When I was coming up in jiu-jitsu, there was a guy in class who only went for kneebars.
He was only a whitebelt but in this one move he was a purple belt. In the closed guard he went for kneebars… In someone’s guard, he went for a kneebar… if he was in the turtle position, or on top, or in a scramble: kneebar, kneebar, kneebar.
The problem was, he soon became predictable. All you had to do was defend that one move and his entire game would fall apart.
Now, I’m all in favour of focusing on certain positions for an extended period, such as weeks or even months if necessary. The difference is that the goal here is improvement, NOT just going back to the same well again and again.
Even if Mister Kneebar wanted to build his entire game around the kneebar, he should still have been working on other skills to complement it.
For example, getting good at guard passing or a second submission to set up his main attack (some ‘jabs’ to set up his cross).
We all know someone like that. Someone who had an early success with one technique – a collar choke… the guillotine… one certain guard pass… – and never moved on from there. Years later, he’s still doing the same thing to white belts, but everyone else has figured out his game.
However, achieving a blue belt level of success with one tactic and then failing to move forward is a sign of laziness and stagnation.
I’ve never understood why people spending hundreds of hours on an activity (jiu-jitsu, golf, canoeing, tango dancing, or whatever) don’t make a more concerted effort to get better. I mean, they’re already out there sweating, bleeding and spending the money on the sport, so why don’t they use their brains and the resources available to them to improve?
Don’t just always get on the mat and grind it out, fun as that might be.
Instead, do just a little research, approach the sport just a bit scientifically, and be just a bit more focused in your training so you’re training to improve and NOT just doing the same thing over and over.
Sometimes this’ll result in you developing black belt levels of skill in areas you were already pretty good at, and sometimes you’ll surprise yourself with a whole new game.
The writer Marshall Goldsmith once published a book called, What Got You Here Won’t Get You There. And it’s about exactly what you think it is.
That book title sums it up beautifully, doesn’t it? Keep growing or die.
Stephan
