5 BJJ Tips for Beginners and White Belts

(Source Google Image)

Beginning Brazilian Jiu Jitsu training can be daunting and overwhelming. The game has so many levels and so much to learn, but it seems there's not enough time. 

As a beginner, there are some beginner BJJ tips that can help guide your training and avoid many of the pitfalls people encounter on the way to blue belt.

These 5 BJJ tips for beginners and white belts will help you progress in BJJ like never before!

5 BJJ Tips for Beginners

#1 – Train Consistently as a BJJ beginner

For beginners in BJJ, consistency in training is undoubtedly the most important tip.

Inconsistent training is by far the biggest cause of slow BJJ progression despite the fact that most BJJ beginners intuitively understand the importance of showing up to practice.

It is realistic to expect to progress optimally by practicing BJJ three to four times per week.

Only training once or twice a week makes it impossible to get enough repetitions of the move of the week to add it to your repertoire.

It is generally recommended that Beginner's BJJ students practice three to four times per week according to a comprehensive beginner's BJJ curriculum.

It is impossible to develop a solid game plan with multiple movements chained together if you do not tie every practice to the previous lesson.

This can only be resolved by showing up three days a week at least.

#2 – Drill more BJJ Fundamentals

It is still possible for progress to stall even among people who train three days a week.

Spend more time drilling the BJJ fundamentals if you are already training consistently to progress faster.

In the white belt level, you learn how to survive in bad positions, develop an escape sequence, and where the important movements occur.

The importance of training with partial and full intensity cannot be overstated. Live rolling is not really productive at the beginner level because you don't have a good enough library of techniques.

Even as a beginner, you should do some live sparring during training, but you should focus most of your time on the basics. 

It is inevitable that your BJJ progress will slow down if you spend most of your time fighting for unproductive grips and trying to maul your way out of positions.

#3 – Be More Focused

Despite consistent drilling, stalling can still happen if you're not paying attention to the right moves.

Beginners will be guided to drill the right moves by most good coaches.

With the rise of BJJ social media accounts and the large number of flashy technique videos, many beginners get too enamored with moves that are already challenging.

Instead of recovering guard or escaping back control, they end up spending too much time trying niche Hail Mary submissions.

When beginners do niche submission chasing, they won't be able to impose a submission on their opponents because they can't escape bad positions, sweep, pass, and maintain top position.

A crotch-ripper or sloppy ankle lock might catch newer people, but you're unlikely to consistently submit an experienced opponent without developing your fundamentals.

In contrast, if you drill a few options for recovering and advancing a position, you will soon find cleaner openings for higher-percentage submissions.

When you master a few basic BJJ positions, you will be able to pressure upper belts and control your peers far more effectively than diving for the last foot-lock you saw.

#4 – Slow it Down

Slowing down is one of the biggest hurdles white belts must overcome. It is certainly important to avoid injury and focus on technique when rolling live.

However, the bigger problem is white belts spazzing during drills. White belts often try a BJJ move on a fully cooperating training partner during drilling as if they are going live in competition right then.

'If you can't do it slowly, you can't do it fast,' goes the old adage in athletics.

BJJ is a great example of this.

Despite having over a year of mat time under their belts, many white belts drill as if performing a move quickly will allow them to pull it off without spending hours perfecting it.

When these white belts attempt a move they've rushed through a few times during drilling, they often end up injuring themselves or piss-off the upper belts.

Movements can make the difference between winning or losing a match, and often one hand or foot position can make all the difference. Spastic drilling neglects these details and will cost you every single pass, sweep, and submission you attempt.

Beginners looking for consistent progress should slow down. It's not just about rolling, but also drilling.

#5 – Don’t be obsessed on getting your blue belt

As a final tip for BJJ beginners and white belts, try not to worry about how fast you earn belt promotions. Getting obsessed with quick belt progressions is a recipe for disaster.

You should be able to finish your white belt in less than a year in the best case scenario. After becoming a blue belt, no one is impressed, and you're still getting smashed by all the same guys.

Furthermore, you are likely to have to wait about three times as long as you did at white belt before you are even close to purple belt.

If you set unreasonable expectations on when you will be promoted, you get injured, lose your job, and life slows down, and before you know it you are demotivated, disheartened, and possibly ready to quit BJJ.

There's no doubt that getting your blue belt will be an exciting experience. White belt represents the process you went through while grinding it out. You are the only person on this planet who cares more about this piece of fabric than anyone else, so make it count.

BJJ progress can be a goal, and I'm not saying you shouldn't try to achieve it. Most people who get promoted fastest are more concerned with improving their BJJ skills than they are with the color of the fabric holding their gi together.

In Conclusion

Get yourself a good BJJ for beginners, start training with these 5 BJJ tips in mind, and you'll soon find yourself progressing more consistently in BJJ!