Sylvio Behring Jiu Jitsu Seminar: Inconvenient Behavior Management
Last weekend I was honored to be able to attend the first U.S. Jiu Jitsu Seminar of Master Sylvio Behring in over ten years. For any of you who aren’t up to speed on Master Sylvio, let me fill you in: Not only is he Anderson Sylva’s Jiu Jitsu instructor, but additionally Sylvio is a 7th Degree Black Belt in Jiu Jitsu, a Judo Black belt, son of Grand Master Flavio Behring (who studied under Heilio Gracie), student of Alvaro Barreto (another of Heilio’s students), Vice President of the Federation of Jiu Jitsu De Sportive in Rio De Janeiro, President of the Franco Behring Jiu Jitsu alliance of Canada, and President of the World Black Belt Council.
I know, you might be thinking that I am now going to start telling you about all of the sick Jits techniques I learned at the seminar. Well, I did learn a lots of techniques, but that wasn’t what really amazed me about the seminar. I was expecting to learn jiu jitsu. It’s the other things I learned that I want to write on right now.
I could tell right from the beginning that Sylvio was not what you might expect. Although one of the greatest in his art in the world, I found him to be kind, humble, and approachable. That humility extended beyond his feelings toward the students… At the beginning of each session we would stand at attention. But before bowing in, we would take a few moments of quiet time to say an internal prayer for guidance, and to be receptive and able to learn. Each session was similarly ended with a moment of quiet to give thanks. I found this to be really touching. It helped to remind us all that we needed to be open, and humble as we came onto the mat in order to learn, and to be thankful for what had been taught.
As we began our first session, I found the subject matter really intriguing. We began learning what Sylvio referred to as “Inconvenient Behavior Management” (Or IBM as I will call it in the post.) The concept of IBM is that if all we learn is self defense, then we are learning how to fend off an attack, or we are learning to counter attack, strike, or even cripple an attacker. If that is all we learn, then we found ourselves trying to break the wrist of everyone who lays a hand on us.
That may sound acceptable when thinking of assailants, but far too often an altercation starts with a push from the drunk brother-in-law at a wedding. Do you really want to maim him? Probably not. So before we think of how to defend ourselves, it is important that we first work on how to manage this inconvenient behavior… how to diffuse the situation. How to use subtle physical control without getting violent.
As we went through the IBM discussion, it really made me think of children and pocket knives. It is fairly easy to teach a child how to use a pocket knife. Teach them only to cut away from the hand, etc. But I have found with my own children, that the difficulty in knowing when they are ready to have a pocket knife has less to do with rather they know how to use it than rather they know when NOT to use it. I have had children carve dressers, stab pillows, you name it. That is the real danger of the knife… using it when you shouldn’t.
The same can be true of the martial arts. Great, I know how to break your arm… But should I? Do I need to? Were there other ways to handle this situation? to keep you from being able to attack, and making you feel less dominant merely with stances, or gentle hand pressures?
Master Sylvio Behring did an excellent job of laying out a strategy and techniques for this. But even more impressed than the techniques, I was impressed that he felt this to be so important that it was where we really needed to begin with our seminar. It speaks to the man he is.
Related posts:
- Sylvio Behring Jiu Jitsu Seminar Tuesday Oct 19th
- Sylvio Behring Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Seminar March 12-13
- Last Reminder: Sylvio Behring Utah Jiu Jitsu Seminar March 11-12
- Sylvio Behring BJJ and Judo Seminar (only $25!)
- Sylvio Behring Brazilian Jiu Jitsu: Progressive Guard
[...] Update 3/30/2010: To see a more current post re: Sylvio Behring JiuJitsu, You can Visit my Post on Utah Martial Arts. [...]
[...] know that I mentioned in a recent post, that Sylvio Behring had put on a JiuJitsu seminar in Colorado that I was pleased to be able to attend. But as a couple of follow-ons to that post, I wanted to [...]
I had the honor of working out and having my BJJ black belt strapped on me by master sylvio , he is a great instructor and a true gentlemen .