The Question I Couldn’t Shake

That moment stuck with me. It pointed at something I’d been pondering since the day I started training BJJ: how do I actually get better at this faster?

I was showing up to class consistently. That part was simple enough.

But I was searching for something else I could do to speed up my progress and stop forgetting what I learned.

Like a lot of hobbyists, I started buying instructionals. They were great for picking up new moves beyond what I learned in class.

My library of techniques grew. But my problem didn’t get solved.

I could watch a technique fifty times and still blank on it when it mattered: live with a resisting partner.

Specific Training: The Methodology That Changed How I Train BJJ

Then, as a blue belt, I watched Gordon Ryan’s The Sport of Kings instructional. It’s about how a world champion thinks about training: the mental and strategic side. And it was more useful to me than any technique instructional I’d bought.

One method grabbed me and didn’t let go: specific training.

The concept is simple. You go into your rolls hunting one specific move. You keep going for it, round after round, until you’ve hit it in live reps so many times you own it. It’s part of your game. Your brain and body remember it. No more blanking during live rolls.

So I tested it. I picked the kipping escape from bottom mount. Mount was a position I’d been getting flattened in for 2 years as a white belt and early blue belt. Every round, that was my one job: escape the mount using the kipping escape.

A few weeks in, I escaped my instructor’s mount. Then I did it again. And again. This is Ritchie, my black belt coach: the guy who’d been pinning me at will since I first tied a white belt around my gi.

One day, right after a roll, huffing and puffing from trying to hold me down, he looked at me and said:

“You’re a monster. You’ve got the best mount escapes in the gym.”

Two years of getting smashed. A few weeks of specific training. That’s when it clicked how powerful this training concept was.

It Wasn’t Just Me Who Had This Problem

Around then I started teaching the intro classes for new students. They’d always ask the same thing: what should I work on?

So I’d give them one move. Just one to go for in their rolls.

And it worked for them too. I’d watch them land the exact move I’d taught them. Sometimes they’d even hit it on me.

My favorite: I taught a blue belt the same kipping escape I’d drilled. He worked it. Then one day I had him in bottom mount — the same spot Ritchie would put me in — and he kipped right out and escaped. Using my move.

I’d gone from 1-stripe blue belt getting smashed to the 4-stripe blue belt teaching the escape.

The Part That Nobody Tells BJJ Hobbyists

Here’s where it got complicated. To keep specific training working, you have to keep track of it: what you’re working on, how it’s going, what’s next. The standard advice is: journal. Keep a training log.

And I tried. But journaling about a hobby, every single session, turned into a chore.

After class I’m wiped. I want to relax, not sit down and do homework. I’ve got a full-time job, a girlfriend, a social life, other hobbies.

I love BJJ, but I can’t pour unlimited mental energy into it on top of everything else.

Short bursts of journaling? Doable.

Every session, forever? Boring.

So I’d fall off.

And every time I fell off, my progress slowed. Hard.

Mid-way through blue belt I hit what a lot of you will recognize as the blue belt blues. I was still showing up, but the effort wasn’t translating.

Throw in a couple of injuries, and I started quietly wondering if BJJ was even for me…and if I’d ever feel like I’d deserve my purple belt.

The wild part? I already knew the cure. Specific training worked. I had my coach calling me a monster to prove it.

I just couldn’t sustain it, because the system for staying consistent felt like a second job.

So I Created The BJJ App I Needed: BJJ Missions

By the time I got my brown belt, I had an idea.

What if I stopped trying to force myself to journal, and instead made specific training fun?

Because here’s the thing: BJJ, for us hobbyists, is a game. We do it because we love it.

So why does getting better have to feel like homework?

What if there were something that helped you learn new moves, get better faster, and train with intention — without the chore?

That’s BJJ Missions.

It’s dead simple. You open the app and get a mission: one technique to hunt. Take the Move of the Day, or pick your own move if you’re working something specific from an instructional.

You take it into live rolling and log every rep you land. Hit it ten times, and the mission’s complete.

Ten reps is achievable, and it’s enough to start burning the move into your memory. After that, it’s not just something you “know” — it’s part of your game.

Notes are optional: there if you want them, never nagging you if you don’t.

90% Of Your BJJ Progress Is On You (Not Your Coach)

I’ve come to believe that maybe 10% of your progress in BJJ comes from your coach.

The other 90% is on you.

BJJ Missions is built to help you own that 90%.

Give it two weeks and you’ll feel the shift. You’ll have your first move locked in, and you’ll feel the difference between training with a target and training on autopilot.

Give it a few months, and it compounds. You’ll add move after move to your game. Concepts and techniques start connecting in a way they didn’t before. You’ll go from fumbling a move to pulling it off when it counts. Your coaches and training partners will notice.

And — this is the part I didn’t see coming — you’ll have way more fun training with a purpose than rolling around mindlessly.

Why? Because progress feels good.

I didn’t build this to just sell an app. I built it because I needed it. I want to keep training fun and novel for myself. I’d like to train well into my 70s. And BJJ Missions is something I’ll use every day I train.

Give BJJ Missions A Try

Right now BJJ Missions is in beta.

I’m letting the first 100 people in at a founding price of $4.99 (it goes to $9.99 after that), and beta members lock in every future update, free for life.

If you’ve ever drilled a move perfectly and then blanked on it a week later — if you’ve felt the blue belt blues, or you just want training to feel like a fun game again — this is for you.

You can join in on the beta of BJJ Missions here.

The BJJ journey is hard enough on its own.

I built this to make yours a little easier, a little more fun, and a lot more deliberate.

See you on the mats. 🤙

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Tsavo Neal

Tsavo is the founder of BJJ Equipment, author of BJJ For Beginners, creator of the BJJ Missions app, and a brown belt instructor at InFighting. He launched BJJ Equipment to help grapplers at every belt level train smarter, make faster progress, and find the best gear for their game.