Tuesday night was competition class... a little unusual since Relson was holding a seminar on 2/3 of our mat space, so our routine was cramped a bit. Still, Donald pushed us harder than usual and it felt like a great workout. We worked on chaining some judo takedowns together, which reminded me I need to improve my seoi nages. *sigh* We also reviewed an armbar that I try to get regularly and just as regularly find myself missing a piece here and there.
Wednesday night was "just" a regular class but it was just what I needed to hear-- some guard retention-to-armbar or triangle stuff... then re-emphasis on gi chokes... then attacking the turtle. Relson taught a mini seminar the other day at the conclusion of lunch class, and happened to mention a few things I found helpful when I was defending the turtle.
During last night's class, we also covered an unusual ankle lock defense, and in chatting about it with my partner Zack, we kind of mentioned two ways of learning jits. One is attend class only so much that you're not overwhelmed, you can distinctly recall the moves taught and have time to drill them between times.. if that makes sense. The other is to attend as much as you like or as much as you can, and let the moves themselves get muddled together perhaps, but still be practicing the muscle memory of basic movements, which can be found in many specific moves.
I'm obviously one of the latter. Maybe it wouldn't work for some. Maybe I would learn jits faster if I trained less. Maybe whatever. But I find that I enjoy doing it the way I've been doing it. My ultimate goal isn't to be a world champion, or to learn jits as fast as possible. It's to have fun. Yeah, maybe sometimes I complain, so you might think it isn't fun for me.. but that's not so. I love training jiu jitsu and I feel like I'm missing something in my day when it is lacking at least some mat time.
5 comments:
Interesting breakdown of learning "types". Since I can usually only make it twice a week to jiu-jitsu, I fall into the former category. It's still super fun for me, but I find that being a little more specific in my training helps make up for the fact that I can't hit the mats every day.
- because of my work schedule, it is difficult for me to train everyday. I would train every day all day if I could. Since I can't be on the mats everyday, I train mentally everyday. I work out transitions, combinations, and submissions in my head. I drill them over and over in my head. Then I am able to do the technique in live rolling. Sometimes I can only get part of it down. On those occaisions, I go home and figure out what I did wrong and how to fix it. This works for me because I have a photographic memory and can play out and replay senarios in my head like a DVR.
- I learned this in Karate and adapted it to BJJ.
I go two or three times a week. The moves are still muddled in my head! : )
Funny, I think I'm the latter but would likely learn more training the way you do. Thing is, I just don't want the additional stress of feeling like I'm running around that much, so I'm "stunting" my growth so that I can continue to enjoy the process. Making sure you're still enjoying the journey is crazy important.
There may be more than one learning style, but I tend to think that the more you train, the faster you'll progress (assuming injuries are avoided). Kind of like Gladwell's 10,000 hour theory, if you happen to have read Tipping Point.
When once upon a time I was training 4 times a week, I often had a hard time noticing my progression, so was under the false impression that I wasn't improving.
I think as long as you're having fun (as your post title says) then it's all good!
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