If you're just coming onto the mat and rolling and not drilling your moves then good luck!!
The problem with BJJ is it's just so much fun rolling. Yes there are hard rolls that tax you and push you to your limits but most of the time we don't roll like that (or at least you shouldn't be). However, unless you are drilling your GoTo moves or the techniques you're struggling with, then rolling alone is going to be a long slow process to getting better.
I recently read an article that said that it takes 10,000 hours of training to become a master of anything. Ice skating, golf, etc. A know exception to this rule is BJ Penn. He took just four years to achieve his black belt and not only that he became the first non-Brazilian to win the black-belt division of the World Jiu-Jitsu Championship held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He said he used to train twice a day for a couple of hours most days. That's only enough to get half way to the 10,000 hour mark. However, what he is reported to have done was to drill each technique he was shown 500 times. By that point he could include the move into his game and further develop it within rolling.
How Come??
Well sports psychology tells us that when you first begin to learn a new sport there is a period of time where you learn and practise intensely. This is to get you off the ground so to speak and this is where you pick up all the basic skills to get you to be able to take part. Beginners often seem to progress rapidly in the beginning learning new moves and being able to put a few things together quite rapidly. Sometimes even doing things better than someone who has been doing the sport longer and it’s put down to beginners luck!! Only it’s not beginners luck really it’s the fact that the beginner is in the Active Learning Zone.
The Active Learning Zone is where one practises a move with high levels of both concentration and repetition.
The Active Learning Zone is where one practises a move with high levels of both concentration and repetition. As an example, take your average golfer who learns to play golf as a hobby. He goes round the course with his friends and struggles to hit the ball properly and in essence barley keeps up with them. So over the next year or two he regularly goes out to the playing fields and practises driving dozens of balls, he practises putting in the back garden and goes down to the beach to practise his bunker shots. What he is doing is isolating all the various strokes he will need to play his game. Eventually, he gets good enough to play a round with his friends. Now he leaves the Active Learning Zone and carries on playing the same game of golf for the next ten years. Never really practising like he used to do - isolating certain areas of his game - and hence his progress slows right down and he may wonder why his handicap just fluctuates around the same number over the years.
In order to continue progressing as rapidly as possible in a sport, considerable amounts of time must be spent in the Active Learning Zone (Remember: High levels of concentration and Repetition). Going back to the BJJ, the rolling you do is an essential part of your games development but an often over looked part of your game is time in the Active Learning Zone.
If you want to improve considerably, schedule some time in the Active Learning Zone, by setting yourself up with training projects.
If you want to improve considerably, schedule some time in the Active Learning Zones, by setting yourself up with training projects. Be specific too. Don't just say that you want to get good at arm bars for instance. Look at particular techniques and learn to do them from multiple positions. My instructors always tell me that it is better to be able to do one arm bar from twenty positions rather than twenty different armbars from only one position each.
The Balance.
It is best to aim for a 50:50 balance between sparring and drilling in the Active Learning Zone. This way the techniques you are drilling can be introduced to your game and you can start having success with them. The reason the balance exisits is because the reverse is also tue. Not enough time spent sparring and doing too much drilling will also stunt your growth in the sport/martial art.
I hope this article will prove useful to you and although I have used BJJ throughout the article it can apply to any sport or art such as Boxing, Kali, Muay Thai or Tennis!!
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