The Super Bowl: the crown jewel of the National Football League has come and gone. And with the conclusion of the Super Bowl,”experts” get to stand around and congratulate themselves for being right by picking the champion or try to rationalize why they were wrong. And with this year’s Super Bowl, so many of those “experts” had to explain why they were wrong. This year’s game was supposed to be the coronation of a champion (New England Patriots) after having completed the perfect season with a 19-0 record. And though it would’ve been a historical moment to see that achievement and a great story to write and talk about for years to come, that happy ending left out the underdog New York Giants and how they felt about “having no chance to win” this game. And I sat there watching the Giants celebrate their victory, I couldn’t help but notice the similarities between the NY Giants and OGs.
The Giants started off the season terribly; they had star players refusing to come to training camp, there was some infighting going on within the team, they had an ex-teammate throwing hate on the club as a commentator, there was open talk about firing the coach mid-season or who his replacement might be, they had some embarrassing losses during the season, and critics even talked about how goofy and clueless the team’s quarterback looked (which has absolutely NOTHING to do with winning championships). And in spite of all that, they beat the team that was being considered as one of the best teams (if not the best) of all time.
How did this happen? Well, the Giants realized that all those things that happened to them during the season didn’t have to have a permanent effect on the season’s outcome. They realized that it really doesn’t matter how strong you start the race, but how you strong you finish. They realized that they could still achieve what most people thought impossible if they worked harder than everyone else, didn’t give up on each other, united and listen to their coaches, used the blueprint adopted by other teams that had success against the Patriots, and played hard right down to the last second.
For those of you that haven’t figured it out yet, THAT IS THE STRUGGLE OF THE OG AS WELL! Each OG (in our own way) has to believe in ourselves when others are telling us to hang it up. OGs have to train harder and longer than the person next to us. OGs constantly flirt with the idea of quitting because things aren’t turning out the way we expect them, but NEVER yield to the urge to quit. OGs must believe in our coaches that tell us we’re progressing when we have little or no evidence to support it. And finally, OGs have to fight for everything we get (like being considered serious, competent, and tough grapplers to be taken seriously on the mat) right down to the last second.
I know when I initially coined the term “OG”, it was meant for older and non-traditional grapplers and it will always apply to them. As “The Nation” continues to evolves, I’m forced to see
that “being an OG” also embodies the struggle of being the underdog. And that struggle has no age limit.
So, I ask you this question. With all those similarities between us and them, how can the Giants NOT be considered OGs?
The other day, I was having a conversation with one of my students and he wanted to know what gave me the idea of using a folding chair to demonstrate and teach the proper posture for the “Bullfighter” Guard Pass (as he saw in on the OG Clinic DVD) since he had never seen anyone use furniture to teach a grappling concept before. I told him the reason I was able to use the chair to successfully teach the concept of proper body placement and weight distribution was based solely on the fact that no one ever told me that I couldn’t use a folding chair to teach my students. And since no one told me I couldn’t use a chair (or anything else that comes to mind), my teaching was bound ONLY by my creativity.
The motivation for using the chair was to teach my students the proper hand positioning and to show them where the weight should be distributed to neutralize their opponent while doing the pass. The reason I used the folding chair was the fact that they’re light and mobile, which allows me to put several on the mat at one time to create a unique drill for the students that immediately catches their attention and presents them with a simple training tool that most of them have in their homes and workspaces. Once they put their hands on the chair in the proper position, the feeling they feel in their hands lets them know exactly where the weight is being distributed and if their feet and hips are properly positioned for successfully neutralize their opponent for a successful guard pass.
The whole idea of using a folding chair seems so foreign to many grapplers (of all experience levels and ranks), but that’s one of the reasons that so many grapplers can’t improve outside the traditional setting or without black belt level instruction. They lack the imagination and creativity required to help them learn, understand, and to teach grappling techniques and concepts outside of the traditional setting that you see in lots of training academies, grappling books, and instructional DVDs.
Would I consider myself an innovative genius for using chairs (among other things) as training props? Well…yes and no! I am innovative because I haven’t seen anyone else doing it and no one’s accused me of stealing it from someone else…yet! At the same time, I know that I don’t own the patent on training creativity and quite certain that there are TONS of non-traditional training methods being used in gyms around the world that teach grappling concepts that are unknown to the masses.
THAT’S what I consider “thinking outside the box” in grappling. So, if you’ve got some “crazy” idea that helps you or your students understand a grappling principle, keep up the good work and continue to think outside the box. And if you think using a folding chair as a guard passing training tool was cool, wait until you see how I use a stationary bike seat and an umbrella in my OG Shadow Grappling DVD, which will be available within the month!
————————————————————————————————————–
Paul M. Greenhill, “The Wise Grappler”, is the creator of The Wise Grappler System and author of The Wise Grappler Ezine, a weekly ezine that provides grappling and mental mindset training tips for the older (over 35) and non-traditional/non-competitive martial artists. To learn more about “The Wise Grappler” and to sign up for more FREE tips like these, visit his site at www.thewisegrappler.com or contact The Wise Grappler.
