Beginners BJJ Classes

In my previous article I discussed how I run my Intermediate BJJ Classes

https://deniskellymmacoaching.blogspot.com.au/2018/01/my-bjj-class-format.html

This time I'm going to cover how we run our beginner BJJ Program.

For Beginners Classes I follow an eight week program covering a different topic each week. I try to give the beginner students a good introduction to the most important positions and situations and then they can go into much more detail on each position when they graduate to the intermediate classes.

My Eight week program consists of:

Week 1 - Mount Position

Week 2 - Back Control

Week 3 - Side Control

Week 4 - Closed Guard Submissions

Week 5 - Closed Guard Sweeps

Week 6 - Open Guard

Week 7 - Guard Passing

Week 8 - Escapes from Positions and Submissions

Warm Up

Warm Ups for beginners classes consist of a light jog, joint rotations and then some basic JiuJitsu related movements such as hip escapes. Intense warm ups which are usually not a good idea in these sessions as beginners will be too exhausted to focus on learning techniques properly.

Standing Techniques

Each Class starts off with drilling one basic standing technique such as an escape from a grips, basic throws and takedowns. I always make these techniques relevant for self defence situations as this is the primary reason that most students are learning martial arts. An example of a technique in this section of the class might be to clinch against opponent throwing punches, get body-lock takedown, secure mount position.

I will break each technique down into five steps and give a 'Cue' word for each step. I find that any more than five steps tends to be too much to remember for  new students. If necessary I will give each student additional information or technical feedback about the technique as I'm walking around the class.

Ground Techniques

Next we move on to techniques based around whatever theme we are covering this week. I stick to just the highest percentage techniques from each position to expose the students to what I feel are the most important movements. These are the moves that I feel they need to learn and understand first before moving onto more complicated techniques. For example in Mount week I teach the students how to maintain Mount position and how to counter the most common escapes then we will work on Americana from Mount, Arm-lock from Mount, Cross Collar Choke from Mount and Transitioning from Mount to Back Control. 

Where possible I will stay away from Techniques which are too Sports BJJ specific and stick to fundamentals which work with or without the Gi and whether or not the opponent is trying to punch you. There will be plenty of time in the Students training career to practice Sports specific techniques but I feel its important to get the basics right first.

Positional Sparring

In some Beginners Classes I will also include positional sparring. This helps beginners get an idea of what the techniques should feel like against resistance in a safer environment. I don't believe its a good idea to let beginners Spar right from the beginning. Beginner students will not to be able to apply any actual Jiujitsu techniques and will instead just spend five minutes trying to headlock each other. There is also a higher risk of injury and it will probably be off-putting for the majority of new students. 

Fight Simulation Drill

At the end of the class we try to link all the techniques learnt that day into a Fight Simulation Drill. This is a good way to revise the techniques and also linking techniques together based on a specific response from the opponent. An example of this could be:

• Close distance and Clinch against Partner Throwing Punches
• Get Body-Lock Takedown to Mount Position 
• Maintain Mount for ten seconds as Partner tries to escape with 50% resistance
• Execute Americana or Arm-Lock Submission based on Arm Position of your Partner
• Get up and Switch Roles

I have found that drills such as this are a great way to bridge the gap between learning techniques and then applying the techniques in sparring.

Learn BJJ in Melbourne

My BJJ Class Format

Heres a brief description of how I run my Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Classes. Since I began teaching full time eight years ago I've been experimenting with various methods of running classes and tweaking the formats to see what works best. 

I have trained at a lot of different BJJ academies across the world and I have tried to implement the best ideas I've come across when running my own classes.

This is the format for my Intermediate classes which are an hour and half, I will cover my Beginners program in another article.

Weekly Schedule

One of the first things I did when I started teaching was to create a weekly schedule focusing on a different theme every week. I think this is much more efficient than just having an instructor turn up and teach whatever ever he feels like that day as it ensures all the important areas of BJJ are covered.

I've changed around my weekly schedule many times since I began Teaching but my current system is as follows.

Week 1 - Guard Passing 1 - Passing Closed Guard and Half Guard

Week 2 - Guard Passing 2 - Passing Open Guards

Week 3 - Closed Guard 1 - Revision of Submissions, Sweeps & Transitions from Closed Guard

Week 4 - Closed Guard 2 - Using Combinations of Submissions, Sweeps and Transitions

Week 5 - Half Guard Bottom - Submissions, Sweeps & Transitions from Bottom Half Guard.

Week 6 - Open Guard 1 - Focusing on Basic Open Guard, Butterfly Guard & Sitting Guard

Week 7 - Open Guard 2 - More Advanced Open Guards such as De La Riva & X Guard

Week 8 - Top Control Positions - Side Control, Kesa Gatame, Knee on Belly 

Week 9 - Mount - Control, Submissions & Transitions from Mount Position

Week 10 - Back Control - Taking the Back from various positions & Submissions from Back Control

Week 11 - Turtle Position - Submissions, Turnovers and Transitions from Turtle & Front Headlock

Week 12 - Leg-locks - Entries, Setups, Controls and finishes for Leg-lock Submissions

Week 13 - Escapes 1 - Positional Escapes

Week 14 - Escapes 2 - Escapes from Submissions

Class Format

My Intermediate classes follow the following format:

• Warm-Up
• Takedown Technique
• Ground Techniques
• Specific/Positional Sparring
• Free Sparring

Warm Up

I've experimented with a few different options for Warm Ups over the last couple of years from high intensity cardio warm up to completely skipping the Warm up altogether and just getting straight into drilling techniques. At the minute we are doing some functional warm up exercises and a sequence of BJJ specific movements such as Technical Stand ups, Oma Plata Stretch and Sit outs. I have found these work really well as they get the students warm but also get them doing moving the right way which transfers well into the skills training.

Take-down Technique

I teach one takedown technique at the beginning of every class. We work Judo throws on the Gi training nights and Wrestling Take-downs on NoGi nights. I feel its important that all students have at least some basic level of Takedown ability in order to progress in BJJ. Although BJJ is primarily a Ground-Fighting art, its very important to learn how to take an opponent to ground in order to use your techniques.

Ground Techniques

Next we move on Techniques on the ground based on the theme we are covering that week. I encourage my students to drill as many reps as possible and try to make each rep as perfect as possible. I've seen many differing opinions on the value or effectiveness of drilling techniques throughout the last 25 years that I've been training in martial arts. Some people believe that drilling techniques is a waste of time and that students should just roll. Although I think this method may work for the exceptionally talented athlete I've found that the average student paying to learn JiuJitsu just will not make much improvement unless they put in the time drilling the techniques over and over to build muscle memory. 

Specific/Positional Sparring

This is where we take the techniques that we've drilled and try to apply them against resistance. I use a wide variety specific sparring drills that I use in this portion of the class. I have different Drills that I use depending on what we are working on that week. For example, during Side Control week we might just spar with one person starting on top in side control and also building up the objectives for each round. Round One might be Top person just pinning / holding while the bottom player tries to recover guard. Round Two we might move on to Top Player also trying to get to Mount or Back Control.

Heres another article with more detail on the benefits of Positional or Isolation Sparring Drills:

http://deniskellymmacoaching.blogspot.com.au/2015/07/isolation-sparring.html

Free Sparring

In the last section of the class we put it altogether in Free Sparring. We usually do 5 x 5 Minute rounds with 30 second rest between rounds. We encourage everyone to do every round of sparring unless there is uneven numbers in the class. If a student feels that their cardio isn't good enough to roll every round I'll just tell them to roll at a pace they can sustain for the rest of the class rather than going crazy for one round then having to sit out for the next 25 minutes. We also have a zero tolerance policy for dangerous sparring in class. All techniques must be performed in a safe and controlled partner. If you hurt your training partner and he cant roll the next round that means you have to sit out the next rounds too.

As previously mentioned I am continually tweaking and adjusting my class formats and adding new techniques and drills based on what I learn in my own training but I've found that I've seen really good results with my students using this format.

Check out this article about the Gym Culture we have tried to create at our Team

My Gym Culture

Learn BJJ in Melbourne

Gym Culture

I've trained at lots of gyms all around the world. I've trained all over Europe, in the USA, Brazil, Japan and Thailand  I have tried to pick up all the best elements of each place i've trained while avoiding the things I felt didn't work.

My dream was to create a gym with high level training in striking, grappling and MMA. I'd been to many places that had excellent BJJ but non existent or very limited striking, or MMA gyms which had fighters but no real technical BJJ or Striking training.

The things that I've tried to do which I believe will lead us to being one of the best teams in the world include the following.

Train Smart

Smart Training methods - Not just everyone smashing each other in every session. Using progressive resistance and trying to learn and improve with each round of sparring or rolling rather than treating every round like a fight.

Fundamentals

Focus on important fundamental techniques - We work on high percentage techniques 99% of the time. If you get those working well then its easy to add the rubber guards, berimbolos and flying heel hooks to your game. If you start with the fancy flavour of the month techniques you'll never get them to work.

Keep Getting Better

Focus on continual improvement - working on getting better every session, improving your game by 1% every day and after a year you'll be 365% better. This is a long slow process but you get better results than just training hard for 4 weeks leading up to a fight and then slacking off.

Team Culture

We have a culture of more experienced members helping the new guys and turning them into better training partners - This benefits everyone, New people get better quicker and experienced people have more quality training partners. The opposite to this is gyms where the people who've been training for 6 months consider themselves too good to waste their time on the new people.

The Right Atmosphere

We have a friendly atmosphere - Theres no need to convince people that you're a tough guy if you actually have the fights, wins and belts to prove it. Toughness is how you train and fight not how you act.

We still maintain the atmosphere of a martial arts academy. Everyone lines up, follows the rules, shows respect to their training partners, keeps the place clean and hygienic.

Respect 

We don't disrespect other gyms or teams. I think if you spend all your time talking about how bad other gyms or teams are it shows insecurity, we focus on making ourselves and our students the best that they can be in every session rather than worrying about what others are doing.

Check out this Documentary about our Team and our BJJ Program:

http://deniskellymmacoaching.blogspot.com.au/2016/09/team-nemesis-documentary.html

Learn MMA in Melbourne

Tough on your Team.

Popularity Versus Performance

One of the great lessons we learned from sports coaching expert Wayne Goldsmith earlier this year was that 'popularity is the enemy of performance'. 

Popularity is easy; performance requires honesty. If you want your teammates to perform at their best you need to be honest with them even if this will make you less popular. You need to be tougher on your team than their opponents will be.

This does'nt mean trying to knock them out or cranking on arm locks in every sparring session. That would actually be counterproductive, it will not allow them to improve and may lead to injuries, which could derail their progress. 

Being Honest with your Team-Mates

If you care about your teammate’s progress and success then you need to be honest with them about their training. If your training partner is on a losing streak and you don’t want to see them get knocked out in their next fight you need to be honest with them and tell them that training two hours a week then going for a run on Saturday isn’t going to get the job done.

Wayne’s point was that most people would not be honest. They don't want to offend their training partner so instead they just say ‘good job bro’, give them a high five and tell them we'll get them next time. 

The Reality 

The reality is that your next opponent doesn't care whether you are a nice person and doesn't worry about offending you. He is going to be brutally honest with you over the course of three five-minute rounds and will highlight the areas of your training where you took shortcuts

Popularity is easy; Performance requires honesty. The more you care about each other the harder you will be on each other.

Tough Coaching

The same is also true when it comes to coaching. Most fighters early in their career are open to advice and constructive criticism. They want to be told where they are going wrong and what they need to improve on. They realise that there will be a huge price to pay if they don't fix up the holes in their game. The job of the coach is to identify these holes and fix them before they can be exploited by a future opponent.

Coaches Versus 'Yes-Men'

If the fighter follows the advice of the coach he will usually experience initial success early on in his career. But this is when something interesting starts to happen. Often the fighters early success will cause him to develop an overblown ego, he decides he no longer needs to be told what he's doing wrong and instead surrounds himself with people who will constantly feed his ego by telling him what he's doing right and how great he is.

This is always a recipe for disaster. The new 'coach' will either not be knowledgeable and experienced enough to highlight the mistakes of the fighter or will just refuse to criticise him for fear of losing his meal ticket. Either way, it will lead to fighter going on a downward spiral of worse and worse results.

“A coach is someone who tells you what you don't want to hear, who has you see what you don't want to see, so you can be who you have always known you could be.”

― Tom Landry

Learn MMA in Melbourne

Mental Training

"How do I stop pre-fight nerves affecting my performance and ruining all the weeks of hard training and preparation before a fight?" This is a question that I often get asked by students before a fight or competition.

Everyone gets Pre-Fight Nerves

The first thing to remember is that everyone gets nervous before fights. The only people who don't get nervous are those who already know that they are going to lose. They have no need to be worried or put any pressure on themselves and already have all the excuses lined up for afterwards.

Even top level fighters are nervous and anxious before fights. There are numerous stories about top fighters such as Mike Tyson and Crocop being in tears and vomiting from panic and nervousness just minutes before stepping into the ring. Top level fighters have put in months and years of training and preparation and just have a short amount of time to make it all pay off. If top fighters appear not to be nervous it’s because they are acting in a confident manner knowing that appearing more confident will help them feel more confident.

Dealing with the Stress before it overpowers you

The first step to dealing with this stress is actually understanding what you are afraid of. You are not afraid of fighting. If you were afraid of fighting you would have many opportunities change your mind or find excuses to pull out in the weeks and days leading up to the fight.

The real reason fighters feel nervous before they compete is performance anxiety. You are afraid that you won't perform at your best and that all your training will be a waste of time. The problem is that this stress can make you feel weak, unfit, tired and nervous which can contribute to you not being able to perform at your best.

Get used to this Stress and Use it

The next thing to understand is that the nervousness won't just go away the more you compete. What actually happens is that you become better at dealing with it and using it to motivate you rather than negatively affecting your performance.

Getting used to the pressure doesn't happen overnight. You need to take small steps and set goals to gradually get better at dealing with the stress and performing at your best under pressure.

Steps to getting better at dealing with pre-fight nerves.

You need to spend as much time working on your mental skills as you do on your physical skills. It's good to find ways to combine both such as starting sparring from disadvantageous positions or pushing yourself to the point where you feel like quitting during fitness training to build your mental strength.

Mental Rehearsal - Don't put off thinking about the fight or match until it’s too late because then all the stress will hit you in one big rush. Visualise the fight in the weeks and days leading up to it so you will gradually get used to the pressure and stress in small doses. Visualise getting your hands wrapped, warming up, the ring announcer calling out your name. If possible watch videos of your opponent as so you know exactly what he looks like and how he moves, imagine yourself fighting him so that when you actually do fight it will seem that you're fighting someone who you've already fought or sparred with many times before.

Pre-Fight Routine - Have a few things that you do the day or night before every fight. For example watching the same inspirational movie, going for a walk on your own to think about the upcoming fight, listening to certain type of music. This will help build a feeling of consistency and familiarity to make you feel like you’ve been through all of this before. Don't do things to avoid thinking about the fight or take your mind off it. You need to stay focused on what you're going to do in a few hours time and make sure you are mentally ready.

Confident Mindset - Going into the match that you need a confident frame of mind. You need to be confident in your skills and ability and be positive and certain that if you perform at your best you will be able to win. The best way to develop this mindset is to think of previous times when fought really well or felt confident while you were in the ring. If you have never had an experience of feeling confident and positive in a fight then just think about a time when you felt confident in training.

Think of a time when everything went well and you were sure that you could rely on your techniques, where you felt fit and when your timing felt spot on.Try to remember how you felt during this time and the feelings and emotions that were going through your head. Then try to imagine you are back there doing the exact same thing. You need to practice this state of mind as much as possible so that you are sure that you can get back to it whenever you feel like it. The pre-fight routine mentioned above will also help you access your confident mindset more easily.

Attitudes to avoid

‘Just go in there and have fun’ - The reality is that you just have a short amount of time - 9 to 15 minutes to either win or lose the fight. That isn't enough time to 'have fun' and 'show what you can do'. What you need to be thinking about is going in and executing as perfect a performance as possible and not leaving anything to chance. What you need to be thinking is 'I've only got a short amount of time, I need to execute my game-plan perfectly and make my opponent quit.'

‘I just want to get it over with’ - This attitude shows that you aren't prepared to put in a big effort to win possibly due to the strain and exhaustion of all the training in the weeks leading up to the fight. What you need to be thinking is 'I've already put in all the weeks and months of preparation and I'm prepared to fight for as long as it takes to make my opponent quit even if that takes two hours'.

‘I deserve to win’ - All of the training that you did leading up to the fight or your performance in previous fights is no guarantee of how will perform in this fight. If you are not switched on enough and you opponent is then he may still be able to beat you even if he is less skilled.

Don't Run Away from it

Don’t try to avoid the stress - Just the same way that your muscles need stress from weights and resistance exercise to get stronger, the mental side of your fight training needs controlled amounts of stress to improve your ability to perform well in competition.

Learn MMA in Melbourne

MMA Teamwork

How important is your Team for success in MMA?

Boxing Vs MMA : Teams

One of the major differences between professional Boxing and MMA is the emphasis on teams rather than on the individual fighters. In boxing everyone knows all about Mayweather and Pacquiao but not too much about their training partners. It's usually the opposite in MMA. If there is one successful fighter from a team there are usually plenty more where they came from.

This has been the case right from the start. The first major team that had a lot of success was the Lions Den which featured Ken Shamrock, Frank Shamrock, Guy Mezger and many others. Following on from their example many other successful teams came along over the years such as Miletich Fighting Systems (Pat Miletich, Matt Hughes, Jens Pulver), Chute Box (Pele, Wanderlei Silva, Anderson Silva, Shogun Rua), Team Punishment (Tito Ortitz, Chuck Liddell, Ricco Rodriguez) and Brazilian Top Team (Nogueria Brothers, Mario Sperry, Ricardo Arona).

The Team System

The team system has worked so well that pretty much all the successful fighters in the history of MMA can trace their success back to being part of a successful team. This has continued up to the present day with the results of teams such as Jacksons MMA, Roufus Sport, AKA and Tristar Gym.

The career trajectory of a professional boxer is usually a lot different. Boxers typically start off at an amateur club where they are taught by volunteers a few evenings a week. If they ever become good enough to turn professional they will need to hire full time trainers and managers. They will also  need to pay sparring partners to come in and help them prepare for fights. The big difference here is that in MMA the sparring partners are usually working together to help each other improve. Boxing sparring partners are just there for the benefit of the star fighter. The sparring partners are not told to ‘look after’ each other. In some cases sparring partners would get paid a bonus if they could knock out the star fighter in training.

Iron Sharpens Iron

MMA camps usually consist of teams of people who train together all year round not just before fights. All members of the team try to improve each other and develop the others skills especially in sparring. In the long term this will lead to each fighter having better and more skilled training partners to train with. In professional boxing all of the sparring partners are just there to improve the big name boxer. The star boxer isn’t really concerned with developing the skills of the sparring partners.

Right from the beginning MMA has been a team focused sport. Pretty much all the champions in UFC and Pride have come through the tried and tested team system. Over the years there have been a few examples of MMA ‘superstars’ who tried to follow the professional boxing model instead such as Brock Lesnar and Alastair Overreem. These fighters usually have very limited success when they try to break away from the team system and are eventually faced with either retiring from the sport or returning to a successful team.

Advantages of a Team

What are the advantages of a team? Firstly, you get out what you put in. If you turn up consistently and train hard with a good, helpful attitude you will have good training partners who will in turn help you to develop into an even better fighter. If you come to the gym sporadically, train with the wrong attitude and injure your training partners nobody will be willing to train with you. This will make it very difficult to be successful as a fighter. You will be faced with the option of having to pay sparring partners. However MMA fighters don’t get paid enough to justify paying sparring partners and there aren’t really any MMA sparring partners for hire like there are in professional boxing.

Another advantage is that it is possible to produce multiple good fighters using the team system rather than just being focused on one person. This is because the trainers, sparring partners, training systems and structure remain consistent and if they have produced good results for one person then they can continue to reproduce the same results and success for others.

When a fighter steps into the ring or cage they are in there on their own but what happens and how they perform once the bell rings is determined by the team that they have been surrounded by up until that point.

Learn MMA in Melbourne

Improve your BJJ

Every JiuJitsu Student wants to improve their skill level and reach their full potential. Everyone has different goals and ambitions, they might aspire to be world champions, achieve a black belt or maybe just to land a submission on one particularly tough training partner.

BJJ is a very efficient form of martial art so it follows that if you keep training then you will improve and develop your skills but what if you want to maximise your potential?

The best case scenario:

The optimal conditions for BJJ training where an athlete has unlimited time, money and resources would be as follows :
· 6 hours of BJJ training per day 5 days per week (plus additional strength and conditioning training.)
· Structured one on one session with an experienced coach every day who analyses videos of your sparring matches and videos of upcoming opponents then shows you exactly what you did right and wrong and what you need to work on and improve.
· 2 hours each day practicing the techniques suggested by the coach with a drilling partner under the supervision of the coach to ensure you are performing every repetition perfectly.
· 2 hours of sparring against training partners of a similar or higher level than yourself. Using timed rounds to simulate competition conditions.
· Ideally you would be competing regularly (almost every weekend ) and periodising your competition schedule so that you peak for the most important competitions and use the smaller events as tests and practice matches. The reality:
However, the reality is that BJJ is an amateur sport with very few full time athletes. The vast majority of BJJ students and most competitors train recreationally so the conditions described above are usually impossible. The more realistic scenario is that...
· Most BJJ students are able to train a maximum of 3 times per week due to commitments like work and family.
· BJJ classes are not usually structured in a way that maximises competitive improvement for each student. Most recreational students want to learn new and interesting techniques each time they come to class. If each session was just focused on drilling the few high percentage techniques that win matches it would make the classes boring and after a few weeks students would stop showing up for class.
· There are so many positions and techniques to cover that there is insufficient time to practice all of them effectively. Your instructor may show an important guard pass at four sessions during the month, but if you miss one of those classes then you may only get to practice that important technique for a total of 15 – 20 minutes in one month which obviously isn’t enough.
· Most BJJ students don’t get the opportunity to compete very often. This makes it difficult to determine if they are improving and progressing. Sparring with your training partners is usually not a good indicator of progress.
· Most BJJ students don’t have enough time to attend classes as often as they would like let alone have enough time to do additional strength and conditioning training. How can the average student get the best results from their training?
In spite of these limitations some recreational BJJ players can still get impressive results. It helps if you are naturally athletic or if advanced students give you extra assistance and advice to help you improve. However, what about for the average beginner who wants to increase their rate of improvement? Here are some tips which you may find useful. Take Notes
Make notes on every new technique you learn, this will make it much easier to remember important details. Don’t assume being shown a technique and then practicing it a few times will be enough. Build Muscle Memory
When you learn new techniques you need to build the new complicated movement patterns into your muscle memory. This will allow you to access the techniques when needed in sparring. Here is a useful routine to help build a new technique into your muscle memory.

Coach shows a new technique:

Drill it with your partner in the usual way

At the start of the sparring rounds ask your sparring partner if you can practice the new technique on him for 2 repetitions to refresh your memory,

At the end of class try to get someone who isn’t in a hurry to leave and practice the technique 10 more times,

Go home and write notes on the technique

In the next class grab a partner and practice the move 10 times (this may be useful for the training partner too because maybe he missed the previous class and hasn’t seen the technique)

This method will help you remember new techniques much better than if you just drill it a few times then forget about it and don’t see it again for 6 months. Game-plan
Organise your techniques into a game plan. This will comprise of your ‘go-to’ techniques which you will always try to use in competitions or sparring. Get used to working off your game plan when you are sparring. This really helps because it cuts down on the time it takes to make decisions and speeds up your reaction time. You no longer have to sort through twenty different options of what move to go for as each position will dictate what technique you are going to use. Purpose
Set a purpose for each round of sparring. For example, one submission or guard pass which you want to use or a position that you want to practice escaping. This is more useful and productive than trying to win or to survive the round. Try to choose around three different things to work on in case your opponent makes it too difficult to practice certain techniques. It’s a good idea to not explain what you are trying to do to your partner as he may react in an unrealistic way or be overly compliant to allow you to successfully pull off the move. Just let them think it’s a normal sparring round. Video
Whenever possible video yourself rolling. This is very helpful as what you imagined you were doing during sparring and what you were actually doing can sometimes be very different. Analysing video of yourself sparring will help you pinpoint what you did right and wrong and how you can improve. Extra Training
For most beginners the activity that will give the greatest crossover benefit is to focus fitness and endurance. The simplest way to do this is by getting up 45 minutes earlier in the morning and go for a run. This increase in endurance will help you last longer and think more clearly during rounds of sparring which will help your BJJ improve. This is preferable to just lifting weights to get stronger which may make sparring feel easier but can lead to becoming overly reliant on strength rather than using technique. Goals
Set Goals for your training. Have specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time based goals for your training. For example, this month the goal is to learn two new open guard passes, practice them 200 times and pull each one off in sparring at least once per class by the end of the month. Don’t be too competitive
When practising new techniques in sparring you may risk ending up in bad positions or you may get submitted. Don’t let this deter you from attempting new techniques and don’t allow your ego to hinder long term improvement. Use the information to determine where you went wrong to improve for next time. Choose your training partners
Practice your new techniques against less experienced partners until you are proficient at them and then try them against more challenging sparring partners. If you try to use techniques that you have not yet mastered against experienced opponents you could easily get shut down and miss the chance to practice anything. Keep track of your progress
Finally, keep track of your progress and monitor what is working, what is not working, how many submissions, guard passes and escapes you are successfully pulling off. This will provide an idea of whether your training is moving in the right direction and what you need to change or do differently.

Learn BJJ in Melbourne