They can't all be diamonds: When I was beginning Jiu jitsu one of my most important mentors and training partners was future ufc and IBJJF world champion Matt Serra. Like any beginning student I was always chasing maximum progress in minimum time. There were a few days I would leave the gym ecstatic with the progress I felt I was making and the knowledge I was gaining; but there were many more days I'd leave thinking I'd gotten no better, possibly slightly worse, and that I'd never catch up to the advanced students. Whenever I would have days like this I would vent to Matt and he'd look at me and say, “Hey man, they can't all be diamonds!” It would always raise a smile on my face because I knew even then it was true. Progress in Jiu jitsu isn't linear. It tends to happen in short spurts where some critical insight is gained that boosts your performance. In between these short periods of significant progress there are typically long periods of very little, even no discernible progress and occasionally regression (particularly when you're trying a lot of new moves and concepts). DON'T WORRY – this is the normal state of affairs. Just stay in the game and be sure that the progress will come. Be assured that progress in Jiu jitsu looks a lot like a graph of the stock market over time – lots of chaos in the short term with many big dips and rises but a noticeable overall upward momentum when longer time periods are used to assess it. Remember always that the only thing that definitely WILL stop your progress is stopping training.
