by Michael Plank
A few years ago, I started Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. I spent over a decade through high school, college, and afterward doing Judo, which is a close cousin to jiu-jitsu, so I figured I’d pick things up quickly. The one thing I didn’t factor in was how far away my jiu-jitsu school is from my house. There are lots of places to train, but I always tell people that you have to find the best fit. The best fit for me, unfortunately, is 30 minutes away. I also have 2 kids, and a spouse, and a business, and a life outside of training, which means realistically, I can usually only go once a week.
Once a week is the perfect training frequency to learn new skills, and then forget 98% of them before your next session. So I still progressed, but only 2% at a time, which is very, very, very slow.
Until one day when I was the only student. The instructor worked with me for an hour, 1-on-1. The same thing happened the next week. And the next. And the next. And I learned more and improved more in that month than in the previous year and a half. And what’s more, that stuff that I learned 2 years ago in those 1-on-1s, I retained so that I still know it now.
The point is this: general training with a group is great. I still do it for my classes every week. It’s super fun and has a lot of advantages over 1-on-1 training. Group training is the core of what we do at Underwood Park CrossFit. It’s how we build community and keep people coming back. After all, the best workout is the one you do.
But, if your progress isn’t as fast as you want it to be, whether with CrossFit or jiu-jitsu or business, or anything at all… go get some 1-on-1 help. Even if it’s just a few sessions. It makes all the difference in the world.