Create a three month challenge for yourself: Getting good at Jiu jitsu is mostly about building strong fundamentals and then developing a few favorite moves (the Japanese call them “Tokui-waza”) and then a collection of other moves that branch off those favorite moves. That is certainly an excellent approach and that should be were most of your focus goes. Nonetheless I'm sure there are some moves out there that you like but you feel you are simply awful at. I'll give you an example from my life. I was always terrible at knee pick takedowns. I felt good wrestlers use them occasionally on me and they felt really effective but whenever I tried them I would usually get tossed by uchi mata or lateral drop counters against anyone with good standing skills, so I dropped studying them. In 2003 the Freestyle Wrestling World Championships were held in Madison Square Garden New York City. A dear friend of mine got tickets and after training we walked from Renzos and went to watch the worlds best go head to head. It was an amazing event with super star athletes like Buvaisar Satiev, Yandro Quintana, Cael Sanderson, Daniel Cormier and many others. At one point in the early rounds one athlete hit a beautiful knee pick and I remember thinking – man…I have to try again – it's too good to just ignore. Back at the gym I tried hard to improve my application of it. For three months I tried different methods, entries, sets and finishes. One day I got into a single leg and failed – switched to a knee pick and nailed it!! I never got really strong at it – but I at least got competent at it to a level where I could surprise an opponent with it and score occasionally. Interestingly many years later my students Georges St Pierre and Gordon Ryan were able to use it to win some of their biggest matches – so as a coach learning more about had the double benefit of helping other people to use it successfully even if it was never one of my main moves. I'm sure you have a move like this. One that isn't your strongest but you're interested in it. Try studying it for three months and see what you can do. Perhaps it can become one of your back up weapons when your big guns aren't working
