Ok this post is kind of cheeky, but at the same time it’s a question I ask myself as a teacher and asked myself as a student a lot. I rarely took one 2 one classes, if I did it was usually to solve an issue I was stuck on, like how to get half guard working or how to sweep people better in my guard.
Group classes are great, you learn a technique and try it out on your friends you get to spar loads (everyone loves to spar :) ). Then there comes a point where your favourite technique seems to stop working and you run out of places to go, you get stuck under that same guy over and over again and you want to figure out this specific puzzle so you can move on and do other techniques and not repeat the same boring cycle. Lets look at FILL NUMBER reasons to do one 2 one classes with an instructor
You want to fix a part of your game.
Lets say you want to sweep better or improve your escaping, you know what to do but it doesn’t seem to be working. This is a great time to do a one 2 one private class and pick your instructors brain on why it’s going wrong, the instructor can talk you through which techniques to use when and get your timing right, it also might be a matter of combining techniques. Your instructor can help you with all this, and give you techniques and ideas on how to pull off that sweep and have other options for when it doesn’t work.
`The most common questions we get are:
How do I improve my escapes?
How do I keep people from passing my guard?
How do I sweep someone?
If there is a part of your game you think needs fixing, one 2 ones can help.
You want to add whole new techniques or change your game
You want to change your whole game and add a whole new arsenal of techniques top your repertoire. Maybe you want to add leg attacks to your nogi game, or you are a guard player and you want to learn to play more of a top game.
You want a game plan for competition
Your competition game will be different from how you train in class, you will have set pieces that you use in competition from how you start to strategies for timing during the match and techniques you go for to prevent points being taken against you and points you could make as you compete, so that if you don’t get the submission you still win.
You can go over worst case scenarios and learn tricks for getting out of situations such as when your opponent stalls.
You just want to spar with someone at that level
This is another benefit, it’s good to feel for a longer period how it feels to spar with someone at this level. You might not get to spar that much with a higher level opponent and this gives you the opportunity to see how that feels and what your goal is.
You just want to progress faster
If your goal is to improve at a quick pace and you don’t have time to attend all the classes, then private sessions are a good hack for this, you can learn the techniques that work and skip the bad habits you can develop in regular sparring.
They are worth it :)
They are great, what are you waiting for! Go book one now hahah, but seriously if you want to get better at BJJ they are an easy way to turbo boost your game.
If you can’t afford them, don’t worry. At Wave our instructors are here to help, you are free to ask them to roll, and if you see them at an open mat you can ask them for advice there too.
Whatever your goals we can help you achieve them, if you have a question now just ask :)