Let's talk about technical development and training focus. There are many different ways to learn grappling and everyone is different, so the types of techniques and movements will vary, but let's talk about leveling up techniques. Over time anyone training will improve and you'll hear people say "Just show up". This isn't wrong, but IMHO there is a better way. If you have a weak half guard just showing up might fix it eventually, but who wants to be eating crossface sandwiches for years before they "git gud".
Technique Levels
Anyone who has ever grappled can see that there are people that can do certain techniques effortlessly and make few technical mistakes. They almost seem super human, like they can predict what you'll do before you do it. We've also seen people out of their element who seem like novices even though they might be great grapplers in other areas. Instead of the level of grapplers, let's talk about the level of their specific techniques. I'm going to use the BJJ belt system as a reference point, but you could use numbers or some other system if that makes more sense to you. This is just a convenient way to evaluate things and conceptualize knowledge and skill for particular techniques. Anyway let's get into the levels.
Zero - You don't know what the technique is.
White - You generally know how the technique is done.
Blue - You know some details about the technique and can consistently finish it if the other person's defense isn't to good.
Purple - You can break through common defenses
Brown - You can break through a few uncommon defenses as well and know tiny details that can make the move more efficient.
Black - You know the tiny details and can anticipate the opponents defense
Champion - Your timing with the technique is second nature.
Master - Your knowledge and timing are beyond anyone else and it will be a while before others catch up.
Another way to think of it is that these techniques will generally work on people of that level or below. If you have a purple belt level armbar, you'll be able to armbar purple belts, blue belts, etc, but a brown belt would generally escape. Of course technique level isn't necessarily tied to you belt level. When Ryan Hall was a blue belt he had a black belt level triangle. Also it's not uncommon to find a BJJ black belt with white belt level heelhook defense or a judo black belt with white belt level chokes. I'm using the BJJ belt system just as a metaphor, but you could use numbers or something else instead if that makes more sense to you.
What determines the levels?
The level of someone's technique is dependent on 2 things, explicit knowledge, and implicit knowledge. Explicit knowledge is of course something that can be explained and learned through a book, video, seminar, etc.. You can explain it easily or show it to someone quickly. I'm sure many of you have learned something that immediately transformed your grappling and made things much easier. These little tweaks can be an instant level up. Things like "control their hand and make the thumb point to the sky when doing an armbar" helped me immediately and I was able to use it in my next sparring session. One of the best things about explicit knowledge is that you can acquire it without being in the gym.
Implicit knowledge is something generally learned by doing and can't generally be conveyed easily to others. It's hard to explain to someone how to keep their balance when doing judo or explain the timing for switching to the armbar from the triangle choke. This is what sparring or drilling is for. You need the feel or the timing to be able to do the techniques against people with good defenses. Knowledge about controlling the hand during and armbar doesn't do any good if you're fumbling around trying to get a grip on their wrist. Practice and experience is important. Drilling will help cement this knowledge and get it into muscle memory. Sparring will help develop your timing and give you an idea about what reactions your opponent might have. The amount of focus on each type of knowledge will depend on the individual and the technique. Some people can remember the info, but during sparring won't be able to do what you just told them. Others might be natural athletes who are able to use the concept immediately once they get it, but you'll have to explain it 5-10 times before they understand. Then there are those that can remember everything and do it perfectly, but during sparring they execute it too slowly. I believe a more personalized approach works better for teaching than a 1 size fits all for this. In the next post I'll talk about S-curves, but generally I'd say implicit knowledge drives you up the slope and explicit knowledge pushes you through the plateaus.
How is this useful?
Thinking about things this way let's you evaluate your techniques and decide what and how you should develop. You can also use it to decide whether you should learn a technique or not. Not only does each technique have a level specific for each person, but I'd like to think each has a general level amongst all grapplers. Let's call this the global level. This is the level of technique you can get by asking your instructor, doing a quick YouTube search, etc. This totality of knowledge can/should influence what you practice. If the global level of a technique is at purple belt, that means that many of the counters and small details are generally unknown. Maybe someone, someplace knows them, but how will you personally get this knowledge. On the other hand a move that is at championship level will be known by just about anyone and you'll be able to progress easily just by searching on youtube or listening to your instructor.
Let's say you have to decide to spend your training time on only 1 move. You can choose between the RNC and the calf slicer. Most people would recommend the RNC, but why? There are plenty of reasons, but the one I'll focus on here is, the global level is higher. Any blackbelt will be able to teach you a very good RNC as well as how to deal with the most common defenses. I bet many purple belts could do it too. You can look up videos on YouTube or even ask people on a message boards. There is a ton of footage of people with legendary RNCs such as Marcello Garcia and there are even breakdowns of how he did it. For the calf slicer, the videos are few and far between and the details are slim. The only person I can think of that hits it on the black belt level regularly is Geo Martinez and unfortunately I don't know him, so I can't ask him for help. I'd say the global level of the RNC is "master" while the calf slicer is "blue belt". What that means for you is, if you want to get really good at the calf slicer, you're going to have to do all the hard work yourself and it might take a while(if you ever get there). With the RNC you have 100 years of knowledge and millions of grapplers on your side. That will speed things up a lot.
I wish someone would show me how to hit calf slicers like this.
So only learn black belt level techniques?
I'm not saying that. Remember, you only need to be at a level greater than your opponent's defense/offense. A few years ago people were getting killed with heelhooks(some would say they still are). You didn't have to have a black belt level heel hook to tap people with white belt level heel hook defense. There are valid reasons to learn moves that currently have a low global level. In fact many champions became famous because they used moves that had a low global level when they started. Things like worm guard, X-guard, berimbolo, etc all started out as low level experiments. It's up to you to decide how you want to shape your grappling. Some people just want to have fun or look cool, so spending your time training flying triangles, cartwheel guard passes and Imanari rolls might be worth it. If you are more concerned about getting better as quickly as possible focusing on these "master" techniques is a good idea. I just want to give a different perspective on how to evaluate techniques and in the next post I'll talk about S-curves and learning.
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