The truth is what it is. This is a science. Airplanes have gone through SIGNIFICANT changes in the last 20 years, but, aerodynamics have not. We can play with placement of the wings on the body, but the teardrop shape of the wings don’t change. No one has built a plane that looks like you’re pushing an open umbrella! It wouldn’t work. All science is the same. BJJ is no different. Although we make constant improvements, they are changes that the untrained eye may not even see. I have changed a lot of things from the way I learned them. But most people would be hard pressed to notice them if we held them up side by side. There’s a delicate balance. Find the improvements, without straying from the scientific essence of the art.

See, the problem is that there’s training, and then, there’s testing. And they aren’t the same. Testing, is when the outcome is important. Self defense, tournaments, etc., but on the mat in the gym, that’s training. That’s where you want weaknesses, and holes in your game exposed. That’s where you try moves that you’re not good at yet and pay the price. And that’s awesome. Every time you get beat, you have the chance to improve something. You have the chance for your Jiu-Jitsu to grow! That should be exciting. Awesome, in fact.

I want the person that is almost sure they can’t. There’s just this faint glimmer of “maybe” buried in there. I want the not athletic. The not strong. The people who aren’t sure if they “can” but can’t stop daydreaming about it!

I was watching a group of our students spar the other day, and could just tell……. Nobody was working on anything. Sure they were sparring (a tad too hard), and they were certainly trying to “win”. But, after a few  rounds, I called everyone in, and said “What’s your point, in this training session?”.

Stares.