Casual to Serious Training

Most of us are training and enjoying the jiu jitsu lifestyle every day. You come to practice and normally you do ok against guys of the same grade. Some lower grades you can demolish while higher grades tend to beat you in sparring. One day however you meet the bjj competitor breed though....

This is a special breed of sparring partner. From my experience there is always one or two guys at an average decent academy that is just way above the rest for their grade. It might be a guy that trained in wrestling or judo since early child hood but not necessarily. Sometimes its a guy that just trains a lot and by a lot I mean A LOT more than everybody else. 

The thing is no matter how talented you are, or athletic or what you did before bjj, if you train a lot you catch up.. you close gaps in your game and evolve into a fighter that can hold his own against guys that have been doing bjj much longer timewise.

There is just a different approach when it comes to serious players. If casual bjj players would normally train 2-3-4 sessions per week, most serious players would train at least 6 classes a week which is when your improvement speed starts to kick in and you begin to feel that you are developing faster your partners. 

Most serious players would train twice a day every day or more and this makes all the difference. Guys at the top of the major IBJJF stands train often and once you start taking the sport seriously it starts to bring in good results. 

Once you start feeling progress I think its really time to get even more motivated by competing. Competition is an excellent driver. A good start is to take part in the local bjj circuit. Smaller comps is a great start and an excellent incentive for your training. You now have a goal to work towards and something you can work together with your partners helping each other in training and then going out and competing together against guys from other schools. Over time you move forward and progress to bigger competitions and tougher guys and I think this is where it gets really interesting to see for many, how far they can go and improve.