Over the last few years, I spent quite a bit of time studying hermeneutic and existential phenomenology, particularly following the writers such as Martin Heidegger, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and Max van Manen. Phenomenology begins in wonder, and ends in horizons of meaning.

The term horizon, following Edmund Husserl, the originator of phenomenology, can be seen as a “not yet” rather than a concrete understanding. The “not yet” is a possibility, a potential, always off in the distance even as we work to understand and make meaning of a given phenomenon.

I write all of this jargon to ask a question. What would Jiu-Jitsu look like from a phenomenological perspective?

In conversations with students, I often talk about how concepts, such as “where the head goes, the body follows,” open up possibilities, whereas specific techniques tend to isolate or close off other options. The reason this closing off occurs is that students will often mistake a particular version of a technique for the only way that technique can be applied. For instance, when a white belt learns an arm bar from guard and drills it repeatedly, he may not initially recognize the same technique from top mount. To an upper belt, an arm bar is an arm bar, no matter the position from which it is applied.

Furthering my wonder, how might a concept open up potential for the individual student’s personal interpretation of jiu-jitsu? If I, as a coach, prescribe a bunch of techniques as the only accepted way of doing Jiu-Jitsu, am I closing off future possibilities for my students?

I don’t mean that newer students don’t need a starting point or a foundation. This is why we have a fundamentals curriculum and drill basic movements. However, after the initial stage, which may be seen as akin to an alphabet or grammar, how can I help my students learn to write poetry without necessarily prescribing to them what their personal poem should look like?

Let me know what you think.

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