Missing the point...

I think I have been missing the point the whole time I have been training. Tonight I had a bit of a revelation after training. My instructor offered up some advice with a particular takedown, sumi gaeshi (?). Having long legs, this takedown seems to suit me well.

Well, I had been hitting this takedown defending against single and double legs against lower belts, but against higher belts I was having much less success as they would drop their weight on to my feet and kill my leverage. I wondered what I was doing wrong. Or was it just that the higher belts were doing things right that the lower belts were doing wrong?

A buddy of mine asked me how I do that takedown after he saw me use it a few times to land comfortably in mount. I really don't know that technique that well, to be honest. I might have been taught it once, but I don't really practice my takedowns often. So I told him that I was not sure, and that I sort of just hook his thigh and pull him over me...as I shrugged. It really just seems instinctive to me to try and flip someone over me like that. Maybe I just played too much Mortal Kombat when I was a kid, I dunno.

So my instructor taught me the technique after class and I saw what I was doing wrong. I wasn't shooting my hips underneath my opponents hips. With the lower belts I have been catching them off guard and inadvertently getting my hips underneath theirs, but not because I shot under there on purpose. Then when I tried to do the same on the higher belts they would stuff me because I was not really attempting to do the technique correctly in the first place.

Now I come to realize that I may have the complete wrong mindset. I have been just going with what works. It shows in the way that I responded to my friend. I don't think Jiu Jitsu is just about getting the job done. I think its more than that. It seems to be more about getting it done easily. I know this is a basic fundamental of jiu jitsu and judo, and they teach it from day one. But I don't think it ever really REALLY clicked for me. I really need to rebuild my game from scratch to make sure that it is real jiu jitsu and not just 'submission grappling.'

I have been programming my body to perform techniques decently. No more. Each and every technique will 100%. Every tech will be done properly, not half-assed. I owe it to myself to take this seriously...and I think I have mostly just been having fun.

I am starting to realize that real jiu jitsu is even more fun when its done the right way.