Didja Ever Kinda Feel Like You've Forgotten How to Grapple?

[kpoz12]

SUP CHAMPS! So, I'm currently in my 10th year of training & competing; am a brown belch, etc.

It's super weird, but lately when I'm rolling in class, it kinda feels like I consciously forget what to do in some situations.
My muscle memory is spot on- I can pull off all kinds of shit and not even really know how or why I did it.

FOR EXAMPLE: Tonight a guy was asking me post-roll to show him the D'arce and Omoplatta I had just hit on him...and i kinda just fumbled around and didn't really consciously KNOW how, and then I basically couldn't even remember how to show just an isolated version of the d'arce either.

Maybe I've taken too many bio-mechinacals to the head?

 

[hutchdavidson]

Brown Belch FTW

 

[winterbike]

The more conceptual I get with my BJJ the more it seems I forget details and names. Currently my sweeping game goes like this in my head "ok, let's grab something so he doesn't have a base on that side and try to flip him over". By the time I get to black belt I'm afraid it'll only be "ok, tap him" and I won't be able to explain any of it to anyone

 

[RJ Green]

at a certain point you hit a level of proficiency that's tough to explain. like, you know the principles and setups behind a technique, but the extra little bit of pepper you put on there from experience? that's almost impossible to teach.

it's like asking why Rickson's presh is so great, or why Marcelo always gets to the back. There's an underlying, simple explanation to why what they do feels the way it does, but to emulate that? getting someone's brain to think/feel/react that way?

it's kinda like guitar, you ever forget you know a chord pattern or a scale until you hear the song it's from and just kinda noodle along but forget you knew how to to that?

like the other day i was just kinda absentmindedly strumming while reading and started playing parts of paranoid android without realizing it, wondering like 'what the fuck song is that and when did i learn it?'

 

[teamventure09]

I think it can work the opposite for lower belts. I hadn't been on the mat for three years and I got back in there cold turkey and was competitive with the guys my rank and size.

 

[Deleted member 405583]

I'm the complete opposite. I can break down any move, transition, or combo but I can't roll as proficiently as I should.

 

[Was at Pride GP 2000]

You maybe becoming a ninja. You are just that good you are on auto pilot

 

[Papawash]

flow state man

 

[The Thrill]

I think it can work the opposite for lower belts. I hadn't been on the mat for three years and I got back in there cold turkey and was competitive with the guys my rank and size.

the reason for that is before you left, you were probably thinking through 50 techniques that you wanted to try out during a roll, and when you came back that was pushed aside for the simplest path

also ive been training since 2006 and i cant explain things for shit, the more people ask me to teach them something, the more i realize teaching is a gift and i dont have it lol

 

[Uchi Mata]

My coach routinely does stuff in rolls that I'll ask him about and he'll have no idea what I'm talking about. He just did it because it was right in that situation. This happens to me sometimes as well, though typically I do recall how rolls went because I'm so egotistically self satisfied when I hit something pretty.

Probably the closest I've been to forgetting mechanics is being totally unable to describe how to do something to someone too new to have any context. I was trying recently to teach a white belt how to Tozi pass, and he just kept putting everything in the wrong place and I just could not find a way to effectively describe to him what he needed to do. I finally just gave up and told him that whenever he did it right by chance he'd feel it and probably not do it wrong after that, which is a pretty poor way to end a lesson but it's all I had.

 

[Cash Bill 52]

Yep... I love it when I randomly get asked to show a move and I start by saying “let me see... uhmmm,,,, so, I ... we’ll, I kind of....”
Eventually, I start waxing philosophical on fundamental concepts. Base, space/no space, posture, grips.
We’ve been working on omoplatas and I “made up”a new move. I’m sure somebody has done it before. I’ve just have never seen it.
So, yes, I forget stuff all the time.

 

[fanboysareevil]

No.

I'm a black belt. I do new/improvised stuff all the time. I remember all of it and can tell you why I did it in retrospect, even if I'm not consciously thinking about it at the time. I think people who just do without being able to explain are being at least a little bit lazy both intellectually and in terms of being goal oriented. You won't be able to recreate your improvisation and use it later/improve it if you don't recognize it and break it down later. I feel like I owe it to myself and people I teach to be able to explain what I am doing so that I can pass it on and/or improve it.

 

[Leify]

If I'm able to do something, it's pretty much a given that I can break it down and teach it.

The only exception is when I scramble. If I remember what exactly I did, I could show it, but the "why" of it all is wrapped up in what I felt in the moment. I could teach a guy to sprawl, but teaching someone how to have good hips or how to move well is a mystery, especially for teaching unathletic people.