Tom DeBlass Reveals The Secret To Getting Good At Jiu-Jitsu

Tom DeBlass as seen it all. Over a fifteen year plus jiu-jitsu career Tom has managed to not only stay relevent in a very quickly moving jiu-jitsu scene but he has also claimed victories over some of the biggest names in the sport.

While visiting New York FloGrappling sat down with the ADCC veteran to talk about how he deals with fighting larger opponents and what the secret to getting good at jiu-jitsu is.

"I tell my big guys to train like small guys, but then I tell my small guys get good. Get so good it doesn’t matter if they use their strength. The little guys out there, I feel your pain, even though when you meet me and I’m not little, I’m always little when I compete. Everybody is so big. I’ve been working on my game for fifteen years. How long does it take to get good a jiu-jitsu? A lifetime. And here I am after all the things I’ve done, I’m trying to reinvent my whole game. So my advice to the small guy is just to keep showing up. And stop getting frustrated, it’s just jiu-jitsu."

Although Tom competes mostly in the heavyweight divisions often he is the smaller more agile competitor. Being over powered on the mats is often a source of frustration for jiu-jitsu beginners but take it from the no-gi World champion, it gets better.

"I always say this, when you leave the gym, you’re leaving with less stress. You’re either getting your frustration out on someone or your getting the frustration beat out of you. You might be getting beat up now but when you’re a purple belt, brown belt the big guys that are just using strength, that shit’s not gonna work any more.  Eventually you’ll be the one dishing it out."