BJJ is a very fun sport for most people that train it. One of the best things about it is that there is huge room for improvement. From the moment you start out until the moment you become a black belt – there are years of hard effort and dedication. And sometimes the path may not be as clear as you want it to be. Sometimes you will hit plateaus – in fact, there will definitely be times when you will hit plateaus. There are many reasons as to why sometimes, despite your best intentions, you won’t be able to progress in your skills in BJJ. This article will tell you about the 5 most common reasons your Jiu-Jitsu is not improving.
5 reasons your Jiu-Jitsu is not improving
1. Being overtrained
Do you know what’s the most important thing that you can do for progressing in BJJ? Training. But do you know what’s also equally important for progressing in BJJ? Resting. These are the twin processes that everyone needs in order to progress. Well, as it turns out, many people take the “work” part to the extreme. In fact, you’d be surprised at the sheer number of people that do this. In some cases, more training doesn’t equal more progress. There are diminishing returns after you hit a certain level of training frequency. In all cases, you wouldn’t want to overtrain every day multiple times per day. It’s one thing to do some light drilling. It’s entirely another thing to go to “kill mode” every time you train. Be careful and try to listen what your body is trying to tell you. If you overtrain, then you will hear your body screaming for rest. Rest is very important for progress in BJJ.
2. Being undertrained.
There is also a chance that you’re undertrained. If you train once per week and you think that this is enough for making steady progress – forget about it. Two times per week is a bare minimum for maintaining what you already know. Three to four times of training per week is already something to work with. In all cases, you will want to check your own preferences. You should aim for 3-4 times per week if you want to steadily progress in your BJJ skills.
3. You have a bad instructor.
Most BJJ schools don’t have this problem. Most BJJ instructors are talented and knowledgeable – and they will dedicate themselves to the progress of their students. That being said, there certainly are some bad apples among the BJJ instructors. And in most cases, you will be able to notice these bad instructors by using your observational skills. What is your head instructor doing during the training sessions? Is he showing some lackluster techniques and then staring in his phone for the rest of the class? If this is the case, then you may want to consider switching camps. A good instructor is dedicated to the progress of his team. He will try and help you at every point of your training. He will give you individual instructions about how you can progress in the game. He will be a good instructor.
4. You don’t have sufficient strength and conditioning levels.
Many people think that they can get all the conditioning and strength training they need just by training BJJ alone. While it’s true that BJJ will tax a big part of the musculature of your body – it’s also true that there will be muscles that are overused and muscles that are underused. You will want to address these imbalances by adding additional exercises aside from BJJ. You’ll want to have a strong, powerful body. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. You can be very powerful and healthy all around – but if you have pain in one of your ankles then your entire BJJ game and progress will suffer because of it. Don’t sleep on conditioning and strength training for BJJ as this can increase your progress significantly.
5. You don’t challenge yourself enough.
Sure, there are times when you will want to check in with the white belts and submit them and sweep them with ease. This is a good thing as it can help you test out new moves and combinations. However, you can go overboard with it. If all you do is training with the people that have a dramatically lower skill level than you do – then you won’t face an adequate challenge. Always try to do most of the work against people that are on your level, skill-wise. It’s also useful to compete against opponents that are better than you. And one of the best ways to challenge yourself is to go to a BJJ tournament.
Don’t quit…
There will be times when your BJJ progress stalls. This is to be expected. However, if you try your best to go through the hurdles – then you will definitely bust through your plateaus at some points. These points in your training will remind you why you love BJJ so much.
Check also:
- BJJ Blue Belt Requirements, Time to get and Problems
- How to wash your BJJ Gi
- Techniques to Deal with Anxiety Before Jiu-Jitsu Tournament
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