Black Belt Learning Strategy #4

Here's the fourth black belt learning strategy from the Gracie Academy. Agian, full disclosure, these strategies are reprinted from the Gracie Insider newsletter. If you would like to get them from the source you can signup here: http://www.gracieacademy.com/gracieinsidersignuppage.htm


Black Belt Learning Strategy #4: Become a Type 2 Student

There are three basic steps involved in mastering any technique of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu: 1) Learn the steps 2) Develop your reflexes, and 3) Build your confidence. The most critical of these steps is the first, because if you do not learn the steps, you cannot develop the correct reflex or the confidence in the execution of a technique. Regarding the ability to learn and incorporate new techniques, we have found that students can be categorized into one of two groups. If you are in the first group, it will take almost double the time for you to reach black belt than if you are a member of the second group.

Type 1 Students: Those who think they know how to learn the steps of a technique.

Most students fall into this category. They come to class on Monday, watch the technique presentations, practice the techniques in class, spar at the end of class, win some, lose some, and go home. They come back to class on Tuesday, learn the new techniques, spar, win some, lose some, and by this time they have totally forgotten the steps of the techniques from the previous day’s class. When a Type 1 student is taught the same technique for a second or third time, they tend to be very lazy in their viewing of the presentation, since they think they already know the technique. Generally speaking, Type 1 students have adopted the belief that they will progress as rapidly as everyone else as long as they show up to class and go through the motions, and they couldn’t be more wrong.

Type 2 Students: Those who know how to learn the steps of a technique.

Very few students fall into this category. Type 2 students treat each new technique as if it were a newborn child. They realize that unless they care for it through infancy, childhood and adolescence, it will never reach adulthood. When watching a technique presentation, Type 2 students are totally focused on ever y detail as if it could save their life (which makes sense, because most details could). When practicing a technique for the first time, their only concern is to incorporate every detail presented by the instructor. They realize that any detail that is not incorporated in the practice of the technique may be lost forever, or at least until they learn the same technique again. When sparring, Type 2 students are primarily concerned with incorporating the technique they just learned, and often times they will ask their partners to cooperate and create the opportunities for the techniques during the sparring session. These students are more concerned with incorporating recently learned techniques in a sparring session than they are with winning or losing. After each class, these students take written notes on the newly learned techniques, aware of the fact that memory alone is not enough, since it is constantly overburdened by the adding of new techniques. Any time a Type 2 student views a presentation of a previously learned technique, they are as attentive as they were the first time they learned it. They realize that if they pay attention, they may get one detail from the presentation that they missed the previous time, and that this detail may be the one that leads to their successful mastery of the technique. Generally speaking, Type 2 students realize that although the Gracie Academy provides them with the resources necessary to achieve black belt, it is how they manage these resources that will determine the speed with which they reach the top. In other words, they take full responsibility for their progress.

It is a fact that the instruction at the Gracie Academy is so effective that regardless of which student group you fall in to, you will eventually learn how to defend yourself and ultimately reach black belt. It is also a fact that you can greatly reduce the time it takes to reach your goals if you simply learn to take more from each class, and the key to doing that is becoming a Type 2 student.