I heard one BJJ instructor describe jiu-jitsu as training to overcome many of your human instincts in a fight.
For example if you have ever watched “Gracies in Action” – and if you have NOT, you NEED to watch it! – you will see that most untrained individuals react in the same way in a fight.
They push the opponent off with straight arms leaving the extended limb exposed for an easy armlock. When mounted, they turn to their bellies to try to stand up and expose the neck for an easy rear naked choke. Time and time again we see these instinctive reactions.
The art of jiu-jitsu capitalizes on these instinctive reactions. In turn, our defensive behavior is altered when we train to avoid those.
Real progress in BJJ is when you increasingly use technique instead of spazzing out and reverting to instinct. You may not avoid tapping, but it is a positive that you didn’t forget your training and revert to untrained, survival instincts.
In a talk about what it means to be a jiu-jitsu black belt, Chris Haueter said this:
If I throw you in water and I am drowning you, you can control your drowning. You don’t panic, win, lose, or draw. You go down practising the art of jiu-jitsu. And the art is: how do I control and submit my opponent and survive using the least amount of attributes. i.e., strength, explosion, youth, size any of that and the maximum amount of leverage, cunningness, guile and technique.
Abandoning technique and bench pressing out of things is nonproductive in your rolling. Sure, you may have temporarily avoided a tap or poor position, but is just avoiding tapping at the expense of technique the real purpose of training?
When I caught myself trying to power out of some position by bench pressing my opponent, I knew that I abandoned my jiu-jitsu technique to survive.
I sometimes refer to this as “the drowning man,” where panic takes over reason and you start desperately clutching and thrashing to avoid getting submitted or controlled.
I resolve to not repeat that and resolve to find a technical solution, not panic and revert to untrained instinct.
Have faith in your technique!
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