There are no secrets on how to get better at jiu-jitsu, you just have to train, but these three things will help you get better faster.

1 - Positional Sparring

Everyone loves to roll, but when you roll you are hitting so many positions, and most of the time you will choose to play the positions that you are most comfortable with.

With positional sparing it's different, this will force you to work on one position the whole time even if you are not good at this position.
This can single-handedly improve your game leaps and bounds by forcing you to improve the holes in your game.
Use your open mat time to do positional sparing or set up a training schedule with a dedicated partner.
Take one position and work on it for 20-minute sessions broken down into 4-5minute sessions.

For example, if you’re constantly getting stuck in bottom side control, implement positional sparing and start on bottom side control and work on escaping once you escape, start back over in the same position.

Positional sparring is the time where you can take chances, try variations and see what works best for you. This is the time where you can figure out what your game plan is, you can discover your favorite escape, sweep, and submission from each position. You’ll figure out what you’ve been doing wrong and you can fix those little mistakes. Positional training is by far one of the most helpful ways to getting better faster.

2. Chain drills

One of the key factors in becoming great at Jiu-Jitsu is being able to flow or “transition” from submission or position to the next seamlessly.

We’ve all have had that sense of being lost when rolling with someone and they escape our submission leaving us scrambling for the answer on what to do next.
Chain drills are the key to fixing this feeling of being lost. I know many of us have drilled a chain drill called the three brothers, where you transition to three different submissions. If you haven’t, check out the video below…

Chain drills make you combine one move after another, which can lead to a series of different techniques that all CHAIN together.

This is the reason why higher belts are so dangerous because they can CHAIN different moves one after another without even thinking. If one technique in their submission chain fails they switch it to another and the chain continues.

Drilling this way will help train your body and mind to flow through different techniques naturally and will help you be ahead of your opponent. Knowing what you can do next will give you the upper hand, and chain drills will aid you in becoming better faster.

3 - Speed Drills

When we first learn a new technique and try to use it while rolling it can be difficult to apply it.

With speed drills, it’ll help you learn the control and speed that you need to make the technique work. Speed drilling is just drilling one move over and over, but doing it fast with proper form.

We do a drill here at Zombie BJJ from side control called the underhook switch. This drill is a perfect example of speed drilling.

Adding this to your training can help you during live rolling, it’ll help you stop overthinking, and help smoothen your technique as you apply it. This one form of drilling can make your technique sharper, and most importantly help you improve faster.