what do you guys do to work on your game if you can't train? say for example, you miss class on a certain day, is there anything you do that night to still get some kind of practice in? solo drills, watch instructionals, watch competition footage?
^would you mind elaborating (what kind of solo drills)? thanks.
Here's a clip of Andre Galvao doing some solo work:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKh2u-NfZkQ
I think movements like these, combined with other grappling movements, shadow wrestling, calithenics, etc. can make for a great workout and also improve your coordination and body awareness. Sometimes I'll just try to free flow with different grappling movements for 20 minutes straight without stopping.
Drills, conditioning (strength and endurance), visualization, watching competition and instructional videos.
This question has probably been asked but how much of Stephan's drills are solo?
What's "russian mount"?
ttt for later
if i were on the market for an instructional featuring SOLO grappling drills, do you guys recommend kesting's?
Some old school but still very valuable for training and dirt cheap is Marco Lala's solo grappling materials. The second one is the best. I think the website is www.fightingsecrets.com $19.95 cheap.
ordered kesting's grappling drills last night, looking forward to getting it.
don't have a partner though, so i'll probably just focus on the solo drills.
I have an old body bag that I use as a person's torso and train a lot of moves alone on it. I act like it is a person to spar with and roll with it. Not as good as a person, but it has its advantages too.
I sequence through from side mount, to mount, some ground and pound. Then the damn bag sweeps me and lands in my guard. Practice controlling the body, triangle, striking from the bottom, then sweep.
Repeat.
Any other suggestions?
Solo drills have done wonders for me.
I come from a Judo background BUT I didn't always have a partner to practice with )I feel practice is 20 times more important than learning or taking classes). So I would do alot of solo drills. Many of the drills were taught to me by my Judo instructor.
Anyway there was a gap of about a year when I didn't have a practice with and when I begin training in Bjj.
In that yeras time I did alot of solo drills.
When I started Bjj I was more than holding my own. And everything I did well could be directly traced to the solo drills I consistently and diligently did.
The type of drills I did developed and reenforce basic movement patterns and skills. So I kept my drills simple. I did alot of, what I called, holddown transitions. This essentially transition from holddowns to holddowns. I would use a basketball as well as a grappling dummy to practice on.
I would also practice guard passes. Again I would focus on basic guard passes, usually the ones which contain simple yet important movement patterns like the leg on the shoulder guard pass and torena pass. I would sometimes combine the guard passing with the holddown transitions.
I would do alot of shrimping movements and would also used the wall to do alot of different hip movements for escaping.
Anyway my point is, number one: doing those solo drills really does make a difference, a big difference; number two the solo drills don't really need to be complex or complicated. The solo drills I need only need to contain a movement pattern that is commonly seen and use in Bjj.
I like alot of Stephan Kesting's drills. I like Rey Diogo's drills as well. I am teling you if you do them daily you'll have a big advantage over people who don't do them. One reason why is alot of people in bjj, particularly in the lower levels (white and blue), don't move very well and don't have very good coordination.
I still regularly do the drills I did before. I've learn some more solo drills from my Bjj instructor and do those alongwith my other ones.
ttt