Our friends from grapplersparadise.de (check them out) interviewed multiple BJJ World & Panamerican Champion, BJJ black belt Gianni Grippo who is one of the new upcoming stars of bjj. He currently trains at the Marcelo Garcia Academy in New York. This is what he had to say about training hard and being efficient in training:
“Is a day without training a day wasted?
I used to believe that theory, that a day without training is a day wasted, but I question it now. Resting is part of the preparation, and that has it’s positives in the long run. But, on those rest days I will always be studying some videos and trying to pick up some different techniques to work on. So, no I don’t think a day without training is a wasted day, but I always try to do something productive on those off days.
You´ve been training for a long time with many different instructors. Looking back, what are the biggest mistakes and myths you see in bjj training? What are the biggest wastes of time?
The biggest mistakes people make in training that many believe are the “keys to success” is training hard all the time. I see many young athletes, just training, training, training and it’s great at first but the body begins to break down after a while. Once they lose a match they say “I have to train harder” but in fact, they should be focusing on training smarter. Like mentioned earlier, it’s not all a physical game but it is also mental. Drilling techniques do not beat down your body as much as training yet it is just as productive (if not more than training hard.) I do not discourage training hard as it is essential for improvement, but it cannot be viewed as the only form of improvement.
Which instructor influenced you the most?
The instructor that has influenced me the most over my time in training has definitely been John Danaher. He is a man that always seeks improvement no matter how much he already knows. He is a living example that you can never know everything that that there is always so much more to work on. From him I learned that I can never settle with what skills I already have and must always try to expand my knowledge of the sport and become as versatile as possible. There is never “enough” no matter how good you are, there is always plenty more to learn.”
