Joe Rogan recently reflected on one of the most pivotal moments in his jiu-jitsu journey – his early training sessions with Eddie Bravo.
Speaking on The Joe Rogan Experience alongside comedian Joey Diaz, Rogan explained that his biggest breakthrough came when he shifted from intense sparring to deliberate, structured drilling:
The biggest leap that I ever got in the beginning of my jiu-jitsu journey was when I became friends with Eddie [Bravo].
We would train in my garage. I had mats in my garage and we would just drill for like an hour and a half a couple times a week.
Instead of rolling live, the two focused on mastering specific techniques – something Rogan believes many practitioners overlook:
He was showing me a lot of his rubber guard stuff, like the early stuff.
But we would just drill like different positions – how to escape certain positions, how to finish from certain positions, what to be careful of – and then we just go through paths.
They practiced entire sequences with light resistance to build muscle memory and technical awareness:
Like, the path was, you know, pass into half guard, push on the knee, move into side control, side control, head and arm, secure the arm, finish the arm triangle.
If he was doing it to me, I would resist like 40% maybe.
You know, you just kind of like sort of resist and they secure it – and you kind of resist and they finish it off.
According to Rogan, this kind of training removed the ego and made it easier to retain complex movements.
And while it wasn’t the norm back then, he pointed out that things have changed in modern jiu-jitsu:
That’s big now. Drilling is everything.
People are flow rolling.
Sloth Jiu-Jitsu: you can be slow and unathletic and still kick butt in Jiu-Jitsu.
