John Danaher: Failure vs potential

 

When we look at our performance in Jiu jitsu we tend to lump everything into two categories - success and failure. Moves either work or they don’t - they succeed or fail. If you adopt this mindset there is little chance that you will make technical progress over time. The reason is simple - whenever we learn new moves it is almost certain that the vast majority of applications when we start out will fail. When we first learn a move our performance of it is usually ( and understandably) poor. It takes time to build skill. It will take time for you to take a move from infancy to adulthood. A much better approach is to asses moves not by success or failure, but by potential. The best indicator of general potential is usually not from you, but comes from watching high level athletes performing the move in top level competition. If the move works repeatedly there then it’s likely it will work at whatever level you are. Then start asking if it has specific potential for YOU. As yourself if it works for a wide array of body types and levels of athleticism. If it requires such extreme athletic abilities that only a handful of people can apply well, it may not have potential for you. Then start your personal journey with the move. Start small. Don’t try it first with the toughest guy in your gym. Try it on lesser targets until you feel ready to move up. When you first try it you will soon get a sense of whether the move feels natural to you. Even if it’s not fully succeeding at first of you can feel POTENTIAL - perhaps you ALMOST get it to work a couple of times, that’s a good sign that it’s worth more work and time. In time a move that almost works can become a move works really well almost every time. Success or failure isn’t the yardstick of new moves - potential is.

John Danaher

Casa De Luta FightKlub Saarbrücken (Eingang im Hinterhof) Mainzer Str. 30 66111 Saarbrücken Email: acasadeluta@gmail.com