9/7: DETAILS
Reflecting on my weekend in Vegas, as I always do after the World Master competition has concluded, I am constantly reminded of one thing: the details are supremely important in everything we do. This fact gets put under a glaring spotlight the higher the level you wish to perform at.
Recapping my last 4 appearances at this event, I lost a match by not holding a scoring position for 1 more second when I was in easy position to do so. I lost a match because I lost focus and gave up an advantage point with 15 seconds left. I lost a match because my body was just not in great shape heading into the event, and this weekend I probably lost a match due to one single bad hand position while in my opponent’s guard.
It’s personally very painful to revisit these losses because 3 of them could very easily have been wins and could have put me on the podium. For those of us that spend the time and money to travel to this event, there is no reward or feeling of accomplishment by simply participating. That feeling goes away after a couple competitions. There is only reward in winning. Winning at this level requires almost perfect execution of technique. If a mistake is made, it becomes increasingly difficult to correct with more experienced practitioners.
When you start learning any martial art, it’s hard enough to just learn the basic moves. Just getting the gross body motion down takes time. It’s an impossible task early on to understand the nuances of slightly different grips, or hand positions, or leg positions. To the new student, it all looks the same. However, if you want to progress as quickly as possible, focusing on the details is absolutely essential.
As instructors, we see this all the time. Students go through the motions but miss, or are unaware of important details. It is our job to correct those details as quickly as possible. Think about a basic sweep from guard. Your hands and feet have to go somewhere on your opponent. Whether you use good technique or sloppy technique, you are going through the motions. Why not focus on doing the technique as accurately as possible each and every time? Every time you do a technique you are reinforcing your body to do it the way you just did it. Do it poorly, and you are locking in poor technique. Do it well and deliberately, you are locking in improved performance.
Often times it’s hard to understand WHY a technique is done one way vs another. As a new student, you simply need to trust the instructors that they are showing you the best way they know how to do the techniques. Eventually, after many repetitions, a lot of the “why’s” will become self-evident, and you will start to understand how important the details are to execute great technique.
A great analogy I like to use regarding this is painting a room in your house. About 99% of the paint you put on the wall goes on with a roller, and if we stopped with that 99%, the room would still look like garbage because you would have missed cutting the paint in a straight line at the ceiling and the baseboards. It’s that last 1%, the tedious part, the hard part, that makes all the difference. In painting, about 50% of the effort goes into getting 99% of the paint on the wall, and the other 50% of the effort goes into getting that last 1% on the wall. Same thing when learning martial arts, and probably most everything else we learn in life. Don’t settle for 99%. Strive for 100%. At 99% completion, you may only still be half way to your goal.
