During Quarantine, virtual training has become the new normal, but what exactly is that supposed to look like?
I’ve never been one to study a lot of matches unless someone points me to a specific match or technique that I should focus on but finding that someone isn’t always that easy, especially if you come from a small gym or train with a lot of high-level competitors that consume your instructor’s time.
Instead of trying to determine my own strategies for self-improvement from my limited perspective as a blue belt, I decided to invest in an actual virtual training program.
There have been a lot of online courses and instructors selling “blueprints” based on high percentage moves popular at each belt level, but I wanted something that would be specific to my style. Tim Spriggs recently started offering individualized Mind Maps and match critiques that he creates based on competition or training footage, so I thought this would be my best option.
To create the Mind Map, Tim took a list of my fight videos and picked out the moves that I use the most.
(Note: I always use a mini camera to record my matches in competition, but if you don’t do this and don’t have any fights on Flograpping, you can always record rolling sessions in the gym to analyze.)
The map starts from standing and then goes through a series of takedowns, transitions, and submissions I normally use. The idea is to make my own game explicit because let’s be honest, a lot of times we just do things for the sake of doing them and pray they work!
Now, I can use my mind map to focus on and train the techniques and transitions that are useful to me and disregard those that I’m not going to need for competition.
THIS ISN’T A BLUEPRINT... It’s not meant to be used by everyone!
My map has takedowns, transitions, and submissions that are SPECIFIC to ME and what I actually do in competition!
So you can best believe when I grab your collar, I’m not just doing it to do it, or to stall, or to try a desperate attempt at anything that will get the match to the ground. It’s the first grip to a knee tap that I’m going to finish by running the pipe, right into your useless knee shield that I’m going to long step or knee slice my way to mount and lay in that Ezequiel I love so much.
Check out Tim’s site for more information on virtual coach.
My Mind Map Included:
– Diagram in PDF and HTML files of my map viewable via computer and cellphone.
– Footnotes with references to technique videos on YouTube and Flograppling.
