How Often Should I Train?

I get this question a lot, but it’s fairly rare that anybody follows my advice to the T. I wish I could somehow be more inspiring, and to encourage folks to simply show up and train more often, but so far I haven’t been able to create a culture in my gym where people are training to the degree that I imagined. I’ll try and be as inspiring as possible right now…

If you haven’t guessed what my answer to this question is yet, I’ll just spell it out as clearly as possible: you should train as much as you can. Any chance you get. Mat time will solve all of your problems and fulfill your wildest dreams. Lol.

But for real though, I think your body is way more capable than you give it credit for; humans are able to do some pretty amazing things with their bodies, so I think that yours is fully capable of turning off Netflix, grabbing your gi even though it’s raining outside, and driving (or walking, or biking) your happy ass to go train BJJ.

You need to do everything you can to be someone who makes excuses TO train, as opposed to someone who makes excuses NOT to train.

“My knee hurts, so I think I’m going to skip training tonight”, vs. “My knee hurts, but I’ll do as much as I can at practice tonight”.

“My stupid boss wants me to stay later at work, and I don’t want to be late to practice so I just won’t go”, vs. “My stupid boss wants me to stay later at work, so I’ll let coach know I’m gonna be late, and I’ll see if I can stick around for the sparring class afterwards”.

“I tested positive for COVID and I’m bleeding from my lungs”, vs… jk… you should for real stay home in this case.

When I first designed my fundamentals curriculum, I had imagined that people would be chomping at the bit to get to class. Training for an average of 3 times a week is considered “hobby” level, so I decided that I would start with 3 fundamentals classes a week just as a base, and then add more supplemental classes on to the schedule after this. I had imagined that most people would be able to make the majority of these classes, and then they would try and drill the moves we went over in class at open mats or on their own. I even made all of these classes “pay-what-you-want”, so that the cost of training would never be another excuse that one could make for themselves.

Flash forward 7+ years, and although the fundamentals curriculum is only 10 weeks in length, nobody has ever been there for all three classes for the full 10 weeks. Furthermore, it’s rare that I see anybody drilling and reviewing the moves at open mats or in their free time. In a perfect world, I would recommend that one do all of this, and THEN get some sparring as well, as that is the actual, fun part of BJJ for most of us.

All this being said, if the prospect of all this training seems daunting to you, and you feel that there’s no way you could handle it, then congratulations! You now have a new goal you can set for yourself. And if your instructor is anything like me, they will have no problem sitting down with you and discussing exactly what you need to do to reach your goals. I’m a firm believer that when there’s a will, there’s a way, and I believe in you!

Let’s put this in perspective by comparing what someone at hobby level should be training, with what your elite athletes are training: The Miyao brothers, both of whom are world champs, get on the mats every day for at least two sessions. One session is mostly drilling, the other session involves sparring. They take a nap in between.

World champions Tammi and Mikey Musumeci train 3 times a day, so in one week of training, they’ve already surpassed what many of my casual students have accomplished in a 10 week period. Also remember, that this is not a race. I’m just simply putting it into perspective. You can always train more! :)

But these are elite competitors! They’re multi-time world champs! This is true. They’re also young and quite likely at least slightly “enhanced”, at least to some degree… if you know what I mean…

So let’s look at the average training week of a hobbyist-competitor/instructor/gym owner, who is in his 40’s, has severe arthritis in his hips and shoulders, has never touched anabolic steroids and probably drinks a little too much (guess who?):

• 3x/wk teaching and sparring (most classes) for 1 hour/session

• 2x/wk competition sparring (most classes) for 1 hour/session

• 1x/wk drilling technique (most classes) for 1 hour/session

• 2-3x/wk resistance training (i.e. weight lifting)

• 2x/wk training judo, 1.5 hours/session

• 1x/wk casual sparring/teaching/drilling at open mat (most of the time) for 2 hours/session

• ETC: various tournaments, private lessons, seminars, open mats and other grappling-related events

Yes, I understand that “it’s my job”, and I totally get that. But, even when I was just training for fun and had no idea I would ever be in the BJJ business at all, I still was able to show up for an average of 3 sessions a week, every week.

To FINALLY answer the initial question, I would consider 3 sessions a week to be totally doable for almost everybody, and it would be an absolute minimum for me. My suggestion would be to shoot for 5 training sessions in a week, and if you hit at least 3 then you can be assured the BJJ gods will smile upon you, and you will otherwise be a happier person.

Give it a shot!