stephen,
How often a week do you train?? Currently, I am doing a private with a blackbelt once a week and training (rolling hard) twice a week. Am i under training??
How often do I train? Currently not enough! My real-life job is firefighting, which has a wacky rotating shift schedule, so every week is different. On a good week I get to hit the mats 3 times, but in a bad week maybe only once. The upside is that I get to work out (lift weights, stairmaster, etc.) at work, so I am getting in a decent amount of conditioning. I know that I'd make faster progress right now if I could trade some conditioning sessions for mat time.
Are you under training? That is really hard to say without knowing you personally and knowing a lot more about your goals. There are MMA fighters who train 12 times a week, but they have a lot of chemical help. On the other hand, I know some high level BJJ black belts who only trained twice a week when they were in Brazil.
Three times a week is DEFINATELY enough to make decent progress for most people, especially if you have access to good sparring and are doing a bit of conditioning and studying (tapes, books, internet) on the side.
Anyone else with an opinion feel free to jump in.
thanks stephen,
I feel like I am in a good place training wise. Especially with the private once a week. Anyway, thanks for taking the time to answer.
I would try to do basic yet commmon (meaning essential and prevalent) movements every day.
These build not only coordination (which is extremely important) but also develops the muscles in the exact way they are used in the activity you're doing.
I would spend as much as 15 minutes and as little as 5 minutes doing the basic drills every day. So doing them doesn't have to take alot of time or equipment.
Instead of doing something like jumping jacks or the like do the stationary shrimp move (the shrimp walk without moving back but stay in one place) or some other basic bjj movement.
I do alot of different basic drills every day. It really really makes a huge difference because the movement (which is the foundation of any technique. All techniques can be traced and reduce to basic movement patterns) in and of itself becomes not only more natural but also a natural reaction, that is something I do (when I need to do it) without thinking.
m.g. I agree with you that this sort of repetition can help. Rickson doing his Gynastica Natural stuff on the beach is essentially doing the same thing.
Not to highjack a thread addressed to me, but these sorts of drills (with and without a partner) are exactly what my next video is going to be about. I have some more editting to do, but it should be out in a couple of months.
MG
Can you give a few more examples of those "basic drills" that you mentioned?
Excellent
Stephan your videos are all excellent. I look forward to the new one
Alan
Stephen,
I apologize for hijacking this thread. I honestly didn't mean to do that. I should actually thank you for allowing me to express my view. I just want to share some of my thoughts and ideas with others. Yes, you're right about Rickson.
Jeyel,
Some of the basic drills I do are on stickgrappler's websight. I do a ton of them. I will take a very long time to describe all the ones I do. I will say this I tend to add different things to them to make them a little bit challenging and fun. I got this idea from the the late great basketball player Pistol Pete Maravich. He did alot of basic drills for basketball. He divide his drills into two camps: fundamentals and creative fundamentals. The former are the basic basic drills and the latter are the basic drils with a creative twist.
I do the same with the drills of Bjj and Judo. I do simple drills like the stationary shrimp move (I call it the hip swivel) and add something to it. I'll add another simple move or I'll do something like this: I'll take a tire inner tube and place it on my waste, I'll tie the other end to a stable object like a tree or pole, I'll then precede to do the stationary shrimp move. I find that this really develops hip movement.
Anyway I'll do alot of things like that and I do them everyday except sunday (and I've been blessed enough have been doing them almost daily for the past 9 years). Doing simple things like this helps to develop coordination and dexterity which are the pillars for good and efficient technique.