Articulo del Blog de Rafael Lovato Jr. de su blog
http://www.lovatojr.com/

Today I want to talk a little bit about what kind of mindset you should have with your training. The main idea that I want to stress is "There is no winning or losing in training." Too many times I see people hold themselves back technically, because of their inability to let go of the idea that they have to tap their training partner out every time they train. Dono39;t get me wrong, Io39;m not saying that you shouldno39;t try to catch your partner in a submission, that is the essence of jiu-jitsu, what Io39;m saying is, dono39;t make that all that you are trying to accomplish. If that is the only thing on your mind when you are training, then you are probably not trying new things or opening your game up with certain people, because you dono39;t want to give them the opportunity to do well with you. That sort of mindset could even cause you not to train with some people to begin with because you are too concerned with whether or not you will be able to tap them or you dono39;t want to get tapped out by them.

Forget about all of those things and remember the mat is your laboratory and your training partners are your biggest assets. Remember that tapping is a part of learning and even the best black belts in the world were white belts once. Learn to appreciate having training partners that can tap you out and help make you better. Ask questions and try to understand what they are catching you with or what areas you need to improve on. There is probably someone at your school that is around the same rank, that you go back and forth with and have really good battles with. Never run away from this person or get frustrated when it is their day and not yours. That person in some ways is the most valuable person you have, because they provide the mental challenge you need in your training.

Another point I would like to make is to be sure you are opening your game up and working on different aspects. Io39;m not really talking about changing your game, Io39;m not asking you to play spider guard even though you are a half guard person. What I mean is to play different with different people. For instance, if you have a very good guard and you can sweep everybody and transition straight into a pass, then there are some things you might not be developing. Start inside of someone elseo39;s guard and work your passing more. Go outside of your comfort zone sometimes and play into other peopleo39;s strengths or focus on your weak areas. If you are training with a really good closed guard person, let them close the guard on you sometimes, or if someone has really good passing, try to play open guard on them, etc... This is particularly important whenever you are one of the highest ranking people on the mat. In those scenarios it is pretty easy to hold yourself back and you have to be extra sure you are training properly to insure improvement.

There are many more things I could add when it comes to getting the most out of your training. I have lived in Oklahoma since I started training jiu-jitsu and I never had a resident black belt here to teach me and make sure I was training properly, so I feel that I have a lot of knowledge on this subject. In the future I plan on talking more about this and sharing with you other training strategies that can help tremendously with competition and improving your game.