In Jiu jitsu you can FEEL failure before it happens – use this to your advantage: You spend a lot of time drilling moves – as a result you all know what a GOOD application of the move feels like. As such, when you are sparring and your application of the move is inadequate, you have a tactile sense of failure – it just FEELS wrong. Moreover, there is a time period from the beginning of the application to the onset of that sense of failure. As you fight to apply the move you can feel yourself coming up short of the ideal of the move you as you felt it in drilling. THIS IS A CRUCIAL MOMENT. Most people will feel the onset of failure, recognize it, and give up so they can start all over again. Instead, try hard to see this as an opportunity to make a renewed attack either with a re-application of the same move or a switch to a new move. Here, garry tonon has made a spirited attempt at an inside heel hook but you can clearly see his opponent has slipped his knee through Mr Tonon's knee line – this clearly signals the failure of the initial move. At this point your mind must start searching for follow up attacks. In a game where failure occurs over time and in which failure can be felt before it is fully manifest – you almost always have time to search for alternative follow ups if you just train your mind to do so.
