The importance of setting goals.

Jiujitsu is a long and at times a difficult journey to take, it's very likely that life will get in the way of progress somewhere along the line. Exams, kids, work promotions, relocation away from your gym. Unlike most other martial arts, it's belt promotions are few and far between. Stripes along the way show progress but have no bearing on competition divisions. Participation medals at competitions are avoided as much as possible with competitors moved into either heavier or younger divisions depending on age, just to guarantee multiple matches. Formal gradings are mostly scrapped and instead, replaced with the Professor heavily focusing in on a students actual skill level instead of rehearsed drills, and Best of all are the class layouts. Sparring (or rolling) in every single class, full on with not only 100% resistance but also full on effort to win by submission.

The mats don't lie! They never will! If you aren't putting in the time and effort it gets exposed instantly on the mats. Fake black belts are exposed and made a show of in a matter of minutes, in some cases seconds. They are called out like stolen valour and quickly realise that this isn't a martial art you can fake.

So what keeps the student on track? What makes them stick to it long enough to reach the black belt and beyond and not be one of the 90% who don't make it to blue?

What allows you to progress is setting short term goals one after the other.

Desmond Tutu once said “there is only one way to eat an elephant, "one bite at a time.”

Small realistic goals! Your goal in any jiujitsu match is victory ideally by submission, but that goal is in itself the long term result. A shorter goal would be getting your dominant grips by winning the grip fight. Once that goal is reached, the next goal is set in motion and further progress towards it is attempted.

We all start jiujitsu with some form of a goal. The popular ones are usually self defence, fitness, just being a black belt or to help with improving confidence. But by the end of rolling with a seasioned white belt or above the goal is shortened to just survival. Or at the very least not be submitted as often as the last round. Soon after escaping the most popular submission you tap to becomes the next goal and thoughts of reaching the black belt are pushed back for a much much later date. What are the benefits of this way of thinking? Setting short term goals allows for:

• a sense of progress

• quick mental victories

• motivation to train with greater effort

• quicker learning rates

• visible and physical results

• breakthrough in a training plateau

Many new students will remove the goal of the black belt shortly after joining and instead focus on the blue belt. The reality of the journey sets in. If an ultra runner constantly told him or herself the total distance they must cover or the total miles or hours they have left, the run would become mentally tougher. Instead they set closer to get to points as targets and reset the target as they hit each point. Jiujitsu is the very same. If I get a takedown my goal isn't to win via a selected submission from an advanced position. My goal is the advanced position. A submission from where I am might have a much lower chance of success. Instead I focus on securing a guard pass or if already passed a pin. What can I do next to progress? What ever it is that's now my new and only goal. The mini goals that are far more realistic and achievable all add up and eventually will ideally lead to victory

Victories on the mat or within the mini battles during a roll lead to experience in successfully developing muscle memory as well as an increasingly effective A-Game. Soon after this will grow further into added goals that lead to more and more experience in attacking different submissions from different positions.

The combined use of these goals overtime will give the athlete such a drive to keep progressing that the belt promotions come without ever really focusing on it.

The unfocused student that just shows up and has no real goal to work towards will be unable to keep up or understand how others are overtaking them.

Goals can be set in:

• your gamelan

• how many classes you attend

• what you work on in open mat

• how much you drill

• what you do during rolls

• how many competitions you compete in

• seminars or camps you go to

• how much you work to understand the technique being shown.

If you feel that you currently have no goals to work on or don't know where to start, talk to your coach! Get your team onboard with your goals. Start off with it being Short term, clear and achievable!