How to Review Your Rolls After Training

You just finished rolling. Some rounds went well, some didn't. There were moments where something clicked and moments where you got stuck in the same spot you always get stuck in. Right now, while you're still catching your breath, is when you know the most about what happened.

In twenty minutes, the details start to blur. By tomorrow, you'll remember how the session felt but not the specifics. Here's how to capture what matters.

A quick post-rolling review

Pick your most interesting round. You don't need to review every roll. Pick the one where you learned the most, whether that was a round that went really well or one that was frustrating. What was the key moment? What position were you in, what happened, and what decision did you make?

Identify one thing that worked. Maybe you hit a sweep you've been drilling. Maybe your frames were solid and you recovered guard twice. Maybe you stayed calm when you were behind. Name it specifically so you can repeat it.

Identify one thing that broke down. Where did you get stuck or caught? Be honest and specific. "I kept ending up in bottom side control because I'm not addressing the crossface early enough" is something you can work on. "My bottom game is bad" is too vague to act on.

Set one intention for next time. Based on what you noticed, what will you focus on in your next rolling session? Frame it as a plan: "Next time I feel them driving into crossface, I'll frame on the bicep and start working to reguard immediately." This gives you a specific thing to try instead of hoping you'll remember.

Why this works better than just rolling more

Rounds of rolling are where you get experience. The review is where you turn that experience into learning. Without the review, you're accumulating mat time but not necessarily accumulating skill at the same rate. Five minutes of honest reflection after training can be worth more than an extra round of rolling.

Keep it to five minutes

This shouldn't feel like homework. Rate the session, pick one round, write down what worked, what didn't, and what you'll do next time. That's it.

If you want something that structures this review and tracks your patterns across weeks of training, Sherpa is a free app built for exactly this kind of post-training reflection.