Why you should drill by time, and not reps in BJJ

Dirty Holt

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I always have my guys drill by time, not by reps. I do this because when one guy sucks or cant figure it out, it doesnt cut in to the other guys drilling time. I do not instruct for the passive partner during the drilling guys time, he doesnt get to ask questions during that time, and if he has to go do something, he does it on his own drill time.

A few years ago during my wrestling practice, I had a few guys who were being wimps and didnt want to train. so I gave both a stop watch, and made them go time two groups. They would start the stop watch when both partners were switching positions. I made them drill 1-and-1 reps back and forth, total drill time of 45 minutes. Of the total drilling time, about 30% of it was used merely switching positions. The next day, I put one guy on the clock, and it was cut down to about 10% of total time was used switching positions.

I revisited this again last week because I had some kids who said they were hurt (really they just needed a break from training. So I had them now count the reps. I had two groups comprised of an experienced guy and a 2nd year wrestler. Put them on the clock all day for 45 minutes of drilling. Next day had them go 1-and-1 for 45 minutes. Avg rep for experienced guy on the clock was 5 per minute, for new guy it was 2 per minute. This equaled out to 225 per 45 minutes for the experienced guy, and 90 for the newb. Next day we went for reps. Not surprisingly, both the experienced guy and non experienced guy got the same rep count, about 1.5 per minute total for both guys getting around 70 reps. This is because the faster guy had to split time evenly while he waited for the slower guy, as well as switch positions every time which costed 30% of the drill time.

When I do not get to run my own training sessions, I absolutely hate getting paired with a newer guy and going reps. I basically become a personal coach for the day while I get my 70 reps, about 25% of what I could have gotten on the clock. Not scientifically researched but anyone who has done timed drilling vs reps with a newer athlete understands how invaluable using the clock is.
 
I always have my guys drill by time, not by reps. I do this because when one guy sucks or cant figure it out, it doesnt cut in to the other guys drilling time. I do not instruct for the passive partner during the drilling guys time, he doesnt get to ask questions during that time, and if he has to go do something, he does it on his own drill time.

A few years ago during my wrestling practice, I had a few guys who were being wimps and didnt want to train. so I gave both a stop watch, and made them go time two groups. They would start the stop watch when both partners were switching positions. I made them drill 1-and-1 reps back and forth, total drill time of 45 minutes. Of the total drilling time, about 30% of it was used merely switching positions. The next day, I put one guy on the clock, and it was cut down to about 10% of total time was used switching positions.

I revisited this again last week because I had some kids who said they were hurt (really they just needed a break from training. So I had them now count the reps. I had two groups comprised of an experienced guy and a 2nd year wrestler. Put them on the clock all day for 45 minutes of drilling. Next day had them go 1-and-1 for 45 minutes. Avg rep for experienced guy on the clock was 5 per minute, for new guy it was 2 per minute. This equaled out to 225 per 45 minutes for the experienced guy, and 90 for the newb. Next day we went for reps. Not surprisingly, both the experienced guy and non experienced guy got the same rep count, about 1.5 per minute total for both guys getting around 70 reps. This is because the faster guy had to split time evenly while he waited for the slower guy, as well as switch positions every time which costed 30% of the drill time.

When I do not get to run my own training sessions, I absolutely hate getting paired with a newer guy and going reps. I basically become a personal coach for the day while I get my 70 reps, about 25% of what I could have gotten on the clock. Not scientifically researched but anyone who has done timed drilling vs reps with a newer athlete understands how invaluable using the clock is.
100%.
 
I always have my guys drill by time, not by reps. I do this because when one guy sucks or cant figure it out, it doesnt cut in to the other guys drilling time. I do not instruct for the passive partner during the drilling guys time, he doesnt get to ask questions during that time, and if he has to go do something, he does it on his own drill time.

A few years ago during my wrestling practice, I had a few guys who were being wimps and didnt want to train. so I gave both a stop watch, and made them go time two groups. They would start the stop watch when both partners were switching positions. I made them drill 1-and-1 reps back and forth, total drill time of 45 minutes. Of the total drilling time, about 30% of it was used merely switching positions. The next day, I put one guy on the clock, and it was cut down to about 10% of total time was used switching positions.

I revisited this again last week because I had some kids who said they were hurt (really they just needed a break from training. So I had them now count the reps. I had two groups comprised of an experienced guy and a 2nd year wrestler. Put them on the clock all day for 45 minutes of drilling. Next day had them go 1-and-1 for 45 minutes. Avg rep for experienced guy on the clock was 5 per minute, for new guy it was 2 per minute. This equaled out to 225 per 45 minutes for the experienced guy, and 90 for the newb. Next day we went for reps. Not surprisingly, both the experienced guy and non experienced guy got the same rep count, about 1.5 per minute total for both guys getting around 70 reps. This is because the faster guy had to split time evenly while he waited for the slower guy, as well as switch positions every time which costed 30% of the drill time.

When I do not get to run my own training sessions, I absolutely hate getting paired with a newer guy and going reps. I basically become a personal coach for the day while I get my 70 reps, about 25% of what I could have gotten on the clock. Not scientifically researched but anyone who has done timed drilling vs reps with a newer athlete understands how invaluable using the clock is.

Not a disagreement, but the one thing I do like about the classic 3 and 3 reps drilling as opposed to time is that you get a better chance to smooth out your technique by having that pause and seeing how your partner does the move then returning for more of your reps. With timed drilling i will sometimes make the same mistake, or omit some key detail, throughout my time, and will only figure it out when my partner reps (or when my instructor comes to coach him) but won't get the chance to correct it because I a,ready had my time.
 
At my club we spar a lot and we usually drill for about 30 minutes per classes, the rest of the time is sparring or specific sparring (starting in specific positions with a specific goal).

We have a whole bunch of blue belts with a ''been there, done that'' attitude, they don't pay much attention to the details, they drill very slowly and fool around a lot.

I know that the coach wants to change the culture but he doesn't want to cut on the sparring. Most of the guys are here to roll and they all think that they don't have much more to learn or that it isn't useful to do reps.

The coach just promoted 4 guys that are very serious about technique, it may show the way to purple and brown belt to those lazy blue belts.
 
I've always drilled by time. Glad to know I'm not the only one. Drilling for reps was always a lot more difficult it seemed
 
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