Tap five times ...


Here's a great way to open the door to more creativity on the mat.
Set aside a night of training, where everyone abides by the following rule:
You need to tap five times, to five different opponents, over the course of the training session. That's right ... you need to lose!
This is a simple idea that can really develop some creativity on the mat. being TOTALLY OKAY with 'losing' will free you up and allow you to try new things, new ideas ... it will allow you to perform 'crazy experiments' that you would never try if you desperately needed to win.
And again .. I have said it many times before - there are lots of things you will ONLY learn by 'losing' - things that you would never learn if you won 100% of the time - things like CONSEQUENCE, RECOVERY, etc.
I have learned some of the greatest life lessons from people who have lost, and lost royally! These are people who have been through hell and back, people who have become intimate with adversity. I havn't learned much from Mary Poppins!
Embrace defeat - embrace loss - particularly if you want to become more creative.
Train Smart,
JBW
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Anonymous said…
I think this is a great idea and would work really well at the gym I attend. It is widely accepted that in BJJ an inflated ego resulting in the never tap mentality is the most counter productive mindset one can take into any class or rolling session. Eddie bravo (in the picture) summed it up well saying sarcastically that "every night's ADCC night at my gym". Winning at all costs often leads to falling back to the tried and true methods at the expense of creativity and trying the new things you’ve just been shown in class. I think that this issue is also one for instructors to consider. From my limited experience BJJ is not a one size fits all art, what works for one might not work as readily for another and visa versa. Through seminars I’ve heard very experienced instructors saying youtube is making people attempt techniques that are too advanced for them long before they learn the "basics", this is complete rubbish. Their problem with youtube is that it's showing people out there that the stuff they get taught in their 8 week cycle at their gym isn't all that BJJ is, and that there are millions of variations and new things out there that they can incorporate into their game if they work for them... Saying that these new techniques i.e. something as simple as rubber guard shouldn't be attempted because they’re too advanced then proceeding to teach a traditional 10 step choke seems like a little bit of an oxymoron to me. The notion that our instructor is always right and what he/she says is gospel surely flies in the face of the basic tenants of BJJ and smells a lot like an old instructor clinging to control a sport/art that has become way bigger than what they alone can teach in three 1 hour sessions a week. Yes a school is a business and is there as a source of income for it’s owners, but maybe the best way for an instructor to encourage their students to embrace creativity and the notion that losing during practice can be a good thing is to LEAD BY EXAMPLE and try something new and god forbid risk getting tapped in the process. Remember that 20 years ago who would have thought that lying on your back with a guy between your legs would have been a good place to be in a fight? These same instructors that are playing their game safe were the ones that 15-20 years ago were the pioneers and free thinking creative minds of this awesome art in OZ and NZ. So c’mon instructors it’s time to show us how to lose on order to win.
Cheers P
8:07 am
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