By "balance" I assume you are referring to it in a kind of generalized sense to mean sort of an all over body type awareness. Wrestling (or grappling in general) is very different from a lot of other sports (including boxing) in that the type of agility you want is very different from the type of agility that's useful in other sports. OK, this may seem like a goofy animal analogy, but here goes: In most sports, the type of agility/coordination required is along the lines of a mountain goat - you want to be very nimble footed (moving your feet in boxing, and even in football, soccer, basketball, etc). In wrestling, you want more of a cat-type agility on your feet (for stalking opponent), and more of a monkey type agility on the mat/ground. Most types of grappling are a little more "gymnastic" than most other sports or martial arts (boxing, kick-boxing, etc). I'll list a few drills that will help develop these skills. In actuality, these drills are really meant to develop specific positioning skills in wrestling, but they are also great for developing balance as well. You need a partner for these drills - you do it for 30 seconds, or 1 minute, or 90 seconds, or whatever, then it's your partner's turn. Try these drills nice and easy the first couple of times to get used to the motion, then pick up the pace and intensity to move as quickly as possible. Most of these drills should give you a pretty good cardio workout too! I'll start with the simpler ones first... 1. "T" drill - get a partner to kneel, but otherwise he's very upright. He holds his arms straight out from his shoulders (so he looks like a "T"). You take shots under his arms, continuing around him. The knee that goes down should be the one closest to his body, and head is always up (so you can practice good level changes). Keep changing directions so that you are shooting with different legs. Stay in a stance the entire time you are moving around your partner to shoot on the opposite side. 2. Low single leap frogs - have your partner stand up with legs spread apart. Shoot a low single style shot underneath his legs, coming up to your feet behind your partner. Now your partner (who has not moved) flattens out his back and puts his elbows on his knees, and you do a "leapfrog" over him so you are back in front of him. Turn around quickly, and shoot again, then leapfrog, etc. 3. Monkey climbs - Partner stands up, legs spread apart and knees slightly bent, holding his arms straight out. You get on him in a piggy back type position. You now climb around him using your arms AND legs (you NEED to use your legs to pinch his body to hold you up!) going under his arms so you are in a piggy back position but on his front side, back under his other arm so you are in a regular piggy back, and on and on. Remember to keep changing directions so you are good at moving in both directions. Climb around him, over him, whatever. The only rule: you cannot touch the ground! This is a tough one at first. Keep going and you'll get the hang of it.Con't...
4. Hip heist drill - have your partner lay down with his knees bent (like the starting position for a sit-up). You are over top of him (sort of in a crab walk position), hands on the mat by his shoulders, feet on the mat on either side of his legs, with your back facing his stomach. Now pick up your left leg, bring it over his knees and UNDER your right leg and extend it out perpendicular to your opponent. Bring your right arm over and put it on the other side of his body on the mat near his hip. You should now be on your hands and feet - hands on one side of his body, feet on the other side - facing down towards your opponent. Do a sort of push up to touch your chest to his chest (like you are pinning him), then push back up and reverse the motion to return to starting position. Now do the same thing to the other side. The only parts of your body that should ever touch the mat are your hands and feet! This is another one that is often an awkward motion for beginners. Do it slowly to get the technique right, then pick up the pace. 5. Floating drill or Home base drill - this is for both men - bottom man is drilling his scrambling on bottom, top man is working on his balance on top by "floating" on top and trying stay in his "home base." This one may be a little bit tough if neither partner has much wrestling experience because the bottom man wants to be scrambling on bottom by doing sit-outs, switches, granbies, etc. Bottom man is not allowed to do stand-ups, however. Other than stand-ups, the bottom man is scrambling his ass off, trying to get out. (If he does get out, he immediately gets back down and top man gets on top again and the drill resumes). Top man is staying in his home base: behind his partner, chest tight to his opponent's back, and arms are underhooked under his armpits (do not bring your arms over his arms - ALWAYS under his arms!), elbows pinching into his sides, and staying on your toes. Never go to your knees and, for the love of all that's holy, NEVER go to your butt or hip in this drill. Part of why it's called the floating drill is that you should always be on top with your hips facing down towards the mat, on your feet, arms under his arms. No matter what the bottom man does, you are always staying behind him, with hips always facing down (like you're "floating" on top of him, no matter how hard or fast he scrambles). Also, the top man wants to keep constant pressure on the bottom man by driving into him with his feet to slow the bottom man down. If the bottom man is doing a good job of scrambling, it will be like trying to ride a buckin' bronco. Con't...
6. Lift/land drill - bottom man does a stand-up (if you're unfamiliar with a stand-up, check the archives for "Basic 8 - Stand-up"), once on his feet, top man lifts him and brings him back down to the mat, bottom man lands correctly in position to scramble and stands up again. The top man must lift correctly: hips tight to opponent's hips (and slightly lower), either to side or behind bottom man, popping his hips in to get his feet off the ground and torquing him down to mat. For the bottom man - most people's natural reaction to being lifted into the air is to kind of flail out, with arms and legs going out in all directions - suppress this instinct! While in the air, you must bring your hands and feet in tight to land in a ball - landing on hands and feet preferabley, but hands and knees is OK too - so you are ready to move as soon as you hit the mat again. Bottom man keeps standing up, top man lifts him and returns him to the mat, as soon as bottom man lands (in correct position) he immediately stands up again, top man lifts... and so on. You want to be like a cat (a cat always lands on its feet, right?). Don't flail out, don't land on your hip, don't land flat on your belly. Always land on your hands and feet (or knees) coiled up like a spring to immediately move again - this will probably require mid-air re-adjustment of your positioning to land properly. *********Hopefully, these drills will get you started in the right direction of developing balance and body awareness. Again, if you're new to grappling, start these drills slowly to get the basic motion down. After you've done each a few times, pick up the pace and intesity. Bonus: If these drills are done correctly and with good intesity, they should also give you a hell of a cardio workout.
I've started submission wrestling/BJJ, after having done boxing for a few years, but I find that my balance isnt nearly as good as I thought.What drills/exercises would you guys recommend for me to improve it?? Hindus or what?
the thing that always helped me was working on a balance beam or something slender. for fun we would go snowboarding, that you have to have total control over your body on. or we would just get in our stance and people push us around from all directions and we had to recover for it.
Thanks a lot for taking the time to write all that out for me Chip, sounds great, I'll give those drills a shot!
Nice drills! thanks!