Roger Gracie is one of the greatest Jiu-Jitsu competitors in the history of the sport and he recently shared his advice on how to actually get better at BJJ. There are very few competitors who have ever achieved even a portion of what Roger was able to achieve during his career, and only a select handful have reached the same incredible level. He’s regarded by many people as the pound for pound greatest competitor ever and even those who might disagree, couldn’t possibly place him much further back. With ten IBJJF World Championship gold medals and the only perfect ADCC double gold run in history under his belt, Roger is a true legend of the sport.
If there’s anyone in the world who has great advice on how to get better at Jiu-Jitsu, it’s going to be Roger Gracie. He was kind enough to share that advice when he made an appearance on the Lex Fridman podcast:
“There’s a big difference between training to get better and training to get tough. Most people train to get tougher at what they’re already good at, but they don’t work on their weaknesses. If you want to excel at Jiu-Jitsu, you need to practice your weaknesses, not just your strengths.”
Although that might seem obvious at first glance, it’s also advice that a huge number of grapplers around the world don’t actually follow themselves. It’s easy to fall into the trap of constantly sparring at the highest intensity and using training rounds to simulate competition. For many people hard sparring is the most enjoyable part of the sport, so it’s understandable that they might seek it out more. As Roger says though, that isn’t the best way to actually improve your technical ability. He also went on to explain why you should focus on your weaknesses rather than improving the areas your already good at:
“You have to be equally strong in every position. Then you focus on the details, like escaping and applying a triangle (choke), escaping an armlock, and other scenarios. There’s so much to practice, and you need to repeat them over and over.”
The full interview with Roger Gracie where he shares his advice on how to get better at Jiu-Jitsu was uploaded to the official YouTube channel of the Lex Fridman podcast:
