At the academy (in good old Mountain View) I’m most often the one that gets to teach the first day students. While some might consider it a chore (and sometimes it is), I actually relish the opportunity to work with the new students. After all, first impressions are the most important ones to make, and the tone set in that first class will often determine if a potential student will wind up signing up for the class in the long run.

I’ve got a pretty good system worked out when I teach the first class; I know exactly what to show and my speeches are well rehearsed. I start from the assumption that the student knows absolutely nothing about Jiu Jitsu, so I’ll begin by a very basic explanation of each position I’m going to show. (“This is the MOUNT position. It’s called a mount because….”)

Now, I don’t actually expect that everyone knows nothing about Jiu Jitsu, or that no one comes into that class without any kind of related skills or abilities, but for that first class it’s easiest to have everyone start from the same place, and then work from there. Obviously everyone brings something different to the table. Some students pick things up more quickly than others. Some are more athletically inclined. Some have some experience in grappling. Some are taller, faster, stronger, skinnier, heavier, or more flexible than the others. Yes every one of those students is an individual and has strengths and weaknesses, and a talented instructor will recognize this quickly and be able to adjust their teaching to the individual student accordingly.

That’s an obvious statement to anyone who has worked with a new student. What is less obvious is that those intrinsic strengths and weaknesses are going to present along the entire span of one’s Jiu Jitsu career. They may become less pronounced over time through hard work and the accumulation of technique, but those strengths and weakness remain and turn into preferences over time. An important exercise then, is to take stock of your abilities, and understand how they affect your progress and perception of Jiu Jitsu.


• Attributes vs. Skills

When assess one’s (including my own) abilities, I place things in two categories: for lack of a better term I’ll call them attributes and skills.

Attributes are abilities that are either instinctual or born with, we’ll call them God given or natural abilities. Strength, speed, flexibility, height, etc… are examples of attributes. Some of these can be trained or increased to a degree, but often they are abilities that one simply works around or with.

Skill on the other hand is learned abilities. There are a number of related abilities that one might enter Jiu Jitsu with, such as a background in judo, wrestling, or even traditional martial arts. Some of the best Jiu Jitsu artists I’ve seen are break-dancers, surfers or skateboarders. While some skills may play out in Jiu Jitsu more directly than others, a background in other arts can be an asset to one’s development in Jiu Jitsu.


• Attributes and Skills vs. Technique

Before going and further, it’s worth stating in big bold letters here that THERE IS NO SUBSITUTE FOR TECHNIQUE. No matter what you bring to the table, the important thing is to learn the technique correctly first, and then figure out how to apply your attribute or skills to enhance that technique. If you try to substitute technique with something else, you’re going to wind up in trouble. If you master a technique and then learn to use your abilities along with it, you’re going to be that much more dangerous.


• A Personal Story

As you might have guessed, with a nickname like Gumby I’m VERY flexible. I often (especially earlier in my career) would use my flexibility to get into and out of situations. I was often praised by others for being flexible as it was such a good thing. The truth of the matter is that my flexibility often held back my technique, because it allowed me to far more sloppy than what would have been allowed for most other people. In retrospect it puzzles me how I could be praised for using my flexibility, while others would be criticized for using too much strength, when in essence we were all allowing our attribute to override our technique.

This would come back to haunt me later on, as when opponents I was more or less even technical ability wise, my flexibility would give me an edge. That edge quickly disappeared when the difference in technical abilities became more pronounced. Against a skilled opponent no amount of flexibility I possessed would do more than stave off the inevitable.

This would also become a problem later on as I began to teach more. If my techniques were based on my above average flexibility, I would never be able to share them with everyone else. I had to take a hard look at my technique and first make sure I was doing things correctly in a way that could be explained and duplicated by anyone, and from there I could add my personal touches. I consider this revelation one of the milestones in the evolution of my personal game.


•A Further Look at Attributes

Strength, Flexibility and Speed: Although all of these are obviously different, I list all three of these together but because while each has obvious advantages for Jiu Jitsu (which I don’t feel the need to detail), each can potentially be a detriment if they are used as a substitute for technique, as opposed to an enhancement to technique.

The easiest way to determine if you’re using one of your attributes as a substitute for technique is to try to explain your technique to someone else. If you can’t explain a technique to someone else without relying on strength, flexibility, then your technique isn’t a good one. If on the other hand you can explain a technique correctly without talking about strength, flexibility or speed at first, and then show how those attributes can make the technique easier to accomplish, then you’ve become very dangerous.

Something else about strength, flexibility and speed: these are all attributes that can be improved upon. However, while all of these qualities are important, it cannot be emphasized enough that there is a substitute for technique. Improving your bench press is not going to make you better at Jiu Jitsu! Improving your technique will make you better at Jiu Jitsu!

Endurance: Endurance is probably the most easily trained physical attribute, and an hours on the mat over time will gradually improve this anyway. It’s often been said that nothing will