I was coming home today and my good friend mentioned to me a moment in his training that I merely neglected for a while. Maybe it was because I did not want to think about it, maybe it was because I was avoiding the truth but either way it has to be said!
When I was a white belt I used to go for crazy submission attempts and I used to just do things with disregard to the way I looked in front of people. As time went on and I got my blue belt, and these crazy attempts started decreasing to the point of extinction. I started worrying about what people thought about me, and completely stopped having an amazing time with it. Everything became about tapping someone or not getting tapped by them. Either way I wouldn’t try new things. I would just go for the tried and true method of beating my partners/opponents. I was totally terrified of how I would look and it just kept me from getting better.
As time went on I just stayed in my comfort zone of submitting people with the same move, which wasn’t that bad but it hindered my growth as a Jiu Jitsu Competitor/practitioner. I was always worried about how I’m going to look in front of people, my coach, my training partners. I wasn’t worried about my growth because my ego was involved.
At a certain point I realized I wanted to become great so I needed to expand my game. I was still scared of the outcome. I didn’t want to get tapped by guys that I train with. I did not want to be inferior. I was worried about how everyone would look at me if I started “losing” when I rolled. I did not want to be the loser. I was hesitant but I started working on new things. As I started expanding my game I realized… “Hey, this isn’t half bad!” It became fun again! I had a great time learning and using every technique that came into my head.
When I first started doing jiu jitsu, I read that you have to leave your ego at the door. But what that did not explain to me what my ego was. My ego is me being afraid of looking bad. We have this every day of our lives. If only we didn’t worry about looking bad our lives would be better in every aspect. That girl that you could have talked to on the train, that professor you should have asked for some advice, that move you should have tried in training… You can use that realization of your fear and run with. Once you realize your fear and voice it, it doesn’t exist anymore.
Train hard guys, and don’t worry if you look good or bad… because in the words of a wise man..”Who cares!?”
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Nice post. While I’m nowhere close to blue belt, I have found a couple “go-to” moves that I had been using pretty regularly. I finally forced myself not to use them, even if they were available, and work on other stuff. Game has gotten a lot better, even though it’s a lot lower percentage/.
I’m constantly reminding myself to get out of my comfort zone. I developed a pretty decent closed guard, then for two months I only played half and open guard, then when I finally switched back to closed guard I was seeing things and catching sweeps that I wasn’t as fine tuned to before.
Now I just need to remind myself to get out of my comfort zone more often outside of training.
this one is too true
good stuff bro, i agree 100%