You don’t train enough!

Nice way to start right? A bit of click bait. Well… it’s true! I will explain why. First off lets look at what your goals are. Do you want to get fit and strong? Do you want to compete and do well? Do you want to just be a hobbyist who trains a bit?

Unless it’s the last one, and this is a valid way of training, you definitely don’t train enough.

”But I train 3 times a week!”

Yes 3 times a week is good, but it isn’t great. Do you go for 3 one hour classes and skip out on the open mats? That isn’t enough. If your school has two or three classes a night why aren’t you doing at least two of them?

I would say generally 4 days a week should be the minimum number.

When I started I did at least 5 days a week and did all the classes, but I can get obsessive and this isn’t for everyone.

“I only do nogi and the other classes are all gi”

Oh really? Well is there someone else that you know who only does nogi too? Well you can wear a gi and still do nogi, how about you just don’t grip? If the other guy is gripping, this will be a good challenge for your nogi game to deal with that as it puts different stresses on your body that you can’t get from nogi grips.

“I don’t have time for more”

If this is really true then fair enough. You can supplement with kettlebells or body weight exercises at home. There are a lot of exercise routines you can find online. I recommend finding something short and fast that involves a kettlebell to keep strength and improve your cardio. Yes you can go into exercises for BJJ but you aren’t there yet, a general routine that covers all the bases will be enough to start with. Don’t overcomplicate it.

If you still don’t have the time, you can add exercise all day long. Do squats every time you go to drain the lizard, or cycle to work instead of taking the train, stick a pull up bar on your bedroom door and every time you go past it do some pull ups.

There is always time! I know! I’ve completed Netflix so I must have lots of time :)

“I get sore and do badly”

Well get over yourself. You will do badly, the more you train sometimes you will be tired and sore, but you can learn to defend, slow down your game and learn to train around your limits.

If you can’t train more than 3 times a week because you are sore, you are going too hard. This can be fine if you push through this as you will learn to pace yourself, but the really issue is your fear of losing and you need to let that go in classes. This attitude will get you or your training partner injured.

“My instructor isn’t good enough”

Well your instructor is you, your coaches are there to guide you. Your training partners are who trains you. Your coach gives you some ideas but generally you will not have the same attributes, they might be stronger than you, taller/shorter, more flexible… find a group of training partners and come in and try new things and see how that fits into your game.

BJJ is not a team sport as such, you have a safety net of your peers and your school and this works both ways, but really you are in control of your training.

Other things you can do

Train around classes

At Wave we are always open around you. If you have time in the day and a friend to train with drop us a message and we can arrange time around classes for you to train. Drilling and rolling with a training partner is great as you both learn your games and can keep adding things and testing them on someone that knows your game well.

Yoga/Pilates at home

If you feel you get injured and sore, start a yoga/Pilates routine, there are lots of videos on YouTube you can follow with specific exercises for where you feel you are tight or weak. This will help you train more if this is your limiting factor

One 2 one/private sessions

Ok this is a bit of a marketing plug, but they can help you. Your instructor can make your game more efficient and help you train at a better pace without getting sore and injured.

Give it time

This is all you can train, that’s fine. Focus train and do your best. This should be fun and honestly don’t judge yourself. It’s good you have a life outside BJJ and you can still have Jiu Jitsu in your life too, you are lucky and doing great. Keep being you and it will all work out :)