Myopia

Don't get so caught up in what you want that you ignore better opportunities.

Myopia is technically a name for nearsightedness, but it's also an effective metaphor for stubbornly sticking to tactics that aren't working.

In the context of strategy, is a counterproductive mindset where you get so caught up in what you're trying to do that you ignore better options.

An example of myopia in Jiu-Jitsu is trying to force a submission when you'd be better off switching attacks or advancing position.

John Danaher posted about myopia on Facebook, so we'll leave it to him to explain it in his own words. The decisions to avoid paragraph breaks and RANDOMLY SWITCH TO ALL CAPS are his, not ours.

Myopia - one of the biggest problems I see developing submission grapplers run into is the problem of MYOPIA. We see an opportunity for a given submission hold and we lock ourselves into tunnel vision that only lets us see one possibility for attack. When you fight skilled opponents it is extremely unlikely that every attempt you make at a submission will succeed - on the contrary, the majority will fail. It is crucial therefore, that you develop early the habit of SEEING BEYOND THE INITIAL ATTACK AND ASK YOURSELF EVEN AS YOU ARE SOING YOUR UTMOST WITH THAT INITIAL ATTACK “WHAT WILL I MOVE ONTO IF THIS ATTACK SHOULD FAIL?” Only by training yourself to constantly ask this question and see beyond the move you are currently attempting can you make yourself move from attack to attack in combinations that even the toughest and most skilled opponents will struggle to keep up with. A WELL APPLIED SUBMISSION HOLD WILL NEVER BE AS DANGEROUS AS A WELL APPLIED SEQUENCE OF SUBMISSION HOLDS. Here, Craig Jones is working hard with a nice sequence of submissions beginning with an initial Kimura lock but can branch out easily towards both upper and lower body submissions. Your body already knows the submissions - now train your mind to see beyond the present one and on to the future ones. Once you replace myopia with long distance vision you will become a far more dangerous adversary to your opponents.

— John Danaher

Further study

• John Dahaner - Myopia