Friday, June 17, 2011

Failure? I don't think so

Bjj is not a team sport, everybody knows that. In a competition, it is always one on one. Just like wrestling, boxing, fighting, etc. There is always one person who wins of the two. But in reality, I feel that both people are benefiting through the match.

Yes one person suffers a "loss" on his record, but the loss really emphasizes what needs to be worked on in the gym.

My very first tournament match I lost because I got stuck in half guard, and then got ankle locked right after.

My grappling game took a huge turn after that day, as I focused almost primarily on developing a better half guard. Oh, and 90% of my victories were also by footlock for at least a full year.

I still have much to work on, but even to this day I emphasize the half guard first for all of my students!

So if you ask me, I am very very glad I lost that match in that way.

Now a slick way to take the back from half guard/reverse de la riva

6 comments:

Germs said...

This has been the sort of thing ive wanted to get into for a while now, i might start

FSD said...

Thats a great point, if you are not learning from your losses, you are not truly growing as a competitor. Very important and humbling thing to learn.

slycoopert said...

IF failure is an option it is all you will ever have.-Me

Unknown said...

If you're not losing ever now and then, then you're not getting the right opponents :)

zemzero said...

cool informative video. Losing always helps you re-evaluate your strategies, it's not always a bad thing.

Simon black said...

Cool video, have been wanting to get into this stuff for a while.