Whenever anybody learns something new in Jiu-Jitsu or anywhere else for that matter, whether it be a concept or a drill/specific technique etc. they take on board the information and understand it to a point. In order to have a firm understanding, trial and error is very important.
At this early stage it is easy if not controlled to form an absolute opinion of to the validity of the information you have received, (in most cases the teacher presenting it teaches it as an absolute) so all too easily you can decide in a black and white fashion whether the technique/information is good or bad or whether it will work for you. I call this the ‘God complex’ where you have an absolute belief that the way you are thinking is a 100% true one way or another, (there is only one person with that kind of certainty, hence God complex).
We can combat this by accepting that our understanding of things actually improves through trial and error (this is why the right type of sparring/drilling/concept evaluation etc. is so important). I challenge any body to highlight something that improves purely because of the God complex. Our understanding of things always improves because of the trial error process we are always standing on the shoulder of giants taking the positive aspects of their trial and error process and continuing on.
So please the next time you are in class, experiment try new things don’t be afraid to fail this will only lead to victory, also the next time someone try’s to convince you that there is only way be very dubious.
#LiveLearnEvolve