What do we all want to accomplish during our training sessions? Put simply, our goal in each session is to improve our skills. We must train in a way that serves to improve us in the greatest way. This means that we also must do what is necessary to avoid those things that keep us from improving. the greatest obstacle to improvement that I see wherever I go is the attempt to uphold the ego's desire for status.

We all want to be respected. That is sure. We often go about this in the wrong way, in a way that is detrimental to our improvement. The most blatant example of this is a "disease" known as Black Belt Syndrome. A person trains for years and years, doing what he or she must to improve. Then the day comes that they are awarded the black belt. Something happens. The person now has a black belt reputation to live up to. The person that yesterday could spar with anyone today is apprehensive. "If I spar with a brown belt and he beats me , then what? What will people say?" It may not be actually verbalized, but this is what is running deep within the mind.

This happens in every style. I have a good friend who earned his black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu with the Machado brothers after ten years of rigorous, consistent training. His is very, very good. Guess what happened? he said that he didn't train for three months! He said that somewhere inside, he felt like he couldn't live up to the standard. he was afraid of being swept by a blue-belt or tapped out by a brown belt. He told me this story to illustrate how one can get side tracked by the ego.

What can we do to keep this disease from infecting our training? By getting rid of the false notion that more experienced students and instructors are infallible. Let's make this perfectly clear. THERE IS NO SHAME IN GETTING PUNCHED, KICKED, THROWN, OR SUBMITTED IN CLASS!!! we don't want these things to happen, but they do and it is one of the best learning tools.

When we train, we train. We do our best. If you want to really be able to fight, you must practice sparring. If you practice sparring correctly, you are going to get punched, kicked, taken down and submitted. That is the way it is and it is no problem as long as we all play safely, taking care of our partners. It should be a good time. How does a person get to the point to where it is very difficult to submit them? By being submitted hundreds of times. How does a wrestler get to where he can avoid the takedown most time? By being taken down in sparring hundreds of times. Each time your partner effectively applies a technique against you, your body makes an adjustment. Next session, even if you can't feel the difference, it will be a little harder for your partner to apply that technique. If you keep playing consistently over time, you will eventually get to where you are rarely submitted, but you will never get there unless you spend time getting submitted.

Let's say that you reach a level where you are the one applying the techniques to your partners. this is where your ego can play against you if you are not careful. If you start to feel that you must uphold the notion that you are an "advanced" student, you won't try new things. Let's say you learned a new technique for escaping side control, but it means giving your back in the process. Let's say you aren't comfortable giving your back, because you are afraid that you may be choked. When it is time to grapple in class, you have a choice. Try the new move until you get good at it, which means you will probably get choked about fifty times before it feels comfortable, or skip it and stick with your best game, so that nobody sees you tapping. If the goal in each class is to improve, then the correct thing to do is to try that new move, get choked repeatedly for the next month, until you can use it. You will never get the move unless you spar it and you will never spar it if your ego get inflated.

In JKDU, there is never any shame in sparring. If you are sparring, you are improving. We don't want anyone to ever be afraid of "looking bad". Especially instructors. If I see an instructor in a bad situation on the mat, I am happy. I know that person is improving. They could avoid the bad situation all together by not sparring, but that is not what we are about at JKDU. Train smart and be sure to put yourself in those uncomfortable situations. It is the only way that you will become comfortable.