Focused Training

How to do it

Lock in: the focus is free

As your coach, I should walk into every session and think: "That athlete is so focused. They're asking such good questions about today's technique. They give me a great effort every single day. I want to coach that kid." Here's what I should see, as a minimum:

• Laser focus on today's technique and today's game.
• Good questions about what we're learning.
• Great effort every day, not just when you feel like it.
• Tough training partners, picked on purpose.
• Time spent in the positions you're bad at.
• No chatting with friends during the session. This is a huge one.
• Staying on the focus. Drifting into other moves costs you practice time on the skill you're building.

When you try the new thing and it fails, good. Trying something new isn't failing to try your best. Trying is learning. The athlete who never tries anything new never learns anything new.

Train at least four times a week

Most people who come to me train about three times a week. That's fine for a Student. A true professional trains at least four times a week, and that's the floor.

Teens: juniors classes alone won't get you there. You can do juniors and adults, but four juniors classes a week won't give you the volume you need. Get into the adults classes (advanced, or fundamentals if there's no advanced) and the open mats, at least twice a week. This plan is built for teenagers and adults. If you're eight or nine, this isn't you yet, and that's fine.

The hard part for most families is lining all those sessions up with sleep and diet. That's the balance we strike together, starting with your schedule. And be honest with yourself: if you could train five times a week and you choose two, the goal and the volume don't match. Change one of them.

Count volume over time, not just per week

Volume is sessions per week, times how long each one is, times how many weeks you keep it up. Someone training twice a week for three years will generally be better off than someone who trained six times a week for two months. Your body and brain need lots of experience with Jiu-Jitsu, and lots of time to process it.

We're in an economy of tries. Count yours.

Follow your plan's focus and stick to it

You don't pick your focuses. Your coach sets them in your plan (on the Worlds squad, that's your Worlds block). Your job is to follow them, name your technical focus before you bow in, and keep coming back to it, day in, day out.

How long you hold a focus is set by your plan and your coach: one athlete might spend a few weeks on guard passing, another a few months. Either way, give it long enough to actually change before you move on. In my own camps I held about three focuses for months at a time (single legs, guard retention and upper body guards in one; leg entanglements, single legs and back takes in another). That was my plan, not a rule for yours.

Steer every round toward your focus

Don't wait for a round to hand you your position. Take the round to your position. Even in a flow round or an open round, work your way into the exchange you're building, and stay there until your partner starts giving you the responses you need to develop the skill. Working single legs? Your rounds start standing. Working guard retention? Get to guard and stay there. If the round drifts away, steer it back.

Get the most out of every partner

You can get a lot out of any training partner if you're smart about it: bigger, smaller, lighter or less experienced. Put your ego aside. Not every session needs to be as hard as possible. Ask yourself, "What can I focus on and develop technically with this partner today?" Then teach each other, work set positions, and build something.

Elite training is what you bring to the session, not the room you're standing in. When it feels like the room is the problem, look at your own focus first (see Mindset). Moving School, or even country, won't make your training elite on its own: your diet, your effort and your focus come with you wherever you train. Being in an elite room isn't the same as bringing elite training to it.

Technique first, then intensity

Your strength and conditioning belongs in the gym (see Strength & Conditioning). On the mat, the goal is to get as good as possible. Hard rounds have a place, but not often, and the idea is never to blow your knees out going flat out every round.

Building skill out of intensity almost never happens. Build the skill, then build the intensity on top of it. Putting strength and skill together is a coordination problem, and coordination gets built in the right order. This is technical empowerment, not "harder" empowerment. If most of your improvement is coming from trying harder, treat that as a warning sign: intensity without skill is how people get hurt, even on a move they've drilled for weeks.

See what a pro week looks like

Mornings I'd go to a pro session and get smashed by world-champion-level athletes. At night I'd come to Gracie Barra Bondi tired and sore, teach good classes, then train and drill with my Students. Rep, rep, rep.