When you come to training, when all of those warmups, drills, techniques, and positional sparring are finished – and “full” sparring commences – what do you do?

Do you just go with the flow?
Or do you already have a goal in mind – a technique, a position, a concept… That you want to work on?

Well, as it turns out, the key to continuous progress in Jiu-Jitsu is stepping on the mat with purpose.
John Danaher elaborates further:

Most people step on the mat to train with a sense of “come what may.”
They approach with a reactive mind and just follow the action of the session.

This is fine for those days you’re a little tired or distracted or just plain out of ideas.
But the majority of your training sessions you want to have a proactive mindset where you approach the mat with a plan of what you want to achieve.

This gives direction to your training session and almost always results in more work being done, more being learned and a clear idea of what you need to improve on tomorrow.

In a way, it’s about forcing your mind to work harder than your body:

Don’t step on the mat with your body first – lead with your mind prior to the workout and you’ll have a stronger sense of direction.

 

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