Do you ever sit down and think to yourself: „DAMN! Is anything that I do in Jiu Jitsu ever going to work? Why do I fail in everything that I try to do?! I thought that I knew how to roll, that my game was solid, that I would make constant progress… I’m doing everything right, so why am I failing?“
We get your frustration, it happens to the best of us. But here’s the thing: we won’t cuddle you into thinking that this has nothing to do with you and that everything will be okay. No, no – listen up: everything that you’re doing in BJJ is WRONG!
Here is why.
YOUR FOCUS IS TOO NARROW
You see, one of the biggest problems a Jiujiteiro can find himself in is being too narrowly focused. That is, he finds a technique or two – or more – from a given position, and then he sticks to them. He drills them over and over again, uses them every time he rolls and competes. Plus, he watches additional tutorials and instructionals on how to perform them better.
And the result? Truth be told, he finds some amount of success, for a short while. He submits and wins. But then, his training partners catch up with him. The competitors figure out his style. And soon enough, his game gets shut down left and right… And he’s left in a puddle of frustrations.
The reason behind this is that he was too stubborn – and focused only on one aspect of his game. He thought it was the „right“ one, that he was using the „right“ techniques!
But the thing is, there are no „right“ techniques. All that you have at your disposal are techniques in general. And when it’s best to use them depends not just on your skillset, but on the situation and the timing within it.
EVERYTHING YOU DO IS WRONG – BECAUSE THERE’S NOTHING „RIGHT“!
That last paragraph is exactly why you’re wrong in everything that you do in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu… Simply because there’s nothing „right“ about it!
BJJ is like a kids’ playground. There are all sorts of devices that the kids can run around and play with, and they rarely ever get bored doing so. They jump from one place to another, choosing their joy however best it feels like to them. And not just that – but they don’t get stuck to just one playground. Heck, if there were 100 playgrounds in the neighborhood, you could bet that most of the kids would want to visit and have fun in every single one of them!
See where we’re going with this? The kids don’t think that only one playground or only one device to play with is the „right one“. Instead, they explore and have fun with everything!
Now, what this should mean for you, as a Jiujiteiro, is that you have to realize that all of the moves and setups you have in BJJ aren’t right – but nor are they wrong. They may or may not work for you. It’s up to you to decide when to use them! But the main point is not to become so infatuated with one line of your BJJ game that you forget about the rest.
Instead, go out and play! Stop thinking about BJJ as a set of „rights“ and „wrongs“… And start thinking about it as more of a great, wide, and colorful playground; where you get to explore and experiment endlessly.
There is no finish line. There’s only this Jiu Jitsu journey that you are on. So let yourself be in it, fully.
