Why Your Job Isn’t To Win in Training

miadnajafi
Nov 25
3 min read

by Wayne Tomsett, author of Cheat Codes: The Secret Guide to Winning on the Mats

www.cheatcodesbjj.co.uk

Listen, we all love to win. I know the feeling (and the opposite feeling all too well), but trust me when I tell you that your job isn’t to win in training. In a competitive scenario, the mats are a battlefield. But when it comes to your every day training, the mats are instead a laboratory for development. While the primal urge to "win the round" is strong, and natural, indulging it often leads to stagnation, plateaus, and, ironically, a slower path to your holistic Jiu-Jitsu development. I’m going to illustrate how prioritising winning sabotages your own development using three common scenarios.

Scenario A: The High-Effort Stalemate (Efficiency Drift)

You’re in the middle of a free sparring round with one of your peers. Perhaps a friend of yours. Perhaps a frenemy. You and her or him are locked in a familiar struggle: you fighting desperately to pass the guard, and them fighting desperately to retain it. You’re sweating, tired, and it feels like a great "grind." The round ends with a handshake, satisfied that you both "worked hard."

The problem is that you’ve spent 90% of a valuable training session gaining only marginal improvement in one small, known exchange. This is Efficiency Drift, where you’re becoming marginally better at the one thing you are already decent at, while neglecting the 99% of techniques and positions you need to learn. You maximized effort but minimized the information exchange.

Scenario B: The Overpowered Victory (False Confidence)

You, a bigger, younger, explosive, handsome (probably) blue belt, consistently smash your way past more experienced purple, brown and maybe even some black belt training partners who are significantly lighter, older, or less athletic. You impose your single, dominant game (e.g., a relentless crushing top game to a powerful Americana). You walk off the mat and smile to yourself, smug in the satisfaction of yet another series of training “victories”.

The problem is that instead of developing BJJ skills, you are reinforcing the habit of relying on athleticism over technique. These "wins" grant False Confidence. When you face a truly skilled opponent of similar size and strength, your entire game will crumble because you never played in other positions, learned to play off your back, or developed good timing or technical skill. Relying on size, power, explosivity, and strength is an admittedly powerful shortcut, but one that can ultimately bottleneck your technical development.

Scenario C: The Beginner’s Burden (Learned Helplessness)

A brand-new white belt, perhaps juggling work and family, comes to class eager to learn. They get crushed, spending 90% of their roll time being "ironed out" in mount or side control, repeatedly submitting while having no idea how to escape. They go home defeated.

The problem here is a failure of the training environment. The advanced partners "winning" against the beginner are selfishly prioritizing their ego over the development of a potential future training partner. For the beginner, this creates Learned Helplessness and often leads them to quit. The experienced partner misses the opportunity to work on flow, positional transitions, and controlled submission setups, which are skills far more valuable than holding a new student down.