In my previous post I promised some background to my thoughts. If you recall, I was discussing mutual learning in BJJ and the importance of synergistic pedagogy. Let's be clear though, opportunity for this type of cooperative learning environment increases the further along a BJJ player progresses. That is, because of time on the mat, experience and, as a result, accumulated knowledge, a black belt will naturally have much more to share than a white belt who has been training for 6 months. That being said, in my view there is much room for the white belt to be a part of the give and take of a truly open and hospitable gym/dojo.
Case in point, a private lesson with a white belt was what prompted me to start thinking about BJJ and pedagogy. The session started with me teaching him a couple of chokes from sidemount and ended with a light roll. For me, these are "teaching rolls" where I try to be as smooth (not always easy) as possible. When I secure a submission I control the position and allow my partner to fight out of it - or talk her/him through the proper escape. At the end of our time, Tim thanked me and said, "someday, Bryan, someday". I looked at him and said, "I sincerely hope so". One of the guys sitting on the sidelines replied, "yah, right!" I sincerely meant what I said. I DO want Tim to tap me ... someday.
The response from the guy on the sidelines bothered me. Once I thought more about the situation, the more it occurred to me that his reply was to be expected. In my experience, a good number of BJJ players have an informal inventory going on in their heads about who has tapped who. They are also very much aware of where they stand. While this may be true in my experience, it may not be in yours. Whatever the case, and while this type of mentality may be somewhat unavoidable (and healthy?), it nevertheless holds potential to produce all kinds of problems - jealousy, cliques, uncontrolled sparring, injuries & etc..
What if, instead of being upset and guarded that someone from your team has the goal of one day tapping you, you show them how to do it? What if, we see the mats, not as a space of competition, but of mutual learning and benefit? What if, the gym is no longer such, but becomes a dojo (place/space of enlightenment)? What if ... someday!
Bryan
bjjstudy@gmail.com
2 comments:
The way I see it, the better the people I train with are then the better I become. If I have an obvious hole in my game that I know about but my training partner doesn't, it seems both silly and dishonest to take advantage of that situation. If I tell my partner about it then he/she will look for it and take advantage, which keeps me sharp. I learned a long time ago that whatever you do in life should be done to your own best ability, not to the best ability of your opponent because (1) you are practicing bad habits and (2) they might surprise.
Of course, if your not training but just teaching then that is a different story. I'm not going to teach a ten year old how to play tennis by smashing balls at her all day long.
I agree. My sense is that "steel sharpens steel". What I mean by this is: you are only as good as your training partners. There seems to be a threshold of sorts that is conditioned by the abilities of those around you. Obvious exceptions, and there are always exceptions, are Cobrinha and Lavato come to mind. Most of us depend on our training partners to help improve our game.
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