Guest Blog: Caleb - Phalanx BJJ

Evolution

My name is Caleb and I first met and trained with Brad about 3 years ago. When I first started I really had no idea how to do any escapes, sweeps or submissions. I'd seen them on youtube and in the UFC, but my first day of class when someone asked me if I wanted to roll I had no clue what to do. I remember grabbing onto his neck and squeezing with everything I had dying to make someone tap out my first try, but to my surprise I squeezed and squeezed and nothing happened, he eventually got out and he WAS able to squeeze my neck properly and force me to tap out which was especially confusing because I outweighed the guy by at least 60lbs.

After that day I started learning some techniques but I wasn't able to pull them off yet. I knew the moves, but there was a lot more I didn't know about control, pressure, balance, leverage, and counters to the counters of the techniques I'm trying to implement. Even though I've become much better than I was before, those are the same things I have to work on now, because when I learn a new lesson and get better at a certain technique I end up in a different place and have to learn the concepts and techniques from there. That's what I love about grappling, I learn the same lessons every day of training in a new and fresh way. It fascinates me to see how my grappling game evolves in a short amount of time. I have days where I feel great and days when I am frustrated and just can't seem to do anything right, but I look at the bad days as one down and one less to have. I feel that to be REALLY good at something like grappling or fighting, you have to try and fail many times, I always say you have to take at least 10,000 ass beatings to be great and after I take one I say it's just one less I have to take.

Today I told Brad at lunch that I needed some help on a half guard sweep and it's actually a position I used to feel good about when I trained with smaller guys, but against Brad or Paul (Buentello) it was obvious I was missing something. Having to go back and look at the small details of a position is an example of that evolution I find exciting about training. I started with nothing, learned that sweep, was able to get it on some guys. Now I have to learn how to do it to someone who knows the defense, and once I've done that I have to prepare for the next position or a different opponent, but before that even, I have to learn minor details while still learning the basic fundamentals, and fail several times before I can get it to work.

I have a perfect example from another situation today. I usually pull guard when Brad and I start from the knees. He's bigger and stronger and is best on top where he can make any control position painful, so I figure I will benefit most from having to deal with the skills he's best at so when I fight someone my size and experience level I am confident that even if I am in bad positions they won't be able to crush me like he does. Anyway, I did do some guard pulling, but later on he either pulled guard or gave me position so I could work more control from the top which is something I have been sucking at. I was trying new things in side mount and I was making mistakes, he would get back to half guard, sweep and pass. The past several weeks I've been trying to force a lot of action and movement and never relax in bad positions, and I tweaked some things and got a couple arm in guillotines, so when I've gotten in top half recently I've gotten over excited about the guillotine and had bad results. I'm at a point in the evolution with this technique now where I need to focus on the details and apply the common concepts of grappling. I wasn't cinching up tight enough and my transitions are sloppy, leave a lot of space, and are off balanced.

Every time I went for the choke Brad was using an underhook and an arm between my legs to roll me over his opposite hip, and I had finally failed in that position enough to learn how it felt when he was getting ready for it. I continued going for my guillotine and I paid closer attention to the details I needed to correct. I felt better, I felt like I was playing a tighter game and was going to stop the sweep and get the choke. He went for the sweep, it was close but I balanced myself just enough to keep from going over...right before he immediately went the other way and came out the back door.

I still got swept, I still got tapped, but if I fail and try again enough times I won't get swept or tapped by the same things. That's part of the evolution of the game and that's why I love it.