It can be difficult to feel like you’re improving in BJJ if you only have a limited amount of time training in the sport, so it’s important to make sure that you get the most out of your time on the mats. Although more mat time is always going to help speed up your rate of improvement, the truth is that not all mat time is created equal. It’s very common to see people with less time available to train manage to outgrow people training more frequently, and that’s because they’re using their time more effectively. That is an important first step when learning BJJ that will make the rest of your journey in the sport significantly easier.
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How To Get The Most Out Of Your Time Training BJJ
Learning compounds over time, and keeping each of these principles in mind every single time you step on the mats will help you to get the most out of each individual experience. Doing them over just a few sessions a week over the course of months or even years, that means that you can get significantly better than you would have otherwise. Even if you do have all the time in the world to do BJJ, it makes perfect sense to make sure that you get the absolute most of that training time and progress even quicker again. After all, your fellow competitors will all be training just as much as you and getting more out of that time might just be the thing you need to overtake them.
Train To Learn, Not To Win
The older mentality was always to train as hard as possible in every round and although this undoubtedly builds a high level of cardio and some great mental toughness, it’s not optimal for skill acquisition. It’s very hard to create an effective learning environment if your main focus is beating your partner, rather than getting better. You shouldn’t really be concerned with how well you perform in training in terms of wins and losses, but you should be focused on how well you perform in terms of technical execution. Attempting a new sweep ten times and getting passed every time before finally landing it at the end of the hour is a successful training session. Submitting everyone you roll with for an hour isn’t any indication of whether the training session has actually been successful or not.
Always Train With A Purpose
It’s very easy to end up going through the motions in training, showing up every day to drill the technique and then have fun sparring. There’s nothing wrong with enjoying doing this either, thousands of people do BJJ this way, it’s just not actually making the most out of your time training. Instead, ever training session should be seen as opportunity to improve at a specific thing, whether that’s a single sweep or the overall concepts around playing a certain guard doesn’t actually matter. What matters is that you have a goal in mind when you step on the mats and the session is focused around achieving that goal, so that when you leave you can evaluate what went right or wrong.
Develop Each Area At A Time
It’s important to be patient when working on specific areas of your BJJ game in order to get the most out of your training. It might not take too long to get somewhat competent at a specific sweep, but it’s going to take a long time to incorporate that sweep into a wider chain of attacks. Rather than learning a hip-bump sweep and then deciding to learn armbars from mount directly afterward, use that initial sweep to build outward. Learn what reactions your partners might give you when defending the sweep, and what attacks work well off those reactions. This gives you an entire area of proficiency and an actual attacking sequence, rather than a series of disconnected techniques that may or may not work in isolation.
Make Intelligent Choices About What To Work On
There will undoubtedly be certain areas of the sport that appeal to you, maybe because someone you know is good at it or because it looks flashy when done right. Just because you choose to focus on this area in training doesn’t mean you’re getting the most out of your time in BJJ if there are better options out there. Someone who gets taken down and passed a lot might like the look of the buggy choke, but really they should be focusing on takedowns and guard retention instead. Maybe their coach is an ultra-heavyweight with great pressure-passing and they want to emulate him, but that’s not much good if they’re a guard-player who doesn’t know how to get there in the first place. Figure out the next steps in your own personal development, rather than just doing what other people do or what looks good.
Choose Your Training Partners Wisely
You can focus on getting the most out of your time training BJJ as much as you want, but if your partner is determined to do the exact opposite then there’s a ceiling to how much benefit you’re getting. Unless you’re actually the coach or at least a high-ranking member of the gym, it can be difficult to change someone else’s approach to training if they don’t want to do it themselves. Rather than spending time training with someone who’s going to treat every round like ADCC finals, limiting your growth and risking injury, find like-minded training partners who are eager to grow rather than win and make them your most frequent rounds.
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