Is It Possible To Advance By Training With Lower Belts?

This is a good topic because there are many gym owners that don’t have any training partners that are close in skill level. Sadly this is a very common and frustrating circumstance, you can easily become complacent and stop developing your jiu jitsu and continuing to learn and grow your knowledge. It takes a significant amount of discipline to continue to become better at jiu jitsu while only being able to train with people that aren’t as good, when you grapple with your students/training partners it is easy to goof around and do incorrect technique or do things just to see if you can get them to work, but you must battle your own mind and focus on doing correct technique on your students/training partners. A key exercise to help you too continue to grow is visualization, try to visualize your student/training partner as a black belt or a top level competitor and grapple with caution and awareness as if you were rolling with a high level competitor. execute techniques in which you would perform during a competition. If your training partner has a specific position in which they are exceptional, let them get to that position and fight your way out or through the position. Make it as difficult as possible on yourself while training, workout in between rounds of grappling, or speed drill before grappling that way you are already tired. Remember no part of this is easy but if you conquer your mind and discipline yourself you can continue to grow your jiu jitsu and become better regardless of the training partners you have.