Monday, July 4, 2011

Using an Audience to Improve in Competition - Brazilian Jiu-jitsu

Picture a man competing in three bicycle races. One is where he rides solo for time. The second is where he uses a "pacer" to help him maintain a consistent speed. In the third race he races against other cyclists. Which of his times will be fastest?
Norman Triplett, believed by many to be the pioneer of sports social psychology, discovered that "competition" affects "performance." Bluntly, you perform at a higher level when other people are present. He discovered that professional cyclists achieved faster times when racing against other riders. Their times became slower when they were timed in solo events or used pacers.
But that's just the tip of the iceberg. Numerous researchers who followed in Triplett's wake received results that supported and debunked his conclusions. Sometimes people performed well when an audience was around, other times they failed miserably. It was Robert Zajonc, Ph.D. (pronounced as Xyience) who came along and found that if you have no talent for a task, your performance will decrease when an audience is present. On the other hand, it would increase if you were well acquainted with the task at hand.

In an oft-cited study (Micheals et al), pool players were classified into two categories; below average and above average. Their games were observed with no audience present and then with four observers milling around. What they found was telling. The above average players scores increased when an audience was present while the below average players scores nose-dived.
So what could this mean for grapplers? Well as beginning grapplers, having guests and friends accompany you to competitions is good for moral support and it demonstrates that they care for you. However, as far as competition is concerned, it may have a deleterious effect on your performance. Having a five year old screaming, “Get up Daddy!” when pinned in side control as a beginner may short-circuit a grappler's thought process.
But for the intermediate and advanced grappler, as experiments in other fields have indicated, having family and friends present at grappling competitions may be the extra push needed in order to perform better.
Additionally, some people may ask, “What about the people already present at tournaments? Aren't they an audience?” To those individuals I would ask them to reflect on the low attendance rate of 'fans' at grappling events. Participants often outnumber the fans. Further, many matches occur at once. As a consequence, grapplers often end up on mats at the far end of gyms or the other side of an arena where fans will not be present. A grappler could end up with no audience at all.
Therefore, if you do want people present, you should make sure to invite them. 
If you've had any experience with this please let us know so we can all learn.

6 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. I may be a bit late to comment to this, but what would you define as "beginner" or "intermediate"?

    I'm 17, I've only been practicing Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu for a few months. After 2 months in class, my instructor was injured in an accident and has not taught the class since, but I've always continued practicing in my free time and watching videos regularly to learn new techniques.

    Though BJJ is specialty at the moment, I've had occasional Haganah lessons for over two years. I do also have some slight experience in Muay Thai, Systema Spetsnaz, MCMAP, Ju-Jitsu, Judo, and Sambo. Most of those learned from my sparring partners who take their classes officially, and who I spar with and learn from at least once a week. Some of them learned through videos in my bored wait for my instructor to return.

    I've never been in an official tournament, I have only just sparred with other BJJ students and my neighborhood sparring partners, but I can usually dominate them in groundfighting, and my fluency in my techniques is continuing to grow, and I plan to join a regional BJJ tournament, or a join in the nearby Haganah school that competes in tournaments against schools of other martial arts/self defenses.

    From everything there, what rank of fighter/grappler would you consider me as? Also, any suggestions/tips as to how I can continue my BJJ education until the class starts again?

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  3. As you may know, grappling is largely subjective. It sounds to me as if you brought a skill set to BJJ and continue to train on your own so you are not a complete beginner. I would also say that domination of other fighters is not necessarily tied to whether you are a novice, intermediate or advanced grappler.

    Your athleticism, height, weight, speed, flexibility, endurance, strength, coordination may make you much better than those around you with no training or some training. In terms of who is a beginner or more importantly, who is a novice, I will say since BJJ requires a lot of techniques, until a person can pull most of the moves off without thinking about each movement (step 1, step 2, step 3) I would rank them as a beginner/novice.

    For a general guide I would say that a person is a novice until they have had about 100 classes. (150 hours - 100 - 90 min BJJ or grappling classes)
    Intermediate: (150 hours to 300 hours - intermediate)
    Advanced: (300 hours and beyond)

    Until you can start training again I would say purchase a heavy bag (if you don't already own one) and use it for positional drills as maintaining a dominant position is more important than getting a submission. I would also go through solo drills (plenty on You-tube). Also, never underestimate the power of the videos that you are already watching. I pick up some of my best moves by just observing others. You also seem to be doing great by practicing with your friends. As long as you guys drill in addition to just grappling for grappling sake you should see your skill level improve.

    Roy Dean's "Path to the Blue Belt" or "Gracie Barra Fundamentals" are two excellent DVDs you can use to learn step by step. If you and your friends use those DVDs you will pick up a lot in no time.

    Also, check out my book, "Grappling for Newbies" (only $2.99) on Amazon, Barnes & Noble or Smashwords. It has a lot of great advice on how to improve as a grappler and pitfalls to avoid.

    I hope this helps and good luck!

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  4. I know this is late, but every time I logged on my computer to respond, I would always get sidetracked. (often with watching grappling videos)

    It definitely helps. I do my general BJJ exercises at least every other day, and before every sparring session.

    I'll definitely look into buying your book, checking out those DVDs. Hoping I can get closer to my ultimate goal of being the best groundfighter/grappler of my sparring group (and then the best of my city, and then the whole state. I have big plans, despite me being relatively new at this.)

    So yeah, thanks again for the advice. And I love this blog, keep posting.

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