What Do I Really Know?

"I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times."  ~Bruce Lee

We had a really good training session last night at Brentwood Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. We started working from side control and went over the basic Americana/Straight Armbar/Kimura submission series. This is not the first time I've been through these submissions but each time we work them I definitely pick up new details as well as really internalize the "pieces" I already know. Every class I appreciate more and more the technical depth that Professor Jeremy brings to the mats.

This made me start thinking about what do I really know, and how well do I know it. Even though I enjoy learning a wide variety of techniques I am always struck by the fact that the more I roll and watch others roll (including tournament footage) I see the same things winning consistently. I firmly believe that mastery of a few techniques is much more valuable than a passing acquaintance with a large repertoire of techniques (even though they are nice to know).

I was recently watching some tournament footage and one match in particular sticks in my mind. In this match I caught myself cringing as one purple belt lost several good positions early in the match looking for some sort of complicated "gi wrap" kind of submissions even though he physically dominated his opponent. Even when he finally came back to "simpler" techniques like a triangle or bow and arrow choke he had holes in his technique that allowed his opponent to escape.

On the other hand, his opponent never panicked, kept working, and used solid fundamentals - good frames and hip movement along with solid positioning before advancing the one time he got on top - and then secured the win with a solid collar choke from the back.

There is an old adage in the military that states "in a stressful situation (i.e. coming under fire) a soldier will revert to his training." Carlson Gracie used to say something along the lines of - "Punch a jiu jitsu black belt in the face and he becomes a brown belt. Punch him again and he becomes a purple belt." Being able to maintain grace under fire is firmly rooted in being able to revert to knowing a few things really really well.

I want to expand on the things "I need to know" and understand them deeply. I want to truly master a few techniques and make them so intuitive that my mind can be removed from the "moment" and allowed to focus several moves ahead. I want them to become so solid that they are almost irresistible - like Roger Gracie's cross collar choke from mount.

Daniel Coyle, in his book The Talent Code, puts forward the assertion that it takes 10,000 hours of fully engaged deep practice to master a complicated skill (like jiu jitsu) so it might take me a little while :-)

The "Technique Collector"

I rolled with an interesting training partner last week. At first I didn't really know what to think. We started standing and I pulled guard straight into a tripod sweep and came up to pass. As we started to maneuver and I gained side control he became very "active" throwing up sweep attempt after sweep attempt that were all "somehow off." I don't know how else to describe it.

As we continued to roll it continued to be weird. Arms and posts weren't controlled, leverage points were "in the general vicinity" but weren't really where they needed to be, a lot of strength and explosiveness to try and force something, throwing whole series of sweep attempts and attacks without establishing position first, not staying connected or making space as the technique required, didn't seem to understand how to advance position and make use of control.

I had the opportunity to roll with this guy multiple times over the course of the week. Every roll was the same - he was always very "active," but there wasn't much I had to seriously defend, while I was able to establish mount or take the back and submit at will. Even starting with me under side control or mount his attacks just weren't quite there, although there was a lot of variety - attempts at armbars, kimuras, americanas, ezequiels, cross collars, etc. I'd sweep and we'd start over.

I had a similar feeling when we were partnered to drill techniques during class. It seemed like he wanted to rep the technique just enough to become familiar with it but then became bored. Instead of really working through the details he would start trying to chain the technique we were learning with a bunch of other techniques in his "repertoire." This left him not really getting the technique we were drilling and it certainly didn't help his situation to chain it with other techniques he didn't really understand.

After drilling and rolling then chatting after class I came to the conclusion that he was "aquainted" with a ton of techniques but he didn't "know" any of them well. He was a "Technique Collector." He judged his progress on the quantity of the techniques he thought he knew rather than the quality.

I don't want to sound all self-righteous because I kind of get this mindset. After all, who doesn't want to "know" all the jiu jitsu they can. I would probably be there myself if I hadn't had the importance of fundamentals and details impressed on me early as a white belt. I really feel for this guy, he has been training for a couple of years now but is getting beat by guys with far less experience. If he is going to advance he is going to have to go back to the basics and unlearn/relearn pretty much his entire technique collection. It is hard to go back to relearning the armbar from guard when you think you are the master of the Peruvian necktie.