Photo Credit: Doug Sparks

Three months ago at the seminar at OneWorld, Paul Schreiner mentioned how Roger and BJ Penn viewed the essence of jiu-jitsu as pass, mount, finish.  That was a new perspective for me at the time.  Since then, I have focused a lot of energy on that mindset.   The results have been outstanding.  I went from hanging out in side control without a plan, to building a game around the mount transition, resulting in 4 or 5 high percentage ways of mounting that I use very often.  I am a different player now, and all it took was a few months of focused attention.

Tonight as Dave watched me roll against one of my training partners, he commented that I should be "finishing people at least 3 times during a roll".  The essence of his comment is that I need to change my mindset - my mental game.  Not that I need to be "aggresive", but I must always look and pursue the attack more than I do.  I am training my mind as well as my body.

I have spent nearly all of my training time with a focus on position, and this seems like a good time to incorporate a new objective.  Until further notice, I will be working for the finish.  This means applying pressure to force the action.  This means threatening a finish whenever I have control.  This means starting to be very aware of any fleeting opportunity and capitalizing on it quickly - leaving no option for escape.  If my experiment from mount is any judge, I expect this new paradigm to take at least three months to set in fully.

I am excited to incorporate this mindset and see the changes it brings to my game.

Paul