Some instructors believe strongly in goal setting. They believe you should think about what you want to accomplish, then you should go out and accomplish it.
But there are exceptions, and one of these exceptions is 2nd-degree BJJ black belt Nick “Chewy” Albin.
In his latest video, Professor Albin warns about the dangers of setting expectations for yourself.
“In Brazilian jiu-jitsu, there is no linear step, by step, by step progression,” Albin says. “If I took my students right here, if I took 30 of them…and I showed them the same techniques, you know for a month, they trained with me and got the same amount of training day-to-day, everyone of those people is going to progress a little bit differently.”
Chewy continues:
You can’t set an expectation because it’s too unpredictable as far as skill and development. It’s just, it’s all over the place.
Worst of all, setting expectations can ruin jiu-jitsu for you.
I’ve got three stripes, he’s got two; I should beat him…and then when you don’t hit those expectations when you come into the gym, you feel like a failure.
This is something that used to happen to Chewy when he was a lower-ranking student, and he doesn’t want to see it happen to others. He doesn’t want to see people go to class, learn a cool technique, then think their entire day was a failure simply because they got swept or submitted by someone much lower than them.
Check out Professor Nick “Chewy” Albin’s entire video below and see why setting expectations in jiu-jitsu can be dangerous.
