How Not to Waste Your Time in BJJ

My Guest Blog writer is David Close who Holds 6 different black belts Including a BJJ Black Belt Under Rafael Rosendo Dos Santos from Alliance.-Keith Owen www.bjjmoves.com 

One of the things that annoy higher ranks the most is when we get asked the following:  “What are things I need to work on?”  

Now the question itself is not what is annoying, it is what normally transpires.  I cannot count the amount of times say, before a tournament, where people ask about what they should work on.  Especially if they want to know what to work on to improve on their last tournament performance.   

You then give them an honest breakdown of key things that they may need to work on to better their game overall and especially if they wish to compete.  They thank you and talk about the need to work hard, etc. etc.  And then they do next to nothing in regards to what you went over with them.  

Now I understand that we all have busy lives and schedules that may not allow a ton of flexibility.  But one of the most frustrating things you will encounter as a teacher is when you try to help out students and then they decide to pretty much ignore the conversation.   

Again jiu-jitsu is a long journey and I am all for people traveling this journey at their own pace.  It is one of the beautiful things as the art will work with you if you allow it.  However, there comes a point where as an instructor patience starts to wear a bit thin.

Now this does not mean that as higher ranks we don’t want to help you.  Far from it, we want to help you achieve whatever goals you want.  However, it does baffle us when you want our time to help you personally but then essentially our words go on deaf ears.  Now if you don’t want to take the advice, again that is fine.   

Maybe it’s more work than you want to put in or you don’t have time to employ whatever strategies we have given you, I can dig that as such is life.  However, if you are not getting the results you want (be it in the academy or especially if you are competing in a tournament) then PLEASE no whining about it.  

When you are not getting the results you are wanting, you have to EARN the right to complain about it.  You earn it by being able to realistically say you have done everything you possibly could have to achieve the results but just came up short.  In reality most of us in all facets of life do a lot of complaining but if we are honest, we haven’t earned the right to complain.   

So the next time you want to ask a black belt on what you need to do to improve, please do the courtesy of at least trying to put the advice into action.  Heck we are more than willing normally to work with you on it.  Nobody likes to feel as if their advice is being ignored when it has been sought out after all.

If you would like to join a winning team with FREE AFFILIATION join the Team Rhino Association at www.teamrhinobjj.com