But from what little bit of BJJ rolling I’ve done, my impression is yes, folk who don’t know the unbendable arm trick end up struggling sometimes in ways they don’t have to.
I should clarify what would actually surprise me.
Most people at a jiu jitsu gym don’t really get jiu jitsu, and struggle in ways that they don’t have to if they were to just learn jiu jitsu. This is unavoidable, as learning to jiu jitsu takes time, but it also means that even if BJJ has an equivalent concept of this Unbending Arm thing you should expect these results. I don’t doubt that there’s something there.
What I’m skeptical of is the idea that it’s a blind spot in jiu jitsu, to the point where cross training in Aikido for concepts like this has demonstrable merit. I’m skeptical that the field of jiu jitsu lacks an equivalent concept and therefore systematically misleads its practitioners in a way that is relevant to BJJ/MMA/street altercations/etc.
These blind spots do exist, but they’re impressive and cognitive dissonance inducing when demonstrated. My favorite example is Derrick Lewis “just standing up”. The announcers recognize that Derrick Lewis isn’t demonstrating skill at “jiu jitsu”, and don’t recognize the unforced errors that his opponents are making which allow him to just stand up, so they’re shocked. “This isn’t supposed to work, and it is!”.
I don’t know about “dumb”. Maybe “ignorant”, the way an infant is ignorant of how to stand, or someone unpracticed will fall over if standing on one leg with their eyes closed.
If someone tries to stand on one foot with their eyes closed and falls over due to the fact that they haven’t practiced it, then that’s kinda unavoidable. It takes practice.
If someone tries to stand on one foot with their eyes closed and falls over due to the fact that they tried to stand on one foot with their eyes closed… instead of just opening their eyes and putting their foot down when there’s no reason to not open their eyes and put their foot down… then that’s entirely avoidable. All you have to do is think through what you’re actually trying to achieve.
By using the word “dumb” I’m saying that if it turns out I’m missing something here it’s not because I haven’t spent ten years practicing Aikido visualizations in the mountains of Japan. It’s because I was doing something drastically wrong that can apparently be fixed in a 30 second demonstration, which I’ve had ample time to notice, and have apparently been blind to for whatever reason.
The distinction is important because if it happens, it calls for some more self reflection on how I ended up not knowing how to use my arms despite using them for decades. In the same way that if you think you’re about to submit someone and they “just stand up”, its in your best interest to humble yourself a bit and go back to the drawing board.
I’m not sure what you’re asking
I trust your honesty about where the goal posts are, but I still have to locate them in order to know what you’re saying, exactly. I’m trying to find out where you’re drawing the line between “the thing” and “not the thing” so that I can understand what you’re saying and make sense of why the Aikido demonstrations look so much like they’re trying to hide what’s actually going on.
I tried it this morning at the jiu jitsu gym, with a fairly skilled training partner that likes to play with challenges like this. Specifically, what I did is say “I want to play an Aikido game with you. See if you can bend my arm”, and then placed the back of my wrist on his shoulder, and let him do as much as I thought I could without letting my arm bend.
He started off gently pushing and pulling to feel me out, and I had to move my feet to stay standing because it doesn’t take much if you’re in a regular upright stance. Eventually he pulled pretty hard and I had to half collapse in order to keep my arm straight. A bit after that I had to collapse fully, and he spent a couple minutes trying to figure out how to pin my arm in a way that allows him good biomechanics for bending my arm. The game ended when I had to tap to an arm bar… which I guess is fair since I didn’t specify that he had to bend it forward and he certainly would have been able to bend it backwards from there.
When we switched roles, I immediately did the thing that he eventually did to bring me down, and bent his arm. I reminded him that he was not obligated to stay standing, and that the lose condition is just the arm being bent. The next time I couldn’t bend his arm with him standing, but I could force him off his feet so long as I took a step back and used good biomechanics to pull his elbow down and into me.
The thing is, none of this looks anything like an Aikido demonstration. It looks like a grappling match.
Why don’t Aikido demonstrations look like grappling matches, if not for implicit rules about what you’re not supposed to do? Why does the guy demonstrating the technique never get to the point of having to say “Okay, but no pinning my upper arm”? Why is he never forced to collapse to the ground in order to keep his arm straight? Why doesn’t the offensive player ever take a step back and pull them down in the way that generates significant bending moment—the way my training partner did to me?
I should clarify what would actually surprise me.
Most people at a jiu jitsu gym don’t really get jiu jitsu, and struggle in ways that they don’t have to if they were to just learn jiu jitsu. This is unavoidable, as learning to jiu jitsu takes time, but it also means that even if BJJ has an equivalent concept of this Unbending Arm thing you should expect these results. I don’t doubt that there’s something there.
What I’m skeptical of is the idea that it’s a blind spot in jiu jitsu, to the point where cross training in Aikido for concepts like this has demonstrable merit. I’m skeptical that the field of jiu jitsu lacks an equivalent concept and therefore systematically misleads its practitioners in a way that is relevant to BJJ/MMA/street altercations/etc.
These blind spots do exist, but they’re impressive and cognitive dissonance inducing when demonstrated. My favorite example is Derrick Lewis “just standing up”. The announcers recognize that Derrick Lewis isn’t demonstrating skill at “jiu jitsu”, and don’t recognize the unforced errors that his opponents are making which allow him to just stand up, so they’re shocked. “This isn’t supposed to work, and it is!”.
If someone tries to stand on one foot with their eyes closed and falls over due to the fact that they haven’t practiced it, then that’s kinda unavoidable. It takes practice.
If someone tries to stand on one foot with their eyes closed and falls over due to the fact that they tried to stand on one foot with their eyes closed… instead of just opening their eyes and putting their foot down when there’s no reason to not open their eyes and put their foot down… then that’s entirely avoidable. All you have to do is think through what you’re actually trying to achieve.
By using the word “dumb” I’m saying that if it turns out I’m missing something here it’s not because I haven’t spent ten years practicing Aikido visualizations in the mountains of Japan. It’s because I was doing something drastically wrong that can apparently be fixed in a 30 second demonstration, which I’ve had ample time to notice, and have apparently been blind to for whatever reason.
The distinction is important because if it happens, it calls for some more self reflection on how I ended up not knowing how to use my arms despite using them for decades. In the same way that if you think you’re about to submit someone and they “just stand up”, its in your best interest to humble yourself a bit and go back to the drawing board.
I trust your honesty about where the goal posts are, but I still have to locate them in order to know what you’re saying, exactly. I’m trying to find out where you’re drawing the line between “the thing” and “not the thing” so that I can understand what you’re saying and make sense of why the Aikido demonstrations look so much like they’re trying to hide what’s actually going on.
I tried it this morning at the jiu jitsu gym, with a fairly skilled training partner that likes to play with challenges like this. Specifically, what I did is say “I want to play an Aikido game with you. See if you can bend my arm”, and then placed the back of my wrist on his shoulder, and let him do as much as I thought I could without letting my arm bend.
He started off gently pushing and pulling to feel me out, and I had to move my feet to stay standing because it doesn’t take much if you’re in a regular upright stance. Eventually he pulled pretty hard and I had to half collapse in order to keep my arm straight. A bit after that I had to collapse fully, and he spent a couple minutes trying to figure out how to pin my arm in a way that allows him good biomechanics for bending my arm. The game ended when I had to tap to an arm bar… which I guess is fair since I didn’t specify that he had to bend it forward and he certainly would have been able to bend it backwards from there.
When we switched roles, I immediately did the thing that he eventually did to bring me down, and bent his arm. I reminded him that he was not obligated to stay standing, and that the lose condition is just the arm being bent. The next time I couldn’t bend his arm with him standing, but I could force him off his feet so long as I took a step back and used good biomechanics to pull his elbow down and into me.
The thing is, none of this looks anything like an Aikido demonstration. It looks like a grappling match.
Why don’t Aikido demonstrations look like grappling matches, if not for implicit rules about what you’re not supposed to do? Why does the guy demonstrating the technique never get to the point of having to say “Okay, but no pinning my upper arm”? Why is he never forced to collapse to the ground in order to keep his arm straight? Why doesn’t the offensive player ever take a step back and pull them down in the way that generates significant bending moment—the way my training partner did to me?