I came across this quote last night during my evening reading:

“Unlike other men, he was able to find pleasure in any job that he was given, but this was not simply because he was born poor.

Rather, he saw the work at hand as a preparation for the next task.

He was convinced that this was the way he would one day realize his ambitions.”

- Eiji Yoshikawa, “Taiko”

I thought about how much this is like Jiu Jitsu. So many people’s game develops in a poor way because they refuse to work on things they don’t enjoy.

Instead, we should find enjoyment in every aspect of grappling - standup, guard, passing, submissions, escapes, leglocks - because each piece weaves a beautiful tapestry.

Every small thing we pick up on the road may be the turning point between victory and defeat.

Find pleasure in every task.

Jiu Jitsu has been appropriately compared to the old card game “War.”

If my opponent has a similar ability level, and each card is a technique and every card played on top a response, the individual with the most cards to play in rapid succession will likely win the exchange.

This doesn’t mean we need to know every single technique in the book - that’s not possible.

It means we need to map out “our” Jiu Jitsu and know the routes and likely responses we are going to run into on the way to our desired outcome.

This way, we can study those responses, and add new techniques to our “stack of cards” to answer them, and attain the victory.

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I strongly suggest you keep a notebook that provides a visual representation of this map.

For example, you might have a page that reads “closed guard.” On it, there may be routes and technique chains to go to other positions, submissions, and sweeps, all with their own “answers” to common responses.

Even with the closed guard, there might be subcategories such as “arm drag” or “overhook/underhook position” etc with associated techniques and “reactions” that we have tactics to defeat.

You’ll forget more Jiu Jitsu in 5 years than you ever thought possible.

These route maps allow you to easily refresh yourself on positional options that take you where you want to go: straight into your strongest finishes and most dominant positions.

I use rectangles and capital letters to indicate positions.

Circles are “responses”/common answers people will jam you up with

Plain text is maneuvers/techniques etc.

You can see how from the arm drag alone you have a wide variety of responses as well as answers to those responses.

These are only “single stacks” but each chain can also be added to or “deepened” depending on where you want to go.

If you’re a visual person like me, these mental maps help immensely to center me and give me focus from specific positions.

From here, each “rectangle” gets its own page and so on.

Morning prayers at the temple, shrouded in mist.

4 hours of work with Devotion co-founders Matthias and Paul back on the mats together ~ right into Circle of Honor. Enjoy.

4 years ago to the day.

Prepping the space for the first Devotion temple.

This all started in the back left corner with a few wrestling mats thrown down as we worked on the space, with our first coach, Ben, a Franjinha/Paragon black belt.

Good memories.

Miss that place, but even more grateful for the current one.

Back issues of Devotion Magazine are now available on our website as a digital download!

GO HERE

Seth on a podcast a while back…what kind of bullshit are you telling yourself?

Go train!

Devotion blue belt Seth with a nice sweep and Con Air choke setup and finish.

He’s getting his final days of training in before he goes to compete at Worlds - looking calm and focused.

Who else is heading to Worlds?

A quick look at our breakfast session on Wednesday.

The energy in the temple is good right now, everyone is loose and having fun.

A great place to be ahead of the biggest competition of the year.

Breakfast at the temple

Doesn’t feel good to come up short, but Devotion co-founder Matthias with some strong words for the crew today.

Exciting mail day at Devotion HQ Offices