Why schools must celebrate good Defence

I have come to realise that there is a very common mistake repeating itself over and over again in schools around the world. We continually high-five, back slap and celebrate the submission in a role. This creates extreme competition, which once an athlete’s skills have developed is probably a good thing on the whole but in the beginning it makes everybody focus on winning. At this point lets not forget BJJ is a Self Defense art, its not designed so you can go riding off into the sunset with the girl. Its designed to keep you from losing and this is why schools must celebrate good defence.

If you can make the culture in your club one where defence is celebrated, the beauty of Jiu-Jitsu can shine and the learning progress can speed up. People stop worrying about winning and focus on improving themselves. When they get into bad positions they don’t thrash around blindly ending with being submitted and not seeing where this submission came from. They get submitted yes but they are not blind to where the submission came from, they are also less tired and less prone to big adrenaline dumps after spars so they are likely to train longer and experience more positions.  This will speed up the process that makes new students near impossible to submit. They will also start to understand the submissions in depth, their flaws and their strengths and before long they will be submitting people and riding of into the sunset with the girl.

So next time you see a role where one opponent submits the other but the submitted opponent shows good defence try back slapping and congratulating the submitted opponent. Do this for a while and watch the atmosphere in the room change over time. I guarantee the standard of ALL your students will increase.

FIND A HAPPIER YOU – LIVE LEARN EVOLVE

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