Category: BJJ

BJJ Solo Training

~ drdos

Due to life there are times when the only option for training is solo training.
Free video resources are linked at the bottom of this page

Solo training is far from optimal compared to having partners and it does limit your progress. However, it can greatly improve or speed up your progress in BJJ when you return to partnered or team training. Plus supporting health, mobility and conditioning.

From my experience, both as a white belt and after a few years of training, the main benefit of solo training comes from three sources:

  • Movement training - BJJ specific solo drills
  • Mobility training - BJJ Solo drills, yoga, calisthenics, equipment assisted exercises
  • Cardio training - Running, lots others

Movement training is for both your body and nervous system to perform movements that are useful and common in BJJ rolling but less emphasized or uncommon in other activities. Examples include, shrimping, back-stepping, and technical-stand-ups. By focusing on this aspect of training, beginners will especially see superb improvements in their overall progression in BJJ when they return to partnered training.

Mobility training is for exercising your body to preserve or increase your flexibility while maintaining healthy strength and stability at full range of motion.

Cardio training is for endurance during rolling, which yields both muscular energy to perform for longer, and frees up mental energy to think and apply tactics. The old adage of "Cardio is King" has a lot of truth to it, if you don't have adequate cardio then your other attributes don't matter. Of course, skilled movement and strategy can make you more efficient and help supplement your cardio.

Strength training in moderation gets an honorable mention due to benefits for injury prevention and general health but personally it's not been a point of emphasis. If you are interested in BJJ and strength training then I can at least give some recommendation to Chewies Grappling Power or BJJ Strength.

Free Resources

Movement training:
YouTube Playlist: BJJ Solo
Chewjitsu BJJ Drill Playlist
Little solo drill I made

Solo drilling instructional by John Danaher (free at the time of the COVID-19-virus closing)

Mobility training:
List of YouTube channels which includes Yoga, Calisthenics, and Physical Therapy.

Cardio training:
Go for a run or better yet, interval training (e.g. walk 2min, run 2min, sprint 30sec, repeat, or use different patters or landmarks for distances at different paces).
Do the BJJ Solo drills with less rest and perhaps more intensity for time.
Etc,... etc,... etc,... Endless others of course.

BJJ Instructionals

~ drdos

Here is a list of most of the instructionals that I have purchased over the years. I will add some more reviews later as I make time but for now I\'ll just give one recommendation.

  • Are any of these worth it given how much is free on youtube?
  • Which ones give the highest return?
  • What to buy first?

Buy The BJJ Formula from Grapplearts by Rob Biernacki and Stephan Kesting.

Stephan usually has sales every so often, announced on his news letter (grapplearts.com) or podcast (The strenuous life podcast) for updates .

The BJJ Formula is not only good in it\'s own rights, but it also gives the best practical comprehensive framework and mental model for conceptualizing and understanding most of Jiu-Jitsu that I\'ve seen (agreeing with Stephan Kesting here). The framework will help your training and will also greatly improve how well you can understand and decipher BJJ actions and instructions from observation, be it in-real-life, from instructionals, or YouTube sources (see my oversized collection here). Effectively, the series will multiply your return on time invested in studying BJJ.

GrappleArts (Stephan Kesting)

  • Rob Biernacki - BJJ Formula

  • Rob Biernacki - Modern Leglock Formula

  • Rob Biernacki - No Gi De La Riva Formula

  • Rob Biernacki - Submission Formula

  • RoryVan Vliet - Guard Retention Formula

  • Matt Kwan - Modern Jiu-Jitsu

  • Fabio Gurgel - The Pressure Passing System

  • Emily Kwok & Brandon Mullins - How to Beat the Bigger Stronger Opponent Series 1-3

  • Brandon Mullins - Non-Stop Jiu Jitsu

  • Elliott Bayev - Spider Guard Masterclass

  • Elliott Bayev - Self Defense Guard

  • Stephan Kesting - Submissions, Defense, Sweeps

Chewjitsu

  • Starter Series (Shoulder Roll Escape Series)
  • Get a Grip!
  • Better Takedowns
  • Wrestling for BJJ
  • Half Guard Sweep Series
  • Back Mount Series
  • Triangle Assault Series (with Chad Hardy)
  • Grappling RX Warmup (by Eugene Tsozic, physical therapists)

BJJ Fanatics

  • Omoplata Everyone by Bernardo Faria

  • Escapes from Everywhere by Bernardo Faria

  • Flow: The Top Game by Roberto Cyborg Abreu

  • Old School Efficient BJJ by Chris Haueter

  • No Gi Fundamentals: Top Game by JT Torres

  • The Filthy Kimura by Neil Melanson

  • Advanced Guard Systems by Neil Melanson

  • The Headhunter Guillotine Series by Neil Melanson

  • The Ground Marshal Guard by Neil Melanson

  • The Catch Wrestling Formula by Neil Melanson

  • The Snap Guard by Neil Melanson

  • The Shin Whizzer System by Neil Melanson

  • Jiu-Jitsu Based Self Defense Solutions by Eli Knight

  • High Level Takedowns and Mat Control for Grapplers by Henry Cejudo

  • Hidden BJJ Secrets by Luiz Panza

  • Killing the Spider and Lasso Guard by Travis Stevens

  • Self Master by John Danaher

Firaz Zahabi of Tristar Gym

  • Reverse De Le Riva Lockdown
  • The Dynamic Butterfly Guard

YouTube Channel Suggestions

~ drdos

Here are some of the YouTube channels I've found most useful for my BJJ training and general body maintenance. There are five categories:

Each category is roughly ordered according to my preference or how often I use them as a source (I skipped some that I'm subscribed to because on review they seemed too inactive or not up to scratch compared to the others). As a bonus, here is also my unordered playlist of BJJ techniques:

BJJ Tech
My collection of BJJ techniques that I've liked for one reason or another.

BJJ Technique

Stephan Kesting
Stephan Kesting has been doing BJJ tutorials for over a decade and this is his excellent free resource, sharing his knowledge and that of many world class BJJ experts.

Chewjitsu
Excellent channels on all things BJJ from Chewy (Nick), BJJ black belt under Shawn Hammonds and head coach in Louisville, KY. Good technique, good discussions and QA on just about anything that has anything to do with BJJ.

Chad The Beast Hardy
Chad is a BJJ black belt from Chewy (Nick) of Chewjitsu and does great short instructionals with a bit of silly humor too.

Teach Me Grappling Coach Brian
One of the best resources for grappling instructions available, particularly when it comes to in-depth instructions on wrestling, BJJ, and their intersection. Tends to run a bit long but always worth it.

RVV BJJ
Roy is one of Rob Biernackis top students and has great instructionals using Rob's excellent structured system of BJJ concepts for clear explanation.

The Grappling Academy
Coach Tom is a clear teacher of BJJ, good and consistent production. Primarily mini instructionals but also addresses various questions relating to the sport and the art.

Tristar Gym
Currently kinda focused on coach Firash Zahabi's (famous MMA coach, including GSP and many other world famous fighters) podcast, but also includes excellent in-depth instructionals and breakdowns.

Invisible Jiu-Jitsu
Clear, mostly short, and well made BJJ instructionals.

Island Top Team
Rob Biernacki is a great, methodical, BJJ coach who has done multiple instructionals with Stephan Kesting. He now also has payed subscription course on his website, but lots of tips in the payed instructionals appear also on this channel though not as refined or clearly produced.

SBG
Excellent old school BJJ, fundamentals, philosophy and self defense from real experience.

Kurt Osiander Move of the week
Enough said, "go f*ckn train!"

Knight Jiu-Jitsu
Eli Knight, Jiu-Jitsu black belt, gives lots of good and clear technique instructions.

Relson Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Academy
Excellent instructionals and advice on BJJ, including a playlist on kids instructionals.

Cary Kolat
Excellent wrestling technique/instructionals by Cary Kolat, an olympic level wrestler.

Hayabusa
Channel by the gear brand Hayabusa but they have Neil Melanson, an excellent grappling coach, do instructionals on great techniques.

Redline Jiu-Jitsu
Good instructionals on BJJ and selfdefense from a Gracie JJ school.

Josh Robinson
Josh Robinson is a BJJ no-gi/MMA coach and has some good technique instructions.

Kit Dale
Kit Dale famous BJJ competitor, champion, coach shares some of his techniques and takes on BJJ.

Keenan Cornelius
Keenan Cornelius famous BJJ competitor and champion shares some of this techniques and experience (and humor).

Bernardo Faria
Multiple world champion Bernardo Faria and guests explain lots of techniques (mostly/exclusively in the Gi).

BJJ Strength
Training tips for BJJ, the website/blog is arguably better than the YouTube channel, it's at https://www.bjjstrength.com.

Roy Marsh Jiu-Jitsu
Mostly instructionals from Roy Marsh, a Black Belt under Royce Gracie.

MMA Leech
Lots of pretty good BJJ instructionals.

Zombie Proof BJJ
Various BJJ instructionals.

BJJ Fanatic
Bunch of technique instructions from various visiting instructors, some very high level.

BJJ Daily
Usually short technique tips, doesn't seem active anymore.

BJJ Vault
BJJ technique tips/instructions (seems inactive now).

BJJ Joe
BJJ technique tips/instructions

Beyond Grappling
Judo instructionals.

Physical Therapy

Athlean X
Physical therapist, trainer, and body-builder Jeff Cavalear provides great training, recovery, and physical rehab tips.

Physical Therapy Videos
Bob and Brad have been physical therapists for decades and share some of their excellent tips and advice for people of all ages, with lots of "dad-jokes" and old style humor.

Yoga

Bad Yogi
Erin Motz is a nice down-to-earth, no bullsh*t yoga instructor. Lots of short beginner and some intermediate yoga instructions along with vlog and some other AMA type stuff. Includes "x day" challenges.

Do Yoga With Me
Many different yoga instructors (I particularly like many of Fiji's lessons) teach yoga at all levels from beginner to advanced. Includes "x day" challenges.

Fightmaster Yoga
Fightmaster teaches many kinds of yoga for beginners up to advanced, many different lessons to choose from.

Yoga with Adrian
Nice selection of all sorts of yoga, mostly beginner or intermediate, with pleasant instructor Adrian.

Yoga for BJJ
Name says it.

Boho Beautiful
Yoga instructors Julia and Mark do various yoga things including advanced routines.

Calisthenics

Fitness FAQs
Excellent channel on body weight exercises from beginner to extremely advanced, along with some physical therapy exercises (the instructor, Daniel, is a trainer and physical therapist in Australia).

Calisthenic Movement
Excellent instructions by two guys in Europe (Speak in English) on all sorts of beginner to very advanced body weight and gymnastic exercises.

Self Defense

Self Defense Tutorials
Stephan Kesting's channel on self defense, look no further for the best.

Fight Tips
Nice source on loads of things MMA, BJJ, Muay Thai, and self-defense.

Can I get better while training only 2x a week?

~ drdos

I can definitively say "Yes" but with a caveat. I'm only at the BJJ gym about 2-3x a week for 2-3hrs each time. But I do BJJ related training (movement, mobility, strength, flexibility) on most of my off days. It's probably not optimal compared to training with partners and a coach, but it sure enhanced my progression to add independent BJJ related training and education.

Recently, my off day training consists of something like this:

  1. A short (0.5-1mi) run/jog for initial warmup and light conditioning.

  2. Kettlebell workout (swings, single hand swings, Turkish gettup with isometric holds for shoulder stabilization and health)

  3. Yoga/gymnastics pushups (modified vinyasa for isometric strength, core and shoulder health), a few active hangs on rings maybe some pullups, and planking on rings.

  4. BJJ solo drills if I have room (I have floor mats at home usually), this will usually something general like bridging, hip escapes, and shrimping or specific movent drills, like combinations of sit outs of various kinds, shoulder rolls, crawls, etc etc depending on available space, if I'm adjusting to injuries, and if I want to consistently be working on particular types of moves.

  5. Stretches, yoga/gymnastics pancake stretching, good form dove stretch for hips, shoulder stretches, wrist stretches, neck stretches, kneeling and lean/layback, hamstrings (basically posterior and anterior chain around hips), kneeling ankle and toe stretch, either back twists or cobra stretching.

Depending on adjustments, this takes usually 30-90m, usually around 40-45 I think. When I'm being good, then I'll have particular movement exercises/drills in mind that I'll consistently keep in to improve a particular set of techniques or healthy movements I'd like to develop to avoid injuries.

I'm hoping soon I'll have some time to put together a better description of what I do on my solo training days and share it here.

When I was a white and new blue belt, many of the biggest advances I made followed from solo drilling some of the movements we'd use commonly in class. Shrimping, different kinds of shrimping, technical getup, butterfly arm drags, etc etc things that our coach would include in the drilling or warmup part of the class. It helped my overall competency and helped me make substantial progress.

Depression and anxiety

~ drdos

I've dealt with what could probably be called mild undiagnosed depression and anxiety at times. BJJ is about the best thing I've found to fight it, along with the support of my loving wife and family. I never skip a class because I'm feeling depressed or anxious. Or even a tournament, if I've had one on set my calendar, despite crushingly wanting not to go. The main reason being that I've almost always felt MUCH better after. The only exceptions were when I only felt a bit better or at least neutral but more tired in a good way. Those were most likely times where my sleep and or caffeine intake were way out of wack. On my off days I try to also get in at least a little exercise. Something is always better than nothing.

Frame your mind around some activity, any activity, being a success, especially compared to none. Even if it's just a 5-10min neighborhood walk. Maybe when you get back, you feel you might as well swing a kettlebell a few times. Maybe then you can do a few shrimps and bridges. Maybe now you can do some more or not. Now you are all sweaty. You might as well do some stretches, you know your body at least will feel better... And so it goes, chip chip away, little by little, it all adds up.

From what I've heard and read from medical literature, physical activity, even just 20min a day, can work wonders on these phyc issues and help with longevity and cognitive function, even better than drugs for many people. And it only has positive side effects (as long as you remember to warm up and tap early 😉

Mouth guard?

~ drdos

After catching a random knee to the chin and chipping a tooth as a white belt, I always wear a mouth guard. With the right choice of guard, it's low cost and low inconvenience that nearly eliminates the risk of a potentially high cost accident.

I highly recommend SISU, especially the second generation (nextgen), the thinner one is fine for BJJ but too little for striking.

Pros:

  • ⁠Good protection, never had a problem with them.
  • ⁠Very minimal, easy to breathe and speak through.
  • ⁠Because I can speak well through them, then I don’t have to take them out ever on the mats (no nasty drops)
  • ⁠Fit well (see below)
  • ⁠Easy to refit many many times if having difficulties (up to 20x iirc)

Cons:

  • ⁠Bit more pricy than shockdocs etc.
  • ⁠Can be tricky to fit (see below)
  • ⁠Gen 1 could develope sharp/abrasive edges.

Fitting tips:

Don’t use scalding water, just hot enough. After the time allotted to make the guard moldable, use a mirror to make sure you are centering the guard well. Gently suck on the guard and use your tongue to hold and mold it in place, don’t bite on it, just gently squeeze your teeth together. It’s easy to suck too hard and make it too tight. It will shrink slightly as it cools to body/room temp. After a couple of attempts, you’ll probably get it very close to a good fit but a bit on the tight side. Use your hand and teeth to leverage it and bend the sides (or just the front) slightly. This process has yielded a great fit for me at least.

Big man flexibility

~ drdos

Early in BJJ I noticed the benefits of flexibility for safety and to expand my game. The most helpful advice I received was to be patient with my body when it comes to flexibility. As a bigger person, you are probably used to working on strengthening where you can see significant progress in say 14-30d. Unless you have freak genetics, think about flexibility on about a 120d schedule when setting comparable modest goals or expectations. Be patient. Tendons etc take longer to grow/heal than muscles, that's just nature. And make sure you aren't doing things to/through pain, just mild discomfort, keep your joints safe.

Secondly, because of your goals to improve and expand your BJJ game, make sure you don't just work on extending your flexibility (ability to contort your body further) but also extending mobility (ability to move your body over a larger range). The two don't always go hand in hand.

There are plenty of YouTube videos I've found and instructionals (if you care then I can give some links from my collection). Yoga can be a great source but they don't always include the mobility with the flexibility so I suggest being picky or making sure to mix things up. Try to find instructionals that give you stages and progressions so you don't stagnate.

I'm a bigger guy. Despite being very flexible in some ways (e.g. for high kicks), I had uncomfortable limitations when it came to shoulder and hip flexibility. Over many months I gradually became quite flexible in my hips (went from not liking to cross my legs even to being able to comfortably do a half lotus and am working on a bit more) and my shoulders are now flexible enough to ensure that my training partners need good technique to finish arm/shoulder locks.

One last important specific tip I found helpful. When doing the dove hip stretch or half lotus type hip opening stretches, engage your foot (ancle at 90deg or less). It helps to keep your knees safe. In the dove stretch, if your knee tends to hurt, it's because the stretch isn't coming on correctly, it should be in the hip not the knee. Prop yourself up, try to hold good posture, one leg extends back, and make sure the bent leg is perpendicular to your body with the foot engaged before lowering down. You won't be able to go down as far but your knee will thank you.

Rib injuries

~ drdos

Most of us have been there.

Short of it is that you just need to rest it and you have to stay away from training (free rolling at least) for probably a few weeks. Once you can breathe deep and move around a bit without pain then you can move on.

Once I got there, I would drill without too much trouble but modify or skip if I had any pain. I'd free roll with people I trusted but two things were different from usual. I'd tap early from just discomfort on the ribs if I felt stuck. I'd move and give up positions if I felt discomfort. Oddly enough this would sometimes give me good opportunities for improving my position or going for submissions, because I'd be doing "the wrong thing" which friends found unexpected from my skill level and it would probably momentarily confuse them. So even if I was technically letting them flatten me out, giving then mount or back, it would kinda catch them by surprise and I'd be able to work out of a bad situation better than you'd expect lol.

Wearing the skin off your fingers?

~ drdos

Let go and regrip. Get fast at it, develope that skill, look into good YouTube instructors that emphasize grip fighting (Stephan Kesting has this with Emily Kwok, Chewy at chewjitsu has some good stuff too iirc, and probably lots of others). You can also work on the toughness of your fingers and grips but there is no hurry for that. Some of that will be trained but some may just be generic and you will have to adapt your game if you want to sustain your training.

It doesn't hurt to learn about how to tape your fingers (I believe it's covered in the FAQ for this sub) but I don't think that's the problem you are having. Taping is usually used more to support the joints than to protect the skin of your fingers.

Competition day

~ drdos

Take it one match at a time, don't try to win the whole thing, just try to focus on winning your current opponent.

Breathe, remember you are ok right now and you have trained and you are ready. Breathe and be well.

Keep with your normal eating routine, nothing unusual. Unless you were cutting weight, focus on rehydrating (water and electrolytes, e.g. Pedialyte, eat your normal food or bars you are familiar with).

You will dictate the pace of the match you are going into. You will play into your game. You will not let them into their game. You will go for it. Get your grips, don't let them get theirs, go for your takedown or your pull. If your technique fails, thats ok. You dictated when the action took place and when it started, which means you will be first to react even if they stuffed your takedown/guard pull. You know when the action happens, you are ahead of the game.