Getting through that grappling slump

If you've been grappling a while you know what I'm talking about, one week you're having great rolls with the more experienced guys in class, your technique feels sharp, you feel like you're just reacting to whatever is happening. Then, for whatever reason, the next week you feel slow, sloppy, shitty, getting tapped by the guys you usually stalemate with. You feel like your technique is literally leaving you. The fact that I'm getting tapped by the guys I usually hang with doesn't bother me, I want to see my teammates improve. What bothers me is how my technique feels like slop. How do you guys like to work out of slumps? Take time off? (F that) Take extra time to drill? I know eventually everyone snaps out of it, and frustration is always going to be a part of growing. Whatever you guys have done in your experience, I'm curious, because it sucks when you don't feel good on the mat

It's strange because jiu-jitsu is not like baseball or basketball where athletes develop the "yips" or whatever you call it. Remember how Yankee 2nd basemen Chuck Knoblauch all of a sudden couldn't throw to first base to save his life? I could be wrong, but I don't think this exists in grappling. How would you even notice an all of a sudden aberration like not being able to do something simple like throw to first? We certainly plateau, moments where it doesn't seem anything is going right or we can't pull of what we normally can. A few things I've noticed about this: 1) people are smart and they notice patterns. so your partners are catching up to your game; 2) subconciously you get fixated on something like a particular half-guard set-up, so you become less fluid with your game; and 3) you might be burned out.

Personally, what seems to always help me is when I either a) take a week off or b) go to an affiliate school for a week. At the affiliate school, they don't know your game like your day-in and day-out partners do, and you don't know theirs so the rolls are much more dynamic and even if you are tapped, everything feels good because your body and mind are learning. Hope my own experience helps!

It happened to me a couple of times and the way I snapped out of it is by changing my game completely. That's how I discovered inverted guard, deep half and standing passes. Try picking a few new techniques or a guard that you never play and concentrate on learning and using them. It will give u a new challenge and hopefully some extra motivation. Plus it will make your overall game better.

Just keep showing up. I'll show up to a comp and beat higher belts one week and a little later I can't stop a white belt from passing my guard. It isn't even people learning my game, I go through long periods of suck, I've tried a bunch of different things. Continuing to put time in is the only sure way to move past the slumps. Persistence through adversity is a very important trait.

I use mostly 10th planet techniques at non-10th planet gyms. I also travel a lot and train at different gyms. I find it super-interesting that I am almost always able to crush people at first with techniques like lockdown sweeps and the truck. Within JUST A DAY OR TWO however, people learn my style and are able to stop me, then pass my guard and smash me.

Its amazing how fast people you regularly roll with learn how to counter your style. Going to a new gym and smashing someone who doesn't understand 10P can do wonders for your confidence, lol.

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Originally Posted by Kevin Gibbs

Just keep showing up.

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110% with Kevin and Bobby, Just keep showing up. It's just part of the journey.

It's demoralizing I remember last year I got put to deep side dreamland 2 times in day (collar chokes are the devil) and month long stretches where I feel like I'm not improving but I pick my chin up and ask what would Henato Laranja do

I will be up there soon Greg :)! Ebbs and flows, peaks and valleys, high and lows whatever you want to call it. Everyone goes through this for as long as you are on the mats. That's what makes this journey so sweet.

Vary your game. If you've been playing the same thing over and over again, it'll start to get stale. Let that be your go to in Comp. Start building the framework for other chains of submissions/paths off your favorite subs. I get asked all the time how many darce's I hit in the gym, The truth is it's probably the lowest % sub in my repertoire.
But now, I've spent the last couple months really getting put in deep submissions, and trying to get out. Some days I don't get tapped others I get tapped more than Gene Kelly's shoes. If you go into the room with an attitude that your goal is to work XYZ Path, then work that path. It's gonna get shutdown the first 9 times but may work the 10th. Always come with a game plan, people keep journals and stuff for subs, flows, etc, if that helps you do it. Personally, I just jot down the things I want to work on in Live sparring on my phone and do it for a week, if I didn't have any success, back at it the next week, and so on and so forth. Obviously you don't want to get hung up on a position for months, but you'd be surprised how quickly you can add something to game like that. (IMO)

I've gone through this several times....once for a few months. I took 3 weeks off and literally didn't do any exercise and came back and it was gone....i was back to normal. One thing i noticed is when im working on too many techniques at once my body and mind simply cant keep up. When i go into a slump now I just throw out all the new shit and go back to my A game for a week or so just to clear my mind and Im usually ok. Its just part of the game but it can be extremely frustrating.

When that happened to me last time, I started to work on one particular position and some subs from that position. (Knee on Belly) I worked on it for a couple weeks, never mastered it, but that was all I tried to get for a couple weeks. After a while the rest of my game just started to flow into that KoB game naturally, but using that position as a main one was totally fresh for me, and my training partners as well.
It helped me break through my stale game. Unfortunately I have kind of returned to my old game since then, so thanks for the reminder!

I usually find myself doing that when i'm hunting for submissions instead of working on positioning

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Originally Posted by John Mejia

Vary your game. If you've been playing the same thing over and over again, it'll start to get stale. Let that be your go to in Comp. Start building the framework for other chains of submissions/paths off your favorite subs. I get asked all the time how many darce's I hit in the gym, The truth is it's probably the lowest % sub in my repertoire.
But now, I've spent the last couple months really getting put in deep submissions, and trying to get out. Some days I don't get tapped others I get tapped more than Gene Kelly's shoes. If you go into the room with an attitude that your goal is to work XYZ Path, then work that path. It's gonna get shutdown the first 9 times but may work the 10th. Always come with a game plan, people keep journals and stuff for subs, flows, etc, if that helps you do it. Personally, I just jot down the things I want to work on in Live sparring on my phone and do it for a week, if I didn't have any success, back at it the next week, and so on and so forth. Obviously you don't want to get hung up on a position for months, but you'd be surprised how quickly you can add something to game like that. (IMO)

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This

So much good advice. Keep showing up and try changing things up a bit are both good pieces of advice that have worked well for me in the past.
The other thing is: consider that maybe it's not so much (or just) you but the other guy(s) that are peaking when you're in a bit of a valley. There's one or two guys at the gym that are my regular go-to training partners when I want to see where I'm at - sometimes I'm the hammer but sometimes I'm the nail. And sometimes we just stalemate each other. That's just how it goes sometimes.