“Jiu-Jitsu is a game of technique.” An adage you will hear people say if you are around the game long enough. Many times you hear someone explaining this fine point to a student who doesn’t quite understand how to measure their use of technique with strength. It’s hard for them to evaluate themselves on a strength vs technique scale because many times we are evaluated and evaluating ourselves on win vs lose scale or success vs failure scale.
When we evaluate on a win vs lose scale, the feedback we give ourself is this:
“I won therefore I’m doing good.”
Or
“I lost therefore I’m doing bad.”
This can be very misleading. Even if you win that doesn’t necessarily you are doing good. You won (by beating a 6 year old) or (someone who knows nothing about jiu-jitsu) isn’t necessary a reflection of doing good. You lost (to a world champion) or (a experienced black belt) wouldn’t necessarily lead to the conclusion that your performance was bad.
Breaking it down a little deeper, you could look at success and failure. I was able to successfully execute a technique therefore I’m doing good. Or I wasn’t able to successfully execute the technique therefore I’m not doing good. There are several elements that need to be considered when looking into this. The use of strength and technique. Were you successful in your execution because you were using flawless technique or did you out muscle your opponent to will your way through the movement? Breaking you analysis down a little deeper will help you understand yourself better and empower you in developing a technically sound jiu-jitsu game.
When we use strength and fail, we fail because we weren’t strong enough. When we use technique and fail we fail because our technique wasn’t good enough. The alternative is also true. When we use our strength and succeed we succeed because we are strong. When we use our technique and succeed, we succeed because our technique is good. This is the final goal in Jiu-Jitsu. Being able to control yourself and your partner with as minimal use of strength as possible. while relying on technique.
The road to flawless application of technique is not easy. It means you have to be okay with people that are physically weaker than you beating you at times because their technique is superior. Working to rely on your technique means you will lose the small battles, tap many times, get into bad positions, and at time even become out powered by someone stronger. However, the tradeoff is in knowing that you will be able to rely on your technique when you don’t have the power.
Someone who has mastered the art of Jiu-Jitsu is able to out technique their partner not because they are faster or stronger, but because they’ve gone through a phase where they removed most, if not all, strength while training. To do so we need to remind ourselves to evaluate how we performed the technique, and measure ourselves on a scale of strength vs technique. Doing this will not only improve our game, but promise longevity with our Jiu-Jitsu career as our technique will never whither away even with time and age.