Urosh Culic
Q. Can you tell us about your background and how you got started in Jiujitsu?
A. I used to wrestle for 4 years before I started BJJ. Some blue belt came to my wrestling class and showed me few moves, I was hooked from there on. Soon after I went for my first BJJ class and never turned back.
Q. What advice would you give to your younger self starting your jiujitsu journey? What advice should they ignore?
A. Try to get the most out of it. You can practice/develop so many attributes through this martial art, don’t be one dimensional and do one or two things you like, make BJJ your platform for development. Some of the things one can practice through jiu jitsu:
- becoming knowledgeable and technical (learn to love learning new things and never stop adding to your game)
- learn to simplify and put your personal touch on the techniques and it’s understanding, have holistic approach
- get as physically prepared as you can (train S&C outside of jiu jitsu classes)
- roll with better people then you are, compete, challenge yourself
- don’t have the hard rounds only, train with people that are less skilled than you, so you can develop your skill
- find joy in all of it, do it for the fun of it and you’ll never get burnt out; it’s an active effort to do it though
- find friends on the mats
Advice to ignore:
“Jiu jitsu is all about honour, discipline and hard work” and “Jiu jitsu is all fun and games”
I feel both advices are too much on one or the other side, one should be careful of extremes and find as much as possible of both sides and as well everything in between.
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
A. What works best for me are the sessions where I meet with someones knowledge I can trust, we bounce off ideas/perspectives, create some sort of systems together and then we drill with more or less resistance so we can practice or test the developed techniques.
Q. How often are you experimenting with new moves and positions vs working on existing and established techniques within your arsenal?
A. I always try to have things that I’m working on or polishing out things that I already know. Only when I’m closer to the comp I stop adding the techniques. But I’m always in the process of deepening my understanding. I’m more on a side of liking to figure out things on my own, but I do study as well.
Q. Do you have any advice on recovery/preservation for BJJ, or any practices you wish you implemented earlier?
A. Super common mistake is to go too hard just because you feel like you “have more in a gas tank”. That’s how you hit the wall - as a mental or physical fatigue. You should always progress, but steady. It’s an art in itself to find that sweet spot.
Q. Do you use strategies or game plans for upcoming matches or competition? If so can you provide an example?
A. Sometimes I do, but more often not. When I do it I like to watch my opponents and find things they’re good at and that they’re not as great. Then I practice defence/attacks that I might use against them. For example, when I fought Vagner Rocha I practice my kimura escapes since I knew he loves those attacks. He did go for a kimura and I did escape, but he got the advantage for it and he beat me by scoring few of those. I should’ve practiced more attacks haha
Q. Pre competition nerves is a thing a lot of people struggle with. Do you have any advice/tips on how to deal with it that you or your students implement?
A. The nerves will always be there and sometimes they will be stronger than other times. First thing is to accept that, not to try to run away from it or hope that one day you won’t have to deal with that problem. Then you need to decide what you want to do with it, where do you want to direct it. To consciously decide that you’ll use them to win, believe in yourself, do your best, not think about the result too much, etc. Sometimes I do this through writing few days before the comp and remind myself through it how much work I’ve put in, who are the opponents I’ve beaten before, in which state of mind I’ve been when I performed the best, how much I’ve progressed over time, basically everything that can support me so I can be thinking about that on the day and not of possible “downfalls”.
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?
A. It’s a huge component, I think a lot of people are unaware how many problems in a roll you can solve just by being strong, that’s just a reality of a sport. I usually lift 2x per week and do the assault bike once a week. I recently had a surgery on my knee so I’ve been only lifting (no rolling) for last 6-7 weeks and I’ve gotten so much stronger, so when I get back to training I’m planing on doing one more lifting session and increasing it to 3x per week. The other thing is that there is so much room for improvement in this area, one can get pretty ridiculously strong with a right program. I think BJJ people in general are not enough aware of it though.
Q. When preparing for a match/competition what does your training look like? (Eg 8 weeks out, training twice a day etc)
A. I pretty much train 9-12 times per week all year round. And what’s consisted of these sessions are:
- drilling sessions (where I learn new skills or make my old skills better)
- S&C sessions
- hard rolling sessions
- easy rolling (playful or skill development) sessions
I combine these things dependent on my goals/approaching comps at a time.
Q. What’s something you now know, that you wish you knew earlier in your Jiujitsu journey? (techniques, training methods, business advice)
A. If you want jiu jitsu to be your lifestyle you have to develop yourself in as many different ways as possible, as an athlete, as a coach, businessman, you have to market yourself etc and that is actually a great thing. At different stages of my journey I used to dread some of these things, but the sooner the embracing happens the more development happens and one starts having more fun and enjoyment being/becoming all of these things.
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