I’ve been back at BJJ twice, after being gone for nearly 6 months due to my herniated disc. On Saturday I made it to the huge, teamwide training and had the opportunity to roll with the purple belt from my academy. On Tuesday I made it to my own personal BJJ gym. There were only 5 students plus the instructor, including a big MMA guy who had recently gotten his blue belt.
During class I took some videos during class, and the notes I wrote were mistakes I saw myself making, or new insights. I think valuable things can be learned from mistakes. For example, on what I call the “Marcelo leg grab” I wrote that I kept forgetting which hand to grab with. This is quite different to the notes I was taking while observing.
During sparring, I was paired with the big MMA guy, and I didn’t get flattened or armbarred or trapped under him. I was in the weaker position for about 85% of the match, but only had to tap once due to a choke. However, I was quite happy because, though having been off the mats for so long, I didn’t get manhandled nor did I get stuck during the match.
It’s so easy to get caught up in positive achievements that we can overlook the negative ones. Instead of focusing on “I did XYZ” we can also focus on “ABC did not happen to me.” Even if it’s a small thing – like “I only got caught in knee on belly 3 times rather than 5” or some smaller gain “It took 20 seconds for me to tap out due to claustrophobia instead of 5 seconds.” These are things to celebrate – to be happy about. These are gains.
In language learning as in BJJ, it’s very easy to see gains in the beginning. Hooray – I got home successfully in a taxi! Hooray – I ordered something and got what I wanted. Hooray – learned how to shrimp. Hooray – I was able to get full mount! However, in both BJJ and language learning, seeing gains in the intermediate or advanced levels is harder. You start to realize how much you can’t do, and you often stop looking backward to see how much you have accomplished and get caught in a negative spiral – “I can’t do XYZ after 2 or 3 years” or “Why can everyone else do ABC and I still can’t?” It can be very defeating, and I’ve seen my language students be flat out embarrassed about things they still couldn’t do.
Celebrate your accomplishments. Tell what you’ve achieved this week, even if it’s negative. Do you generally rejoice in these, or do you only celebrate positive ones? If you have only achieved negative victories, do you still feel as proud of yourself?
Well, I am getting to a point of working out so hard to get ready for SWAT tryouts that nausea is becoming a normal work out experience, but I have not actually thrown up yet! Bonus! lol
I can now do 2 sets of 5 and 3/4 pull-ups under slightly fatigued conditions. Speaking of fatigue, I am learning to embrace it, work through it, and love it.
Dag
Yesterday i published my first iPhone app (for motivation i chose to make it on a topic that i find inspiring: BJJ). Theres a bunch of stuff i wish it’d do (more techniques etc), and the code behind it isn’t as clean as i’d like it – but along the way i learnt a new programming language, learnt how to drive a Mac (i still feel like a complete gumby doing it sometimes though). The app itself isn’t earth shattering, but i did learn a lot of new skills along the way!
Good article!
[…] compare myself to where I’ve come from. I look at the progress I’m making, I grasp at small positives and rejoice in them. I know that even if I’m sucky, so long as I consistently train jiu […]
[…] progress by how awesome (or sucky) your jiu jitsu is or isn’t. Measure things like – your negative achievements, if movement is easier, if you were able to complete the warmup, or do a forward roll finally. […]
Friday: I was able to get into reverse De La Riva, and my foot cramped only once in the whole class. And I might actually have gotten a legit tap out of one of my instructors. Hard to tell with them sometimes.
Saturday:Was actually able to lift my actually giant actual ass off the actual mat in that one exercise I actually dont hate but actually have not been able to actually do.
Congratulations to you! My foot would OFTEN cramp when I would do a triangle. My bane.
Getting instructors to tap – a whole separate ball of wax. The way I look at it – they’re very often starting you with an advantage and seeing if you can identify and use it. That might mean that they’re going slower to let you react, or they’re intentionally leaving a space and seeing how you use it. They want to see if you’ve learned. So whether or not it was “legit” – I’d focus more on the fact that you successfully took advantage of what the instructor gave you to work with! Congratulations!!