The 4 keys to Consistency

By Aaron Martinez

October 10, 2018

The past several months for me have been hard to want to train. My wife had a sternotomy last June and it took all summer for her to recover and for us to get back to our usual routine. Physically I felt fine, but mentally and emotionally I have just wanted to take a break for a period of time. Even though I haven’t wanted to be consistent I have. It’s a habit and it’s the most positive aspect of my life, even if I didn’t want to do it at the time. After training with the absence of inspiration I was able to see more clearly what it takes to be consistent as a habitual practitioner.

Staying injury free

It’s impossible to stay injury free forever, but I believe injuries can certainly be minimalized. And if you’re injured often it’s impossible to find a rhythm and a schedule to progress at a pace that you gain satisfaction. Other than just a general loss of interest, injuries have been the primary reason I have seen practitioners quit. I’d like to think that I have been more than just lucky to have trained consistently for over eleven years with only taking one month off due to a severe injury.

This is what has worked well for me:

1. I stay up on my Strength and Conditioning, but I do it to help prevent injuries and not create more. That means that I never chase Personal Records or compromise my form for any result. I like the Olympic lifts (Snatch/ Clean & Jerk) with very manageable weight. It has helped with my Jiu-Jitsu in general, but has really strengthened my shoulders, hips, and knees. Three areas that bothered me with pain before I started the Olympic lifts.
2. I tap to compromising positions. There are times in sparring when a training partner just has my knee articulated in a certain manner, or is compressing my ribs while inverted, and I will stop the match and consider it a submission for my partner. Most injuries I see from practice are from not recognizing that a joint is in danger because it’s not a submission. One partner rolls one way and the other partner in the opposite direction from half guard and someone’s knee is probably entangled and vulnerable.
3. Be mindful while rolling. I’ve had a few minor injuries from rolling light and mentally taking a break. My body isn’t engaged like it should be in addition to my mind isn’t focused on preventing injuries and then one of us moves offensively and it’s too late to anticipate a dangerous landing or roll.
4. Know your opponent and if you don’t, protect yourself like they want to put you in the hospital. After a few rolls with a handful of dangerous training partners I have learned to yell tap as they are entering into a submission attempt. I’ve gotten dirty looks from people because they thought I was giving up too easily, but my goal is never to win every sparing match. My goal is to be able to spar every chance I get and to win every match in competition.

Challenge yourself

There are quite a few motivators for training Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. For me, it was always to challenge myself. At times, I have to really force this because it’s easy to become complacent with anything. Even people trying to choke you and break your limbs.

1. Train with the big guys. At our gym we have some monster sized individuals that I see other people avoiding. I wouldn’t say that I love having them smashing my guard, but I love the challenge. Keep in mind staying injury free and tapping to bad positions as to avoid injuries as much as possible, but it’s good to deal with a mismatched size (Especially if you are a Black Belt!).
2. Competing is a great way to see what you are made of. After a decade of competing; I swear the success and failures of competition have more to do with your mental fortitude than your physical abilities. Even though you are fighting opponents, it really is a match against yourself. You finally have someone to fight that is your size, your age, and your skill level. There are no excuses and you can only win if you believe in your abilities. It is the best way to challenge yourself in Brazilian Jiu—Jitsu.
3. Train when you are too tired to train. This is a challenge to your physical abilities and your ego. What’s the worst thing that will happen? You will get submitted by someone that you usually never get submitted by. It is going to be alright. Do you want to get better and move forward with your Jiu-Jitsu journey, or worry that “So and So” will go around the academy telling everyone that they got you in an arm bar? Training when you are exhausted will certainly make you a better practitioner and tougher on the mats.

Continue to Learn

Part of training consistently and progressing as a result is to keep learning consistently. I’ve seen it too many times, where a practitioner feels that following along with the instructor’s techniques is no longer beneficial. They show up after the technique is taught, just to spar. Or while everyone else is learning escapes of fine tuning a fundamental detail of something very practical, they’re in the corner trying to Berimbolo.

1. Pay strict attention to the lesson of the day. If it’s something you’ve seen a dozen times, try to find a new detail that can help you focus on using it as soon as possible.
2. Be open minded and be willing to learn from everyone. I learned some great techniques from visiting White Belts. It could have been very easy for me to dismiss what working for them just because of their rank, but as a result of doing the opposite I have some great techniques that I use in my everyday game.
3. Be quiet when others are talking to you. It took me too long to learn this and probably passed up a ton of free information because I wanted to talk about how much I knew as soon as they were done telling me something. There are times I try to tell my students about a technique, how to game plan, a little detail, etc. and they interrupt me to tell me what they would rather do in such and such situation. I just smile and let them talk over me and I don’t try to force the information on them if they are already close minded to what I have to say.

Make friends and not Rivals

Being competitive with your peers is great, but I’ve seen rivalries go so far as to create actual fights during sparring or both guys not wanting to roll with each other anymore. It’s challenging to be consistent when you don’t have enough quality training partners that want to roll with you, and I see it happen often. Usually it will start out that way with some and they learn before Blue Belt that they need to place nice, even in sparring, or they’ll sit out every other round because no one wants to roll with them.

1. Be respectful to everyone and try to be a model practitioner. Help your instructor and team set the tone for the culture at your academy. Do you want to have a fight club where everyone is always injured? Or, do you want to do something fun and social with a good group of people? You’re actions and words help build this in either direction.
2. Be open to other people changing too. Some people will come off as cold or arrogant when they start. Maybe they want to stay distant because they are simply nervous when they start doing Jiu-Jitsu. Some people are just Socially Awkward. And some people are just jerks and need something like BJJ to show them a better way to be. Regardless of why, control yourself and show them how to be. Stay courteous and respectful and give them a chance to be a warmer teammate down the road.
3. Always leave the door open. No one want to see their friends and students stop training with you, but it happens. Some people leave because they move, or their schedule changes. Those are positive reasons. Some leave for negative reasons like they want to be a student at another local academy, or they have an issue with someone else at your academy. Situations change and people change. It takes most people a decade to earn a Black Belt. Look at where you were a decade ago and look at where you are now. People can turn into complete opposites within that time and be open to people changing for the better and wanting to come back. If you blow up and tell the person never to return, you shut the door on the person changing their mind or their personality in the future. It will be a key to having more quality training partners down the road.

You’ll hear about “consistency” a lot in Jiu-Jitsu. It is the key to getting better, getting stronger, growing, and eventually becoming a Black Belt, but you can’t be consistent if you can’t train consistently. You can’t train consistently if you’re often injured, and you’re not going to grow consistently as a practitioner if you are only willing to roll with the same people that you feel comfortable with. It will be hard to make it to Black Belt if you think you already have it all figured by Blue Belt and are unwilling to learn the rest of the way, and it would be impossible to train if you have no one to practice with. Most of this seems like common sense, but these have been keys to my success and I have seen many other practitioners struggle along the way with some or all of these. Most of them never made it past White Belt.