The Power of Habit
The Power of H-A-B-I-T
Are you the person who smashes everyone else on the mat? The person that gets smashed all the time? or the lazy plus-size black belt that just tells people what to do? Whichever persona you play on the mats is a direct reflection of your habits. Up until recently, I have failed to realize how much power a habit can have. Good habits are beneficial and bad habits are harmful - we all know this. In the Hispanic world, we have a saying that translates in English to "An old parrot cannot learn how to talk". For the longest time, I thought this saying emphasized that an old person cannot learn a new skill, but, now I look it from a different lens. If you interpret this saying from a habit perspective, it emphasizes that something you have been doing for a long time, not being able to talk in the parrot's example, cannot be changed; and this is far from the truth.
What do habits have to do with my training?
Everything you do in your life is a reflection on your habits, especially when you train Jiu-Jitsu. Let me elaborate. If over time you have developed the habit of coming in last second before class starts, smash lower ranked belts to boost your ego, and leave right after class without stretching or learning something new, then your success on the mats will be jeopardized. Depending on how you define "success", you can agree or disagree with me, but I think that we can all agree that if we are making progress with our BJJ, we are succeeding. Yes or no? I'll leave it up to you. If you say no, then I would stop reading right now. Otherwise, let's dive deeper on why habits influence your Jiu-Jitsu.
Most of the things we do on a daily basis, which if you are serious about Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu then you should definitely be training daily, are a reflection of our habits. The idealist would probably disagree with me on this one and say that the things we do are a reflection of our priorities, but let's be real, the average person does things, repeatedly, that aren't necessarily in their priorities' list. There is a book called "Atomic Habits" by James Clear. I'm planning on reading and if you have some spare time, which we all do, then definitely get a copy for yourself. Last week, I listened to two podcast that James was a guest on. The podcast was about habits. James gave a lot of great details on good and bad habits, how we can create a new one, and eliminate or modify a bad one.
In a nutshell, good habits are hard to create and bad habits are even harder to get rid off, but it's doable. According to James, if you take baby steps to create a new habit or eliminate one, you are on track. For example, if you wish to write more as a blogger but lack the time to create content, then start off by finding pockets of free time throughout the day to write ideas about content. After time, your brain will develop this into a habit and you can start to build off from finding random pockets of time to actually blocking out an hour or two a day to concentrate and create your next post. One particular detail that James shared in his interviews was that bad habits are hard to break because we get instant gratification and don't see the long-term effects until a much later. Good habits are the complete opposite; no instant gratification, rather instant suffering, followed by long-term gratification. For example, if you have a habit of eating fast food, then you are immediately satiated because it tastes good, but if you keep this habit up, your health will suffer later on. Conversely, if you have a habit of working out, then you feel the pain of being sore in less than 24 hours, but if you keep this habit up, your health will fluoresce in the long-term
That's great info Juan, thanks! Now how can I apply this to my Jiu-Jitsu? There are plenty of different ways to approach this concept. How you approach it should be mainly determined by the habit you want to create and/or get rid of. For example, let's say a person is used to never playing bottom and always smashes people on top. This person wants to develop a better understanding of guard retention or how to escape a particular submission. It will be really hard for my imaginary buddy, let's call him Steve, to automatically switch his game from playing top to being on the bottom, from smashing guys to getting submitted. The better way to approach this will be to start off nice and easy by letting a lighter, lower-ranked belt, pass his guard or lock the triangle on him. If you think about it, this is very similar to lifting weights. Start off with little to no weight, develop your technique and progressively add on weight. If Steve starts to do this once a week, and then twice a week, and so on and so forth, his mindset will switch from smash-smash to learning more on the concepts he desires. Steve will then move on to applying the things he has learned about guard retention and submission defense to bigger, better opponents. And this my friends, it's a nice, easy way to adopt a healthy habit and break a bad one.
I could throw a whole bunch of details and scenarios where you can apply this concept, but, I think you guys get it by now. In essence, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is not a one-dimensional sport. The guard player has to play on top in order for her to understand his guard better. A triangle submission artist has to be caught in a triangle so she can understand in depth how a person can escape. When I was a blue belt, I accidentally started playing the collar and sleeve guard, A LOT. I thought I had discovered this guard that was perfect for me. My go-to submission was the triangle and man I locked that in and finish my opponents most of the time. It wasn't until my purple belt that someone played, at a much higher technical level, the same guard on me. I was clueless on how to pass. No one really mentored me that I was creating a habit of just playing guard, which I mean in retrospect it paid off because I won a lot of matches in tournaments like that, however, I was not setting myself up for success. It would be have been really hard for me to abandon playing this guard and start to pass it since I was very proficient at it, BUT THAT'S A HUGE HINT-HINT that can let you know, you have developed a habit.
Conclusion
I'm aware this post wasn't probably what you were looking for as far as techniques, moves, experiences, etc, but I do think it's extremely important how to be in control of your habits. Habits determine your actions, and your actions determine your progress in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and life in general. Before training BJJ next time, take a second before you step on the mat to see what habits have you developed, and what habits do you need in order to achieve progress in the sport.
Oss
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| Master your habits |
What do habits have to do with my training?
Everything you do in your life is a reflection on your habits, especially when you train Jiu-Jitsu. Let me elaborate. If over time you have developed the habit of coming in last second before class starts, smash lower ranked belts to boost your ego, and leave right after class without stretching or learning something new, then your success on the mats will be jeopardized. Depending on how you define "success", you can agree or disagree with me, but I think that we can all agree that if we are making progress with our BJJ, we are succeeding. Yes or no? I'll leave it up to you. If you say no, then I would stop reading right now. Otherwise, let's dive deeper on why habits influence your Jiu-Jitsu.
Most of the things we do on a daily basis, which if you are serious about Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu then you should definitely be training daily, are a reflection of our habits. The idealist would probably disagree with me on this one and say that the things we do are a reflection of our priorities, but let's be real, the average person does things, repeatedly, that aren't necessarily in their priorities' list. There is a book called "Atomic Habits" by James Clear. I'm planning on reading and if you have some spare time, which we all do, then definitely get a copy for yourself. Last week, I listened to two podcast that James was a guest on. The podcast was about habits. James gave a lot of great details on good and bad habits, how we can create a new one, and eliminate or modify a bad one.
In a nutshell, good habits are hard to create and bad habits are even harder to get rid off, but it's doable. According to James, if you take baby steps to create a new habit or eliminate one, you are on track. For example, if you wish to write more as a blogger but lack the time to create content, then start off by finding pockets of free time throughout the day to write ideas about content. After time, your brain will develop this into a habit and you can start to build off from finding random pockets of time to actually blocking out an hour or two a day to concentrate and create your next post. One particular detail that James shared in his interviews was that bad habits are hard to break because we get instant gratification and don't see the long-term effects until a much later. Good habits are the complete opposite; no instant gratification, rather instant suffering, followed by long-term gratification. For example, if you have a habit of eating fast food, then you are immediately satiated because it tastes good, but if you keep this habit up, your health will suffer later on. Conversely, if you have a habit of working out, then you feel the pain of being sore in less than 24 hours, but if you keep this habit up, your health will fluoresce in the long-term
That's great info Juan, thanks! Now how can I apply this to my Jiu-Jitsu? There are plenty of different ways to approach this concept. How you approach it should be mainly determined by the habit you want to create and/or get rid of. For example, let's say a person is used to never playing bottom and always smashes people on top. This person wants to develop a better understanding of guard retention or how to escape a particular submission. It will be really hard for my imaginary buddy, let's call him Steve, to automatically switch his game from playing top to being on the bottom, from smashing guys to getting submitted. The better way to approach this will be to start off nice and easy by letting a lighter, lower-ranked belt, pass his guard or lock the triangle on him. If you think about it, this is very similar to lifting weights. Start off with little to no weight, develop your technique and progressively add on weight. If Steve starts to do this once a week, and then twice a week, and so on and so forth, his mindset will switch from smash-smash to learning more on the concepts he desires. Steve will then move on to applying the things he has learned about guard retention and submission defense to bigger, better opponents. And this my friends, it's a nice, easy way to adopt a healthy habit and break a bad one.
I could throw a whole bunch of details and scenarios where you can apply this concept, but, I think you guys get it by now. In essence, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is not a one-dimensional sport. The guard player has to play on top in order for her to understand his guard better. A triangle submission artist has to be caught in a triangle so she can understand in depth how a person can escape. When I was a blue belt, I accidentally started playing the collar and sleeve guard, A LOT. I thought I had discovered this guard that was perfect for me. My go-to submission was the triangle and man I locked that in and finish my opponents most of the time. It wasn't until my purple belt that someone played, at a much higher technical level, the same guard on me. I was clueless on how to pass. No one really mentored me that I was creating a habit of just playing guard, which I mean in retrospect it paid off because I won a lot of matches in tournaments like that, however, I was not setting myself up for success. It would be have been really hard for me to abandon playing this guard and start to pass it since I was very proficient at it, BUT THAT'S A HUGE HINT-HINT that can let you know, you have developed a habit.
Conclusion
I'm aware this post wasn't probably what you were looking for as far as techniques, moves, experiences, etc, but I do think it's extremely important how to be in control of your habits. Habits determine your actions, and your actions determine your progress in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and life in general. Before training BJJ next time, take a second before you step on the mat to see what habits have you developed, and what habits do you need in order to achieve progress in the sport.
Oss
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