Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Backsliding.

Sometimes I'd just like to scream at the Jiu Jitsu Gods.. ever feel like you make progress in one area only to lose it in another? A good friend reminded me that progress is rarely linear but it didn't make me feel better, really.

When rolling with a big dude who's not very experienced, I enjoyed elevator sweeping him to one side or another. I patted myself on the back for simply timing the transition from sweeping one way to the other. I even started playing some butterfly guard. Yay me. But then literally hours later I discovered that my mount escapes weren't working and my mount retention sucked too. I'm not so upset about that when rolling with the brown belt who has 35 lbs on me, but on a fellow blue belt I felt like I was brushed off like lint. (Fortunately, on a female blue belt my size, I felt pretty evenly matched.) Maybe my mount techniques were never that good and I just didn't know it.

I think I need to put in more time reflecting on my matches/sparring sessions and looking for the big picture principles. I wish I could tape my mat time more often.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Don't judge yourself from day to day - some days you're on and some days you're off. Just keep putting the mat time in and everything will improve.

You really do get better every time I roll with you - I don't know how to drill that into your thick skull any more than I already have. You are improving.

Viro said...

I have days when I can do no wrong and other days when I'm tripping over my own feet.

Remember, we're all our own worst critics. What seems to be a glaring defect, obvious to you, probably isn't notice by the person you're rolling with.