Pay Attention to These Things When You Drill New Moves

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When you learn new moves, you drill them.​

Once you have some ideas about these moves, you start using them in sparring so you can try them against fully resisting opponents.​

That’s how most of us learn new moves.​

In a training session, you are likely to drill techniques of the day, too.​

Depending on how complex the move is, you might get caught up in trying to remember what to do in each step.​

That’s absolutely OK in the beginning.​

But when people start getting comfortable enough with the new move they are drilling, they tend to do it mechanically and mindlessly. Again, if that’s the purpose of that particular drilling session, that’s absolutely fine.​

But even in such a case, it will be much better for you to pay attention to the mechanics of that move… namely how it works and why it works.​

If you are drilling leg drag, for example, instead of mindlessly dragging your partner’s leg over and over, try to think about what needs to be done for leg drag to work and how you could meet these needs. While drilling, try making small adjustments and experiment with different ways of doing leg drag.​

By paying attention to these things, you will get more out of your drilling session than when you drill the move mechanically without any thought. After all, you will be competing against a fully resisting opponent, not a grappling dummy in a real situation. Your move may not work as cleanly as you drilled it, but if you know the key points of this move, you are more likely to make it work.​

Use your training time effectively and improve your skills more efficiently.