Timing and Technique!

Greetings Team,

I wanted to share with you the idea of Timing and Technique. My hope with all of these blogs, is not only to help your Martial Arts practice, but to help you connect the dots of how these ideas will help you in you personal life, as well.

I have found through my own practice, and the coaching of others, that when our skills fail we can ususally track its failure to either our Timing or our Technique. Let me use Jiu Jitsu for example. The reason it is so hard to be a white belt is that the skills we are learning rarely work for us in a match. We learn armbar and triangle and we try relentlessly to make our partner tap. Class after class we never seem to be able to get it right. So the question is...how do I know why I can't tap my parnter? It's either in your Timing or in your Technique. The reason you should spend hours DRILLING your basics is to constantly fine tune your Technique. I think it's safe to say that if you miss one detail in your submission attempt, the guy won't tap. Have you ever heard my "Bake the Cake" analogy? To bake a cake you need to FOLLOW THE RECIPE. If you miss one ingredient, just one, the cake is terrible. In that same way, if you miss one detail in the pursuit of your triangle...no Tap for you! :) So my first encouragement is to fine tune ALL your basics. Whether it is your boxing, wrestling, or Jiu Jitsu. Constanlty sharpen the smallest of details.

Now what if you know the technique perfect....you know how to execute all the nuances of your triangle, but yet you STILL can't tap the guy? It's your timing. You don't have the ability to set him up or trick him. Or maybe you don't see the opportunity to hit your trianlge at JUST the right time. This is why being a white belt is so hard. It takes forever to just KNOW the skills. Then it takes another forever to be able to actually tap people. Don't be discouraged....it's hard to tap people regularly until you get above the Blue Belt level. At that point you have been working your skills for a year or more and can spend more time on your "game" : your abiltiy to apply the basics you know.

So, when you are having trouble with a skill, ask your self---is my technique bad, or my timing...or both :) From there you know what questions to ask your instructor and how to practice for the next month or so. Remember from my previous blog...work on one skill at a time! If you do, you can really take a look at why your moves are working or not. You can create an ACTION plan to get good instead of trying to just get lucky.

So take your Sniper Rifle out Team and work diligently on your skills. I think you will find that this attention to detail will carry over into EVERY area of your life!

Hope you enjoyed this today!


All the Best!

COACH