Why Russians are better than Americans in wrestling....

[DesiCuellar]

This dude looks like hes cut from the same cloth of Kenny Florian and Ben Stiller

LMFAO i was thinking the SAME THING! ahahahahahahahahah

[ifreez]

I can substantiate this from my own observations. I trained with many Russians over many years (not the crazy, skinny kooks you see on youtube), a lot of ex military whom believe in that cyborg, linear mentality when it comes to combat , and they believe in one thing only -- muscle memory (especially when it comes to breathing, as stress can restrict breathing).

Look at it form this perspective. All Russian males have to do military service. They all have to do 'the field', so to speak, whether at home, or stationed abroad in a foreign country. In the military, they want to create a body dynamic that performs on muscle memory alone, especially when the mental capacity is overwhelmed by either fear or information bombardment -- only the body goes into action, precise and accurate, without having to think.

So you can see, since all males are indoctrinated into this process (the military being a sort of cultural right of passage), this way of looking at combat sports and life can easily spill over and can become a ubiquitous mindset in Russian culture, where the older males teach the young. And maybe you can argue that this has been creeping into the general population since the end of the second world war, or Stalin's era.

The group I've trained with practice techniques and/or principles precisely and repetitively over, and freaking over again, and freaking over again, so when you need it, and are overcome with fear or stress, you don't have to think about it, your body just does it.

I have noticed, nonetheless, that 'westerners' don't really have a passion for tedious, repetitive drills. I might be wrong, but that's only my observation. At the places I've trained before, the Russians quickly developed into monsters, while 'westerners' that have been at the same tasks for years and years, just either didn't excel, or didn't get it.

The Russians come already with that disciplined regimented work ethic, willing to endure the most banal, repetitive tasks, which seems ingrained in their culture, while very few 'westerners' have that same passion for mundane, tedious repetition.

[DesiCuellar]

ok, but didn't Eric B. & Rakim proclaim "Don't Sweat the Technique"? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Y1Emb7Jyks)

honestly, i don't know who to believe anymore

lol i dont think thats what Ra meant.

[Daniel Valdez]

Awesome videos, thanks for the post and I don't know about the comparisons I don't know enough about Russian wrestlers but I completely agree on what he is saying about American wrestlers lacking technique and knowledge of the sport as a whole.

[Josh Passini]

The other dynamic is that the athletes are given housing, food, and a salary to do their respective sport. So they have a better opportunity to focus solely on their job because the government takes care of the rest. Not saying its the best life but maybe some of that stress is taken away.

[Tim Elliott]

My background is not in martial arts, but in rowing. You see exactly what hes saying, but its much more obvious. Its vastly simplified because there is only one movement. It proves his point completely. The cool thing about rowing is that what your trying to hang on to is water.

Theres were crews who trained exactly as he described. They thrashed and thrashed and thrashed and if they were slow, they lifted more weights, did more sprints. Because they were trying to hold onto water, their bad technique let them down. In terms of efficiency, most of what they did was wasted. Its like having a worn out clutch in your car. Your revving the guts out of your engine and your going nowhere.

I was trained by a coach who was all about technique. Efficiency of motion was everything. It wasnt about thrashing your body harder and harder, it was about making sure every calorie burned equated to forward motion. Ultimately what that meant is that if we were just as hard, and just as fit as the other crew, we went twice as fast.

The fact that your hauling with every ounce of strength in your body on water, makes it a great analogy for any technique in martial arts.

Inefficiency in motion (bad technique) is energy (force/speed) that could otherwise have been harnessed in the execution of the technique.

The key is to drill the motion endlessly, and never ever go fast enough or apply so more force that your technique becomes ragged. Never ever drill bad technique for the sake of increased strenght/fitness/conditioning. Slowly build the speed of each repetition untill the firsts signs ragged technique and then slow right down and start the build again. This is how you train the subconscious to do it perfectly without thought. The subconscious will learn a movement how you actually do it, not how you know to do it, which is why its so important never to train just for the sake of getting tired.

If you throw a ball to me, slow and straight and I have plenty of time to think about it, I will fumble it every time. Throw it as hard at my head without any warning and I will catch it one handed every time like something out of a Kung Fu movie.

Conscious thought = slow
Subconscious = fast

[JeffRace727]

thats the way I am, not really amazingly conditioned at ALL. I'm just 100% technique.
I'm 5'11 160 pounds right now...basically Shinya Aoki size. But I'm used to going at it with Wreslters in submission grappling, not many other jiu jitsu guys besides a few. I'm the guy who pulls guard and just lays on my back not expelling any energy at all, just going with the flow.

anyways, I got into a match with a solid wrestler, big guy, about 240 or so...not really fat. But anyways, I pulled guard and just chilled and the guy, for some reason stacked on me and just kept sliding me across the floor for about one minute, and then when he stopped I caught him straight up with a gogoplata. The guy wasn't doing anything, he is a wrestler using wrestler mentality just working, working, working trying to open something up. Fact is the guy didn't really know how to pass guard cause wrestlers don't work anything in BJJ positions.

[Jarrad Mckay]

IMPORTANCE OF DRILLING: (MY $0.2)

A while back, I bought Eddie's Mastering the RG, and Twister books + the DVD set. My problem was going into class only a couple of times a week, or getting a training partner to commit to the same training schedule on the nights that I'm not in class training to actually drill technique. I found myself in situations where I was thinking about "ok what do i do from here" type shit during live sparring, and getting caught or smashed because I couldn't put things together quick enough. My opponents easily would immediately down play techniques that I was trying as saying see that doesn't work..etc.

My wife eventually got frustrated of me "trying a move on her".. & determined to drill, I purchased a grappling dummy.

Now they're definitely certain moves that just aren't possible in my circumstances, although they're definitely plenty that are.
I practice and breakdown the elements of so many different techniques that are possible. I started to draft up a sheet, each outlining the techniques for the day, each technique attempted 3times a piece, and I do this about 3times a week. Luckily the GD I use actually postures up in my guard, so I continously drill the basic path in this process. Now nothing will ever substitute an actual training person to work with, but the point is now when i get into class, i see the move in front of me before i get into the position, the flow aspect of it so much quicker, of course now things change cause I'm in a live sparring situation, but that's okay at least i understand the flow of the technique through DRILLING )

If you were trying to say your 2 cents worth u were meant to write $0.02

[Justin W.]

Every video of Ken has him compared to Ben Stiller. Poor guy. I agree that technique is the most important thing (I don't see how anyone could disagree) however, IMO I don't think you need to do reps to be able to put them into action. I believe that if you have a complete understanding of a move, combined with being coordinated, you don't need reps. Now I've only been training for a year (if you count a few times a month training) I can say with experience that 99% of everything I learn, I can do in a real situation immediately following. The key is to train your body to be coordinated so that anything your mind knows, your body will follow. This is all just my opinion of course. This is what works for me.

[Daniel Valdez]

Every video of Ken has him compared to Ben Stiller. Poor guy. I agree that technique is the most important thing (I don't see how anyone could disagree) however, IMO I don't think you need to do reps to be able to put them into action. I believe that if you have a complete understanding of a move, combined with being coordinated, you don't need reps. Now I've only been training for a year (if you count a few times a month training) I can say with experience that 99% of everything I learn, I can do in a real situation immediately following. The key is to train your body to be coordinated so that anything your mind knows, your body will follow. This is all just my opinion of course. This is what works for me.

Oh boy