At just 19 years old, Jozef Chen has already accomplished more in the grappling world than most will in their entire careers. The brown belt phenom took gold at the prestigious ADCC Trials, but has reportedly opted to parttake in the Craig Jones Invitational instead.
But Chen’s rapid ascension is made even more remarkable by the fact that he started training BJJ only 5 years ago at the tender age of 14.
So how did the Taiwan-born prodigy go from complete novice to elite world-beater in such a short timeframe? In a recent interview, Chen pulled back the curtain on the strategies and approaches that allowed him to speed run his jiu-jitsu progress.
It started with finding the right training environment – an academy in China that encouraged self-directed learning and experimentation. During a podcast appearance a while ago he explained:
“My coach at the time encouraged me to seek out information by myself,” Chen explained. “Not only just relying on him, but also I was in a position where I could research and figure out new things, but then bring it back and discuss with my coach and teammates.”
Chen took full advantage of this permissive learning atmosphere. Instead of just doing what he was shown in class, he voraciously consumed instructional content from the sport’s top players and coaches. But rather than bingeing entire volumes in one sitting, Chen adopted a more strategic approach.
“I tend to not watch them in full blasts…I’ll screen record a lot of the stuff that I want to work on,” Chen said. “Before I go training, I’ll have, like, three, minute-long videos that I’ll go back and refer to.”
He also discovered the value of drilling new techniques against less-skilled training partners before attempting them against elite grapplers. “If I’m not very good at something and I have an idea that I think may work but I’m not completely familiar with it and I try it against someone who is very good, the likelihood is that it’s gonna fail pretty badly.”
Combined with an insatiable curiosity, incredible work ethic, and preternatural grappling ability, these training strategies allowed Chen to cram decades worth of mat experience into just a few short years. The results have been a meteoric rise to the elite ranks of the sport – with likely even bigger things still to come for the talented teenager.
For aspiring grapplers looking to emulate Chen’s wunderkind path, his advice is simple: “Be proactive in your learning, find the right training environment, and never stop working.” Words to live by from one of the brightest young stars in all of grappling.
