The Jiu-Jitu Lab: The Power of Training in Small Groups

A bit of a backstory to the creation of the lab: Last year I quit my full time job to train full-time for a couple months in preparation for transitioning from the National Guard to a the active Army. I was devastated when not only did my conditional release packet get denied by my unit, but I then blew out my knee a month after getting the news. I went from rucking, lifting and training Jiu-Jitsu every day to unemployable and hobbling around on crutches. My biggest enemy became a flight of stairs and I hit one of the lowest points in my life. Looking back on it now though, in a strange way this was possibly one of the best things that ever happened. I went back to college to work on finishing my Bachelors, met my amazing girlfriend, and had one of the most unique years of training Jiu-Jitsu. Another thing that came out of this time was the creation of the Lab, a small group of practitioners that were a pivotal part of my development over the past year.

After a week of moping about from the injury, I drew inspiration from my teammates and dragged myself off the couch and back on the mats. Training became a unique challenge. I couldn't walk or bend my knee and was terrified of injuring my knee further. I figured I had to have surgery anyway though, and decided I'd do what I could while I waited to go under the knife. I started by just watching the technique, then I drilled techniques that I was able to do, then eventually some very light rolling with a select number of very trusted teammates. I was limited to only fighting off of my back which was something that I hated to do at the time. I had loved to aggressively attack from on top, spinning, twisting and knee slicing. In my new predicament I was forced to exclusively train in the one area I tried to avoid. My teammates were incredibly gracious with me and would carefully attack me with a flurry of submissions that I had to work to defend. As I slowly healed, I also slowly became better and defending and working from off of my back. In January I was awarded my Purple Belt and went on to win the IBJJF Atlanta open in my weight class, despite being barely able to walk. I went on to win silver at the Charlotte open and my first "super fight" against a much more experienced opponent. I attribute those competitive successes to my teammates and the work that we put into the lab.


Royce Gracie, Professor Steve Hall and my coach after me our superfight wins.





What was the lab and how did it make such an impact on my training?

The lab was simply a small group of students that came together with the purpose of getting better at Jiu-Jitsu. It started out as an exchange of techniques, but morphed into nothing other than a rolling sessions. We would meet up and start by sharing life updates and swap Jiu-Jitsu stories while we stretched. After that we would blast Latin Hip-Hop and rap music and do nothing but roll. There was several things that we almost inadvertently did that made everyone that joined get significantly better.

No one care about winning. We all just loved rolling and we only rolled to have fun. By taking away the pressure of rolling to win, it allowed everyone to experiment with weird, crazy techniques that often failed and resulted in a lot of laughter. This experimentation is what led to the nickname of the training sessions as the lab.

We trained hard. We would roll for an hour at a minimum and there was no breaks and no sitting on the wall resting. If there was an odd number of people that showed up, the person out would closely study the matches and would be chomping at the bit to jump back in on their turn. This non-stop sparring dramatically improved my stamina. Jiu-Jitsu was the only form of cardio that I could do at the time and these sessions kept me in shape while I recovered.

Our games were forced to evolve. Constantly training with the same training partners meant that we quickly learned each others game's inside and out. Our favorite, go-to moves stopped being effective and required us to try new things.


My new work schedule no longer allows me to participate in the lab training, and I greatly miss the good times and training the we had there. I'm excited to have found a new place on my recent travels to participate in a lab here. Today I met up with two of the school's blue belts and we immediately put a timer on and non-stop rolled for 2 hours. I'm excited to see what the outcome will be from my new training partners out here!