Tag: Training

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.

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 😉

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.

Blisters on toes

~ drdos

Few of things I'd recommend.

  1. ⁠Pay very close attention to your instructors feet/toes when he/she is demonstrating a technique. The particular application of your feet can help both with effectiveness and safety for your toes.

  2. ⁠When blisters break, Neosporin or similar, band-aid, then tape on top of that. When taping, don't wrap around multiple times. Rip off multiple strips of tape and layer them. Create support structures with tape if you like. For example, a layer or two around the toe, then a v shape (or like those memorial ribbons) wrap around the toe and down along the top and bottom of the foot, a couple of those, then a couple of layers around the foot to anchor the v strips from earlier.

  3. ⁠Get a anti-fungal foot spray and follow the therapy instructions (iirc it's at least a couple of weeks of daily or 2x day application). Don't forget your flip-flops or shoes you use around the mats.

  4. ⁠Use a nice foot lotion at least on occasion to keep the skin supple if you tend to get dry skin.

  5. ⁠Once it's well healed and if you don't have a skin problem, tip 1 will most likely help cure your problem in the future.

Shoulder maintenance?

~ drdos

I've struggled with the same problem a good while ago (training for over 4y now in my 40s).

I'd reccomedations looking into the Athlean-X YouTube channel, it's got kind of a duchy body builder vibe to it at times (which I'm not) but it's run by an athlete trainer and physical therapist who is excellent and has helped me very much.

Here are some of my top reccomedations:

  1. Warm up before BJJ and preferably before most of the mobility exercises/stretches you do.

  2. ⁠Hanging, passive (just activating grips, relax the rest) feet relaxed touching the floor behind you. I now do this every morning, worked wonders for shoulders and back.

  3. ⁠Put your back against a wall, arms our, fingers pointing up. Drag the thumb side of your hand or back of your hand up and down the wall, down from shoulder level and up as high as you can, trying to trace a straight line such that your elbow is bent 90deg along the path. There is a video on this on the Athlean-X channel.

  4. ⁠The chicken wing shoulder stretch. This one feels super effective but my results have not always been great.

  5. ⁠Use a bar (like a broom handle for example), grab a wide grip and use it to stretch, moving arms up and down, in front and behind your back. I'm sure there are good videos on this too.

  6. ⁠Sit on the floor with slightly bent legs in front of you. Place your palms down behind you with straight arms and rotating your shoulders out. Work on scooting your butt forward while keeping your back as straight as you can (your arms are gonna be further and further behind you giving you a stretch.

  7. ⁠Look into the book "becoming a Supple Leopard", it has some excellent stuff on posture and mobility.

I have no affiliation with either of the reccomended sources I mention, they are just among the things that have helped me with similar issues.

Oh and Yoga of course (see my post on yoga for BJJ).

Yoga for BJJ?

~ drdos

Check out these YouTube channels, lots of excellent free content. Some of them have specific 14-30d challenges too for beginners or intermediate yoga practicioners (e.g. look at their playlists)

Do yoga with me (specifically the ones with McAlpine)

Bad Yogi

Fightmaster yoga

Yoga with Adrian

Yoga forBJJ

More or less in that order, but depending on what I want to be working on, browse those or follow their playlists.

Should I do “catch and release”?

~ drdos

Personally I usually only do it in two different circumstances:

  1. ⁠During flow rolling

  2. ⁠When there is a huge skill discrepancy or I don't trust the partner to recognize submissions

(particular when using leg locks like the heel hook where the wrong reaction by defender can cause serious injury)

I'd highly recommend it for flow rolling. Helps you focus on developing your movement and transitions. Almost by definition, when flow rolling I'm not focusing on working submissions or a heavy pressure game.

Should a beginner roll with much bigger guys?

~ drdos

In short, there are potential benefits, particularly with respect to self defense. There are no weight classes on the street and all that.

But! As a white belt, especially going against bigger white belts and possibly strangers, I'd advise against it for now, at least not full on free rolling. Reason is that your technique is likely not sufficient to make up for the difference in size and there is a real risk of potentially serious injury, particularly spinal injuries. If you are not flexible or familiar enough with the movements, and your partner is smashing you, possibly in an ill controlled fashion, this can be very dangerous for you.

Once you have many months or a few years under your belt, then you should absolutely try rolling with much bigger people. See how much your technique can make up for. Size and strength is just another attribute, like flexibility, skillfulness, age, speed, stamina, conditioning. Technique and strategy can make up for discrepancies in these attributes but only to a point. There is a YouTube video where iirc Renner Gracie explains his view on it from a belt perspective, giving every 20lbs or 10y age difference approximately a belt level of skill needed make up for it. It's not that simple but it's not a bad rule of thumb.

I'm a bigger guy, have rolled with guys who are much smaller and that I have 40-60lbs on. Earlier on, I had people with a few years more training on me be able to consistently control me. But I also caused at least one injury to a friend and felt very bad about it. Now with more training and skill, that's less likely but it's still a danger and there is always responsibility on both sides. I have also in tournaments rolled with guys who had well over 60lbs on me, and won, and lost. I found it very interesting and helpful for my game.