3 Speeds Of Jiu Jitsu and How To Develop Them
DIFFERENT BJJ SPEED TYPES AND HOW TO ENHANCE THEM
In most team sports, natural agility and quickness could simply be enough for a competitor to separate himself / herself from the herd. Hell running is just a sport focused on physical speed. I know all you die hard runners out there are going to tell me there this a lot of technique in running (and I am sure there is), but the technical knowledge from running compared to BJJ is nothing.
Take a look past all the conventional knowledge of speed and realize that in fact there is, technical and mental speed, and physical speed. In addition to this, you can improve your speed technique, mental and physical speed just by starting Jiu Jitsu, and practicing skills, and drilling your jiu jitsu techniques.
One of the best ways to develop mental speed is to actually mentally rehearse your training movements in your head aka visualizing. To aid in that, BJJ instructional videos are an excellent resource for those who are looking to increase their technical and mental speed.
And in several ways, the technical and mental speed are more relevant than the physical speed. Why? Well, even though you might be one of the ‘fastest’ of all the athletes on the mats, if you can not process the technique mentally and then have the technique executed with fluidity, can you be truly be fast? It's always amusing to watch the new, young, athletic kid use all his speed, strength and energy on the mats when he first starts rolling, and get frustarted because for all this efforts, he accomplished nothing.
Today, we will be looking at the various kinds of speed in the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and helping you to develop those speed skills and apply it to Jiu Jitsu.
Mental Speed
Mental speed is your decision-making, how quickly can you process what is happening, make decisions and put those decisions into action. You may be an amazingly agile jiu jitsu competitor, however if you get frozen up and get overwhelmed by your choices before executing a BJJ technique, you are going to be slower then your opponent due to the time it takes to "make a decison".
Technical Speed
Technical speed could be seen as the ability to have a technique completed smoothly and efficiently. If you are not effecient, you are not fast. One of our favorite sayings on the mats, that comes from the Marine Sniper School is "Slow is Smooth, Smooth is Fast". For instance, a lightning fast athlete may be quicker in gripping their opponent and start a submission attempt, but if this grips are wrong or their movement is very jerky, it may all be in vain as he puts his arm out to dodge the submission.
Drilling your fundamentals movements and BJJ techniques are a great way to increase your technical ability. Drilling creates muscle memory, and fluidity. Don't try to go too fast when drill, focus on going slow and smooth. When drilling you will not only develop technical speed, but it will increase your physical speed as well. Looking for fundamental drills and movements to start? Click the learn more button to check out some of the best techniques for beginners and advanced jiu jitsu athletes looking to sharpen their game.
Physical Speed
Last but not least, and what everyone THINKS is real speed is the physical speed. This ability is sometimes natural, or gained through years of sport training.
In several sports, physical speed (running fast) could be a defining attribute which separates a top level, and world-class athletes from the everyday joes just playing pick up games.
But in BJJ, even the fastest and agilest athletes in other team sports would not be able to even showcase their speed on the mats since their technical and mental speed is minimized as compared with experienced jiu jitsu athletes / competitors.
It boils down to this, the physical speed is only an advantage in the case where everything else is equal. In case two competitors have the same technical and mental speed, then the martial artist who possesses the better athletic skills will come out on top.
In conclusion, speed can be improved and developed completely in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.
- Mental speed could be achieved by spending more time rolling after each class. This will assist you enhance the quickness of all your decision-making. With experience and confidence, you will start making faster decisions.
- Technical speed could be improved by drilling particular jiu jitsu techniques and placing your focus on enhancing the general fluidity of your techniques.
- Physical speed is relevant, but perhaps not as important as mental and the technical speed. This could be enhanced by practicing agility based drills.
Bernardo Faria is considered one of the best fundamental BJJ athletes in the world. His fundamentals of jiu jitsu are so strong, that most of his techniques require no natural ability, physical speed or quickness. The mental and technical ability is what is important in his DVD / On Demand Series called Foundations of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Increase your overall understanding of jiu jitsu, as well as increase your mental and technical speed with this awesome series.
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