Is 30% Good Enough?

In most things in life, if you have a 30% success rate, you're most likely failing at it. Well, in jiu jitsu you're supposed to be failing. And if that doesn’t make sense, stick with me and it will.

You've probably had times during your training, either very early on, near or around your blue belt, or even in those coveted upper belt colors, that it feels like you’re not really getting better - and the moves you’re trying aren’t working during sparring.

I’ll use a baseball analogy to explain why, even though I don’t follow baseball - and to be honest, I don’t even like it that much. But for whatever reason, it might be the best comparison to jiu jitsu, and I don’t think there’s much debate there. Let me sell you on it.

At a professional level, a great batting average is .300 or a little bit better. That's only 30 percent! In fact, during my extensive research (I Googled for a few quick moments), on a professional level no one has gotten .400 or better for a season.

That means that even the best hitters in the world, on average, are only hitting 3 to 4 out of 10 attempts. They’re “failing” most of the time - and they’re still considered elite.

We could go deep into other ways baseball and jiu jitsu are basically the same, but let’s just assume I’m right, because I can go deep, but this is neither the time or place.

Now where was I?

Jiu jitsu works in a similar way to batting averages, and honestly, you don’t even have to be elite to fail as much as professional batters.

Most of the time, especially early on, things aren’t going to work out for you. You’re not going to hit every technique. You’re not going to win every round. Let's be honest, early on, you’ll be lucky to escape a sparring round with your ego intact.

You're like a Little League batter facing a high school pitcher. You might get lucky and connect with a pitch every now and again, but you'll be as surprised as anyone else that you did. If you cleanly hit your technique 1 out of 10 times against someone actively trying to stop you, it would be pretty significant. In reality, until you start consistently practicing a move - finding the right time to use it and apply the nuanced adjustments you've discovered work best for you, you might not even get too many chances to hit your technique at all during a sparring round. As you progress let's say you only average 1 or 2 successful attempts in a week, if you can work your way up to 3 to 4 successes in a week of sparring you could hitting .300 or better.

The goal when learning jiu jitsu isn’t to get everything right all at once. Jiu jitsu is far too complex for that. The goal is to start recognizing positions, find small moments where things do work, then figure out how to replicate them.

Over time, all of those small moments add up. You might start out only hitting 3% of what you try - and that’s normal. If you stay consistent and keep trying to hit your technique you might find yourself eventually getting to 10% and then to the elite, professional level of 30% or better.

Imagine a .300 hitter being discouraged because they’re “failing” most of the time. That wouldn't make much sense. Failing in this sport doesn't mean you're not getting any better - even though it might feel like it. Failing might be exactly what you're supposed to be doing.

See you all on the mat this week.