my Arte Suave

5 Aspects of a good [grappler]

By Cael Sanderson (Who is someone I look way up to if you had not already noticed)

I’ll answer the easy question first.  Yes, our team shadow wrestles every day.  I think shadow wrestling is very useful.  It’s great for conditioning, visualization, footwork, speed, technique etc) 

As far as 5 aspects of a good wrestler, these will be broad answers. These characteristics are all intertwined.  You can’t have one without the other.

1) attitude  (lifestyle, priorities in order, loves to compete, positive, strong belief in one’s self etc)

2) physical ability  (speed, strength, strength of hips, etc)

3) mental toughness  (doesn’t worry too much about things that can’t be controlled, fights hard, poise, understands that effort is true success, not consumed by a fear of making mistakes or failure)

4) work ethic (hustles, loves to train, willing to do whatever it takes to be successful, consistent hard worker)

5) conditioning  (a result of work ethic, discipline, physical ability, and mental toughness, ability to relax before matches and trust in their best effort, ability to keep breathing in matches)

6) coachable/ technique (willing to listen and learn, will try new things, learns from mistakes and other’s mistakes

These are all the qualities I look to have, and try to emulate everyday. #3 is where I am focusing most on right now.

Training: ADCC Pro gi trials around the corner..

It’s been good times these past few weeks..Theres always room for better training but I feel fine with the ways things are progressing.

First, this past month (October) I spent all of it hammering out details of my guard, guard games, and retention. There has been much drilling going on, I’ve been tidying up my dumb sides..You know the side where its weaker for you to get sweeps off of. Well I have been making my weak side strong, and I am feeling more comfortable with the ways things are going.  I will continue to do my guard project up until 2 weeks before the ADCC event which by then I will start doing competition prep.

Strength and Conditioning. Again there is always so much room for improvement here. I mean Dan Gable, man. That guy was a tremendous force with conditioning, I am trying to get just 2% of what his conditioning is all about. I am getting stronger, my resting heart rate and max heart rates are getting lower and lower. Cain Valasquez max heart rate is 167 BPMS! That is insane! Mine right now is at 187-190 bpms. That is great for me considering I was at the mid 90s. So obviously my conditioning is improving. As far as strength goes, I have been hitting up a lot of compound movements i.g. Dead Lifts, presses, benches, squats…I am actually dead lifting in the 400s easy, before this was a task and a mission! I have also been doing a lot of olympic lifting, more specifically the clean. It used to be that it was hard for me to do 145lbs even, now I am maxing it out at 205 no form lol! It feels good to see the numbers grow. As far as these numbers translating into jiu jitsu, some training partners have been telling me I feel stronger, especially my grips, which is another facet I have been training and improving!

Right now the ADCC pro gi trials are on December 4th. This is one of the ones I want to win for that ticket to Dubai! Time to make my dreams a reality! 

I will try and update all the way up to the event.

WOD: 100% work..emulating a bjj match

BAR COMPLEX: 12 exercises for 6 reps, straight through. 3 rounds, start with a 45lb bar, then add 10lbs plates, then 5..the goal is to get to 2 45lb plates. Stole this from Martin Rooney.

1) Straight leg DL

2)Shrugs

3) Clean

4) Overhead press

5) Upright rows

6) Bent over rows

7) Snatch

8) Good morning

9) tricep press

10) bicep curl

11) bench press

12) pull over

This was my warmup today..3 rounds..You will feel this one hard in the forearms..The other goal is too NOT DROP THE WEIGHT! FEEL THE STRAIN IN YOUR FOREARMS AND HANDS! Among other places. This workout could stand alone. But it never does for me, but if your new to conditioning this could definitely stand alone for a little. Depending on intensity you could get your heart rate up to 180! 

Emulating a BJJ Black Belt match: 3 rounds. I went from 60 seconds work to 45 second work to 30 seconds work. The goal is to stay doing as much work as intensely as possible. I rested 60-90 seconds between sets. You can also rest until your heart rate gets under 120 BPMS. The order of exercise matters. You can play with this but think about how you feel in a match. This was my order.

-KB Swings

-Air squats

-rope slam

-knee jumps (where i begin on my knees and jump to my feet)

-barbell snatch (LOW WEIGHT, i had on 75lb, we want managable weight that we can work with for the time allotted)

-overhead squat (with the same bar, or you can use a medacine ball, emphasis on the legs but also your core, you feel feel it lol)

-Brady’s (take a band hold it in your hands, and stretch the band out up and down then at a 45 degree angle)

-KB Swings (grueling!, i do 1 handed swings alternating, with 24kg KB)

-20lbs Ball slam

-Rope slam

-Band sprints (in my school we have a pole, where i tie a band around it, and put it around my waist and just sprint, let the band pull me back and pull again.

CORE: two sets 15 reps

• Band presses (same pole, stand sideways from the pole with the band and push it away, and feel this in your core)
• Robots/Halos/around the world
• straight leg situps

Grips: For distance, 3 rounds

in one hand grip 35-45lb plate with fingers and in the other hand hold 2 10lb plate pancaked together. 

I walked around my mat room while shrugging continuously.

This took me 1 hour, Min Heart rate was 144 bpms..Max 182bpms..I burner a little over 800 calories.. 

Current weight 203lbs =) I love being this low.

WOD: strength…then conditioning

warmup

Planks 90 seconds then for 60

weird squats where i have plates underneath my feet and i grab my toes and squat up and down while holding my toes on the plates elevate my feet at my heels. for 10 reps

Plyos/Hurdles to warm up 5 rounds of:

5 hurdle jumps (20 inches)

single leg hurdler jumps ( 8 inches)

5 Rounds of:

Cleans X 3 

planks with arm raises X 5 each way

We did 145 LBS cleans

i am getting stronger! This used to be a bit of a challenge starting out.

3 rounds of:

Split leg squat X 10 each leg

Over head presses X 20

2 rounds of:

glute ham drops x 10

pistol squats X 5 each leg

shoulder band extentions x 10

band press (core) x 10 each side

After all that…SPRINTS!

I rested 3 minutes after I was done with the last circuit before I went into sprints.

400 yards

300 yards

200 yards

100 yards

50 yards x 4 with 15 seconds rest in-between

i feel fantastic. Could hardly open my eyes after the sprints.

I WILL BE A WORLD CHAMPION!

My very first seminar!

Saturday October 9th! I conducted my very first seminar at my good friends Dan Faggella’s place! Even though I was practically one handed with a recent injury, I managed to suck it and show some of the things I love to do, and show some of the projects I have done within the past year. It was a nogi seminar and I went over sit up guard sweeps, showed a few ways I transition into singles and also finishing them. I showed a series from De la Riva, then I went into the big part of the seminar which was me teaching some of my favorite passes as well as some recent projects of mine.

It was a great experience! I even got to officially congratulate Dan on his recent promotion to purple belt. Gave a little speech about him to his guys and it was cool letting the guys know how good Micro has been to me.

Anyway’s here is a photo from the seminar. Videos were recorded, so when i get them, i will put some on here for people to see.