Action and reaction

action and reaction: When you start jiu jitsu it seems there are so many moves to learn that when it's time for sparring you get locked into a mindset of move PERFORMANCE, that is, a desire to perform a move that you've selected as well as you can, come what may. There is no thought as to what your opponent is doing – only what you want to do. This is totally understandable when you're starting out, but at some point you'll want to get away from that and start paying attention to your opponents REACTIONS to your moves and use THAT as the basis of your technique selection rather than just arbitrarily selecting a move and trying to force an application of it against resistance. Just as a good conversationalist doesn't just talk his own thoughts, but rather LISTENS to the other person and talks in response to what he hears, so too, a good jiu jitsu player listens to the movements of his opponent second by second in response to his moves and responds. It takes two in jiu jitsu – make sure everything you do takes the other fellow into account