Giving Fish

The traditional method of teaching and learning Jiu Jitsu was always giving people fish. It is the way I learned Jiu Jitsu and the way I taught Jiu Jitsu for a long time. What’s nice about that method is it gives you the illusion that you’re learning something. However, actually implementing any of it is nearly impossible, so did you actually learn it? The recommendation is always that you try and do the techniques from the day when you get to live rolls. Two issues, you have to get to the position you were just working on and it’s fresh in the mind of all your rolling partners. That is defeating. Instead, it would make more sense to place yourself in an environment of open communication that forces you to think for yourself. When I was a late stage blue belt there was a split in the gym and many of the coaches I had opened up another school. I was young and it was closer to my house, so I stuck around at the place I began training. Slowly I began taking on more and more responsibility to the point of teaching myself and also many of the Jiu Jitsu classes across the two locations. I was in no way qualified for any of that, but in retrospect it was really beneficial for me. I learned how to learn Jiu Jitsu. I can watch videos and learn techniques from books, I can apply concepts broadly across many facets of grappling, because I was forced to learn to fish. Ecological Dynamics is difficult in the beginning, because you have to learn to learn. You have to think and remember, but you only need a base understanding of what you need to do. If you can understand what you need to pay attention to in order to accomplish your intentions, then how you get there does not really matter. I am simply here to offer the guidance of two decades of beatings, not stifle your natural inclinations or turn you into a Chuva Robot 2.0.