At a recent jiu-jitsu camp in Mexico, I ended up rooming with a black belt who runs his own academy and has fully embraced the constraints-led approach (CLA) in how he teaches.
We had a lot of good conversations that week, but one idea stuck with me more than anything else:
The concept of a rate limiter.
What Is a Rate Limiter?
A rate limiter is the one factor that’s holding back your progress the most.
Not a list of weaknesses. Not everything at once.
Just the thing that’s quietly limiting everything else.
He gave a simple example. Some of his students were performing well technically, but in competition their grips were burning out early. Once that happened, everything fell apart. They couldn’t control positions, couldn’t slow their opponent down, and couldn’t apply the techniques they already knew.
It didn’t matter how good their jiu-jitsu was.
Their grip endurance was the rate limiter.
Why Most People Stay Stuck
Most grapplers try to improve everything at once.
They add more strength work, more conditioning, more rounds, more technique. But progress doesn’t work that way.
If one factor is limiting you, everything else gets bottlenecked.
It’s often our weakest link that holds us back from our potential.
What This Looks Like on the Mat
Once you start thinking this way, it becomes easier to spot.
Sometimes it’s mobility. You know what to do, but you physically can’t get into the position.
Sometimes it’s strength, where you can get there but can’t control or finish.
Other times it’s your conditioning. You start strong, but your gas tank runs out before your technique can take over.
For some people, it’s asymmetry. They can execute everything cleanly on one side, but fall apart on the other. For others, it’s speed, always reacting instead of initiating.
The key is not guessing.
It’s being honest about what consistently fails first.
The Process: Identify, Plan, Execute
Once you understand the concept, the path forward becomes much clearer.
First, you have to identify the limiter. This requires some honesty. Not what you think you should work on, but what is actually holding you back in live training.
Then you need a plan that targets that specific quality. If your grips are failing, you train grip endurance directly. If it’s mobility, you spend time restoring relative motions, using breath, and building strength in the ranges you’re missing. If it’s your conditioning, you build your aerobic base instead of just surviving hard rounds.
Finally, you execute. This is where most people fall short. They jump from thing to thing, never giving anything enough time to actually improve.
Fixing a rate limiter takes time. Sometimes weeks, sometimes months. But if you stay consistent, it shifts. And when it does, everything else starts to move forward with it.
Final Thoughts
The goal isn’t to be great at everything all at once.
It’s to remove the thing that’s holding everything else back.
That’s how real progress happens.
And the truth is, this concept can be applied off the mat too…in business, personal growth, and your health in general.
If you feel stuck right now, don’t just do more.
Find your rate limiter, stay on it long enough to fix it, and watch as you unlock new levels of progress.
WHENEVER YOU’RE READY, THERE ARE 4 WAYS I CAN HELP YOU:
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