Topic
Michael 'Bolo' Jen is a BJJ blackbelt with a number of instructional videos and information. In March 2006 a thread started on mma.tv with some questions being asked of Bolo.
The question that started it all, and the one that addresses this topic, was from 'rsparks':
Any plans to put your systems on DVD? Are any of them on your existing DVDs?
Bolo's reply was interesting, basically stating that there were no plans to put any of the systems on DVD and that he'd retired from teaching in general:
No, I don't have any plans to put any of my systems on DVD. I have retired from teaching the general public and that included making any more instructional videos. And, no, my complete systems are not on any of my existing DVD's in that I figured out the concept of "systems" after I made those videos.
Quite a bit of discussion then went back and forth regarding systems and development of a BJJ game in general. The complete thread is well worth reading.
The general gist of things was that Bolo believes that it is better for one to develop their own system, learning how to overcome obstacles and develop their own techniques, rather than trying to copy techniques from videos or instructors.
In reply to some queries about developing your own system, Bolo had this to say:
…I can tell you exactly where you are going wrong with your training. You have the mentality of "you can be successful just with the basics", however, it is in the completely wrong direction. You get a bunch of videos and take lessons with various instructors in search of the those fine details to perfect your basics. The problem is that ever instructor has a different way of doing the basics, however, in your mind, you tend to think that there is one "perfect" way of doing it and you are in search of that way. With all your videos and lessons with various instructors, you have not gotten any closer to perfecting your basics because that single perfect way does not exist.
In addition, with all the details you have learned from various sources, you aren't improving in significant manner because you don't understand how to apply it in a dynamic situation. Why? Because there is no system. You are learning "perfect" technique in isolated static situations. What you have done is like a karate or kung fu guy who is trying to do the perfect kata yet wondering why they can't get that perfect kata to work in sparring.
Since you can't get all the perfect kata you have learned to work, you are now looking into the "mental approach". You are now going to the complete opposite end of the spectrum. So you are now looking into all the theories and principles that other higher level people are talking about. This stuff is nothing but fancy words for your situation. You may sit there and ponder the greatness of what some higher level person says, but you don't know how to turn that into practical application.
One other thing is that plagues your training group is a lack of training methodology. That is also a big reason why you have such a big gap between your "technique" and your "mental aspect".
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Let me describe what your average training session is probably like. You get there and grab someone to practice some techniques you saw on the latest video you got. You do some reps, but each training session you're probably throwing in a couple more things you saw in a video. Then some guys there want to practice some NHB. Maybe some other guy wants to mess around with sticks or takedowns. Then you say that you just want to roll. When you roll, you go 100% and all those techniques you learned in the videos or privates you took all went out the door as you play the same game that you have played for the past few years. Then you wonder why you can't get past a certain plateau in your skills.
If you want to improve, you need to cut all that crap out and completely restructure your training session.