There are many challenges to face the first year of Jiu Jitsu training. It’s important during this time period to keep a healthy prospective on what is important and what is not.
First of all, this is a long-term sport that takes hundreds of hours of practice to become proficient. It’s not realistic to expect to be finishing people on a regular basis until the appropriate amount of work has been devoted. The most important thing to focus on one’s first year is drilling moves and conditioning.
When your actively training you will be on the defensive most of the time as more experienced practitioners will be several steps ahead. Do not compete against fellow students in class this is not a tournament.
Everyone should be working on their own game plan and focus on themselves and not who is tapping who and so forth. The easiest way to stunt your progression in Jiu Jitsu is to close off your game. What I mean by this is you have to play open and try new moves to learn and progress. If you become competitive in training you will only use moves you feel comfortable with. Improving in Jiu Jitsu is all about taking chances and opening up during practice. In a tournament is the time to be competitive and care about winning and losing period!
The most effective strategy to get good in Jiu Jitsu is consistency and patience. When you learn moves in class drill them before and after the class and work on them during training. Jiu Jitsu is like life as the hard lessons come far before the rewards.
Good luck and stay positive!
Great post. As a first year student I'm noticing the value of patience, perserverance and the need to practice learned moves during my rolls. There's always a fear of losing position or falling prey to your partner's attacks but it seems the more I practice the more things work.
ReplyDeleteBen