New Year BJJ Reset: How to Audit Your Technique Library and Pick 3 Positions to Master in 2026
TL;DR. January is the best time to reset your BJJ game because you have distance from last year's chaotic training and a clean calendar ahead. Instead of vague resolutions, audit your existing notes and technique library, count what you actually used in live rolls, and pick exactly three positions to focus on for the year. Build a repeatable weekly loop of capture, drill, roll, and revise. Keep the plan boring enough that you can still follow it in March.
Key takeaways
- Most BJJ new year resolutions fail because they are too vague and too ambitious, not because grapplers lack discipline.
- A technique audit is the single most useful January task: review your notes, saved videos, and match footage before setting any goals.
- Three focus positions is the sweet spot — enough to build a connected game, few enough to actually drill weekly.
- Pick positions based on where you already spend time in rolls, not on what looks impressive on Instagram.
- A 30-day reset should end with a written game plan, not a longer wish list.
- Retention beats acquisition: revising techniques you already learned outperforms adding new ones you will forget.
- The plan must survive contact with real life — injuries, work weeks, and travel — or it is not a plan.
Why the January reset actually works for grapplers
BJJ doesn't have a real off-season. You train through summer, through holidays, through comps, and by December most people can't remember what they were working on in March. The turn of the year is one of the few natural pauses in the calendar where you're not mid-camp, not mid-cycle, and not chasing a specific test. That distance is the opportunity.
A good reset is not a motivational push. It's a structured review of what you already know, followed by a narrow decision about where to spend your reps for the next twelve months. If you skip the review and jump straight to "I'll train more this year," you'll be back to random rolling by February.
The grapplers who improve fastest are usually not the ones with the most training hours. They're the ones who train with a clear focus, revise deliberately, and keep the same three or four questions on the mat every week. January is your chance to define those questions.
Remember. A resolution is a wish. A written plan with three positions, weekly drills, and a review schedule is a training program.
Step 1: Audit your BJJ technique library
Before you set any 2026 goals, you need honest data about 2025. Not what you meant to work on — what you actually learned, drilled, and used. This is the audit.
Gather everything in one place
Pull out every source of BJJ information you touched last year:
- Class notes (notebook, Notes app, whiteboard photos).
- Saved YouTube instructionals and Instagram reels.
- Seminar handouts.
- Match or sparring footage.
- Any structured technique cards you've saved in BJJ Memo or a similar system.
If your notes are scattered, that's already a finding. Part of your 2026 plan is having a single library you can actually search.
Sort what you have by position
Group everything into the standard positional buckets. A simple table works well:
| Position | Notes I have | Techniques I remember | Techniques I've hit in a live roll |
|---|---|---|---|
| Closed guard | |||
| Half guard (bottom) | |||
| Side control (top) | |||
| Side control (bottom) | |||
| Mount (top) | |||
| Mount (bottom) | |||
| Back attack / back escape | |||
| Standing / takedowns | |||
| Open guard (your main variation) | |||
| Guard passing (your main style) |
Fill it in honestly. Most grapplers discover two things: they have a huge pile of notes on positions they rarely visit, and almost nothing structured on positions they live in every week.
Count what you actually use
The third column is the one that matters. A technique you "know" but have never landed in live sparring is not part of your game yet — it's a candidate. A technique you hit repeatedly across different partners is a real tool.
Be strict here. If you can't remember using it in the last two months of rolls, put it in the candidate list, not the toolbox.
Step 2: Pick 3 positions to master in 2026
Three is not a magic number, but it works for a reason. One position is too narrow — your game breaks the moment someone denies you that spot. Five is too many — you can't drill five things deeply in a week that also includes class curriculum, open mat, and rolling.
Three gives you a top position, a bottom position, and a wildcard that connects them.
The three-slot framework
| Slot | Purpose | Example choices |
|---|---|---|
| Slot 1 — Bottom | Where you spend the most time when you're losing | Closed guard, half guard, deep half, butterfly |
| Slot 2 — Top | Your main passing or top-control platform | Knee cut, over-under, leg drag, top half |
| Slot 3 — Wildcard | A connector, escape, or attack that links slots 1 & 2 | Back takes, guard retention, specific submission chain |
The wildcard is what turns two isolated positions into a game. If your bottom game is closed guard and your top game is knee cut, a great wildcard might be back attacks — because both closed guard and knee cut naturally end up with your opponent turning away.
How to actually choose
Use your audit table. Ask three questions per position:
- Do I already spend time here in live rolls? If yes, this is a real candidate. Building on existing reps compounds faster than starting from zero.
- Does it fit my body and my academy? If everyone at your gym is passing with leg drag and your instructor teaches it every week, a leg drag focus will get you 10× more feedback than a niche pass no one else drills.
- Can I connect it to my other two slots? A game is a network. If your three positions don't talk to each other, you'll drift back to whatever you did last year.
Remember. Pick positions you already visit, not positions you wish you visited. Your rolls tell you where your game actually lives.
Step 3: A realistic 30-day January reset routine
The goal of January is not to "grind." It's to install a repeatable weekly loop you can still follow in June. Here's a 30-day structure that works for a hobbyist training 2–4 times per week.
Week 1 — Audit and choose
- Complete the technique library audit above.
- Draft your three positions. Write them down.
- Watch your last available sparring footage (phone clip, competition video, even a friend's video from open mat). Note how often you enter each of your three chosen positions.
Week 2 — Narrow the material
- For each of your three positions, choose one entry, one main attack, and one common problem/solution. That's nine total items — a full year's core curriculum, not a week's.
- Write each one as a short technique card: name, key details, the mistake you're prone to, the video timestamp you learned it from.
- If you use BJJ Memo, this is exactly what a structured technique card is for.
Week 3 — Drill and stress-test
- Ask a training partner for 10-minute positional rounds twice this week. Start in your three positions.
- Note which of your nine items actually worked and which fell apart under resistance.
- Update your cards with what you learned. Reality beats theory every time.
Week 4 — Lock in the loop
- Set a fixed weekly review slot (15 minutes, once a week is enough — the night before your first weekly class works well).
- Decide your rolling rule for February: e.g., "every roll starts or ends in one of my three positions when possible."
- Write a one-page 2026 plan: three positions, nine core items, weekly review time, monthly check-in date.
By the end of the month you should have a shorter list than you started with, not a longer one. That's the point.
Step 4: How to maintain the plan after January
The real test is February through April, when motivation drops and the mat feels like work again. A few rules keep the reset alive.
The monthly 20-minute check-in
On the first weekend of each month, sit down for 20 minutes and answer four questions:
- Did I actually train the three positions this month, or did I drift?
- What worked in live rolls?
- What kept failing, and why?
- Do any of my nine items need to be replaced, or am I just impatient?
Most grapplers swap techniques far too early. If something failed three times, that's not a signal to abandon it — that's the beginning of learning it. Give a technique at least eight to twelve honest attempts across different partners before replacing it.
Cap new input
One of the reasons you forgot most of 2025 is that you consumed far more instruction than you could ever drill. For 2026, set a simple filter: before you save a new instructional, revise one you already saved. If you can't be bothered to revise the old one, you don't need a new one.
This is the retention half of the equation. It's covered in more depth in how to remember BJJ techniques and how to study BJJ instructionals from YouTube.
Plan for missed weeks
You will get sick. You will travel. You will tweak a rib. The plan must survive these weeks, or it's not a plan. Two rules help:
- A missed week is not a failed year. Just resume the loop, don't restart the audit.
- Off-mat review still counts. Watching your notes and mentally rehearsing your three positions for 10 minutes on a rest day is real training for retention.
Remember. The grappler who trains 3× a week for 50 weeks improves more than the one who trains 6× a week for 20 weeks and then vanishes. Consistency compounds.
A sample 2026 plan (fill in your own)
Here's what a finished plan looks like on one page. Use it as a template.
| Element | Example |
|---|---|
| Bottom position | Closed guard |
| Top position | Knee cut pass |
| Wildcard | Back takes from turtle and knee cut |
| Bottom: entry / attack / problem | Two-on-one grip / cross-collar to armbar / opponent standing up |
| Top: entry / attack / problem | Over-under pressure / knee cut finish / opponent framing to knee shield |
| Wildcard: entry / attack / problem | Back exposure off failed knee cut / seatbelt to RNC / opponent hand-fighting |
| Weekly review slot | Sunday evening, 15 minutes |
| Monthly check-in | First Saturday of each month |
| Rolling rule | Try to start or finish in one of the three positions |
| Instructional rule | Revise one saved card before saving a new one |
This fits on an index card. That's the entire point.
Frequently asked questions
Is three positions too few for a whole year?
No. A year of focused work on three connected positions produces a real game. A year of random exposure to twenty positions produces confusion. You can always expand once your three slots are reliable — most grapplers find that year two naturally adds a second bottom and a second passing style built on top of year one.
What if I'm a total beginner with no notes to audit?
Skip the audit and go straight to step two. As a beginner, pick your bottom position based on what your instructor teaches most (usually closed guard or a basic open guard), your top based on the pass they drill most, and the wildcard as "escapes from mount and side control." Retention beats acquisition even more at white belt because everything is new.
How do I keep my notes organised without spending hours on it?
Pick one place and stay there. A notebook, a Notes app folder, or a dedicated tool like BJJ Memo where each technique is a searchable card with a timestamped video source. The system doesn't matter as much as the fact that everything lives in one searchable place instead of six.
Should my three positions include a submission focus?
Usually not directly. Submissions live inside positions. If your bottom position is closed guard, your submissions (armbar, triangle, cross choke, etc.) come with it. Picking "triangle choke" as a standalone yearly focus tends to fail because triangles only appear when the underlying position is controlled.
What if my three positions stop working by mid-year?
Check the diagnosis first. "Not working" usually means one of three things: your entries are being denied, your details are wrong, or your partners have adapted and you haven't. Each of those has a different fix, and none of them is "pick different positions." If after a full monthly check-in cycle the position genuinely doesn't fit your body or your gym, swap that one slot — not all three.
Do I really need to write it down?
Yes. A plan you can't see is a plan you can't follow. It doesn't have to be pretty — an index card, a phone note, or a single card in your technique library is enough. What matters is that you can pull it up before class and remember what you're supposed to be working on.
Bringing it together
The grapplers who look back on 2026 in December with real progress won't be the ones who trained the most hours. They'll be the ones who spent January narrowing instead of expanding — three positions, nine core items, a weekly review, and a monthly check-in. Everything else is noise.
For real feedback and safe technique, train the material at a legitimate academy with a qualified coach. This article helps you plan and revise; the mat and your instructor are where the actual learning happens.
If you want a place to keep your three positions and nine core techniques as structured cards you can revise before class, BJJ Memo is built for exactly that. Paste the YouTube instructional or class breakdown, get a clean technique card with tappable timestamps, and revise your library the night before you train. Turn what you watch into something you can actually use on the mat — and this time, remember it in December.
Last updated 2026-09-20.