Now before we begin, I have to say that I dislike the title of this blog. To me, it's grammatically incorrect. I can almost hear my Dad saying "You mean training with intent." Yes, that's what I actually mean, but the "intention" part is a little bit of coach speak. It's like when you hear people say "We'll take on the learnings from this match", at which point I scream at the TV "You mean you'll take on the LESSONS!"

So forgive me the poetic license.

Let's ask a quick question before we start reading- Do you want to have a good session, or do you want to have good training?

Because in my experience, when people tell me they've had a good session, they usually follow it up with a list of their successes. "I caught this armbar, I took this guy's back I swept this guy", and so on.

And when I talk to experienced guys and they say that they'd had good training, usually what they mean is that the session was challenging. Not easy to score. In tough positions a lot. Physically and mentally taxing.

I don't know if you experience that a lot, but when you do, it's exhilarating and exhausting, and you walk out feeling mentally stimulated.

A few years ago I set myself the goal of becoming more mobile, and fixing some tightnesses to prolong my career. I settled on Yoga, and found a great online teacher. At the beginning of every session she said Namaste, and then said some hippy-dippy stuff and then "now set your intention for the practice."

Pah! I'd think! Hippy crap! I just want to release my hips! And then I thought, "Wait, maybe that's what she means?" And lo and behold, when I set my intention, I paid more attention. I didn't just cruise through, I placed more emphasis on the parts that I knew would help my hips.

In Jiu Jitsu, particularly as you advance up the levels, you need to do this for yourself. There is a tendency to cruise through sparring and drills, and to fall back on things that you know you can do rather than challenging yourself to do new things. Setting your intention before your session, and then breaking that intent down further into the macro elements of the session- like rounds or drills- can help you develop technically.

Let's take an example. If I'm struggling with escaping from the mounted position, and I'm about to spar, I can start the session in two ways. First, I can say "Well, let's not get mounted today", which is fine. No one likes to be under the mount. But I'd wager that's everyone's default position. I'd set that intention if I was finding that people were able to progress to mount too easily on me.

But for the specific goal of improving mount escapes, the only way to do that is to be in that position. In open sparring (as opposed to open mat or drilling specifics), this means swallowing some humble pie, and letting your training partners take that position on you. It's not very easy. But it's effective.

And once again we have to ask- Do you want to have a good session, or good training?

A good session will send you home with a smile. And good training might send you home frowning, thinking of ways to do it better next time.

One isn't better or worse than the other, they both have their place in your training week. But don't always look for the smiles!

See you on the mat,

Barry