Matt Arroyo’s Blueprint for BJJ & Life
If You Want Something Badly, You Can’t Put Fifty Percent Into It, You Have to Put a Hundred.” — Matt Arroyo
Matt Arroyo is an entrepreneur, a retired UFC / MMA fighter & ADCC competitor, a husband, a father of three, and coach.
In 2007, Matt was on the Ultimate Fighter Reality Show Season 6, making it to the semifinals that led him to be awarded a UFC Contract. Matt is also a featured character in the UFC video game “UFC Undisputed 2009”.
Matt is the owner of Gracie Tampa South MMA Academy in Tampa, Florida that serves over 500 students. He developed 2 UFC fighters (Billy Quarantillo and Matt Frevola) and corners them in the UFC all around the world.
Matt created an online education platform teaching BJJ Athletes his systems and has one of the best IG platforms in all of BJJ.
3.5 Ideas from Matt Arroyo:
1) What is Your 70 / 30 Principle?
- “I’m rolling 70 percent of the time with people I could beat, which is helping my offense. And then I’ll let these same people pass and mount me and get good positions. When I’m working that, I get better.” — Matt Arroyo
2) What Motivates You to Train post-UFC Career?
- “Now it’s more than just to train. It’s to have fun, to help my students and to stay in shape. Those are my three goals for training jiu jitsu now.” — Matt Arroyo
3) What’s Your Weekly Training Schedule?
- “I train jiu jitsu four days a week. I do Monday, Tuesday, take Wednesday completely off. I get massage, chiropractic, just recover, rest. I don’t train anything Wednesday. And then Thursday, I train super hard. And then Friday I go light.” — Matt Arroyo
3.5) Rolling or Drilling? How Does a Student Get Better at BJJ?
- “I’ve asked the same question to multiple black belt world champions and you get different answers. My two favorites were Marcelo Garcia, who’s still my favorite grappler of all. I interviewed him and I interviewed Andre Galvao and they’re both top of the world, right? Marcelo says rolling, he barely drills at all, he rolls, and Galvao says drilling, and he rolls a lot too, but drilling is where he’s at.”
- “For myself, I kind of agree more with Marcelo. I don’t have a whole lot of success in drilling.” — Matt Arroyo
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