The Conflicts of Teaching Jiu-jitsu

Jiu-jitsu is 50% technique and 50% mental.

Let’s try that formula again.

Jiu-jitsu is 50% technique, 25% physical, and 25% mental.

Don’t get hung up on the exact percentages.

Which category do emotional control and breathing come under? Is it a technique you learn, or is it a mental response? Isn’t breathing a physical action?

Train your body to do jiu-jitsu rather than techniques to learn jiu-jitsu. Yup, you heard that right. You won’t know how to do this. Your instructor should know. Do you understand the difference between a loose body and a flexible body? Which is better? Which are you training?

At the boxing gym I went to, on the wall, it said, “You don’t box to get in shape; you get in shape to box.” Everyone wants to get in the ring with minimal training.

The conflict is defining how to train to do jiu-jitsu effectively. It isn’t specifically going to the gym and lifting weights; it has to be a well-thought-out aggregate of strengthening exercises, movements, and mental training that simulates the techniques of jiu-jitsu.

You can’t do this if you are unaware of it while sparring.

The second conflict is continuous learning. How do you define this? More techniques, or just getting better at the basics? How do you know when you have learned enough technique?

Another quote I saw said, “Amateurs like to be fancy; professionals focus on the basics.”

The problem we are trying to solve is getting back to practicing jiu-jitsu like the art it is supposed to be, which is mental training.