So I've been in a bit of a slump recently. But recently I've been trying to think of ways to change my mindset, and today I tried some new things...and they worked surprisingly well!
I remember I wrote an article on Facebook once upon a time about competitive activities (found at https://www.facebook.com/notes/ray-chou/my-thoughts-on-competitive-activities/10152925793451666) and I concluded that awareness was a key element of competitive activities; without awareness, one fails. Every problem that one can conceive of, at the end of the day, is traced back to awareness. Especially reading things like the Art of War and things of that nature...know yourself, but not your enemy, for every battle won you will suffer a loss. Know yourself and your enemy, a hundred battles, a hundred victories.
I found that particularly interesting because I somehow forgot about this concept in my Jiu-Jitsu. Sometimes, there will be people that do moves to me, and I will have no idea how they did it, but I am so caught up, so invested in the moment, that I don't even realize that such a thing occurred. That...or most people do moves that are very obvious. But today I tried focusing on sole awareness.
It was incredible how easy everything became all of a sudden. Because I was so aware of my opponent's weight distribution in my guard, it was so easy to mess with it (just add a little more to whatever they're doing at the time). It was also cool how I seemed to "sense" their moves before it happened.
I even overhead swept a guy because I sensed him about to commit his weight forward.
I also got to roll with Alex, the instructor that I'd say I'm closest with, since I interact with him the most. Watching him roll is quite interesting, and quite enlightening, but rolling with him was a truly eye-opening experience in itself. I went into it with the mindset that I would be as aware as possible, only paying attention to the motions of my opponents (will come back to), and it was so cool watching the subtle little motions he was doing to constantly keep me off balance. His motions were so subtle, but all done at the perfect time, and at one point I even got overhead swept myself haha. I learned a lot though. He really sharpened my defense in his closed guard; the hand-fighting was really fun, but I stayed calm, and just watched what he was doing to me, and didn't try particularly hard to do anything. (will come to back to as well) When I asked him for advice, he told me to keep doing what I was doing. So I guess focusing on awareness is effective.
Also, I think one thing that's been holding me back is that I was always focusing on what I was doing. What am I doing? I want to go for this overhead sweep/butterfly sweep/escape/whatever move that I want to do. However, that's not how it works. Jiu-Jitsu is a live interaction between two grown human beings, and it must be treated as such; it's a conversation, a dance, and there is no sense in me being able to impose my will on the opponent. I must listen to my opponent (think Bruce Lee! All of the maxims apply on the ground as well), and I must become one with him. Forget about whatever ambitions I have, I simply must become one with the moment, and trust my training. After all, that is what technique drilling is for. If you try to force something, it will never work... (See the Art of Dying)
Finally, I think it's the fact that I am going for moves that is making the moves not work. Alex said that to me today, and I find that it aligns so much with the other things that I believe in. What's so crazy though is that I didn't apply it in this particular way, which troubles me because once again, it's another blind spot that I couldn't see. Don't try to make the moves work, let the moves come to you. Literally, don't actually try to go for anything. Your body will do it itself. You must trust that your body can recognize the indicators, and your mind either must be in an empty state, or, if one is not advanced enough, one must be focused on almost solely the opponent. But that is so interesting; not trying to even go for a move, and just letting it happen. Surprise yourself. Later on, you'll create gameplans where you try to mess with your opponent's motions, but if the bodily reflex of moving when one's conscious/unconscious mind senses an opportunity must be ingrained to reflex level.
So, for the next month, I will be aware, use my awareness to respond to my opponent, and I won't actually try to go for anything.
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