Frank Chen

Frank Chen

process is understanding that everyone learns differently

When someone in jiujitsu says "enjoy the process" there are two meanings to that statement. One is enjoying the art of jiujitsu in the moment, the other is how you learn jiujitsu.

Everyone's way of learning is different. Everyone's jiujitsu is different. Everyone's application of a move is different, and it is your own responsibility to figure out what works for you.

For myself, I can visualize movements in my head and also "feel" what it might feel like. But this is only after I've executed the move several times. In order to cement that move into my muscle memory, I need to train under constrained environments with a reduced set of movements so I can "second nature" new movements.

I also retrospectively analyze how I picked up "sets" of skills. As an example, what was my approach to learning the leg lock game? Play it back, and see if there are similarities you can apply to other movement systems.

For leg locks:

  1. I understood the pattern of the positions and the positions themselves.
  2. I studied the defensive positions in each position.
  3. I drilled those defenses until they were second nature.
  4. I used the extra time I could spend in leg lock battles figuring out offensive tactics, transitions, and counters.

The pattern here was taking 3-4 positions, understanding the defensive aspects of each position, and then using the confidence gained from defensive manuevers to try offensive and transitory tactics.

I could then try and apply a similar system to other positions.


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