The story of the Kenyan runner: One day early in my coaching career I was teaching in Manhattan, when a slender but athletic fellow came in and enquired about beginning Jiu jitsu. He explained that he was a former Olympic level runner for Kenya in the 3000m Steeplechase. He now lived in nyc where he made a living as a running partner – he had clients who liked to jog and he ran next to them as a pacemaker/coach. He was booked all day every day and so must have been in phenomenal shape as he essentially ran all day for a living. He had seen some MMA and was curious to try some grappling. We arranged to meet on Sunday morning for an introduction class since that was the only free time he had and begin a Jiu jitsu session. That Sunday he came in for class and began with a warm up jogging around the dojo. When you see most people run (myself Included) it's a rather sorry sight – a clumsy, heavy gait where the movement seems forced and inefficient. This man ran like a mix of gazelle and cheetah. I watched in amazement and admiration as he effortlessly performed lap after lap with steps so long and light that it appeared he barely touched the ground. Never in my life before or since have seen such perfection in running movement. After a while he came to begin grappling. We did some basic pin escapes and drilled them for a while and then began light sparring with him trying to escape some pins. Shockingly after just a few minutes the runner was completely exhausted, this despite the fact that he appeared a thousand times fitter than most Jiu jitsu athletes will ever be. We stopped and rested and then went again. This time both of his hamstrings went into spasm from exertion and we had to stop the lesson as he was totally exhausted and had to run with his clients for the rest of the day. It was a surprising thing to see someone so athletically gifted in one area become so tired so quickly in another. Of course if I tried to do his workout I would be equally exhausted also. It's a valuable lesson that there is much specificity to what we call fitness. Make sure SPARRING is the basis of your fitness work – nothing else creates the specificity of Jiu jitsu as well
