It's a long way to the top: One of the more remarkable aspects of our younger team members at the ADCC world championships is how little training time they have had in total. Gordon Ryan's total training time in the sport is substantially less than the time most of his opponents have been black belts. Nicky Ryan has trained less than three years. Ethan Crelinsten and Oliver Taza around four. Part of the reason for this is the heavy emphasis I put in truly progressive, directionally fixed training programs. Another part of it however, is the dedication my students had to enter competitions whenever possible – traveling long distances and enduring tough camps for each one. My students all had an excellent sense of progressive competition. People know that ADCC and EBI are currently the major no gi events. No one however, gets straight to the big shows. The pattern all athletes must follow is to begin small and build incrementally over time until you have sufficient experience to make waves among the best in the sport. I can think of no better example than Gordon Ryan. For years he tested himself in small shows against unknown opponents. Building upon each minor success until by the time he got to his first ADCC show, he was more than ready to get to the first place position on the podium and gain a higher medal account than any athlete in ADCC history in a debut performance. Here, from some time ago, Mr Ryan battles the impressive grappling and mma star, Antonio “Shoe-face” Carlos Junior as part of his quest to get to the highest level. That day he prevailed via triangle (sankaku) submission – another rung in the ladder leading to his deepest goals. This idea of incremental progress is just as important to those of you who choose not to compete or have limited competition aspirations. The only difference will be that you use different yard sticks appropriate to your different goals.
