Kind: captions Language: en in a class you you emphasize that we're working with uh basic laws of physics so uh I just read Einstein's biography he was obsessed with finding a single theory that would unify all the fundamental forces of nature wow do you think there exist a unified theory of grappling where you can boil everything down to just a few principles uh well well first off if if Einstein wasn't able to come up with the unified theory I I would sincerely question my ability to go that way but do I believe that something like that could potentially exist absolutely and I think that even if it doesn't um a belief in the possibility of it and the search for it um would would leave you better off than where you started whereas if I was ah no no that's bullshit that would never and then I don't look even if I'm right because I didn't look there's certain things I won't learn so I think you know a lot of times just let's say Alchemy the idea that you're going to turn lead to gold all right well that's a little bit nuts but who knows maybe that's that kind of nutty and you know highly unlikely of highly unlikely probability of success Pursuit yielded scientific progress elsewhere in the search for that even though again someone would look back and say oh that's stupid who would who would do that well if you spent years trying to figure it out I guarantee you're going to learn some other things as well proc so I think that they at the very least the a principal based approach to grappling is incredibly important so what's your process like for learning new details and understanding the principles behind uh techniques I I certainly don't believe that I have like a a singular or perfect approach by any stretch of the imagination but um you know I guess what I try to do is block out extraneous nonsense like for instance both PE a lot of people want to talk about 55 details and reasons for something that's going on and the reality is is that you're clouding your thought process for instance there was a a reason not to get too political but there was a recent uh issue where uh I remember an inmate was executed and they used a new drug and it was painful and oh my God and he died it was horrible again that's whether you believe that capital punishment is valid or not I think there plenty of arguments against it in fact I think most of the arguments that make sense are against it but pain has fuck all to do with it you know I don't care that's like hey Lex I'm going to kill you but don't worry it's not going to hurt that I mean don't get me wrong yeah it's like that doesn't make it okay it's like believe me I prefer again if you're going to kill me I prefer this you don't burn me at the steak but if someone was like don't worry it it's not even going to sting I'm still G to try to fight you to the death I'm absolutely not allowing this to happen if someone wants to say oh okay hold on let's let's cut the bullshit like feely feelings out of here and say look forget the pain does this person deserve it ah well let's let's step that back again is there a potential for human error is there potential for someone having this guy behind bars for political gain like okay these are the real reasons that you say hey no way on the death penalty it has nothing to do with does it hurt or which drug is it or blah blah or is it inhumane it's like no if hey we're focusing on the wrong thing so it reminds me of Jiu-Jitsu in the same sense and again we're fighting we're generally speaking in my op opion debates that happen in the public you know Arena always focus on the wrong dang thing and always focus on the wrong aspect again there's 25 good reasons or bad reasons to do almost anything but generally speaking people will focus on the hundred other ones that are extraneous and retarded so what I want I guess what I would say is it reminds me of Jiu-Jitsu was striking like oh man Floyd likes to hold his hand this way or that way or the other way and and this guy likes to jab like this and it's really important this person says you land with this knuckle and that person says you land with that knuckle and in Jiu-Jitsu it's very very important that you Grip 3 in up on a lapel and two to the right but Roger Gracie does it like this but Cina says it like this clearly they all work under the right circumstances and don't work under the wrong ones and it has nothing to do or very little to do with these other things like hey does it matter again I'm going to kill you would you prefer for it to be painless or horrifically painful okay if it's already a foregone conclusion death all right yeah now we'll start to talk about the the extreme like whether or not it's going to sting but until we get to that point hey let's focus on the do we is is it even right or do I have the ability or the capacity to do this justifiably okay so that's where you come down to the principles in my opinion you say all right yeah does it matter which knuckle you land with yeah I'm sure it does but it's a hell of a lot less important than 25 other little things that make all of the difference and in my experience a lot of coaches and a lot of people particularly guys that are trying to bullshit you um will focus on 45 little details and oh it's there's 15 details to this technique okay that's true true but what are the two most important ones because hey don't get me wrong I'm not saying that these details don't matter but just like anything else in life there's a hierarchy because would you say that would you say that happiness and self-actualization is a valuable thing in life yes I would as well and you know what we have the luxury of saying that type of thing because we're sitting at 5050 Jiu-Jitsu in false Church Virginia and there's no one trying to kill us rape us and we are also I know where food is tonight yeah if you were to walk down if you were to talk to someone like 2,000 years be like how are you feeling they would stare at you like what are you fucking retarded I'm starving I'm hungry that's my issue are you are you satisfied in your life it's like I'll be Satisfied when you get out of my way so I can find some food so so that's even the deeper question is are you eating something tonight right and so it's masus hierarchy of needs when we take care of the base needs first then we start to work our way up towards self-actualization and this and that and but until you got your food Water Shelter don't tell me about where you're placing your grip it's like you're all leaning out and you're you know your posture is poor and you're out of balance and you want to tell me you're grip that's like I'm starving to death the you know the barbarians are at the gates but I'm sitting here giving you a philosophy lesson it's like this is retarded it doesn't make any sense build a better wall a sharper knife and get some food and then we'll cover all the other stuff so I think that in my when it comes to how I approach martial arts in terms of learning as well as teaching I really try to boil it down to what I feel to be the most important component parts and then if I one day reach the level of where the these tiny Details Matter that's fantastic because again the difference between you know the ability to pass try to pass successfully against a Cino or half Mendes and against a regular run-of-the-mill black belt you know it does come down to little details but it's also presupposing that you're in proper position that even allow these details to become relevant and and I think that a lot of times we put the car before the horse and that's not that's problematic are there still in your opinion undiscovered positions submissions or techniques in jiujitsu I would say that there have to be there absolutely are um you know I think that what we see is Jiu-Jitsu now don't get me wrong the core never changes because physics doesn't change physics is the same thing that's why I get a kick out of people that love like self-defense arguments it's like bullshit it has no there's no physical difference in self-defense beyond the fact yes you can iaz me though I've never seen anything like that in real life that you're crossing a pretty serious psychological line if you're putting your knuckles too you know your thumb two Knuckles deep into somebody's eye forget the fact that that you know that we're legal and moral other things like that it's like I've never done that before I wouldn't do it lightly there' probably be some hesitation there what so anyway what makes it different is the the psychological component and all these other things going on but physically there's no difference again people like oh Jiu-Jitsu is really different than MMA no it's not not in my opinion not in my experience it is absolutely not what are you talking about physics are different inside of a cage than they are on a mat and they are out in a field it's exactly the same now if I try to sport grapple you under a non-sport grappling rule set then I may run myself into trouble but that had nothing to do with jiu-jitsu Jiu-Jitsu is physics is is proper expression of physics the same way boxing is and the same way wrestling is the same way all of these things are so I would say that as long as something adheres to the principles uh that that allow something to be effective and uh you know and fundamentally sound that you can do almost anything and I think that people will continue particularly in the ghee it's going to get nuts you know just the level the amount of of things that you can get away with and do and and different grips that you can make but uh I'd say what we're looking at right now is going to look only somewhat like what Jiu-Jitsu is going to look like in 30 years the same way the jiujitsu we see now is so much fundamentally better honestly and and more evolved and adaptive than it was 20 years ago and people will swear up and down like oh back in the day it's like back in the day people didn't have to fight very well even 20 years ago the level of of people understanding how to deal with jiu-jitsu was very reduced so you could get away with all sorts of pretty questionable like sitting in front of someone in close guard and have them not completely kick the shit out of you but um I think you know with particularly the Advent of the baron Bol the 50-50 position all these different things which have always existed there's they've always existed and when that's I always hesitate to say invent I don't like the word invent like certain people use it a lot I'd say discover because you could show me I could come up with something let's say Lex you know you've got a really good straight foot lock I was watching a train last night and I could be doing that in a way that no one ever taught me that doesn't mean I invented it because you've been doing it forever but basically it's let's say no one showed me the details you were using and I managed to stumble across them I didn't invent those details yeah I discovered them that was neat but again none of us have invented a dang thing people have had two arms and two legs for certainly as long as I can remember and probably longer than that that's what I hear yeah that's that's the word so in the history books