Not improving. Anyone have any suggestions? Please help

[riacef1]

I have been doing BJJ, mostly no-gi for almost three years. recently Ive been training twice a day, 3 times a week no-gi and the other days of the week once. Im 21 and a bluebelt and I dont fell Im improving at the rate i should be, especially recently. In no-gi JJ i usually dont really get tapped to much by upper belts but I dont exactly mount much of an offense either. In sport no-gi my open and closed guard are difficult to pass and anytime some gets to my half-guard or to side control i just get to my knees. However with srtikes on the ground I am unable to create these same scrambles and recover a somewhat neutral position because i have to tie up my opponents hands. A solid purple who outweighs me and is stronger really controlled me today as did my instructor who is a legit Blackbelt. I felt like anderson silva, just trying to survive the ground. I did start from my back and got my guard passed off of mediocore triangle attempts. I was thinking about switching to training my takedowns at a world class wrestling club in manhattan and taking privates with John Danaher down at renzo's school if he is available for awhile to get out of my rut. Im actually so pissed about today that i cant even sleep, anyone have any suggestions. I take my training very seriously so I will do anything.

 

[easy tiger]

Higher belts are supposed to control you usually, which is why they are a higher belt. Especially the black belt, haha. Anyway, I say take a break for a week and a half. Come back and work on that wrestling, and hey, the privates certainly won't hurt.

 

[riacef1]

Higher belts are supposed to control you usually, which is why they are a higher belt. Especially the black belt, haha. Anyway, I say take a break for a week and a half. Come back and work on that wrestling, and hey, the privates certainly won't hurt.

thanks fot the advice. it is greatly appreciated but im not exactly looking to win a few medals at the naga's, i want to compete at a much higher level, I thought putting in mat time would help, but it isnt. No matter how much a train JJ, im pretty sure i will never be dean lister, i dont consider myself a jj standout because im certainly not. I hope if I can get functional wrestling (ie.- great takedowns and takedown defense maybe I can hide some of my holes). I also am going to make a true commitment to strenght training.

 

[Simco]

It's hard to believe someone who has been in the game for three years would complain about being beaten by a person who is better, bigger and stronger or a black belt.

 

[Jimmy Cerra]

Try keeping a log. Write down what you learn each day, then later review it. Compete more often. Change up your training. Rest more often too. I know first hand how hard 10-14x/week can be. If you aren't getting beat, something is probably wrong. So get a short vacation and then get back to work!

 

[riacef1]

It's hard to believe someone who has been in the game for three years would complain about being beaten by a person who is better, bigger and stronger or a black belt.

I have to get better sometime, dont I. If i settle for where im at now i will never improve. Why lie about my expeirence at 3am why im so pissed i cant sleep. Im motivated, if you have nothing to say to help me dont waste my time. besides im not expecting to beat the blackbelt just not roll over and die

 

[riacef1]

Try keeping a log. Write down what you learn each day, then later review it. Compete more often. Change up your training. Rest more often too. I know first hand how hard 10-14x/week can be. If you aren't getting beat, something is probably wrong. So get a short vacation and then get back to work!

ok, thanks im gonna try all of those things

 

[BCarr]

Dude...don't feel bad. We all hit plateaus...but eventually snap out of the rut and your game climbs exponentially, like it did when you first got that gleam in your eye and became a blue belt.

As for getting better with your instructor and purple belts, just remember one thing...as you get better, so do they. So stop being so hard on yourself.

 

[Zankou]

Name your biggest weaknesses, then think about why you are bad at them, then force yourself to fix them.

Easiest way to improve IMHO. You are guaranteed to improve if you switch focus to things you are worst at. Better than banging your head against the wall with the same old stuff.

 

[Timbaland]

I feel just like you man. I've been training 3 years too. I just busted out of a slump. My advice is to practice technique from your weakest positions and to maybe considering changing gyms for a while.

 

[ssssmashing]

You are experiencing a classic plateau affect. It typically happens at about three years. There are a number of reasons this happens.

The first thing you have to realize is that while you "feel" like you are not improving chances are your instructors and upper ranks are raising the bar on you.

The second thing is you may need to take a break. If you are really pushing, you may need to step away for a few days heal and rest. You'll come back and feel lousy for a few practices and then you'll see an explosive improvement.

The third thing - RELAX. Typically I see this as a BIG inhibitor to progress. Don't try harder, try smoother!

The biggest thing is don't give up. Whenever you find yourself failing to progress really buckle down and drill your fundamentals. Work on basics. This can do nothing but improve your game. Watch all the greats they may be able to do a ton of moves but they usually go to basics when they really need to.

 

[riacef1]

the last three posts seem like they will be extremely helpful and i will be sure to give them all a try, all of your help is greatly appreciated

 

[Cardio King]

Try taking a month off and train your conditioning to the extreme. Come back to the mat with zeal.

Just my $0.02.

 

[UrbanSavage**]

Try taking a month off and train your conditioning to the extreme. Come back to the mat with zeal.

Just my $0.02.

Stuff like that helps for sure. When you get into a rut, anything to change your perspective can help. Taking a week off can help, strength training more often for a while can help, work your conditioning for a while, get more flexible, etc. As far as actual BJJ training, think about strengths and weaknesses and what you can to do to improve both.

I notice improvements the most when I set short and long term goals, and then have a specific position I'm working on. Right now I'm playing shit loads of half guard top and bottom, my short term goal is to just have a more flowing half guard game and prevent being flattened out more and be more offensive bu long term is to basically be able to transition from half guard sweep to sweep without every letting them mount offense.

Before this I was working tons with crossguard and omoplatas and then working my standing guard passes. So, it was a lot of work with grips whereas now with half guard, a lot of it is fixing my overhooks and underhooks, pressure, head positioning, etc.

Hope this helped somewhat.

 

[Tony Manifold]

I agree with most of the posters here. Take a break, take a week off, take a month or more. Whatever you need to relax. I have found a break sometime lets those skills you learned solidify. You sound like you are in a rut and once you break that rut you should be fine.

 

[PUKAteet]

change schools

 

[Mr. Switch]

You just gotta keep pluggin' away. Don't give up.

Oh and in my albeit limited experience... worrying about it will only make it worse because you'll see every defeat as you not getting better and you'll be less adventurous with what you try to do, which means you won't try as much new stuff, which means you won't learn as much. I think someone else on here (one of the wise old sherdoggers (Zankou?) said it much better than I could:
"worrying about it is the sure fire way to sucking"... or something...

I'm running on caffeine right now so excuse me if none of this is accurate/makes sense.

 

[ozyabbas]

To be honest I don't know why you are getting upset by a black belt and other senior belts dominating you. They are those belts precisely because they can dominate people like you. You should appreciate that and not let it upset you.

I think you have had plenty of fine advice on this board.

Have you asked your instructor what he thinks of your ability and what you need to work on?

 

[riacef1]

took almost a week of going back to training monday night, i will give if update if anybody even cares

 

[distorted]

Name your biggest weaknesses, then think about why you are bad at them, then force yourself to fix them.

Easiest way to improve IMHO. You are guaranteed to improve if you switch focus to things you are worst at. Better than banging your head against the wall with the same old stuff.

not sure I agree with that... Alot of great judo practitioners had 2 signature throws and based their game around these. They had them so down pat that opponents couldnt' stop them no matter what they did.