Jitz Research Opportunity

Hi There,

I thought about posting this awhile ago, but held back for whatever reason.

I'm currently a grad student in Claremont and after working this Summer to get a research proposal approved- I finally got it: Will complex 3D activity (10thP JJ) increase "working memory" more than cardio-based (run/cycle) exercise?

(Working Memory = the part of short-term memory that is concerned with immediate conscious perceptual and linguistic processing; It's highly correlated with fluid intelligence ==> May help people in many areas ranging from important daily tasks to life span.)

Here's the original paper with findings I'm aiming to replicate (http://tinyurl.com/he437ex), moving from a wrestling-based 8-week training program (Three 1-hour sessions per week for 8 weeks; beginners) to a 10thP-based treatment group focusing on the warmup sets and more technical training/rolling.

My proposal was approved, so now I can begin recruiting people, finalizing the schedule (we have 1/2 a wrestling mat here at a campus gym), and working towards finding evidence that there's unique/important cognitive benefits to training jiu jitsu compared to other more popular activities.

If anyone has any input/advice/caution/objections it would be great to hear from you. I can certainly use all of the help I can get.

Fortunately, I've been able to stop by at Orange, Riverside, Corona, and Whittier to learn a bit from the great teachers nearby. (I'm about 50 minutes from each) I'd love to train with one of them or at HQ and potentially will make it a priority to get over at least 2X a week once I can predict my schedule with the sessions mentioned above.

With everybody's approval, I'd like to help make this happen while keeping up with training for myself. I want to put in the work to build a small school someday. Moreover, if we end up with this kind of evidence I think we're doing a great thing and it's just another reason to love jitz.

Attachment 3579

Sounds cool! I have a few questions:

1. What's your degree in? Is this project for a course assignment, senior thesis for a Masters degree, dissertation, etc.?
2. When you say your proposal has already been approved, are you referring to your institutional review board? If so, nice! That can take forever.
3. Are you planning for 20-ish participants in each group like in the study you linked to?
4. Who will teach the 10p curriculum to the participants?
5. How are you measuring 'working memory'?

Hi Brett,

1. I'm in statistics and cognitive science right now. No, it's not for an assignment. I came across a professor who was on the first "Design Sport" paper and since then I've been working with him to make a replication, however iterating the treatment group from wrestling to jiu jitsu.

2. Yes, when I mentioned that it's already been approved I meant by IRB at my school. (took all Summer) I asked for approval from the forum because if anybody has any concerns or input I'd like to address them/modify plans. (Also looking for a go ahead from Eddie)

3. We're aiming for 30ish participants in each group and have discussed doing a second run of the study after the first to collect more data.

4. I've brought the study up to a few instructors in the region, generally asking for any help they might be able to provide. Of course I think we might better implement jiu jitsu training with experienced instructors. However, in the event that I don't have a couple/few instructors to help me I plan to focus on utilizing the standardized warmup sets, which should provide a lot to work with for the 8 weeks.

5. We'll measure working memory and spatial reasoning pre and post test via the same measures used in the "Design Sport" study linked above. (Mental Rotation, Foam Board, Surface Development, Paper Folding, Backward Digit Span, etc.) The plan is to also take blood pressure and resting heart rate.

Would be great if we could get your help, Michael Steinmetz.

What you mentioned is definitely a big part of this line of research and argument. With some major aspects of the most popular sports known to cause cognitive issues and potentially lead to early degeneration, if we're "Designing Sport" to include the best of what we can pack into them we might have weight to argue for compex motor training via jiu jitsu. The specific kind of memory we're looking at here isn't focused on recall of previous events/experiences/techniques, but rather a capacity that may be the basis of fluid intelligence.

I'm sorry to hear about your frustrations. Let's keep at it!