Principle #8: Clock (the importance of controlling the TIMING in the fight)

Recommendation:  Watch "Principle #8: Clock" on GracieUniversity.com 

(Disclaimer: I am not being paid/sponsored in any way to promote "Gracie University". I have found their "The 32 Principles" videos incredibly beneficial and I hope you do too. It's not necessary to watch these videos to benefit from this blog.) 

Thoughts:

When I was in middle school, I remember having the timing of the school bells that rang for each hour down to the second! I could count down, and know when they would ring, and get a jump on getting into the hallway to my locker for my next set of books.

Now as an adult, I love good timing, especially when I'm driving. When I'm driving and making all the greens, and cruising along, it's a great feeling. But then my heart sinks when I hit a red light that breaks the momentum I had...

In our Jiu Jitsu, it's the same way with what is called the "Clock" principle. The idea is simple: you want to disrupt the timing of the fight in your favor. You don't want to be predictable in your movements, but either be SLOW or FAST, all to stay unpredictable to your opponent.

Sometimes it's as simple as thinking, "I know what you want to do, and I'm going to slow you down and mess your technique up!"

Or, sometimes it's more of moving quickly to take advantage of a sudden opening you have.

The bottom line is simple: You want to control the timing of the fight.

Sometimes you tap the brakes...sometimes you hit the gas pedal. But stay UNPREDICTABLE.

How does this apply to our faith in Christ?

The key part of this principle is this: you can't be successful in your Jiu Jitsu if you stay in "auto-pilot" mode.

Auto-pilot will crash your Jiu Jitsu!  Your opponent will take advantage of you being predictable, and they will be two steps ahead of you!

In the same way, being in auto-pilot mode will crash your spiritual life. 

I've experienced this more times than I'd like to admit.

Life gets you busy. You get in a rhythm. Things become routine. We LIKE routine. No, we LOVE routine.  And routine is not a bad thing!

But when you allow your heart, your passion, your focus, to drift into simply going through the motions, you'll one day find your heart cold, and feeling extremely distant from the Lord.

Maybe this is what Jesus is getting at when he tells the Christians at the church in Laodicea this: 

"I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm -- neither hot nor cold -- I am about to spit you out of my mouth." -Revelation 3:15-16

Now, let's put this in Jiu Jitsu terms and see if it hits home:

"I know your Jiu Jitsu, that you are neither SLOW or FAST. I wish you were either one or the other! (mix it up!). So, because you are PREDICTABLE (in auto-pilot mode) -- neither FAST or SLOW (mixing up the CLOCK) -- I am about to let you get pinned by life."

This has happened to me so many times! 

And this makes sense -- we are in a Jiu Jitsu match with the temptations of this world, our own ego, and the evil enemy of this world, the devil. We have three opponents -- we've got to stay on our "A game". 

Being PREDICTABLE and in auto-pilot mode will only let us get pinned by our opponent.

Let's mix it up -- put some worship on instead of watching NetFlix; spend a few more moments in Scripture; write down a Bible verse that hits home; do something for someone else as a way of being like Jesus to them, stop and just pray...

There are countless ways we can mix it up -- and keep the CLOCK in our favor. Let's stay focused -- routine is good, but let's not slip into auto-pilot mode where we think we've got no room for improvement in our walk with Jesus, our spiritual Jiu Jitsu.

Keep Rolling,

Brian