Mini Ep. 98: Shuhari

Speaker 1: Hey everybody, before we get started this week, I just want to let you know, we released a new mindset course featuring Rob Bernaki from Island Top Team and BJJ Concepts. It's called Mindset for Betas. It's an amazing resource that breaks down a new way to build a resilient jiu-jitsu mindset. It's part of BJJ Mental Models Premium. I will spare you the full sales pitch because you can try it for free. Just go to BJJmentalmodels.com/beta. I will give you a free month, you can check out the course and if you decide that it's not worth your money, you can cancel, you won't have to pay a cent. I've already been told by subscribers that this is the most valuable piece of jiu-jitsu content they've ever received, so I hope you like it too. Speaker 1: Hey everybody, welcome to BJJ Mental Models. I am Steve Kwan and BJJ Mental Models is your guide to a conceptual and intelligent jiu-jitsu approach. And in this week's mini episode, we're going to learn some Japanese. That's right, John Danaher isn't the only person who can do this. We're going to talk about some concepts from the traditional martial arts. Particularly, we're going to talk about a really cool concept called Shuhari. Now, I first learned about this from the excellent Walking with the Tengu podcast. Shuhari is a Japanese word that is comprised of three different words, the word Shu, Ha, and Ri. That's Shuhari. And what those three words mean are roughly imitate, break from tradition, and innovate. So this is a theoretical framework for learning. Shuhari tells us that the learning journey can be broken down into three phases. The first is to protect or obey, and that's Shu. This describes the early phase of one's training. And this is where you're basically copying what the instructor shows you. When you are at the beginning of your journey, when you are a white belt, it makes the most sense to just listen to your instructor and listen to people who know what they're talking about. At this point in your journey, you're probably not in any position to be questioning things or trying to poke holes in your instructor's knowledge. This is where you're better off just trying to duplicate what's already been done. Think of a baby. When you're trying to teach a baby a language, you don't start with complex concepts. You get them to just copy what you're doing. You give them basic sounds to start them off and then you build from there. You don't sit them down and introduce them to the rules of grammar right away. You start with mimicry. That's the basis for teaching a rote beginner. And that's not just true in language, that's also true in martial arts. So when you are a beginner, you are in the Shu phase of learning. That is where you are best suited obeying and copying the people who have come before you and just trying to duplicate their knowledge. This is basically to get familiarity and to get the reps in. Then at some point in your journey, and where that is is going to vary, but let's just say for argument's sake, we're talking about blue or purple belt in jiu-jitsu, you reach the next phase, the Ha phase, which is where you detach or digress from the training. This is where you have enough prior knowledge that you can start questioning the learnings. You can start asking about whether what your instructor is doing is really the best solution for you. Maybe it works for them, but maybe it's not a universal way to do things. Maybe there's better options for you. You can start questioning the knowledge that's given to you. This is where you start breaking from the traditions that were provided to you. And that's kind of the sign of transitioning from being a beginner to being someone who's more advanced. You start questioning the teachings that are given to you. And this is definitely behavior that you will see with purple and blue belts, and if you are a black belt, you know what I'm talking about. And then the final stage of the learning journey is Ri, which means to leave or to separate. And this is the sign of true mastery. This is where you start branching off and creating your own path. You do things that make sense for you. You create your own pathway in the sport, your own way of doing things, your own flavor of the art. And the funny thing is that might fly completely in the face of what is considered to be good technique. Think of boxing. When you start as a boxer, the advice you were given at the beginning is, keep your chin down, keep your hands up. That's part of the Shu phase. You're just being given good advice that makes sense for someone who doesn't know what they're doing. But as you progress, you might start developing your own style. You might develop your own strategy, and you might realize there are times when it makes sense to do things like drop your hands. Maybe you're trying to bait your opponent into something. And that's when the element of strategy comes into play and you can start creating your own style. Think of Anderson Silva or Muhammad Ali, people who famously would drop their hands, which is considered terrible advice. But I don't think anyone would tell Muhammad Ali or Anderson Silva that they don't know what they're doing. So this is an example of the final phase of mastery, the Ri phase, which is where you leave and separate from the teachings that were given to you and create your own path. And that path might fly in the face of conventional wisdom. You might be doing things that aren't what you're supposed to do according to the teachings, but if you can make them work, when you are a master, you can start creating your own flavor of the sport. So the three phases again are Shu, which is effectively where you copy what your instructor says, Ha, where you start to branch off, and Ri, where you leave and define your own path. This is helpful in jiu-jitsu because if you understand where you are in the Shuhari journey, you can better understand how you should respond to more experienced grapplers giving you advice. At the Shu stage, it makes sense to just listen. But once you start getting to the point where you feel like you've got a fluent game, you can start asking difficult questions. And then by the time you get to the Ri level, the mastery level, you can start defining your own path. Where you encounter issues is if you get this mixed up and you start trying to depart and create your own path at white belt level. Or if you're a black belt and you're still just copying what people are telling you. This means you haven't really followed the Shuhari pattern. You haven't diverged from just copying the lessons before you and creating your own flavor of jiu-jitsu. Now, Shuhari is a theoretical framework. This is not something that is proven to the best of my knowledge, but it's a really helpful thinking tool, as are many lessons that we can pull from the traditional martial arts. They get a bad rap because they're not always the most effective when it comes to realistic combat, but they are still movement practices that require skill. And in any practice that requires skill, the way that we learn it is repeatable. And Shuhari is a great way to think about where you are on the learning journey and how you should be acting at that phase of the journey. You can get more like this at BJJmentalmodels.com. There's many more mini episodes like this, plus full length episodes. And please do consider checking out BJJ Mental Models Premium if you haven't already. It's the world's largest audio library of jiu-jitsu master classes on strategy, concepts, tactics, philosophy, and mindset. It is the audible and master class of jiu-jitsu and your first week is free. Check that out and all of the free stuff as well at BJJmentalmodels.com. Thank you so much for listening and I'll talk to you soon.