What to Do Between BJJ Competitions

The weeks between competitions are where most of your improvement actually happens. But a lot of BJJ athletes treat this time as "just train until the next one" without much structure. You go to class, you roll, you hope things come together on competition day.

There's a better way to use that time.

Debrief your last competition first

Before you plan forward, look back. Within a day or two of competing, write down what happened. Where did you get stuck? What worked? What position or situation kept giving you problems? Be specific. "I lost on points because I couldn't maintain top position in the last minute" gives you something to work on. "I need to get better" doesn't.

If you won, the debrief matters just as much. What went well that you want to repeat? Were there moments where you got lucky or your opponent made a mistake that bailed you out? Wins hide weaknesses if you don't look closely.

Pick 2-3 focus areas for the training block

Based on your debrief, choose a small number of things to work on before the next competition. Maybe it's guard retention, maybe it's finishing from top position, maybe it's your cardio in the last two minutes of a match. Whatever it is, make it specific enough that you can focus on it during rolling and track whether it's improving.

Don't try to fix everything at once. Two or three focused areas over four to six weeks will do more for your competition performance than vaguely trying to "get better at everything."

Use training sessions to test your fixes

Once you have your focus areas, bring them into your rolling. If you're working on guard retention, put yourself in bad positions on purpose and practice recovering. If you're working on top pressure, start every round in top position and focus on maintaining it. Training between competitions should feel like practice for specific situations, not just open sparring.

Review progress weekly

Every week, take five minutes to check in. Are you seeing improvement in your focus areas? Are new problems showing up that need attention? This weekly review is how you adjust your training plan based on real data from the mat rather than just feel.

Build the habit now

You can track all of this in a notebook. If you want something that structures your post-competition reflections and your training journal in one place, Sherpa is a free app built for that kind of structured athlete reflection.