For anyone who is serious about improving their Jiu Jitsu, recording all your sessions in class is vital. Our gym at SBG Bury has camera holders throughout the ground floor mat and camera stands on the first floor mat. This is so that mistakes can be immediately identified and corrected, either by the coach or the student themselves. This is standard practice in Chess, a game that has been revolutionised by AI (Artificial Intelligence). Jiu Jitsu is often described as ‘Human Chess’. However, from a motor skills perspective there are 2 major areas in which Jiu Jitsu and Chess differ.
Firstly, on matters of timing; when to make a specific move; you cannot be too early or too late. This is true in chess as well, but its a much clearer differential compared to the IF, THEN, ELSE steps involved in both arts.
Secondly, and the video above explores this point, is that of weight distribution. Chess is a 2-D game. There is no gravity involved. This becomes particularly important as the configurations that appear in Jiu Jitsu can be identical aside from weight placement. This is largely non visual and must be conducted by ‘feel’.
However, it must be understood that while chess differs from Jiu Jitsu, Jiu Jitsu players can learn a great deal from chess by adopting the relentless recording of moves and difficulties and focusing on those areas. Few Jiu Jitsu players do this in truth. Most clubs have little formal process towards learning. They improve generally through a Darwinian survival of the fittest ‘moves’ led methodology. There is little if any personalisation and almost all learning takes place on the mat during sparring. This is a hugely wasted opportunity.