Hi all! Welcome to this week's dose of Dojo Discernments where I share nuggets of thought gleaned on the mats.
What I'm Watching
Tom Satterly - The Battle of Mogadishu "Black Hawk Down" 30th Anniversary | SRS #77 Part 2
I've been on a Delta kick lately. Nothing like stories of the world's premier fighting force to keep you sharp.
What Pace Should we go at?
This is a question that has come up for me. How much effort should we be putting into training, coaching, growing?
For me, I’ve resolved to this: Go at a pace you can sustain forever.
We can never tell how long the road will be, so we best buckle down for the long haul. Commit to giving your all- but in a way that allows you to continue for decades.
Belts Are Fake
I’ve only been promoting students for four short years. But in that time, one thing has become clear: belts don’t mean much outside of your own journey.
Blue belts tap black belts. Seventy-year-olds roll with twenty-five-year-olds. Sure, you can say every 10 years or 30 pounds is a belt, and that helps—but it’s still imprecise.
Belts are just a marker of realized potential, not some absolute standard.
So here’s the challenge: Realize your potential so fully that when the belt is donned, it feels like an afterthought—not the goal.
OODA Loop
Alright school circle.
We have to understand what the OODA loop is.
This single idea outperforms many theories on learning and applying Jiu-Jitsu. It’s how we build warfighters to fight wars and how we build grapplers to thrive in chaos.
OODA loop is an acronym that stands for Observe, Orientate, Decide, Act. In the mid-1950s, USAF Colonel John Boyd introduced the OODA loop framework for rapid situational awareness and decision-making under pressure.
All the technical instruction you've ever received in class, all the task-based games your coach has built for you, unknowingly or knowingly, has primed your OODA loop response system.
The game is 75% mental, 25% physical as defined by the OODA loop system itself. Observe → Orient → Decide → Act
Prime this ability.
Read your partner's stance, identify which of your favorite ties, positions, or guards are nearby, decide which one best fits the scenario, and execute- with savagery, relentlessness, and a sense of calm.
What's Happening
We are competing at 10th Planet Headquarters this Sunday! I would love to see y'all there!
Thank you for all the feedback and I am glad to hear you all are finding worth in these newsletters and instructionals! Let me know what you want to see next! The Library!
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