Exactly who and what is an OG?

In this OG Testimonial of the Week (OGTOW), I thought I’d use the time to define to answer the question that I’ve been asked quite a bit over the past months: exactly who and what is an OG?

When I initially created the Wise Grappler and the OG (originally meant “Older Grappler”) concept, it was for what I considered the older and non-traditional grapplers (non-competitive, smaller and weaker grapplers, female, recreational, physically challenged, etc.) at schools around the world that weren’t considered the “top guys” at their gym.

Due to my lack of vision at the time, I never anticipated that The Wise Grappler would grow into a leading grappling and mental mindset training resource for grapplers of all ages. I didn’t
imagine that the information that I provided (thru my email, articles, and training products) would be valued and applied by so many grapplers, even the grapplers considered the “top guys” at their schools.

With that revelation, I was forced to see that just like any othercommunity, there isn’t just one type of OG within The Nation and there is room for all. The thing that I needed to do was to give them something that unifies the older OGs with the hungry, young gun OG. And for a long time, I couldn’t figure it out what thatwould be.

And then one day, it hit me! The one thing that unifies us all within the Nation is what I consider our “old school” approach to grappling. And when I think of the term “old school”, I think of the following traits:

• works hard on the mat
• doesn’t play around when drilling and doesn’t clock-watching.
• leaves socializing for before and after class, not while training.
• doesn’t avoid training with partners that have superior technical skills than we do.
• isn’t afraid to be submitted and assigns no value to it.
• understands that winning and losing have to be learned and are excellent teachers.
• knows the value of a good coach and follow their advice.
• makes NO excuses when outcomes aren’t in our favor.
• give 100 percent effort in both training and competition.
• know how to accept victory and defeat.
• isn’t afraid to go out and “put it on the line”.
• isn’t concerned about failing or what others will say about us if we fall short of their goal.
• welcome challenges that take us out of our comfort zone

And other things that I can’t put into this one email so that it doesn’t go too long. To me, everyone in the nation is (or capable) of becoming an “oldschool grappler!” and when I take the space out between the words “old” and “school”, we have another definition for OG that everyone within the Nation can claim: OG = Oldschool Grappler!

And now that I’ve upgraded the definition of what an OG is, I want to show an example of how an OG lives up to it. Here’s a video that was sent to me by OG Nicolai “therealgeeza” Holt some months ago and I never took time out to look at it. Now, I’m glad that I didn’t see it back THEN because it’s exactly what I need NOW to communicate what “Oldschool Grappling” means to me. This young grappler is EVERYTHING that an OG should be! The video is about 6 minutes long.

If you seen it before and don’t think you can gain anything from it, look at it again and so that you can be eligible for a contest that I’m going to put on next week concerning the video. So, check out how an “Oldschool Grappler” gets it done and enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1M7WQdoBBI

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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.ihateyoungpunks.com or paul@thewisegrappler.com.