Tanquinho enjoying his time on the mat / Photo: Erin Herle
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1. GET A TRAINING PARTNER WHO CAN BE YOUR BAROMETER
Mentally, pick a decent-level training partner to be a parameter for your evolution. There’s no point in choosing an opponent who’s really weak or really strong. With each training session, see whether you are getting better or worse against him, and start neutralizing his strengths by building solid defenses.
2. WRITE DOWN THE 10 MISTAKES YOU MADE MOST OVER THE WEEK
Create a daily record of where you come up short and whatever of use you learned—each week, attack 10 of these main points. At the start of each week, reread them before going in to training, to refresh your memory.
3. SHOW UP EARLY
The pre-training period is important. Eat something light, water up throughout the day, and don’t skip the warm-up. Your evolution may be getting hampered by your habits—and that isn’t just in Jiu-Jitsu.
4. BE CURIOUS
Don’t be afraid to ask questions of your teacher or more-experienced colleagues. With each query you will discover surprising new escapes and solutions for problems that were confounding you.
5. WATCH MORE TOURNAMENT DVDS
Just sticking to YouTube and perusing techniques and old matches, oftentimes, can confuse beginning Jiu-Jitsu practitioners. Invest in some tournament DVDs, and watch one match at a time. There you’ll find techniques that do indeed work against the best fighters on the planet. You’ll always pick up some detail or another that can make a big difference in your game.
