Sports: Quotes - The Nail

"The secret of this sport is, while you're the nail, hang in there, let them hit you, until the day you become the hammer, then you smash them back!" -Renzo Gracie

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Inside BJJ

Sports: Conditiong - Opening Up the Airways

Before starting your cardio workout, try consuming a few menthol throat lozenges to "open up your airways." 

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Runner's World UK

Sports: Psychology - Quotes

“Having faith is what helps me. How I walk around, how I act, how I conduct myself is all a part of that faith. Some guys are afraid to lose. I don’t have that fear. I can open my heart and lay it out on the line.”

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Ben Henderson

Sports:Nutrition: Calculating your BMR

Here is the formula to calculate your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR). 



Women: BMR = 655 + ( 9.6 x weight in kilos ) + ( 1.8 x height in cm ) - ( 4.7 x age in years )

Men: BMR = 66 + ( 13.7 x weight in kilos ) + ( 5 x height in cm ) - ( 6.8 x age in years )

Sports: Nutrition: Probiotics

Do probiotics work? Apparently, there is no strong evidence in favor of consuming probiotics by children  .  However, the consumption of probiotics by children was not harmful.  So is adult consumption of probiotics beneficial?  Maybe.  Unfortunately, the research article did not cover adult use of probiotics, but the health benefits of probiotics consumption in children only had modest health benefits. 

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Live Science

Sports:Nutrition: Dieting: Environmental Cues and Overeating

"Environmental cues might be a cause for overeating."  For example, in a study, fresh and stale popcorn was given to people in theaters and a boardroom.  When it came to eating the both kinds of popcorn, the people in the boardroom were pickier eaters (in terms of the quality of the popcorn) than the people in theaters (who regularly ate popcorn).  An interesting side note of the study showed that people who regularly ate popcorn at theater were pickier eaters when they ate with their non-dominant hand. 

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60 Second Mind

Sports: Psychology - Quotes

"Learn it right and you will do it right the rest of your life, learn it wrong and you'll spend the rest of your life trying to get it right, and in battle, you meat heads that get it wrong, the rest of your life will be very short."

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-Sergeant Steve Prazenka- (Bloody Bucket Division W.W.II)

Sports: Training: Psychology - Staying in the Zone

"I had a student who told me he wanted to compete.  I would grill them as to why, and it was when I discovered why when I could could coach them in their process.  Some of the guys I would say, 'Remember your goal here is just to do this, and get it out of your system. That is what you told me in the changing room. You're not trying to win this or not trying to lose this. You just want to know if you have the balls, the will, the tenacity to step out into this ring, cage, or mat, and just do this.' And it took all the pressure off because 'I don't have to win because my girlfriend is watching.'"

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Tony Blauer

Sports:Nutrition: Dieting

New research points to why some diets may be destined to fail.

"When a dieter starves themselves of calories, they starve their brain cells as well. New research finds that these hungry brain cells then release "feed me" signals, which drive hunger, slow metabolism and may cause diets to fail."

Interesting theories.

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Live Science

Sports: Psychology - Quotes

"I immersed myself in Jiu-Jitsu, trained in the mornings and afternoons. I started training hard and put it in my head that I had to do well at the event. I didn’t need to win, just have good matches. I put to practice some of the things I already knew how to do, the weapons I already had...and thank God it all turned out alright."

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Cris Cyborg

Sports: Training: Psychology - Staying in the Zone

If you reduce the amount of conscious control and of thought processes and allow yourself to just react, you will perform better. 
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Tim Gallwey

Sports:Training: How Cyborg Trains

Recently, Cyborg’s strength and conditioning coach spoke with Gracie Magazine about Cyborg’s conditioning program.  Before Cyborg begins an actual conditioning program, they decide what competitions Cyborg will be competing in during the year.  By identifying what competitions are relevant and when the competitions occur, they team can ensure Cyborg will peak at the proper times.  In additions to deciding on which competitions to participate in, Cyborg’s coach begins to put Cyborg through several physical tests, which he evaluates.  After the tests and evaluations are completed, conditioning programs are designed with a focus on periodization. 

Cyborg’s coach explained to Gracie Magazine that the periodizations is broken down into the following three phases: (1) Pre-base, (2) Pre-competitive, and (3) Competitive.  There are specific physical demands on each phase, and phases may include “focus, intensity, volume, duration, use of force stimulus, agility, explosiveness, and endurance....”

The exercises Cyborg will include in his conditioning program focus mainly on power-lifting, but he will include sports specific exercises as well.

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Gracie Magazine

Sports: Nutrition: Creatine and Type II Diabetes

In a recent podcast covering a research study about the effects of creatine on Type II diabetics, the host, after summarizing the study, concluded that creatine supplementation combined with an exercise program may be an effective way to help control glucose levels in diabetic patients, but he also went on to add that more research needed to be done to confirm the study's findings. 
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Exercisephysiology's Podcast

Sports:Psychology - Quotes

"Assis says even though he is completely confident with his Jiu-Jitsu game, he still feels a little nervous before a match. 'It’s not about the guy I’m fighting,' he says, 'It’s about the big crowd surrounding the fight – it’s the situation. This is what pushes me during a fight. After my first match, I’m fine. I’m very confident. If you train hard and you believe in your training, you can’t lose.'"

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Joao Assis -- Gracie Magazine

Sports:Psychology - Choking Not The Physical Kind

Choking may be caused by your conscious mind invading your unconscious mind.


A recent article pointed out that choking may occur when an expert athlete moves from one "brain system" to another.  The article postulated that there are different brain systems for the differing levels of athletes.  Expert athletes, for example, function from "implicit memories."  The implicit memories are developed from countless hours of practicing skills.  Also when an expert athlete performs, he or she develops a sort of "self-induced amnesia", which acts to suppress performance detractors like the noisy chatter coming from the conscious mind.  On the opposite end, the non-expert frequently consults the conscious mind to analyze performance in an attempt to get it right.  The non-expert is still developing the neural maps necessary for performing.


How do you undo choking?  Try to turn off your conscious mind and turn on your unconscious mind.  What is the best way to do that?  There are probably a number of ways to get your mind back on autopilot, but developing specific techniques to quiet the mind is probably best addressed in another post.    

Instead of focusing on what to do after chocking, it might be better to focus on developing the ability to realize when your conscious mind is over-thinking something your unconscious mind has already figured out.  

Sports:Psychology - Maintaining Confidence After Mistakes

After listening to a podcast (Tennis Psychology) on maintaining confidence during tennis matches, I thought how such a topic might relate to grappling, and came away with this.

According to the host of the podcast, unrealistic expectations and negative self-talk can negatively affect your mental state.  In essence, imposing expectations of always performing flawlessly regardless of the simplicity or complexity of the technique or situation may lead to the development of a self-doubt.  A loud inner-voice may be created, which criticizes every mistake.  The danger in developing this habit (the negative inner-voice) is the erosion of self-confidence and the build up of self-doubt.  However, it appears expectations and the negative inner-voice can be controlled.

First, get rid of the expectation that flawless performance regardless of the simplicity or complexity of the technique or situation is achievable. 

Second, if expectations are too deeply rooted, then work against developing a negative inner-voice.  After performance drops below what is expected, work on making positive statements about performance (e.g. I'm a good player) and the ability to overcome adversity (e.g. I'm going to keep going) to maintain confidence during performance.  The host suggests that it is what you say to yourself after a poor performance that affects self-confidence. 

Also, avoid over-thinking by simplifying how you play the game.   Instead of over-thinking which technique will be best, how best to apply the technique, or when to apply the technique, feel the moment and let your training take over.  At some point, you will have to trust in your training, and trust that it will guide you.  The focus should be on objectives rather than results. 


Appreciate the moment without asking where it's going.  Imagine getting in a car and taking a trip without a destination in mind - just sit and enjoy the ride.  Do not view things as mistakes, but as parts of what will make up the whole journey. What is seen on the journey shapes the traveler, and choosing to see every thing makes for a better traveler and journey. 

Sports:Nutrition: Multivitamins the Downside

A recent study tracking the health choices of subjects consuming a multivitamin showed subjects who thought they were taking a multivitamin made less healthy choices.  Healthy choices included eating and exercising. 

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Scientific American Podcast

Sports:Nutrion: Substitutes to Sugary Sports Drinks - Coconut Water

In a recent podcast about coconut water, the issue of consuming coconut water instead a sugary sports drink, like Gatorade or Powerade, was discussed and the following was concluded.

Depending on the athlete the switch to coconut water can be beneficial.  The athletes who will benefit the most from the switch are those athletes who workout for longer than average periods of time and/or at intensity levels above those of the average person.  The resulting benefits are consuming comparable amounts of carbohydrates and electrolytes without the consumption of refined sugars and artificial coloring. 

The podcast went on to conclude that consumption of either coconut water or a sports drink is generally not necessary because, for most people, the intensity levels of their workouts are too low and their workout periods are too short to warrant consuming a sports drink.
  

Sports:Injury: Drawbacks of Playing the De La Riva Guard

The very popular and effective guard known as the De La Riva Guard (DLR) may be damaging to your knees.  According to Ethan Kreiswirth, Director of Athletic Training Education at Concordia University, Irvine, the practice of the DLR may damage your knees by creating ligamentous laxity.

Ligamentous laxity is the loosing of ligaments, and can occur after accidents or a sports related injury. In the case of the DLR guard, a player is not exposed to a definitive injury per se.  Instead, the player is exposed to repeated torquing of the knee at an abnormal angle. On a typical athlete, ligaments remain taut.  This tautness works to restrict a joint from moving beyond its natural or normal range of motion.  When the DLR guard is used, the knee begins to lose its tautness by being repeatedly stretched beyond its normal range of motion.

In practice, this is how it works.  When the top player attempts to pass the bottom player's open guard, the bottom player prevents the pass by using the DLR guard.  The top player counters the DLR guard by applying a sort of downward pressure on the bottom player's knee.  This downward pressure acts to create a torquing motion, which causes discomfort in the bottom player's knee.  The pressure generated is similar to pressure generated from a toe-hold submission.  Despite the pressure, the bottom player can  resist the minimal discomfort and keep the leg hooked on the top player's leg.  By resisting and maintaining the position, the ligaments are forced to stretch to stabilize the knee.      

This constant stretching of the ligaments, will overtime, result in ligamentous laxity in the knee.