10 Ways to Improve Your BJJ Training in 2026
We don't need a special day on the calendar to get off the couch and hit the mats — but every so often I catch myself just going through the motions, putting in time rather than getting better.…
With Sally Arsenault
We don't need a special day on the calendar to get off the couch and hit the mats — but every so often I catch myself just going through the motions, putting in time rather than getting better. There's a big difference between the weeks I'm dragging myself to class and the weeks I'm genuinely chasing something. So here, refreshed for 2026, are ten ways to stay motivated and get the most out of your training.
1. Figure out what's actually important to you. It's easy to chase goals other people set for you — your coach's competition schedule, the teammate who's grading soon, the highlight reel you scrolled past last night. It's just as easy to quit when you're running toward something you never really wanted. Decide what your goals would be in the absence of anyone else's expectations, then work backward to what you'd have to do to get there. Everything else on this list is downstream of that one honest conversation with yourself.
2. Attack the techniques you keep getting… almost. If you're forever one detail short of finishing that submission, stop hoping it'll fix itself. Find someone who's genuinely good at it and ask. We're spoiled for resources now — a focused instructional from the people who've built their whole game around that position, a YouTube breakdown, or, best of all, ten minutes with the teammate who taps everyone with it. Targeted study beats grinding the same mistake on repeat.
3. Improve your strength and conditioning. If your game falls apart because you're gassed, it's not your guard that's failing — it's your tank. Add some strength and conditioning, or just roll more rounds. The people who don't get tired are the ones rolling every round, and the ones rolling every round are the ones who don't get tired. It's a loop you have to buy your way into.
4. Sort out your nutrition and recovery. Nothing on your phone will make you feel as good as eating like an athlete and getting your sleep. I noticed a real jump in how I trained once I stopped outsourcing my meals to whatever was convenient. Figure out what fuels you before training and what helps you recover after, and build a couple of repeatable habits around it.
5. Sleep. Still the most underrated performance enhancer there is, and still free. Force yourself to bed in time for eight hours. Your reflexes, your recovery, your mood on the mat — all of it runs on sleep. Get a decent mattress, kill the light sources, put the phone in another room. The doom-scroll will survive without you.
6. Roll with a real variety of partners. More technical partners expose the holes in your game and sharpen your defense. Less experienced partners give you space to develop your weaker positions. The big strong ones teach you timing and frames; the small squirmy ones teach you positioning and patience. A steady diet of only one type makes you good at exactly one thing.
7. Read — and not just BJJ. How do high-level athletes get into flow, manage nerves, bounce back from a loss? A bit of reading on focus, habit, and emotional control does more for your competition game than another fifty Instagram technique clips. Understanding yourself and the people around you lowers your stress and keeps everything in perspective when the pressure's on.
8. Sign up for a competition. Whether it's a local in-house tournament or a trip to a big IBJJF or submission-only event, nothing focuses your training like a date on the calendar. Get your matches filmed — win or lose, the footage tells you exactly what to work on next, and it's never as bad (or as good) as it felt at the time.
9. Watch other people roll. Study the athletes pushing the art forward right now — watch how Mikey Musumeci hunts the leg, how the Ruotolo brothers chain attacks at a hundred miles an hour, how Ffion Davies pressures from the top. Pick the pieces you can realistically fold into your own game. We get so used to our own room that we develop tunnel vision; watching the best is how you break out of it.
10. Help someone else. A while back I spent weeks helping a teammate drill armbar defense for a competition. All that spinning up into the armbar from the wrong side came in handy at my next tournament — I caught two by armbar. It's not always about you, but funny enough, even when it isn't, it kind of still is. Teaching forces you to actually understand the thing.
Hopefully there's at least one thing on here you weren't already doing — and if there isn't, that means you're already on the right track. Whatever 2026 looks like for you, I'll see you on the mats.
Originally published in Jiu Jitsu Style by Sally Arsenault. Refreshed for 2026.