I was wondering why my progression in BJJ hit a plateau, and here is the answer: Deliberate Practice.
Principles of deliberate practice.
Focused and Specific: Deliberate practice involves focusing on specific aspects of performance that need improvement, rather than just repeating the same tasks over and over.
Challenging: The tasks or activities involved in deliberate practice should be challenging, but still within the individual’s reach. The goal is to stretch the individual’s abilities, not exceed them.
Immediate Feedback: Deliberate practice requires immediate feedback so that the individual can adjust their performance in real-time.
Repetition: Repetition is key to deliberate practice, as it allows the individual to refine their skills and embed new learning.
Time and Effort: Deliberate practice takes time and effort, and should be done regularly over an extended period to see significant improvement.
Purposeful: The individual should have a clear understanding of the goals and objectives of the practice, and focus their efforts on reaching those goals.
Mentally Demanding: Deliberate practice should engage the individual mentally, as well as physically. This includes paying attention to the task, focusing on goals, and constantly adjusting performance.
In BJJ, with more time of training, practitioners become faster at learning techniques. Therefore a quick rotation of moves within a day is easy to swallow for a blue belt. While for a white belt, the best would probably be to focus on one single move per week and use it as often as possible. It would be nice to have a roadmap.
