Wednesday, September 26, 2012

The Gable Philosophy

Few people in any sport of the world have achieved what a soda-bottle glasses wearing, balding, gruff, and seeming unremarkable man by the name Dan Gable ever has. Aside from having 2 personal NCAA championships, an Olympic gold medal, and a world championship win, Gable was only ever noted to have lost one match in his career.   In the 1972 Olympics, against some of the worlds fiercest competition, Gable did not allow even a single point scored against him in his chosen sport of wrestling.
While these achievements are incredible, Gable didn't stop there. He went on to coach for Iowa State and went on to win a record 9 consecutive championships for his team. He went on to coach till 1997, winning 7 more NCAA titles with his team, for a total of 16. He was a coach for the US Olympic team for 3 separate Olympics.

Its said by people in the know, that Michael Jordan is the Dan Gable of basketball. I wouldn't go as far to say that. Michael Jordan's accomplishments are eclipsed by Gable.

I don't say this to impress you, I say this to impress upon you that you should heed every word of advice from this man as if it was law.

So while i was recently reading a fantastic book by  Dan John, "Never Let Go," it really struck a note when he pulled inspiration from Gable in molding his own coaching.

In what Dan John refers to as "The Gable Method," few words of simplicity can often never take you so far.

"If it is important, do it every day. If it's not important, don't do it at all."





It makes simple sense to me. Why would you ever want to waste your time on something that's not important? Is squatting on a bosu-ball, on top of a stability ball, while hula-hopping and doing a uni-lateral one arm press really going to get you your next big win? If you said yes, the methods of training i teach will not be for you. Plain and simple. If you're more worried about the entertainment value of your workouts, rather than the effect, and proximity to your goal, my coaching isn't for you. However, if you want a no-bullshit, highly effective, clear cut way to succeed, read on.

A good coach knows whats important. He knows the reason why, and he knows how to build on it.




So wheres this come into your life?

There's basically two categories i see here. What you need as any athlete to be successful in the sport, and what you need to do on a personal level of development .

If you can't tell me three examples of each, you need to rethink your training, or consult with someone who can do it for you.

Lets start in the venue of exercise. I'm a BJJ player, so I'll use my own thoughts on the sport to get the point across.

Three things everyone needs to succeed in BJJ
1.Live Sparring.
2. Implementation of techniques (either drilling, or live)
3. Be healthy enough to do both.

A short explanation. You need to do live sparring in BJJ. Plain and simple. Show me one person with a world championship, and any belt level, who hasn't done there fair share of live sparring, and I'll show you a bear-unicorn hybrid. A uni-bear, or a bearcorn. Its your pick, because either of these is about as imaginary as someone being successful and not sparring. In fact, this is the primary reason BJJ sits atop martial arts mountain as one of the best, most effective ways to fight. The fact we get to practice techniques we learned on a live, resisting opponent after we learn a technique means we get to tailor the small details of the move to make it work for us, and on others. If it doesn't work in sparring for you, you either fix it, or you throw it out. Due to the fact we can train close to 100% intensity in sparring any time we train, means we get put in situations often enough where we don't freak out when we get there. If you try sparring Muay Thai, 100% intensity, everyday, for say maybe a week, you're going to have a flat out bad time. You're going to hurt. You'll be sad. So, this a key to the effectiveness of BJJ.

Number 2 goes hand and hand in number 1. I need to implement the techniques i learn. We've already talked about the benefit against a live opponent. If its not working, i need to change it to make it work, or get rid of it. It's not just good enough to implement any technique though, you have to know what works for you. You can't take any technique out of a bag of tricks and expect it to be the right fit for you. 

My personal build is 5'5, and around 135 pounds. I've got short legs, and i can't change that. I have to adapt my style and the techniques i use to fit my body type. That doesn't mean i have to automatically write anything off, but after trying and tweaking, if i can't get it, then it goes in the trash.  An example, there's a friend of mine at the gym who is about 6'0 tall. I know from a range of experimentation,  and failures, that I'm not going to ankle lock him. 9 times out of 10, he'll tap me first because i can't put enough pressure on his ankle to tap him, before him. I don't use that technique on him.

Last note on #2, as i was saying you have to make techniques fit you. But you also have to know them. This is where drilling comes in. Drill, drill, and drill some more. This boring, monotonous task will allow you to more readily pull out techniques when you need them.

Number 3, Be healthy enough to do both.  If I'm always injured and can never train, both of those go out the door. I should look at what makes me not only a successful athlete, but what allows me to continue being so. If you have joint aches. don't just leave it be. Find the root cause, and attack it. Attack it every single day. As a fighter, lots of tension is often built up in my body. If i don't release that some how, its going to end up bad. That's where daily joint mobility comes in. If i can't get rid of it with that, i do some compensatory stretching. If that doesn't work, i use the foam roller. If that doesn't work i get a message, and so on. Maybe I'm the type of person that is deeply bound up. And if you aren't wait about 3 weeks into BJJ without doing any of that, and e-mail me when you need some ideas for injury recovery.

This also goes hand in hand with being fit enough for BJJ. If i can't stand in peoples guards, i should work on the strength of my posterior chain. If i can't break someones posture, i need to work on my pulling strength. If my gas tank is on empty 2 minutes into the first 5 minute round, and i need to stop to "re-tie" my belt every 14 seconds, and convince myself i lost because someone was only muscling me, you need to look at that.

So we've identified what i consider the general three keys to success in BJJ. I'm not going to go into specifics for what someone needs to win, because that's on a person to person basis. Plus, that's my job. If you need helping figuring it out, and implementing it, contact me, and i'll do my best to get it sorted out for you.

So the last thing i want to touch on is doing it everyday.

"But won't i overtrain?!?! Don't my muscles need proper recovery?! I read in men's health you need at least 4-7 days in between big arm workouts!"

There is no such thing as over-training there is only under recovery. A friend wrote that in a journal of mine while i was in Brazil, and i hold that as sacred advice to this day.

I don't have to run myself into the ground sparring everyday. I could do 5 minutes. I can roll light.
I don't have to do 300 reps of technique x. I can hit it 5-10 times before or after practice.
I don't need a deep tissue massage everyday, I can spare 10 minutes out of my day for some full body joint mobility.

If my back is weak, i can deadlift everyday. Maybe its 50-60% of my 1 rep max( RM). But if i pop out a couple sets of 6-10, and do that everyday, you will get stronger. Do it for 2 months and tell me how much your 1RM shoots up. Congrats, you just became stronger with very little effort expended. If I'm not going to heavy muscular fatigue, there's next to no recovery. I'll be set for the next day, and the one after that. Just doing the movement will make my nervous system much more efficient. Strength isn't a muscular event, its a neurological one.

You can apply this to anything. If its too much, back it off, but keep doing it. If you need to recover, do so, but don't forget whats important. And if it is important, do it everyday.

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