S-curves and Improvement
When we learn things there is generally a process that everyone goes through and it can be expressed with an S-curve. At the beginning things seem hard and even though you're trying you aren't making a ton of progress then suddenly something clicks and you get better and better. Each time you do the technique your timing/feel improves and it feels like all the drilling you're doing is paying dividends. Then at some point you hit a plateau. You put in more and more practice, but it doesn't seem to do much. You feel like you're stuck. This isn't unique to you and isn't even unique to grappling. It happens with almost all skill development, from drawing to piano playing. This phenomenon can be expressed by an S-curve.
The X axis represents effort and the Y skill. There will be a point where you'll progress quickly and other time where improvement will come slowly or not at all. Different techniques will have different slopes, with some being almost linear and others being curvy and steep. People often get discouraged when they can't "get a technique" right away, but it's important to remember that its like this for everyone and everything. Just because a technique is hard now doesn't mean it will always be difficult for you. Also everyone will plateau at some point, so don't worry. When you put in the effort you will get better, but it's also important to be smart about training and don't sink lots of time into things that will give you diminishing returns.
Levels and Plateaus
In the previous post I went over levels and how to level up. When you level up, all you're doing is moving from the bottom to the top of the S-curve. The bottom of the curve might be "blue belt" level and the top is "purple belt" level. Naturally this means that the S-curves for the different levels are connected. Differences in experience, strength, size, flexibility, athleticism, experience, etc will make each person's set of S-curves different. On top of that each technique will have a different set of curves. Some techniques will be easy up until "purple belt" level and then it becomes very difficult to progress. Others might take tons of effort to go from white to blue, but then it becomes smooth sailing. This will depend on person factors, but it will also be directly influenced by the global level of the technique. If nobody at your gym knows about the technique and you can't find answers on the internet it might be hard to push that technique to the next stage. As I explained in the last post, if will be easier to improve a technique with a higher global level. I know there is a tendency to think that if a technique doesn't work for you immediately you should just give up on it, but that really isn't the case. Sometimes you just need to do a little research.
XP and Level Grinding
For those of you that play video games, you'll be familiar with this concept. By drilling and sparring you gain XP(experience points) which will propel you up that S-curve. Once you level up, to get to the next level you generally need twice the amount of experience points. As I said in the previous paragraph, this isn't always true, but generally each level will be harder than the pervious one. I'm assuming if you're reading this you want to improve your technique quickly. My advice to those who want to grind through these levels quickly is to follow 3 steps. Learn, drill, positionally spar. Seek out info on the technique you're trying to learn, drill it until you have the feel of it and then use it in positional sparring until you can hit it consistently. Once you've done that work it into your normal sparring. Once you feel yourself hitting a plateau go back out and seek more info about the technique or if it isn't available you'll have to be your own teacher.
Get off the Plateau
As I said the last post, to get off a plateau you generally need to learn something new(explicit knowledge). Most of the time when something stopped working or it won't work against certain belt levels, it is because there is a technical problem. Today there is a ton of info on the internet, but don't discount your own teacher and teammates. Some of them might have gone through the same thing and can not only offer advice, but provide feedback on what you're doing. Feedback is one of the most valuable things you can get from training. A DVD can give you all the info in the world, but you need confirmation if you're doing it correctly or not.
When info isn't available you'll have to look inside to find the answers and analyze the problem yourself. This is one of the more difficult things in grappling, however I've found this often gives you a novel and unique solution. The growth of grappling depends on people doing this and working out what they can do to make techniques work. This is where new techniques come from and it is here that the student can become the master. Once you have the solution, go back to the drilling and sparring to test it. If it works then start climbing up that S-curve again. You'll be at the next level before you know it.
Keep Grinding or Switch it up
The biggest implication for this is the fact that you always have a choice between continuing to practice an old technique or working on something new. Having 1 or 2 killer techniques is great, but if your opponent doesn't let you get to them it won't matter. On the other hand having a bunch of mediocre techniques won't be enough if someone blasts you with their championship level technique. At some point in your grappling journey you might also want to switch up your approach. If you're always doing the same moves, changing things up and trying new moves can make grappling fun again. On the other hand if you can't get anything going in your rolls, developing a "super move" can break you and your partners out of a rut. As I said before it generally takes more effort to level up the better you are at a move. The effort to get a black belt level move to championship level is most likely the same amount of effort to takes a new move from zero to black belt level. On the other hand adding a new move that is incongruous to your game isn't always the best strategy. Ultimately the choice is up to you, so choose wisely.
At the end of the day don't get discouraged if you don't "click" with a move right away or you feel like you aren't getting any better. It happens to everyone and if you know how to get over these plateaus and believe in the process you're skills will consistently improve.
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