Anyone who has done jiu jitsu for a while will always remember the starting days, when lack of knowledge and experience were plenty, and oxygen wasn’t! The very fact that a novice lacks knowledge makes it likely that he will be in a struggle when facing a more experienced team mate. It won’t be just the inability to anticipate or calculate which moves to go for, but the absence of strategy due to the lack of vision in regards to the jiu jitsu chess game. Like it was said in Sun Tzu’s “Art of War”, not knowing yourself or your opponent guarantees defeat every time. Then it comes to knowing your opponent but not yourself, which brings defeat every other time. Unless a student manages to know enough of what to do and also what to expect from another, until then no amount of knowledge will make them prevail in a convincing way. That is why I recommend the mirror strategy (emulate good mechanics), the vision (see what the outcome will likely be), and the seizing strategy (incorporate a move from an opponent into your game, then address the counter from more than one perspective). In Jiu Jitsu, perspective is everything, and strategy is how it is translated from a mindset to the mat. A student does not train to win or lose, but to become proficient in anticipating moves and capitalizing on opportunities. If one cannot overcome, at least he tries to delay an inevitable outcome. Make your training partner pay with sweat and fatigue whenever possible. An empty gas tank is an assurance of diminished speed and power, and more chances of imposing a game or reversing the tide. Therefore, patience is the first trait a novice should focus on. Be diligent in repeating the drills, maintaining the pace, and maximizing the time in which one stays on the mat. If fatigue overwhelms, slow down and breathe even when in a bad spot. Being chilled under pressure is a major step towards attaining another level of both patience and proficiency. In the jiu jitsu game, seasoned opponents will prevail over one another not so much when one side possesses a superior skill set, but mostly when someone has the ability to stay more focused and make less mistakes, what is not common when someone is rushed. It is also critical to become more effective on transitions, not just on positions. The ability to connect between a situation and another leads to a much higher rate of success. In order to go and keep on going, a student must learn how to flow from position to position. Nothing will cause more frustration than getting or being stuck on a position without knowing how to get out of it. It makes one feel more helpless than even getting tapped out. At least getting tapped means you can restart the rolling and have another chance at it. Being stuck basically means you watch the clock run without anything happening until the buzzer is up. Your destiny won’t be in your own hands. That is why I like to emphasize working from an early stage on getting out of bad positions, so that as training evolves and more time gets spent on rolling, it will be less likely that someone will remain for too long in the same spot against his will. Yet, with the correct mindset, a student will develop the understanding that in many situations, initially unfavorable, much can be done to mitigate or reverse it. In so doing, the practitioner will realize that the main objective in jiu jitsu, if nothing else, is to increase the odds of finishing in a better position, even from a bad start. And that goes the saying, “whoever starts strong will not always be the same who finishes strong!
