Can You Win Practice?

Winning is fun, but practice is where you can take chances, work on difficult positions, and learn something whether the round goes your way or not.

I hear it a lot.

“Coach, I beat so-and-so today!”

That's great, but...

What did you do?

Did you hit the sweep we've been working on? Did you escape from a position that used to give you trouble? Did you try something new, even if it didn't work?

Or did you just make sure you won?

It's fun to get a submission. It's exciting when you finally get the better of someone who usually gives you trouble. Sometimes you have a really good round and can't wait to tell me about it.

You should be proud when your jiu jitsu works.

But practice is a strange place to worry too much about winning.

There are no medals at the end of class. Nobody is updating your record. Tomorrow, we all come back and start again.

And that's what makes practice useful.

You could spend every round fighting as hard as you can to stay on top. You might have a great day. You might even win every round.

But when practice is over, are you any better at escaping?

Sometimes getting better means going somewhere you're not as comfortable.

Maybe you try the new sweep we learned and it doesn't work. Your partner passes your guard.

Now you have to practice getting your guard back.

Maybe that doesn't work either, and you end up mounted.

Now you have to escape mount.

You might eventually get tapped.

That doesn't sound much like winning.

It does sound a lot like practicing jiu jitsu.

If you decide to compete, you're going to try to win. You probably won't choose the middle of a tournament match to test a move you've never tried before.

That's one of the reasons we practice.

This is where you get to experiment.

You can try the move that still feels a little awkward. You can work from a position that gives you trouble. You can take a chance and find out what happens.

Sometimes it will work.

Sometimes it won't.

Either way, you learned something you can use the next time.

You can have great rounds. You can get submissions. You can escape bad positions and pull off moves you've been practicing for weeks.

Those things are worth being excited about.

But you can also have a round where almost nothing goes your way and still have a pretty great practice.

So the next time you run over to tell me,

“Coach, I beat so-and-so today!”

I'll still be happy for you.

But don't be surprised if I have another question.

“What did you learn?”