How to Maximize Your Mat Time | Chris Wojcik's Approach To Training
How to Maximize Your Mat Time | Chris Wojcik's Approach To Training
B-Team's Chris Wojcik is back to share how you can approach your training in a way that really maximizes your time
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When I was coming up in Jiu-Jitsu, the most impressive grapplers to me were guys who were able to balance high-level Jiu-Jitsu with other things in their lives.
Cobrinha, for example, one of the most decorated competitors of all time, was a baker before he was a multi-time world champion.
A friend of mine, Paul Ardilla, is a lawyer and also a multi-time ADCC Trials champion.
Tammi Musumeci is another world-class competitor who balances her training with a full-time job.
I find that these people are the ones that we should look to for insight on how to maximize our mat time. It’s easy to be good at Jiu-Jitsu when Jiu-Jitsu is all you have to be good at.
But what you’re a working professional? What if you have kids? What if you can only get to the gym a few days per week?
I get it because I’ve been there. I’ve been training Jiu-Jitsu for 10 years, but throughout the entirety of my career, I’ve juggled multiple ghostwriting gigs, several different online businesses, a relationship, and more.
Here’s what I’ve learned about maximizing my mat time and still competing at the highest levels of our sport.
The First Step is To Have Specific Goals
I train once a day most days.
I write for several hours in the morning, I train at noon, and then I lift weights and teach a class at night.
I’ve had this routine for nearly 2 years now. I do one hard session per day.
There are a few aspects of my training that allow me to make progress dispute a lower training volume than many pros, and the first is that I am training very intentionally.
I show up every day with specific techniques that I’m working. I watch reels, instructionals, YouTube videos (honestly Flo’s YouTube is an incredible free resource for learning), and old matches before I go into the gym so that on that day, I have specific goals for my session.
The easiest way to achieve a goal is to make it more specific. You can have whatever you want but not everything you want.
Specificity is the first step to greatness.
Have Quality Training Partners
If you’re the best in the room, it’s impossible to truly maximize your mat time.
You will spend more time lifting other people up than you will be maximizing your development.
There’s nothing wrong with this and I actually think it’s a noble thing to do, but this article is not about how to be a heroic Jiu-Jitsu figure, it’s about how to get the most out of your mat time.
Luckily for me, I’ve always had partners who are better than me.
Before I moved to Austin, I had one partner who was a college wrestler who I’d work wrestling with. My original coach, Jeff, had the best leg locks in the room. My good friends Jack and Oleg were my “scrap” partners.
Now, in Austin, I train in one of the toughest rooms in the world. There are plenty of people in the room who can beat my ass.
Quality training partners accelerate development faster than any instructional or training program. Iron does sharpen iron.
Make Sure You Get All Kinds of Feedback
Some days I roll with Nicky Rod.
I leave the round thinking like I suck at Jiu-Jitsu. I get lots of negative feedback.
On other days, I train with guys who I’m far more experienced than and I get a lot of positive feedback about my Jiu-Jitsu. I feel like Superman. Like a ninja.
Some days I feel like I can win ADCC and other days I feel like I shouldn’t even be a black belt.
Get Caught Up On Chris' ADCC Prep Blog
- I'm Competing at ADCC. Here's My Training Routine and Thoughts On The Event
- ADCC Prep Week 2: The Grim Reality of Trying to Be Your Best
- ADCC Prep Week 3: The Mental Game of Grappling
- ADCC Prep Week 4: "The Deload Week"
- ADCC Prep Week 5: The Home Stretch
- ADCC Prep Week 6: Are We There Yet?
That’s just the reality of training with different partners. You have good rounds and bad rounds.
The feedback is what’s important. You need to know what to work on and what’s going well.
You need quality training partners, but that doesn’t just mean people who beat you up. You need partners who give you the right looks.
This is the true value of being in a professional room – you get tons of looks that are on the meta because everyone is studying the trends in Jiu-Jitsu.
Even if you’re not a professional room, what’s important is that some rounds you win and other rounds you lose. You need both to develop as efficiently as possible.
Control Off-The-Mat Variables As Best You Can
My life is pretty stressful.
This month, I had a book launch. In December, I did EBI. November, PGF. Next month, I’m traveling for 2 seminars and a competition.
Every month I’m either competing, traveling for seminars and matches, training my butt off for something big, or working on a tough project for a client (I’m currently ghostwriting 2 books).
The only reason I am not having a nervous breakdown is because when I’m home, I live a very low-stress lifestyle. Things are routine. I have a healthy relationship. I eat a good diet. I barely check my phone after 5pm at night. I drink chamomile tea and take a magnesium supplement.
I try to sleep 7-9 hours per night.
I know you might not be able to do all these things yourself, but I am not telling you to be me.
Control your off-the-mat-life as best you can. Set realistic goals based on what you can control.
Closing Thoughts
Jiu-Jitsu is a hard thing to get good at even when it’s the center of your life.
If you’re like most people, however, Jiu-Jitsu is not the center of your life. You probably only have a small amount of time every day or maybe even every few days that you can devote to the sport and your training. It’s essential that during the time you are training, you are focused.
I know guys who “grind” way harder than me or many other high-level competitors who never reach high-level competition, never win matches, and barely even get better in the training room.
The reason?
Likely one of the 4 listed above.
They either:
- Don’t have specific goals
- Don’t have good training partners
- Get too much positive or negative feedback
- Live an unhealthy lifestyle off the mat
If you can fix these issues in your own training you’ll get better faster and improve your Jiu-Jitsu experience as a whole.
I also wholeheartedly believe that these are the 4 easiest variables that you can control if you train at a normal academy.
Improvement is accessible to all of us wherever you are in the world – you just need to do the right things and work intelligently.
Read more from Chris at TheGrapplersDiary.Substack.com
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