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Feb
24
Transition, Submission (Day 8)
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I’ve read Josh Waitzkin’s The Art of Learning; if you haven’t, you should. Waitzkin was the young chess phenom whose life the book and subsequent movie Searching for Bobby Fischer chronicled.
In his book, Waitzkin talks about creating chaos on the chessboard, “I thrived under adversity. My style was to make the game complex and then work my way through the chaos. When the position was wild, I had huge confidence.”
This idea reminds me of Jean Jacques Machado and even Marcello Garcia–guys who attack from transition.
A tenet of jiu-jitsu is transition, position, submission. You are taught to get and control position before you attempt a submission, but Machado and Garcia create chaos by attacking during movement. They’re doing what Waitzkin did, they’re creating chaos, making the position “wild,” and working their way through it–seeing submissions in the transition. It’s a beautiful thing to watch; it’s a sign of simplicity and efficiency, and it’s truly masterful.
