“You essentially become a faster learner to the point where you can be learning during live rolls,” Dale explains in Partizan podcast appearance. “Instead of having to go back or study tape and think about it, you can be rolling with them and come up with solutions in the moment or in competition because it just becomes second nature to you.”
This approach stands in stark contrast to conventional BJJ training, where students typically encounter a problem, seek advice from their coach, and drill specific techniques to address the issue. Dale believes this creates dependency and stunts growth.
“They’re relying on a coach just like doing mathematics and relying on the back of the textbook. You’re not going to get better,” he argues.
Dale‘s journey began with frustration at traditional training methods. While his peers were meticulously drilling techniques, he found himself bored and uninspired. His solution? Skip technique classes altogether.
“I would just come in late. I’d come in late and if I was there and they were still doing techniques, I’d jump on my phone,” he recalls with a laugh.
Instead of repetitive drilling, Dale focused exclusively on live training, where he could encounter genuine problems and develop his problem-solving abilities in real time. He approached each training session strategically, identifying opponents’ strengths and deliberately putting himself in challenging positions to maximize learning.
“What I do is I’ll find out very quickly where they’re really strong and try and figure their strongest part out,” he explains.
This methodology turned Dale into his own best coach. Rather than relying on others for solutions, he developed an acute ability to diagnose his own weaknesses and create solutions on the fly.
“I became very good at solving problems. I became very good at self-diagnosing my own problems and teaching myself,” he says. “I found very little interest in learning how to do it from others. This is the fun part for me—figuring these things out myself.”
Dale believes this self-reliance creates an empowering feedback loop: the more you solve problems yourself, the better you become at solving problems in general. This skill transcends the mats.
“If you’ve got, you’re stuck in any situation where you have to get other people to help you, it’s a really debilitating feeling and position. If you know that no matter what position in life you’re in, I can figure this out, it’s really empowering and you feel so much happier and better about yourself.”
For those who want to train like Dale, he recommends a simple approach: replace drilling with task-based games that force you to problem-solve specific positions and transitions. When teaching beginners, he starts with warm-up games that develop fundamental skills like grip fighting, then progresses to compartmentalized games that isolate specific problems.
While Dale doesn’t dismiss techniques entirely—he sees value in learning techniques for inspiration—he emphasizes understanding the “why” behind techniques rather than merely copying the “how.” This allows practitioners to adapt techniques to different situations rather than relying on muscle memory for specific movements.
Despite his unconventional methods, Dale‘s results speak for themselves. Beyond earning his black belt in record time, he’s competed successfully at the world level while training significantly less than his competitors.
“Even when I was competing at the World Championships, after 2014, whenever I competed, I was traveling the world, training once a week, and then competing,” he reveals.
By trusting his ability to solve problems in real time and refusing to rely on others for answers, Kit Dale hasn’t just revolutionized his own Jiu-Jitsu journey—he’s offered_
