Recognizing your coaches voice is a skill essential for Jiujitsu competition and overall development.

This can be practiced in many ways. A vocal warm up, technical instruction, or coached rolling. The key is to be responsive to your coaches voice and try to recognize their instruction in an instant without second guessing the task.

Ideally you should be able to hear and acknowledge your coach without looking at them. You might show it with a nod or with your actions on the mat. A good time to look at the coach is during a break in action, walking back to the center of the mat or when stuck in a static and locked position.

The ability to respond to a coach is often described as someone being coachable. Indicating someone’s responsiveness to input or teaching.

Coaches often label people who disregard instruction as not being coachable. Unfortunately, this is usually true and hard to change because the student or athlete insists on not listening to their coaching.

I like to think of being coachable as a skill that can be developed rather than a character flaw. The difficulty is that these athletes tend to get defensive, blame others, or play the victim. I see the challenge therefore in being able to crack through these barriers first.

Needless to say to take your game to the next level you need to be and become coachable. Develop a keen ear for your coaches voice. Listen to their input. More importantly avoid getting defensive by reminding yourself that you and your coach are on the same team, working toward a common goal.