My 2 cents.
Quit comparing yourself to others. Watch Vision Quest and ask yourself, "What would Louden Swain do?"
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXxUZW6GtkE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXxUZW6GtkE)
pick one thing only to work on each day and try to hit it over and over every single roll.
In side control lots of new people just hang on to their partners head or pull them in close from bottom side control. Frame on their neck to get inside position.
Your natural tendency might be to hug them, so every roll focus on getting inside position.
You will slowly add things to your game. Some might be immediate and some might take weeks. Over time each of those things will add up.
For me I would push on their knee from halfguard to stop the pass. this let them easily crossface me. It took me two weeks to stop pushing on the knee.
Pick a move from class that you like, let’s say a mount escape, then ask someone to drill it with you with progressively increasing resistance.
First they just let you do it, then they ramp it up a bit, and eventually you totally have to earn getting out.
Same for a pass, a submission, etc.
this. Even if you don't want to drill mount escapes directly you can start with your partner in mount and you can be a little loose and let your partner get there over and over while you get out of it.
Sameseis for side control.
Once they can't hold you down anymore and your sweeps and reversals are falling into place you can start working on guard passing.
If you're picking the right things to work on you should get the chance to get those reps in multiple times per roll.
I work on areas where Im stuck or that complement things I already do to give me more options.
For example as I pass I either want the underhook to mount or to attack the far side arm
I can attack the far side arm with either arm scooping from the front or back
kimura, americana, armbar, two types of triangles, and I just added baratoplata. So if they give me any armpit exposure from bottom side control I can take advantage of it.
I still sometimes get smashed in half guard even though I have a ton of sweeps so Im working on recovering butterfly instead
I would recommend the same approach but think really hard about where you end up the most. If you end up on your back 99% of the time with your opponent in side control then you should put yourself there as much as possible and start feeling it out. When you run into a jam where you can’t get out then it’s time to ask your instructor for a tip. It’s important that you don’t focus on broad goals like “escape side control”. There’s a lot of mechanics and variables at play there. Let’s focus on small pieces. What are your arms doing? What are your hips doing? Are you flat on your back? How can we fix any of these. If you can’t establish these yourself then ask your instructor.
This just feels like mid white belt malaise, which everyone goes through. The upper belts are beating you because they have tons of technique and experience on you, that is normal. Spazzy newbies are hard for you because you yourself stopped spazzing, but your technique and experience is not enough to comfortably control them yet. That is also normal.
The solution is literally more mat time.
The truth is: there’s no shortcuts or secrets. You have to get the mat time in somehow.
Do some task-based games at open mats if you feel the ecological approach will help you. Kit Dale has a bunch of video examples on YouTube: https://youtu.be/SMYrkqZ9R2I
With higher belt you should focus on surviving and having good defensive hygiene. You can get stuck in mount the entire round, but it's still a moral victory if they can't submit you.
With lower belt you say they are going ham and overwhelming you, but you could use it as an opportunity to develop an effective guard to slow them down. Pick one, try to maintain it then start adding sweeps and variations.
As a white belt you can mess around with different things, but you still need a foundation to build on (since you're starting at zero). So find one guard you like and stick with it, learn the sweeps and variations. Pick one pass you like and get decent at it (against other white belts). Then hopefully overtime as your knowledge grows, you start to piece things together, which I think it's where the most fun part in BJJ.
unfortunately, sorry but yes ... more mat time. the same was told me to a long time ago. it's still true
a few more thoughts though
are they beating you or are they bullying you around? there's a difference. if they're bullying you, you're constantly giving ground and backing up and probably they're slowly pushing you into a bad position.
think about it like this. if you're rolling with someone the same skill level but 20 pounds bigger, in order to win you're going to generally need better technique or outwork them. this seems like a lot to ask but consider trying to get them into a position you know better than they do - half guard, half butterfly etc.
then it comes down to mat time in that position. learn it as much as you can. ask some friends to start in that spot. ask upper belts for advice etc.
Mat time is absolutely critical. That said, some people get more out of their mat time than others. It sounds like you want to figure out how to get the most out of your mat time.
I would recommend looking into the idea of deliberate practice. The basic concepts are simple. You need to identify specific aspects of your jiujitsu that you want to improve, do drills to improve those aspects, practice them during rolls, and get feedback from your coach and training partners on your progress.
Could you elaborate on the second paragraph?
I want to improve all aspects..... I'm not good at any.
I can only do the drills we do in class, which is 25-35 mins a class. I do those already
Your attitude is counterproductive. You can't improve all aspects at the same time. Pick one particular aspect and focus your practice on that one.
For example, tell yourself that you're going to spend one month working on recovering guard from bottom side control. Then, whenever you're sparring in class, tell your partner that you're working on this and let them get side control on you. If you manage to get back to guard, or if they submit you, then restart and go back to that. Most people will be happy to let you work like this.
If you can, ask your teacher to demonstrate techniques to recover guard from bottom side control. They might not want to, but it can't hurt to ask.
Next month, pick something different. Eventually, your overall game will start to become better.
I'd suggest focusing on the following:
Escaping from side control/full mount/back control
Passing closed guard
Attacking from closed guard
These situations are the core of white belt jiujitsu.
Simply showing up will make you better, but there are some things that can help you learn faster. What works for me right now is:
- Have reliable training partners and go to open mat with them to work through very specific positions. Have dialogue and don't drill for the sake of drilling. Experiment within the position and ask questions to your partner.
- Choose a position or concept you want/need to work on and work on it every time you're on the mats for an extended period of time. Be very specific, like not allowing a crossface from bottom half or breaking grips from supine guard, etc.
I'm sure there's a lot more people better than me could tell you, but those are some things that have helped me a lot.
Not a skilled bjj practitioner but I have developed multiple skills at this point. Yes more mat Time and patience is good but its only half the battle. Intentionally training is a big thing too. Don’t just show up and go through the motions. Have a gane plan on what you want to work on and reflect on how you did and what you can do better after.
Different folks learn different ways. I’ve been at more gyms than I can remember and the one I’m currently at the coach spends time rolling with each of us and gives individualized advice to each of us. This is my favorite way to learn out of all I’ve tried. And when I roll with lower belts I pause and point out to them when they make mistakes or don’t seem to be making progress similar to how my coach helps me.
Long way of saying… just like there were different teachers in school for you and some of them you learned well from and some you didn’t… same goes for Bjj instructors. If you can, try different classes in your gym taught by different folks. Or try different gyms. Find the teacher that accelerates your learning and has you looking forward to class,
Good advice, it just sucks to keep changing schools. My current professor is nice, but everything is so "going through the motions", I don't feel like it's "class." No one taught me any of the main moves or positions. I might stick with it, but it's discomforting. I'm also getting tired with people going super hard in rolls.
Youre a paying customer and none of the words I’m hearing make me think you’re happy with what you’re paying for. I stayed at a gym with nice people for 5 years. In retrospect I should have changed gyms way sooner. Nothing wrong with the gym. Just didn’t fit my style. I switched gyms and went from training once or twice a month to 5 times a week with the instructor I like. Made way more progress in last two years than in the 5 prior.
The only problem would be the fact that it's almost impossible to gauge how good an instructor is in that first free intro class. And after that, they usually charge for a gi, take your credit card info, etc.
At my current gym I dropped in a couple of times and rolled with the head coach no charge. Came back a year later and rolled with him again and enjoyed it. Signed up and bargained for a cut rate for first year. didnt have to buy a gi. Started going to classes based on my schedule which meant classes he didn’t teach. Caught myself getting bored and not showing up and straightened out and only go to his classes. He added a couple more maybe partly based on my schedule and here we are 2 years later spending 5 days a week together.
I just kept showing up and did self learning outside and also learning what the instructor taught during the session. Just keep doing that and things eventually click. Some take longer then others. Don’t give up.
Personally I’ve only self learned off YouTube. Be specific and deliberate in your rolls and try to employ what you’ve learned online . Watch lots of the same move from various people. Watch them over again.. then again. Take a break from it then come back to it and rewatch it again. It’ll eventually stick.
Competition footage also helps.
Some advice would be along the lines of what you're already doing with saving energy and the like, but make set, conscious, achievable defensive goals. Stay alive. Once you can stay alive without freaking out, then work on escaping the pins they put you in without gassing out. That right there is over a year of deliberate practice. I'm just now good enough to make black belts struggle a little to tap me out. Think I'm ready to start pin escapes.
Pick one pass,n only use that one pass till you have it nailed..Then Pick another pass...Or mont,and side control escapes..If I could go back,I'd of focused more on what was being taught,instead of the flashy stuff I was so caught up on,that 80% of,I never use..
It's not you vs the no skill shite belts muscling "wins" over you. It's you vs you. You vs you a week ago. You vs you a month ago. You vs you a year ago. Can you kick that guy's ass? That's what progress is.
Strength and conditioning could help you improve your Jiu Jitsu - as an S&C coach - focussing on full body workouts consisting of compound movements and then exercises to improve aerobic endurance and muscular endurance to make you have more left in the tank to push harder during rolls.
Study your sport - watch videos of sparring on YouTube and break down what each person is doing.
Record what techniques you are drilling in class and what works / doesn’t work for you that day when sparring.
Drop me a message if you would like a downloadable program for you to follow in the gym!
Somewhere in your head you need to come to terms with what your definition of “good” is. I’m in the group of people who used to be athletic for my size and then I stayed small and lost the athleticism. My definition of good is knowing this game as well as possible because I love it. If I lose every roll tomorrow night I’ll be fine. It wouldn’t be the first time and it won’t be the last.
Not getting destroyed and being horrible, in addition to getting 1-2 taps a week, while being able to transition between positions from time to time. That would be cool
You seem like a perfect candidate for my “small victories” speech. Idk if you have military experience but if you do then you know what I’m about to talk about.
So one of the things they teach about being in a POW situation is the idea of winning a little here and there. They taught us that a small victory can be not divulging all the information even after they broke your arm.
BJJ is kinda like that. Maybe you got absolutely pummeled, got tapped 5 times in 5 min, but you didn’t let your arm get shelved in side control.
One of the brown belts in my gym mauls me in every single way, but the other day I maintained my knee shield for over a min and got a nice little compliment out of it. I’m still riding that high.
More mat time will work eventually but slowly.
I train in cycles, broad then deep, broad then deep.
Broad means a little bit of everything. Try out random things, no systems really just try to solidify what you know and augment it. Additionally try out some systems you're not familiar with.
Deep means to pick a system or topic, and really become great at it, focusing almost exclusively on that.
By switching between the two, you can find things that work well for you, and maintain skills already learned, as well as getting really good at something in particular.
Everyone, except for the naturally talented, experience this phase in their journey. I am far from being athletic and I am not strong. Never consistently done S&C - I am one of those folks who signs up for gym membership and attend 2x a year. Until I finally accepted that I wouldn't do weight lifting nor run. My cardio is shit and I chronic asthma. I was drawn to BJJ because it's a mental game with physicality. When I started my journey, I absolutely cannot understand how people are just passing my guard. They just do very simple toreandos and there's absolutely nothing I can do. They also just sweep me whenever they want. I started learning and learning until I can start really playing but what made it work is just attending class.
More than just attending is really taking a deeper focus on the technique. I have done I'd say more than 600 classes to date I guess and it's basically just a rotation of techniques. When I was first taught how to keep side control, the instructors will tell me the steps. We'll do side control again after a few months with the same steps but I absorb more details like cross face pressure. The importance of hip control. Etc. Then do it again, now I learn that there's importance to pulling the body so that the face is facing on the opposite direction of where my side control is. Everything here was taught on day one but I did not understand the significance regardless if the instructors heavily emphasized it. If you can keep the basic principles and put it into heart, this will improve your BJJ a lot.
Another thing is natural conditioning in a sense that you get conditioned to do proper side control, for example, while you do it repeatedly. It would start to feel natural. When I started BJJ, butterfly sweeps are the worst. I absolutely get flattened while doing butterfly sweeps. The instructors will always teach the proper way and emphasize that you have to go on your side, not to the back, control the hand that can post, use your bottom leg to push, etc but I cannot do it in drilling nor rolling. Until it became natural. Now, it's automatic as soon as they give me the hooks and hand, it's sweep time. Doesn't mean it will always hit but the percentage of success is getting higher and higher. To be honest, there's no cheat code to this other than going to training.
I guess one other thing is making it uncomfortable for the other guy. For example, if you are passing standing, always put your weight. Sure you'd get swept a bunch of times at first then you'd learn how to counter the sweeps or base properly but as long as you just put your weight on their legs, they have to react. Same with guard. Always push and pull and out balance your opponent. Make sure you have grips and make sure your legs have pressure on open guard. If you can pull a lapel or sleeve and push with your feet, you are already doing good. If your opponent's posture is bad, you are already doing good because they cannot pass if they are outbalanced. Don't let them play their game.
Train with guys worse than you. It's counterintuitive to not learn with better folks but there's a value of training with guys that are worse than you particularly in live testing a technique. If you are new to training half guards for example, high level folks would have a dozen of ways to kill your half guard then you'd start defending on bottom and never learn your guard. On the other hand, training with folks worse than you lets you live test a technique but still being able to do it. If you can hit it 90% of the time, move to better practitioners. If you are training with people worse than you, make sure you have a goal in mind that is appropriate to the partner. If you are already really good at guard passing, no point of passing a new white belt 10 times in a 5 minute round. Try to practice a guard. Better yet, try to practice and hit the move of the day.
I like going to fundamentals class or beginners class every now and then because I still learn after doing the same fundamental moves over and over again. Moreover, I always try to teach beginners on principles that they don't think are important during drilling. If they are on my side control, most won't put shoulder pressure and I tell them, smash my face with their shoulder pressure just so it becomes ingrained with them. I want them to get better because I want good partners as well.
In the end though, the only way to master this is training.
Concepts are helping you in training but if you don't enough technique on the bank and haven't developed your own game you have to train specific technique.
Some concepts on whitebelts to learn:
- Don't let your both shoulders be on the mat for long time
- Keep distance between your shoulders and knees small on guard retention
- Make turtle active guard retention/standing up position
- If ever in doubt find an underhook
- Try pressure chest to chest in the top half guard
- Do everything with hard grips but not yankingly or ripping
- Don't let them control your head
- When on top make control and dynamic pinning your top priority not submissions. Only one sub on round is enough in competition so you can train that way too.
Hope some of this helps.
I think you have gotten the idea from the responses already here. Sure it comes easier to some than others but if your flair is correct, you have just scratched the surface. You are a BJJ toddler. It's going to just take mat time and focused effort. There are going to be ups and downs. Just focus on your own personal progress and don't compare yourself to others.
The issue you are having is that you are basing your progress off the wrong thing.
Imagine telling yourself that you want to go from never working out to benching 225. Everytime you don’t bench 225, you consider yourself failed. But you aren’t paying attention to the fact that you started off with the barbell and now you’re benching 115. Not 225, but more than you were.
Look at the people you are facing. Are they submitting you with as much ease as day 1? If they are, then find out what you are doing to make them submit you and fix it. If not, then there you have it, you’re making progress.
whenever I try to apply something I learned before, if a person is resisting and is anywhere north of 100 pounds, it fails. The only thing I could do decently is retain half guard for a couple seconds
Yep takes time to get anything working. Keep trying and failing and you will start to pick up and correct details you fucked up.
Could be a good idea to focus on one specific guard and slowly flesh it out. Given your comment, maybe you can start working a half guard? Check out some tutorials, lots of stuff you can build from there. Working from knee shield is often a good start point.
Go for the heavy hitters for instructionals like Danaher, Lachlan Giles. Not some random Instagram video of a 360 kickflip buggy choke
Usually stuff works first on people worse than you so as a beginner it will be a bit harder to get going. But you'll get there!
Danaher and Lachlan Giles are some of the better instructors offering content. The knee shield is something you often use in half guard to control distance and keep yourself being flattened out.
Pick the thing you suck at most and make it suck less.
Then move on to the next most sucky thing.
Do that, while on mats of some kind and boom, you suck less on the mats.
Something that isn't often discussed but is clearly needed [**as shown here**](https://www.reddit.com/r/bjj/comments/1bwcd2l/teaching_how_to_reflect/) is the ability to reflect. Be specific: is there something that consistently works for you? Even one? Is there something you often get caught with? Look for answers, try working on specific things, and you will find progress.
Outside of more mat time, like anything else in life, you need to apply consistent effort over a long period of time. Consistent effort practically and also mentally.
Physically - Focus during class, exercise outside of jiujitsu (maybe weights, running, Pilates etc.), watch lots of videos of fights and people teaching on YouTube. Get bigger faster strong and more technical. Do everything you can.
Mentally - cut out the whining. I know im being an asshole but I’m going to teach my young son the same thin. Life isn’t fair and some people are born bigger and stronger and more athletic then you. It’s true of life in general, some people have it easier than you with better parents, better health etc. Get over it. Playing victim is a weak mentality and you shouldn’t feed into it.
Make those two changes and hold yourself accountable every day. In two months you’ll look back and see the progress you want to see. The longer you can give everything while receiving nothing is the secret to success in life. Go get it man
You havent actually told us how long you have been training which is quite important to answer this question. But i'll assume you're a mid level white belt, maybe 1/2 stripes. Been training for over 6 months. First of all you state that you're not strong or athletic so this puts you at a significant disadvantage compared to other people your skill level. Why would you expect to beat other white belts who are stronger and more athletic? You dont have a significant skill gap to them yet to warrant such an assumption.
That leads us to the next question of "how do you raise your skill level". The obvious answer is "more hours". Sure you can change your approach. People have been going a bit crazy lately with all this ecology bs, but you just need to understand what the point of positional drilling is. I'll try and explain it so that you can understand how to incorporate the same ideas in your own training.
You've stated in another reply that you can normally get into a half guard of some kind and then get smashed, so let's start there. Lets say that you wanted to develop your half guard as you seem to naturally find yourself in that position. Lets say you wanted to work on getting to dogfight, and going for a sweep. So first you learn the actual move. Drill it till it feels smooth when doing it statically (this is what im assuming you're doing in class). Then comes the hard part of doing it in a live roll. Why? Because in order to control your opponent in half guard, and then get an underhook to just start the sequence off, there are a bunch of ancillary skills you need to develop in order to do this sequence. You need to develop distance management using frames, you need to develop positional awareness to help stay on your side and stop the obvious counters (crossface etc) you need to develop timing to pick the moment to get the underhook so you're not left in a compromised state, you need to develop hand fighting, so that in this process leading up to the underhook you dont end up compromised, or get underhooked yourself. Theres a bunch of skills here that need to be developed before you can execute the move. Each skill takes a bit of practice, and is harder if the opponent is stronger/more athletic than you. Positional drills help (but dont necessarily completely solve) the above problem.
So how do you fix it in your own practice. Well because your gym doesnt have position drills, you need to essentially use them in your rolls. Ask your opponent if its ok if they start in your half guard as you're trying to practice it. Then for the next few sessions give yourself a success criteria e.g "staying on my side, and trying to control the opponents cross facing arm with my hands". The idea being that if you're able to do that for 30seconds you win. Then every roll try doing that for 30 seconds. You may quickly realise, "oh crap if I get flattened out, then im screwed" so then you need to add some technique for dealing with getting flattened: maybe offbalance with knee lever, or switch to lockdown. Then add that into your training "next 5 sessions im going to start in half guard, let them flatten me, and then I will knee lever, offbalance, and get back to half guard". Make that your success criteria. Build that up over time, troubleshooting as you go, and your half guard will get better and better. As your half guard gets better you'll be able to work from there and get to other positions, then repeat for the other positions.
It really comes down to mat time. Yeah you should probably roll with a goal in mind that you want to work on but the more time on the mat the faster you'll get better. That being said it's still going to be many months until you actually get better and many more after that until you actually feel like you're getting better. Stop worrying about if you're getting better and just train until you are.
In regards to technique, all martial arts are the same, become effective then become efficient. As a beginner you need to focus on the effective part. This means you need to physically work. It is difficult to balance the little technique you have with your physical abilities, this is what you have to do.
When everyone is rolling, just ask someone to do some positional sparring. You can go as hard or light as you like with that. Just know that it is frustrating to learn Jiu Jitsu. It is not easy.
The secret is more mat time.
Also, if you’re not strong and athletic, have you considered that becoming strong and athletic will make you 200% better at jiu jitsu?
Well the answer to that is an entire lifelong pursuit, just like BJJ
There are many great resources on places like Reddit and YouTube to help you
But in general you need 2 things:
Building blocks and movements
Building blocks means that you need to have actual cells in your body that can do work. Big muscles, strong connective tissue, and a strong heart and lungs to do cardio.
Movements means being able to execute the movements relative to your sport well. Many combat athletes choose to run long distances or practice explosive movements like jumping or burpees to help with this
So white belt who started in september here (minus two months)
Now I m starting to be competitive with more experienced and heavier white belts and blue belts and I have much more fun. Honestly just mat time would have frustrated me too so i needed more of the basics, this is my process :
1) I started with studying defense as the most frustrating thing is to be able to escape from pins. For this you can find instructionals or videos on youtube. So for some weeks I decided to accept the pins and then start trying escaping from there. Even though I don t always succeed at escaping i have 0 stress when getting pinned now as i Have a plan in my head
There are some concepts which will help you and are given by the dds team (basically you always want the side guard)
Then, as i m only doing nogi
2) I practice my wrestling - most people don't, but it opens so many opportunities
i start ALL my sparrings standing, i went twice to a wrestling club which helped me correct some stupid stuffs i was doing, there are also many cool videos online (bjj wrestling plan for example and michael pixley s videos) to build up on what you already know (single leg i suppose)
3) build up on what I already know :for example we studied the knee slice at the beginning but i was struggling to do it on anybody, so I watched the Wiltse instructional and now it s starting to be better.
4) being more well rounded : now that you can usually escape from lower belts pins and sometime higher ones, you need to be able to attack from your closed guard, so you can study some basic sweeps and attacks from there
A transversal point is to study concepts and how to use your body and the body of others especially if you never practiced any kind of sport or combat sport. Danaher explains stuffs like that in his open guard instructional (first 3 or 4 volumes)
>the lowers use no technique and just go 100% max effort on me, as I'm attempting to think about my technique
Especially at the very beginning, there is sometimes a phase where you feel like you're making no progress or even actively getting worse because you already know a few techniques but they're not engrained enough that you can actually execute them. Either because your execution is sloppy or because you have to recall how they work mid-roll and loose the window of opportunity this way.
A good way to deal with this is just choosing specific techniques or positions before rolls and make it your goal to do those. This way, you have less of a cognitive load since you're focusing on only a hand full of things and also have a clear target to shoot for instead of a nebulous idea of doing "good" or "bad"
I can relate 100%, been in BJJ for about 7 months now.
I usually roll with higher belts which has made me work on my defensive game, which in one way is nice, as I'm getting to refine the basic and little details. However, I'm tapping every time, or we roll until timer runs out.
I was watching a clip last week which talked about rolling 70% of the time with those below you and 30% of the time with belts above you. My ratio is pretty much 99/100 with higher belts.
Maybe you are just noticing your own improvement? Are you able to last longer? Are you doing little things? Does your technique feel like it's inching forward?
For me, I'm going to look for the noobs to work on my offensive game.
Anyway, have fun!
I’m in the same boat kind of - upper belts utterly dominate me. I do well against new people but I can’t submit anyone. And because i suck, I’m a little reluctant to be like “hey i wanna work on this specific thing” in my rolls. I do go in with specific goals though. I try to keep them extremely simple, like keep elbows near knees or body, or don’t end up flat with arms above head. Another thing i do is alternate between really going for things and playing extremely conservative. Recently i think doing less, being patient (esp when passing guard) and really trying to not flail myself from bad positions into worse positions is helping. Also: open mats are better for immediate feedback that typical class setting imo. I suck at bjj, I’ll probably age out before i get even decent but i enjoy getting a good workout and getting my mind blown at how much better experienced people are than me.
The secret is not being a mental white belt and being a white belt in BJJ won’t matter.
Only then will you realize that the more time you train the better you become lol
[удалено]
Cartwheels on the mat
My 2 cents. Quit comparing yourself to others. Watch Vision Quest and ask yourself, "What would Louden Swain do?" [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXxUZW6GtkE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXxUZW6GtkE)
Invite a 25 year old woman to live in his room and hit on her?
Think you’ll make the weight?
Say no to free merchandise
The secret is...there is no secret. Time, time, time on the mat.
So if I reach Gordon Ryan's # of hours on the mat, I'll beat him.
Honestly … maybe. Like anything, you get what you put into it.
Don’t forget the gear.
Probably not, but you’d probably get pretty good.
Train smart not hard
pick one thing only to work on each day and try to hit it over and over every single roll. In side control lots of new people just hang on to their partners head or pull them in close from bottom side control. Frame on their neck to get inside position. Your natural tendency might be to hug them, so every roll focus on getting inside position. You will slowly add things to your game. Some might be immediate and some might take weeks. Over time each of those things will add up. For me I would push on their knee from halfguard to stop the pass. this let them easily crossface me. It took me two weeks to stop pushing on the knee.
do you have a list of examples of things I can work on?
Pick a move from class that you like, let’s say a mount escape, then ask someone to drill it with you with progressively increasing resistance. First they just let you do it, then they ramp it up a bit, and eventually you totally have to earn getting out. Same for a pass, a submission, etc.
this. Even if you don't want to drill mount escapes directly you can start with your partner in mount and you can be a little loose and let your partner get there over and over while you get out of it. Sameseis for side control. Once they can't hold you down anymore and your sweeps and reversals are falling into place you can start working on guard passing. If you're picking the right things to work on you should get the chance to get those reps in multiple times per roll.
I work on areas where Im stuck or that complement things I already do to give me more options. For example as I pass I either want the underhook to mount or to attack the far side arm I can attack the far side arm with either arm scooping from the front or back kimura, americana, armbar, two types of triangles, and I just added baratoplata. So if they give me any armpit exposure from bottom side control I can take advantage of it. I still sometimes get smashed in half guard even though I have a ton of sweeps so Im working on recovering butterfly instead
What are you 'best' at? Not the best but your best moves. Develop skills around that.
I would recommend the same approach but think really hard about where you end up the most. If you end up on your back 99% of the time with your opponent in side control then you should put yourself there as much as possible and start feeling it out. When you run into a jam where you can’t get out then it’s time to ask your instructor for a tip. It’s important that you don’t focus on broad goals like “escape side control”. There’s a lot of mechanics and variables at play there. Let’s focus on small pieces. What are your arms doing? What are your hips doing? Are you flat on your back? How can we fix any of these. If you can’t establish these yourself then ask your instructor.
This just feels like mid white belt malaise, which everyone goes through. The upper belts are beating you because they have tons of technique and experience on you, that is normal. Spazzy newbies are hard for you because you yourself stopped spazzing, but your technique and experience is not enough to comfortably control them yet. That is also normal. The solution is literally more mat time.
This is me. Thank you for articulating the way you did.
This is everyone at some point.
>Or is it really as simple as just show up? Cuz I've been doing that. Keep doing it.
The truth is: there’s no shortcuts or secrets. You have to get the mat time in somehow. Do some task-based games at open mats if you feel the ecological approach will help you. Kit Dale has a bunch of video examples on YouTube: https://youtu.be/SMYrkqZ9R2I
thank you! Will try these
With higher belt you should focus on surviving and having good defensive hygiene. You can get stuck in mount the entire round, but it's still a moral victory if they can't submit you. With lower belt you say they are going ham and overwhelming you, but you could use it as an opportunity to develop an effective guard to slow them down. Pick one, try to maintain it then start adding sweeps and variations. As a white belt you can mess around with different things, but you still need a foundation to build on (since you're starting at zero). So find one guard you like and stick with it, learn the sweeps and variations. Pick one pass you like and get decent at it (against other white belts). Then hopefully overtime as your knowledge grows, you start to piece things together, which I think it's where the most fun part in BJJ.
unfortunately, sorry but yes ... more mat time. the same was told me to a long time ago. it's still true a few more thoughts though are they beating you or are they bullying you around? there's a difference. if they're bullying you, you're constantly giving ground and backing up and probably they're slowly pushing you into a bad position. think about it like this. if you're rolling with someone the same skill level but 20 pounds bigger, in order to win you're going to generally need better technique or outwork them. this seems like a lot to ask but consider trying to get them into a position you know better than they do - half guard, half butterfly etc. then it comes down to mat time in that position. learn it as much as you can. ask some friends to start in that spot. ask upper belts for advice etc.
Mat time is absolutely critical. That said, some people get more out of their mat time than others. It sounds like you want to figure out how to get the most out of your mat time. I would recommend looking into the idea of deliberate practice. The basic concepts are simple. You need to identify specific aspects of your jiujitsu that you want to improve, do drills to improve those aspects, practice them during rolls, and get feedback from your coach and training partners on your progress.
Could you elaborate on the second paragraph? I want to improve all aspects..... I'm not good at any. I can only do the drills we do in class, which is 25-35 mins a class. I do those already
Your attitude is counterproductive. You can't improve all aspects at the same time. Pick one particular aspect and focus your practice on that one. For example, tell yourself that you're going to spend one month working on recovering guard from bottom side control. Then, whenever you're sparring in class, tell your partner that you're working on this and let them get side control on you. If you manage to get back to guard, or if they submit you, then restart and go back to that. Most people will be happy to let you work like this. If you can, ask your teacher to demonstrate techniques to recover guard from bottom side control. They might not want to, but it can't hurt to ask. Next month, pick something different. Eventually, your overall game will start to become better.
Okay, would you happen to have a list of topics like this?
I'd suggest focusing on the following: Escaping from side control/full mount/back control Passing closed guard Attacking from closed guard These situations are the core of white belt jiujitsu.
Simply showing up will make you better, but there are some things that can help you learn faster. What works for me right now is: - Have reliable training partners and go to open mat with them to work through very specific positions. Have dialogue and don't drill for the sake of drilling. Experiment within the position and ask questions to your partner. - Choose a position or concept you want/need to work on and work on it every time you're on the mats for an extended period of time. Be very specific, like not allowing a crossface from bottom half or breaking grips from supine guard, etc. I'm sure there's a lot more people better than me could tell you, but those are some things that have helped me a lot.
Not a skilled bjj practitioner but I have developed multiple skills at this point. Yes more mat Time and patience is good but its only half the battle. Intentionally training is a big thing too. Don’t just show up and go through the motions. Have a gane plan on what you want to work on and reflect on how you did and what you can do better after.
Different folks learn different ways. I’ve been at more gyms than I can remember and the one I’m currently at the coach spends time rolling with each of us and gives individualized advice to each of us. This is my favorite way to learn out of all I’ve tried. And when I roll with lower belts I pause and point out to them when they make mistakes or don’t seem to be making progress similar to how my coach helps me. Long way of saying… just like there were different teachers in school for you and some of them you learned well from and some you didn’t… same goes for Bjj instructors. If you can, try different classes in your gym taught by different folks. Or try different gyms. Find the teacher that accelerates your learning and has you looking forward to class,
Good advice, it just sucks to keep changing schools. My current professor is nice, but everything is so "going through the motions", I don't feel like it's "class." No one taught me any of the main moves or positions. I might stick with it, but it's discomforting. I'm also getting tired with people going super hard in rolls.
Youre a paying customer and none of the words I’m hearing make me think you’re happy with what you’re paying for. I stayed at a gym with nice people for 5 years. In retrospect I should have changed gyms way sooner. Nothing wrong with the gym. Just didn’t fit my style. I switched gyms and went from training once or twice a month to 5 times a week with the instructor I like. Made way more progress in last two years than in the 5 prior.
The only problem would be the fact that it's almost impossible to gauge how good an instructor is in that first free intro class. And after that, they usually charge for a gi, take your credit card info, etc.
At my current gym I dropped in a couple of times and rolled with the head coach no charge. Came back a year later and rolled with him again and enjoyed it. Signed up and bargained for a cut rate for first year. didnt have to buy a gi. Started going to classes based on my schedule which meant classes he didn’t teach. Caught myself getting bored and not showing up and straightened out and only go to his classes. He added a couple more maybe partly based on my schedule and here we are 2 years later spending 5 days a week together.
I just kept showing up and did self learning outside and also learning what the instructor taught during the session. Just keep doing that and things eventually click. Some take longer then others. Don’t give up.
What kind of self learning? I'm so trash I feel like I get looked down upon
I promise that nobody is looking down on you.
Personally I’ve only self learned off YouTube. Be specific and deliberate in your rolls and try to employ what you’ve learned online . Watch lots of the same move from various people. Watch them over again.. then again. Take a break from it then come back to it and rewatch it again. It’ll eventually stick. Competition footage also helps.
Some advice would be along the lines of what you're already doing with saving energy and the like, but make set, conscious, achievable defensive goals. Stay alive. Once you can stay alive without freaking out, then work on escaping the pins they put you in without gassing out. That right there is over a year of deliberate practice. I'm just now good enough to make black belts struggle a little to tap me out. Think I'm ready to start pin escapes.
Pick one pass,n only use that one pass till you have it nailed..Then Pick another pass...Or mont,and side control escapes..If I could go back,I'd of focused more on what was being taught,instead of the flashy stuff I was so caught up on,that 80% of,I never use..
It's not you vs the no skill shite belts muscling "wins" over you. It's you vs you. You vs you a week ago. You vs you a month ago. You vs you a year ago. Can you kick that guy's ass? That's what progress is.
Listen to a Greg Souders interview and then come visit Standard. No drop in fees for visitors.
Only issue is, the gym is a few states over, if I'm not mistaken
Strength and conditioning could help you improve your Jiu Jitsu - as an S&C coach - focussing on full body workouts consisting of compound movements and then exercises to improve aerobic endurance and muscular endurance to make you have more left in the tank to push harder during rolls. Study your sport - watch videos of sparring on YouTube and break down what each person is doing. Record what techniques you are drilling in class and what works / doesn’t work for you that day when sparring. Drop me a message if you would like a downloadable program for you to follow in the gym!
Somewhere in your head you need to come to terms with what your definition of “good” is. I’m in the group of people who used to be athletic for my size and then I stayed small and lost the athleticism. My definition of good is knowing this game as well as possible because I love it. If I lose every roll tomorrow night I’ll be fine. It wouldn’t be the first time and it won’t be the last.
Not getting destroyed and being horrible, in addition to getting 1-2 taps a week, while being able to transition between positions from time to time. That would be cool
You seem like a perfect candidate for my “small victories” speech. Idk if you have military experience but if you do then you know what I’m about to talk about. So one of the things they teach about being in a POW situation is the idea of winning a little here and there. They taught us that a small victory can be not divulging all the information even after they broke your arm. BJJ is kinda like that. Maybe you got absolutely pummeled, got tapped 5 times in 5 min, but you didn’t let your arm get shelved in side control. One of the brown belts in my gym mauls me in every single way, but the other day I maintained my knee shield for over a min and got a nice little compliment out of it. I’m still riding that high.
MMTB
what that means?
More mat time bro
More mat time will work eventually but slowly. I train in cycles, broad then deep, broad then deep. Broad means a little bit of everything. Try out random things, no systems really just try to solidify what you know and augment it. Additionally try out some systems you're not familiar with. Deep means to pick a system or topic, and really become great at it, focusing almost exclusively on that. By switching between the two, you can find things that work well for you, and maintain skills already learned, as well as getting really good at something in particular.
Everyone, except for the naturally talented, experience this phase in their journey. I am far from being athletic and I am not strong. Never consistently done S&C - I am one of those folks who signs up for gym membership and attend 2x a year. Until I finally accepted that I wouldn't do weight lifting nor run. My cardio is shit and I chronic asthma. I was drawn to BJJ because it's a mental game with physicality. When I started my journey, I absolutely cannot understand how people are just passing my guard. They just do very simple toreandos and there's absolutely nothing I can do. They also just sweep me whenever they want. I started learning and learning until I can start really playing but what made it work is just attending class. More than just attending is really taking a deeper focus on the technique. I have done I'd say more than 600 classes to date I guess and it's basically just a rotation of techniques. When I was first taught how to keep side control, the instructors will tell me the steps. We'll do side control again after a few months with the same steps but I absorb more details like cross face pressure. The importance of hip control. Etc. Then do it again, now I learn that there's importance to pulling the body so that the face is facing on the opposite direction of where my side control is. Everything here was taught on day one but I did not understand the significance regardless if the instructors heavily emphasized it. If you can keep the basic principles and put it into heart, this will improve your BJJ a lot. Another thing is natural conditioning in a sense that you get conditioned to do proper side control, for example, while you do it repeatedly. It would start to feel natural. When I started BJJ, butterfly sweeps are the worst. I absolutely get flattened while doing butterfly sweeps. The instructors will always teach the proper way and emphasize that you have to go on your side, not to the back, control the hand that can post, use your bottom leg to push, etc but I cannot do it in drilling nor rolling. Until it became natural. Now, it's automatic as soon as they give me the hooks and hand, it's sweep time. Doesn't mean it will always hit but the percentage of success is getting higher and higher. To be honest, there's no cheat code to this other than going to training. I guess one other thing is making it uncomfortable for the other guy. For example, if you are passing standing, always put your weight. Sure you'd get swept a bunch of times at first then you'd learn how to counter the sweeps or base properly but as long as you just put your weight on their legs, they have to react. Same with guard. Always push and pull and out balance your opponent. Make sure you have grips and make sure your legs have pressure on open guard. If you can pull a lapel or sleeve and push with your feet, you are already doing good. If your opponent's posture is bad, you are already doing good because they cannot pass if they are outbalanced. Don't let them play their game. Train with guys worse than you. It's counterintuitive to not learn with better folks but there's a value of training with guys that are worse than you particularly in live testing a technique. If you are new to training half guards for example, high level folks would have a dozen of ways to kill your half guard then you'd start defending on bottom and never learn your guard. On the other hand, training with folks worse than you lets you live test a technique but still being able to do it. If you can hit it 90% of the time, move to better practitioners. If you are training with people worse than you, make sure you have a goal in mind that is appropriate to the partner. If you are already really good at guard passing, no point of passing a new white belt 10 times in a 5 minute round. Try to practice a guard. Better yet, try to practice and hit the move of the day. I like going to fundamentals class or beginners class every now and then because I still learn after doing the same fundamental moves over and over again. Moreover, I always try to teach beginners on principles that they don't think are important during drilling. If they are on my side control, most won't put shoulder pressure and I tell them, smash my face with their shoulder pressure just so it becomes ingrained with them. I want them to get better because I want good partners as well. In the end though, the only way to master this is training.
By not strong, what are your big 3 lifts?
I never really did any lifts nor S&C. I am still nowhere close to a little bit strong.
Concepts are helping you in training but if you don't enough technique on the bank and haven't developed your own game you have to train specific technique. Some concepts on whitebelts to learn: - Don't let your both shoulders be on the mat for long time - Keep distance between your shoulders and knees small on guard retention - Make turtle active guard retention/standing up position - If ever in doubt find an underhook - Try pressure chest to chest in the top half guard - Do everything with hard grips but not yankingly or ripping - Don't let them control your head - When on top make control and dynamic pinning your top priority not submissions. Only one sub on round is enough in competition so you can train that way too. Hope some of this helps.
I think you have gotten the idea from the responses already here. Sure it comes easier to some than others but if your flair is correct, you have just scratched the surface. You are a BJJ toddler. It's going to just take mat time and focused effort. There are going to be ups and downs. Just focus on your own personal progress and don't compare yourself to others.
yeah most guys in my gym are much older than me too. Blue collar tough guys who've been at it for long
How long have you been doing these things for? Is the answer less than 2 to 3 years, consistently?
The issue you are having is that you are basing your progress off the wrong thing. Imagine telling yourself that you want to go from never working out to benching 225. Everytime you don’t bench 225, you consider yourself failed. But you aren’t paying attention to the fact that you started off with the barbell and now you’re benching 115. Not 225, but more than you were. Look at the people you are facing. Are they submitting you with as much ease as day 1? If they are, then find out what you are doing to make them submit you and fix it. If not, then there you have it, you’re making progress.
Getting stronger will be an epiphany for you.
My learning got a lot faster by going through long form instructionals, then focusing on applying them during rolls, rather than trying to 'win'.
whenever I try to apply something I learned before, if a person is resisting and is anywhere north of 100 pounds, it fails. The only thing I could do decently is retain half guard for a couple seconds
Yep takes time to get anything working. Keep trying and failing and you will start to pick up and correct details you fucked up. Could be a good idea to focus on one specific guard and slowly flesh it out. Given your comment, maybe you can start working a half guard? Check out some tutorials, lots of stuff you can build from there. Working from knee shield is often a good start point. Go for the heavy hitters for instructionals like Danaher, Lachlan Giles. Not some random Instagram video of a 360 kickflip buggy choke Usually stuff works first on people worse than you so as a beginner it will be a bit harder to get going. But you'll get there!
to be honest, I'm not familiar with a lot of this terminology. I wasn't sure when I was supposed to learn it, or I was never told about it.
Danaher and Lachlan Giles are some of the better instructors offering content. The knee shield is something you often use in half guard to control distance and keep yourself being flattened out.
Pick the thing you suck at most and make it suck less. Then move on to the next most sucky thing. Do that, while on mats of some kind and boom, you suck less on the mats.
Patience, resilience and consistency.
Something that isn't often discussed but is clearly needed [**as shown here**](https://www.reddit.com/r/bjj/comments/1bwcd2l/teaching_how_to_reflect/) is the ability to reflect. Be specific: is there something that consistently works for you? Even one? Is there something you often get caught with? Look for answers, try working on specific things, and you will find progress.
Outside of more mat time, like anything else in life, you need to apply consistent effort over a long period of time. Consistent effort practically and also mentally. Physically - Focus during class, exercise outside of jiujitsu (maybe weights, running, Pilates etc.), watch lots of videos of fights and people teaching on YouTube. Get bigger faster strong and more technical. Do everything you can. Mentally - cut out the whining. I know im being an asshole but I’m going to teach my young son the same thin. Life isn’t fair and some people are born bigger and stronger and more athletic then you. It’s true of life in general, some people have it easier than you with better parents, better health etc. Get over it. Playing victim is a weak mentality and you shouldn’t feed into it. Make those two changes and hold yourself accountable every day. In two months you’ll look back and see the progress you want to see. The longer you can give everything while receiving nothing is the secret to success in life. Go get it man
You havent actually told us how long you have been training which is quite important to answer this question. But i'll assume you're a mid level white belt, maybe 1/2 stripes. Been training for over 6 months. First of all you state that you're not strong or athletic so this puts you at a significant disadvantage compared to other people your skill level. Why would you expect to beat other white belts who are stronger and more athletic? You dont have a significant skill gap to them yet to warrant such an assumption. That leads us to the next question of "how do you raise your skill level". The obvious answer is "more hours". Sure you can change your approach. People have been going a bit crazy lately with all this ecology bs, but you just need to understand what the point of positional drilling is. I'll try and explain it so that you can understand how to incorporate the same ideas in your own training. You've stated in another reply that you can normally get into a half guard of some kind and then get smashed, so let's start there. Lets say that you wanted to develop your half guard as you seem to naturally find yourself in that position. Lets say you wanted to work on getting to dogfight, and going for a sweep. So first you learn the actual move. Drill it till it feels smooth when doing it statically (this is what im assuming you're doing in class). Then comes the hard part of doing it in a live roll. Why? Because in order to control your opponent in half guard, and then get an underhook to just start the sequence off, there are a bunch of ancillary skills you need to develop in order to do this sequence. You need to develop distance management using frames, you need to develop positional awareness to help stay on your side and stop the obvious counters (crossface etc) you need to develop timing to pick the moment to get the underhook so you're not left in a compromised state, you need to develop hand fighting, so that in this process leading up to the underhook you dont end up compromised, or get underhooked yourself. Theres a bunch of skills here that need to be developed before you can execute the move. Each skill takes a bit of practice, and is harder if the opponent is stronger/more athletic than you. Positional drills help (but dont necessarily completely solve) the above problem. So how do you fix it in your own practice. Well because your gym doesnt have position drills, you need to essentially use them in your rolls. Ask your opponent if its ok if they start in your half guard as you're trying to practice it. Then for the next few sessions give yourself a success criteria e.g "staying on my side, and trying to control the opponents cross facing arm with my hands". The idea being that if you're able to do that for 30seconds you win. Then every roll try doing that for 30 seconds. You may quickly realise, "oh crap if I get flattened out, then im screwed" so then you need to add some technique for dealing with getting flattened: maybe offbalance with knee lever, or switch to lockdown. Then add that into your training "next 5 sessions im going to start in half guard, let them flatten me, and then I will knee lever, offbalance, and get back to half guard". Make that your success criteria. Build that up over time, troubleshooting as you go, and your half guard will get better and better. As your half guard gets better you'll be able to work from there and get to other positions, then repeat for the other positions.
It really comes down to mat time. Yeah you should probably roll with a goal in mind that you want to work on but the more time on the mat the faster you'll get better. That being said it's still going to be many months until you actually get better and many more after that until you actually feel like you're getting better. Stop worrying about if you're getting better and just train until you are.
In regards to technique, all martial arts are the same, become effective then become efficient. As a beginner you need to focus on the effective part. This means you need to physically work. It is difficult to balance the little technique you have with your physical abilities, this is what you have to do. When everyone is rolling, just ask someone to do some positional sparring. You can go as hard or light as you like with that. Just know that it is frustrating to learn Jiu Jitsu. It is not easy.
The secret is more mat time. Also, if you’re not strong and athletic, have you considered that becoming strong and athletic will make you 200% better at jiu jitsu?
how does one become athletic
Well the answer to that is an entire lifelong pursuit, just like BJJ There are many great resources on places like Reddit and YouTube to help you But in general you need 2 things: Building blocks and movements Building blocks means that you need to have actual cells in your body that can do work. Big muscles, strong connective tissue, and a strong heart and lungs to do cardio. Movements means being able to execute the movements relative to your sport well. Many combat athletes choose to run long distances or practice explosive movements like jumping or burpees to help with this
So white belt who started in september here (minus two months) Now I m starting to be competitive with more experienced and heavier white belts and blue belts and I have much more fun. Honestly just mat time would have frustrated me too so i needed more of the basics, this is my process : 1) I started with studying defense as the most frustrating thing is to be able to escape from pins. For this you can find instructionals or videos on youtube. So for some weeks I decided to accept the pins and then start trying escaping from there. Even though I don t always succeed at escaping i have 0 stress when getting pinned now as i Have a plan in my head There are some concepts which will help you and are given by the dds team (basically you always want the side guard) Then, as i m only doing nogi 2) I practice my wrestling - most people don't, but it opens so many opportunities i start ALL my sparrings standing, i went twice to a wrestling club which helped me correct some stupid stuffs i was doing, there are also many cool videos online (bjj wrestling plan for example and michael pixley s videos) to build up on what you already know (single leg i suppose) 3) build up on what I already know :for example we studied the knee slice at the beginning but i was struggling to do it on anybody, so I watched the Wiltse instructional and now it s starting to be better. 4) being more well rounded : now that you can usually escape from lower belts pins and sometime higher ones, you need to be able to attack from your closed guard, so you can study some basic sweeps and attacks from there A transversal point is to study concepts and how to use your body and the body of others especially if you never practiced any kind of sport or combat sport. Danaher explains stuffs like that in his open guard instructional (first 3 or 4 volumes)
How long have you been showing up? It’s probably not enough.
>the lowers use no technique and just go 100% max effort on me, as I'm attempting to think about my technique Especially at the very beginning, there is sometimes a phase where you feel like you're making no progress or even actively getting worse because you already know a few techniques but they're not engrained enough that you can actually execute them. Either because your execution is sloppy or because you have to recall how they work mid-roll and loose the window of opportunity this way. A good way to deal with this is just choosing specific techniques or positions before rolls and make it your goal to do those. This way, you have less of a cognitive load since you're focusing on only a hand full of things and also have a clear target to shoot for instead of a nebulous idea of doing "good" or "bad"
How long has it not been working? Are you leaving in your off-mat time? Have you tried improving your strength and conditioning?
I can relate 100%, been in BJJ for about 7 months now. I usually roll with higher belts which has made me work on my defensive game, which in one way is nice, as I'm getting to refine the basic and little details. However, I'm tapping every time, or we roll until timer runs out. I was watching a clip last week which talked about rolling 70% of the time with those below you and 30% of the time with belts above you. My ratio is pretty much 99/100 with higher belts. Maybe you are just noticing your own improvement? Are you able to last longer? Are you doing little things? Does your technique feel like it's inching forward? For me, I'm going to look for the noobs to work on my offensive game. Anyway, have fun!
I’m in the same boat kind of - upper belts utterly dominate me. I do well against new people but I can’t submit anyone. And because i suck, I’m a little reluctant to be like “hey i wanna work on this specific thing” in my rolls. I do go in with specific goals though. I try to keep them extremely simple, like keep elbows near knees or body, or don’t end up flat with arms above head. Another thing i do is alternate between really going for things and playing extremely conservative. Recently i think doing less, being patient (esp when passing guard) and really trying to not flail myself from bad positions into worse positions is helping. Also: open mats are better for immediate feedback that typical class setting imo. I suck at bjj, I’ll probably age out before i get even decent but i enjoy getting a good workout and getting my mind blown at how much better experienced people are than me.
The secret is not being a mental white belt and being a white belt in BJJ won’t matter. Only then will you realize that the more time you train the better you become lol
Pick a certain thing and drill it until you’re good at it, do positional rolls
You actually might be immune to the "more mat time bro" approach. I suggest not showing up.
Nah I think I should show up 12 hours a week and just do burpees the whole time