Overtraining in Jiu Jitsu is a real serious condition that many instructors and students don’t talk about.
I can’t name too many sports were the norm is be in a constant state of over training as much as the sport/art of Jiu Jitsu
In fact, this ideal of needing to train twice a day or more has been blown out of proportion.
Some of the best guys in the world may be able to follow this type of training regiment but they often only have to worry about training and not normal stuff like having to work and the elite guys will often taking extra substances that allow them to train this way.
It took years of forcing myself to train multiple times a day to understand that I was in fact training too much.
Focus on the quality of your training rather than just the quantity.
For instance, now whenever I train. I never train just for trainings sake. I always go into training with a specific purpose of making progress on a position or my understanding of a technique.
Progress becomes the measure of my training and not how much time I spent rolling and repeating the same movements over and over.
When you first start training, the more mat time the better. You are always making skill gains whenever you show up because you are learning something new and integrating it right then.
But as your skill rises, the law of diminishing returns rears it’s head and just showing up isn’t enough.
Just rolling won’t be enough to grow your skills.
Mindlessly grinding won’t yield results.
Of course if you are prepping for a major tournament you need to push hard.
Ramping up your training 8-12 weeks in advance of your tournanment pursuit.
However, to maintain this year round with no off season is down right illogical and can actually hurt your athletic performance.
There are some other reasons students tend to over train but I won’t delve to deep into them because this post is starting to get too preachy.
My advice is to listen to your body.
If you’re constantly sore, always feel sick, losing weight, losing sleep, or overall not enjoying training.
Take a day or two off. Hell, maybe even a week or two if you feel particularly run down.
Renew your self and come back healthier, stronger, and more energized.
Your training will be a lot better.