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As a Design Engineer, starting out on old fashioned drawing boards (yes, I really am that old), I was always taught to make sure all of my lines met at the corners. Attention to Detail was the common phrase yelled at every apprentice who failed to do this correctly. I had it drummed into me from an early age and it has stuck ever since. These past few weeks have served to highlight just how important Paying Attention to Detail is when we’re learning and growing.

I was recently privileged to attend a BJJ seminar with the legendary John B Will at my good friends Tony Terranova and Alan MacDonald’s Fighting Fit Martial Arts Academy.

Many things that John said during the seminar fired off ideas for articles, but one in particular jumped to the fore and following subsequent conversations with John, and with his permission, I have decided to pen these few words.

I’ve entitled this article, Pay Attention to Detail, but it was John’s explanation of Invisible Ju Jitsu that was the original seed.
The moment John suggested he was going to teach us some invisible techniques we were all a little concerned he may have fallen heavy once too often. Then it became clear. John wasn’t going to turn us into a room of David Blaine’s, and have us vanishing at will, in reality he was going to show us the very minute details in techniques that can have massive impact on their effectivity and performance.

This isn’t a technical article so I will leave it to you to go train with John or Tony and Alan to find these out for yourself. The importance of these tiny “tweaks” and subtle mechanical adjustments is the reason for this article.

John showed how simply re-positioning a hand through a few degrees could change the direction in which you roll, or throw or manoeuvre around your grounded opponent.
Tiny and minute detail that had massive effect.
Discrete changes to the direction in which you pull your hooks or grip your opponent made a massive difference to the level of control you have and the reduced risk of your opponent being able to break free.

What John also highlighted so eloquently was that often, even when being taught by extremely talented and experienced martial artists, you may still only be given the instruction on the gross and major chunks of a technique, being left to wonder why you can’t seem to get it to work as well as your instructor. And then being left to find these hidden secrets for yourself through many hours of practice and repetition.

Don’t get me wrong here – repetition is the key to success, and there can be no substitute for hard work and dedication to drilling a technique over and over until it becomes part of you. However, your progress can be greatly improved if you have the full knowledge of the technique and all it’s details before you embark on this endless journey of practice.

As John pointed out, when we first learn a technique we have a few words to describe it. However, as we practice, the technique evolves physically and may end up being different or having additional components within it that make it more potent. Unfortunately, often the words we use to describe it don’t move on as quickly or as thoroughly. Thus, when this instruction is passed on to a student, unless they watch extremely closely (ie, not via a small pc screen on youtube), they miss these fundamental details and so they become Invisible Techniques.

I went away thinking that, what he means is we have to watch as well as listen when we are being taught. We have to observe and Pay Attention to the Detail when we are under instruction if we want to get the hidden nuggets of information that will move us on more rapidly.

Over the past couple of weeks I’ve realised that there’s a little more to this lesson than even this.

The following week I was honoured to be part of a Rick Faye seminar, who had kindly offered his time to teach a group of CSP friends, organised predominantly by my good friend Mick Tully.
A totally different seminar was given but at an equally high standard and again, another 4 hours of top instruction was received by all.
The universe conspired again on this occasion and gave me a chance piece of information that tied in with my previous weeks Attention to Detail awakening.

Rick demonstrated some clinch work and some neat little grip breaks and releases, which at first glance seemed quite simple and fast to apply. For some reason however, it wasn’t quite so effective for some of the group as had been smoothly demonstrated by Rick himself. Rick then went on to highlight one or two key details, the simplest of things that made a massive difference to the end result. The tiniest movement of the thumb position resulted in one of the two most extreme outcomes, success or failure of the technique.

What was this? Another invisible technique that had just been shown to us – changing the potency of the technique from nil to win?

As if this wasn’t enough proof that Paying Attention to the Detail was an extremely important factor in your training, I will go on one further.

On Tuesday this week, I took my regular pilgrimage with my two great friends to train under Terry Barnett – one of the best and humblest guys I have ever met and we haven’t even started to mention his martial arts ability yet.
Whilst taking part in my first lesson (excuse the private joke there) of double stick, Terry pointed out a tiny adjustment to the grip I was using to perform a disarm. A subtle difference that had he not shown me, or better still, had he not known to show me, I would still have been struggling to get the stick out of my partners hand now. As soon as we made the adjustment we all immediately felt the difference – the effectivity of the technique shot up.

And so I draw to my conclusion.

In the space of 2 weeks I’ve been gifted with some of the world’s best instruction, yet again. More importantly, I’ve been given 3 great lessons on the importance of paying attention to the detail.
It is said, the Devil is in the detail, but so is the beauty.

To be told to look for the detail in a technique by instructors who can clearly perform them brilliantly, is fantastic instruction.
However, to be actually shown what those invisible techniques are by an instructor and to be coached on what differences they make is truly world class.

We can all do things well. The key is, do we always know to the last detail exactly what we do that makes them so effective and more importantly, can we pass that on to others.

Pay Attention to the Detail, because it’s the smallest details that make the biggest difference.

Until next time

Stay Safe and Have Fun

Al x

More articles to be uploaded soon