My name is Matt, one of the owners (and founder) of Scramble. I have been training jiujitsu for almost 20 years, which is crazy. I am a black belt under Yuki Nakai of Paraestra in Japan, awarded to me by Jeff Lawson in the UK.
You, are a filthy white belt. Hahah just kidding. But perhaps you are just starting out on your jiujitsu journey and you need a little bit of advice on how best to navigate this BJJ adventure.
I have written out my top 10 bits of advice for making the most of your training and ensuring that you can train successfully and for the rest of your life.
- Prioritise sleep above all for recovery.
I have done a lot of research on this, mostly broscience, but science nonetheless! I have also closely monitored the feedback I got from my Whoop, and the conclusion is that the number one thing that contributes to recovery is sleep. Sleep is KING for recovery. What this means in practical terms is that once you have had a hard training session, you need to sleep, you don’t need to play PlayStation, sit on your sofa scrolling Instagram, or whatever else it is you might be doing until late at night. And on your off days, if you can, try to add some extra naps in or get to bed early. I made the mistake too many times of burning the candle at both ends by training hard and staying up late and not allowing my body time to recover, and I paid the price, usually with an illness. Training jiujitsu is particularly exhausting and your body needs extra sleep to recover. It is a good idea to create good habits around this when just starting out. If you have to choose between supplements, sports massage, CBD oil or ice baths, and SLEEP, just sleep. It’s free, it’s easy, and it works better than all of those combined.
- Lift Weights
I never lifted weights growing up and all the way through my belts. Probably around late purple to brown belt I started taking it a bit more seriously, and this is because I moved from Japan back to the UK and everyone was bigger and stronger than me. Not doing it earlier is probably my biggest regret. However! The point of lifting weights, when talking about jiujitsu, is not simply to get strong and win rounds. It is to keep your body in shape and protect yourself from injuries, and prepare yourself to be healthier in later life. Jiujitsu puts a HUGE toll on your body, and if you don’t put the work in outside of class to improve your body, eventually it will get worn down. I am now in my early 40s and feel more than ever that I missed out on giving myself a good grounding in lifting weights that I could carry into my middle age. My recommendation would be not to faff around with any fad tools or bits of equipment – and trust me, I have done them all – but to stick with the basics. Deadlifts, squats, bench press, etc. If you can afford it, get a trainer, if not, just join a gym. Best case scenario is get the bare minimum equipment and use it at home, if you can. The less barriers between you and working out (such as driving time, traffic, cost etc) the better. Lifting weights is one of the best things you can do for your body in general, and to make sure that jiujitsu doesn’t turn your bones and joints into piles of dust. I am currently dealing with issues from dislocated shoulders, knee injuries, and hip injuries, and all of these could have been greatly reduced or maybe even avoided entirely if I had committed to a consistent strength and conditioning routine early in my jiujitsu journey.
- Jiujitsu Comes and Goes in Waves
I have had weeks where I felt like I could tap anyone in the room, and weeks where I felt like someone had a voodoo doll of me and made me weak, tired, and mentally useless. Jiujitsu is a constant wave in this way. Some weeks you are at the top of the curve, and some weeks you are at the bottom. Sometimes the curve can spread over a few days, sometimes weeks, and sometimes months, but always remember – whichever part of the curve you’re on, you will move forwards. Sometimes you think you’re at the bottom of the curve and then Bob the white belt who smells bad gets you in a twister, and you realise you still have some sucking to do. But just remember, if you’re at the bottom, you’ll be at the top of the curve eventually again. (And then you will fall back down again after that, but hopefully you will have remembered that it’s all temporary). I just remembered that this guide is mostly for beginners, so just remember, you absolutely suck, and you will be at the bottom of the curve for about six months, but don’t worry, when you start getting up to the top, it will feel great!
- Work on Something, All the Time.
I am a firm believer that you should always be working on something when you roll. If you are a beginner, just make it the technique that you have been shown that day. Keep it simple and listen to the instructor. If you are a little more experienced, this is how I like to think of it. Let’s say I keep getting my reverse De La Riva passed, and nobody is working on this particular thing at the gym right now. I will go online, google multiple things I can do from this position, and take advantage of all the instructionals out there to find 2 or 3 things that should work with my game. I will then go back to the gym and just try those 2 or 3 things for at least a couple of months, until I can decide if they have worked and will fit in my game. Crucially, there will be a period where you suck at this particular thing, but you have an inbuilt ‘excuse’ – you are working a particular skill. Just get yourself in the mindset that it is OK to suck at something when you are first starting. And remember, you don’t have to tell anyone what you are working or vocalise your “excuse”. Don’t get annoyed that your guard got passed, simply wait for another opportunity to practice that thing.
This is also a great way of getting out of plateaus, which happens when you have been training for a while. Choose one thing – could be guillotines, could be getting to the back, could be straight ankle locks -and do nothing but that until you are either good at it, or you can definitively say “that’s not for me.”
- Don’t Make Excuses
This is jiujitsu advice, but also life advice. Make a choice to go to training or not – if you are tired or injured, but decide to train, then just train. If it’s bad, then stay home. But once you have decided to train, don’t tell anyone how tired or injured you are. Just train and keep your mouth shut. Making excuses is a weakness and if you can use jiujitsu to train that out of your mentality, then good. This doesn’t mean you can’t warn your training partner that you have a hurt knee or a stiff shoulder, but if you are going to, then do it at the beginning of the round. Don’t get tapped and then start muttering under your breath about your bad knee or “Gee I am super tired today,” or something similar, because that is just something you are saying to lessen the responsibility on yourself for sucking. Every time you make an excuse, you get weaker. Every time you resist that urge, you get stronger.
- If you are Healthy, Compete!
I hate competing. Hate every moment of it, right up until shaking hands with my opponent and actually competing – that part is incredible. Fun, exciting, exhilarating. But the leadup is awful. Stress, aches and pains, anxiety – however, you will soon reach a point where you might not be healthy enough to compete, or you might be too busy, or any number of excuses – so if you are healthy, just compete. Nobody cares if you win or lose, just you, and you can probably forgive yourself if you lose. But if you go your whole career without really testing yourself, there’s a chance you won’t forgive yourself. I used to have a coach who forced me to compete. It’s funny, looking back on it, but I am glad that he did. I competed a lot in the early days and I am grateful for that. I used to think competing was like firing clay – you spend time making something (training), but it is not “fired” and made whole, until you compete. Whatever level you were building yourself up to to compete at, once you have competed, I feel that level stays with you. It’s very beneficial.
- Wash Your Gear, Wash Yourself, Wash your Belt
This cannot be overstated. Keep your stuff CLEAN. If your gym has a shower, USE IT. Immediately after training. NEVER reuse gear that you have already trained in. It’s gross, and unhealthy. Gross for you and gross for your training partners. Use it once and throw it in the wash as soon as possible after training. Do not leave it until the next day. Wash it straight away and ideally dry it in the sun. Wash yourself, too. There is some science to say you should not shower immediately before training, as it can kill the natural protective oils and make you more susceptible to skin infections, but I don’t know about that. In any case, make sure some soap and water have touched your body at least the same day that you go to training. If not, you will be the stinky guy or girl that nobody wants to train with. Also, wash your belt. This is non negotiable. WASH IT. Skin infections are a very real thing in jiujitsu and once they take hold at a gym they can be extremely hard to shake. It is much better to prevent them with good equipment and personal hygiene. Also, make sure you have enough Scramble gear to last you – if in doubt, just by more.
- Work on Your B and C Game as well as your A Game
As you start to get good at jiujitsu, you will develop an A game. This will be a sequence of techniques that work well for you. It might be different techniques for different people in the gym, or it could just be a few sequences that you are really good at. This is your A game. Do not neglect your B and C game. Example: You are a strong and explosive person, and you can smash past 70% of the guards in the gym and then commence attacking from side control. That’s great – it’s a good skill to have and it feels good smashing people. You work on only that, and soon, you can do it to 90% of people. The temptation is to keep pushing to make it work all the time, but in reality, your time will be better spent working on what you are no good at. If you can pass 70% of the people in the gym, your passing is good – now work on something else. Maybe your guard needs work, or maybe you panic and flap around if you get your guard passed or if you get mounted. I have trained with many people over 20 years who are amazing at one thing, but as soon as you get them out of their comfort zone, they become white belts again. So remember that training is exactly that – training. Let people pass your guard sometimes. Let people take your back. Let people mount you, and slowly improve your ability to escape, recover, and counter. Plus, have a game that you can still implement when you are absolutely exhausted (or when you are old) – something that doesn’t require explosiveness or athleticism.
- Whoever you are Avoiding in the Gym, is the One you Should be Training With
I have done it myself many times over the years. Someone has a particularly annoying game, or they are really strong, or they have an unpassable guard, or they always get me with the same technique. The temptation can be to avoid those people. But this is an extreme weakness in your mentality. You need to be seeking out the hardest challenges in the room. If you feel yourself avoiding the gaze of someone when it’s time to choose a partner, then stand up, walk right over to them, and ask them to spar. Take control of your training. See them as a challenge that is there to help you improve, not as something to avoid. By the way, valid reasons to avoid someone include that they smell bad, or they are dangerous. Both of these should be communicated to your coach, who should be able to take care of it.
- Keep Showing Up
The only reliable way to improve is to keep showing up. It’s not adopting the latest training trend, it’s not adding a multivitamin to your routine, it’s not buying another instructional. It’s simply turning up, getting warm, learning techniques, and trying to apply them in sparring to people of different shapes and sizes. It’s dead simple. Just keep showing up and you will improve. Mat time is key – which means make sure you are doing everything you can to maximise your mat time. If you train twice a week and another guy trains five times a week, chances are he will be better than you, and in a shorter time frame. But who cares? He is ahead because he is training more. Just keep showing up. As long as you are not ill or injured, keep showing up and you will improve.
To be honest I could have written another 10 or 20, but hopefully these tips will stand you in good stead and mean that you won’t have to learn some of the painful lessons I have learned in almost 20 years in jiujitsu.
Matthew Benyon is the founder and co-owner of Scramble. Scramble Brand began in 2009 and has grown to be one of the leading jiujitsu brands in the world, having gone from bedrooms to garages to parents’ houses to now serving customers all over the planet. Matt started training way back in Sydney in 2004, moved to Japan where he received his blue and purple belt, and has since been training in England where you can find him being a rest round for many different people at Ippon Gym.