HAS YOUR JIU JITSU PLATEAUED?

Anyone who has been practicing jujitsu longer than a year has probably felt that there jujitsu is either plateaued or regressed at one point or another.  Believe me if you have had this feeling before, you're not alone.

I have seen all types of reactions to this feeling of plateauing and or regressing.   Some people choose to give up, some choose to blame their coaches, and others continue to train but are depressed.

I can think of three distinct moments in my life when I felt that I had plateaued and was never going to improve.  I had moments of blaming others, I had moments of being depressed, and I had moments of wanting to give up.

All three times that this happened the one thing that got me out of my funk and help me continue to improve is not what people would guess... I started consistently teaching.

We have a saying at our Academy that "to teach is to learn". Frankly, I have never heard truer words.

Every time I start to teach my jujitsu gets infinitely better. I think scientifically what happens is my brain has to slow down and begin to cover the details for those who may not know them and when I begin to slow down I begin to see new things. Every time I am asked a question about an arm bar or a sweep or a takedown and I have to go over the minute details that technique almost instantly gets better.

So if you feel that your jujitsu has began to plateau or regress... Do not blame your Academy, do not blame yourself, do not get depressed, start to teach.

And by teach I do not even mean formerly.   Grab a few white belts offer a free five minutes before class, offer a free private, offer to substitute teach for your black belt, it does not matter just start teaching...

I once asked a famous black belt how he knew when a brown belt was prepared to be a black belt.  He said a brown belt is prepared to be a black belt when he can teach a brown belt how to become a black belt.