You know that new choke you saw the other day and hope to use in class tonight?
Yeah… about that.
That shiny new choke probably isn’t going to work.
The truth is that any signature moves you develop in your jiu-jitsu career will be the lone survivors standing on top of a mountain of discarded techniques that you just couldn’t get to click.
Every time I try something new, I think, “This probably isn’t going to work,” but THIS ISN’T ME BEING NEGATIVE.
Optimism and pessimism aren’t incompatible.
The poet Adrienne Rich said, “It is important to possess a short-term pessimism and a long-term optimism”, which speaks to holding these two worldviews on different time scales.
Being a pessimist in the short term forces you to anticipate what can go wrong and how to fix it if it does.
Expect everything that can go wrong to go wrong. Anticipate setbacks, and don’t be attached to the outcome of any one specific effort. And, of course, have plans to minimise the fallout from the most likely failures.
At the same time as you’re anticipating all the problems, it’s important to keep pessimism from pervading your entire worldview.
You have to be a long-term optimist. Believe that you’ll eventually arrive at the desired outcome if you keep striving, adapting, and overcoming.
If you just keep trying enough different chokes then eventually you’ll find a variation that works for you.
After finding 1,000 ways to not sweep someone you’ll eventually find a way that does.
Balancing this short-term pessimism and long-term optimism is a fine art.
It’s OK to be discouraged by setbacks so long as you bounce back and try again the next day. Expect failure, have backup plans, keep going, and be ready to take advantage of opportunities when they appear.
Like one of my favorite Judo proverbs says, “Fall down seven times, get up eight.”
Cheers,
Stephan Kesting