Don’t doubt yourself in BJJ

Don’t doubt yourself in BJJ

Don’t doubt yourself in BJJ! Every time a move fails after a strong attempt there are two ways your mind can go. The first is to doubt your effectiveness and sense that you expended a lot of energy without result. This will make you reluctant to attack again since you’ve told yourself that your last attempt resulted in failure and fatigue. The second is to feel that you almost won and that your opponent will be much more nervous on the next exchange and that he burned a lot of energy defending himself and that if you try again this time you can succeed and thus you redouble your attacks. The same action and result can produce two very different psychological reactions. The first leads to increased timidity and withdrawal. The second to increased activity levels and offense. Make sure always you keep your mind directed in the positive direction that increases your activity and pushes you forward into the action of the match by controlling your inner dialogue after a setback or failure. As the old Stoics noted, your reaction to events is more important than the events themselves. This applies as much to Jiu-Jitsu as everything else in your life.