Steps 1, 2, 3, 4…

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We can break a technique down into various steps.

Step 1, you do this.

Step 2, you do that.

Step 3, you are ready for action.

Step 4, you complete executing your move.

This may sound too obvious, but in reality, it often doesn’t work like that. Your opponent would be resisting. You may not have secured and controlled some minor-but-important-enough elements, but the time is running out. And there are more transitionary steps between step each step.

You are likely to have a hard time if you are expecting things to work, just as in these simplified steps.

Some things are hard to verbalize. You must feel them and develop some intuitive understanding of how things really work when you execute them.

Unless you’re drilling with someone who understands what exactly you are drilling, it can be tricky, too because you may not be getting realistic reactions from your training partners.

One of the best ways to fill in these gaps between simplified steps is to do light/flow/slow sparring. In such sparring, you will be able to work on your moves in a semi-realistic condition without worrying so much about your partner being fully resistant to your attempts.

This way, you can observe what’s happening, finding new patterns and different possibilities.

These are all great sources for your growth because for a given technique, you will start being able to connect its step 1 with its step 2, and its step 2 with its step 3… and so on.

Once you got the hang of executing this technique, you can sharpen it by using it against a fully resisting partner.

Experiment and keep improving your techniques.