The Best Roll system is a way to measure you progress in Jiu Jitsu… especially in the “intangibles” of the art.    Those subtle details can elude us, sometimes for years, leaving us to struggle in plateaus without a sense of how to direct our own training.

In every roll keep track of how many times you do the following:

Try. –  Try a new movement, attempt a new technique or approach to solve a challenge.  Even at the highest levels it is still important to learn new things.

Refine. –  Refine means attempting a skill we already know with a high level of focus and attention.  All skills become unconscious.  Just as we automated how to ride a bike, we also automate how to do a kimura.  By waking up to what we are doing sub-consciously we have an opportunity to notice and improve details.

Move.  –  Here we mean a significant movement of the center of the body.  Changing position on the ground, inverting from below to above the opponent, if on top already changing angle above the opponent.  Arm and leg actions, not matter how complex or what the result do not count as a move point.

Disrupt. –  Any time you efficiently off-balance your partner or cause them to over-reach.  This only counter when it is done efficiently.

Timing. –  Timing is a super skill, count it for double points.  We specifically define this as a moment when you respond to what your opponent is doing exactly as they are doing it.  While their body is still busy with their action you counter attack.  Essentially this works out like a free move.

So in any training session you track how many times you do these essential skills.  By tallying this score you can see, regardless of whether you tap or not, how you are progressing in Jiu Jitsu.  If you are training with someone much better than you and move, try, disrupt, etc for a total of 12.  Then the next roll you aim for 13, then 14 and so on.

Approach training with a system like this and you time on the mat will be so much more fun…. and then wins will take care of them selves.

(…there are other skills one could track that make sense like effective framing, and you could also reduce score for things like wasting energy on resistance, stalling, etc.  For the source inspiration and a guide to refine your own system check out James Clear’s article on Career Best Effort and how it took the Lakers to the next level.)