You may have heard the quote "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit". Regardless of the controversy surrounding where this saying actually got its origin, it still bears out a lot of truth. And so it is with Jiu-jitsu. After spending years, perhaps decades on the mat, Jiu-jitsu is not just something you do. It becomes a part of you. The art of Jiu-jitsu is extremely complex. It is for this reason that, many beginners struggle just to start to comprehend the basic positions. If you are going to truly devote yourself to learning Jiu-jitsu, you are committing yourself to a lifelong study. So how do you even start to approach something so potentially overwhelming? The answer for how you get "good" at a particular technique or position is the same, whether you just stepped on the mat for the first time, or have been training for many years-repetition.
One of the hardest things to develop in Jiu-jitsu is reflex; an automatic response to a given stimulus. This is the idea of "Mushin" (literally "no mind" in Japanese), a kind of a flow state where your body reacts without conscious thought. The ONLY way to ingrain this type of response is through thousands of repetitions. However, often times, students work on a move or a position at a much lower level, and that is simply learning how to perform the move. Often times, once they can perform the movement smoothly and completely, they feel that they "know it". While this may be true on a very rudimentary level, really knowing the move means developing not only the ability to perform it under stress with a variety of different body types and different levels of resistance, but having it become automatic, so that you can perform it with no thought. And understanding the details and concepts that make the move work, as well as all of the variations that can occur. And, understanding the move completely means also understand the counter to the move, and where to go when it fails!
One of my favorite quotes regarding Jiu-jitsu training comes from Rickson Gracie, when he said, "Don't do the move until you get it right....do the move until you can't get it wrong!" Herein lies the secret to getting "good" at a particular movement or sequence....it really isn't a secret at all. It's just that most people aren't willing to put in the work. It's all about repetitions. A good example is former UFC Champion and Judo Olympian Rhonda Rousey. She is very renowned for her ability to successfully apply the armbar on most of her opponents, to a point that it appears almost unstoppable. However, what many people don't know, is that her mother, who was also a Judo black belt, had her practice something like 100 armbars every single day, as a part of her daily routine, from the time she was a young child. It is almost impossible, then, for her NOT to have an awesome armbar.
This same mentality can be applied to almost any position or technique. If you want to be really good at a particular position, put in the time. Drilling is NOT the same as learning. Learning the move is the first phase. Drilling the move means repeating it over and over AFTER you have learned it well, in order to develop muscle memory & reflex, so that you can perform it automatically and seemlessly, even under stress. It is said that, in order to master any physical skill, it takes, on average, about 10,000 repetitions. This is why developing "mastery" of something as complicated as Jiu-jitsu takes a lifetime.
In the beginning stages of Jiu-jitsu, everything is very new and exciting. Every time you show up to the academy, you are learning some new move. However, if you stick with it long enough (and hopefully you will), that will start to wane. Over time, once you get into the upper ranks, it will be rare for you to see something completely new that you haven't ever seen before. However, if you can look at the techniques that you already know through new eyes, trying to always glean another detail and refine your understanding, training never gets boring. Approach training a move you already "know" more as drilling, to refine your technique and develop reflex.
There is no secret to getting good at Jiu-jitsu. Just show up consistently, train hard, and get lots of repetition. That's it. If you can do those things, everything else will fall into place. Oh, and one more thing....DON'T QUIT!!
