You know that feeling when you’re supposed to do something, perhaps something scary… You know that you should go for it, but you just can’t seem to take the leap? Yup, that feeling – the sensation of hesitation.
Everyone experiences it, from time to time. And everyone encounters it while training Brazilian Jiu Jitsu; either during training rolls, or in competition. Or both.
But you can get rid of this feeling of hesitation in BJJ, or at least lower it! Here’s how.
WHERE DOES YOUR HESITATION LAY?
The first thing you need to take care of in your pursuit of hesitation elimination, is to figure out where your hesitation lays. That is, you’ve got to find out which areas of your BJJ game you’re hesitating in.
You probably aren’t hesitant in everything on the mats. But there certainly are some parts where you’re overthinking about taking your next move. Therefore, you need to observe yourself when you roll. Begin paying attention at the moments when you „freeze up“, so that you can begin working on them later on.
When you’ve figured out what you need to improve in, it’s time to start working on it. But there’s a catch…
IT WON’T GET SOLVED IMMEDIATELY
It would be great if you could learn all of the techniques you wanted to in the course of a training or two. But, (un)fortunately, it doesn’t work that way; a lot of time will pass until you get to learn and solidify your techniques to a good enough level. And the same thing is true for hesitation (or whichever other mindset-oriented thing) in Jiu Jitsu – it will take some time until you take care of it.
It’s for this reason that you shouldn’t expect to get rid of your hesitation in a matter of „seconds“. Some period of time shall pass until you reach success in this endeavor; but it will be very well worth the effort, as your BJJ will get become elevated to a new level.
FOCUS ON SMALL IMPROVEMENTS EVERY TRAINING
So, how are you supposed to work on this issue? It’s best that you take on the Kaizen principle of getting 1% better every day. It works greatly with the process of technique refinement, and it will work great with the process of improving your mindset!
In other words, you should simply try to improve a bit each training session. This means that you’ll proactively work on getting over hesitation by noticing it and then overcoming it every time you roll.
The thing is that there will be a lot of moments where you’re hesitating to do something, so it won’t be possible to take ownership of every single one of them. But, you will be able to overcome some of those moments – and that’s what matters most.
Therefore, make it a point to overcome at least one moment of hesitation every time you roll. These moments will pile up, and – with time – you’re going to become much more decisive than you are right now.
ELIMINATE HESITATION IN OTHER AREAS OF LIFE
And finally, you shouldn’t seek to eliminate hesitation only in Jiu Jitsu; but you should do it in all areas of your life. This isn’t just because this sort of a pursuit will make your entire life better, but because it will transfer over to BJJ as well.
How you do one thing, is how you do everything. One area of life influences an another one, and vice versa; and so, by becoming less hesitant in other areas of your life, you’ll find it easier to overcome hesitation in Jiu Jitsu.
