Interested in speeding up progression?
- Have you started Jiu-Jitsu in the past six months?
- Does the terminology, techniques, and concepts, still seem impossible to grasp?
IMMERSE yourself
Immerse : Involve oneself DEEPLY in a particular activity or interest.
This is a concept I preach to all frustrated students that are just starting out. It is the quickest way to get things moving along. Plus, the learning is nearly accidental and subconscious. You don’t have to be studying, just enjoying and watching. Your brain is starting to make Jiu-Jitsu an habitual thought process. Don’t take your time with progression. Hop right in, “Gulp” the information down and let your brain start to sort it all out. But, there are difficulties associated with trying to immerse yourself in Jiu-Jitsu.
Some things are easier to IMMERSE in
Pretend you have just seen Basketball for the first time in your life. Just like anything else, you start to learn and it is SUPER confusing.
HOWEVER…
On your way home
- You pick up “Sports Illustrated”.
- You see kids playing Basketball at a park.
- You turn on the TV and see Basketball on “Sportscenter”.
- You change the channel to find an NBA game.
Do you see a theme? Do you think this access to your “new” sport will help you learn quicker?
You will learn your “new” sport of Basketball VERY quickly because of the mainstream and constant access to the sport. Although it seems slight, you arehearing terms, plays, concepts, players names. You are seeing visuals of movement and other technical aspects.
This is a learning paradise for your brain. This extra sight and sound sensory and visualziation is going to work wonders the next time you step onto the court.
To IMMERSE in Jiu-Jitsu you have to actively seek out information
With certain activities, you are basically surrounded by information regarding the subject. This is usually the case because of mainstream exposure and greater reaches of popularity.
With Jiu-Jitsu, you need to get the magazines, watch the videos, Google, go onYouTube, take classes, watch classes, subscribe to blogs. The information isn’t as readily available, so it will take some searching, work, and motivation.
“Knowledge is best acquired and retained when effort is involved.”
– Peter C. Brown “Make it Stick – The Psychology of Learning”
When you IMMERSE yourself
You will hear foreign or abstract Jiu-Jitsu terms/techniques and start to recognizethem by sound. Most likely, you have even seen the technique or situation if you have watched and read the right stuff. Your brain has an amazing way of sortingthings out. You can try to slow down your learning and focus on little things and details one step at a time…this is good and will work, but it is going to be an arduous, slow process.
This is not necessary for learning anymore. We live in an era and society ofINSTANT information. We never had this before, and because we never had this, we HAD TO go slower and focus deeper because of a lack of resources. If I couldn’t escape an arm bar, I might have had to wait SIX MONTHS to figure it out, 18 years ago when I started. Now you have access to the ability to look up and figure it out on your phone next to the mat.
There is so much to learn and the answers are at the tip of your fingertips. You now have the ability to Google your way through the ranks. But always remember, this is an ADDITION to your learning, nothing beats the time and experience on the mat. That almost goes without saying, or at least it should.
But if you want to fast track your progression in the beginning, go out and start searching, start watching, start listening, all of a sudden, your grasp will be very deep and it will take half the time.
Your ability to execute may still be a ways away but your ability to LEARN and catch up on things will make that execution a much closer reality.
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