#TrueTalkTuesdays 47

The idiom of the One-Trick Pony comes from the circus world, and was used to describe a pony that could only do one trick. This was used as a derogatory term (a poorly trained pony that had a very limited repertoire of tricks), and the term has since propagated into common use.

I have heard it used in the martial arts many times as well, when someone repeatedly relies on the same technique over and over again. However, in this context, I find that it is usually someone who is very effective and their opponents are frustrated because they can’t figure out how to stop it.

Most of the greatest athletes are one-trick ponies. Well, maybe not one-trick ponies, but they have maybe 2 or 3 tricks they lean on more than anything else. Marcelo Garcia is infamous for his arm drag and his x guard, Roberto “Cyborg” Abreu for his tornado guard, Dean Lister for his leg locks, and me for my Kimuras. ?

Being a one-trick pony is just another way of saying you are a specialist. Now the extreme of this is generally not good – literally knowing one thing and one thing only. You would have a hard time getting to that one technique without being able to connect with other techniques.

However, the opposite extreme is no good either and has it’s own idiom, a jack of all trades is a master of none. Without focusing on mastering a particular technique, you will be sub par all over and not have enough proficiency to catch someone with any technique.

Like many things, you want to be somewhere in the middle. In this case, I would learn towards the one-trick pony side, having 3 to 4 power techniques, and a general knowledge of other things. Since we are limited in the amount of time we have in this life, we do not have enough time to master every part of the game. It can take years, often decades to become a master in one technique. In a cruel twist of fate, we become wiser and more technical in age, but weaker and frailer physically – making our enhanced understanding not fruitful for us. Particularly in combat sports, which relies heavily on our body, our window is quite short.

So this limited time window usually gives people only enough time to master a few techniques at an exceptional level. It’s much like how the western educational system works. From kindergarten, elementary, middle, and high school, you are given a generalized education that spreads out all the main subjects (Reading, writing, Math, Science, History, etc.) Once you enter college, you start to specialize in your field. Then when you go for a master’s degree, your specialize even further. And a Ph.D is a hyper specialization on a niche subject.

In the martial arts, we follow a similar approach. As a white belt you are in grade school. You need to learn the fundamentals – understanding the positional hierarchy, striking ranges, take downs, submissions, escapes, sweeps, and passes. At blue belt, you are in high school now – and have a little more focus on a particular area, but still working the overall game.

Once you are a purple belt and above, you are on the university specialist path. You will pick an area to focus on and master, working your way to a masters and ultimately a Ph.D. If you invest your time wisely, you will be able to do this several times on your journey in the martial arts.

Sometimes you might focus on something that might become a dead end and stop short of specializing further. Other times, you might find that your pursuit of mastery never ends. I have found myself on such a path with the Kimura. It’s been over 12 years now since I really took to the Kimura, and I’m still expanding the game. I do dabble in other things from time to time, but usually it’s stemming from my Kimura game that I side track into something related, before coming back to the Kimura.

So being a one or two trick pony is not necessarily a bad thing. If you are able to defeat everyone your spar with the same technique, then you are definitely on to something. ?

What do you think? Do you agree or disagree?
Comment with your take on this.

By the way, we are just about a month away from my next retreat in Las Vegas from August 13-19th!

We still have a few spots available, and I made a video teaser of what you can expect below. Just visit https://BJJretreat.com

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#TrueTalkTuesdays 28

I have seen it countless times, but it gets me every time I see someone coast their way to a loss.

It frustrates me to no end, because as a fighter I wasn’t built to lose with grace. Whether I lost by a referee’s decision or by submission, a loss is a loss. When it goes down in the records books, all anyone will see is a L. Furthermore, promoters don’t pay you more for having a close loss versus getting finished.

So why are fighters still coasting to a loss? Take a look at this past UFC on ESPN 1, where we had Andre Fili jab his was to victory against Myles Jury.

Now I have had the pleasure of training and coaching Myles back in 2013 for a few months, and think he is a nice guy and a good fighter. But, I have to be honest and express some strong disappointment in his performance.

It was evident to me within the first minute that Andre was faster and had the better jab. He quickly bloodied the nose of Myles and was sticking him with that jab. But Myles seemed content to play the game of whose jab was better, even though he was on the losing end of the exchanges.

It didn’t make any sense, but he fought almost the whole fight in this same manner. No take down attempts, no major shifts in strategy, just being on the losing end of jab exchanges. Jury had one good moment at the end of round 2 when he connected a spinning back fist, and dropped Fili, which stole the round for Jury. But instead of capitalizing on more aggressive attacks in the final round, he went back to exchanging jabs when it was clear he was on his way to a loss.

I’m not sure if he thought he was winning (hard to imagine), too focused on executing the game plan they trained for, or just an ego thing to try to out jab him, but it showed poor fight IQ. Oddly enough, Andre Fili said before the fight he had a better fight IQ than Myles Jury, and commentator Dominick Cruz remarked saying he didn’t understand what that meant.

Well, in my opinion fight IQ is a measure of how well you make decisions in a fight that move you towards victory. Especially when circumstances change – an injury happens or the opponent is presenting a weakness or strength that wasn’t expected – how well you adapt to that is a reflection of fight IQ in my view.

Andre remarked after the fight that he knew the jab was working, so why change strategy – and he is exactly right. He didn’t need to do anything different.

I believe Myles had the tools to win this fight. He could have worked more kicks, right hands, and take downs. But instead, he just sat there and let the match slip out of his hands. This is what I call losing gracefully. There was no struggle to try and wrest victory from his opponent’s hands – he just accepted defeat and went with the flow.

I have lost my share of matches, but never gracefully. I have always fought my heart out to the bitter end. I will take more chances, and be very aggressive, throwing flying triangle chokes, or desperation shots to try and score one last time. Of course it isn’t ideal, but it’s better than doing nothing. As long as there is a chance there is a hope.

But chance only favors those bold enough to go after it. If you are just content to take a loss as you watch the clock count down, I have to wonder if this sport is really for you. To me, it is worse than a cardio tap at the gym. So while some might think it graceful, I actually see it as disgraceful.

I’d rather be carried out in stretcher while fighting my heart out than to just coast my way to defeat. And as the quote above from Jim Palmer says, if you have given your all, there is no shame in the outcome. But when you are just idling your way through a match and saving yourself for another contest, that is hardly putting your best effort.

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