As predicted in last month’s training journal, this month has been suboptimal for training and learning.
I did manage to salvage it the last week in a huge way but more on that later.
As for last month’s prediction, here it was:
I’ve got an insanely busy month of August —this is the busiest time of year for the school plus I have a couple of trips planned so I’ll see what my training looks like but I anticipate it will be more of the same. Just train, keep accumulating volume and sprinkle in some intensity.
And this was precisely how it went.
If you followed along, my focus for July was my attempt to be a better instructor. I went deep into the pedagogical side of jiu-jitsu and started experimenting with certain variations of training which included
Removing warm ups
Randomizing training more (if we’re working on mount, as example, we do positional sparring with mount and whatever position we worked the week before)
Creating more “scenarios” in training (creating games within the games)
This month, I also started looking at much larger themes. This past month, as example, being submission focused in positional sparring as well as practice. As a more detailed example, if we are playing “king of the mountain”, it’s not about scoring points for the top player or bottom player. Both players have to play until submission. If it was a pin position, then the person on bottom had to escape while the person on top had to submit (leading to a larger emphasis on controlling the position while looking for the sub).
I can go on about the various games we’ve been playing but I want to stick to the topic which is how my training went this month.
Again, August is quite possibly my busiest month in terms of work and play. I was out the entire third week of August on vacation only to return for two days and then right back to Vegas for the Masters Worlds.
Add to my absence, this is the time of year that’s busiest for the school in terms of growth. We get a TON of sign ups this month rivaled only by January. So, with that said, my goal was to keep accumulating volume and train when I could.
I used my vacation to catch up on work and also to reflect on ways that I can improve as an athlete and as a coach. This month’s edition will talk about what I believe my biggest weakness is mentally in addition to what my biggest weakness is on the mats.
Alright, there will be a LOT to unpack below so let’s just dive in!
Below the paywall, you’ll get my thoughts on how my training went, what went well, what didn’t AND my training plan for September.
On Sunday, I’ll include a narrated sparring session showing what I specifically worked on.
Ok for real now, let’s dive in!
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