When any of us spends enough years on the mat ... we cannot help but get better. We gain experience ... but what, in concrete terms, does this word 'experience' ... really mean.
The most obvious manifestation of 'experience', in my view, is that over time we clarify and develop an ever increasingly larger set of 'pathways'.
Pathways are those small sequences of moves, that once we set upon, puts us in the drivers seat where action is concerned. Everyone with mat experience has there own unique collection of pathways; the clearer they are on how these pathways are likely to unfold, they more successful they are. Over time, the number of pathways increase, so that no matter we they are in the struggle, they are never that far away from setting themselves on a pathway.
In many ways this can be likened to how we 'map' the world we live in. ifg we move to a new city, we are at first, unfamiliar with the layout. We might start out knowing where we live and where we work and how best to get from each to the other. As time goes on, and we develop a better sense of the city, we develop many pathways, from home to the cinema, from the cinema to the supermarket, from the supermarket back to home, etc. Once we set ourselves on a familiar pathways, we shift over to a kind of automatic pilot; we know where we are going, we don't have to think about it too much, and free up mental resources to attend to other problem. And so it is with Jiu Jitsu. JBW
When any of us spends enough years on the mat ... we cannot help but get better. We gain experience ... but what, in concrete terms, does this word 'experience' ... really mean.
The most obvious manifestation of 'experience', in my view, is that over time we clarify and develop an ever increasingly larger set of 'pathways'.
Pathways are those small sequences of moves, that once we set upon, puts us in the drivers seat where action is concerned. Everyone with mat experience has there own unique collection of pathways; the clearer they are on how these pathways are likely to unfold, they more successful they are. Over time, the number of pathways increase, so that no matter we they are in the struggle, they are never that far away from setting themselves on a pathway.
In many ways this can be likened to how we 'map' the world we live in. ifg we move to a new city, we are at first, unfamiliar with the layout. We might start out knowing where we live and where we work and how best to get from each to the other. As time goes on, and we develop a better sense of the city, we develop many pathways, from home to the cinema, from the cinema to the supermarket, from the supermarket back to home, etc. Once we set ourselves on a familiar pathways, we shift over to a kind of automatic pilot; we know where we are going, we don't have to think about it too much, and free up mental resources to attend to other problem. And so it is with Jiu Jitsu. JBW
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