In the book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell mentions the 10,000 hour rule, which is the amount of time it takes to become an expert at a given task. Of course this can be somewhat applied to jiu-jitsu, because most instructors will tell you that it takes roughly 10 yrs to become a black belt (give or take a few). Now this general rule of thumb has been tested many many times in jiu-jitsu, as many world champions have received their black belt in shorter times. Yet, one has to call timeout on this to do a little researching to really see what the deal is.
Everyone knows Caio Terra. He is a Mundial gi and no-gi champion, Pan Am champion, and more. He has a sick half guard DVD out, and is very outspoken. He also received his black belt in 3 yrs. You hear a lot of people talk about natural talent, and I am sure Caio has heard that word many times before, but if you look at his story you would realize that not much of Caio's success was attributed to natural ability, except maybe his drive, most of it seemed to be built around his work ethic and love for the sport (eventually).
After his successful finish at worlds in 2004, Caio decided to turn his home into a sparring gym, with mats and everything. The whole shabang. You can only imagine the hours spent here...training, experimenting, and sweating. What it took was for Caio to take some initiative, and take control of his own training. Caio probably didn't reach his 10,000 hours on those mats, but I am sure he was close.
Now lets revisit the 10,000 hour rule keeping Caio and the black belt rule in mind. Suppose you wanted to reach this very lofty goal in 10 yrs, it would mean you need to train about 3 hours a day, 21 hours a week, 83 hours a month. I have heard stories of sleeping at the gym, training till 1am, and even 4x a day training sessions. If you think what you are doing right now is the right thing, read that last sentence 10,000 times.
You need practice. Not just any type of practice. This would mean 3 hours a day of deliberate and focus driven practice. What the heck is deliberate practice?
1. Deliberate practice pretty much follows the mantra of "no pain, no gain". It is a focus like no other. Just going to class and listening to your instructor while drilling the moves 3-4 times is not deliberate.
2. It is designed to improve performance beyond its levels. Your instructor is there to give you a guideline and details. You need to take those and run with them. Time is not everything, you have to be constantly pushing yourself everyday on the mats.
3. Deliberate practice and breaks/time off aren't compatible. If you are constantly taking breaks to go on vacation, lick your wounds, hang out with the girlfriend your technique is going to collect dust. Deliberate practice must be constant, strict, and vigorous.
4. Feedback is a must. You haven't put in the time, therefore you know not what you are doing. Ask questions, get answers from your instructor or coach. Deliberate practice is useless if you are doing things wrong for x amount of hours.
5. Repetiton is the key. If you are not drilling 2 hours out of the 3 hours you are training per day, then you have no reason to ask why you aren't getting better. Deliberate practice is best utilized when you are repeating the techniques over and over. 50 reps each side is a good number to start with. Situational drilling is also a must.
6. Setting goals. If you don't know where you are going, how will you know what to practice. Setting goals is essential in order to get the most out of your practice.
7. Examine yourself daily. Keep a journal on exactly what you did that day. How many reps you completed, who beat you and why, what seemed difficult, etc etc...everything.
Majority of people I see in jiu-jitsu, including myself, have no idea what they are doing when they go in the gym. If you want to become good at something eventually you are going to have to sit down and figure out how you are going to get there. The path is not always clear, sometimes you have to take a lawnmower and a weed eater to that sucker to figure out where to go! The fundamental way to get better at jiu-jitsu is obviously mat time, but it goes beyond just sparring and going to class. You have to know a few things about yourself and the sport, and although I have not been in the game for no more than a year and some change...I have thought a lot about jiu-jitsu and I have realized that there is no SECRET FORMULA. You have to take training into your hands, go through a trial and error phase and don't just talk about it, but be about it. That means you don't necessarily have to be at Lloyd Irvin's or Alliance (champions come from everywhere) it just means you have to make the best out of your situation by training hard and training smart.
A few things come to mind when figuring out how to get better at jiu-jitsu and again this is only my opinion. Doing these things will help you squeeze as much juice out of your lemon (school/instructor) as possible.
1. Ask questions and listen. It really amazes me when I hear people complain to me about how they are not good at jiu-jitsu or how they continue to get caught in something, yet I see them leave every night right after class when there are 30 purple, brown, and black belts still on the mats twiddling their thumbs. You pay 100+ dollars to basically workout if you are not asking questions, that is expensive my friend, and to be honest...not worth it. Utilize your resources and time spent on the mats to the fullest. There are so many details in jiu-jitsu that it is impossible to even know 0.0001% of them if you are a white or blue belt. And every time you do something wrong, you are creating bad habits.
2. Journals and flow charts. You learn something new everyday in jiu-jitsu, yet you probably never write it down. Why? All the pros keep journals and flow charts because in order to get somewhere you have to know where you are going, right? Start keeping track of the techniques you learn and mapping out your own game.
3. Drill. Nuff said.
Start your 10,000 hours of deliberate practice today!
I hope you got something out of this post. If I missed something, or you want to comment please do so. Before I go always remember, all answers lie in training. The more you train, the more things you will discover. Thanks for reading.
