Limitations?

A question no one has really answered is what type of student or learning style has the greatest benefit from a particular type of training or drilling?  Think about the analogy I wrote about in the previous blog post.  “During your first four years”, is what I wrote.  Well I’ve trained with twenty one year old black belts who have been training for four and a half years!  I could then mention Saulo Ribeiro and Baby J Penn who achieved their black belts in three and a half years, but then we would miss the point completely.  I am going to theorize that the right instructor can accelerate a student by identifying their learning style and using that teaching methodology to answer their questions specifically.  We show and describe techniques to a large group, but when you go to each training group you specifically adjust your teaching style to match the student.  This is coaching.  

Don’t get too excited.  This does not account for more than 20% of your journey, as you are the limiting factor.  How’s that for invisible jiu jitsu? Now let’s talk about ego.  The ego has you sitting back during drilling, because you “did the move”.  The ego tells you to miss class because you are tired, because you won’t perform well and will likely be submitted. The ego has you privately rebelling against your instructor’s guidance and instruction, because you think you know better.  It is important to know if you are even in a good training environment.  If you befriend a few people, and don’t like change, you may not leave that gym.  The time and dedication to educate yourself about the sport, lifestyle, and hobby will allow you to differentiate quality of instruction.  If you are in the wrong environment, it’s important to move on.  The determining factor in personal growth is you. In every gym there are the social butterflies, the close minded one trick pony, the work horse, the show up once upon a time student, and “the natural”.  It’s rather awesome to see a micro republic of social dynamics.  Each behavior is stemmed from a specific motivation.  Sometimes the chatty Kathy feels they are above drilling, that they successfully performed the move.  Maybe they don’t want to fight or grappling anyone. The close minded know they do some things well, and other things not so well.  They will funnel you into their comfort zone, or will simply not participate.  The once upon a time training partner tells themselves quite often why they can’t make it to training.  Each of the above responses is fear based, as if to protect the ego.  Not cocky or ego centric, but over protection of ego.  Kind of like the Freudian super ego in excess, or jiu jitsu anxiety. 

The only way to grow is to step outside your comfort zone, for the sake of it.  Maybe you choose to wear an easy to grab gi, knowing full well that your training partners will make you pay for it.  Today you accept an invite to train with a more experienced training partner.  Tomorrow you compete.  Let go of the outcome and you achieve the next stage.