Short term goals/long term goals: goal setting is among the single most important elements of making progress in any activity- jiu jitsu is no exception. It's important that we distinguish between our short term, medium term and long term goals. You can set your own time parameters on these. I usually work in one month (usually the minimum time required to make concrete and measurable differences in performance), three-six month (you can realistically bring in an entirely new and important skill in this time), one year (you can radically change your game in this time frame) and five years (you can completely reinvent yourself or start from scratch and attain an extremely good level in this time) time intervals and base my goal setting around these – you can choose your own. The important thing is that you run these distinct goals concurrently and coherently. Don't choose goals that obviously conflict with each other and don't focus on one time frame to the total exclusion of others. An athlete who has greatly impressed me with realistic and purposeful goal setting across different time parameters is outstanding Australian grappler, Craig Jones. He came here several months ago with short terms goals of match preparation and improvements in back and mount performance, both offense and defense. Training twice a day every day with the squad he did exactly that. What a great example of coming in with a goal and working hard within a plan to get it done. He leaves today to compete and travel – returning late November for more training and development on long term plans for next year! You can all take inspiration from this young mans example – divide your goals by time and make plans as to how you can realistically reach those goals – then demonstrate to yourself and your team mates that you have what it takes to stay the course and get it done. We will miss this fellow down on the basement – great training, Craig – see you in November!
