Training with lower skilled players

John Danaher is a renowned BJJ instructor. SHe has an interesting perspective on the idea of training with lower skilled players.

Most people would think that in order to improve, you need to train mainly with people who are better than you are or at least the same level.

Surely, there's not much to be gained by training with lower skilled players, right?

Perhaps that's true if all you do is do your favorite techniques on them over and over again. Then you learn nothing. But if you use the opportunity instead to try out new techniques, new combinations, new counters, etc, you can gain a tremendous amount from training with lesser skilled players.

Here's what Danaher has to say about the matter:

People have a mistaken impression that you should always be training with the toughest guys which is not true at all I believe. About 80 to 90 percent of your training should be people who are significantly of a lower level skill level than you are and as you get into competition mode, you start rolling with guys who are your own skill level or a little better but I do believe that it is a common misunderstanding that you should always be training with people better than yourself. It’s very very hard to develop your technical skills on people that are better than you. You will develop your defensive skills but ultimately the point of Jiu-Jitsu is to defeat people and not to become difficult to submit. 

So the salient points of Danaher's arguments are:
a) If you want to try out new techniques, your best chance of getting them to work is against lower skilled players, not those better than you.

b) If you spend your time training with those better than you, you will develop good defensive skills but you won't learn to do offensive techniques (because it won't work on them).

I'm not sure I would agree with 80% to 90% of your time being spent training with lower skilled players though. Maybe 30% to 40% might be more suitable.

I think at least another 30% to 40% be spent training with those who are of equal level than you. Then, it becomes a realistic challenge for you. It's not so easy for you to throw them but it's not so easy for them to throw you either. Judo is also most fun when fighting someone more or less equal to you.

I feel at least 20% of the time should be spent training with someone better. Someone superior can be a source of motivation for you to work harder. Defeating them can be a goal that you can work towards. And, as Danaher had pointed out, you will naturally develop good defensive skills fighting with someone better. So there is great value in doing so.

The important point to remember is that it is not at all a waste of time training with someone not as good. If it's super easy to throw them with seoi-nage, don't throw them with seoi-nage! Try instead ashiwaza, which might not be so easy. Or if it's easy to throw them with osoto-gari, why do you want to waste your time on a technique you already know well? Try instead, perhaps uchimata or sode-tsurikomi-goshi or some other technique that you haven't yet mastered.