Welcome back!

I have some advice for you about your new year’s resolutions. I actually got this from a Yoga instructor.

Now I was doing Yoga at home in my living room so don’t go thinking I’m some sort of expert. I like Yoga, it’s great for the joints and I really feel that when I do it consistently, I feel better on the Jiu Jitsu mat. I also don’t do it consistently enough, so take from that what you will.

But anyway, in one period I was following an excellent teacher online, and she would sit down and ask you to take some breaths and then “set your intention for the practice”. Now when I heard that, I went “Huh?” and assumed she meant something like “Find inner peace” or “Seek the truth” or some hippy thing. She was barking up the wrong tree with this guy!

But one day I got it. She said “Set your intention” and I thought to myself, “I want to ease tension in my back”. And voila! I focused mostly on my back as I did the session, and was conscious of the movements that helped it the most. I moved “intentionally”. It worked.

It worked so well, I brought it to my Jiu Jitsu training. In each session, I would set my intention. “Today, I want to work on my defence”. Once I did that, I could say that I had a good session based on whether I defended well or not and would have something to work on for the next session if I defended badly.

Now, I even break it into shorter chunks, like individual rounds, or even individual short bursts, like in positional work. “This next guy has a good spider guard, I will let him get to it, and see if I can free myself from it using the techniques I’ve been working on”.

I know from 20+ years of coaching that people’s resolutions are a mixed bag. “run the marathon”, “Eat less crisps”, “Walk up a mountain once a week”. But in terms of Jiu Jitsu, I have noticed that the best ones are small and achievable.

Train consistently 3 times per week, for 4 weeks.

Lose 3kgs in bodyfat by March.

Register and compete my first tournament by February.

Intentional, and short term. That’s the way to do it.

I look forward to helping you achieve yours in 2026!

See you on the mat,

Barry