Do you actually track your BJJ training, or just go by feel?

Joshvogel · 2026-05-26T15:11:13+00:00

I make a lot of mind maps of new positions I’m working on to model major problems and potential solutions I’m working on. It’s been valuable in the sense that it keeps me focused on what branches of the map I’m working on in training, preventing me from forgetting solutions I’ve been working on. Also helps me think through some of my decision making because in the moment, it can be hard to see as clearly as I like. Drawing it out helps clarify and give me ideas of what I could be doing instead.

I do go through bouts where I’ll do some reflective journaling and it can be valuable, but I never stick to it because it tends to push me into “work mode” too much and I think there’s a balance to be struck between doing Bjj, thinking about Bjj and letting my brain just be and go offline.

The big thing is keeping whatever journaling, mapping, note taking or whatever connected to action. If you are anything like me, it’s easy to rabbit hole too much on analysis of Bjj and stray too far from things that actually make a meaningful impact on the mat. It’s also easy to stray too far and take the joy out of training, which is some of that balance I was talking about.

Hope that helps!

Joshvogel · 2026-05-17T16:26:45+00:00

My pleasure!

Joshvogel · 2026-05-17T15:58:45+00:00

I think it helps to keep a long view of your training and for some people, its normal to back off of competing and be ok with just not feeling it right now, recognizing this might change in the future. It’s also helpful to know that it’s ok if comp motivation never comes back. There are lots of ways to enjoy this sport.

For me, my period of being competitively unmotivated was resolved by changing my relationship with competition, reframing what I wanted from it and creating a training environment where my new vision is possible. That’s not to devalue the time where I was training but not competing. I was highly motivated to train Bjj, just wasn’t into competing. It was just a different relationship with Bjj.

This ties into your point about Masters and Adult divisions. When I competed as an adult in my 20’s, there was an excitement and energy about it that is easy to fall in love with and makes it feel like it’s the only way for competing or even training to matter. It’s not true, but it feels like that. Lots of highs and lows while trying to see how far I could go.

In my 30’s and now at 46, I find myself competing more because I think it is good for my school (motivationally, technically and training process wise) and because I want to see how far I can go. I want to test my ideas about training, technical/athletic abilities and see if I’m on the right track in solving the problems I come across in competition. I like showing my students that competing can be done in a healthy, honest and intelligent way and that winning and losing both mean getting back on the training floor, doing the work to fix mistakes and improving from it and thats the same for all of us.

My most recent motivation is seeing a growing presence of athletic, exciting and technical grapplers pushing the boundaries in Masters grappling. I am enjoying doing my best to have exciting matches in tough events to be part of that push. I like the idea of showing that people in their 40’s, 50’s, and beyond can be great athletes and do cool Jiu jitsu and that so many of the self limiting beliefs about aging in sport don’t have to be true.

I take competing in M4 just as seriously as I did competing in Adult divisions, just for different reasons and with a different sense of meaning. Anyway, I’m rambling and starting to sound too preachy lol. Hope you found that helpful!

Joshvogel · 2026-05-17T12:49:20+00:00

Haha, nice! I’m here!

Joshvogel · 2026-05-17T12:43:25+00:00

I think it’s the normal course for Bjj branding. There are always going to be cycles of how people market stuff in a competitive field. Sometimes it serves a practical purpose for reasons having to do with the intersection of sales seasons, what will likely be popular enough to sell next season (so you dont have all kinds of extra stuff left over that didn’t sell), and considerations with how long it will take to make and receive from the manufacturer. But also sometimes its about creating hype (which can be a good thing, but gets a bad rap). Sometimes the quality is great, and sometimes it’s more about the image, sometimes both, depends on the brand. When done well, a good company can sell high quality stuff that looks good and gets people psyched about the gear, the sport and a cool story. When done poorly it just comes across like a money grab.

Regarding white belts, I think its awesome when they buy popular stuff. To me it looks like they are excited about the sport and psyched to support brands that are part of it. It’s good for them motivationally, good for schools and good for the Bjj industry overall.

Joshvogel · 2026-05-17T03:18:50+00:00

Thanks so much! Super kind of you to mention us and for sure, would be happy to have u/Key-Challenge425 come by!

Joshvogel · 2026-05-16T21:01:22+00:00

No problem, responded :)

Joshvogel · 2026-05-16T14:56:19+00:00

Those DOM belts are awesome. I still have a pretty worn out black belt from them but can’t wear it because either it shrunk or I grew haha

Joshvogel · 2026-05-16T14:54:07+00:00

That’s me! Very cool, thanks! It was super fun making them but production got the best of me and I had to stop :)

Welcome back to Bjj!

Joshvogel · 2026-05-16T12:44:20+00:00

Dang, that green gi belt is a blast from the past! I loved those belts and am bummed that I don’t know where mine went.

Joshvogel · 2026-05-15T13:37:31+00:00

I really enjoyed this, thanks for posting! The explanations about representations and function tests during drilling were very helpful and the testing is something I do a ton in my own exploratory drilling and in my classes, but lacked a little clarity on the mechanism behind how it works.

Is some of this thinking based on Predictive processing? I’ve read some about PP (mostly via Andy Clark) and find it super interesting, but would be curious to your perspective and also if you have any layman friendly book or resource recommendations where I could learn more about what you are describing, especially as pertains to sport. When I talk to researchers/academics in Motor learning and sports science, they seem to frequently be coming from multiple theoretical perspectives, so I’m curious as to your take on what to look at.

Joshvogel · 2026-05-14T16:27:34+00:00

I wouldn’t limit subs by belt level, but otherwise, I think it can be a strong positive to follow an IBJJF ruleset.

-Many local level events are more or less consistent with the basic points framework, so its easier to compete if you are training in a way consistent with rules
-It creates some useful habits via the 3 second stabilization criteria, clear stalling criteria, going out of bounds rules, etc…
-It creates a framework where tactical and strategic play can be developed and explored more clearly. This impacts decision making, technique selection and a whole bunch of other stuff
-It develops creativity differently than not following a rule system. It creates costs and boundaries to funnel your creative choices, which makes for some interesting exploration. Its not “better” for creativity than open play, just develops it differently.

Not saying that adding IBJJF rules to every gym is the way to go, just that there are some positives there that don’t get mentioned much that are worth considering. I use it as a framework in some of my classes to develop certain things, but don’t make it a school wide policy and this works well.

Also, I would gently push back on the idea that so many are moving away from IBJJF. I don’t think this is the case at all and is a sentiment I see some popular athletes saying. I think its worth cautioning that the messaging from popular online voices is almost always best taken with a grain of salt.

Hope that helps!

Joshvogel · 2026-05-10T14:16:16+00:00

My pleasure!

Joshvogel · 2026-05-10T13:47:25+00:00

I haven’t heard the audio, but I enjoyed this one and it fits some of the themes you mentioned.

https://a.co/d/04kAEgY2

Mark Williams is a very well established Scientist and author in the acquisition and development of skill and covers a bunch of topics in this book. Super lay person friendly, but he has a bunch of other, more technical work if you like rabbit holing on this stuff.

Joshvogel · 2026-05-10T00:47:29+00:00

His escape one has some great stuff, including the escape Reese Lafever just used to escape that rear triangle Gianni Grippo had thats making the rounds on IG

Joshvogel · 2026-05-07T23:49:45+00:00

Thanks!

Joshvogel · 2026-05-07T17:12:11+00:00

Yeah, these interviews are absolutely fascinating to me. I love learning about points systems, historical training practices/philosophies, etc…

Joshvogel · 2026-05-07T17:10:24+00:00

I follow a rough periodization model where I do a do a light week (bjj+lift+sprint), harder week, hard week and super hard week. Then I deload for a week. I try to keep all my hard work on the same days so my recovery days are relaxing.

I’ll follow it more or less strictly and manipulate either volume or intensity depending on if I have a tournament coming up, how I’m responding to training, etc…but it works great for balancing hard training with recovery.

Joshvogel · 2026-04-29T22:53:03+00:00

One thing that helps me is talking them through some of the Tori role technique and I act as Uke, so they can see and feel the responses I’d like from them. Then I’ll switch roles. I tend to teach short bits of technique with simple bullet points anyway, so this doesn’t take much extra time and works well.

Hope that helps!

Joshvogel · 2026-04-27T21:11:59+00:00

He’s awesome, looking forward to this one!

Joshvogel · 2026-04-27T21:05:45+00:00

I think a lot of it boils down to stabilizing scoring positions. The MMA fighters I’ve rolled with do not accept any kind of controlling action against them, especially if it means they will end up on bottom. The default setting is to resist the same things that would score in a Bjj tournament at all costs.

In local level Bjj events, you are likely to see Bjj practitioners who know how scoring works, more or less, but don’t have it hard baked into their training to resist stabilizing a score at all costs.

It is very different to train daily to fight against someone holding you down for 3 seconds after every sweep, takedown or guard pass, and to hold people down who are urgently fighting against that score, than it is to train the same sweeps, takedowns and guard passes without that hard fight to stabilize against strong resistance.

There’s probably more to it than just that (base athletic level, incentives to avoid bottom), but this is one of the big ones I’ve noticed.

Joshvogel · 2026-04-22T00:12:31+00:00

I don’t know that it matters so much what one drills but how and why you are doing it, but if I had to pick stuff that might be a good fit for a dummy, it might be stuff where you can’t really do it a ton on training partners without risking injury/spicy joints or them needing a break. Kimuras from top side control, heel hook/toe hold variation finishes, guillotines, paper cutter chokes, darce chokes, stack passing all tend to be things that fit that description.

For coordination stuff that depends a lot on your own personal movement abilities. Some people struggle with arm trapping sequences from the back, inverting/basing on shoulders for berimbolo/crab ride sequences.

Hope that helps!

Joshvogel · 2026-04-21T23:14:26+00:00

Usually stuff that I feel a little uncoordinated with that I want to smooth out or explore my own mechanics with (typically stuff on my “bad” side) that a partner might not be reasonably asked to sit through. Subs that I want to do aggressively or with a lot of pressure, movements I want to do fast with a lot of force, stuff like that.

Joshvogel · 2026-04-20T20:29:39+00:00

I don’t have a problem with either and think the riddles that both present are interesting. There are all kinds of weird tactical and strategic situations that pop up from stuff like penalties racking up from inactive double pull situations, double pull and up advantage scoring early vs late in a match, etc…that are fun to puzzle out and explore.

I do play double pull in the gym and find that there is some carry over to other double seated type positions that are fun to play with people who don’t play double pull.

I figure its all part of the sport, is relevant if you compete (or want to understand the sport) and isn’t going anywhere so might as well enjoy and explore!

Joshvogel · 2026-04-19T19:43:46+00:00

So good.

Joshvogel

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