Coaching thoughts from the weekend's tournament

There was a jiu jitsu tournament here in Austin this weekend. I went with the goal of coaching as many of my teammates as I could and to lose my voice. I guess I achieved both goals.

Watching those matches reminded me of when I first moved here almost three years ago. The second day I started training with my instructor, I tore the meniscus in my left knee. I couldn’t train for three months and I ended up needing surgery on it, but I can firmly say it was the best thing to ever happen to my jiu jitsu.

The injury forced me to watch and to study the game really for the first time. I’d been in jiu jitsu for a long time already at that point. I was a purple belt and thought I knew some things. Usually when I’d gotten hurt before I just wouldn’t go until I was better.

This time was different. I went to almost every class, usually twice a day, six days a week. I was finding a home in a new city and starting to study and try to really learn something I’d been vaguely familiar with for a long time.

I started to realize how little I knew about jiu jitsu. I might be able to do a certain amount, but if I saw two people grappling, half the time I couldn’t tell you what they were going to do next, or what they were trying to do or what they should do.

So I started to try to figure this out. I started trying to predict what one guy would do next. Then I’d switch people. Other times I’d try to figure out what I would do and see if it was the same thing.

By the time I came back I felt I knew more but more importantly I realized how much there was to learn. It wasn’t going to become a matter of “getting it” one day, it was simply going to be a slow steady walk towards a mirage in the desert. And once I was okay with that, the walk became a lot more enjoyable.

So lately I’ve started to vocalize some of these observations and patterns by working on becoming an effective coach. I want to be able to say the right thing at the right time and to be as specific but simple as possible. What’s been good about this is there’s immediate feedback when my training partner tries what I say and I can see if it actually works.

I still have a lifetime to go as a practitioner and teacher but this weekend was a good test for me as I helped coach at least 25 matches. I know some of our guys’ games pretty well, but others I realized still how little I know and understand about their habits, patterns, strengths and weaknesses. I’m still a long way from being someone who really sees what everyone else just watches. There are still definitely a lot of situations that I don’t have answers for. I still have just a small fraction of understanding of this game.

I realize that I’m also going to really need to start studying wrestling and judo more as I really don’t have much advice to give standing up other than “pull guard”. I know most people I train with don’t practice their standup grappling much and I’m not sure if that’s going to change, but I feel incomplete in my own knowledge when I don’t know at least some basic grip fighting as well as wrestling tie ups and how they lead into takedowns.

I was proud of my teammates, but feel I need to study other people more carefully than I’ve been doing so far. Lately it’s been all about what I need to do to get better but I’m shortchanging everyone and probably myself by not really observing my teammates.

Overall I thought the tournament was run fairly smoothly and while there were some officiating calls I didn’t agree with, I don’t think any of them affected the outcome of the matches I saw. I'm never going to love jiu jitsu tournaments, but I learned a lot and am glad I went.