The Secret to Getting Good at Jiu Jitsu

By Emil Fischer, May 07, 2016

They say that 3% of the population is naturally gifted and can get good at jiu jitsu very quickly and use those skills to win tournaments and be awesome. The other 97% aren’t so lucky and have to work to get there. There is however a special secret to getting good at jiu jitsu: mat time. Specifically consistently putting in hours on the mat, and making the choice to focus on training.

Talent and hard work will often beat hard work alone, but hard work is hard to do and most talented people aren’t able to put in the time to really become extraordinary. The beauty of jiu jitsu is that if you put that time in you can become talented even if you are not naturally inclined to BE talented.

When I first started training seriously to compete, I was frustrated because I found that people who had been training less time cumulatively than me were already much better than me. Then I learned this secret to getting good.

Not everyone is able to use this information, if you have a family or a busy personal life you may be limited. But if you have time or are able to make time, add one hour of training per week per month. That is to say: every month increase your weekly hours by one hour, until you can no longer add to it.

Be careful to not burn yourself out. Possibly vary your training methodology, maybe stick with drilling, and limit how much you roll hard, but remember the more time you spend on the mat, the better you will become. Jiu jitsu is ultimately a numbers game: those who spend the most time on the mat tend to be the best practitioners.