Over the weekend Mrs Hazmat reminded me why we are married.. she set the DVR to record a very interesting new show on Discovery Channel (My Favorite Channel) because she thought I'd like it.
The show is called "Human Body: Pushing the Limits". If you haven't seen it yet, I recommend you do.
The essential premise is as follows, the Human Body is amazing, it's capable of truly astonishing feats when pressed to the limits.
While the episode I watched covered the adrenal response that comes when the body senses immediate harm (great section on a true life story of a Police Officer escaping a fire storm!), it also covered something much more mundane but nevertheless very important to the white collar grappler..
Muscle Memory.
In the episode they talked about the process of muscle learning. While no, your muscles don't have memory as it were, the brain records the action and reaction of each movement, the subtle nuances of the action the resulted in the proper or desired outcome.
Essentially with each successful repetition the brain becomes more efficient, better able to achieve the same outcome with less "thinking" or cognitive processing.
So what does this mean for us?
Drills baby! Lots and lots of drills.
Again however the answer just results in more questions.
How do we get more drilling time without taking too much away from the family, work, etc?
Sure when I was younger and had 1/10th of the responsibilities I have now I could have trained as often as my body would allow, but those days are long gone.
So what have I found that gives me the opportunity to drill techniques early in the morning before the family wakes up or late in the evening after the baby is in bed?
Let me introduce you to "Harvey".
Why do I call my Grappling Dummy Harvey?
Well for my older set of readers, old grandma Haz used to watch "Harvey", a 1950s film about a guy whose best friend is a 6ft tall invisible rabbit. When I was little I can remember watching the film with her. Harvey was the name of that "invisible rabbit". Somewhat fitting when you think about it..
For the more geeky readers...
The entertaining SciFi Channel show, Farscape, featured a character that existed as a figment in the mind of the lead.. his nickname? Harvey. As you'll see in the above picture, perhaps this Harvey and my new grappling dummy Harvey are distant cousins. :)
Anyway, all kidding aside I couldn't be more happy with this dummy. I'm going to put together short review on it soon, however in the meantime head over to Submission Master and check them out for yourself.
Also, check out "Human Body: Pushing the Limits" on Discovery, I think you'll enjoy it.
Until then, it's time to go knock out some reps.
-hz
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