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It is remarkable how much you have grown," she said. The way you behave is similar to stepping out of the middle of the pack.
For the first time in my grappling development, I felt on the right track when she said that. My process for stepping out from the middle of the pack is described below. Let's take a moment to consider a few things first:
This is a personal: process that cannot guarantee results. Create your own personal process using it as a springboard.
You must know who you are and what you want: Speaking of results, I have won one IBJJF bronze medal (a real one, not a sympathy one). The goal of this journey is to become the best version of myself that I can be. The creative, resilient, dynamic, and happier version of him probably won't win Mundials.
The process doesn’t stop: You must be fully invested in your process, not its results. Processes of this sort do not end. By creating a personal growth process for BJJ, you commit to a lifelong process of transformation. Taking care of that means working.
Now that you have the preliminaries out of the way, let me show you my 10 steps to accelerating your BJJ growth.
1. DECIDE TO BE ALL IN ON JIU JITSU
All in means fully committed. Mind, body, and soul are all dedicated to your training. Individual grapplers will experience everything differently. In my case, I trained five to six days per week on the mats, with two strength and conditioning sessions thrown in. You might not have time to do that. That's fine. Training like a professional on the days you have time for the maximum amount of training.
2. CREATE A DELIBERATE PRACTICE
The purpose of training deliberately in BJJ is to train with intention. It's all about showing up, learning, and training hard. There's still a lot of work to be done. We are reflecting on half of that training. In what area did you err? What are the gaps in your game? Getting back to training will help you close the gaps.
3. SYSTEMATIZE YOUR DELIBERATE PRACTICE
For me, this means writing down lessons and observations from rolls. As well as mind maps, I also create them for my games. My approach is based on questions. Before I go to bed, I ask myself these questions about my game, and then in the morning, after my subconscious has worked on the problem, I jot them down. As a result, more questions are often raised, albeit better ones.
4. CULTIVATE PRESENCE
Are you good at paying attention? In this post, what was the first step? Jiu Jitsu's fast pace and dynamic nature require heightened levels of awareness, which I call Presence. There are often subtle signs that momentum is shifting in your opponent's favor during competition. You need to get better at noticing them if you want to notice them. In order to train this principle and spark BJJ growth, meditation is an excellent habit.
5. TRAIN WITH PURPOSE AND INTENTION
When you step on the mat, you need to know what you want to achieve. I want to win, but that's not specific enough. Consider the lasso sweep from last Tuesday, triangles from the bottom of side control, or you can think thematically. For example, I take five deep breaths before each round to build my composure.
6. DEVELOP RESILIENCE
Resilience may be characterized by grit or guts, or perhaps some combination of the three. Many people consider it a personality trait - either they have it or they don't. In reality, it resembles a skill more than anything else. When you're exhausted, you can train it by choosing a stronger, bigger, better opponent. Flipping the shower dial to full cold and controlling your breathing for 30 seconds is another option. It's precisely because you don't want to do these things that you do them. Because these things are difficult, you do them.
7. EMBRACE DYNAMIC QUALITY AS A WAY OF LIFE
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is often referred to as a metaphysics (read: first principles) of Quality by philosopher/novelist Robert Pirsig. Pirsig sought to explain how and why we know something is Good or not in his book (in very broad strokes, here). There's actually a better follow-up to ZAMM, called Lila. Persig distinguishes two types of quality in Lila: static quality and dynamic quality. There is no such thing as static quality. There aren't many changes. The government, the economy, and the legal system are all examples of things with static quality. Dynamic Quality, on the other hand, is constantly evolving.
The tracks are crowded with trains hurtling down them. On the train, Dynamic Quality is the most important factor. In a metaphorical sense, this is the cutting edge: The place where boundaries are pushed. An area where a hair's breadth is all that separates brilliance from catastrophe. You want your BJJ game to be like this.
It's also one of the hardest principles to train, but BJJ provides a great feedback loop for doing so. In Jiu Jitsu, training for heightened sensitivity is the key to achieving Dynamic Quality when you slip into Static Quality. What it amounts to is an overly long hold on to a position. In training, you tend to default to comfortable movements rather than experimenting. In order not to embarrass yourself or end up with a lower belt, you refrain from trying new techniques.
Additionally, meditation can be helpful in this situation. As you increase your Presence, you'll become more aware of the moments when you slip into Static Quality. You'll become more receptive to these slips from dynamism into static as you go along (and believe me, it's still a work in progress).
8. TRAIN INTERNAL ORIENTATION
General Ulysses S. Grant is perhaps the best example of Internal Orientation. According to all accounts, he failed at nearly everything in life. My argument would be that Grant's Internal Orientation made him exceptional and helped the Union win the Civil War. Despite the damage his enemy did, Grant maintained an unwavering conviction in success.
In 1864, when he faced Robert E. Lee for the first time, his officers wouldn't stop talking about him.
The Civil War documentary by Ken Burns features historian Shelby Foote saying, "It was Bobby Lee this, and Bobby Lee that.".
According to Foote, Grant would not accept it.
"Do you think he will do a double somersault and land in our rear?" Grant is quoted as having said, "Don't be concerned about what you're going to do to him. Bring some guns up here.”
In order to grow in BJJ, we need to channel our inner Grants and have the unwavering conviction that we can win. As a result, we go into every round with a plan, and use everything our opponent does to our advantage.
9. THINK BEYOND JIU JITSU
Diversifying your interests and pursuits helps, I believe. It's called Non-Local Habit Creation by Josh Waitzkin, and it's an essential tool for mastery. The principle can be summed up as: Learning from this leads to learning from that. Every step in this process contains it.
Meditation or journaling can be used to train Jiu Jitsu, for example. Through writing, I am learning the martial arts. As I write fiction, read a novel, or edit someone else's work, I often have a Jiu Jitsu insight. New neural pathways are formed in the brain as a result of learning.
It is possible to gain new insights into our art when there are more of these pathways in the brain - especially if they are located in disparate parts. While I have not substituted training for writing, I have made breakthroughs as a result of it.
10. STRESS AND RECOVERY
Each of these steps describes an action. Taking action. Motivated grapplers have no problem hitting the gas. They'll keep hitting it until the gas tank runs out and they're injured or burned out. In my case, this has certainly been the case. It is just as important to prioritize recovery as it is to prioritize stress. I do this by setting aside a weekly non-negotiable day of no activity and sleeping at least 8-9 hours every night (with a nap thrown in if needed).
It's true that I don't have children and that I am an independent consultant and writer. For you, that may be easier said than done. You actually learn and grow when you sleep and rest, regardless of what your training plan looks like.
People do not believe me when I say I lift only twice weekly (and yes, it is all natural). As a result of disciplined pursuit of stress and recovery, I have transformed my physical appearance. During a competition camp, you will eat a strict diet 5-6 days a week, and you will drink little or no alcohol. The wildest night for me is ice cream and bed after 10 p.m. Your body and mind will surprise you if you give them the right input.
FINAL THOUGHTS
My consulting work with Emily and Josh Waitzkin has taught me all of these principles. By reading Josh's book, The Art of Learning, you can start implementing them yourself, or learn more about them in depth.
It is up to me to take this journey on my own for the sake of my BJJ growth. For some people, following it like a map might not work. If you want to advance your BJJ growth curve as a hobbyist, you must be accountable for your own growth and your own training. This is if you hope to stand out from thYour coaches who can guide you, but you must plan how you will walk, then begin walking, and keep going.
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