After class, I had a conversation with one of my students, a white belt student, and he told me how he was glad that he attended class.

I asked, “Why wouldn’t you have attended class?”

And he said, “Well, it was lesson number six, and I’ve already seen this three times. So I was wondering if I was even gonna get anything out of it.”

And I looked at him and I said, “Of course you’d get something out of it. How many times do you think I’ve taken this class? How many times do you think I’ve taught this class? And I still learn new things. Half the time I take privates, it’s to go over the basics.” I told him that after all this time of training, I’m only now confident enough to say that I’m kind of OK at the trap and roll mount escape¹.

To think that you can master a technique in three classes, it’s a little bit arrogant or maybe a little bit ignorant. This early, you don’t know what you don’t know. So you just have to keep coming to class, even if you think it’s gonna be boring or it’s not the most exciting class, or you think you know the technique.

The funny thing is, sometimes you’ll hear something said as the technique is taught. And it’s something you’ve heard 10 times, 50 times, 100 times. But that 101st time that it’s said, it lands differently because you’ve had a hundred times of hearing it or practicing it. Now you’re gonna see something in a different way.

So don’t ever think you’ve mastered anything. Maybe if you’re the inventor of some technique, you can say that you don’t need to practice that anymore. But if you’re a white belt, you really don’t have the right to be bored.