Answers from a BJJ Black Belt

Havel Marques

Q. Can you tell us about your background and how you got started in Jiujitsu?

1- I started BJJ in 1999 when I was 12 years old in Brazil. I decided to find a BJJ school after one of my friends, who was a bit younger and smaller than me and was already doing BJJ, easily controlled me in a grappling game. I became very curious to learn the same.

Q. What advice would you give to your younger self starting your jiujitsu journey? What advice should they ignore?

2- So I would say, for me: Believe in your passion, spend as much time as you can doing it, and find the best places to train. I would ignore: Jiu-Jitsu won’t give you a good future.

Q. In your experience, what Intensity of training is best for learning? And how is this achieved? I.e. what proportion is drilling, sparring " light", And intense sparring across a session /week

3- That’s a very personal thing, but I think consistency and discipline are much more important than intensity and quantity. A minimum of 2x per week, I would say, but repeating what was learned for 3-4 weeks. For high performance the game changes. 

Q. How often are you experimenting with new moves and positions vs working on existing and established techniques within your arsenal?

4- I divide my training into modules of 4 weeks each. Every week, I learn something new, but it’s always connected to the previous week.

In the fourth week, I repeat all the techniques from the previous three weeks to reinforce them.

Q. Do you have any advice on recovery/preservation for BJJ, or any practices you wish you implemented earlier? 

5- I think lifting weights specifically for BJJ is very important. Resting is also crucial. In the old-school mentality, we used to think that resting wasn’t good, but having proper rest is extremely important. Less can be more.

Q. Do you use strategies or game plans for upcoming matches or competition? If so can you provide an example

6- Sure, always a game plan. For example, when I fought at the Pan Pacific, my goal was to be more conservative and not take too many risks. So my plan was to play on top, pass the guard, and win by points. In the next competition after that, my goal was to finish all my fights by submission. So my game plan was to pull guard, attack the legs, create back exposure or sweep, and then play on top—always seeking the submission.

Q. Pre competition nerves is a thing allot of people deal with. Do you have any advice/tips on how to deal with it this that you or your students implement?

7- I’m a fan of meditation and breathing techniques. With these techniques, we can train our brain to be fully present in the moment. I love to visualize my fights I like to see everything: myself warming up, stepping onto the mats, applying the techniques I planned, finishing the fight, the referee raising my hand, standing on the podium, and my celebration outside the mats after the win. I try to do this as many times as I can.

Q. Strength and conditioning can be the deciding factor in a match with opponents of equal technical skill, do you do any Strength & conditioning? Can you give any insight as to what that looks like?

8- I think so. More than ever, the sport is becoming very professional, and strength and conditioning are fundamental. We have to use strength in BJJ you only don’t use it if you don’t have it.

Q. When preparing for a match/competition what does your training look like? (Eg 8 weeks out, training twice a day etc)

9- I focus on improving skills that I already have instead of trying to learn something completely different and new. I do a lot of specific training. I usually train 2x per day plus strength and conditioning.

Q. What’s something you now know, that you wish you knew earlier in your Jiujitsu journey? (techniques, training methods, business advice)

10- Definitely a methodology for teaching and training myself. The right methodology is the key.