cheek in the other, mixed together with some greek yogurt.
Was active today, walked the family through some ABF, but fighting all my instincts and NOT training leading up to the comp. Still undecided on the follow on training.
Also, we set the monthly record on the escape room. Check the team name on the bottom left
Hey Pwn, couple questions for you that aren’t directly related to what you’re doing currently but just more in general.
I’ve recently started 5/3/1 second set last and switched from back squats to safety squat bar squats as my main squat. What do you feel are the best assistance exercises to help drive this lift up? With less forward lean I’m not sure if it would changes the assistance plan if that was your primary squat lift you were interested in improving.
When you’re doing assistance exercises, it looks like you generally stay at the same weight for all sets and reps, I’m assuming meaning the first couple sets are multiple reps still in the tank. How do you determine to do that vs doing each set to as many as possible? I’m not sure why, but I’ve noticed over the years I have a large drop off in performance between sets even if I leave a lot in me each set an even if I rest for 2+ minutes. Like if I do DB bench 5x10 in order for me to get 10 reps on the last set or two I have to pick a weight that I could have realistically gotten 15+ reps on the first set if I really tried. picking a weight I could’ve done 11 or 12 reps on the first set means by the 4th or 5th set im only getting 6-8 reps even though those first couple sets I’m stopping easily short of my best effort. So I’m curious how assistance exercises “feel” for you I guess? It’s a hard question for me to figure out how to word.
Regarding question 1: I feel this may be not really appreciating what 5/3/1 “is”. It’s not about making the squat stronger: it’s about the squat making YOU stronger. Jim is clear it’s not a powerlifting program, and that’s really the fundamental difference: the lifts are being used to make a stronger athlete, rather than the athlete becoming stronger to lift more weights. So in that regard, the purpose of the assistance work isn’t to improve the main lift, but to build muscle. It’s why Jim has frequently said it doesn’t matter what you do for the assistance work: it’s just there to make the muscles bigger. They’re worth changing/rotating just to keep from stagnating, but beyond that, incline bench press and dips are both there to just make your pushing muscles bigger.
So in that regard, for me, the assistance work doesn’t really change based off the main lift. In truth, I just like using bodyweight work, since I don’t have to play around with equipment.
Question 2 is pretty similar: it’s really just about pushing hard and getting muscle. Jim is big on how the main work needs to be fast, controlled, explosive, non-grinder reps. It means that assistance is where we can grind. If you want to grind on every set while staying in a certain rep range, you’ll need to play around with the weights per set. Otherwise, you can just set a rep total goal and aim for that, or use some old fashion doubled progression if you want a for real plan.
@GymAndTonic Definitely worse late night snacks to have! Haha.
15 rounds of Armor Building Complexes, EMOM, with 10kg bells
4 mile easy run
Notes:
It’s the start of the bridge week, and also a holiday, so I slept in, had another weekend style breakfast, and joined in with the family on the ABF. Used the Valkyrie’s bells during her downtime on the EMOMs. It actually felt tonic on my hurt shin/knee, which was nice. Immediately afterwards, joined the better half for a run. Kept it leisurely: definitely passed the talk test. Was a good test of my new shoes and how my knees would hold up. Things seem promising.
Family meal tonight was spaghetti with piedmontese meat sauce, some buttered sourdough toasted in ghee, and then 2 of the Valkyrie’s cookies and a homemade banana bread muffin, all with some local raw honey.
I am in a real good mental state, because I’m just one day into the bridge and already excited to get back to training. I REALLY want to get to building again, but I’m thinking that 3 more weeks of Operator pro makes the most sense. It means gaining all the way up to my cruise in May, which I can then continue feasting there and then kick into the summer on another bout of Operator to lean out. I’m thinking, with that one, if I don’t have a competition on the horizon, I’m going to do something I’ve been promising myself for a while and make it a Crossfit/WOD based run of Operator.
Getting in the daily holds still. Curious how it will pay off for the Heracles hold.
The bridge week continues, and I lived it up by sleeping in and not training this morning. I also weighed in at 83.7, which is the lightest I’ve ever weighed in post-carb up and a full kilo below where I weighed last week at this time, so things continue to move well.
My knee feels a lot better AFTER 15 ABCs and a 4 mile run, so bodies continue to be weird.
