Jiu Jitsu Mindset – Tools in your box
Mindset Moment 2, Tools in your box – it’s not how many tools you have in your tool box, it’s how good you are with the ones you have! You can have all the technology there is in your tool box, but if you look inside and can’t see which one you know how to use, that’s no good. Have a set of spanners and be amazing with them! I find a lot of people go off looking for new techniques and the magic one that will change their jiu jitsu. But I don’t think more is better, I think enough is all you need. You just gotta be better with your tools than your opponent is with his!
Q: I train with the same guys all the time, so we learn the same techniques. This means that they know what I am trying and can defend it easily. How can I train to perfect the techniques that someone else might know better than me ?
A: Royler spelt this out very well in one of his books. There are stages to learning a technique that 90% of us miss. We all think we can practise it a couple of times and then go do it on the best grappler in the club. Roylers recommendation was to follow a process of learning -
Drill the technique
Try it on someone smaller and not as good as you
Try it in someone heavier and not as good as you
Try it on someone lighter and same level
Try it on someone heavier and same level
Try it on someone smaller and better
Try it on someone heavier and better
Each time you have success at one stage consistently move to the next.
Now, just because everyone is in the same class doesn’t mean to say they all pick up and use the same techniques, one person will pick up and run with hidden collar choke, the other, arm bar from top mount. Now here is the good news……if you train with someone regularly they will get to know what you do and be able to defend it. Why is this good??? Because it will force you to come up with better set up and sharper techniques.
Q: My legs/arms/neck is to short/long/inflexible so Technique X is never going to work for me, whats the point of learning it ?
A: Some techniques may seem at the time like they are not going to work for you. The great thing about Jiu Jitsu is that the body often finds a way of adapting the technique to suit us (this is not always true, but often is). I remember Gary and I being in class at the Academy once and a purple belt said to Ryron that x technique does not work. Ryrons answer was “none of us below black belt has tried any technique enough times to know if it works or is any good or not.” I also remember learning techniques in the past that I may not have ever used but the movement or the understanding helps me with others. Lastly, if you only ever learn techniques that “work for you” how will you ever learn to defend against the thousands of techniques, that work for everyone else?
Q: I am awesome with Technique Y, I catch everyone with it, so I obvioulsy don’t need to practise that anymore, right ?
A: In some ways yes, if you can set up and get anyone you roll with now, or will roll with in the future, with your A1 technique, great. (Hmmm can you???)
The flip side of that though is that maybe it’s worth combining your A1 with another technique, so you can practise your new one and have a more comprehensive arsenal.
We all find techniques that work for us and do well with, but inevitably at some stage find a hole in our grappling and then start working on techniques to fill the gap. That’s fine but just make sure you return to the A1 from time to time. I remember Gary saying that he asked Ryron what he was working on right now. Ryron said “the Triangle” Gary asked “how long have you been working on it” Ryron said “about 2 years” But what did we all see him doing a lot of???? His A1 armbar from mount. Back to the learning process from question 1, When working on new technique with the smaller and not as good, what do you do with the heavier and as good………….your A1.
Q: I find it hard to determine what techniques I should be focusing on to perfect, what is the best way to figure out which techniques to work on ?
A: Well, I can only tell you what I do, what do I get caught with most, and what do I fail on most? That’s what I work hardest on. I found for a while that I kept losing top mount. This became my mission, be able to stay on top and preferably don’t lose the mount. So I worked on these techniques. Thing is, you can only work on so much, your brain can only hold x amount of techniques to work on. So chose a few, make sure every time you roll you end up there and work it until you are good at it. But hey, back to question 1, try it on easy guys first and work harder and harder.
Lastly, and this kind of answers all of the questions in one. Look at who in your academy is good at what and train with them for those attributes. If I want to be great at escaping foot locks. Do I train with the guys that never do them, the one who has just started exploring them or the guy who has been doing them since time began? If I am smoking hot at armbars do I train them with the guys who are just setting out or the guy who has been defending arm bars for years? Choose your partners and let them know why you have; “Hey Rener, could I roll with you please, I know you are amazing at footlocks. I can escape from a lot of guys footlocks, but I would like to be better” 
Hope this helps and now……..go roll 