Well, I guess after a pretty long hiatus, I'm back!! It's been a few months since I visited this blog, partly because I haven't had a lot to say but I finally think I have something worth writing down...
There was some talk today at the gym about being on a plateau with BJJ and I thought I would share my whitebelt thoughts. Brazilian Jiu Jitsu seems to me to be a sport that has more plateaus than most and that certainly provides as much if not more frustration than enjoyment at times. However, with that frustration seems to come a great sense of pleasure and accomplishment when, having been on a plateau for a long time, suddenly something clicks at the right moment and place and you find your game has lifted - often seemingly by itself! The feeling of being stuck on that same level is indescribably annoying and soulwrenching, the feeling that things have changed is similarly uplifting.
So, what can be done about being stuck on a plain? Realistically, there is only one answer to this - train more! But, I think that what is important is the quality, not always the quantity of training. Talking to a few people today, one of the top reasons given for being stuck on that dreaded plateau is doing the same thing over and over and over again. I have been very guilty of this in the past. By constantly training the same mistakes or poor theory into my game I have managed to stick myself into a pretty dangerous rut. Whilst I may think that I am training constantly and therefore I should be getting better, by managing to train in my mistakes I am in fact limiting my progress.
A good example of this has been my work on closed guard over the last six or so months. I feel more comfortable in closed guard as my jiu jitsu is not particularly dynamic. I don't like scrambles and I somehow never really feel comfortable working a top game unless I have managed to sweep into mount. However, I have always had a tendency to be too passive from guard - preferring to control and think about subs if there is a clear opening, rather than actually being creative and offensive from there. In the two competitions that I have entered, this was exposed as a real weakness of my guard, that if nothing happens I often get stuck in a more or less neutral match, which then does not go my way due to a pass from my opponent or losing on points.
This was extremely frustrating to me, especially when more savvy training partners would lock down to render my guard basically useless, or indeed just break it and pass when they wanted to. I felt that I was stuck in a plateau - I knew I wanted to be in guard, I just didn't know how to use it properly. I still feel that my closed guard needs a lot of work and I need to have more options than simply locking down and hoping for the best ('I have now been in guard for three consecutive days...'). However, I do feel more comfortable attacking from close guard and I have a few more options and I'm off the plateau a bit.
I got there by changing my whole thought process towards guard and my use of it. I now try to think about sweeps as well as subs. Whilst I have not gotten to where I would like to be (not even close), this change in my training has helped me lift myself off the plateau and to what I feel is another level up - not to my final goal, but a little closer on the meter! My answer to the plateau question is to look at how you're training and try to make adjustments - seems simple, but, if you're like me, it's actually quite hard to change a mindset!!
I'm a bit out of practice with these blog posts so I hope this has not been too incoherent! I would love to hear about how other people deal with the plateau problem - please chime in on the comments section - it makes me think people actually read this!!!!
Thanks for reading!!
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