**BJJ Myth - Practice Makes Perfect...**

[Marcos Avellan]

Marcos Avellan, along with his brother David, founded South Florida's Freestyle Fighting Academy (FFA) in 2001, and has trained fighters for the UFC, WEC, Bodogfight, EliteXC, Strikeforce, and dozens of other promotions. He is a writer for the website BlackBeltPsychology.com and is a leading expert in combat mental training.

An important idea to focus on when drilling is that each repetition is special. Each repetition is unique and needs to be hit with 100% ferocity. Too many times I see people get into a training rhythm, where they sluggishly push through a hundred reps, keeping a consistent pace that isn't a fight pace. When drilling technique, take a moment to appreciate what is about to happen, visualize you are in a fight, and fire full speed ahead! If you are drop dead tired - even better! If you feel a knot in your stomach and are dizzy, get up and visualize you are in a fight right now and that there is thirty seconds left in the fifth round of the title fight... and FIRE!!! If your goal with the martial arts is self-defense, then visualize someone has home invaded into your house with a knife, you managed to disarm his knife, you are exhausted, and this man is still pushing forward, trying to kill you and get to your wife and children behind you, who are screaming in the background... you need to finish this double leg with 100% ferocity! That sort of imagination is necessary with EVERY REPETITION if you want to see real gains in your technique.

You must treat every repetition as if it were the most important repetition of your life - and you must have utmost disdain for the less than awesome repetition. When counting repetitions, for every bad repetition I do, that erases ten good ones from my count... this way I can erase the bad repetition from my muscle memory and make sure that this form of punishment keeps my body and mind focused on each repetition. All it takes if for you to get lazy with one repetition... before you know it, every repetition gets lazy. Remember the old expression, "Practice Makes Perfect"... well, it is NOT true... it's PERFECT PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT! Think about that and what it means...

When doing drilling sessions involving several different drills, I recommend always starting with your weakest drill first. For instance, if you want to drill 100 double leg takedowns and 100 arm spin takedowns and the arm spin is your weaker takedown, I recommend drilling the arm spins first, then the double legs after. The more energy you have, the easier it is to focus on your technique. Furthermore, if you are like and like to drill both sides of a move, then I'll start with my weak side first. Going back to the double leg example, I would first shoot a hundred doubles with my left lead (my weaker lead) and the second batch of a hundred with my right lead (my strong side).

I can keep on going on this topic but we

 

[instig8r]

Marcos,

I understand your post and the principle behind it, but in reality drilling everything 100% especially in bjj will leave you without a partner.. imagine going 100% on 100 arm bars ??? you need 50 different partners lol or 100 takedowns at 100% thats a few set of ribs broken.

I dont think it is a realistic approach to bjj, unless utilizing this mentality on a grappling dummy, as oppose to a partner.

 

[mr violent]

Marcos,

I understand your post and the principle behind it, but in reality drilling everything 100% especially in bjj will leave you without a partner.. imagine going 100% on 100 arm bars ??? you need 50 different partners lol or 100 takedowns at 100% thats a few set of ribs broken.

I dont think it is a realistic approach to bjj, unless utilizing this mentality on a grappling dummy, as oppose to a partner.

yeah i'm going to go ahead and assume you missed the point of what he's saying. It's not that practice makes perfect, it's that *perfect* practice makes perfect. Those 100% armbars means making sure everything is tight - heels are tight to their body, knees are squeezing in, nothing is loosey-goosey, lifting the hips to finish. A perfect rep. You can do that without hyperextending someone's arm, simply by not holding their wrist when you lift the hips.

Pretty much what he's saying is if you drill/practice lazy techniques, that's what your game will be when it comes time to compete/defend/whatever. It won't leave you without a partner, since I think most people would rather learn the technique properly than have someone work some half-assed technique on them.

 

[TheHereticJay]

yeah i'm going to go ahead and assume you missed the point of what he's saying. It's not that practice makes perfect, it's that *perfect* practice makes perfect. Those 100% armbars means making sure everything is tight - heels are tight to their body, knees are squeezing in, nothing is loosey-goosey, lifting the hips to finish. A perfect rep. You can do that without hyperextending someone's arm, simply by not holding their wrist when you lift the hips.

Pretty much what he's saying is if you drill/practice lazy techniques, that's what your game will be when it comes time to compete/defend/whatever. It won't leave you without a partner, since I think most people would rather learn the technique properly than have someone work some half-assed technique on them.

If you're not holding the wrist isn't then no longer a "perfect rep" and now a flawed rep?

 

[BJJ_Rage]

hey marco, could you give us your opinion on whats the difference between doing "technique" and "drilling"... some people say they are different things, some say the way its done its different, some say its the same thing...

 

[Nozza]

This is just a simple fact of learning any skill of any kind. You learn what you practice. If you practice bad technique then that is what you're learning.

The guy isn't talking about having to do full bore arm-locks on training partners.

 

[mr violent]

If you're not holding the wrist isn't then no longer a "perfect rep" and now a flawed rep?

I know you's trollin' yes it's a flawed rep, but it's the closest to perfect you can do without injuring your partner, right? Having your knees pinched or your heels not in tight doesn't prevent you from injuring them, it's just bad form. That's the difference.

 

[Knuckles69]

Perfect Practice Makes Perfect...

That's what I used to teach the kids when I taught the kids BJJ program at my academy.

 

[luckyshot]

Marcos AvellanAn important idea to focus on when drilling is that each repetition is special. Each repetition is unique and needs to be hit with 100% ferocity.

I disagree with the word "ferocity." I don't mind being kneed in the face, elbowed, or headbutted when I am sparring with someone, but it annoys me when a training partners bangs me around during technique drills.

One of the first adages of jiu-jitsu is "don't break your patners."

 

[gocubs1815]

"Practice Makes Perfect"... well, it is NOT true... it's PERFECT PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT!

I was about to facepalm this thread until I saw this quote.

Its not the guys who'd rep'd a guard pass 1000 times who's dangerous, its the guy who's rep'd it 100 times the right way who's going to hit it.

 

[DW18]

If you're not holding the wrist isn't then no longer a "perfect rep" and now a flawed rep?

Lol

 

[beamlord]

I disagree with the word "ferocity." I don't mind being kneed in the face, elbowed, or headbutted when I am sparring with someone, but it annoys me when a training partners bangs me around during technique drills.

One of the first adages of jiu-jitsu is "don't break your patners."

I'd like to elaborate a bit more here.
While I agree with the first part where he mentions that whenever you practice, make sure you practice perfectly, I see the parallels in building up of the aggression in the next sentences as something not applicable to general training. And definitely not something that each person can handle psychologically.

Because of the psychological build-up regarding defending yourself and your family - that's all great and super hardcore romantic, and maybe it can be projected onto professional fighters who's training with select (paid) highly skilled sparring partners and even then, only for limited short periods of time right before a fight or something.
It's a bit of an overshot though for everyone to go out of their ways and transform each training in your favorite neighborhood gym into a battle of awesomeness and hardcoreness.
I'm sure everyone's seen these kinds of persons. Eventually noone wants to train with these guys since they tend to overreact and become annoying when all you want is to go through some techniques and learn something, and all they want is "teh win". It's training, for ducks sake.

To conclude just an example. I'm not a great fighter. But at my size, I'm athletic enough, and , well, very strong and I've got enough of the basics of fighting. And if I allow myself to build up the rage of defending my family, I would seriously injure 99% of the people who are standing in front of me, moreover most probably seriously endanger their lives. Hell, I would rip this someone apart even if it's a friggin professional MMA fighter. I would - no doubt - take whole lots of damage. Would I take a lot of beating? You bet your ass. I'd probably end up seriously injured myself, but I would stop them just as well from continuing attacking me or anyone else for a long time, just as well.
I bet those of you who trained with really big guys would actually know better than deliberately making them angry or going "ferocious" at them for no reason during a regular training. It's a very, very bad idea.

 

[Marcos Avellan]

Marcos,

I understand your post and the principle behind it, but in reality drilling everything 100% especially in bjj will leave you without a partner.. imagine going 100% on 100 arm bars ??? you need 50 different partners lol or 100 takedowns at 100% thats a few set of ribs broken.

I dont think it is a realistic approach to bjj, unless utilizing this mentality on a grappling dummy, as oppose to a partner.

If you were to be able to break 100 arms - your armbar would be better. However, you won't find 100 volunteers for this and "what is good for the goose is good for the gander" and you wouldn't want to return the favor with letting someone break your arm either...

This is all common sense...

So you would have to do everything as close as possible, have the entire movement sharp, tight, and at the very last second obviously pull back without hurting your partner. Another drill I do sometimes is that I'll release the wrist and explode my hips up, so I'm not hurting my partner but at the same time I'm focusing another part of finishing an armbar.

The idea is to get as close as possible - both physically and psychologically - to combat while training.

 

[Marcos Avellan]

I disagree with the word "ferocity." I don't mind being kneed in the face, elbowed, or headbutted when I am sparring with someone, but it annoys me when a training partners bangs me around during technique drills.

One of the first adages of jiu-jitsu is "don't break your patners."

It depends what you are training for. I personally train for competition and self defense, so I welcome a rough double leg or an aggressive sweep. I'm not sure though how training a ferocious double leg ends up with you getting kneed, elbowed, or head butted though. If that is happening, then technique is being compromised.

 

[Marcos Avellan]

"Because of the psychological build-up regarding defending yourself and your family - that's all great and super hardcore romantic, and maybe it can be projected onto professional fighters who's training with select (paid) highly skilled sparring partners and even then, only for limited short periods of time right before a fight or something."

This is how I train every time I step on that mat - with white belts and women as well. I don't understand why a fight would break out because I'm running a killer double leg in a drilling session.


"I'm sure everyone's seen these kinds of persons. Eventually noone wants to train with these guys since they tend to overreact and become annoying when all you want is to go through some techniques and learn something, and all they want is "teh win". It's training, for ducks sake."

It must be a cultural thing in your school - at our school it is the other way around. We get annoyed by lazy training partners running slow or sloppy double legs and will encourage and push our partners to go harder.


"To conclude just an example. I'm not a great fighter. But at my size, I'm athletic enough, and , well, very strong and I've got enough of the basics of fighting. And if I allow myself to build up the rage of defending my family, I would seriously injure 99% of the people who are standing in front of me, moreover most probably seriously endanger their lives."

You should not have "rage" when defending your family. If that is the way you would respond, then you are ill prepared as it is. And as romantic as the concept is of becoming so enraged that one morph's into the Hulk and can injure anybody - the reality is unfortunately much more different. There is a difference between unleashing controlled agression and full out rage. The same way full rage results in an adrenaline dump in a fight - full out rage in a self defense situation is even worse. The adrenaline dump that can result in a self defense situation can be 1000 times worse than any adrenaline dump you have seen in a cage.

People have gone into "shock" and not even be able to move from the overwhelming emotion... they get tunnel vision, nasaues, shakes, etc.

If you believe that being in full blown rage is how you would respond - then I would recommend drilling with such a visual so that you will better be able to react in a real situation.

Military, law enforcement, and other self defense experts can attest to the importance of keeping one's cool in a real situation and being able to exert controlled aggression.

 

[Marcos Avellan]

hey marco, could you give us your opinion on whats the difference between doing "technique" and "drilling"... some people say they are different things, some say the way its done its different, some say its the same thing...

When learning a new technique, it is good to work slow and to focus on the individual components of the move. One can do like Lloyd Irvin and even start from certain positions of the move and inject little bits of aggressive from step to step to make sure you have all the details down.

Once you understand the move, you start drilling the move, and you should drill the move as realistic and aggressive as you can WITHOUT compromising any of the technique.

So if you can only go 3/4 of the intensity without messing up the technique - then that is your speed... with your goal being to eventually be able to work at 100% (or as close as safely possible).

That is my take on it.

I think I answered all the questions, if anybody has any other questions feel free to ask.

 

[BJJ_Rage]

When learning a new technique, it is good to work slow and to focus on the individual components of the move. One can do like Lloyd Irvin and even start from certain positions of the move and inject little bits of aggressive from step to step to make sure you have all the details down.

Once you understand the move, you start drilling the move, and you should drill the move as realistic and aggressive as you can WITHOUT compromising any of the technique.

So if you can only go 3/4 of the intensity without messing up the technique - then that is your speed... with your goal being to eventually be able to work at 100% (or as close as safely possible).

That is my take on it.

I think I answered all the questions, if anybody has any other questions feel free to ask.

thanks man!

 

[beamlord]

"Because of the psychological build-up regarding defending yourself and your family - that's all great and super hardcore romantic, and maybe it can be projected onto professional fighters who's training with select (paid) highly skilled sparring partners and even then, only for limited short periods of time right before a fight or something."

This is how I train every time I step on that mat - with white belts and women as well. I don't understand why a fight would break out because I'm running a killer double leg in a drilling session.


"I'm sure everyone's seen these kinds of persons. Eventually noone wants to train with these guys since they tend to overreact and become annoying when all you want is to go through some techniques and learn something, and all they want is "teh win". It's training, for ducks sake."

It must be a cultural thing in your school - at our school it is the other way around. We get annoyed by lazy training partners running slow or sloppy double legs and will encourage and push our partners to go harder.


"To conclude just an example. I'm not a great fighter. But at my size, I'm athletic enough, and , well, very strong and I've got enough of the basics of fighting. And if I allow myself to build up the rage of defending my family, I would seriously injure 99% of the people who are standing in front of me, moreover most probably seriously endanger their lives."

You should not have "rage" when defending your family. If that is the way you would respond, then you are ill prepared as it is. And as romantic as the concept is of becoming so enraged that one morph's into the Hulk and can injure anybody - the reality is unfortunately much more different. There is a difference between unleashing controlled agression and full out rage. The same way full rage results in an adrenaline dump in a fight - full out rage in a self defense situation is even worse. The adrenaline dump that can result in a self defense situation can be 1000 times worse than any adrenaline dump you have seen in a cage.

People have gone into "shock" and not even be able to move from the overwhelming emotion... they get tunnel vision, nasaues, shakes, etc.

If you believe that being in full blown rage is how you would respond - then I would recommend drilling with such a visual so that you will better be able to react in a real situation.

Military, law enforcement, and other self defense experts can attest to the importance of keeping one's cool in a real situation and being able to exert controlled aggression.

To put it short. My friend, I'm in the military. SOCEUR, 10th Special Forces Group. I've been everywhere, from Chechnya to Bosnia. Real war, real people attacking and real people dying. Rage, shock, and plenty of burnt out dreams of specops training with war region specialization. With all respect for you guys fighting for the sake of sports..Please don't tell me about cage rage and all that kindergarten.
When I say rage I mean exactly that - I turn into a "hulk" as you said and kill all. Not because I feel like it, but I had to learn doing that effectively. Not because I'm in some totally safe environment with coaches and refs watching over and stopping the fight when things get hairy. But because I'd get killed otherwise.


To the last point - a fat-ass police officer can be taught to "keep cool". Get me those "experts" into a war zone, please. Seen em come, seen em go. You don't keep cool at war. So please, also no mention of that if you've never been through it.

 

[GJJNY]

So basically that essay can be summed up with 'practice it perfect and you'll do it perfect'?

 

[RJ Green]

So basically that essay can be summed up with 'practice it perfect and you'll do it perfect'?

that essay can be summed up as "here's my weekly bunch of psuedo-intellectual/motivational horseshit, please direct yourself to my website full of horseshit I hope you're dumb enough to buy."