Manto Presents: The Grappling Dummy – Nic Gregoriades from martial farts on Vimeo.

But two things happened.  First, I saw what a terrific job Seymour is doing reviewing gis on his blog.  His thorough and honest reviews have inspired me.  Second, MMAOutlet.com offered me a discount in exchange for some link love, and hopefully some referrals and business their way.  I felt like karma had swept in and given me a big smooch on the lips, practically  begging me to buy the more expensive gi and find out whether it’s truly worth the hype. 

The Gameness Feather is manufactured in Pakistan, while the Bad Boy is made in Brazil. 

Disclaimer and Pricing:

In the interest of full disclosure, I am not sponsored by Bad Boy or Gameness.  I purchased both gis with my own money, although I got the Bad Boy Pro Series Lightweight Gi at a discount.  The following is a full and honest review of the gis.    As of the posting of this review, these gis are both available from MMAOutlet.com.  The Bad Boy for $199.95 plus s&h and the Gameness for $124.99.  Another gi in this lightweight family is the Vulkan Pro Light.

Weight and Fit:

I’m 5’10” tall and about 185 lbs.  I have a long torso and short legs (30” inseam).  I have a wingspan of approximately 72”.  I am measuring the Bad Boy gi both before AND after washing.  The Gameness Feather has been washed several times.  It’s likely that the Bad Boy will shrink a bit more, although I believe based on experience, that this will be relatively minimal.  Both Gis are A3. 

I wash my gis every time the same way.  I wash in warm water, cold rinse, and dry them completely in the dryer.  I purchase the gis specifically anticipating maximum shrinkage, so with only a very few exceptions, I tend to buy an A3 for my size. 

I’m not including weight for these gis, because at the time of this writing, I just don’t have a scale that’s accurate enough to weigh them.  I’ll update this review when I’m able to weight them.  Also, in the chart below, I’ve included measurements for the Bad Boy out of the bag, as well as after washing twice.  I didn’t measure the Gameness Feather out of the bag, so obviously, I can’t include them in this review. 

Jackets:

The weave is remarkably similar.  It’s a soft weave that’s comfortable and lightweight.  Both feel strong.  Having worn both, I’ll say that the Gameness seems to expand a bit when sweaty, while the Bad Boy remains tighter.  Not a strong knock against the Gameness, but the nod is for the Bad Boy. 

Fit is comparable, with both being comfortable and plenty big for me, even after washing in warm water and drying completely in the dryer.  The jackets are both well constructed and durable. 

The cuffs are both reinforced well, and I think that both will stand up well to the rigors of gripfighting.  You can see on the left that the Gameness Feather gi is finished with a trim patch matching the trim on the outside bottom of the jacket.  This is a nice finishing touch that was present in the Gameness Pearl as well.  I don’t know whether anyone really notices it or not, but it’s nice to have.

The Bad Boy is reinforced with what looks like heavy canvas stripping.  It has a much more substantial feel.

Collars:

The collars are approximately the same thickness with the slightly thicker one being the Gameness Feather.  

The Gameness Feather features a rubberized collar with ripstop fabric, which might be marginally lighter.  It’s noticeably spongier when you squish it.  Many gi manufacturers have gone to using some kind of lightweight, rubber material in the lapels so that they’re lighter and dry faster. 

The Bad Boy collar is MUCH stiffer, made, if I understand the sales verbiage correctly, of some kind of rolled cotton (“lapel that is filled with the same high-quality material of which the Gi itself is made.”)  The end result is a tougher feel, and a more traditional look.  The collar fabric is also a more traditional canvas, rather than the newer, trendier, ripstop fabric.  Will it make you harder to choke?  Maybe.  I don’t know.  I think that the sponginess of the Gameness gi will make it a little easier to grip.

Pants/Trousers:

The pants both have two drawstring loops, with a flat, fabric style drawstring (as opposed to a rope style like the SYR and older Gameness pants use).  The Bad Boy pants are slightly heavier.

The fabric in the Gameness Feather is ripstop.  It’s very different, however, from other ripstop pants I’ve seen, such as the Atama Mundial 7 and 9 paints.  While the Atama ripstop fabric is soft, the Gameness Feather pants are stiff.  Is this a bad thing?  I really don’t know.  It just is, I guess.  They’re really wrinkly and stiff, but also very light.  The knees are reinforced.   

The Bad Boy pants are a light canvas material.  Much softer than the Gameness, they’re more of what you’d expect to find in BJJ gi pants with heavily reinforced seams, knees and other stress points. 

The cuffs of the trousers are noticeably different in that the Gameness pants are finished at the bottom, but not really reinforce, while the Bad Boy pants don’t look like they’re going to ever wear out.

Patches and Stitching

Both gis feature some requisite pieces of Flair.

The Gameness Feather features several patches.  There’s a new design on each shoulder with what looks like a stylized “G” and some block letters. 

On the chest, there’s a lapel patch which is pretty familiar to anyone who’s seen the Gameness Single Weave or Platinum Weave gis that have been around for years.  The thing is, this lapel patch really doesn’t match, and was mercifully absent from the Gameness Pearl designs.    I had intended to remove it when I purchased the gi, but decided to keep it only because I wasn’t sure I could get the patch off cleanly.  It’s stitched very close to the seam on the collar, and I was going to have to cut the fabric on the patch to get it off.   After dying it, I still don’t like it, but I like it a whole lot better. 

 Other patches include the small patch on the left that features the Gameness Bulldog logo, and the trim patches also seen on the left and inside the cuffs on the jacket.  It’s a nice touch inside the sleeves that finished the seam and also reinforces it. 

That’s it for the Feather.  Unlike on other Gameness gis, the ripstop pants that come with the Gameness Feather are absent any bling.

The Bad Boy Pro Series Lightweight gi features a much more coherent graphics scheme than the Gameness.  I mean, there’s consistent repetition of only one version of the company logo, and it looks like some thought was given to the entire process, creating a much less haphazard appearance.  It’s also very clean looking, without too much going on.  The overall effect is professional looking with enough branding that it’s easy to see. 

The picture above left is along the bottom edge of the jacket, with a trim patch that finishes the jacket and a small logo patch.  Above right is a picture of the shoulder patch.  All three patches feature the Badboy eye logo with the company name in block print. 

The pants have three patches, including trim along the outside seams that matches the jacket trim, a small square patch (above middle) that is on the front towards the top of the pants, and an embroidered patch of the eye logo that is down at the bottom of the right leg. 

The patches on both gis seem to be sewn on well. 

Conclusion

Bottom line is that the Bad Boy is clearly a better made gi in every category.  The verbiage on the websites evokes images of little old ladies sitting in a big room, hand sewing each Bad Boy gi with needle and thread, and maybe a little love, too.  Obviously, that ain’t the case, but you can see that every seam is straight and clean, every panel is reinforced and well thought out.  The whole thing just feels well constructed.   I like the lines of it, and the sharp looking patches are enough to look good without being gaudy.  If you can afford to spend the dough on a Bad Boy gi, you won’t be disappointed.  The only issue I have with my Bad Boy is what color to dye it.   I’m thinking fire engine red. 

The Gameness represents good value for the money.  While the stitching isn’t quite as clean, the seams aren’t quite as well reinforced, and the graphics aren’t quite as well thought out, at more than 1/3rd less cost, it’s a very good gi for the money. 

Both Gis are available from MMAOutlet.com. 

Good luck to all of the Lotus Club jitsuka competing this weekend.  You’re all an inspiration and I wish I were able to be there to cheer you on!

In other news, I’m finishing up a gi review that I hope to post soon, so stay tuned for that.  I’m also anxiously awaiting a Tatami Zero G gi that I ordered from the UK.  I’m pretty excited to see this one.  If it’s as good as I’ve heard, it’s a terrific deal, even accounting for shipping from the Uk.  In the meantime, go check out Meerkatsu’s AWESOME gi reviews. He reviewed the Zero G, but I’ll post one in American…  dude’s all centimeters this and kilograms that.  Who uses those funky measurements anyway? 

What’s that?  Most of the world?  Oh…  well… 

Have a great weekend all.  I expect a full report when I come back.

Just want to share a link to some great professional pictures of the fights.  These are only two of dozens of awesome shots.  Jeff Hougland’s fight was number 10 on the card, and Josh Calvo’s was number 12.

Have you ever wondered how a jitsuka would do a benchpress?

What about craziness you can do with a 25 lb plate, a 10 lbs mini ball, a 14.5 lb kettle ball and, I kid you not, a 25 lb Cement Atlas ball?  Add a wheelbarrow and a little dose of insanity.

Sammy’s been training for a while, but keeps getting deployed. Friday was his last class with us until he comes back from, I believe, 8 months at sea. Good luck, Sammy and congratulations.

Rhino is a big, strong, technical guy and he received his well deserved blue belt as well. Rhino’s going to be out for medical reasons for a while, but there’s no doubt in my mind that he’ll be back on the mats as soon as his doctor’s allow it… probably a few weeks before that.

Saturday night, there were fights at the Snoqualmie Casino, Rumble at the Ridge X. I tagged along with Owen, Bingo, and Rhino. I didn’t realize that the fights were going to be outside and ended up getting WAY too much sun for a bald, redheaded guy to get. But that’s not the worst thing that happened. We showed up around 4:30 or so.

The amateur fights were scheduled to start at around 2pm. Gina was checking the fighters in and she gave us the scoop on what happened. I guess the first one started on time, but even though the mats were covered, the area was in direct sunlight all afternoon long. We don’t get a lot of sun here in Seattle. We hardly know what sunlight is. I mean, it’s something OTHER people get. The combination of direct sun, heat (in the 90s, IIRC) and a lack of experience with either was a recipe for disaster.

One of the competitors in the first fight, an amateur, received burns on the bottom of his feet so bad that he literally left the sole of one of his feet on the mat as he picked it up to move. That’s horrific. I think that because it happened before really anyone arrived, the event didn’t seem much affected by it. I don’t know exactly which fighter it was, or where he trains, but buddy, whoever you are, I wish you a speedy recovery. Severe burns to the bottoms of your feet are no joke. Take care. I’m really glad this was a sanctioned event, and hopefully all of your medical bills are covered and you’re well taken care of.

After icing the mats for hours, and as the sun started to move behind the buildings and trees, things cooled down quite a bit. The rest of the fights were fun to watch. Overall, we saw a lot of bad grappling, but some decent striking, and finally, when the pro fights started, we got to see Josh and Jeff demolish their opponents.

Jeff Hougland is the owner and head coach at Combat Sports and Fitness in Enumclaw, WA. Jeff’s a brown belt under James Foster, my coach, and is an incredibly tough guy. You, readers of Stevebjj.com, may be among the first to hear it outside of the PNW area, but Jeff’s camp is top tier and his fighters are going to be making some waves in elite MMA competitions before long. Fighters like Josh Calvo and Ian Williams, among several others, are among the most technical, best trained guys in the area.

Both Jeff and Josh won in the first round of their matches. Jeff’s victory brings his professional record to, I believe, 9 -4, and Josh is now 2-1 as a pro. It was really cool watching these guys fight. Awesome night.

In this article, I’m going to go through some tips I share with people in a professional setting who are learning complex processes.  I believe that they are as relevant to BJJ as they are to an employee learning a new job. 

1:  Avoid Irrelevance:

This is directly related to the concept of cognitive load.  If you can only manage a handful of concepts or details at a time and expect to retain them, don’t waste your brain power on things that aren’t critical.   In our hyper active, short attention span times, this is easier said than done, but irrelevance also includes things that may be interesting but aren’t informative.   Overloading short-term memory can lead to losing everything.  This is that phenomenon I talked about yesterday where you go to a seminar and learn all sorts of really good technical information, but find a few months later that not one thing made it into your game.

2:  Activate as many senses as possible:

BJJ instruction is great for most learning types.  At my school, our instruction is usually explained aurally and visually, followed by drills that are great for kinetic learners.  Keeping a training log is a great way to reinforce details.  It allows you to visualize the entire process and then articulate it in writing.  Another way to accomplish the same thing is to simply teach the technique to someone else as best you can.  

My general rule of thumb is, if I learn something I think is useful, I’ll try to teach it to at least two people.  The act of teaching shares the information, but I’m really being selfish in that teaching others helps me as much as it helps them.

3:  Novices:  Focus on Steps over Strategy / Experts:  Focus on Strategy over Steps

If you’re learning something completely new, pick a few key details to walk away with.   Focus on what I called near-transfer.  In other words, focus on trying to replicate that exact technique in that exact way.  Innovation is almost impossible without a strong, fundamental understanding of how things work.

If you’ve got experience with a particular technique, don’t get caught up too much in the details.  I’m not saying ignore them, but at some point begin to focus on what I called “far transfer,” which is thinking more generally about how the concepts and techniques can be applied in different situations.  This emphasis helps lead to Adaptive Expertise.

4: Connect New Information to Something You Already Know

You really can’t learn anything in a vacuum.  If you don’t have a frame of reference, that’s what you should be focusing on learning.   Once again, if you’re new to BJJ, I highly recommend Stephan Kesting’s Roadmap for BJJ.  It is specifically designed to give you a working model within which you can organize information.  Without it, you’ll be left to do it yourself. 

The point is, if you learn something in a vacuum, it will be very difficult to recall it when you need it. 

For example, Coach showed us a sweep sequence from Deep Half Guard.  I’d never really played at all with DHG before, but fortunately, the first thing he did was to show us a transition from a position that I’m very comfortable with.  I use that entry all the time now as a direct result of this connection.

5:  Self Regulate

This means essentially that you need to own your progress.  You should continually be assessing your progress, deciding what you need to learn and what can be let go for now.  You can’t learn everything at once.

Set goals for yourself.  Make them specific and measurable.   When setting goals, avoid goals that involve “understanding” or “identifying.”   Focus instead on application or execution of concepts and techniques. 

Ultimately, you have to own your own training.    Jeff Bourgeois, a brown belt at my school, said one time (paraphrasing from memory), “If you’re a white belt, you can’t help but learn.  You know so little, it’s impossible not to pick something up.  But if you want to keep learning after blue belt, you’ll have to do some work.”  There’s a point where just showing up, while more than most people do, isn’t going to be enough. 

6:  Stay Healthy physically, mentally and emotionally

This is so important.  Do what you need to do to stay healthy.  While I really can’t offer specific advice on HOW to stay healthy beyond the obvious things we all know, but don’t all do, it’s so critical. 

For me, BJJ is part of how I stay healthy mentally.   So, I try to do what I need to do to be physically able to train.

I hope that these simple tips help someone out.  It may seem like common sense, but as I said before, sometimes just writing things down helps.

1. Adult learning is comprised of three key elements: short term memory, long term memory and metacognition. 
2. Short term memory is our working space, where we make gains, draw conclusions and learn new things.
3. Long term memory is where we store skills, facts and the framework within which our expertise is organized.
4. Metacognition is where we manage our memory, make decisions and set goals.  This is our strategic center.

In this article, I intend to dive a little deeper into how these three key components of learning interact, and how different people can maximize our time on the mats by applying some simple strategies for learning.  I’ll start by discussing what we bring to the table, then the path that information takes from theory to application (and why it often doesn’t make it) and then end by going into the idea of adaptive expertise vs static expertise.

What We Bring to the Table

Other than the typical baggage we all carry with us.  I’m talking about other, more productive things, like outside knowledge and experience.   In this section, we’ll dive into expertise and how experts learn differently than novices.  We’ll talk about how teaching a novice like an expert will actually undermine his learning, and vice versa; teaching an expert like a novice makes it more difficult for the expert. 

The Conscious Competence Model

A common model for competence is what’s often referred to as the ‘Conscious Competence’ model, outlining four stages of competence through which we all move as we become more adept at any given activity or job.

The four stages look like this:

1. Unconsciously Incompetent:  In other words, we don’t know what we don’t know.  This is the BJJ like the one that Leslie mentions who says after a round of sparring, “Hey, I’m pretty good at this; I didn’t have to tap that round.”   This guy is, quite literally, not competent to even analyze his round and doesn’t know it. 
2. Consciously Incompetent:  This is the stage where you usually blush with recognition at what an asshat you made of yourself.  “Oh damn.  I can’t believe I said that.”  In the BJJ journey, this is right around 2 or 3 stripe white belt and lasts… well, at least through blue belt.  I haven’t been into purple belt range yet, but I’d guess it’s somewhere in the middle purple belt range where we move out of this stage and into the next. 
3. Consciously Competent:  These are the guys who are really good.  They apply good technique to every situation, have few holes in their games, if any, and can give anyone in the school a challenge.  The difference between this stage and the next is subtle, but distinct.  In this stage, there is expertise, but the skills are applied with intention.  This one is hard to describe, but you know it when you see it.  From what I’ve seen and learned, this is the primary distinction between brown belt and black belt.  The brown belt in BJJ can do pretty much everything the black belt does.  There’s just… some inneffable distinction between the way that the two execute the techniques.
4. Unconscious Competence:  This is mastery, where there’s very little conscious thought applied to the execution of technique.  Watching elite grapplers roll is a great example of this, particularly if you watch them roll with less experienced jitsuka.  I don’t see the distinction between stages three and four very well  until I see a black belt roll with, say, a purple belt.  That’s where the distinction really becomes apparent.    

Of course, BJJ is a complicated physical activity, so it’s unavoidable that we’re straddling different stages.   It’s possible for someone to be very good in some positions and completely incompetent in others.   This, then, is the first thing we bring to the table, and the first barrier to learning is to always seek out what we don’t know.  In other words, we can’t learn something if we think we already know it.  In Saulo Ribeiro’s book, “Jiu Jitsu University,” he says that one of the things he does is to get visiting black belts into mount to see how they escape.  Often, he says, they can’t and their response when asked why is that they don’t let anyone get to mount on them.  That’s the real hazard of stage one. 

 Novice vs Expert

 Another aspect of adult learning is how we learn when we’re novice as opposed to how we learn as experts.  The difference, simply put, has to do with whether the framework we organize the information into is provided internally or externally.   Also, to be clear, we’re not talking about a binary situation here.  Expertise isn’t on or off.  It’s a sliding scale.  In BJJ, it’s a very, very loooong scale. 

As a novice, we have no frame of reference.  We often refer to fundamentals as building blocks, and talk a lot about building a foundation.  The analogy makes a lot of sense, because that’s exactly what we’re doing.  I mentioned Stefan Kesting’s Roadmap for BJJ in part one.  That’s exactly what his package does, and why it’s so helpful for new jitsuka who are attempting to learn BJJ.  It provides a working model.

Teaching novices without providing this model is counterproductive and often a waste of time.  The technique gets into short term memory, muddles around there for a while until, if we’re lucky, it imprints into long term memory, but ends up filed away and never to be seen or heard from again. 

For the expert, and this might seem a little counterproductive, too much detail can actually be counterproductive.   As we gain expertise, we are creating an internal architecture for storing all of this information.  If I’m taught something that conflicts with my internal model, it causes some amount of conflict that adds to my cognitive load.  Remember, we get maybe five chunks of information at a time to work with at a time in our short term memory, and if one of those chunks is reconciling an inconsequential detail, we might miss something truly critical.

So, let’s take a couple of examples.  A novice and an expert are trying to learn a sweep from deep half guard.  If we’re teaching to the novice, an explanation of what deep half-guard is, how it’s used and when it’s useful would be helpful.  Also, in order to place the technique into some context, we’d need to teach at least some way to get from a familiar position to this unfamiliar one.  So, for instance, a transition from half-guard to deep half guard is helpful.  Otherwise, the technique is unconnected.

Teaching the same technique to a more experienced guy might sound more like, “So, get into deep half guard however you like to get there.  The key to this technique is x, y and z.” 

Another advantage of expertise is that the “chunks” I referred to in part one of this series can be larger.   If  I show basic side control to a white belt, he might take one key concept away, whether that’s hand placement or shoulder pressure, blocking the hip… something.  Probably won’t take more than one or two of these, though.  That’s about it. 

Just don’t let your expertise become a barrier to training. Be open to correction and learning new ways to do things.  

Adaptive Expertise vs Static Expertise          

I mentioned in Part 1 of this series that the ability to learn, unlearn and relearn are crucial in this day and age.  It applies as much to BJJ as it does to everything else in our lives.  Things just change too fast to remain stagnant.

Static expertise is essentially becoming very good at something that never changes.  I can type about 85 words per minute.  I have expertise as a typist that can be measured, and, unless someone changes the QWERTY keyboard on me, I can count on this skill.  This is static expertise that requires no real innovation.  There’s no problem to solve or issues to expose.

Adaptive expertise is innovative, creative expertise.  When we hear about someone like Marcelo Garcia taking a position like X-Guard and turning it into a comprehensive game, that’s adaptive expertise in action.  Solving problems or overcoming obstacles in unique ways is adaptive expertise.   While I hate the cliché “thinking outside the box,” that’s really what we’re talking about.  This comes from experimentation and always looking for what we don’t know, and is often found in people who we consider strong critical thinkers. 

The most often used example of adaptive expertise is in the Apollo 13 shuttle.  They were in a situation where they were looking at limited Oxygen and an environment in which the CO2 wasn’t being filtered out, adding up to a potentially very bad day for the crew.  The engineers had an idea to use parts and equipment in a completely new way to create access to filtration that eventually led to the crew landing safely.  The knowledge of not only how to run things, but how things actually worked on that shuttle enabled them to approach the problem from a completely new perspective.

McGyver is the best fictional example I can think of.  That guy could do anything from anywhere with a piece of chewing gum and some dental floss.  The key is working with the end in mind, focusing on the steps only insofar as they lead to a result.  It’s the result that matters.

The Path to Expertise

What happens when we learn a new technique?  How does it go from theory to application? 

Frankly, for most of us, the vast majority of what we learn simply doesn’t.  It gets lost and forgotten.  But not all of it.  Hopefully enough makes it through to keep us coming back for more. 

We start in STM, in our work space, ingesting the information.  If we have no context for the information, this is where is usually stops.   Ideally, we are either provided enough context or can involve our previous experiences enough to provide some context.  This context is critical in taking the information out of theory and imprinting it in a usable way in our long term memory. 

A really common barrier at this stage is cognitive overload – when you’ve got too many details and insufficient context to distinguish those few details that actually matter to you.  From the perspective of the student, what really helps is to identify a few key points you want to take away from the lesson.    Simply put, don’t try to remember everything.  In fact, don’t try to remember MOST everything.  Pick no more than 4 key details to take away.  Absorb those, then the next time the technique rolls around, whether it’s asking someone at open mat or in formal class instruction, look for more.

Once in our long term memory, the challenge is bringing back when we need it and there are a lot of things that can get in the way of this.   How many times have you gone to a seminar, learned some really, really cool stuff, only to find a few months later that none of it has found its way into your game?  I’ve been lucky to take away one or two practical, applicable pieces of information.  Sometimes, it’s a technique.  Other times, it’s a concept.  What’s happening is that there is a disconnect in transferring this information from long-term memory back to my working, short-term memory. 

This kind of transfer failure is more often than not caused by a lack of context.  I mentioned before that we need to have a strong framework within which information can be organized.  The better developed that model, the better we are able to recall the information when needed.

Ruth Clark, in the book Building Expertise, distinguishes between three different types of transfer.  Near transfer, moderate transfer and far transfer.

Near transfer works really well for brand new concepts or techniques.  These are essentially tasks that can be done the same way every time.  Same context and conditions lead to the same steps taken to achieve the same results.  Yesterday at class, we learned a paper cutter from a transition out of side control.   Thumb in the collar deep, control uke’s opposite side arm so that he can’t turn out of the choke, drive blade of forearm across the throat focusing on bringing the elbow to the mat.   That’s near transfer, and the easiest to recall.

Moderate transfer involves some added variables.  Applying the same techniques in varying situations is an example of moderate transfer.  This would be discussions of various entries into the choke.  Setting it up from North/South, or moving out of one technique into the paper cutter.  The key difference between Near Transfer and Moderate Transfer is depth of understanding.  In order to perform the paper cutter choke from side control, I don’t really need to know how or why it works; rather, I need only know how to apply it.  However, if I want to apply it under a variety of conditions, I’m going to need to understand why. 

Far transfer involves judgement, and is the most difficult to facilitate.  Far transfer involves a deep understanding of underlying principles.  For example, learning the ezekial from mount would be near transfer.  Learning the Ezekial choke from mount, and then pplying the same principles to catch the ezekial choke from guard, half guard top, half guard bottom and side control would be a good example of far transfer. 

Summary

In this article, the second of three, I looked at the following key points:

1. The Conscious Competence model, and what we bring to the table: It’s impossible to learn something if we think we already know it.
2. Novice vs Expert:  How as a novice we have to regulate our learning differently as we shift from organizing new information in externally provided frameworks to internally provided frameworks. 
3. Adaptive expertise vs Static Expertise: Some people never achieve adaptive expertise, but the best instructors can apply broader concepts in many different contexts adapting to a fluid environment.
4. The Path to Expertise:  How we have to consciously manage the transfer of information so that it can be translated from abstract theory to application.

In the next article, I’ll go into some of the common problems I’ve encountered in corporate training, along with some strategies for avoiding these pitfalls.

This is the first of three articles on some common ideas about adult learning and how I see them applied to martial arts training, specifically BJJ.   Hopefully these articles will provide some context for you, and help you create a framework that explains (and maybe alleviates) some common sources of frustration.

In this article, I’ll discuss how we learn… what’s going on behind the scenes in our brains and bodies.  In the next installment, I’ll try to tie everything together, finishing up the trilogy by providing what I hope are some strategies for success. 

As always, I’m more interested in sparking discussion than anything else, so if you have any comments, corrections or criticisms, I’d love to hear them. 

How we learn

There are three components to learning: Short Term Memory (STM), Long Term Memory (LTM) and what is often referred to as Metacognition.   

A common analogy is that of a computer, where STM is RAM, LTM is the hard drive and metacognition is the operating system.  While this analogy works well, I prefer a more low-tech comparison.  I like to cook, so I tend to think of short term memory as a kitchen counter.  Long term memory, then, would be the pantry and drawers.  Metacognition is pretty much everything else, the human element. 

Short Term Memory

As I mentioned before, short term memory is the kitchen counters.  It’s the active working area in which we do all of our intellectual heavy lifting.  If I’m cooking a meal, I’m going to want a lot of things available to me, including tools, ingredients and perhaps a recipe.  This is my active space, where I’ll use these items to mix, measure, chop and puree, and if I do everything correctly, I’ll end up with a meal that is edible.

Pretty much everything we do actively is a product of our short term memory: analyzing, adapting, understanding, and pretty much every other –ing that you can think of.   It’s where we do all of our Cognition, Reasoning, Analysis and Practical Application, or CRAP.  Hehe. 

*Ahem.*  Sorry. 

From time to time, I’ll say that my brain is full, or in some drastic situations, that my brain is broken.  Of course, these aren’t literal.  What I’m talking about is something referred to as cognitive load.    Cognitive load refers to the limited amount of space we have in our Short Term Memory.  My kitchen counter can only hold so many things at once.  If I don’t put things away, I’ll end up unable to find what I’m looking for. 

Way back in 1956, a guy named Goerge Miller who at the time was a psychology professor at Princeton, described the functional limit of an average human’s working memory as seven plus or minus two.   This pretty much means that most people can only juggle seven “chunks” of information at a time.   Some people can manage up to nine, and others as few as five.  What constitutes a chunk will vary, and I’ll go into that more in the next article.  For now, just think about a chunk as an idea, concept, group of facts or some… well… chunk of information.  

In Ruth Clark’s book, “Building Expertise,” an even more conservative position is taken, suggesting that we’re really only looking at a functional limit of four or five discrete concepts.   The point, though, is that there is a limit.  We only have so much space on our kitchen counters.  If I’m not cleaning as I go and managing the different steps in a logical order, I’ll have too many pots on the stove, too many things going on.  I’m going to end up with a mess and nothing delicious to show for it. 

So, summing up short term memory, that’s where we have rapid access to information.   It’s quick and accessible.  But there is a functional limit, and when we overload our short term memory, we risk losing any gains we’ve made.

Getting back to some more familiar ground for a lot of us, Matt Thornton describes learning as being broken down into the Three I’s:  Introduction, Isolation and Integration.  Introduction and Isolation are both functions that are taking place within the short term memory.  

Long Term Memory

If short term memory is the kitchen counter, long term memory is the pantry and cupboards.  Think bulk storage.  That’s where we keep our knowledge.  It’s also where we house our expertise and build the framework within which we organize information into usable structures.  Think recipes and cookbooks. 

In Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, this is where we liberate ourselves from having to think consciously about what constitutes good side control.  It’s there when we need it.  Techniques are housed here.  That half guard pass I learned from Andre Galvao’s DVD or the X-Guard Sweep I picked up from Marcelo Garcia’s book are both stored in my LTM. 

Our brains are pretty damned amazing.  Unless your name is Homer Simpson, there is no functional limit to what most of us can store in our Long Term Memories.  The skills we develop along with the facts that accompany them. 

The key is in the transfer of skills and information from LTM to STM, and that has to do with organization.  An organized pantry makes it easy to find what we need.  In the same way, our brains build models to quickly reference appropriate material.  Stefan Kesting’s Roadmap for BJJ package is a terrific example of this concept.   In it, he provides a working model in which a person can organize information.   In this way, he’s facilitating the ability of the new BJJ practitioner to imprint concepts into their LTM from their STM. 

Once again, I’ll talk a little more about how this works in the next article.

Metacognition

The third component of learning is metacognition, what essentially boils down to knowledge about knowledge.  As I mentioned in the introduction, this is the human element of learning.  Metacognition is what facilites that transfer of information to and from long term memory. 

In terms of our cooking analogy, this would be the decision making process and how we manage choices.  What’s for dinner?  Which recipe do I choose?  Should I tweak it?  Seems like last time it was a little bland. 

Metacognition is where we set goals for ourselves and organize the act of learning.  It’s where we analyze our performance and develop a strategy or plan to follow.  That’s where the inner dialogue comes from, “Man, my half guard bottom is weak.   I need to just suck it up and pull half guard for a while until I can figure this out.”  The analysis and decision to pull guard are central to what I’m talking about. 

“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn.”  –  Alvin Toffler  

As far as I’m concerned, this is the most important trait that we can cultivate personally: the ability to learn, unlearn and relearn.  Being able to do this requires an agile mind and a willingness to let go of information regardless of the personal investment we’ve made in acquiring it.  Or said another way, it doesn’t matter how long it took to learn something that is now obsolete.   In terms of Martial Arts, this is where we become afraid to try new things. 

Summary

1. Adult learning is comprised of three key elements: short term memory, long term memory and metacognition. 
2. Short term memory is our working space, where we make gains, draw conclusions and learn new things.
3. Long term memory is where we store skills, facts and the framework within which our expertise is organized.
4. Metacognition is where we manage our memory, make decisions and set goals.  This is our strategic center.

In the next section, I’ll talk more about how these three elements fit together, along with other elements of learning such as the differences between learning as an expert and learning as a novice, adaptive vs static expertise and why we often learn something one day and never think about it again until the next time it’s taught (“Oh yeah.  I remember learning that.”)