Practice and muscle memory

During open mat one day, I noticed a blue belt at the beginning of the session practicing an advanced move. An half an hour later, he was still practicing this move. He must've been doing the same move at least 100 times, just within that session.

One thing I want to convey the importance of to new jitsu practitioners is the importance of drilling. Drill until your mind aches and your moves are second nature. I can't stress enough how important this is. There comes a time when you will realize that even though you've trained the mount escape 100 times, you really need to do it a thousand more times to really become good at it and to do it without hesitation. And I don't even mean to drill a move while rolling, I mean to drill a move with a good training partner.

In my opinion there are 3 different types of mat time, all of which are important for learning. The most obvious is hard rolling, where you roll with an opponent and you are trying your best to submit your opponent. Although in some cases this might seem more like defending with all you've got. Either way this puts everything you've learned and seeing if it actually works and is a good way to measure your bjj growth. This is a culmination of your skills as measured against another bjj opponent.

Another type of mat time is where you roll at half speed. This is the perfect time to practice something new, to see how a new move works and learning how to flow and move than it is to measure your own growth. This is a time to measure what you're doing and why. I like to consciously take this time and think about why I'm doing something and if it really is the best thing to do. If anything, this might be more of a time to learn and expand your game.

The last type of mat time is practice and drilling. In my opinion, this isn't taken seriously enough. If you drill enough, moves and other related moves should become second nature, quick enough for your body to react before your mind even realizes what its doing.