Timing is a skill that requires development. It’s multifaceted, with different lenses to observe it through. You have to approach the skill of timing knowing that every advancement in your understanding opens the door to greater challenges and greater understanding. You can’t travel through time. You must experience it. Reflect on it. Use your observations to develop your growth and help shape the future.
This is Jiu Jitsu.
As a white belt, you were tasked with syncing the speed of movement with the speed of your mind. Here you can assess the moment, and prepare yourself for the next. The next moment is the moment of leverage. The point in which your sense of timing allows you advance your position before your opponent has the time to respond.
Their response adds complexity to your challenge. A battle for timing is not unilateral. This is an idea that requires parsing through, but bare with me, as this will come later.
For now you need to control the next moment. Doing this effectively is not a matter of speed. It’s a matter of future seeing. The future of your engagement is a product of your decisions. You can see into the future because your decisions and movement create it. When your game funnels your opponent into a narrow set of options you can be prepared for all of them.
Successful timing has a feeling.
For both you and your opponent. For you it feels like you executed your technique effortlessly. Everything fell into place, and here you are on the upside of a battle. To your opponent it feels like they are three steps behind. You are fast, reading into their mind, and they don’t know how to catch up. This dynamic is the power of timing. It’s the skill that amplifies your physical movement beyond battling asymmetrical Legos.
You need this skill. Here is your study guide.
Anticipation
As a blue belt you have been tasked with building games. As you progress through your blue belt experience these games will continue to become more complex. Your understanding of attack systems will develop and you will learn to recognize the games your opponents are playing. Here lies the power of anticipation.
When you have a sense of your opponents goals you can start to shut them down. Your opponent takes out one post, so you replace it with another. They grab your lapel with one hand, so you block the other hand. The more you can understand the steps and setups in a game, the more you can stay a step ahead of them. This controls the next moment, by stopping it from ever happening.
Setups
A setup is a movement that forces your opponent to respond in a way that benefits you. If you know that you can attack your opponent if they move left, you push them right and wait for them to respond. If you can attack your opponent when they put their hands on the mat, you push and pull into you get their hands on the mat. This is the setup. You are not waiting for your opponent to give you what you want, you are making them give you what you want.
A classic example of this is going for a hip bump sweep, knowing they will post with their hand, and then going for a triangle choke. It’s a very predictable response. You can initiate the hip bump with a strong level of confidence that you will get the triangle.
Dilemmas
A dilemma and a setup are similar and are terms often used interchangeably. Here I will define them slightly differently. A dilemma forces your opponent to choose their demise. You create a moment where no matter what your opponent chooses they will walk into an attack.
An example of this would be to initiate a scissor sweep from the collar/sleeve position. If your opponent can’t clear their elbow from your foot, they will be swept. If they pummel over your foot, they will be armbar’ed. If they pummel under your foot, they will be triangled. You setup the dilemma and then you let your opponent choose their preferred demise.
Sure, there is some conceptual overlap here with a setup. A dilemma is multi dimensional. A setup is linear. A setup is a forced response. A dilemma allows your opponent to choose, which puts you in a position to be patient and let the dilemma do the work.
Moving Forward
Future seeing is about predicting, creating, and taking advantage of what happens next. It’s about moving forward into time and space with more advantages in the next moment than your opponent. As you build your games, build your timing. They are integral components of each other. As the synergy of these two skills develop, your game will begin to accelerate.