Typically in Brazilian jiujitsu (BJJ) classes an instructor or senior student will teach 3 or 4 techniques and the students then practice them. They might be related or combinations, and they might not. One thing that happened to me as a beginner student is that I was overwhelmed with techniques and I still didn’t have a handle on the basics, much less the ability to add tools to my game. For a while I was frustrated because I couldn’t learn it all fast enough, and thought that maybe I was just a slow learner, until I realized two things: (1) the other new students with less than 6 months experience in BJJ were having the same issue, and (2) the blue belts with few or no stripes had really good basics, but rarely used the fancier, seemingly complicated techniques that were often taught in class.
When I came to that realization I decided to come up with a methodology for my own training so that I was improving on my basics while still learning new techniques, but without overwhelming myself. I called this method the Quality Spread Training Method.
Quality Spread Training Method:
Work on just a few aspects of your game at a time for about two months or so before learning new stuff. A submission, a sweep, and a guard pass, for example. I have three levels of proficiency in my mind, which gives me basically 9 techniques that I work (3 X 3). Once the two months (or so) have passed, the techniques I am most proficient in get rotated out of the game temporarily, the moderate techniques get promoted to high, and the newest techniques get promoted to moderate. Then I have room to add three new ones....a submission, a sweep, and a guard pass. Maybe they are new techniques entirely, or maybe something that I rotated out as being something I am proficient in that I want to bring back for review and to increase proficiency.
For the sake of simplicity in training I figured that there are really about a dozen BJJ techniques altogether on the ground. Proficiency comes in phases. First, learning the technique. Second, applying it while sparring (rolling, randori). Finally, coming back to it, relearning more aspects of it and doing it all over again. BJJ proficiency, I am finding, comes in inches here and there and perfecting those dozen techniques and using them in combinations and variations, not necessarily in learning new stuff all the time.
The Quality Spread Training Method has helped me to improve my basics while learning new exciting techniques for the last two years. It has also nearly eliminated my frustration in learning new techniques and made my BJJ more fun.
When I came to that realization I decided to come up with a methodology for my own training so that I was improving on my basics while still learning new techniques, but without overwhelming myself. I called this method the Quality Spread Training Method.
Quality Spread Training Method:
Work on just a few aspects of your game at a time for about two months or so before learning new stuff. A submission, a sweep, and a guard pass, for example. I have three levels of proficiency in my mind, which gives me basically 9 techniques that I work (3 X 3). Once the two months (or so) have passed, the techniques I am most proficient in get rotated out of the game temporarily, the moderate techniques get promoted to high, and the newest techniques get promoted to moderate. Then I have room to add three new ones....a submission, a sweep, and a guard pass. Maybe they are new techniques entirely, or maybe something that I rotated out as being something I am proficient in that I want to bring back for review and to increase proficiency.
For the sake of simplicity in training I figured that there are really about a dozen BJJ techniques altogether on the ground. Proficiency comes in phases. First, learning the technique. Second, applying it while sparring (rolling, randori). Finally, coming back to it, relearning more aspects of it and doing it all over again. BJJ proficiency, I am finding, comes in inches here and there and perfecting those dozen techniques and using them in combinations and variations, not necessarily in learning new stuff all the time.
The Quality Spread Training Method has helped me to improve my basics while learning new exciting techniques for the last two years. It has also nearly eliminated my frustration in learning new techniques and made my BJJ more fun.
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