The concepts surrounding timing in Jiu Jitsu can be elusive. For years, I heard about the importance of timing with no further explanation. I suppose when the time was right, the time would come. In this timing series I have taken on the task of explaining what timing is and outlining the skills you should be focusing on throughout your journey to develop a high level timing game. If you skipped a few steps, take some time to catch up:
And here you are. You have navigated through years of development. Your timing skills now allow you to fiddle with the foundations of your opponent’s game. It’s time to consider the next stage of your development. What will take you from brown to black?
When you were a white belt, I made some accusations. You were thinking slow. Your goal was to figure out how to slow down the exchange and simplify your thought process so that you did not get overwhelmed. Now, on the far side of lots of experience, you are tasked with a different goal: thinking fast.
Thinking Fast
Where is your opponent moving? What game are they playing? What attacks, sweeps, or escapes are they attempting to deploy? As a brown belt, you should be assessing this with relative ease. You know the game. At this point, you should no longer be thinking about what you are doing, and you should be thinking about what your opponent is doing.
"The more you know, the less you use. To use less, you need to know more." - Jean Jacques Machado
Lack of Jiu Jitsu knowledge is overcome by lots of action. If you are unsure, you fight until you are sure. When you have clarity on where you are, what your opponent is doing, and what your options are, you don’t need lots of action. You only need the exact action required for the moment. This is simply Machado’s words restated, but it’s important to the point.
Knowing and assessing is thinking. At the highest levels, Jiu Jitsu is a game of thought. You need to think faster than your opponent can move. You need to think faster than your opponent thinks. Being a step ahead isn’t about moving faster, it’s about making decisions faster.
You have spent years developing techniques, games, and strategies. Now you must trust yourself. Let your body move in the background as your mind leads the way.
Thinking Practice
You drill your body to improve your results. You must also drill your Jiu Jitsu brain. Thinking faster is about having a clear understanding of your goals and your decision trees. The good news is you don’t need to be on the mats to practice this. At any time you can engage in a running dialogue with yourself about what your options are in an exchange.
What should you be talking to yourself about?
Where do you keep finding yourself? New students should focus on techniques, typically related to positional advancements, in the places they keep finding themselves. Experienced students of the game should focus on thinking through the places they keep finding themselves. The more you work through this off the mat, the faster it will come to you on the mat.
By now, your body has taken some mileage. You are no stranger to pushing your body, but your body has limits. You have to play a mental game. Mental practice. Mental strategy. Mental speed. If you are always thinking a step ahead of your opponent, you will always be ahead of their decision tree. This is the key to dominating the timing game at a high level.
As a brown belt a couple of years in, I still feel very far from this stage but you’ve given me food for thought and I will now try to shift my focus from what I’m doing to what my opponent is doing. I think that could be just what I need!