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The Mindset For Success in Grappling & Life
September 14, 2022
The Mindset For Success in Grappling & Life
A few days ago, John Danaher, widely considered one of, If not THE best jiu-jitsu coach in the world, made an Instagram post about former Penn state wrestlers Jason Nolf and Geno Morelli visiting his gym for a training session. This is part of what he had to say:
“We’ve been extremely impressed in the past by Penn State wrestlers Roman Bravo Young and Dan Vallimont – that program seems to create wrestlers who adapt extremely well to Jiu jitsu. Wrestlers who exhibit a smoother, movement and set up based style” Now, it is easy to look at the absolutely dominate run of the Penn State wrestling program and its 8 team national championships and numerous individual championships and think “well, duh, they’re just really good at wrestling, it just makes sense that they would be good at Jiu-jitsu” and of course, there is some of that, they are stellar after all, but just as important as their skill development I think there two things which greatly facilitate their transitions across grappling sports and that we try to adopt at No Limits.
Their mindset and approach to training and competing
Penn State’s Head Coach Cael Sanderson is the most distinguished wrestler of the past few decades, finishing his college career a perfect 159-0, winning a gold medal, and then his accomplishments as a coach. So, you would think by all of this, his approach would be one of a demanding taskmaster but it’s actually something quite different… his Mindset and approach to training can be broken down into the following 4 sentiments
THIS is probably the toughest thing to teach and if I’m being honest, the toughest one to grasp even as a coach, NOBODY likes to fail at anything but you can’t let the possibility of not attaining your goals be the thing that holds you back from making the attempt . People are shocked when I tell them that I WANT them making mistakes, I want them experimenting, getting tapped in practice because that’s where the biggest growth and learning happens, which goes hand in hand with…
“We’ve been extremely impressed in the past by Penn State wrestlers Roman Bravo Young and Dan Vallimont – that program seems to create wrestlers who adapt extremely well to Jiu jitsu. Wrestlers who exhibit a smoother, movement and set up based style” Now, it is easy to look at the absolutely dominate run of the Penn State wrestling program and its 8 team national championships and numerous individual championships and think “well, duh, they’re just really good at wrestling, it just makes sense that they would be good at Jiu-jitsu” and of course, there is some of that, they are stellar after all, but just as important as their skill development I think there two things which greatly facilitate their transitions across grappling sports and that we try to adopt at No Limits.
Their mindset and approach to training and competing
Penn State’s Head Coach Cael Sanderson is the most distinguished wrestler of the past few decades, finishing his college career a perfect 159-0, winning a gold medal, and then his accomplishments as a coach. So, you would think by all of this, his approach would be one of a demanding taskmaster but it’s actually something quite different… his Mindset and approach to training can be broken down into the following 4 sentiments
- Don’t be afraid to fail.
THIS is probably the toughest thing to teach and if I’m being honest, the toughest one to grasp even as a coach, NOBODY likes to fail at anything but you can’t let the possibility of not attaining your goals be the thing that holds you back from making the attempt . People are shocked when I tell them that I WANT them making mistakes, I want them experimenting, getting tapped in practice because that’s where the biggest growth and learning happens, which goes hand in hand with…
- Be aggressive or die trying
- Have fun and enjoy the process
- Always being grateful for the opportunity