Dirtyrancher, a member of Jiu Jitsu Forums has as his signature: Answer: Just go to class.
I realized today the connection between playing an instrument and doing BJJ: Practice makes perfect.
I hope you people appreciate the 15 minutes I took to photochop two random pics together to have a man wearing a gi AND playing an instrument!
“If I miss a day of practice, I know it. If I miss two days, my manager knows it. If I miss three days, my audience knows it.” — André Previn, pianist, conductor, composer
And yet it took me this long to REALLY realize that more hours on the mat = more improvement. I’d been thinking of this mostly from a “get in shape” point of view and following the whole Daily Recommended Allowance of exercise rather than thinking about it from an “improving my BJJ game” point of view.
When we go to class we get sparring time in, answers to questions, conditioning, time to try things out, learn new moves, refine moves, but really, we get PRACTICE time. Violinists, cellists, pianists, all recognize the value of PRACTICE time.
Today the puzzle pieces of that came together for me. Much like that picture I photochopped of the violin and the karate guy. 🙂 Kind of a “duh” moment for me, but a revelation nonetheless.
What’s your revelation this week? Mine: Just go to class.
Hahaha…PhotoChopinski lol
🙂 Glad you enjoyed. 🙂
My revelation is that I like being able to walk, so I need to be more careful what I do with my legs during guard retention. 😉
Nice! A guy was moving from side control to mount on me and he apparently tried to move his legs a little wider than they could go. The face he made had me laughing.
As you can see i am really into these motivational things, i read and watch motivational stuff all the time. And something i’ve learn from the greatest athletes in the world is:
You are as good as your practice is, more time training, no boring exercise skipping, sometime is the difference you need to reach your goal, and i’m not only talking about championships and competitions! it’s our goal into everything we do, from losing more fat, from getting technically better, from learning discipline and everything. As for pilots and their flight hours, our “mat hours” is that important.
Even when you are not able to do the class, when you are hurt, forgot your gi, or think you need to rest from an intense class, i’d tell you to go to the class, and even sit outside, and watch what the teacher has to say, pay attention on how people do things, learn from observation! just being there makes all the difference.
I appreciate that! Sometimes I do have to take short breaks during the warmups because I am still out of shape, but those breaks are happening less and less frequently.
I like the comments you make! They are very thoughtful and add quite a bit to this dialog I’ve been creating. Thank you!
I will do absolutely anything to get to class, but I’m weird about being late too. 10 minutes late is pushing it for me and I usually don’t go, but I’ll do everything to get there on time so I’m not late.
Practicewise, BJJ is my main priority. Work? They know I can’t work on days I have BJJ, be it open mat or lessons. I planned my school schedule around it too. Everyone’s there so much that if someone misses a day, everyone knows =p. “I haven’t seen you in awhile, where have you been!?” “…it’s only been two days!”
Nice! What sort of work do you do? What are you going to school for?
BJJ is like therapy to me. When I miss class, my body lets me know. I crave grappling kind of like I might crave a good slice of pizza. lol
Ooooh nice. Dear self, write a blog post entitled: I crave BJJ like a ___ craves ____.
[…] jiu jitsu, it feels like the number one most important thing is to get to class. By just going, I found that I’m now a senior student because I outlasted everyone else. […]