Your BJJ Catalog

I think I can speak for many white belts when I say that majority of us only come to class to spar afterward. In fact I think that many people, with the exception of newer white belts, only come for this very reason also. I have done about 60 or 70 classes so far in my BJJ life, and I can tell you that I only use about 0.5% of all the techniques that I have learned. The reason being is, there is no humanly way possible (unless you were the BJJ rainman) that you could remember all of that. Trying to process that much information, IMO, can lead to a really sloppy game. Here's an example: I'm sure many of you have been in a library, and I'm sure we all have asked for help once or twice. But never have I met a librarian that knew where every single book was located and could give you a basic summary of them all, along with a few memorable quotes. What I have seen is a librarian that knew the general vicinity of the book based on genre, and I bet she could tell you where her favorite books were located. You have to take that same approach to BJJ...you're not gonna learn every move, its impossible. You have to learn to catalog techniques and build your game off of what works for you. If you spent all your time trying to learn where every "book" is you would go nuts and probably quit jiu-jitsu. I think as white belts when we are first starting out, we can't expect to be well-rounded...what the fuck does that even mean as white belt??? We have to focus on the more manageable aspects of jiu-jitsu first and build from there. Learning to catalog techniques for later use (or no use) is important in this sport. Stay in one section of your library at a time, once you master one area...then move on to the next. I hope you guys enjoyed my rambling. Ciao!