A good way to get good at something is by doing it A LOT. However, in a sport like BJJ an individual can quickly become riddled with injuries, overtired, sloppy and in turn perform techniques incorrectly. You can even become clumsy and hurt your training partners. This is clearly an unsustainable approach to training, and why there are a significant amount of white belts that get sucked into the sport, train at 110% every session, 4 times a week. Get hurt or disillusioned and never to be seen again.
As a club, we have a high retention rate as we are acutely aware of this and will try to identify these traits. Obviously what is deemed as sustainable training will differ from person to person. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be pushing to improve yourself.
So what is sustainable Training? There is a time for learning, a time for drilling and a time for sparring.
Time For Learning: This is all about taking in the technique/s. Going at a suitable speed, pressure and working with your partners to learn and understand the techniques and positions. A little tip, if it feels that you’re forcing something to work when your partner isn’t resisting, in the world of jiu jitsu it usually means your technique is off.
Time For Drilling: Once you are confident and understand the principle of a technique and position, it’s now time to drill it. You can repeat the process again and again and again, increasing the speed until you are working at a realtime pace, if not exceeding it. It’s important to maintain accuracy and structure of the technique/position. This process will create a muscle memory and in time create reactionary habits and respond accordingly when you obtain the “drilled” position.
Time For Sparring: “Sparring” or “Rolling” is when you implement your learnings in realtime against a resisting opponent. Now, Sparring itself can be performed at different intensities and for different reasons. You can agree with your partner what intensity you would like to go.
It’s not uncommon to work towards a position that you would like to practice live. Similar to this. In our classes, we typically train positional sparring. This is when we start the sparring from a specific position to obtain a specific goal. This is really to encourage individuals to work on the techniques learnt in class.
Flow Rounds: Flow rounds are when you keep it constantly moving, allowing positions to “flow” from position to position. If your partner goes for a sweep, you kind of just go with it and then you go for something and so on. Flow rounds are a great way of experimenting and understanding the movement of BJJ. We typically use a flow round to warm and get the joints and body moving. However, we sometimes use it to practice timings, setting up positions/techniques and its a great way to improve cardio and stamina.
Hard Sparring/Comp Sparring: This is when you can go 100%! Go for the kill, fight for every point possible, whether it’s for, or against you. Don’t accept any negative positions. However, you need to have enough gas in the tank to finish the round/match.
On a side note it’s important to be open to new techniques, even if you initially think “This one isn’t for me”. I’ve had many students and training partners have this view on techniques, even some that have been taught a certain technique before and couldn’t get it to work effectively. Most of the time this means you didn’t or don’t fully understand the movements or you’re missing a detail of the technique. Some of you will then ignore it and smash onwards missing out on a potential weapon in the armoury.
Take the time to ask for help or guidance.
Or…… Book a private with Andy 😜
