The Tidbit (May 18, 2021)
Current Musing
Last week, I explored developing a greater appreciation of jiu jitsu. Today, I’m sending the promised follow up to those impressions.
Showing appreciation openly and specifically 📣
I’m getting a lot better at doing this in person, as opposed to only virtually. I find myself noting things that people have done well during training, and that in turn helps me stay less emotional about my supposed shortfalls. I’ve found that giving people compliments and appreciation makes the end of class more enjoyable, and as such, encodes my memory to believe that next class will be just as enjoyable.
Setting intentions before class 🧠
I set more concrete intentions involving specific techniques that I wanted to pull off during training. This has helped me identify the points where I become stuck during a roll. My appreciation for the training time has increased because I get to see those areas as places where I have gathered more data (rather than simply “failing”).
Reflecting on training 📔
I continue to keep 3 journals for life and training. One is focused specifically on how I felt during training; one is for technique notes; one is for general musings. This qualitative way of reflecting continues to allow me to see changes from day to day when I look back on the entries.
I am less impressed by my WHOOP strap, which consistently calls my training “active recovery” when my heart rate runs low over a class period. As such, I’ve swapped it out with my Apple watch, which still tracks the same data, but does not have the commentary. It’s clear that data helps me make decisions about my training, but does not increase appreciation of the process.
Sharing my experience around training:📱
I continue to prefer private sharing of my experience to people who I feel like would give me productive comments. I personally am no longer a fan of sharing my difficult experiences in training or competition, because I would like to sort out those feelings for myself first. Also, it is confusing to get “likes” for your struggles.
