Visual Interpretation: Kinesthetic Response

There are several articles in the works, but today I was inspired by another blog that goes completely against what I’ve been talking about.  It seems like every day someone is sharing an article, blog post, or youtube video showcasing various concepts and ideas.  There are some pretty good ones demonstrating transitions I must say.  In an article I read today there was a consistent biased theme based on the author’s visual perspective!  He labeled jiu jitsu a visual art, and stated that it could only be learned visually, and must be instructed only in that way.  If an instructor used that methodology, they would have quite a few students struggling over time.  The article had some good points, interlaced with black and white reasoning.  Before an emotional reaction, followed by an opinion, we must first measure our ego; which could be considered the invisible fuel behind certain emotional responses.  Right now there is an expansive discussion on inner game, invisible jiu jitsu, and it seems everyone wants to be a subject matter expert.  It started with a Rickson seminar, a youtube interview, and finally some Roger Gracie adage. Now people with less than three years of experience are writing about it and creating themed websites.    

I’m not going to explain invisible jiu jitsu.  It’s quite possible this grey concept describes a whole host of complexities that by description alone add to the mystique of high level practitioners.  The power of jiu jitsu is not force fed to you by association lineage, your instructor’s competition success, or from the branding on your gi.  Your journey is not unlike that of a human baby, and many of the issues and roadblocks are self induced; you may or may not have a guide that can see them too.  During your first four years, distractions from core technical goals are a common limiting factor.  You really do need a smaller amount of strait to the finish line techniques, and they must be very tiny chains based on reactions and off balancing techniques.  Two different answers for each positional escape question, three answers for each submission question and one answer for each submission escape question.  Once you can do this consistently without technical distraction, picture a blue belt with stripes.  When your answers to posed questions naturally bleed into another answer into your own posed question, in that moment you are a functional purple belt.

I would like to think after so much time you would begin reading your opponent and increasing the percentage of time when you accurately and automatically know where your opponent’s weight is distributed.  This factor plus movement and their perceived objective determines your next reaction and offensive action.  We now have a conceptual goal.  As we grow in jiu jitsu, our ability to successfully read that element of your opponent’s movement dynamic increases.  Now we insert these concepts into drilling, numbers, and how instruction even works.  There is so much written about progression through repetition, and many good ideas have come out of these schools of thought. 

We obviously grow or improve when we “drill” something.  I would bet slight variations of drilling effect each player differently.  Often times when we drill something dry and repetitive past a level of proficiency, we start developing nuances and adjustments that help define our later game from that position.  This comfort allows you to discover the leverage points through contact for Kazushi or off balancing techniques.  When you can feel it, when the elements of jiu jitsu align, comfort builds energy at the Psychological level.  We are talking about Kinesthetic conditioning, and developing through touch.  This allows our potential fastest reaction, faster than your visual potential.  Smooth is fast, and fast is smooth; something often preached during MOUT training in the Army.  After the fight begins, when you touch my low hand I sprawl.  

There is a training technique theorized by Pavel, the famous Russian conditioning expert and Kettlebell enthusiast called “Greasing the Groove”.  The theory is based on the body’s electrical system, and states that with more frequent exercise of a given type before the point of failure will gradually condition the body to increase the threshold for work with less perceived effort.  At a certain point it may take far less energy to perform a given technique, plus the state of memorization; not “muscle memory”.  This explains proficiency at a late blue belt level, but not mastery.  The variation strategy game is separate, off balancing is separate, but later connected to and applied to the game of variables.  This allows the setup of the question and you provide answers to the questions posed by your opponent.  A single theme added to your game can be experimented with at the lower level which provides that specific experience that you will later apply permanently to your game.  Perpetual movement facilitated by Kazushi = acceleration.