photo © fspyma
When we’re working with a partner, there are times when we hold onto a technique too long. It becomes the sole object of our intention. We have it in our minds that the goal is within our reach, so we form an argument and a standpoint and we insist.
When this happens, we don’t realize that often our partner has already changed the scenario. What that means is that we’re working in the past. Rather than change with the moment, we hold on too long and then feel ourselves to be behind, missing out.
The scramble to adjust, to catch up, makes us reactive. Our decision-making process is hobbled. Our old information doesn’t do the trick any longer.
There’s the wisdom of not holding on too long to a submission or a sweep, and there’s the wisdom to know when it’s time to let go of the past.
The process of letting go – freeing ourselves from the overriding obsessions that block life’s creative flow, whether it’s in the martial arts or our aging processor anything else – needs this wisdom to work. That has to be our focus if we really want to grow.
For more about our larger project of cooperative Jiu-Jitsu and martial arts training, please visit the
Brooklyn Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (Brooklyn BJJ) website here.
