Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioner Vagner Rocha has cultivated a reputation as one of the sport’s most popular competitors. He thinks deeply about optimal training methods to continuously improve his skills.
Many recreational BJJ practitioners fall into the habit of simply “showing up and sparring” without much structure behind their training.
Rocha explains in a recent podcast appearance: “That’s what happens in Jitsu. A lot of guys just stay tough. They don’t get good, they get stay tough.”
“I think most Jiu-Jitsu guys don’t have that mindset. You know, they don’t have that thoughts, they don’t have the skill sets. They don’t… Think about it. How do most Jiu-Jitsu instructors become Jiu-Jitsu instructors?”
“They stick around long enough,” the host replies.
“They become the tough guy in the room… They got three or four good moves that they have and then do some studying on the side. And then their ascensions of teaching jiujitsu and teaching classes are what, show up, warm up, do some drills, get some rolls, go home. That’s a class.”
Rocha contends that while toughness can be developed by consistently showing up and enduring losses, true skill development requires isolating specific positions and techniques for focused drilling.
He said: “You can build toughness and skill sets at the same time. But you can’t build skill set if you’re not training to build skill set, right? You can build toughness. Toughness is easy. All you got to do is just keep taking taking those L’s in the gym, you know what I mean? Keep showing up.”
Many BJJ contenders just stay tough but don’t get good. Rocha tries to isolate his training and focus on improving specific positions and techniques.
It’s crucial to isolate certain techniques and positions to deeply drill and develop, not just aimlessly spar every session. Sparring does develop mental and physical toughness, as Rocha notes.
“It’s cool to show up and just spar every day but like how are we getting better? Like how am I getting better? So at for a while I just kept to myself and I just let everybody do what they were doing. And I was doing my own little thing . And I would always like kind of one of the things that kind of really blew my mind was when I got invited to fight in the EBI and I knew that if I went into overtime I had to do these specific starts.”
Rocha shares a pivotal moment in his career when participating in the EBI. Understanding the importance of specific starts, he realized the necessity of excelling in particular positions, leading to his mastery of the armbar and effective escapes.
He continues: “I knew that if I had to start in either one of those two positions I had to be really good there like I had to know that I could escape and I could submit people there you know. And that was the the key that I was like ‘oh huh’ and I got really good at armbar, I got really good at escaping.”
Rocha thinks you can build toughness and skill sets at the same time. Toughness comes from keeping showing up and taking losses. Skill comes from isolating your training. But technical growth and refinement comes from focused, structured drilling. So while some hard sparring should be integrated into one’s training, it shouldn’t be the only training mode.
“I’ve been focused on that aspect of my training that I’m taking my Jiu-Jitsu career. And that’s one of the reasons why I’m continuously doing well and I’m here you know at my age still representing and doing the things that I’m doing. I’m taking my training to this level that I am committed to going all right there’s little pockets that I need to we need to get better in you know.”
“And everybody needs to get better and the training revolves around getting better, not just being tough you know. And you’ll see, you know like you said it’s tough, it’s tougher than actually having a fight, you know what I mean? And if we can understand what you’re supposed to do, you know and and understand how you’re supposed to train, you could take a guy in three years and bring him to the you know to the best events in the world and he’ll get in. You know what I mean. He’ll be one of the guys you know. Its just just a matter of doing the right things.”
Rocha is accustomed to training with larger partners, and challenges the norm in BJJ training. He encourages practitioners to engage with bigger partners as a means of overcoming challenges and evolving as athletes.
His cerebral approach to BJJ revolves around the delicate balance of focused technical development and pressure-testing through managed sparring. The key is to avoid the pitfalls of aimless sparring, ingrain intentional training habits, and be strategic in managing variables for optimal results.
