Bulletproof For BJJ Podcast
Discussions on improving your BJJ, navigating mat-politics and all aspects of the jiu jitsu lifestyle. Multiple weekly episodes for grapplers of any level. Hosted by JT and Joey - Australian jiu jitsu black belts, strength coaches, and creators of Bulletproof For BJJ App. Based out of Sydney, Australia
Bulletproof For BJJ Podcast
Why Is Getting Better At Jiu Jitsu So Hard? - Part 2
Why is getting better consistently at BJJ such a tall order? Stay tuned for the Finale of the 2 part pod. Learn how you might be able to make jiu jitsu easier on yourself and those around you.
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Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another Bulletproof for BJJ podcast. On today's episode, we talk about why it's so hard to learn BJJ. There are four key things that are adding resistance to your learning journey. Step one we talk about why the movements are so awkward and what you can do to quickly overcome this and become a better mover. Number two we talk about the infinite world of techniques, combinations, sequences and positions and how you can break through this noise to get a clear understanding to learn better. Number three how the chaotic elements of training partners can either help you or hinder you and what you can do to be a better training partner. And number four how coaches can also influence you in a way that will dramatically accelerate or slow you down, and what it takes to have a good relationship with your coach.
Speaker 1:Now, if you like this kind of content, please like, subscribe and, on all audio platforms, give us a five-star rating. Let's get into the episode and, on all audio platforms, give us a five-star rating. Let's get into the episode Better. Listen very carefully. A good martial artist does not become tense, but ready. Essentially, at this point, the fight is over, so you pretty much flow with the goal. Who is worthy to be trusted with the secret to limitless power.
Speaker 2:I'm ready.
Speaker 1:Now, the third thing I feel and it's probably the biggest component of all this and this is what you were touching on, joe is the chaos, the entropy and the fuckery which is working with another human, because this is the nature of jiu-jitsu the resistance isn't always the same. The dumbbell is labeled 12.5 kilos. You go to pick it up, it's fucking 17. It's fucking 25 kilos. You're like why is this so fucking hard? Today, your training partner has decided no, I don't care about your learning, I don't care about what you're doing, I'm doing whatever the fuck I want today, and you have no say in that. How your training partner shows up is luck of the fucking draw. Sometimes they're empathetic or sometimes they're helpful. Sometimes they're trying to fucking kill you. That is nothing that you can control, and this often gets us feeling down in the dumps about our skills. Similar to what you're saying about looking around at what others do.
Speaker 1:It's also what others do to you so if you end up rolling with someone who you think you're similar, like maybe they've got a couple more stripes than you, but oh, we're both white belts, we're the same. No, you didn't see all the extra work they were doing or the extra drilling, and so this sets up like a really confusing expectation that you think, oh, we should be doing similarly well. Like why is that guy so good at all the drills? Why does that always get beaten by that guy? And it makes you question your ability. But it doesn't make you actually account. For they have their skills and I have my limited set of skills and that's why, when we come together, I don't do as well. It doesn't mean you suck, it just means you're not as good as them.
Speaker 2:And that's fine.
Speaker 1:And I think that this is a huge thing within jujitsu that not only the comparison piece where we look at someone else doing better, but also just our inability to succeed against somebody and we think, oh, that means I suck, and it's only really. I've found it with many people. Once they get kind of maybe six months in, they roll with the like the trial guy, the free trial guy, and they absolutely destroy somebody. And this is the hardest thing. We're always comparing ourselves to people who are our level or better, but we don't think how much better am I than someone who doesn't know any jujitsu or someone who has never done this? Yeah, and that, that's a that. That really, that can confuse people as to if they're improving or not.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like one one practical thing around that could be like um, I don't know, maybe once, uh, once, like I don't know, maybe once, like a couple times a year you go, hey guys, tonight's jiu-jitsu class, not in the academy, we're going to walk the streets and everyone's just going to pick some random dude or chick and just fucking submit them. You know what I mean. And it's just like know what you're going to hit before you approach, snap down, fucking gillow, you know whatever.
Speaker 1:Even a roll, yeah.
Speaker 2:Heel hook, yeah, down, fucking gillow, you know whatever. Yeah, heel hook, you know, yeah, but like hard and fast straight to the streets and the whole point of it's kind of like the purge.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you've seen that film right, it's the purge meets fight club yeah, it's just, it, just like one night of the year.
Speaker 2:It empowers every grappler's soul for the next six months like oh, I can kick the shit out of some nine to five dad that's just picking his kids up from tennis practice.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I mean he was wearing those business shoes, so it's really good to get the bite on the heel.
Speaker 2:Yeah, once you lock in on that leather heel Gotcha.
Speaker 1:Well, what I was going to say with that is the other thing too, which is difficult is your training partners. Even if you started at the same time, you're both getting better at the same time. Yeah, they're not a good barometer, no, because they are also learning what the fuck you are good at. And then they're saying to the coach hey, coach, how do I stop so-and-so from doing that thing to me? And they start countering you and it's so much more dynamic. So it's like it's as if you keep picking up the same dumbbells, but they are getting heavier as you're getting stronger and you're like still says 10 kilos on these dumbbells, but aren't I stronger? Like why aren't I picking up the heavier dumbbells? And this is the thing that we really can't account for, and it really isn't until we get a contrast or competition where we find out where we actually stand, which is really tough, because the-.
Speaker 2:Well, I think you know to that point you never actually know where you stand, right, Because you are always grappling against other people that are also grappling and trying to get better In that way, right Like it is hard to gain an objective perspective of where you're at, yes, which is fascinating.
Speaker 1:It is part of jiu-jitsu. We do accept the terms and conditions of this weird thing. We do.
Speaker 2:JT and I have worked in gyms, and specifically with grapplers, for over 20 years between the two of us, and one thing that we've learned is how to build strong, robust, flexible humans who can thrive on the mats but also thrive off the mats, and this is exactly why we built the Bulletproof for BJJ program. The Bulletproof for BJJ program was the whole reason we started this podcast, and if you want to access those programs that we've built specifically for people like yourself, all you got to do is go to the app store, download the app and you can start a two week free trial today. Go to the app store on whichever device and you can start a two-week free trial today. Go to the app store on whichever device you have, search bulletproof for bjj, start your free trial and get coached by us. But it's also so that you can think, well, all right.
Speaker 1:Well, because your training partner's probably experiencing something similar, where they're like, fuck, I can never get that thing on on this guy. Yeah, and you're like, yeah, it's because I fucking watched the fucking lachlan jobs tutorial on how to counter that shit boy. And then this is like the arms race of jujitsu, and this is why instructionals have become so popular, because everyone's trying to get the new, new knowledge to have like a, an edge. Yeah, and I even found this when I was in brazil bunch of edge lords, edge lords. If I could get a technique against somebody, those boys would then go chat and talk about how to like beat it, and so next time I would not get that success. Yeah, fuck, I'm out here by myself and they're all like colluding against me and plotting on my fucking downfall and yeah, and that's evolution, folks. But here's the thing I feel, the fourth piece of the puzzle, which it can be to your advantage.
Speaker 1:We've talked about why this could be a good thing, but often why it might be difficult is coaching is not consistent. Results may vary. If you've been able to randomly find a gym and you immediately love your coach, coach loves you and they think you're great, you're probably going to have a really good time because they're really thinking about you and trying to help you. If you go to a gym and maybe you don't have a strong connection with the coach and you're trying your best, but they actually don't really give a shit about your progress other than hey, just keep turning up. The feedback is inconsistent and I think this is a massive, massive problem.
Speaker 1:The lack of feedback coach to student is huge and because obviously you're saying like there's a group setting, so there's only so much like one-to-one time you can get with your coach unless you're paying for private lessons. Therefore, some days maybe you've and we've all experienced this right, you're nailing the technique. You're like I fucking master this technique, I'm so good. Coach comes over, show me the technique. You're like ah, coach is watching, don't stuff it up, fuck. Coach is like, hmm, got a bit of work to do here, yeah, but you didn't see the fucking 20 good ones I did. Ah, you know, and this is this is often the thing you you feel like you're doing pretty good, you're rolling, you're killing it, and then you notice coach is like watching.
Speaker 2:You're like oh, pressure's on, gonna kill it harder.
Speaker 1:I must perform oh fuck, I got swept and now I'm getting smashed. I feel that and it's not blaming the coach per se, because we're all in this situation, whether you're a coach or a student but the inconsistency of feedback makes jiu-jitsu harder to learn are you saying inconsistency in terms of a particular coach is inconsistent or it's just coaches generally are no no I think some are good, some are bad. No the situation in which we learn jiu-jitsu is not set up well for consistent feedback right, yeah, like at the end of class.
Speaker 1:You know you might high five or shake hands or whatever the fuck you do, but the coach isn't like pulling you to the side at the end of the class and going. You did this well, but I think you need to improve that. Yeah, now, that would be hard to do, but imagine if that happened every class. Yeah, you were like thumbs up, you did this good, but I noticed that this needs work, yeah, and that every single student got that amount of attention and fear.
Speaker 2:That's pretty fucking hard to organize, oh yeah but it'd be powerful. How good would it be. And you can see it's more of a thing that happens at smaller gyms.
Speaker 1:Yeah, when they're younger like a younger academy where there's just whatever 20 members.
Speaker 2:Yes, um, but yeah, that's right, it's um. Fuck. Once the team gets busy and shit, you might go weeks longer, you might go months. I remember going months without coach saying anything, yeah and that and that can be difficult.
Speaker 1:And it's not even about approval, it's not even about like, oh, coach doesn't love his feedback, it's just. It's just you knowing where the fuck you're at, because maybe you did something real good and you didn't even realize, yeah, and maybe you just one small mistake meant your guard got passed and then you got smashed for the rest of the round, but everything else you were were doing was very good. And if no one's watching and no one, or maybe you filmed the role but you don't even know what you're looking at, the feedback piece is massive. And I think there's also another thing here too, like we're talking about.
Speaker 1:Obviously, if you run a jujitsu gym, you want it to be busy, you want it to make money, you want it to be successful. But there's this weird mixture, as you're saying, like earlier on in the jiu-jitsu journey, for a gym, it's kind of better when it's smaller. I think it's like anything Great cafe, great fucking club, there's even a party Like there's a critical threshold of people where it's like this is cool, and then it starts to get a bit bigger or more popular and you're like this is getting a bit fucking diluted, a fucking normies around here there's too many fucking cunts in here and then everybody's in there and you're like this shit isn't cool anymore.
Speaker 1:And it's not just that, it's just. There is a critical paradigm, which is the gym needs to be successful and make money for it to be sustained. But if it's too many people, then people don't get enough attention, enough feedback and the quality goes down. And you see this in every endeavor in life.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Early on there, the coaches over delivering because they're extremely concerned that they're going to fucking have to close their business. So they're doing an amazing job and there's only half a dozen of you there. So you're like how fucking good is this? This is the best.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I do remember the early days of a gym and what that was like to just be like eight people sitting around the coach and the coach was dropping gems, and then the next minute there's 50 people in the class and you're lucky if you get a role with your coach, and this is the nature of things.
Speaker 1:Brings about different benefits by the way as it grows, yeah, and you've got more people to play with, and that's all good. But what is often good for the gym or the coach isn't necessarily what's good for you. Like this idea that just keeps showing up train more, train more. Well, actually, maybe you need to train a little bit less. Like, if you're already training three times or four times a week, training a fifth time might actually not be good for you, even though it's good for the gym Having more bodies on the mat. Everyone come to open mat, huge open mat. How good's this? Well, maybe you should have taken that day off to, like I don't know, go for a swim or have a stretch or go for a walk, or you know what I mean. So I think sometimes the feedback you do get from the coach is really just in the nature of the interest of the business, not you as an individual.
Speaker 1:And this is this can be a bit of a problem, and I think that, uh, for a lot of people they're just trying to please the coach, because ultimately we get hooked up on the belt system or the grading system.
Speaker 1:Like, got to keep the coach happy, otherwise I'm fucking never going to get that next stripe, you know, and we we really the the whole carrot and stick like we get. So you know, they always talk about like you know, know the self and do what's right by you, and but you're really just playing this, this game of pandering to the coach. That is like a huge component. You're like because, also, if the coach doesn't like me, the coach isn't going to show me any fucking cool jujitsu shit. And if you have like a fairly objective, nice coach, they won't treat you differently because you've been busy with work or family and you didn't come to training. They're not going to be like, oh, you don't fucking care about jujitsu. It's like, no, I get it, you've got a busy life. I understand. I'm not going to bias against you, but I have seen that, where you just see it naturally, where the coach gravitates towards the students who are there, all the fucking time yeah.
Speaker 1:And that may not be you, and then you get kind of outside the click. I think I don't know if you've ever had this experience, joe, where I'm always in the center of the.
Speaker 2:you're always in the click. Everyone wants me in their fucking click. I fucking know it's revolting. No, everyone wants to be in their fucking click.
Speaker 1:I fucking know it's revolting. No, it's fine, I'm just jealous. But that's the thing. When you're outside the click, it feels very difficult to break in. Learning jujitsu is hard and we know why you struggle because you're doing a solo. You need Submeta. Submeta is the most comprehensive online learning tutorial for jujitsu. It is set up in a structure so that not only do you get to access some of the best videos on all of the techniques, but it is in a structure. You will remember Whether you're a white belt or a black belt. There's something in there for you to learn and, as a podcast listener, when you use the code BULLETPROOF16, you can get $16 off when you subscribe at submetaio.
Speaker 1:Training jiu-jitsu is hard, especially if you are dehydrated. Now, one of the best ways for you to be able to fight dehydration is with sodium. The absolute best mix of sodium, potassium and magnesium is going to fight the muscle cramps. It's going to give you maximum energy and you're going to roll better. When you go to Sodi S-O-D-I-Icomau, use the code Bulletproof15 and get 15% off and get hydrated for better jujitsu, Especially if your life doesn't afford you to just live on the mat for sure, and that would be um, I guess you'd say that that's when there's not a parallel of kind of values or something like whatever.
Speaker 2:It's a fucking team that loves to smoke weed and you don't, and so it's like I don't know if I fit in here. Team that loves steroids but you don't. That's right, but maybe you could learn to love them james.
Speaker 1:Thanks, joe, I appreciate that. But I think there is also separate to that is the difficulty in what you want versus what you need. And this often comes from a good coach saying to you hey, I know you really want to do leg locks right now, but you have absolutely no takedowns at all. You should learn a takedown or two. Shut up coach, you're too old school. I want to fucking learn this leg lock shit. And it's like yeah, but you just Batman meme, but Batman fucking bang.
Speaker 1:A good, discerning coach will do their best to try to fill the gaps, like if they, if they understand you, they will try and help you. You know like, oh, look like we need to, we need to work on your game as a whole. And they do think about it because they're trying to help you. But you're like but that's not what I want and you, you know there's this. It's a bit of a delicate balance, right, because we have the consumer conflict. I'm the consumer. Give me what I fucking want. If you don't give me what I want, fuck you, I'm out of here. But often what you want is not what you need.
Speaker 2:I'm going to Gracie Baja, take it back.
Speaker 1:I'm going to Gracie.
Speaker 2:Baja man, you can't stop me.
Speaker 1:Get the fuck out of here um but yeah, but this is a difficulty, right, because discernment is really, I feel, the role of the coach.
Speaker 2:The information's all out there well, this and but yeah, and this is the um. I mean, this is the art of coaching, isn't it? That there's you're trying to guide somebody, trying to mentor them, and how one coach goes about that, compared to another, could be very different. So sometimes you know, yeah, you've known those coaches that lead with an iron fist and it's like no, motherfucker, this is how we do it, and sometimes that's great. And then you've got ones that are like really understanding and like super passive and like yeah, whatever you want to do, kind of thing, and that might be great too. Maybe it's a timing thing, maybe it's a personality thing. You know, there's a space for all of those characters, isn't?
Speaker 1:there, definitely. But I'm saying that like in terms of the difficulty of jujitsu sometimes what you need isn't what you want. So having a coach get you to do something you don't really want to do is actually one of the best things for your game, even though it might feel like, oh man, fuck the coach. The coach doesn't understand me. Yeah, you know, but I have definitely had it in my lifetime where I have been pushed by bosses and coaches to do something that I didn't enjoy or I didn't think I would enjoy. But once I was actually able to learn it and get on top of it, I was like oh, I feel I'm much better at this now. I'm happy that they pushed me or got me to do the thing I didn't want to do. And this is a difficult thing because we're like but I'm here at Jiu-Jitsu, I'm a paying customer, I just want to do what I want to do and there is a value in I mean, but did?
Speaker 2:you ever look at it like that, like I'm a paying customer? No, not until more recently.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean. Like it's only since I think I've been like a brown belt, black belt, that I've thought hang on a second. Like I want to be able to enjoy certain aspects of jujitsu. And if I'm paying money to a gym and I can't do that, then I'm not super stoked on it. You know what I mean? Yeah, but I think, yeah it is difficult.
Speaker 1:And this is the thing, folks when you do jujitsu it's all one in the same. All these different ideas, whether it be the techniques, the body movements, the training partners, the coaching, it's all just wrapped up into one idea, which is jujitsu, and we just accept ah, this is fucking hard, we just got to do it. But if you can look at these different components and identify well, actually, you know I'm moving pretty good, my training partners are cool, my coach is cool, but maybe I'm just having a struggle interacting in rolling Then you can go work on that thing. And that's why I wanted to do this breakdown, because it might only be one piece of the puzzle. That's really fucking you up. And really, once you start to change it, then jiu-jitsu becomes a less resistant force against you as you progress. And so there it is folks breaking it down Now? If you like this kind of content, then we would appreciate you to like, subscribe and, wherever you're listening to this, give it a five-star rating. Thank you.
