If I Only Knew Then What I know Now

With our Battle on the Plains II tourney just around the corner and Jiu Jitsu's inaugural year at the Cornhusker State Games in the distant future I figured I would brush up on my score keeping. I plan on helping out with the tourneys as much as possible and if that means a slight chance at wearing a ref jersey for a few matches, then I want to look like I know what I am doing. So I jumped on my computer and gathered a bunch of matches I have shot over the last year or two and put them on a DVD. I took the disc into work with me today and watched about 6 matches over lunch break seeing if I could score points correctly. I must admit I was a bit sidetracked when I watched my matches though. I found myself laughing at my technique and thinking that if I had what is in my arsenal now, back then, I would have destroyed the guys I was up against. Obviously, these fighters have improved as well if they are still training, but it is the principle. I recall one match at the last Best of the Best I participated in where I barely squeaked out the victory to go to the championship match. After this match ended Conan had a puzzled look in his eye. He asked me about going for a sweep that was fairly routine. At the time though, my brain was on overload and I had no idea what sweep he was talking about. So we went over to the warm-up area and he showed me the sweep, which I kind of knew, but still kind of new to me. Either way, the sweep was now up there and Conan reminded me that if the circumstance presents itself in the championship match, I should use it. Well what do you know? The same set-up for that sweep comes during the match. Conan is yelling, "Go for the one we were just talking about. Do it, Aaron. Go for it. It is there." Oh crap! I can't remember. What was it again? About 30 seconds later the match is over with, and I am spent. If only I could have retained that little chunk of information, who knows.

It is funny though, because now I am still learning new things daily, but I feel like my capacity for retaining information is so much larger. Like getting a computer that had 4 Gig and swapping it out for one with 80 Gig. Same computer just more room. Watching everyone was enjoyable, seeing David K. and realizing how far he has come and how much more confident his game looks. Watching Aaron D. and noticing how his game has evolved as well. If you ever question yourself, if you hit that crossroads in your training or feel you are plateauing, I encourage you to look back on your previous matches if you have competed, or if you have been filmed during open mat, and see how far you have really come. You will find a renewed love of the sport. You may be like me and just feel embarrassed with how goofy you looked back then. I will probably say the same thing about my current technique in two more years!