What’s the worst mistake you can make in your training? I was thinking about that when I got up this morning.
I’m not talking so much about technical mistakes either, although this will go hand in hand with that stuff too. No I’m talking about an overall training mistake so many new and old students make and you can avoid it.
Here’s your black belt tip for this fine Friday morning at 6:30am….
The worst mistake you can make in your training is not to learn from your mistakes.
Let me explain…
You’ll always have good and bad days. Some days you get it all right and others you can hardly tie your shoes. So goes life I suppose.
The key detail you need to understand is that when you make mistakes, tactical, technical or other, you need to learn from those mistakes.
Work super hard, drill a lot in order to avoid the same error twice.
Have you ever heard the old saying “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice shame on me”?? That’s a good one. Try not to mess up twice.
How do you help yourself to not make the same mistakes time and time again? Very simply…ask questions. If you’ve got a particular area that you keep getting beat in then you need to ask your instructor about what you keep doing wrong.
It’s funny because I run into so many people in martial arts that simply won’t ask for help. They won’t ask questions because they’re ashamed or prideful.
Look, for you to learn and get better you’re going to need coaching. You’ll need someone to point out your weaknesses and mistakes. That someone is most often your coach, instructor, training partner, someone like that.
Even to this day, I still ask questions. I make mistakes and sometimes don’t have the right answers. So I talk to people for help. 22+ years in the game, still seeking help.
As well as you might know yourself you simply can’t see what you’re doing wrong sometimes. You need an outside point of view. So ask for it. Try to prevent yourself from making the same mistake twice or more.
Don’t think that because you’re a higher belt you know it all and can’t ask a lower belt for advice. You’d be surprised at how a lower belt can many times point out errors. Again, they see you for what you are and what you do.
The day you stop learning and asking questions is the day you’re training takes a turn for the worse. That’s black belt advice right there!
Just the other day I was working on some techniques from the butterfly guard. My long time student and Platinum Member Bill Hughes showed me something I’d never seen or thought of. It helped me a ton because just the other day I’d be stopped by this certain type of counter.
I jumped up, thanked him and wrote the technique in my notebook!
Bill’s a blue belt in Gracie Brazilian Jiu Jitsu by the way. His advice and knowledge will now help me ten fold.
So, in the end, focus on your strategy, tactics and techniques and accept the fact that you will get beat from time to time. The key is again, to learn from your mistakes and keep moving forward. That’s what the best guys/gals do, you’d be wise to follow their example!
