Interview Thursday: Jimmy Harbison/Allegory of the Cave

I've posted this on here before, and you may have ignored it or let Lloyd Irvin's internet marketing distract you from what is by and large still a quite useful interview.

In large part, essentially what Harbison talks about when he refers to the "concrete" in our brains that fills up and gets piled on and hardens while closing our minds to opportunities and other possible positive changes in our life is Plato's Allegory of the cave:

I'll elaborate. Many of us grew up thinking kung-fu and ninjas were the deadliest of the deadly. We saw board breaking demonstrations and guys magically defeating dozens of assailants and we wanted to believe in that capability.

We believed in Dim Mak and the death touch and a lot of other largely unproven claims.
Hope, and the desire to believe in something which will empower remain very powerful lures promises.

Then came the UFC and we saw behind the curtain in Oz. We saw the wizard for what he was: part-time snake oil salesman and fraud.

The cult-like brainwashed continue to believe they can become deadly and defend themselves without full-contact training and 12 year olds grow up thinking their spinning back scorpion axe kick will defeat anyone who stands in front of them.

My point is that if you've tuned out everything Lloyd has and downplay his students' accomplishments to rationalize your prejudice based on his internet marketing, you are missing out.

The cave up above is your own mind. You eventually had to see the efficacy of Jiu-Jitsu over other styles of martial arts.
Hopefully, you will see the efficacy of adapting some other grappling styles in part to benefit your Jiu-Jitsu as well. Believing Jiu-Jitsu is the silver bullet is also living in the cave and staring at shadows.
Believing that wrestling is boring or that Judo doesn't have its place in Jiu-Jitsu competition is living in the cave. Judo players who avoid mat work or cross training by telling themselves Jiu-Jitsu is too complicated to be effective, or wrestlers who think "I can just punch my way out of the guard" are living in the cave.
They are deep in the bee hive. The Queen or whoever has programmed them to believe in only one solution. In only one way.
Rather than seeking the way that best suits them.
If you think learning a couple takedowns will not improve your game you are rationalizing your own deficiency. If you think your mat work will not benefit from spending time with ground work specialists, you are rationalizing your own deficiency. If you want wrestling practice and complain that it is too physical, too reliant on athleticism, you are rationalizing your own laziness and lack of knowledge.
When you watch black belts in Jiu-Jitsu win by takedown points but tell yourself Judo causes injury or that you are not a high level player, you are finding an easy way to say you just don't want to do something you're not comfortable doing. The same goes for the guy who tries Jiu-Jitsu, gets tapped out and says it was the Gi that made that happen. Without the Gi, or in the street, he would have smashed the guy with elbows. Go back and watch the UFC.
Royce took many of those guys down himself, then proceeded to finish them. Watch the Gracies in Action tapes...watch Rickson.....clinch, takedown, finish.

Empty your tea cup.
Break up the concrete and *&^% that has been filling your brain. Stop rationalizing the things you want to avoid to protect your pride, ego, and vanity.