Brazillian Jiu Jitsu is a very interesting martial art. It is one of the few martial arts where live sparring is part of the training. Because it is primarily grappling, you can train at or near full intensity and usually avoid injuring your training partner.

Many of the skills of Brazilian Jiu Jistsu are simple. Broken down into the component parts, it is gripping the lapel of the gi, minor shifts of weight allowing the momentum of the oppenent to carry themselves into the next position, pushing and pulling. These are simple, easy to learn mechanical skills. These things don’t change. Human beings typically have two arms, two legs, a torso and a head. Their joints work the same way and their circulatory systems work the same way. I can attack a joint I can cut off the blood flow to the brain the same way on any human body.

I have the mechanical skill of performinga  shoulder lock, the omoplata. Being able to do the steps in the proper order requires repitition. Having a coach to correct errors as you go helps speed up the process but you still have to entrain the nervous system to build the neural pathways in order for you to do the task with as little thought as brushing your teeth. The only way to do that is through laborious repitition of the task.

 

Other skills are very difficult  to “teach” in the sense that the way the person does the task is going to be depended on the temperment of the person, the specific details of the situation, the other people involved and so forth. These are conceptual skills. You can understand the concept, the person teaching you the concept can demonstrate the concept but in order to learn the concept, you must employ the actual skill in a real environment. In BJJ, the majority of your time is spent drilling the mechanical skill of the techniques but then you must be able to demonstrate your ability to perform the technique on a resisting opponent and that is whole different thing. The mechanical performance of the task is the same, the shoulder always works like a shoulder but this is where the creativity comes in. You have to put your opponent into a position where they are unable to defend against your attack. You can brute force your way into it but in jiu jitsu, that doesn’t work with anyone that’s been training for longer than a year.

To achieve a black belt it takes about 10 years and very few people manage it. What makes a black belt is not only the mechanical skills. It is the combination of mechanical and conceptual skills. It is understanding your position, your opponents position and then applying the appropriate technique, with the correct technique, at precisely the right moment and doing it instinctively. That instinct is what takes so long to achieve.

Here is a video of the highest level black belts applying the omoplata in actual matches.

 

What does this have to do with gaming or game mastering?

Answer: It is easy learn the mechanical parts of game mastering; how to build an encounter, how to draw a map, how to design an NPC. These things are spelled out in a number of places. Often with a paint by the numbers set of steps.

The conceptual part of game mastering, building the instincts and learning to trust them requires lots of practice. Knowing that the thing you need right at this moment in your game is an encounter with druid hunting a pack of wargs is much harder to teach and takes a lot of time to build. It can be taught but we don’t often have a coach or teacher to help us. Most of us have to teach ourselves or learn by watching someone else. It would be good if we can cut down the learning curve and make it a quicker process.

I’m not entirely sure how to do that effectively. It is a thing I’ve been thinking about a lot lately.