7 Learning Methods for Jiu-Jitsu: Training Strategies (10-Min)

And then you count the points after the roll. So any kind of constraints you can have turn off the light in the academies that it's really dark. You can have people do blindfold. You can do like this is a handicapped restraints.

You have to hold tennis balls when you're rolling. Any kind of constraints also creates like a specific focus because it's just doing a roll. It's so random. There are so many variables in Jiu-Jitsu.

It's hard to learn from a random roll. A random roll can be therapeutic, but these are learning methods, not enjoyment methods. So when you put a constraint, learning is faster. And then ecological dynamics is a learning method.

It's very big. But let's just talk about one or two things. Ecological dynamics says that skills emerge from solving problems, not following protocols. So when you have a traditional like we are doing this like a kata in karate, one, two, three, four, you don't learn anything.

You can ingrain patterns by following protocol. But solving problem, creative problem solving is much more effective and fun than just following protocol and rules. And one of the founders of the founder of Ethereum blockchain, he said that he could never ever create Ethereum the way it is today. It was the developers, a group of developers that did it.

But what he did as the founder, he set the parameters. He said that these are the hard limits. We're never going to go outside these limits. And that's what you can do as an ecological dynamics coach to set hard parameters that we are not doing this or this.

But within like I tell you what not to do. But then within these these parameters, you can decide exactly what to do and be creative. OK, next one is active feedback sparring. This is very nice.

Like when you get to roll with the coach and he says stop when I put my hand here, you should do this. This kind of undivided attention from your coach is just active feedback sparring. You're rolling and stop here. I would go instead of go right.

I would go left. Huh? Really? Why?

Because of this. Oh, thank you. You know, you're never going to forget that. And also after you have rolled, you can also instead of doing active feedback sparring, you can debrief after the roll.

So you do a roll like, hey, what did you do there? I did this. OK, but I tried this. Why didn't that work?

So either stopping in the middle of the roll that usually only works with your coach. We don't do it when we're on the same level. It's like when there is a high level discrepancy and a brown belt is rolling with a white belt, then that's more common. But after all, the briefing is for all belt levels.

Very effective way of learning. And then we have heuristics learning, meaning shortcuts like mental shortcuts. We need to talk about science a little bit. When you're learning to play a guitar piece or a piano piece, they wanted to know, the researchers wanted to know how perfect do we need it to be?

How perfect do we need it to be before you move on to the next? Do we have to be a master of each section before we move on to the next? No, because there comes a point of diminishing returns where if I fail one time out of 50, like another way to ask this is how good is good enough? And the answer is about 75 percent, meaning if you do a slick arm bar three times out of four, and you do some error on the fourth one, if you try to get it to four out of four, meaning 100 percent, then you're a perfectionist and perfectionists have less fun.

So in general, in general, try to move on to a new variation or a new challenge or or add on to the sequence when you have three out of four. If you only do 50 percent, then you're probably not good enough. You have to like that. It's a sign that your muscle memory is starting to understand what's going on when you get three out of four.

And one more thing on heuristics learning is that like. Instead of doing 100 arm bars, identical arm bars, it's better to do 10 arm bars similar to each other. So having the grip here or here or here, it's the same arm bar, but it's just more variables. And the brain, it's proven that the brain learns better when you have slight slight variations on the same theme.

So it's much better to do 10 different arm bars that are similar to each other than to do the exact same one 100 times in a row. OK, next one is loop drills and infinity drills. I think this is great. So you have two or three or four situations.

Opening the guard, passing the guard, knee and belly mount. And then the other guy, then then your work is finished and the other guy works himself back to closed guard and then you loop through it. And what I like so much about this one is that it's real. It's realistic.

You do a sequence that's going to happen like when you pass someone's guard, many times you're not going to end with a submission. It's going to end with a guy, you know, putting all his effort into getting you back and then you have to start over again and teaching yourself that OK, I'm back in closed guard where I started. This sucks. That's not a good mindset.

It's like, OK, I did it one time. I can do it again and again and again and again. This is a much healthier thing to practice. And what I also like about these types of drills is that you can you can do it in a loop.

We end up in the same position. But if he if he flips you over from closed guard, then you are in the same position. But reverse roles are reversed. And now it's the other guy's turn to do the exact same sequence on you.

And when you're switching roles like this, you know, you are doing it. He's flipping you around. He's doing it. You're flipping him around.

You're constantly changing roles without the break and interruption. I don't I personally don't like the interruptions in training. I want things. I want the technique and drilling to feel like sparring without getting exhausted.

So the technique and drilling should be kind of like a mellow variation of sparring. That's very predictable and where you have the chance to learn. So I think this is a nice learning method. And then another way of learning is, let's see, one, two, three, four, five, six.

I wrote flow chart visuals. So being able to draw your game was incredibly helpful for me when I was a blue belt to understand, understand my game, be able to put the major positions and, you know, see where the arrows goes between and then see where arrows are lacking like mount to back mount. I was lacking that for a long time. I didn't know what the chairs it was.

So I just ended up in, you know, either losing the situation or ending up in weird situations or even getting submitted because I didn't know how to go from mount to back mount. I broke my knee once because I was just freaking out over when he tried to escape the mount. So drawing up your game as a visual is also very, it's a very good method of learning. Just being able to put it down on paper is extremely helpful.

So I hope you liked these seven learning methods of for Jiu Jitsu. Try to use some of them yourself and please comment under the video to share your insights. Peace.