Common BJJ Mistakes to Avoid: Training Guide (8-Min)

You're using the other hand. You want to practice stuff that goes well together with your main technique. Don't have techniques that are isolated on separate islands so that you have some overhook throws and some underhook throws and you're only practicing those. But you're not really connecting the right and the over and under hook on both sides.

You need to tie your techniques together. That's more important than knowing many techniques. Yeah, and also watch out for stuff that just came out. If Lackland Giles says that this new heel hook, whatever, whatever.

It's trendy. Yes, but it doesn't have had time to prove its effectiveness. Even if someone submitted someone in the ADC finals, it doesn't mean that it's going to be a great idea to scrap and prioritizing the other stuff for that new trendy stuff. And don't practice things without practicing a setup.

Find a good setup. If you have a great technique as soon as you get to the back, practice that arm drag setup to it and practice it on both sides. And practice the arm drag with different grips. Practice different setups to get to the same position.

Because if you have 10 setups and you have one main technique, then you're probably going to get that technique 10 times more often than if you have no setup. So setups are much easier and much more rewarding to practice than new techniques. Focus on stuff. Focus on stuff.

Like these were the things to watch out for. Now focus on stuff that gets you points. If you can get a neon belly from side control, that's going to be two easy points. Much easier than a takedown.

Okay, so you can practice takedowns forever. But if you get a neon belly, that's the same amount of points. Getting a sweep can be incredibly difficult. But that neon belly or if you have the mount and you know how to put your foot back in half guard and pass to mount again, that's seven points.

Seven points is incredibly hard to get with a back mount and takedowns and a sweep. So focus on the things that give you points. And that's going to be really nice for you. Focus on stuff that everybody knows, but not well enough.

Because everybody knows it because it's the basics and it's taken for granted. But most people make assumptions. And if you understand those assumptions better than other people, you can take advantage of the stuff that they know is wrong. Like for example, I crossed the ankles from back mount and then people know that this is wrong.

And they try to footlock me and crank my knee. And then I use that as a trap to lock up his hips completely. So I did what everybody knows, but I did it better and I understood it better. Well, focus on the stuff that your coach is talking about.

That stuff that he says every training. There is a reason, very good reason why your coach is saying something over and over again. It's because you're not understanding it yet. So really try to understand what your coach is actually saying.

Maybe he's not good at expressing it. You can't expect everybody to both know what's good and be good at expressing it and saying it. But if they're saying it over and over, it's because it's important. So focus on actually trying to figure out, pick the coach's brain.

What does he mean with the things he says over and over? When you ask the question, you're helping your coach articulate. And they're probably going to appreciate that. And focus on stuff that worked 30 years ago.

Go back, go way back and look at the techniques that worked really well before. Don't get stuck in this trap of thinking that Jiu Jitsu is a hundred times better now. Yes, in many ways it is. But the Margarida pass, it worked for Margarida 30 years ago.

And trust me, it works well today if you just understand it. Because people get so obsessed with trends and nobody is so obsessed with history almost. So if you go back, go to those guys we talked about in the other video that knows everything and knows the history of everything. And the catch wrestling techniques, the neck cranks and the baseball chokes and stuff that used to work in the 80s and 90s and 70s.

They are going to work today too with a couple of probably updated twists and the details. So don't overlook going back to basics. Basically, the last thing to focus on instead is get a more nuanced understanding of the boring stuff. Things are boring when we don't really understand them or we think we understand them.

Understand that side control changes completely when you stop trying to squeeze them with your biceps and hugging yourself down. And instead putting your weight on them and posting in the ground and caging them. So that when they're trying to hip escape, they're hip escaping into your hand that is glued to the ground. When I started understanding this, I hated side control because I got tired there.

Now I'm doing similar things to before, but I have a better understanding of it when I learned or came up with new principles. So focus on that instead of those flashy things we talked about earlier and you're going to have a good time.