Stubborn is Good

There are many different ways to acquire skills in the martial arts other than from instruction.  To illustrate by example, I was having difficulty, for some time, submitting one of my ‘stubborn’ blue belt grappling students (let’s call him Jim) who always defends himself by laying down as a corpse and clinging onto his lapels.  He can't do much from that position but at least he can survive.  So I gave it a shot at Rob’s BJJ school the other night.  It worked well until my opponent pulled a ‘rabbit out of a hat’ and I ended being choked out by the lapel of his Gi.

So you can guess what happened next when I was wrestling with Jim again.  With a sense of Déjà-Vu, Jim’s on his back again and I pulled the same ‘rabbit out of the hat’.  Now that’s what I call magic!

So learning can also be acquired from what other people do to you.  In this case I have learnt something and so has Jim.  I guess you can say it’s a ‘win, win’ situation.  We become very good at something and then, almost always, somebody finds a way to conquer it, which can be a good thing because it stimulates us to come up with something else. 

I wonder what Jim is going to come up with next.
GA