One of the most important things that every BJJ athlete should know is how to properly plan out their year.

The planning should be as important as the training, because that is the time you are going to set your goals and set the amount of work you will do to accomplish them.

When I say plan your year, this should involve every aspect possible. For example:
• Which tournaments are you going to compete?
• Which tournament is the most important?
• How is your training schedule going to be?
• How is your diet going to be for the season?
• How are you going to afford all the trips?
• Have you started looking for sponsors?
• If you are black belt, is your seminar schedule already confirmed?
• What about your physical conditioning, how many times are you going to workout per week?
And it goes on and on…

We have a much higher chance of success when we follow a plan. When you have a plan there is no compromise; you know exactly what you have to do every day, and this forces you to stay on track.

Most of the successful jiu-jitsu athletes I know have had very clear plans and goals since they were very young.

To set a plan for your career (or for your life) can be hard, because many things can change along the road. But even still, it's better to have something in mind and keep moving forward towards it than not having anything planned.

My suggestion is that you set a big plan for your life. This should be your dream, the thing that you always dreamed of achieving, and then every year you set a plan for the next 12 months according to your main goal.

One of my favorite quotes is "Shoot for the moon, because even if you miss you will still be among the stars." Even if you don't accomplish exactly what you had planned, I can promise you that if you do your best you will at least get close to it.

Of course, you should also be realistic. If you are already 35 years old, for example, and you just started jiu-jitsu this year, to become World Champion as a black belt in the adult division will be very hard but why not in the master divisions? This would be very possible if you start dreaming and planning today.

How I plan

Normally I start planning my year before it even starts. I remember when I was competing in all of the most important tournaments. When it was around October or November, I was already starting to book seminars in Europe for January and February to make sure I could afford to compete the Europeans.


Bernardo Faria teaching a seminar in Romania. Photo: Personal archive

Then I was already checking the schedule to see which dates there would be the Pan-Ams and World Pro trials. My main goal is always the Worlds in June, so my physical conditioning coach always focused my training so I would reach my best performance in June.

As jiu-jitsu still isn't as professional as other sports, the offseason is the time that I usually try to "monetize" things. I try to book as many seminars as possible to make sure that come the next year I can focus 100 percent on training again.

The importance of planning

Without a good plan none of this would be possible. Or maybe I would have a messy year, without focusing on my main goals. "Plan," for me, is the synonym of "focus." Most people who are crazy focused on something have some very clear plans -- but they end up achieving them.

Sometimes I think I even go too far, because most of the time I have plan A, plan B, plan C, plan D, etc…! Normally, my way of thinking is: "I will do this, but if this doesn't work, I can do that, and if that doesn't work I still have this other option." And so it goes, on and on.

Of course, as everything in life, there are exceptions. I know some guys who never plan anything, and they are still doing awesome. But on average, most people who succeeded in jiu-jitsu (and in life) had some very clear plans.

How planning can help your training

It doesn't matter which belt you are, whether you do jiu-jitsu professionally or as a hobby, or if you compete or not.

At the beginning of each year make sure to set up plans according with your goals. If your goal is to do jiu-jitsu only as a hobby and you don't want to compete, set up a plan that you are going to train three times per week or that you will try to attend at least one seminar that year. On the days that for some reason you couldn't go train, you can also plan to do some other physical activity to make sure you keep your conditioning up.

Even if you can't accomplish your plan, just the fact that you tried will see you make progress. At the end of the day you are not competing against anybody. You are competing against yourself; it's all about you. If you don't have a plan or a goal, your biggest enemy can be yourself. Make sure to set up a good plan, and you'll come out on top.

The times that I don't have a tournament or some big goal coming up is the time I start getting lazy to go and train or to work hard, because I have nothing to push myself toward. That's why I believe it is super important to have plans and goals -- it will be the best way for you to compete against yourself.

If you accomplished what you had planned, you won. If not, you lost to yourself.

I hope you guys have enjoyed this, and I hope it helps you to accomplish your biggest dreams and goals.

Read more from Bernardo Faria:

• 'The Most Valuable Lessons I Learned From My Teachers'
• How Jiu-Jitsu Built My Character (And Can Build Yours Too)

Watch our Bernardo Faria documentary, 'Unstoppable'