Everyone goes through these stages when starting BJJ (or any other sport). Your journey as an athlete will be easier if you know about them. As a result, you will have a better understanding of what you are going through, and you will see what you should focus on.
Coaches can use these tips to help students. You can tailor your advice to the student and their current stage instead of giving generic advice.
There will be differences in stage for people with the same belts or training levels. Each person's journey is different, so you shouldn't rush through the steps. You will stifle your long-term development when you neglect one and try to jump ahead.
Naturally, the stages change daily; you don't just switch from one to another. Make the transition slowly when you are ready for the next step.
Building the foundation
Learning how to move your body is the first step toward improving body awareness. For further learning, agility, balance, and coordination must be developed. For someone who has played other sports before BJJ, this will probably be easy for them. When you are learning BJJ for the first time, it will take some time for those qualities to develop
You must also learn how to train in addition to your physical skills. It is a skill in itself to learn new skills. In order to execute a movement, you must be able to see it, understand it, translate it to your body, and then execute it.
Seeing someone pick up things much quicker than you do, especially if they are just getting started, can be devastating at first. In that case, keep in mind that their foundation probably came from other sports. It is not the same foundation for everyone.
Depending on the individual, some can skip this phase, some might only need a short period of time here, and others might need a lot longer. You don't have to worry about either way. As you progress through the following phases of your BJJ journey, the playing field will eventually level out.
Train to train
The focus is on learning the sport after the foundation has been laid. Getting an understanding of all the positions and how they interact is essential before you can truly "play" BJJ. Know what your primary goals are and what your opponent is trying to accomplish from every position.
It is also important that you learn the basic concepts during this time, such as keeping your elbows tight, keeping both arms in or out, and never giving up top position. You should learn the fundamentals from a variety of positions.
Try not to focus too much on winning during this phase. Take advantage of the opportunity to learn about jiu jitsu and have fun.
After this phase, even if you only know a few techniques, you will be ready to play jiu jitsu. Your game is the same as that of the top players, just at a different level from theirs.
Training to compete
It doesn't matter if you want to compete or if you just want to train for life, this is where you focus on improving.
Here's your chance to really get to know the sport. Enjoy learning all the advanced techniques and positions while learning the fundamentals. Take a look at what your top competitors are doing and try to incorporate some of those strategies into your own play.
During this phase, you should also build your aerobic fitness and strength. If you decide to compete at some point, you will have a good base level of fitness that will help with injury prevention, longevity, and making recovery easier.
During this phase, you should start competing regularly if you want to become a competitor. Don't focus on winning too much yet, but rather on making long-term progress. Understand your competition nerves, analyze your matches and fix the holes in your game.
Competition is not something most BJJ practitioners are interested in. In spite of the fact that they compete occasionally throughout the year, it is not their primary focus. You will remain in this phase if that is the case. That's fine. Please don't feel bad about it. Coaching or just training, enjoy the sport and help others enjoy it as well.
Train to win
At this stage, it is crucial to have a solid foundation in technique and physical development. Having competed in plenty of competitions already, it's time to get serious about training.
It is important to meticulously plan your own training during this phase. Your training should be periodized and you should have a tournament calendar. In a subsequent post, I'll discuss this in more detail.
The rules should be known inside and out. You will be able to play tactically and will often have an advantage over someone at your same level if you do this.
You focus only on the things that work at the highest level in terms of technique. Building out your own game and trying to enforce it on your opponent is what you do. You should beat them on your own turf. You can exploit holes in your opponents' game by analyzing their strategy.
Having a good technique is not sufficient when winning is the goal. Besides being strong, athletic, and well-conditioned, you also need to be well-conditioned. Make your techniques even more effective by combining them with your physical attributes. Your opponents will tire out if you use explosive movements to gain an edge on them.
It is impossible to stay at this stage forever. Over time, it will take a toll on the body, accumulating injuries. Eventually, you will need to transition to the train for life stage, which is often seen as a step back by athletes. In order to keep training fun, you have to come up with a new goal. For some, it might be becoming a coach, but for others, it just might be rediscovering how much fun it is to train and learn jiu jitsu with no pressure.
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