Pulling the Trigger

In Jiu Jitsu, failure shows you where to aim.
Take the single-leg takedown, for example. Maybe you can’t catch your partner — their arms are stiff, keeping you at bay. When you finally pull the trigger and shoot in, they sprawl on you. That failure isn’t a dead end; it’s a signpost. The path to skill in Jiu Jitsu demands that you acknowledge your failures and strengthen yourself in response to them.

My example isn’t random — I’m currently working to improve my own single leg. But the process of improvement, what I call pulling the trigger, applies to any weak point in Jiu Jitsu.

To pull the trigger, first you have to know what you’re aiming at — and failure tells you that. Whatever your goal, failure helps you take better aim. You might miss at first, but frequent trigger pulls bring you closer to the mark.

When I train the single leg, I start by visualizing what I want. I imagine myself doing it cleanly. Then, during practice, I run through a mental checklist:
Structure. Position. Angle. Timing. Go.
Different goals have different checklists, but what matters is that each step makes sense for what you’re trying to achieve. This particular one has wide application.

I check my structure: hips hinged, back straight, head lower than my partner’s, staggered stance, secondary hand as my feeler, primary hand as my shield.
I check my position: am I close enough to touch with my feeler?
Then my angle: am I too square to my partner?
If each box is ticked, it’s time to pull the trigger and shoot.

As I get closer to success, my partner sharpens their defense. That pushes us both forward — our techniques evolve through the contest. Every exchange reveals new setups and variations that lead to success. After all, there’s more than one way to skin a hog.

I also practice pulling the trigger solo. I’ll move around the mat, or even the park — anywhere I can train without looking like I’ve lost my mind. I’ll run five ten-minute rounds, drilling different moves while going through my checklist.

I even write my checklists down in notebooks. Maybe one day they’ll form a book.
Until then, I’ll keep pulling the trigger.