The goal of most jiu-jitsu students is to learn as fast as possible. Show up to class, drill your techniques and roll. That ought to do it right?

 

Not so fast. Many students have periods where their progress seems painfully slow even though they are coming to class.

 

Why is it that some students seem to come to class often enough yet do not make optimal progress?

 

Here are 3 common mistakes that jiu-jitsu students make that slow their progress – even when they are regularly training.

 

1)  Lack of focus

One great black belt said that every student should approach each class with “intentionality”. What he meant was that one must have a specific focus in what aspect of their game they are seeking to improve.

 

Drilling is essential to learning the moves, but must be done in a realistic manner. Mindlessly mimicking the movements while chatting about the weekend will not have the same effect.

 

Other students get enthusiastic about spider guard for a week but then lose focus and abandon that position to try pressure passing. And so on it goes. They don’t stick any position long enough to make real progress.

 

 

2) Ego in.training

We have all heard the saying “Leave your ego at the door”. But what exactly does this mean? Don’t many top competitors have ego and confidence?

 

Yes. But ego is a problem when it:

A) Makes a student focus on “winning” every roll. If you get nothing else from this article, please be reminded that your focus in rolling should be LEARNING not winning in training.

 

B) Ego and fear of losing can narrow your jiu-jitsu. Trying new positions to add to your game involves making mistakes and losing position. If you are unwilling to try and fail, you will restrict your game to the narrow set of techniques that you already know.

 

3) Advanced too quickly

Your jiu-jitsu (or ANY skill) that you wish to develop must be built on.a foundation of solid basics.

 

Many students, in their enthusiasm to learn all of the awesome techniques of jiu-jitsu want to abandon the important basic techniques and focus on advanced sports positions that they see black belts using in tournaments.

 

Without a firm foundation of basics, one is incapable of effectively using those advanced positions. Rest assured that the black belts using those fancy guards and passes FIRST mastered their basics.

 

Good training to you!

 

read also : Advice For New Students

Credits: Mark Mullen
Gracie Barra Black belt based in Saigon, Vietnam
Twitter: @MarkMullenBJJ