How to Get Better When You Can't Train Often

About a week ago, I got an email from a blog reader who asked for some advice. The reader (a Pinoy) is living abroad and working at an investment bank. As any banker knows, that line of work is time consuming and leaves little spare time to train. He was seeking my opinion on how to approach his training and "get good" with the limited training time that he has. I've had more time to think about his question, and below is the answer I gave to him with additional thoughts I've come up with since I was originally asked.

We've all been in similar situations. If you work, projects and deadlines take priority, and if you're in school, training time might need to be replaced with studying time. In the Philippines, it's not out of the ordinary to hear students complain about missing training because of traffic, too. Training time can be severely limited if or when we get injured.

So what can be done? If your training time is limited, let's say you only training once or twice a week, what's the best way to progress in BJJ, MMA or Muay Thai. First, I think that a person should really focus on technique and timing. If you're only training a couple times a week and have no time for exercise or training, it's unlikely that you can build the endurance and conditioning required to hang with your school's "top dogs." When you train with your team members, they may always get the best of you because you gas early. This is simply something you have to accept. Think of it this way, they are only beating you because they have the luxury of training more. However, you can become very technical by focusing on the many variations and details to different positions and moves. You can also develop good timing, again by focusing on technique, while you spar at 25%-50% intensity with a partner. It's easier to build your cardio than it is to learn the details of many different fighting arts. As long as you focus on technique, you'll be able to catch up to your peers by training your cardio when you have more time.

Second, if you want to get good at BJJ, MMA, or whatever fighting art you're concerned about, then make sure you focus only on that art. You only have a limited amount of time to train, so focus on what you want to improve. I notice it many times in the Philippines. For example, some people want to get good at Muay Thai, but they spend a lot of their time doing BJJ. With limited training time, it's very important to "master" one area before moving on to something else. Essentially, if you want to "get good" at a martial art, make sure you are training that martial art.

Now I'm not saying that rapid progress can be made training only 1-2 times a week. It's just a fact of life--if you want to get good at something fast, you have to make sacrifices and focus a lot of time and effort to one particular activity. But, progress can be made even if your training time is limited. Just remember to make technique and timing your priority, and focus on the art you want to improve at.

Tags: training, limited, time, mma, bjj