What does it take to become a successful competitor in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu… And, on the other hand, what does it take to become a successful coach in the sport?
Well, Lachlan Giles has done it both. He’s a successful BJJ athlete, as well as the head coach of the great Absolute MMA academy.
How was he able to pull it off? He shared his “secret” in an interview for BJJEE:
It would be hard to pin down my success as a competitor to one single thing.
I think that taking a technical, problem solving approach to Jiu-Jitsu – as well as taking on what I believe to be the best training methodology (that is, specific training which is tailored to areas you are trying to improve) – played a large part.
One of my biggest strengths is my consistency, as I have barely missed a day of training in the past 10 years, so long as the opportunity to train was available.
Giles also revealed the environment people train in plays a huge part in his coaching success:
And, as much as I would love to claim the success of my students as my own doing, I honestly think that – in order to create a good grappler – the most important thing is to create an environment where they can develop their own game and spend time problem solving, workshopping, and specific training that game.
He does what he can to the best of his abilities, but the students themselves have to pull their own weight as well:
Of course, as a coach my role there is often just to direct the focus of their game onto something I know is high percentage, as too often you will see people start going down pathways that are low percentage.
They have to do the hard work of showing up and a lot of the problem solving work themselves (I help where I can).
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