Monday was my first day back to class now that my neck felt functional again.  During my down time I decided to put some thought into how my BJJ instructor had suggested I approach my practice.

I now will refer to this new approach as my KISD principle, or, Keep It Simple, Dude.

Previously, I invested my BJJ time in reviewing as many moves as I possibly could.  The down side of this is that I never took the time to really get solid on anything.  And so, nothing I’ve been doing up to now has been effective more than 40% of the time.  Well, even that estimate I think is pushing it.

After the class prior to this one, in my frustration, I approached my instructor (some days I feel the title ‘Guru’ is more appropriate) and asked him ‘what the hell is wrong with me?’ .  His response was to take it one thing at a time and work up from there.

So Monday I went in with the intention of seriously focusing on getting out of cross body.  It didn’t matter what else I did, as long as if I got cross bodied I was going to really put my attention on it.  Days before class I reviewed escapes from cross body shown in Saulo Ribiero’s ‘Jiu Jitsu University’, and ran through them over and over in my head feeling for where I was not feeling right.  It felt that I wasn’t bridging enough, and thus not creating enough space to move my legs.

So, to make a long story short, here is my notebook entry after class;

‘IT WORKED!!!  That was the missing link!  Every time I got cross bodied I was able to transition out just by bridging more. ‘

I can’t wait to practice this more.  Hmm.. Now what am I gonna add next to my foundation?  Doesn’t matter, as long as I Keep It Simple, Dude.