08/15/2026
Sometimes I cannot get the grip I should have for a specific move in jiu jitsu.
When that happens, I occasionally make what seems like a reasonable decision.
“Well, I’ll just try to do the move without it.”
A few seconds later, I am lying on my back in mount while my training partner asks how I ended up there.
Fair question.
I knew where the grip was supposed to go. Maybe the problem wasn’t that I could not get it. Maybe the problem was that I did not understand what it was supposed to do.
The grip may have been controlling my training partner’s posture, protecting my balance, or preventing them from posting on the mat.
When I continued without it, I did not simply skip a step. I removed one of the conditions that made the rest of the movement possible.
That does not mean I needed that exact grip. Another grip, a change in body position, or a different angle may have solved the same problem.
The better question is:
“What job was that grip doing?”
Trying the move without it may be exactly how I discover the answer.
People rarely forget what they discover for themselves.
Especially when the discovery ends with someone sitting on their chest.
You might even make the move work by pulling harder and squeezing tighter. But sometimes strength can keep a bad idea alive long enough to make it look like a good one.
Sometimes bad ideas deserve a second chance.
Don’t come crying to me, though, when it doesn’t work a third, fourth, or tenth time.
That’s just stubbornness.
