How To Use Deliberate Practice To Improve In BJJ (Episode 413)

Speaker 1: What up, guys? Welcome to the Jujitsu podcast. Today we're going to give you guys a cool book to check out. Um, I for me it's one of those books that if you're a coach or even if you're just trying to understand stuff to help you get better and more skillful in anything, I think it's a great book to get. We'll uh give you that book recommendation here in a bit. And we're also going to give you some ideas on training and and for me, like when we go through some of this stuff, I'll illustrate when and why, but I think if you do this stuff right, you can structure it in a way where I don't want to say it's effortless because it does take effort, right? But there is a situation that happens with a lot of people in Jujitsu and also a lot of other things where there's this frantic desire to improve, to get better, to move the needle forward and so forth. Um, but you lack a few things. And so even though you got all this desire and all this like, I want to do this, you just want to keep getting stuck. And if you do it right, again, it's not effortless, but it's like you have this sort of structure or this sort of concrete path in front of you that allows you to just kind of do what you're going to do and you get better without having to really think about it so much or, you know, you there's a there's less beating yourself up or hitting these plateaus that people run into and everything else. And so I'll talk about how to structure that because that's been my experience and when I get someone who follows this advice, it's kind of the same thing. And so whether you're a hobbyist or a coach or if you're, you know, competing all the time, it can be useful to you. So, we'll get into it here in a second. Appreciate you guys for being here with us. Big thanks to our sponsors. Athletic is one of our, you know, sponsors here and they uh make microdose THC mints. If you're watching the YouTube videos, there's for the podcast, you can hear it. Um I've got my mints here. The rebound mints and I'm they come with flow and they've got one called power. Each one is a formulation of CBD, um, or excuse me, not just CBD, but cannabinoids and THC to give you a particular effect. Like the flow mint is obviously trying to help you get into that relaxed state where you can get on the mat and you can be a little bit more experimental and obviously you can use it for other stuff. Sometimes I'll use it along with my writing. The rebound one is obviously for recovery, that sort of thing. But again, you can check out their mints. I like them. I use them regularly, you know, off and on, things like that. You know, I like using them during certain training sessions. I like using the rebound ones for sort of recovering type of stuff. So it's supporting my recovery, that's really what it comes down to. But if you guys want to check them out, their website is athletic thc.com. Don't worry, I know like a lot of times you see THC and you're like, oh my God, I don't want to I don't want to have, you know, be like that time that you ate that brownie or you ate that gummy that your buddy gave you. It's nothing crazy like that. It's very mild. Um but it I it has some cool effects and if you want to get more information on it, check their website. And then if you decide that you want to check out one of their products and get test it for yourself, use the promo code Jujitsu 10 for 10% off. Also, thanks to our buddies over at Epic Roll. Last night we were talking uh uh on the mats about different Jujitsu gear and I was telling the guys, you know, because I I get my my gis and rash guards currently made through Epic Roll and, you know, I did that because I really like what they put together. And with my rash guards and Nogi gear, for example, it's the only thing I wear. And I've been given a lot of stuff from really big companies or, well, they're not maybe big, but like expensive companies. Companies that are charging a lot of money for their stuff and I've used them and I don't like it. I don't like the fit, I don't like the feel. Just doesn't it's not me. But then I put, you know, Epic Roll stuff on it and I love the way that it feels. I love the way that it moves and it's comfortable and it fits me in the right places as a big guy who lifts weights and that sort of thing. It's great. And so I use their stuff constantly and if you guys want to check out their their gear, you can go to their website at epicrollbjj.com and the promo code is Jujitsu 20 for 20% off the order at checkout. Um again, if you go to their website, they've got really great designs and they've literally got everything from t-shirts and, you know, like joggers to Nogi gear and Gi stuff. So, all of it's good stuff as well. So, check them out. Also, thanks to our buddies over at Charlotte's Web. Again, they are the OG in the CBD space and they also make a lot of other products now that use things like functional mushrooms, like Lion's Mane and Reishi for all sorts of things, everything from supporting cognitive function to uh stress management. And then they also have balms and rubs and they've got a wide array of products and all of it to me is top top notch, top quality. And, you know, for me that's important with when it comes to supplements. I like making sure that the stuff that I get's good. Uh that what's on the label is what's inside the product and uh to support me with whatever I'm doing. And so if you guys want to check them out, I've been using their products off and on for I mean, we're getting close to a decade at this point and you can check them out at Charlottesweb.com and the promo code is Jujitsu 30 to save 30% off the order. Um again, a lot of times I use their CBD products and I use that as a again, a part of a uh regimen for recovery. You use it at nighttime and uh you can check out their check out the information on their website, get more details on what it does and kind of go from there. And also thanks to our Patreon members. You guys help support the podcast and again, if you guys want to join up on the Patreon, you can do so by going to the website patreon.com/thejujitsupodcast and when you join up, you'll get get access to a bunch of different perks that you might find interesting, you might find useful and you can get access to us directly where you can send us some messages or messages and questions and things like that directly and you're supporting the podcast. So, if you would like to join the loyal members of the Jujitsu podcast Patreon, check it out at patreon.com/thejujitsupodcast. And last but not least, if you guys would like to get my daily email and get a hold of a guide to be a little bit more focused with your Jujitsu, check it out at jujitsu.net/join. J O I N and when you join up, you'll get access to the email that I send out daily, which goes into specific Jujitsu tips, dieting tips, training tips, useful ideas, stories I want to share with you, even book lists and everything in between. And then you get the guide, which is a video and um PDF guide, so you can read it or you can watch it and I'll explain some ideas on how to be a little bit more focused. It will go along with this podcast pretty well. Um because again, it's one of the things that I find is really important. It's one of the things that a lot of people lack. Um and so let's get into this, guys. So, Recently, Eugene, um, you know, he sent me a message and was talking about some of the ideas that he took away from the book Peak. P E A K by Dr. Anders Ericsson with a co-author. Um and in case you're not familiar, Dr. Anders Ericsson is one of the guys who did the research on the so-called 10,000-hour rule. Now, in the book, he kind of rails against it because he like you could tell like it was obviously written very well, but when you read about it, he he gets kind of annoyed by the idea that somehow you're going to train 10,000 hours and magically you're a master at that. And actually he talks about the fact that, you know, maybe 10,000 hours is sort of just like at a certain level, but it's not really mastery. And he's also very clear about the distinction between those 10,000 hours. It's not just training, it's deliberate training. It's purposeful training. It's training with an intention. Um and uh, you know, kind of rails against it and you know, just as a quick aside, I um, I've over the years, I I used to like the author Malcolm Gladwell. And then as I dug a little deeper into some of the books that he's written, some of them have some interesting premises and some of them maybe have some truth to them, but a lot of his books uh they bend things a little bit and maybe aren't always the most factually accurate, right? Like the study, the whole book's based on the 10,000-hour rule, um in one of his books, which sort of took away the wrong lessons from it, you know? Um there was a book that he did called the Bomber Mafia, which was like an audio thing too. And I remember I sent it to a buddy of mine who's like, I mean, he is this, you know, um aviation historian, you know, extraordinaire. And I sent it to him and I thought the the I thought the lesson was interesting and he said, he sends me this list of stuff wrong with it. You know, he's like, this is wrong, this is wrong. This is not what happened. This I mean, some of it was like bending, some of it was just completely just 100% inaccurate. And so, um, you know, anyway, that that's neither here nor there. But basically, the 10,000-hour rule that you have heard is probably not accurate. It's purposeful training and that's what Dr. Ericsson is talking about. And the whole book Peak is talking about developing skill and using a lot of the data and the research that he's figured out everything from swimmers and uh chess players and all these different modalities and the the lessons there. And it's a really useful book. If you're a coach, I really think it's like a must read. It's something to really get into. Um and if you're a a student, it's even useful for you because knowing how to learn better is important and knowing how to develop skill is important because otherwise, you can be doing a lot. You can have a lot of activity and really not get a lot from it, um if you're lacking. And so, Eugene got some ideas from it and we're going to discuss some of those ideas that he and I have both taken from it and um, you know, hopefully you guys get some useful ideas from it. Speaker 2: Yeah, so, um, I really enjoyed I enjoyed the book. I'm I'm still kind of finishing up some um some of the book. I have a little bit left, but I was trying to take away some key ideas and like Chewy mentioned, if you're a coach, it's a great way to to understand how learning, how to best learn and how to best teach. Um, for me as a as a coach and a, you know, a student, I think it helps me figure out like how I may best get the most out of my time, especially if you're someone with limited limited time like uh us with kids and jobs and other things. So we can't spend infinite time on the mats goofing off. We got to get the most out of our time. I think there's some we talked about a little bit before the podcast started. There's some time and there's a time and a place to kind of play around and goof off a little bit. Uh but there's also, you know, when you have something you're trying to accomplish and you're really trying to improve, there's it's very important to have deliberate practice and we'll kind of explain what that is. I think all these ideas that we talk about culminates in what a deliberate practice is, which is according to uh Dr. Anders Ericsson, the the best way to learn and how to get the most out of get get the most out of yourself and get, you know, to be the best version of yourself for whatever activity. In this case, we're going to be kind of talking about Jujitsu. Speaker 1: That's right. So, um, you know, one of the first things that you uh you put down in the notes that you sent me was about the idea of talent. Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 1: Right? Um and basically in the book, he kind of lays out the idea that, you know, if you are initially talented, that's fantastic, but, you know, long-term, it's really not that important. And when you're trying to get good at something, right? Like it's great if you have it, fantastic, but like long-term, it's really not that useful because at a certain point, it's it's not going to carry, you know, at a certain point, it kind of gets you there and then beyond that, you have to learn how to work. And honestly, sometimes what I've found is that sometimes it's better to not really have any natural talent because you learn to work for everything you have. Versus in some cases, I've had guys where, you know, if it comes easy to them a little bit in the beginning, sometimes they struggle when it starts to get difficult and it will get difficult, right? No matter who you are, at some point, you're going to run into this sticky point where uh I think it was Seth Godin, he called it the dip in one of his books where, you know, you're doing something and you're trying to get good at something and eventually you get into this dip. And a lot of times you can think about this is where when you get past that newness phase, that beginner's luck phase, I've a lot of times called it the button masher phase, you know, like if you ever played a fighting game back in the day and someone's just mashing buttons and somehow they're doing really well, but then when they actually try to play the game, all of a sudden they start losing. You know, it happens sometimes with white belts where they're doing the wrong stuff and they're being wild, but because they're doing a lot of wild, unusual stuff, it can throw people off if they're not used to doing dealing with that. But at a certain point when they really try to engage with Jujitsu, all of a sudden they get worse because now they're actually trying to use skill versus just like, you know, crazy wildness. And so at a certain point, you know, the intersection between guy who started off and sucked, who worked and guy who was talented, there's an intersection there where they're reaching the same level of skill and then at that point, everybody's just got to start working hard. They've got to and and working intelligently and deliberately if they want to get better. And so, you know, really at the end of the day, if you're not talented at Jujitsu, it really doesn't matter. It's great if you got it. It's not that important though. Speaker 2: Yeah, I I think it it I think there's it depends on the activity and the sport. If we're talking about, you know, basketball, having certain physical attributes are very important. Height, you know, wingspan, uh Chewy, you had mentioned that, you know, jumping like the height of your your jump is very important. In football, obviously, if you're small and not very strong and not fast, you know, you can develop develop some of that, but there's a limit. And so it depends on the activity. And I do think that in Jujitsu, because Jujitsu is so variable, there's so many different body types and styles of Jujitsu and people from all types of, you know, physiques can be successful and and reach a high level. Um I think that's that's what makes Jujitsu very unique. Uh and and people can get good at it. People that are heavier or shorter or longer limb, they can all get good at at grappling. Get really good, you know? It's almost like you uh start to associate a certain physique with a certain skill set in Jujitsu. It's just because people tend to, you know, gravitate towards a certain type of style. But all with that said, you can still be successful, you know, if you're short or stocky or tall and lanky. I think you can have success in Jujitsu. Speaker 1: Right, you know, so in there's a book called The Sports Gene by David Epstein. He's got some good books on this. There's another one called Range that's interesting. But in The Sports Gene, he talks about this idea that some people physically are designed for certain sports and will excel at those sports much more rapidly than someone else. And the opening, one of the opening parts of the book, he's talking about this young guy who had this freakishly long Achilles tendon. Like it was like double the length of most people's. And so this guy didn't know that he was a great jumper. He just knew he could jump really high. And so he's he's at college and he's walking and he sees some people doing high jumps. And these people are doing like a high collegiate level high jump. He looks over at it and says, huh, I can I can jump over that. And someone says, no, you can't. So he just runs over there, you know, he's wearing a pair of sneakers, whatever and just hops over. He doesn't have that perfect like back bending form and he clears it. And they're like, what the hell's going on? And, you know, this guy's not he's never trained professionally. He just had a physical gift for it, right? And when they talk about basketball players, a lot of people think height. It's not necessarily just height. It's arm span to height ratio. So you can have a tall guy with relatively short arms for his height, not going to be great for basketball. You have a guy famously, Muggsy Bogues was a uh was a little short dude, tiny little guy for basketball, right? And he had just long arms, super long arms and then vertical jump. So your vertical and then your your wingspan. Those two things were the big correlate uh correlates that sort of aligned with uh, you know, the uh people in basketball in the NBA. Yeah. And then he was talking, you know, then you can just think about football, right? Like if a guy is recruiting for a big team or something like that, like let's say if you want to play the line, you want to be a lineman. You're you have to meet a certain weight and height requirement. If you're not like, if your height is not a certain point, they're not even talking to you. It's like, they don't he doesn't matter how strong you are. It doesn't matter how well you did. They're just not even they're not even touching you, you know, because they're they have an idea like this is what we need. And so yeah, there's some definite aspects in certain sports where you have to be X, Y or Z with your body to be good at them. Jujitsu's interesting because, you know, it gives you a lot of different routes to excel at it, right? So yeah, you can be the short stocky guy. You can be the long lanky guy. You can be the average. I mean, there's you can you've seen champions at every sort of body type. There isn't one body type. And hell, you look at some people in grappling and there are people that have have had significant you could call them disfigurements or limitations with their body, right? Jean-Jacques Machado famously, you know, he has a he's like a pinky and a thumb on one hand and no other fingers and the dude like was an amazing like world world class, one of the best of all time grapplers, right? You um, you had guys like uh Roberto Gordo, Gohea, I guess is how you say it. Not always good with the the Portuguese naming. He uh was in a motorcycle accident, couldn't use full guard, so you started using half guard famously. There's a lot of different ways to get better at it and yeah, if you know what you're looking at, you can look at someone's body type and you typically, not always, but you almost get a sense of what are they going to be good at. Like if you've got that long, spindly guy, like we got a young guy at the gym named Lincoln. You can look at Lincoln for like two seconds and be like, ah, he's he's going to play some triangles, right? That doesn't mean you can stop it, but he's going to play triangles. Uh you can look at some other guys that are a little bit more shorter, stockier, thicker. Kimura cities. Like they're going to lock up on your arm, you know? And so you can understand what they might be good at. And so I think that's one of the cool things about Jujitsu is it gives you a lot of different routes to be successful. You don't have to be just this one body type. And I think that's a a beautiful thing. And so yeah, there is that very much that like, you know, physical gifts, they play a certain role. And even in Jujitsu, physical physical gifts can play a role, but at the same time, eventually it's going to come down to like, are you putting in the work and the effort and in in doing it? Because I can tell you that over the years, I've had several people who were my peers at times and they were they were better than me naturally, right? I was never really a natural at grappling. I started off and I I wasn't like when I got on the mats, I was never someone that people looked at and said, oh my God, that guy's going to be good. Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Speaker 1: It was like, hey, you know, he's in there. And there were other other guys, but the thing that I had was I was willing to like continuously just put my nose to the grinder and keep working. Um and I've always had a a what we're going to get into more here with the uh the purposeful part of it. I've always naturally done that. So like I've never had these points where I really, really stalled out with like skill and everything else because I always kind of had something I was working towards versus just showing up and kind of going with the flow. But uh yeah, so talent is not necessary. It's great if you got it, but not necessary. Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, one more point, Chewy, is there's some guys that will come into the gym as like little, you know, white belts. They're mediocre, but they're just consistent and they just work and work and they're used to working and all of a sudden like, you know, we had a couple guys go from white to purple belt and you're like, dude, what the hell? Like they're really tough. They're good and they're tough and it's just like you don't realize it kind of almost fly under the radar because there's nothing about them that really stands out. They're not like just super, but they're just consistent and they get really, really good and really tough and just they're they're just on the mats all the time and they'll after a while you start to notice them like they're, hey, they're beating the crap out of people. They're really good. And they never really stood out. It's almost like they catch you by surprise just because they're just always just in the background, just working, you know, and that's pretty cool to see. Speaker 1: That's what Dustin was like. Dustin was like that. Yeah. I mean, that's a guy where really quiet to himself. Um, you know, and just he showed up and I mean, the guy's super, super tough now. But, you know, he flew under the radar because, you know, he's just kind of a quiet guy, comes in, puts in the work and then that's it. Speaker 2: Yeah, Dustin's one of those guys that we always try to get around him when I see him and uh he's just always like a great attitude. With him, like he's always like positive. He's always just like, you know, just a great role, good attitude. I just I always he's a good dude. Good dude. Good black belt to have on the mats, always kind of just consistent and and nice and positive. So, yeah, he's awesome. Um, all right, so next thing, the next idea was training for skill acquisition, not for knowledge. And, um, this one's kind of interesting to me and the example that I've had when I've talked to people from other gyms, right? So, this is I think an example of training for like for us, you're you're in, you know, you come in as a white belt, as a beginner, you're going to get some rounds, some controlled rounds. It's going to be very controlled. We're going to try to keep you safe, but you're going to get some some actual resistance in training. You're going to get to test your skill. You have guys that that are or training partners that come from other gyms and they acquire knowledge. They never get those live rounds. It's more like just drilling with a very mild or no resistance and then they maybe drop into a class and they train with with or they drop into a different class or they do an open mat or like they like, hey, I want to come stop by the gym. They stop by the gym and then like they get smashed and they've been training for six months. Speaker 1: Oh, I remember one of the guys you one of the guys you invited to one of our open mats. He kind of had that realization. Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 1: You know, when he came in because he came in from one of the other gyms and really had never rolled and he came in and was just getting, I mean, dogged by some of our lower guys. Speaker 2: By one month, two month, you know, uh people that have trained for that short amount of time and you get that realization like, holy shit, I've been training for uh, you know, knowledge acquisition. I know this knowledge. I know how to do an arm bar. I know how to pass, but I've never really had to do it. And so you realize you don't get that feedback, which is a very important thing. And you don't realize if your stuff works or doesn't and you get a rude awakening and I think that's a way to keep people safe maybe, but maybe it's a way to get them injured too if you don't let them roll, you know what I'm saying? Speaker 1: Yeah. I you know, I think there are times to do it where like if this person's really new, really nervous or even sometimes kind of older, it can be useful to like, hey, let's just get you moving around first. Let's do this first. You know, but I think that, you know, with situational training, you can typically limit the variables enough with situational training where you say, listen, I know you know a little bit about this position and we can keep you out of harm's way mostly and no big deal, right? Because I think it's a it's definitely a bad idea to say, okay, your first day, let's go live, full rolling, everything's on the table versus, hey, listen, let's um, let's just try to break guard. Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 1: Like I I we we taught you how to break guard, pass guard. Let's just try let's start by trying to break these legs open. Let's begin with that. If you break the legs open, boom, that's it. Reset, do it again. We're going to try this first. The other person's trying to break your posture down. Very simple stuff like that can be done very safely and you still get acclimated to the stress. You still get used to thinking under those conditions and building actual skill because the difference is, right? Knowledge is, you know, you knowing the thing. And that can be useful. You know, it's useful to know a lot of stuff in Jujitsu and um, you know, it can be useful as a coaching element. It can also be useful for defense, just kind of have a basic understanding, oh, this thing exists. But when it comes to actual skill, that's when you've applied that knowledge and used it, right? And your skill with techniques is going to be much smaller than your overall knowledge. Your overall knowledge, you're going to know a lot about every or excuse me, you're going to know a little bit about everything probably. But when it comes to actual skill, you're going to be probably really skillful maybe three to five positions max. You know, those are going to be called like you become your like zones of command, so to speak. You command the mat when you're in these spaces. And so that's why like when you're training, you're trying to develop skill acquisition. So or you're trying to develop skill. So if you're a coach, right? There is fun, like, you know, just doing some full rounds and I always trying to do at least a few rounds of full rolling in a class because they're just fun, right? It's enjoyable, it's like the dessert. But when it comes to actually training skill, like we're going to work, I I think it's a great idea to work position most of the time and it's less fun. It's sometimes more exhausting and requires more focus to do it, rather than just sort of going with the flow, you know? So, um, you know, as an example of takedowns. If we're doing takedowns, which we've been doing a lot of, right? We've been working a lot of single legs. I could just let you go, say, hey, man, go go roll full speed. And who knows what happens, right? Maybe you get a shot from you get one shot to get a takedown, then you get stuffed and that's it. Or we could structure situational training to where, you know, you're starting with a single leg or maybe we're just trying to grab a leg or, you know, there's different things that we could do to actually develop skill that can then be combined together during a full roll. And so I think that that, you know, that's the kind of stuff that you you'd like to do. And I think another thing about when you're talking about developing skill is understanding training for skill versus trying to win. They're not the same thing. And what I mean by this is that if you're trying to develop skill, developing skill is a messy process sometimes. And a lot of people have taken the fear of red ink that they got from school and brought it with them into training where if they fail, they get all like upset about it and they feel bad about it. There was actually an interesting uh uh TED Talk that I listened to and the guy was talking about people learning and, you know, doing this whole thing. And the idea was that he took they took a data study group where essentially they were doing this coding thing and then they would be presented with an error message. One error message said, the code didn't work. Try again kind of thing. The second one said, the code didn't work, you've lost five points. Try again, right? And now, there are no there's no these are magical points, they don't mean anything, right? But by giving them a negative association with the failure, it dropped like 16% as far as the people that kept going. So the people that didn't get the error message were like twice as likely to actually do the thing and to try again versus the people that got the error message saying they had they had lost points. So getting this negative, ooh, I lost something, I did something wrong, bad, is a problem, right? Like when you think about children, when they're young and they're trying to do something new, you don't scold them. You don't tell them they're doing it wrong. You just help them along as they're trying to walk or trying to pick up a cup or whatever it is. And so you have to kind of bring that mindset in with yourself. When you're trying to develop skill, it's going to get messy, you're not going to be successful all the time, but that's kind of the process, right? That's that's what you do. Like anything that you've ever gotten good at in the beginning was not smooth, it wasn't perfect, it was a mess. And you got to be okay with that mess and not be worried about it because it's really hard to develop skill if you're constantly worried about having the best results. Um, you know, and so when you're training for skill, you definitely obviously have to understand that knowledge doesn't actually mean that, doesn't mean skill. And a lot of times in society, we have been sort of lured into this idea where like knowledge is really like it's everything. Knowledge is great, but it doesn't necessarily mean everything. A lot of people can here's a great example. I'll give you guys a story real quick. I had a guy back in the day and this has happened probably about a half a dozen times. But it it happened first when um I was a white belt and there was a guy that I was training with. And this dude was like an encyclopedia of Jujitsu techniques. You for the time, right? Knew all this stuff. I had no idea what he was talking about half the time and just had like a roll of decks of different techniques that you could use. But when we would roll, I was usually able to win. Had that same experience with like a black belt years ago who was on a different he was on a different team but part of the same association I was in at the time. And I remember talking to him and the dude had all these crazy techniques. I mean, stuff I'd never seen before. He he had these names of of positions I'd never heard of before. And uh, you know, I I was a black belt at the time. So I sort of nodded my head and was like, okay, you know, like I know what you're talking about totally. What is he doing again? You know, I I didn't want to look like I was stupid. Um, but again, results-wise, and I'm not saying this is everything, but results-wise from his students to himself and their performances, like when we're talking about competitions and things like that, like we did better. Um I even had one of his guys come train with me one time. He came up to the gym train with me and Chad and he was talking about how much he enjoyed training here and the way we do things. Now, I'm not saying I'm better than him or anything. I'm not saying that at all. What I'm saying is, a lot of times there's this idea, especially with the abundance of information, that we get real tickled by knowledge of stuff. The execution and the developing of it is kind of boring sometimes, right? It doesn't have the same novelty and uh, you know, you you see this over and over again where people are just, you know, oh, just get this thing. I'm going to give you all the knowledge you need. But it's not the knowledge you need sometimes. A lot of times it's like you have the stuff you need, it's just you got to get better with it. And you got to put it to work and you got to execute. So, um, we'll we'll rant there, we'll ramble. Speaker 2: So, Chewy, that kind of leads into our next part of deliberate practice and deliberate practice requires a skilled coach. You have to have a coach that obviously is knowledgeable and skilled. Um, and is able, you know, and they in the book Peak, it's basically somebody that's trained higher level, um, you know, individuals in their specific sport or activity. So, in Jujitsu, you know, we have this thing where we do have like does the coach need to be at high level himself or does he need to know how to teach? Like what, you know, you see uh coaches that are were incredible world champions and they produced world champions. And then you have coaches that were never world champions and they've produced incredibly high-level athletes and world champions. So, what do you think, you know, and that's something I've been thinking about too, like what makes a skilled coach in um Jujitsu? It's it's also some of the things that they do, right? A skilled coach does have to give feedback. That's a big thing of this thing is instant feedback and corrective techniques and, you know, helping somebody along what they need to work on. But what do you think makes a skilled coach? Uh do you think credentials are that important or um I think you have both sides, you know, so I don't know. Speaker 1: You know, I mean, here's my thoughts on it, right? I have seen where you have amazing coach like amazing competitors that then start coaching and they do a terrible job. Speaker 2: Yep. Speaker 1: Right? You know, because they're not really interested in coaching. They're just interested in competing and doing their thing and coaching requires you to be focused on other people and a lot of times competitors competing is a very selfish thing. Um, it's definitely a balancing act trying to be a competitor and and yourself coaching. You could also think about it like this. A lot of times people think that if they somehow win some big competition, that all of a sudden they're going to have a successful gym business. It's like, you have to actually know how to run the business. That's a whole another can of worms, right? Like, um, and your skills in competing and your skills at running a business are two different things. And when it comes to competing and teaching other people how to do it or teaching other people how to be good at this stuff, that's a different thing. And also too, consider this, this is worth talking about. Who are you coaching, right? Because some people, if you just want a gym full of competitors, that's one thing. Me personally, no offense to anybody, I don't want a gym full of just like nothing but competitors. It's not really my thing. I like competing. I like taking people to competitions, but I also like just helping like people get good at this that have no intentions of ever becoming like a full-time competitor. Maybe they want to compete sometimes, but I I I like the casuals, right? You know, I I like those people. I they're fun to be around. I I it's fine, right? And so, you know, how the way that you might train them and the way that you might train some 20-year-old who's ready to sleep on the mats and do nothing else is going to be very different, right? And so really it's about knowing your people and then understanding how to get them to where you want to where they want to go or where that you might want to help them get to. And that's a whole another challenge than just getting yourself there because getting other people to do things for you is very different from yourself. Um, you know, because, you know, for me, like one of the things that like as a coach, here's an example. With MMA as an example. When I was getting ready for an MMA fight, I trained all the time. Like, probably sometimes too much, but there was no issue with me ever getting into the gym. And this is back when I was still working like a 40 to 60-hour work week sometimes. I had made this commitment. I was going to be there all the time. A lot of people aren't like that. It's like they're ready they're ready to sign up for the fight and then you're like dragging them to get to the training sessions. You're like, you said you want to do this? What's going on, right? Sometimes you see the same thing with Jujitsu competitors where they're like all about it, all about it, but then when it comes time to put in the work, they don't want to do it. I don't understand it. So for me, it's like one of those things where if I'm coaching someone, I have to kind of be mindful that they're probably not going to be like me. I'm like just a if I'm going to do this, I'm going to go all in and I don't need anybody to give me like a like a like a pat on the butt to do it. I'm just going to do it because I know it's what I got to do. Um and so like with coaching, there's a whole both a standpoint of like behavioral psych mixed with training practices. You got to know like what makes these people that you're coaching tick. Speaker 2: 100%. Speaker 1: Who needs what help? How do certain people respond to certain types of coaching and things like that? And then how do you craft something to get them to become better with this or that? Um and so to answer your question, long, random way of doing it. You don't have to be the best competitor ever, right? Like we had Sean Applegate on the podcast before. Sean's produced some really good grapplers. Uh his student Kevin Buering recently won the PGF uh tournament. Uh his other student Ryan Aikens won the PGF tournament. Um he's got Elijah Carlton there who's a monster, who's won the PGF before. And, you know, all these guys have also also won other stuff before and they're really, really good. And, you know, when we had him on the podcast, he, you know, was not like a hardcore accomplished competitor. At some point he said, I'm going to go all in on coaching and become better there. And he made the point that, you know, Phil Jackson with the Bulls, he wasn't dunking on Jordan. But, you know, he was a good coach for, you know, those teams and obviously he replicated that multiple times and made multiple successful teams and basically dynasties for their eras. And so obviously he knew what he was doing, but he was not he he wasn't beating everybody else with it. He was a good coach. And so I think there's a lot of different facets to it, but you can be a good coach without being the best competitors. And obviously, John Danaher is a famous example, but there's plenty of others. But then likewise, there are plenty of examples of great competitors who then turn into, you know, well-accomplished coaches. Speaker 2: Yes. Speaker 1: Who, you know, pump out lots of world champions and everything else and they have learned how to say, I learned how to do this thing and I can distill this down into you so that you can do it too. Speaker 2: Yeah, I I think the the idea is you've either done it yourself or you've learned how others have done it. You've been again coached and learned from some of the best and you learn what the best do. And you're able to you made a great point. Like I agree 100%. You have to figure out what makes your students tick. What are their goals essentially? How do they respond to feedback? Some people need to be pushed like, you know, you need to be a little more aggressive with them. Some people need to be more of a laid-back approach, kind of like a maybe need to be coddled a little bit, you know, they they can if they're if you're really, you know, forceful with them with instruction or trying to push them, they may kind of shut down. Trying to figure out like where your student is and and kind of the feedback that they need and how to present it to them is I think what makes a skilled coach. Uh because because most of the coaches now either have learned and if you're a skilled coach, you're probably getting your information from somebody that is high level as well or maybe even better than you are. Like, you know, if you're looking at instructionals and John Danaher, you can look at his, you know, what he teaches and how he teaches and you may mold that into your own thing. You know, not everybody learns in that systematic kind of, you know, very wordy way with like talking about levers and all this stuff. Some people just say, you know, grab, you know, more general cues. You don't need the specific, specific cues for some people. But I'm getting on a tangent, Chewy, thanks. But uh, so, yeah, I mean, I just think it's it's a coach that's able to meet their students where they are. Speaker 1: Yeah, and I I think uh, you know, systematizing that to some degree so that you can make it replicable, right? Like with a business, you know, the whole thing is to make it a system so that you can continuously do it over and over again. You want to do the same thing with your coaching to some degree where, um, you know, you figure out the the big movers and then you structure your training. And also too, when you're talking about like coaching, this is also where we get into the situational training, right? So if I if I give you the best instruction and I just say, all right, guys, go roll. Like, they're going to have fun and they're still going to get better. But it's it's it's not likely that they're going to like develop the skills that you're wanting to develop them. Whereas if we we could do instruction if we wish and then we can get very granular with those situational trainings. And I actually think that sometimes this is difficult for people because like when you teach a technique, you're telling someone to do this. And that's not necessarily wrong. I think sometimes in the beginning, it's useful just to get people, hey, do this, right? But at some point, you want to start to make people understand, what is the key thing happening here? What is the like, what is the really important thing? Like when we use this technique, what are we actually accomplishing? Not the technique itself, but like what is being done? So, for instance, maybe you're doing a particular half guard type of thing and, you know, for instance, like with my slow old man guard passing. One of the key points is to pin the person's shoulders in half guard. To get past the knee shield, pin their shoulders and put weight on that far shoulder. There's a lot of different ways to do that and there's a lot of techniques to do that, but all of it revolves around that to put them pin them on their shoulders because if you understand that from like say bottom half guard or half guard top, the bottom person in half guard, if they're on their side, they have options. They're dangerous. Generally, though, if the bottom person is flattened out, pinned on their shoulders, they are typically in a more defensive position. And this is why half guard is both a incredible sweeping position, sometimes submissions, but really good sweeping position, and also a really good passing position for the person on top. It's like, who dominates those shoulders? Am I able to pin them on his back or is he able to stay on his side? And so if you understand that that's the goal of what's going on, then basically you can then basically you can show the technique, but you can also bring attention to, this is what's happening. So then the person can also be creative in the sense where, well, I'm trying this technique to make this thing happen, but if that doesn't work, really it's how can I put that shoulder on the mat? And I think that's important. And structuring your your training around that and that can be really useful and I think that's where a good coach is able to break things down like that so they can teach the people the techniques and everything else, but they can also give them a good understanding of what the heck they're doing and then structuring their training around that. Um you're going back to your idea on John Danaher. John Danaher's even talked about that a lot in his stuff where, you know, basically my my sense, you could watch what he's doing in those instructionals. You could have him basically sort of you've memorized his words verbatim. But if you're not doing the situational training and designing the practices to help people get those skills, then it really isn't going to be it's not going to be the same, right? Um you could go out and basically, you know, teach the Don John Danaher, whatever, but then if you're just going, hey, guys, go roll, probably not going to develop the same skills that he's going to help people develop because of the way that he thinks about it, right? Um so, some useful stuff. And then you were talking about the idea of sort of developing a mental representation. And what did you mean by that in those notes that you sent me? Speaker 2: So, mental representation is like being able to visualize the technique perfectly. Knowing exactly what the technique looks like. That could be from studying instructionals, but getting an idea of what that is supposed to look like in your head, even doing mental reps. The other thing about um mental representation is even being able to try a technique or do a technique and then go back right after, maybe after the round's over and be like, why didn't they work that work? And go back and play it back in your head and be like, oh, maybe I did this or what do I need to do? So, mental representation, again, that can come from your coach too to kind of help guide you, but that having the knowledge and the understanding of what the technique is supposed to look like perfectly. Um I I it's never going to be perfect in a roll with a resisting opponent, but knowing what specifically like the key factors, like I need to take a base away here. I have to have a grip here. Why do I need to do that? You know, having a mental representation of the technique, the purpose of it and how to do it is important both in accomplishing it, getting better at it when you're trying to give yourself some uh feedback or looking back at a technique, maybe that was successful or was not. And then studying instructionals. You get those because you're not going to just going to study it and then absorb it and then be able to do it. You need to have that idea and then you have to practice it deliberately like we talked about. Speaker 1: Yeah. And that's that's one of the actual beautiful things about instructionals is that if you do it right, like if you pick the instructional with the like care and thoughtfulness, then what happens is is you can I I this is what I believe and this has been true for me. The state of mind that I'm at where I'm relaxed in a chair watching an instructional is very different from the the environment in the gym, right? Yeah. Because like when I'm sitting here relaxed, I'm kind of just receptive. I'm just sitting here looking at it. I can rewind and I can pause it and I can, huh, this is kind of interesting. I can do that. I I find it very helpful sometimes to augment whatever I'm like, for instance, like we'll just go back. Like when I was a white belt, I started using instructionals. Now, back then, instructionals actually we we call them DVDs sometimes still, but back then, we actually had DVDs. They were discs, in case you're young, you put them into a VCR, not a VCR, but a DVD player. Um and so I would get those and what I would do a lot of times back then is I would take whatever the coach was working on. Let's say they're working on mount. I would, you know, learn the stuff that my coach was teaching and then I would go home and I would try to get the instructional stuff that had something on mount. And I would focus on that same position that they were working on to kind of augment it and then this way I had some extra tools to work with when I was going into work on this particular area, right? And that can be something that you could do at home, right? Like where if let's say if your gym is working on a particular focus for like a week or two or four, whatever, a month at a time, then you basically say, okay, well, this is what we're working on. I'd like to get better at this. Let me go search up that stuff, right? This is actually this is one of the big problems most people have is they're too damn distracted. They're too distracted and there's not enough like thoughtful care with the the content that they consume. You know, it's like this is why I'm such a I know I'm such an old man, but why I rail against social media so much. Um it's just turned into a mess. And so people are being blasted with information constantly and, you know, I'm not saying you never get anything from those random doom scrolls, but uh the the cost, I I don't think it's worth the squeeze, right? Because, you know, besides losing your attention span and everything else and being upset and angry, you're getting scrambled. And so, you know, you want to take thoughtful care to this. So you're saying, hey, listen, here's the position I'm working on. Let me go search stuff deliberately to help me out. And so what I would do with those DVDs back then is I would look through the mount position and say, okay, listen, uh coach is doing some stuff on, you know, let's say key locks, great. Well, this this this mount instructional I have has a whole series of key lock. Let me study this and let me try this when I go to the gym. And then when I'm watching the instructional, I can sit there and kind of look at the details and see how they explain stuff and rewatch them again, just kind of go, oh, okay. You know, I I I I never thought about it or I didn't pick it up when I was in the gym. And then also too, this is probably again, this is boring to most people, but I love doing this. And I do this all the time. I will rewatch it again. Again, again, you know, so like I'm not I do this with any any sort of material that I like sort of digest is I will probably go through that material, not all of it, but if it's something I really think would work in my game, it's a specific technique, an adjustment, whatever, position. I'll probably watch it five to seven times. Alternating back between trying it, rewatching, trying it, rewatching. And it's really not that big of a deal. You know, you think of like an an instructional move might span maybe, you know, between 10 to maybe 20 minutes or something. Okay. And then I'm I'm, you know, going and trying it at the gym, coming back and and rewatching it because as you're doing this alternating thing, you will start to notice details that you missed. And then if you're doing this with a specific thing that your coach your gym is focusing on, then you're doubling that down anyway. Because now you're you're basically you're you're controlling the consumption. You're getting fed the stuff that you need by both places and then you're trying to do something with it. Try not to get good doing that. Um I've never found anyone that went about something very deliberately like that and didn't improve. And so that's to me, that's the way that's the real way to use instructionals. It's not to just haphazardly grab something because you think it's neat. You know, there's not nothing wrong with that, but finding a specific thing that's going to fit your game or it solves a need for you in your game, solves a problem for your game, or it even goes along with whatever your gym's showing and then you basically use that. And again, I I honestly, I don't think it's even useful to watch the whole thing. If you get the whole instructional, great. But like when you're thinking about the thing, if you could get like two or three really solid things from an instructional that you can use at the at the same skill level as you, like whatever relative you are, like if you're a black belt, you can use them at the black belt level. If you're, you know, blue belt, you can use a blue belt level. That, my friend, is is worth it. Like if I if if I told you right now that, hey, you give me like 100 bucks and I snap my fingers and you can instantly have three new moves in your game that you can hit all your training partners with or all the competition people you go against with, would you give me 100 bucks? Speaker 2: Oh, yeah. Speaker 1: I bet you'd give me 100 bucks. You're like, hell yeah, give me 100 bucks. The only difference is is that you actually have to go like actually do it and stay focused on it and stay deliberate with it and not get away from it. And that's how you develop like you're talking about the mental representation where you can mentally like feel the whole thing. That's how you do it, right? And that's how you get a better understanding as to what you're doing versus just bouncing around because you're watching Instagram or in TikTok reels and some person puts up a thing and you're like, oh, that looks neat. Let me try that. And then next week or next next training session is something else. You know, you want to be deliberate with it and purposeful. Speaker 2: You said something that it was uh it's not really something we had in our notes today, but um when you are trying to acquire skill and get better, it's not always fun. You know, it's not always like watching the same clip of video over and over and going in and just working on one technique over and over and trying to dissect it and get that good mental representation and learn the ins and outs of it. It's not always fun. But man, when you start hitting the technique and it starts to work and that shit's fun. That's a lot of fun. But like sometimes learning it, oh my God, I'm just I'm going to stop and do this little part of my game where I know I can I can do this thing and have success with it, but you're you're working on one part. For you, Chewy, great example is you got stuck in triangle chokes. You would get triangle choked all the time. Speaker 1: Oh, yeah. Speaker 2: What did you do? You did something really unfun. You start every roll in a triangle in a closed triangle choke and you probably got choked out a lot and it probably sucked and it's not fun to have your head and your arm and your neck squeezed over and over again. But damn, did you get good? Zach, one of the guys at at the gym. He's a black belt and uh, oh, so you came? Speaker 1: Oh, so you came? Speaker 2: Yeah, me and him are playing around. So he's like, uh, he's like, see if you can triangle choke me. So like I put him in a triangle choke one time and like I had a hard time finishing. He's like, let's I was like, let's try to finish it. So we had just like a triangle choke battle. It's not fun for me with the triangle choke applied on him because he's stacking me on my neck. And I have to continuously like we had a really good battle there. He ended up getting out of the choke. It hurt. But uh, yeah, I mean, that's just think it's it's a coach that's able to meet their students where they are. Speaker 1: He's super tough. I mean, I like I got really good at defending triangle chokes because because of that, right? And then, you know, later on we had guys like Chad and Rich and the gym who had killer triangle chokes. And I remember uh at one of the black belt competitions I did, I got locked in a triangle choke for a second and I remember feeling it and instead of having a momentary panic, which would used to accompany triangle chokes because I I knew I was terrible at escaping them. I remember they got me in a triangle choke and I almost in in the inside of me grinned a little bit because I I literally had the thought to myself, this isn't Richard's triangle choke or Richard Chad's triangle choke. You're not dude, you're not finishing this triangle choke. And, you know, I I remember going to those training sessions and I used to hate it. Like when I was working on that stuff, I didn't enjoy it. I was I was doing it. I was taking my medicine basically, right? It's like, you know, it's like you know when you're a kid, you get that bubblegum medicine when you were a kid, it was really yummy. And then eventually they give you the grown-up stuff and it's disgusting. You know, it's like, give me the bubblegum medicine again. Well, you know, eventually you got to move on to the other stuff. And so, you know, I would go into the gym sometimes and I would, you know, go roll with Chad or my old coach Kyle who had a great triangle choke and I remember thinking to myself, God, I hate this, but I got to do this. And there's benefits to it. And I think that's the it's one of the more powerful lessons that you can get through Jujitsu, which is the sort of the the love for delayed gratification, right? I I know it's something people talk about, but it's a lot of times people don't they a lot of people give it lip service, but then they don't really actually practice it. So, you know, Pete uh Pete Roberts with the one of the the founders of Origin. He was talking about this one time on the podcast where he said, when he was shifting from this position of like creating something or he was on the ground making the Gi and there was that very like real like I just made the Gi and you get that dopamine hit because you're, I made the Gi, right? That's exciting. When he moved into more of a CEO role, like he's looking at screens, he's doing meetings with people, he's making decisions that then do something, right? And he's struggling with it because the creative side of him is no longer getting it scratched. He's got that itch and then, you know, he doesn't know where to get his dopamine from. And the the founder of Under Armor was talking to him is like, you have to change where you get your dopamine from, right? And so with that, it's kind of like dieting. Dieting and being on a relatively strict diet, initially it's not fun because you're not able to just eat everything that you want to eat, right? You don't get to give into as much mouth pleasure. But if you start to have results where maybe you feel like you have more energy for training, um your waistline's looking better. People are saying, damn, you're looking good, bro. You lost weight or whatever. Or damn, you've gained weight, you're getting jacked, bro. Whatever it is. If you begin to do that, then you start to associate that eating pattern with these things and then it becomes easy because you're just you're not thinking about like right now, you're thinking about where it's going to go later. You change where you get your feel good feelings from. And the same thing's with Jujitsu, right? So sometimes you're doing these difficult positions that you struggle with or you're trying to add a new move into your game and it's kind of a pain in the butt, so forth. But like you think about where is that going to lead to down the road? Um one of the examples of my Jujitsu recently was a couple years about three, four years ago now. I was trying to develop like my old man guard passing style. So I had watched lots of videos of just different grapplers going Gi and Nogi and kind of got some ideas on what I was trying to implement. And when I started doing it, I remember my first goal before I was even worried about passing, was just about putting people in positions where I could cook them with pressure. I could lay on their frames, lay on their chest, make them bear my weight, the whole deal. And I remember I would go into the gym a lot of times and I wouldn't even try to pass the guard. I wouldn't even go for a submission. I would just try to give them in half guard and lay on them. And if I got if I passed guard, whatever, that's fine. But it was kind of boring. I'm not going to lie, kind of a boring thing to do. But I did it for a couple weeks and got to the point where it was like it was so easy to pass afterwards because you cook them for so long. And so, um there's another time where I remember I was trying to develop a flower sweep. This is a this is as a black belt. Trying to get that flower sweep going. I know it's a good sweep. Practicing it, I restricted myself to only using the flower sweep for like a month. Wasn't sweeping people very often during the uh the classes and then I remember there was one day where the damn thing clicked. I hit it on a brown belt and then proceeded to hit it on multiple brown and black belts. One after the other because I figured out the setup. And so that payoff at the end is what you're looking for and it gets it's skill, so it takes a little while, right? Just like lifting, if you're going to change your body, it's going to take months and even years to really look considerably different. But that's where you have to sort of change what you're where your focus is at. You're not training for like right now and right now it's fun. Right now you find a love for training and doing the things because you know it's what you're supposed to do. And then the payoff comes later on down the road, right? That's what it's about. I mean, I I you know, just being a dad, I think it's imagine it's like parenting, right? Like parenting's not fun all the time. Speaker 2: No. Speaker 1: You know, but but you you try to do the right things so this way your kids set up better later on. Like a lot of us that are parents, you sacrifice a lot of stuff for your kids and you do it happily. It does sort of, you know, sometimes create some issues and it's frustrating or it's just struggle sometimes, but, you know, when you see the payoff from it down the road, which could be months, years later, whatever, you know, you're like, that was worth it. And I think it's the same thing with yourself, right? You're you're doing that same idea as you're um getting through these comfort zones and developing new positions and techniques and everything else. Speaker 2: So that leads to our next one, Chewy. Great job. Good segue, sir. That was good. So, um, and I think this is probably one of the important, um, the important things about getting out of plateaus. Plateaus is a very real thing in Jujitsu and a lot of things. You get stagnant, you get comfortable and I think it leads to plateaus. You go in, you kind of do the same thing and kind of get in the groove and you're kind of comfortable and you're just hanging out and you know, it's not real, you know, you can keep the intensity pretty comfortable. You can play certain positions, keep people at bay, not really exude too much effort. Um, but I think one of the most important things about getting out of plateaus is pushing outside of your comfort zone, making yourself uncomfortable. Speaker 1: That's right. Speaker 2: And I think some of the ways that uh, you know, I would think how that applies to Jujitsu is maybe you increase intensity uh in your rolls. Maybe like, hey, I have to score this many points. Maybe I'm preparing for this tournament and uh I need to make every one of my rounds like with the rule set of this tournament, like the intensity is going to be higher. I'm going to do a points-based. I I've got to get this many points or I have to score, I have to hit the takedown, whatever it is. Um, and then just kind of like adjusting your training to where it's uncomfortable, maybe and starting out in positions you're not great in, having a limited amount of time to get out of them, whatever it is. Um, I think getting out of your comfort zone is probably one of the most important things to to getting out of a plateau. I think you're forcing yourself to do something that's that's not your favorite thing, but I think there's we talked about delayed gratification. You realize doing that is going to is going to, you know, leave you better off in the end. And if you're preparing for a tournament or something, it's not comfortable. It's not enjoyable all the time. Your intensity is up. You're training hard. You're probably getting, you know, you're hit training in, which is something I do for tournaments. You know, that intensity and I hate doing that and it's uncomfortable and it hurts. And my legs are tired. My my chest hurts from pushing so hard, but I know that if I do that, I will get better and I will have some benefits from it. Speaker 1: Yeah, so as far as like the intensity side of it, like that can be there's a lot of clicks on the dial that you can do do this with. Because obviously you can go more intensely. It's like it's like think of lifting for an example. If we want to make a lifting like a workout or an exercise more intense, we can do a lot of things. We can put more weight on it. Um, we could do a super set where we combine multiple exercises together. We could slow the repetitions down. We could add pauses into them. There's all kinds of things that you could do to make it intense. Um and to, you know, shock your system a bit. And with your training, you can do the same thing, right? It could be a more intense full round. Um it could be being brought up in front of the gym and then, hey, we're having a we're having a competitive roll with everybody watching. That's going to be intense, right? It could be putting you in a scrambling position. Like we were doing those scramble drills where, you know, you got 30 seconds and you got to pin this guy and the other guy has to get up and it's a very short round. So that that shortened time means that the amount of energy that's going to be put out is going to be greater. Um we could also lengthen the round. We could make it a longer round where you get into a different style of cardio or we could say, we're going to put you in certain positions that are going to be difficult. You know, there's so many ways to adjust it. Um personally though, I I think this is just me. I've never I don't think I've ever really had a plateau. Like, you know, maybe I've had like kind of like a little funk for a week or something, but never like a true plateau. Like, as you said, a lot of people they get into these plateaus and I've I've as a coach, I've dealt with them. And when you talk to them, it's pretty quickly, you easily able to see why they're in a plateau. It's because they're doing the same thing they do all the time. So, yeah, if you're doing the same thing over and over again and there's nothing new coming in, yeah, you're going to eventually hit a plateau because everybody around you is going to start to figure out what you're doing and you have to adjust. You have to adapt. You have to add to. And so for me, like I've always done this thing where I'm always giving myself something to focus on. Also too, a lot of times when I talk to people that are hitting their plateaus, they feel like they're getting stuck. Maybe sometimes they even feel like they're getting worse. It's a lot of times they don't have a clear focus. What am I actually I'll ask them, what are you focusing on right now? I don't know. Don't know, right? They don't have a clear idea. And so I think when you combine this idea of being very purposeful with like what are you trying to do? How are you trying to add this in? What are you trying to add in? Does it add does it work with your game already? Is your coach doing it? Like what's your what's your purpose for diving into this information other than it looks cool? That could be a reason to do it. You know, maybe there's some times to do that, but I I think coming into it with an actual, you know, it's like a house, right? Okay, if if you've got this foundation built and let's say we haven't put up the we haven't even framed the walls yet and you're trying to build the you're trying to put the roof on. Well, this roof's got like this I like this roof. It's really cool and well, that's it's not we're not ready for that yet. At some point we can build that roof on, but first we got to frame the walls and we got a lot of times you see people where they're jumping around from all these disconnected things and it leads them into this sort of schism where, you know, they they they're trying to build a a roof. They've got a foundation, they've got no walls, they've got no floor laid out, but they're trying to build the roof. You want to you want to think about how it all connects together. And so I think if you do that right and you train with purpose and you step on the mat and you have a clear ideas of what you're doing and then you, you know, structure it in that way where you're reviewing you're you're going to get better. And if you do it that way, you'll get better without having to like stress about it. It just it just happens because you're setting yourself up to do it, right? Um versus not and when I say structure, I'm thinking more of like a it's a more of a lifestyle thing, right? Because if you're eating terribly, you're drinking too much, you're consuming massive amounts of, you know, social media content with no real thought. You're just doom scrolling all the time and, you know, you're just bouncing around from technique. There's no thought to you're not going to get as good as you could get. But if you start structuring everything around it with purpose to support yourself, you'll get what you want out of this without having to try so hard because you set up a structure to support you to do that thing and plateaus just aren't going to be a thing because it's just it's just won't be. You will continuously make improvement. Now, the improvement slows. Obviously, when you first start, you know nothing, you're going to get better faster. Eventually, it slows down a little bit, but you're still going to make improvements and you'll be able to notice those improvements. And also too, there's another thing to bring up, right? How the hell do you know if you're improving if you don't have anything you're focused on? You know, like how do you know? It's a very sometimes getting better at Jujitsu can be a very intangible thing. How do you know you're getting better? Right? What are your goals? Are you trying to just are you out of shape and you're just trying to roll throughout the whole class and get four or five rounds in? Are you trying to hit a very specific arm bar? Or what are you trying to do? You don't want to you don't want to go into the gym and sort of assess that, oh, well, I beat Bob yesterday, so I'm supposed to beat Bob again. There's a lot of things that can happen, you know, but if you have a clear focus as to what you're doing, um and a deliberate purpose for your training, then you'll be able to know, oh, I am getting better because I I went into the training session with this goal and with this focus and this is my purpose right now and I know whether I'm getting better. And that can be motivating too because while you're trying to get everything online, you'll have these little wins along the way and then that can be a really motivating thing because it kind of keeps you going because if you, you know, if you're doing something and all of a sudden you notice, oh, man, I I hit that arm bar today like one time. Well, you know that you're in the right track. Sort of thing. So, anyway, those are some ideas at least my thoughts on this, right? So, again, very much bouncing around here, but there's so much that you could dig into with each one of these ideas. I mean, there's books on this stuff over and over again and it's a it's a deep subject. Speaker 2: Yeah, it's awesome. And I think like we don't have we didn't hit all the points, but these kind of five, six, seven, how many uh ideas we talked about today, that's kind of what makes a deliberate practice. And that's, you know, people that do the research, this is what they say is going to help you in your field or in your specific sport or your task. Um I've got a definition of it. I'll just read it just for fun. Uh it says deliberate practice is highly structured, purposeful activity designed specifically to improve a particular aspect of performance. It must occur in a well-developed field where established training techniques exist and a professional coach is available. So, I think we talked about a lot of those things. So, if you can take some of those components and include those into your training, I think you're going to find some success and you're going to probably get better. You're going to find improvement in in your training and get and like I said, if you're someone that's limited in your time, you have to have deliberate practice because that's going to give you the most bang for your buck. That's how you're going to find the most success. That's how you're going to improve the most instead of just going in and doing whatever. Having a game plan going in is going to be really helpful. Speaker 1: That's right. All right, guys, so hopefully you enjoyed the podcast. Hopefully you got something from it. I'll share a quote with you guys in just a minute. Um that kind of goes along with uh the information and I'll give you another book recommendation in case you're interested. Longtime listeners will probably have have heard those recommendations. But big thanks to our sponsors for helping make this podcast happen. You can check out one of our sponsors, Athletic. Athletic mints. They make um microdose THC mints. It's like two milligrams of uh THC. So, you're not going to be super high or anything like that. It's very mild, but it also has different formulations of different cannabinoids that go along with it to present different effects in your body. There's rebound, there's flow, and there's power. You can think of the names and you can kind of get an idea as to what you would use those with. Uh and what functions those would be used to support. And so, again, I like them. Um sometimes like the uh I feel like the they can almost take the edge off at times because I guess it's the the the CBD mixed with the THC type of thing can take the edge off. So, uh there have been times where I've I'm not going to lie, I've been like it's been a busy, stressful day. Um and you know, I drink every now and again, but I don't want to be reaching for the booze all the time. But like I'd be like, man, drink would be nice right now. I can take one of the rebound mints and it kind of does the same effect for me. Kind of just chills me out a little bit. But you guys can check out their stuff. Um again, good products. If you want to go to their website, try them out and see if you like them. Use the promo code Athletic, A T H L E T H C dot com and the promo code is Jujitsu 10 for 10% off the order. Uh and you can get 10% off the order, check out uh their different products. And if you're a a vet or uh current uh military service member and that sort of thing, uh or a, you know, law enforcement, you can get with them directly and I think they give you a a better discount or they have some sort of deal with you guys specifically. Um so you can check that out. Also, thanks to our buddies over at Epic Roll. Epic Roll makes some really good Jujitsu gear. Some of my favorite Nogi stuff. Actually, it's my favorite Nogi stuff on the market. Speaker 2: Awesome. Speaker 1: It's what I use every day I roll. It's not because I'm like, you know, paid to run around and just use their stuff. I use it because I like it. That's kind of the the deal where being in a situation that I'm at where my money is not tied to sponsorships necessarily. Like we make money with these sponsorships, don't get me wrong. But neither one of us make our true incomes off of sponsorships, which is nice because then I don't have to shill stuff that I don't like. Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 1: Just to pay the bills. Because, you know, if it was let's be honest, if um if, you know, shilling out a little bit of stuff was going to put food on the table for Luca and Jess, well, I'd be like, I'm going to be shilling out a little bit. It is what it is, you know. Um but I don't want to and so I I don't have to. And so I like we we have sponsors we like and I only I only do stuff I like using or sharing, whatever. So it's stuff I like. So, anyway, Epic Roll, they make my gym gis, they make my rash guards and shorts. And in general, I just like the stuff. I like the stuff they put out. Great designs, good good service, good quality service, good quality gear. Um if you want to check them out, you can go to epicrollbjj.com. Promo code is Jujitsu 20 for 20% off the order. Uh you can get some details on their stuff and check it out for yourself. Also, thanks to our buddies over at Charlotte's Web. They're one of the OG's in the CBD space. They make everything from CBD products, CBN products, functional mushroom products. They make balms and rubs for sore muscles. They make a lot of different stuff these days, but they were one of the first in the the CBD space and their products are third-party tested to ensure the quality of them, to ensure the accuracy of what the way it's labeled and to make sure that what you is what's on that label is what you're getting inside of your body, right? Which I think is important. If you want to check their stuff out, go to Charlottesweb.com and use the promo code Jujitsu 30 for 30% off the order. Um to get a 30% discount and also to um, you know, check them out for yourself and see if you like it, see how it affects your body and in your uh your system, right? And last uh if you guys want to become a Patreon supporter, you can join our Patreon members at patreon.com/thejujitsupodcast. And when you join up, you'll get access to the perks and join the other Patreon subscribers. And by the way, guys, appreciate you guys for making um for supporting the podcast. We we do appreciate it. Helps us make this thing come back to you guys every week. Many of you guys have been with us for a number of years and so appreciate you all. So, patreon.com/thejujitsupodcast. If you guys want to get an ebook and a video on uh being more focused with your training, kind of gets into some of the ideas we talked about today. Go to my website at jujitsu.net/join. And when you join up, you'll get the ebook and the video. So, whether you want to listen or you want to watch, it's there for you. And then you'll get my daily email afterwards. My daily email is basically kind of like this, but much shorter. Takes about maybe two to four minutes to read the email. And I try to give you a nice little idea to chew on in each one of them. And uh you can check that out at jujitsu.net/join. Um and guys, as always, we'll throw some quotes out at you. There is another book that's worth reading called Make It Stick. It's another book on learning, how we learn, that kind of thing. There's a lot of good stuff from it. But here's a I'm going to give you two quotes here. Um and they kind of go with some of the stuff that we talked about. The first one says, quote, see failure as a badge of effort and a source of useful information. The need to dig deeper, to try a new a different strategy, the need to understand that when learning is hard, you're doing important work. So, seeing failure as a badge of effort and useful information, right? So, the whole thing that they talk about in that book a lot is that learning, when you're learning something new, it's not fun, it's not always easy, and it's difficult. And that's actually where you're doing a lot of the most important parts of learning, right? A lot of people think that when they're when something comes naturally to them, they're learning, but what they found in that book is that when people are struggling the most, is actually what sticks with them the deepest. And you can think about that, right? Like the the hardest one lessons stick with you the the most, like, you know, those old sayings that they had, right? Um some of the stuff that you that was the most difficult that you overcame, that stuck with you the most, right? Um another one, another quote for you, is that, quote, mastery requires both the possession of ready knowledge and the conceptual understanding of how to use it. So, I think that's another useful one, right? Understanding that like, you know, it's the ready knowledge, that's your techniques and the conceptual understanding is the basic principles that work with the moves that you're using. We talked about that a little bit today on the podcast. And those are two ideas that kind of go along with what we were talking about, um from another really good book to check out if you haven't. So, guys, um thank you all for being here as always. Appreciate you. We'll talk to you next week.