Want To Get Better and Faster In BJJ / Jiu-Jitsu? Here It Is! 

This really hit me hard. I'm just starting bjj this week, but this video made me realize why I'm where I am in life. I have exposed myself to all sort of ideas in life, but i haven't actually learned or worked those things. I have to change how I approach my learning.

"I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks" once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times." Bruce Lee

There are two kinds of people that practice the basics. The very new and the very advanced,

Man I’m blessed that I have watched this video as beginner

I like this sorts of videos that emphasize philosophy and techniques rather than just a bunch of different moves.

I imagine the ppl that disliked this video are those black belts that dont know those escapes

So this is exactly where I'm at right now. I'm a white belt and it's a new concept every class. I can't even remember the things I learned at the beginning of the week.

Practice every move so much that people can see it coming and not be able to do anything about it.

I hear this method of learning from many other sources. A music professor said don't move on to the next measure till you get the last one right. Obviously there's no room for mistakes in music as listeners will hear it. Chael sonnen said GSP takes five times longer to slowly drill a technique over and over again I suppose this is the level of discipline needed to get good

It's absolute mastery of the basics to the point that they are second nature that makes someone truly great at any discipline.

I thought to myself "if this video isnt about drilling, this is wrong" Best video about why drilling so important. Very well explained.

100% i still can't find a place that teaches like this

I'm a black belt in karate, blue belt in BJJ. I've had this same discussion with others in BJJ, that I'm frustrated with the way BJJ is taught. It's like everything is thrown at you and you hope something sticks. I like the structure of karate where you learn basics, drill, and repeat. Once you've become proficient, you move on to the next level (belt), but continue to drill the basics. Ryan is spot on, and the line graph is great! I'm going to share this with my friends.

This practice of teaching students something new and often unrelated to the previous lesson was quite mind-boggling to me when I started BJJ, especially for someone with many years of martial arts experience in other arts. I'm used to structure and gradings. We had a syllabus, and we were tested periodically to ensure we had a firm understanding of the concepts and techniques at each level. You don't run before you can crawl. And just because you were taught to crawl today, doesn't mean you're qualified to walk tomorrow. At the BJJ school I went to, which had world class BJJ champions/coaches, the training was never goal-oriented. Sure they had a syllabus specifically for belt ranges, but if I ever wanted to practice the same concept/technique, I would either need to attend another class that very day, or just keep coming to classes until that concept/technique found it's way back in turn, by which time a lot of what I was taught was forgotten anyway. Add to that the fact that lessons were frequently unrelated. One lesson it's mount. Next lesson it's spider guard. Next lesson it's back position. For a white belt like me? What on earth?? I had to stop training for a couple years due to injury, but now I'm at a loss deciding on a gym to join simply because I'm convinced majority of these gyms follow the exact same practice. I'm probably going to give up my lousy 2 stripe white and start afresh.. And that's IF I can find a decent gym. Truly frustrating.

This is so true. BJJ needs this solution linear training.

John Danaher’s commercials are always so good and you end up watching the whole thing even though they are 2 minutes long.

I trained for a year at a gi school. Was your basic, technique, technique, spar. Walked into a no-gi school with an actual curriculum. Realized I had learned very little the old way.

Just started BJJ one month ago. I always feel like we do something new in class but i never really understand what i'm doing. "You will get it after some time". All my life i have had a hard time to learn new things if i'm not doing that one thing 1000 times before jumping to the next one. To come across this video and realize that it's actually a good thing to do makes me happy! I'd rather be good at 10 things than 100 but not knowing half the time what i'm really doing. So i will keep go over the basics over and over again for myself between classes and hope that i can develop over time!

I think this is the best, most informative video you've put out so far! I quit my jiu jitsu school because they were just throwing random techniques with no order or concept behind it: one day we would learn kimura from half guard, the next would be a de la riva sweep, then an escape from turtle and so on. I have now moved to judo until I can move to a city with a better jiu jitsu school (I live in Italy so we don't really have many good academies, unfortunately)

Love this video ... Once upon a time, I hated doing fundamentals. Nowadays, I love em!

My school teaches new concepts fairly quickly as a white belt. I knew I wasn't going to remember everything, so I got a grappling dummy for $20 on Amazon (unfilled), and started a journal of all the things I learned, so I keep the concepts fresh in mind, and practice them when I'm not at the gym.

This is the problem with most bjj gyms they dont spent enough time on one concepts instead every spent too much time learning too many concepts not proficient in any

When the music kicked in at 14:00 minutes, I started to cry.

Told my instructor this years ago. They looked st me like I was crazy. Your so right

Probably one of the best BJJ philosophy videos I've ever watched. Thanks a lot!

I'm soo blessed my coach teaches VERY linear and my kinesthetic learning style works best through drilling.

This is the exact reason why I left my first BJJ gym, every day was something different, 30 minutes of sprints/rolls/stretches, 30 minutes of training a new move a few times, 30 minutes of sparring. We might have had weeks where it's armbar week or back control week, but if you asked your partner during sparring time 'hey I know it's armbar week but I really want to practice triangle chokes, can we do that?' And the partner would say yes, then the teacher would butt in and say 'no, spar instead.' And it was a Sunday-Thursday night class with a lot of young guys who didn't know technique so we'd all just be trying to overpower eachother. And you'd just walk away everyday with a new bruise or cut, nothing serious but it'd be enough where you'd miss the next day of training. I ended up leaving because their teaching style of something new everyday was not conducive to my learning style of rote memorization. I can understand how an instructor may get bored of teaching the same thing in order everyday and they want to change it up to keep themselves entertained, but that would be like a history teacher wanting to teach a different year in history everyday.

I'm a simple man, I see an awesome Texas Shirt, a video about Jujitsu... I click

I’ve be training for 21 days and I realized this, that’s why I google this. My only probably is getting someone to drill with me like this. To me it’s common sense to drill drill until u learn the concept.

i always resisted these videos, id click on a kama video and say "aww man, this guy's talkin, i wanna see video/documentary type stuff" ....well, now these actually ended up being my favorite JJ videos, I appreciate the educational value. We learn over time. thank you for these, kama

51 year old white belt no stripe, just started training and I truly thank you for sharing this 🙏

This video is what every BJJ practitioner should watch and understand. We would all be so much better!

Learn concepts and WHY things are working not just techniques without a deep understanding of them ie; most escapes from under a pin include frames and making space, bridging and shrimping, or Collar chokes have a pulling hand and a pushing hand, typically on the opposite side. Arm triangles, a head and an arm etc. Once I simplified things in my head, it made it easier to learn new techniques while also retaining and recalling much easier.

Thank you. This is a tremendous principle that more people that are serious about BJJ talk about.

A very wise man.....

So many get taught techniques with never applying them, I try to focus on my basics

This is gold. Took me til brown belt to realize this by myself. Not easy to fix this stuff.

The one-at-a-time concept make sense for private lessons but it doesn't really hold for larger group classes when you have a limited time to practice anything and have a different class every day.

My gyms awesome for this, they have the fundamental class where you do escapes and guard retention and basics of submissions, and the advanced classes do one concept for a month like open guard, and then next month will be arm locks, then next month will be leg entanglements/locks etc. Long enough to learn and integrate things.

A basic concept of success and bad-assery that almost nobody practices that can be used not only to master martial arts but to master in ANY area of your life.

Man this is true I used to do Muay Thai and boxing and I just learned as I went a long. The past year I strictly worked on footwork, maintaining my stance and balance, my jab and now I’m moving into setting up my right with footwork and the jab. I stripped down my boxing to three things and drilled it everyday, and when I spar with old partners they say I’m a lot harder to hit now.

I was a math major and this is very parallel to how math majors and professors study.

Practice makes permanent. Perfect practice makes perfect.

So amazing how this philosophy applies to many areas of study, sports, art. As an engineering student, the same applies to the process of learning your basic concepts (math and physics), and then moving to more complex stuff (applied engineering), always coming back to the basics. Being exposed to isn't equivalen to learning or understanding. I'm about to start my jiu jitsu journey, and I'll treasure this thought process along the way.

Thank you, 2 classes in and this is a great foundation to follow. Keep you posted in 6 months.

I love the philosophy that you are teaching. I have sent this video to everyone I know.

This is very on point for me at the moment, 18 months into training, some days I just can't remember some of the new concepts that we were shown only a few days previously, it's just too much to retain (plus I'm no spring chicken 😜) I just want to get good at the basics.

At first I read the title and was like "what?" But he's absolutely on point! Having trained with Rickson and Royce, back in the day, this is very much the principle by which they teach. They're the best in my opinion! The things that I learned from them, not only in Jiu-Jitsu, but about life, I will never forget!

In my early to late teens, I studied a Kenpo variant. In my late teens, I was offered a role as one of the staff instructors, and I believe I earned my place. My personal training philosophy and my teaching philosophy was exactly what you describe here ... repeat, repeat, repeat until you KNOW as well as can DO. For that reason, my students often became dissatisfied because they "weren't advancing" fast enough. But, the students I had who "got" the message -- three of them in particular -- were more successful, more confident, and more readily able to defend themselves to the best of their abilities. When I left that school to move on to University (after multiple years in Junior College), I knew that those students would continue to progress without me on a self-determined path. And they continued on their own paths until the school changed ownership. If and when I am ever lucky enough to study with you, sir, know that if you show me only one technique, I will LEARN that technique.

i heard dan inosanto say that it is better to train with your own color belts than to train with more advanced practitioners...it's an infinite journey

This is exactly what I have been thinking about. My friend and I are building mats specifically to drill, drill, drill. I really like the idea of taking a whole month and drilling a concept. Take one technique and mastering is key to having an Arsenal in your tool belt. A master Builder masters his tools and creates art when builds. Excellent!

I'd like to add...perform every technique slowly and controlled and speed up as u get to know the technique better. Same as playing a musical instrument. You will get better learning this way!

Finding this vid 3 years late but wow does it resonate with me. I can't tell you how many times we've briefly touched on a technique and at the end, my impression was simply, "well, I guess this will make sense the next time we cover it again in 6 months".

Rickson Gracie story is so deep

This is the most basic form of learning in all of martial arts.

You're such a good teacher bro. I literally subscribed just because of how you explained it.

This video made so much sense, I was due to go back to training last week after 19 years with out doing any training, except for some weight training...family reasons mean I'm not going until the first week of January. I started trying to remember as many techniques as possible, remembering strategies from primary positions, then half guard and quickly thought, firstly I'm going to do nothing but a sweep or two and two escapes from being mounted and not even attempt to anything else buy do these repeatedly and if I end up in a guard I'll try passing the guard but until I get proficient at the initial escapes and a sweep or two , those few concepts will be my main priority. Thanks

Firstly, thank you for the video. I will keep this in mind when I'm able to get back into training. I noticed myself that without drilling techniques I learned in the same day, it felt like I was wasting time/not remembering the technique very well. So I began taking notes and imagining the steps for techniques I learned, and then would go back later using my imagination to retrace the steps. Unfortunately most schools don't exactly work on a linear timeline, or it is linear but whenever you show up to the school is where you're at on the line/beginning a specific curriculum such as offered by the Gracie academy.

I love that shirt! Keep Texas Blood Red

I re-watched this again, and doing this very thing. I'm working on one concept, and my understanding of the position is getting better with each training session. It comes in either an angle, or an idea of not letting them get a grip, or whatever, but this method is so much better than jumping around. Thanks Professor Young for posting videos like this. Look forward to just staying the course and seeing how deep I can go.

I think this might be the best video on the channel and I liked how you applied it to not only beginners/intermeds but to black belts as well! Very true and Ive always thought this way. I would rather be exposed to a concept in class and drill the hell out of it for another hour after learning it and then try to work it in a few rolls after drilling and revisit it often. That way you are exposed, drill and try to use it in a real rolling situation and I believe your mind and body "remembers" the technique much better this way and when you revisit it you reinforce it until it becomes so natural its like breathing. Instead of exposed to a concept, drill for 10-15 minutes and then roll and use it if you like or just do whatever is avail and rarely if ever revisit it bc you already "know" it.

Just about finished a Bachelor of Education and showed this to a breakaway discussion group in class. We all agreed that this concept can be applied to effectively learning curriculums etc in many different life situations. Knowing, understanding is different from being able to apply the knowledge in real life situations after OWNING it. Great video.

He makes a very good point. I have been messing around with BJJ for years but am not very good. I mean, I can choke out or submit inexperienced people no problem and have even done it to people in real life confrontations to great success. But I have not really mastered any techniques to great "depth" as he describes it. I think it is because most instructors keep showing new stuff and don't make students go over the basics enough. I need to find a place where I can drill basic stuff over and oved for weeks, months, even years and maybe every once in a while work on the higher level fancy stuff that you really only see used in grappling tournaments. That's the real way to get good at such a technical thing.

Awesome analogy, makes perfect sense. Thanks for sharing, God bless!

Just started doing jiu-jitsu during the quarantine and I think about it all day every day now. I'm so glad I saw this video so early on in my journey because I can already feel myself starting to search for that next technique to learn without hammering the fundamentals. Ultimately, it's pleasure-driven learning - that constant need for novelty through new moves. It's attractive, but if you want to be good like you're saying here, you need to drill tf out of every single piece. Appreciate this vid big time

This is still one of my favorite videos. I still refer to it. Professor Young here you literally gave away the secret to Rickson Gracie. Hugs, thank you. Keep posting.

This opened my eyes, thanks brotha , wish we could roll one day, god bless bro

Wow! That’s some great information that’s not taught anywhere. Thank you for sharing some great wisdom!

When I started BJJ 16 years ago, I trained for only 8 months. I was 22 years old and I was going 5-6x a week and in those 8 months I earned 3 stripes on my white belt. My instructor wasn't the type to promote fast, either (his name is Caique and he teaches in Southern California even now). Then I was in an accident and couldn't walk, so I stopped training. I never had the motivation to come back. Now, for some reason I decided to give BJJ a try again... and here's what's happening: I've been back to BJJ for 5 weeks now, and I can survive on the mats and mostly not get tapped by white belts and maybe half the blue belts. I went to open mat once (which I won't do again for a while because I'm older and I get more beat up and I still don't have a lot of endurance) and I was able to tap a few white belts. I even tapped a blue belt, but that's because I did something I didn't know we weren't allowed to do: ankle locks. Weird because back in the day straight ankle locks for white belts were ok. Anyway, how did I manage to do ok after having taking 16 years off of BJJ? It's because in those 8 months of training as a white belt, my instructor basically drilled a few basic concepts into our heads OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN. Hip and elbow escapes. Upa escape/reversal. Closed guard, guard passing, back defense, side mount and mount control and defense. It was all this basic stuff day in and day out. I learned maybe a few submissions (armbar, triangle choke, cross collar choke, clock choke, kimura, rear naked choke and straight ankle lock).We also did self defense stuff and unfortunately I forgot some of it (punches and stuff like that which I think the Gracies still teach). During that time, I had ZERO IDEA what spider guard was, I didn't know rubber guard, berimbolo didn't even exist, I didn't know butterfly guard, etc. But I 100% knew had to escape mount and side mount without getting smashed too hard. I knew how to pass guard maybe 3-4 different ways. I knew how to defend my back and escape from back attacks. I knew like 3 submissions from closed guard and I knew 3 sweeps from closed guard. That was probably all I knew, but I knew them fairly well (or as well as anyone can going almost every single day for 8 months). Now, the school I'm in has a pretty well known world champion instructor under some legendary competitors with whom our school is affiliated. It's not that great. I mean, the advanced belts are pretty good and they're good competitors, but the instruction is how you described it: you learn a little bit of this and a little bit of that, but you're getting super random puzzle pieces that hopefully you'll put together yourself in a few years. It sucks. Like, one day we learn arm drags from spider guard, the next day we learn chokes and armbar from knee on belly. Then the next class we learn closed guard sweeps, and the day after that we learn single leg takedown and ouchi gari. Where is the structure in that? Where is the repetition and building of concepts? It sucks and I feel like most schools are like this now. I want to make it perfectly clear that I don't think I'm good. In fact, I'm terrible. I'm heavier now and more out of shape than when I was 22. I did forget a lot of stuff. BUT I remembered enough stuff to survive because I drilled a lot of really, really basic stuff thousands of times back when I did train.

I noticed at my jiu jitsu class they teach us new things everyday. Back in high school wrestling they would teach us new things everyday but our coach would have time where we drill takedowns that we like every day of practice.

Absolutely right. Be exposed to many concepts and you may never have a command of any of them. Master the basics!

Damn that Rickson story is awesome. What a boss. I’d love to get anywhere near this level. Nice video and bg music too btw.

I completely agree with this video. It wasn’t until I stopped free rolling and winging it that I really improved. I developed a game built around pressure passing and certain submissions. That really took me to the next level. All of my rolling is me just developing and mastering the game. I still like to practice and drill other techniques of course but at the core I have gotten really good at a certain strategy. Also, great channel I really enjoy your videos.

Awesome video! This is true in many things in life! Coming from a football background it’s the same thing Young naive (and old) coaches learn new concepts and try to add it to their teams playbook … but it’s at the sacrifice of the teams ability to execute it and the coaches ability to coach it Vs only getting good at a few plays and knowing them really well … and as a team knowing how to fix it when things go wrong/the defense adjusts

Great subject and priceless wisdom. You're awesome Mr Ryan Young. Thank you for the excellent videos and smooth delivery of valuable/historical wisdom. Thank you for your contribution to the martial arts.

You answered the question neither of my professors could provide an answer for except, “it’s just time on the mat.” In my first month as a white belt I have learned no fundamentals but a lot of random advanced concepts, which no one trains afterward. I finally found a partner to drill fundamentals (basic positions and escapes) with me after class. Unfortunately, the best white belt knowledge I get is coming to RU-vid. I wish this was the knowledge new members received when they first join their gym. With all the basic questions I see getting answered over and over online, there appears to be an issue with getting this introductory message across to beginners. This talk was one of the best introductory talks I’ve heard yet. Thank you.

I agree to this method 100%. technical mastery entails knowing , fully understanding and doing in repetition the minority that leads to great improvement or that has a major impact. I advocate 80/20 imbalance principle. The few techniques learned,understood well and repeatedly practiced - like the few techniques ive learned well are the most common ones and it works really great. One technique(concept) well mastered is life saving than a 1000 half learned.Thanks

Excellent advice....thank you!

Just started BJJ last month. I wrestled folkstyle,freestyle,and greco since middle school. I am almost 40 and still help local schools train wrestlers. By the time I got to my peak I had 4 to 5 very reliable takedowns from both sides that flowed together usually in twos meaning if I missed one the other was right there. One bottom I had two and on top three. There were other moves I would hit since 10 moves were second nature to me I was very confident in my training and I loved scrambles. Remember fondly drilling over and over these 10 moves at home after practice during the summer etc. These were basic moves or concepts that help me and a friend go far. Now instead of shadow wrestling I am shadow jitting at home. Trying to take any move that seems basic and drilling at home or after practice. The real complex moves are cool and gives me an idea of what is possible but the basics refined are the cornerstone of complex moves and the basics mastered always seems way more reliable.

Thoroughly enjoy your videos. Thank you.

Great talk! This is why I set mini goals for myself in training. By mini goals, I usually define my success for that day by them, so they have to be small enough goals to fit into one class. My goals for the last class were: "Attack the cross collar. WHEN that fails, and you get side mounted (this is usually what happens to me), get a knee in and try to reestablish guard." That was it... two mini goals, one offensive and one defensive. This is my goal until I feel like I can get a little farther and consistently hit the re-guard or sweep.

Love love love this information professor!!! Oss!!! Thank you for sharing your knowledge.

So true. The majority of gyms I have trained in have been moves then rolling and people rarely do the moves that are taught in that particular moment.

Tha k you for this video I am just getting into Jiu-Jitsu and this video is going into my saved videos so that I can go back and watch this video to remind myself how I should be learning Jiu-Jitsu. Once again thank you for making this video. Don’t worry about the ones who have this video a thumbs down they have big egos and cannot be taught.

Your concepts have changed my whole outlook on learning Jitsu. Specially a person who has mastered only fundamentals can still be very effective. I'm planning on focusing on perfecting the fundamentals this first year as a blue belt instead of learning a whole bunch of new techniques. Thanks you.

This is gold...so true. Remind me of bruce lee's saying

This is why I consider myself blessed. White to Blue directly from Rickson. Blue to Brown directly under Kron. So this video makes perfect sense.

Best bjj video I have ever seen

Learning methodology is super important and so easy to overlook in training. One thing I've found need to spend a lot of time on is finding the next concept. In my experience it often takes me weeks to figure out what is the next skill or nuance I need to practice. It's easy to find *something* new, but it can take a while to figure out what exactly is the *next* thing for me and my skillset. So for me the time frame is usually more like 6 weeks to add something new in a way that really sticks.

WOW! Never thought about this method of learning. Can be applied to so much more than just BJJ. Thank you so much, Kama for opening my eyes

Great video. I really like this concept. I've been trying something like this for the past couple of months. I think why only a few will do this is because we are in a microwave generation. I imagine it's hard for professors to get great numbers without showing the "newest" move. Love your channel. Keep up the good work.

This also relate to business. Scattered learning makes certain business strategies fail, and competitors can quickly re dominate you.

Great video! I'm definitely going to do this. Again...Never leave the bottom. That's a James Brown Quote.

Awesome 👏🏻 Thank you sir! Oss 🙏

I have trained at half a dozen different Brazilian jujitsu schools over a period of about 20 years. I’m a blue belt with a halfway decent closed guard and that’s about it. There are other reasons why I’ve never been able to be consistent and commit fully, but what you broke down here has been the case at every school where I’ve trained. And it’s how I’ve been training for 20 years. Fortunately, I’m only 40 now, and I think that with this advice along with a perspective that I’ve been working on recently to go in and play and learn rather than win, I can hopefully make some real progress once my herniated cervical disc heals. Thank you very much for the video.

I am so glad i saw this video. Definitley opened my eyes and gave me insight before I start looking for the right jiu jitsu school. Thank you sir

Great advice! I’m stuck in a technique warehouse but I don’t conceptually understand any of them. I learn through this model

This was a fantastic video. Thank you.

THIS IS GOLD!

Wow this is the trick. I have to master the basics