Laid Back vs Competition Ready, What Game Do You Play?

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is a game best played by the formidable chess player, due to the amount of thought involved in techniques, training, cardio , endurance and most of all, ability to take the techniques in theory and apply them to live rolling. The transition between white belt to blue belt is an important one, the flow of moves must be nurtured and must be massaged deep into the grapplers psyche, it must become second nature to the point where instinct takes over and the thought process stops.

While injuries are common in any grappling sport it is those new grapplers who have the mentality of not wanting to ” lose ” while training that increase the chance of injury, while it mentally satisfies someone to know that they are improving their game by tapping higher belts , it becomes counterproductive due to the fact that so many factors go into any kind of ” win ” in training. A mindset of laid back ,while helps  with technique due to lack of force exertion also hurts ones cardio and game of pushing the pace, a mindset of going full throttle helps to improve cardio , and hand eye coordination , it hurts ones ability to use their instinct when applying techniques.

Unless there is  a balance between the two factors, one will lack more than the other and this can either help or hurt your game. Another factor of injuries is carelessness, team mates who grow together and train together, will not want to hurt each other due to the trust that goes into this sport of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu , a helpful way to keep each other safe is attempting the submission, but not cranking on the arm,torquing the leg, or choking until they go limp. This should only be done when in competition or when faced with an attacker out in the street or real world .

The biggest question is what kind of BJJ player are you?

Be safe and try to keep your team mates safe as well, nothing hurts progress like having to wait out weeks or months due to  an injury from a newbie going wild trying to score a double leg take down or from cranking the neck too hard. On the other hand if you are forced to tap, do not let your pride get in the way of safety.

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