One of the most useful tools in your BJJ training toolbox is positional rolling. But how much of it should you do per training session?
Should you do it, for example, for 20 minutes after drilling? Or for the full duration of your sparring time?Well, Andrew Wiltse has a unique insight into how you should approach this question.
Here is what he had to say in a recent Reddit thread:
Your goal is to get better at BJJ. You have various tools to get better at BJJ at your disposal, like no resistance drilling, resistance drilling,
Positional sparring, live rounds, and any other way of participating in the sport of BJJ that you can think of.I want you to try to think about what this tool, positional sparring, is best at doing.
Wiltse continues:
Positional sparring with resistance is the kind of thing you want to do when you have an escape or defense in mind and you want to try to kind of “proof of concept” it by trying it out.Or you’re already okay at it and you’re trying to get better by looking for small details or trying new variations.
It’s not like you should think about it like: “I should roll X amount of time and I should drill X amount of time…”
I want you to instead think about what things you’re working on in your head and in your game and how can you best advance those skills with the tools that you have.
But what should you use positional rolling for?Wiltse explains:
Positional sparring is exceptional at helping you create and solidify systems. And it sounds like you’re just…Getting better at BJJ haha.
That’s how its done. You learn more, you implement it, you win.
When I said that positional sparring is great for some things, that doesn’t mean its even slightly limited to the things that I listed.
It really just takes some thought to figure out what it is you want to work on and decide whether you can do so in a positional sparring context.It’s a case by case basis thing if you do it right.
