Gianni Grippo has spent 25 years competing in Jiu-Jitsu – and he says that open mats are often a waste of time.

He spoke about the topic in a recent episode of the Jits and Giggles podcast:

We sometimes can find that open mats in general can be a waste of time.

I feel like there’s a lot of random rounds in open mats and I feel like a lot of people, it’s an opportunity for people to move to get a sweat going.
But sometimes I just feel like, if you’re trying to get better, you really want to improve, I feel like a class with actual structure is more beneficial.

He noted the issue isn’t open mats themselves, but how they’re typically approached:

Unless you really actually take matters into your own hands and you tell people what you’re working on in the rounds or you set certain situationals, I just feel like sometimes hours of open rounds is not really always super productive.

For Grippo, the fix isn’t avoiding open mats entirely, it’s training with intention.

He said he tries to always identify something specific to work on before stepping onto the mat, rather than simply racking up rounds:

I would definitely go through phases where I’m like: “Oh, I don’t feel like I had a focus” and yeah, I did the reps, I did the work, but my mind wasn’t completely there or I didn’t come in with something I wanted to work on.

I think it’s always important to come into sessions with something that you want to focus on.
And whether you get it or not, that’s one thing, but I think you have more productive time when you come in with deliberate goals.

That’s how you get better faster.

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