Training with Regular Partners vs Migrating

[Harry Evans]

Sorry in advance for this long post. It's something I have been musing over in my head for a while, and I think some people may have interesting thoughts.

I've been thinking recently about training BJJ with the same people every day, versus training at different places with different approaches. If you have seen the recent finals matches between the 2 Mendes brothers or between Jeff Glover and Bill Cooper, they look completely different from most competition BJJ. Obviously they are fighting at about 30%, but it is more than that. These guys have been training together for years, and they know the ins and outs of each others games.

When I train a my gym, everyone knows what I am best at and how I move. I have to constantly adapt, learn new things, and adjust, or I will be left behind by more innovative fighters. This is awesome, because my game develops, and I am not allowed to just rely on my go-to moves. On the other hand, I work a great, useful move into the ground, and then once everyone knows it, I often leave it behind because it does not work anymore in the gym. My main concern is, in the hopes of evolving my game, am I literally picking out all of my best moves and eliminating them? If I have an awesome omaplata, I should be practicing the details and nuances to hit them even more against tougher guys (think Ryan Hall drilling the triangle for years). But at this point, everyone sees it coming, so I only go for it with complicated, tricky setups. My guess is that I haven't thrown any of the basic setups for it in months.

Because of my job, I get to travel to the east coast every month for a week. When I do, I train at the best gyms in the area (so far this year, I have gotten to train with Ryan Hall, Marcelo Garcia, Paul Schriener, Demian Maia, Zak Maxwell, and many others). What is interesting is that, when I go somewhere else, I start to slowly go back to my old moves. Nobody knows my setups, so I can snap up an attack that my teammates would laugh at as they pass my guard. I obviously don't want to be a one trick pony, but it is also kind of nice to be able to go back to my favorites like that. Even more, that is probably a more accurate simulation of what I will face in tournaments, rather than somebody that I drill with every day.

So, what do you all think? For now, I try to mix it up, training 3 weeks at home, and then 1 on the road. But that is not feasible for most people, and probably won't be for me forever either. So what is more important? What is more productive? What do you enjoy more?

[AJ Camacho]

One of my old instructors, Kenny Bond, wrote a great article about his reasons for competing. One of the interesting reasons was that it's how you develop a personal style. That it's against random people where you learn what your real go to moves are and where you should further develop your game.

http://www.dstryrsg.com/2011/07/best...-by-kenny.html

[Harry Evans]

@AJ Thanks man, that's a nice article. I completely agree with every point he makes. So, are you saying you would train with the same guys, but use tourneys to get the benefits of outside opponents?

[Enrique "Kiko"]

Harry, I'm just a white belt, but it just makes sense to me to train with both types of people. The people who you train with who "know your game" also have the same handicap because you "know their game" as well. You could use that to adapt your game and inadvertently help them adapt theirs. The people you don't train with often are a total unknown factor *ie tournaments, alternate gyms, etc* and that adds more of a random dynamic stylistically which can help round you out even more since someone may come at you at new angle of attack that you're not used to.

[Harry Evans]

Thx Kiko. I'm not sure exactly what kind of response I was looking for, other than general opinions and whether people overall prefer one or the other. But I think the most obvious answer is, "do both." I wonder what the best ratio is, though?

[Landon DuMar]

I think if I could do what you do, I would in a second. My instructor said the one big thing that helped him get much better than the other guys he trained with was going to open mats at other schools, and his main reason was that these people have something to prove to you as an outsider at their school, and that like you said you roll with a variety of people who don't know your game. He said it's the closest you can get to what you'd face in a tournament. I think this is an awesome thread you started and I have been thinking about this a lot too recently. I think an issue you can run into if you're learning from multiple instructors though is that it could be detrimental to your relationship to your instructor and your coach. For example, you may be being taught moves different ways or may be learning techniques that your instructor wouldn't have show you for a variety of reasons, and if you're competing they won't be able to coach you as effectively and as a teacher may not be able to instill their personal cirriculum to you in the most effective manner. I've personally struggled with this a lot. I train a lot, and I started to outgrow the other training partners at my school entirely due to me putting more time continually than anyone else. I eventually found my way to doing a few day classes in the city at another school in addition to my home school classes, so I could be training more. It has caused some issues and I do worry if learning from two very different instructors isn't the best idea, but I love training and the two extra classes a week really feel like they help. I'd eventually like to find a better fit, and have even thought of training at HQ over a summer, but I battle with these same issues and more that you're brought up. Thanks for the post!

[J Grooms]

This isn't exactly what you asked, but I hope it helps.

[Brent Smith]

I could see both situations heping your game really. If your team mates are shutting down your game and youre still trying to master your moves then that specific move will keep getting its reps till you get it to black belt level and nobody can stop it. I'm sure marcello garcia's RNC didn't get to the level its at cause no one knew his game. Then on the otherside you're able to see what will work on someone that doesn't know your game by visiting other schools and competing. So I guess keep doing the moves that are working for you. Your team mate counters yu recouner. Then when you visit other schools you'll get different reactions and can build your gamefrom there.
I duno if that answers your question. Just keep training!

[Enrique "Kiko"]

I wonder what the best ratio is, though?

That answer is easy. Give a higher % ratio, at your discretion, to the one you're enjoying more that week. You enjoying the process should be top priority, otherwise it'll get stagnant, and stagnation leads down the path to quitting.

[Landon DuMar]

That answer is easy. Give a higher % ratio, at your discretion, to the one you're enjoying more that week. You enjoying the process should be top priority, otherwise it'll get stagnant, and stagnation leads down the path to quitting.

Great point. Having fun is what it's all about.