I have a question regarding Grappler's Toolbox. Even after reading the description from the website, I am still curious what tpye of solo grappling drills it has. Can a couple be named/described please. I am deciding whether to purchase to keep my training going since I will be away from classes due to my wife giving birth and having to stay home to care for things. Thank you.
ayla108, I will take a stab at this. First, congratulations on your imminent arrival! Enjoy him/her thsy grow up so fast! :-) The GTB is a collection of biomechanical exercises that allow you to navigate the mat with increased efficiency, increased effectiveness and less energy draw. They really help you move like water when you grapple. I am a bjj purple belt and have trained in various martial arts for about 32 years (yes, I am a geezer!). When I first viewed the GTB I was almost disappointed. I was expecting a lot of arm bar drill movements, triangles, shrimp type drills. I put it aside for a while, then like you I had a period of time where most of my training was solo at home. I started DOING some of the movements, then stringing them together. Finally, I just set a timer for 30 mins and would just free flow continuously for that time period. I began to notice my movement getting really fluid when I rolled and I especially noticed that I didn't use as much energy when I rolled. I wathched a lot of competitions tapes during this time period and I noticed many of the movements that I at first thought had NO relevance to bjj being performed in transition. For instance, I saw repeatedly the arm bar from mount being done by sliding a knee up to a "shin box", then shifitng the weight in a way that allows you to bring the leg over the oppt's head to finalize the armlock. Description sucks, I know, but the point is I started to pay more attention to the moves that seemingly didn't have any purpose and I found many, many ways to make my subs, sweeps, escapes more effective. I can't really describe any movements in particular, it wouldn't really make sense. What I will say is that YOU have to put some time on the mat drilling the movements and exploring their applications yourself! Scott doesn't do this on the set, and this was one of the things that initially turned me off to the set. I have come to understand that he doesn't teach that way, he shows you the blueprint...you have to build your house, your own way, yourself. Hope this helped.
Bruce, that was beautiful. Would you be willing to expand your post into an article for Full Circle Strength Magazine? Email me!
Scott, I will email you. Hope all is well with your new addition, getting any sleep?
Thanks for asking, amigo. She's a darling.
Sleep? I don't need no stinking sleep! (Not that I have a choice.)
Ayla:
The SIMPLE (and probably incorrect!!) answer is that regardless of your grappling background you will see renovated (meaning more efficient) versions of many of the old exercises you may have done in the past.
In addition, there will be new exercises for you to work on that you may have never seen or tried.
The difference (besides the aforementioned renovation) on the GTB is that the exercises cover a whole range of uses regardless of venue.
For example, there is a health and fitness value, a rehabilitory value, and a flexibility value. Also you will seam together multiple moves which will improve your flow from one to the next.
The "applications" are not given to you, but for you to research and discover for yourself for there is NO one application. So in essence you use them as you see fit.
I'm not sure of your background, but here are a few "moves" that I have found:
Sit outs, Hip Heists, Granbys, Rolls, Somersaults, Bridging, Pin transitions, Sprawls, Stand-ups, Switches, Spinning Armbar, Armbar from the mount, Triangle from the mount, Escapes from all pins, Pin preventions, Sweeps...this is just off the top of my head. I could probably come up with more but I'm sure you get the point.
It is one of the best investments I've made in the approx. 15 years I've been training.
All the best,
Joe Silvia