One adjustment at a time: understand something – there are certain fundamental techniques of Jiu Jitsu that you will be using every day of your training for the rest of your time in the sport. They constitute the very heart and soul of Jiu Jitsu. Moves such as the elbow escape, upa, knee slice pass, arm bar (juji gatame), triangle (sankaku) Kimura etc are so essential to the game that you must understand that mastery of them will be a lifetime endeavor. If you are still doing Jiu Jitsu twenty years from now – you will still be doing Arm bars, triangles and Kimura every day twenty years from now. As you progress, you will learn more about each and make small adjustments that hopefully will improve both your understanding and performance of these key fundamental moves. SOMETIMES A SINGLE NEW INSIGHT AND SUBSEQUENT ADJUSTMENT CAN YIELD VERY SIGNIFICANT IMPROVEMENTS IN PERFORMANCE. When you go to make new adjustments to old moves in your repertoire, try to make the adjustments ONE AT A TIME so that you can really focus on the adjustment and make it fit into your previous skill set. If you add five new elements to your arm bar at the same time it is difficult to do credit to all five. I prefer to add new details one at a time so I can focus on that aspect of improvement and maximize it. Remember always that you will be doing this move for the rest of your career – there is no rush. Once you feel you have maximized the value of the new adjustment, start work on the next. Let time work for you not against you. Here I am coaching two students through some arm bar work and focusing only upon the height of the knee of their cross face leg – this is a major adjustment that if done well, will significantly improve their connection to their opponent and much greater control of the head – two results that are TRULY WORTH the investment in time – one at a time – until it's mastered and we move on to the next
