Grappling Goals

      As a very open gym rat, I spend a great deal of time at the school where I train and teach. I am normally there 5 days a week, sometimes 6 for a couple of hours each day. There are some huge benefits to this for me and my training, there are also some large downsides. A few days ago, I was grappling for about an hour a 5 p.m., had to stop at about 6:30 to teach a class, took a break for a bit and then was grappling and training again about from 8-10 p.m. Not too bad a solid 3 and a half hours of training! That night laying in bed I was reviewing what I had worked on during those training sessions, where I had improved what techniques worked and so forth. Then something stuck me, I was doing way too much. I say this because I was working on a new way to break and pass guard, I was thinking about leg lock setups, I was also thinking about a couple half guard sweeps. While each and every one of these was important to me not one of them was much better.
      That's when I decided I needed to change. I am in the gym so much that I have a lot of time to roll, and like to play around with a lot of different things while I am there. This, while at first seemed like a great thing turned out to be a hindrance to my personal growth. I needed a plan, a set of goals, I needed to train differently. So I took a bit of time and tried to asses where I was as a grappler, where am I lacking the most. For me, although I love leg locks, they are not a high percentage submission for me. So I decided it was time to focus. For the next couple of months my focus is only going to be on leg locks. Now that I have a goal, I am able to give them the attention I really need, I can focus on the proper technique, how to set them up, how to prevent an escape and all the other details that I was too busy to focus on, I finally can.
      This not only changed my physical game, but my mental game as well. Now that I had a focus, I was really paying close attention to those details more and more. I was thinking about leg locks constantly, analyzing and visualizing and a couple more "izing"'s. My decision to start setting goals has pushed me further into the details of jiu-jitsu than before.
      I really encourage you to do the same thing. Where are you weak, TRAIN that thing, DRILL it, practice it, make sure to do it when you roll. Depending on your level and experience you will be able to do this to different depths.
      If you are experienced take (lets say you need work on collar chokes)that submission and OWN it for a few months. Only use collar chokes to finish when you are rolling, focus on getting into the position you need, focus on fakes and setting it up. Look at the details to finish it. IF you start to feel really confident, tell everyone you roll with you are only going for collar chokes for the next couple of months. This will make it even harder for you, you will find that you are pushing your own game much further and more detailed than you expected.
      Remember set goals, focus, don't over train or try and multi task too much. You don't need to be great at everything right away, that will come with experience and lots and lots of mat time. Get out there and roll. Thanks for reading, and remember the submission is in the details

-Sean