Only You Can Prevent Forest Fires

First things first, this has nothing to do with forest fires. Once again this has to do with you being the one most in control of you getting better at grappling. It's more of an anecdote this time though. So purple belt Mark was young and full of piss and vinegar, and was not happy with his progression, so he talked to his coaches one night. Their response was "what are you doing to make yourself better?". Was I limiting what moves I could use in training, was I drilling at open mats, was I taking charge of my progress. The answer was no, I was cruising along doing the same things I always did and working on only the moves that were taught in class when they were taught in class. After that conversation, my jiu jitsu got much better. If I knew I had a skill gap, I'd have people tell me what submission I could hit them with, or I'd hit them with the same thing over and over and over until they properly defended it (pretty much all I do now). The point being your coach no matter how good they are can only get you so far until you have to take responsibility for your progress. It's one of the better gifts my early coaches gave me, the ability to train myself while using their knowledge to refine my process.