The importance of Variation

Another weekend and another adventure, this time I headed to Icon BJJ in Milton Keynes. Unfortunately I had to drag myself out of bed and get on the 6.24 train to London again as I was aiming to get to MK by 9.30 to start training at 10.

The session was busy as the guys who train at Icon Holland had come over for a visit. After a very quick warm up we immediately got into a long session of sparring 8 minute rounds. Being so early I felt it took a while to wake up and get going but after about an hour I was well into a jiujitsu groove and rolling more fluidly. The following day we went over a half guard sweep and escaping from back control and had a slightly more relaxed sparring session (only 5 minute rounds).

The last few weekends made me think a little bit more about the importance of variation in training. It is my experience that when you have been training with the same people for a long time you start to relax too much. As you know the way they play rolling strategically can minimise energy expenditure. In other words, it is easy to get stuck in a rut.

The great thing about doing some training at a different club is that you have to work harder as you do not have a good idea of peoples skill levels or what type of game they play. It is perfect training if you have a competition coming up and want to push your self, with the Europeans looming it was exactly what I needed. So if you have the chance make time for some BJJ adventures of your own and visit a friends club to get some variation in your training. I enjoy learning new drills and different teaching points for the same techniques. You also get to take back some new techniques to try out on your unsuspecting team mates!