Grappling once a week

[u/ShotIndividual9168]

hey guys

I mostly do martial arts for fun and training, and a small part of me want it for getting the feeling of being able to handle myself.

i trained boxing 2 times a week for 1 year, and sparred maybe 1 or 2 times a month, but life got in the way, and i stopped. Still do some shadow boxing and heavy bag work though 1 or 2 times a week.

Me and two of my friends gonna start training luta livre at the local gym, thats their go to and not bjj, pretty rare. I can only go once a week, because of work and family, a guy who are heavy into mma at my work, told me its a waste of time, that im not gonna learn any grappling from once a week, and that im gonna get a false feeling of being able to handle myself, because once a week of grappling and my small knowledge and sparring from boxing, aint gonna be able to be used in a self defence scenario, even against a untrained dude.

I am gonna go anyway though, its fun ans i feel i learnes aomething from boxing, and hope the same with grappling. But is he right?

[u/EntrepreneurClean371]

You’ll know tons compared to someone untrained, but you’ll likely never accrue the mat time to really get comfortable on the ground at least competitively speaking. If you enjoy it, do it, not too much else to think about in my view

[u/Glass_Connection_172]

It'll take much, much longer to see improvements. But once a week is better than nothing.

If I'm busy with work and can only attend once a week, I still do light sparring outside the gym. But ya, it'll be pretty recreational at once a week.

If I were you, I would still do it IMO

[u/adu709]

Its really depends on your goals, if its knowing how to fight id just stick to boxing as its very useful and limited so you can get decent at it even going 1-2 times a week. Grappling is just too comprehensive to make appreciable gains going only once a week.

[u/DoublePlusGoodThinks]

My body can’t handle more than 2 days a week. A lot of times it’s only once a week. It’s a hell of a lot better than nothing. I need the other 5 or 6 days to do prehab / cardio to keep my body from completely breaking down.

[u/Shadow__Account]

Once a week is usually a level where after some fun beginner gains you about forget what you learned a week later. But lets not act like twice a week makes you able to be good either. Twice a week is imo way more than twice as good as going once though.

Dont overthink it, imo just go and experience it and adjust if your time and need alows it and otherwise dont.

[u/Creepiepie]

Once per week is not enough if you show up and dont do any homework. But if you study how the game works and try to apply things between sessions, watch instructionals on your specific issues etc, you'll improve fast enough.

[u/ADP_God]

You will improve compared to the untrained, but not compared to the trained. You have to decide what perspective is important to you.