At the end of the year of training at Gracie Barra, many of you reading this post will have enjoyed a new stripe or even a new colored belt at your GB schools end of year team photos and graduation ceremony. And for that, we say “Way to go!” Your hard work, discipline, and dedication have paid off.

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Have you checked out the GB Online Instagram account?

https://instagram.com/graciebarraonline @graciebarraonline

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With the new year approaching, we can also devote some time to thinking about setting some new goals for the upcoming year in jiu-jitsu.

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Setting goals is a key part of achievement in any area of life. Most of us want to improve our skills in jiu-jitsu and setting goals is a very big factor in our motivation. Having a firm, clear goal in mind provides a focus for every single training session in the next year. Setting personal goals helps us establish those small disciplines that shape us over time and ultimately end up reaching heights higher than ever before.

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Setting goals should push us to be better. To force us out of our comfort zone. To realize our potential as students of jiu-jitsu and as human beings.

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We would like to share some ideas on specific goals that you may think about setting in your own jiu-jitsu.

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There is nothing quite like signing up to compete in a tournament to fire up your training efforts. In fact, setting this goal will automatically cause us to set numerous smaller goals (ex. cleaning up your diet in order to compete on weight) which will push us further than before.

For first-time competitors, this will certainly push you out of your comfort zone and expose you to a whole other side of training jiu-jitsu.

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For many bjj students, one of the main reasons that they train is as a part of their overall fitness regimen. And for many, controlling or reducing body fat is a really important aspect of their fitness.

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Many of the highest level competitors in both bjj and MMA display very defined muscular physiques with low levels of excess body fat. This is mostly because making a specific weight class forces them to pay careful attention to their nutritional intake.

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Not everyone who goes to your Gracie Barra school is interested in competition, but everyone has a weak spot or two in their game.

A worthy goal that will make a definite positive difference in your jiu-jitsu is committing yourself to correct a weakness like standing up, passing the guard, or finishing from the back. It will require a focused effort to bring these areas up to the level of your other positions. This is going to mean a lot of extra drilling repetitions and study of the position.

Put your strongest game on the back burner temporarily and really develop tunnel vision towards shoring up those weaker areas for a month or two.

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When students say that they feel that they have gotten in a bit of a rut, I recommend that they look at learning s new position for a month or so.

For example, let’s say that you’ve always been interested in Outside Hook Guard (De la Riva) but never really spent much time on it before.

Enroll a partner to do supplementary drilling and positional sparring to increase your training minutes in that specific position. Study some videos on GB Online to extend your knowledge of the position. You will expand your overall game and inject some new enthusiasm into your training week.

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I know some people are dismissive of belts saying that it is the knowledge that counts and that they would be happy to wear a white belt forever. That’s all fine but there is nothing wrong with achievement-oriented students being focused on their next level of achievement.

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Being within reaching distance of your next promotion is a great way to inspire you to show up to class 3+ times per week and put in the work on all of those little things that will lift your level higher than ever before.

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Here is wishing all you Gracie Barra students all over the world the best for the new year and another chance to work on your jiu-jitsu goals!

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See also on GB Blog: GB Inspiration: Prof. Flavio Almeida on overcoming struggles

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Writer: Mark Mullen, Gracie Barra Black Belt