Tom DeBlass: “Train smarter, not harder”

The longer you stay in the sport, the more you will hear this phrase. Tom DeBlass is one of the biggest names in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, he is a 3rd degree Black Belt who has won the No-Gi World Championships Open Weight at Black Belt Masters 1, No Gi Pans at Black Belt, multiple ADCC American Trials Champion, and is also a pro MMA fighter who has fought on the two biggest mixed martial arts promotions, UFC and Bellator, and he also got signed to ONE Championship back in 2020. Deblass is also a world renowned coach who has associations at 50 schools in over five continents, so it is fair to say that if anyone knows about what it takes to be good at jiu jitsu, DeBlass definitely does. He recently released one of his biggest regrets of his competitive career, and it is something we are all guilty of – overtraining.

FOMO (fear of missing out)

It may feel like you are missing out, so you ignore the warning signs of injuries creeping up on you because you fear if you aren’t attending every session that you will never get to where you want to be at. This is not true. Overtraining affects a high-level of combat sports athletes in multiple ways, usually not good ones. Overtraining can affect everything from your diet to your sleep, and can eventually cause your mind and body to burn out.

“I went 100mph everyday”

Going 100% at every training session every day isn’t effective in the long-term. DeBlass explains how overtraining was the biggest mistake of his competitive BJJ career on an Instagram post captioned:

“This is surely one of the biggest mistakes I’ve made in my career. I went 💯 mph everyday. However, in reality, I’m thankful. It’s made me that much better as a coach. Please find a coach that understands this. Take it easy. Hard training is absolutely essential, but not everyday. Have fun and enjoy the ride. XXx.”