my Arte Suave

Cael Sanderson: 5 Aspects of a good wrestler (grappler)

If you don’t know who Cael Sanderson is, he is an Olympic Gold medalist, and the ONLY UNDEFEATED 4x NCAA CHAMPION. Thats pretty major in a sport as tough and rugged as wrestling. Grappler’s take notice.

Cael: 

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

(Source: caelsanderson.com)

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.

Feels like an off season

It has been like two months since I competed at Chicago Open, then the following week at the Boston Grappler’s Quest. Since then, I revamped my strength and conditioning, and have been chomping at the bit to compete, currently I have  a minor injury, that just happend to me the other day, but that should blow over by Saturday, or either way I am training. I feel totally fit, and ready to go at a moments notice. 

This time the ADCC trials should be going down around December 4th or 5th, and now it seems as though that has been pushed all the way back to Feb 4th 2011. Man right now “I Has A Sad” over this. And other then that, I have been keeping an eye on events, and writing to event organizers about how their purple adult heavy categories looks and if there’d be an absolute, receiving, little help from massbjj guy, never letting me know if there was anyone in the division, if there’d be an absolute. I don’t see why this is a hard thing to do! I am certainly not going to part ways with my hard earned cash to fight one guy best 2 out of 3, and you know that would of been ok, had there been an absolute with some sort of prize that would force kids to fight their butts off to try and win it, maybe like $100 or something, is that too hard?  The people at ‘The Good Fight’ event, were very nice about getting back to me, and kept me updated on how the purple adult division was doing, and there was an absolute. Unfortunately, I got that email a day ago and the event is on Saturday, but I am definitely looking forward to competing at one of their events, as I have heard a lot of good things about their events. I do not know of any good events in December besides a NAGA in Connecticut. 

For now…I wait…

I should update on what I have been up to…

Recently as you’ve noticed, if you read my blog, theres been a bit of wrestling theme around here. I love their mentality when it comes to grappling. I picked up a lot of nice things of the wrestling side of the house, as far as they approach drilling, how they train their bodies, and how they continue to get good. One thing I have picked up is tennis ball, and rope training. Not only climbing a rope but any rope like this one:

It is about 2 Feet in length, and I walk around with this thing in my pocket. I do isometric holds with it in class, mimic lapel chokes, and I just improve my forearm and hand endurance and strength! It is a great tool, bought it at Home Depot for a couple of bucks. I got this idea from Dan Gable, I read that he did this while he was in class. This thing works great! 

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.