How to optimize BJJ growth?

KhmerFighter97

White Belt
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I'm an eager student who loves to see progress in anything I do. I just wanna know if there's anything I should keep in mind to really better my ground game as much as I can, as quickly as I can. Things such as what I should be thinking while rolling or drills that I can do by myself to improve my ground game. Anything helps.

Also, what are your thoughts on youtubing different moves and studying them? I currently keep a notebook that has a list of submissions, escapes, sweeps etc. broken down into the different steps. I'm trying to cram as much information into my head as I can just so I know what to do in different positions and such.

Thanks in advance!
 
Learn escapes first so you aren't scared of going for submissions.

People that learn top first spend years clinched up, not doing anything.
 
I'm an eager student who loves to see progress in anything I do. I just wanna know if there's anything I should keep in mind to really better my ground game as much as I can, as quickly as I can. Things such as what I should be thinking while rolling or drills that I can do by myself to improve my ground game. Anything helps.

Also, what are your thoughts on youtubing different moves and studying them? I currently keep a notebook that has a list of submissions, escapes, sweeps etc. broken down into the different steps. I'm trying to cram as much information into my head as I can just so I know what to do in different positions and such.

Thanks in advance!

It changes based on your level.

  • White belt: go to class as much as you can, try hard to do the moves perfectly, try to use what you're learned in rolling, if something feels wrong ask questions but mostly just train until the moves start to feel right. Absorb as much as you can, but don't spend a lot of time watching technical videos, you don't have the background yet for that to be useful. Instead, watch a lot of match footage and highlights to get a feel for what BJJ is supposed to look like. Compete if you can.
  • Blue belt: go to class as much as you can, try to do the moves perfectly, and start trying to develop your personal game. This should be an organic process wherein you learn a lot of different options from various positions and figure out which ones you like better than others. Go to those in rolling and try to figure out routes to your favorite attacks. You can start watching more instructional stuff now, but in general your main resource should still be your coach. You really should compete if possible, it will help a lot.
  • Purple belt: go to class, but if you can try to find time to start training on your own with other dedicated practitioners. Drilling and positional sparring become much more important as both physical fluidity with the moves becomes necessary and you need to work out specific problems that you encounter when trying to implement your game. You should probably be watching quite a bit of tape at this point with the express purpose of finding answers to problems you get presented in rolling and competition. For example, if you really like DLR and you find that you keep getting knee slice passed you would research to find answers to knee slice pass defense from DLR, and then you'd take those defenses and test them in positional sparring until you found one you liked which you'd work on fully integrating into your game. Competition is very important at this point, because you need to field test your ideas.
  • Brown belt: at most schools, class will not be a great use of mat time at this point, simply because you'll probably be doing the same things you've been doing for years, just more slowly (fewer reps) than you would be if you were doing them with someone your own level outside of class. Your game should be well developed at this point, now you're working on perfecting small details of moves and spending a lot of time on strategy and making sure you have the right method to implement your game against other very good grapplers (just going into a tournament or roll against competitive brown and black belts with a general idea of what you want to do will not work. You need to have specific positions you're aiming for and well practiced ways to get to them or you're going to get sucked into your opponent's game and lose). Most of your work should be with other good grapplers because you're not going to get anything out of rolling with white belts.
  • Black belt: I'll let you know when I get there.

One thing you may notice is that most schools are not set up to allow for the development methods I recommend for purple and brown belts. That's a real problem, and it's a reason that you see a lot of non-competitive guys stall in their development around purple (even if they keep getting promoted). Most of the good competitors I know who are not from big competition schools have to jump through a lot of hoops to get the kind of training they need to keep improving. For myself, since mid purple almost all my really valuable training has been with small training groups of better people from a variety of schools who were also kind of stuck in their academies. If you're not in a room with multiple purple, brown, and black belts it can often be a real hustle to figure out how to get mat time where you can do the kind of work you need to to improve through the higher belts. Good luck with that, though it sounds like you're a ways away from that being a problem.
 
Whatever you do it will take you 8-12 years to get black belt. The most difficult part is to prevent overtraining. I think this is the #1 reason white belt quit after a few months of training.
 
Whatever you do it will take you 8-12 years to get black belt. The most difficult part is to prevent overtraining. I think this is the #1 reason white belt quit after a few months of training.

+1. Find how to strengthen your body for jiu-jitsu and work on avoiding injuries at all costs. Could be yoga, calisthenics, mobility drills, as long as it prepares your joints for grappling.
 
+1. Find how to strengthen your body for jiu-jitsu and work on avoiding injuries at all costs. Could be yoga, calisthenics, mobility drills, as long as it prepares your joints for grappling.


Deadlifts.
 
Try to stay healthy and don't overwhelm yourself. I started keeping a log of my training as you described because I felt it helped me remember what I was doing. I kept getting taught new things and I was just lost for a bit.

Do something to help your body recover from training like weight lifting or yoga. Make sure you sleep enough. Watching videos is fine but don't expect to be able to use what you watch right away. There really isn't a short cut and grappling takes time. It will probably be six month before you feel somewhat comfortable with what you are doing and that is normal.
 
I said Mat time and I meant it, but IMO if you're looking for a legitimate area to focus on, I would suggest that you work on Top Position and Positional Transitions. I know how temping it is to go for subs, especially as a newer whitebelt who just learned a sweet Kimura set up, etc. It can also be tempting to throw yourself on our back and try that cool guard you saw somewhere...

...but overall your JJ will improve faster if you listen to your coach and just work on establishing a dominating position, and being able to transition smoothly between the main topside positions WHILE maintaining control and pressure. (I am assuming your coach is legit and professes "Position before submission")

A drill I always encourage brand-spanking new people to work on is: Side Control > Knee on Belly > Mount > Knee on Belly other side > Side control other side > repeat back and forth.

Learning how to get into KoB from Side control while maintaining control and pressure is a thing in itself.
Learning how to get into Mount from KoB while maintaining control and pressure is a thing in itself.

Another good drill for top control is the good-ol' windshield wipers drill, where you are in KoB and switch back and forth from side to side without ever losing your exertion of pressure.

My suggestion is that you always try to stay on top for now and only work your guard AFTER you're swept and forced into that position. Don't go for subs, just try to keep people pinned and work on surfing them as they react and respond. It is another thing entirely to get KoB on someone during sparring and hold them there. Trust me, it's fun to try, so just try it. It is also an art to get mount and force someone to stay in that position, but if you work on perfecting control while you're in these positions, your JJ game will have a better foundation for the rest of the fun stuff.

Just my 2 cents as a blue belt.
 
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