CAN YOU PRACTISE JIU JITSU ALONE

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu has become one of the most prominent forms of Martial Arts, across the globe. The Brazilian art has risen in popularity after succeeding in the UFC, a Mixed Martial Arts platform. BJJ is a non striking grappling art that involves highly advanced and systematic maneuvers. Throughout the course of its evolution, BJJ has become almost a hybrid version of its former glory, with the addition of judo and wrestling techniques. The international rise of the No Gi style of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, has highlighted the innovations of many current superstar athletes. Now that professional grappling is televised throughout live streaming services, athletes such as Felipe Pena, Gordon Ryan, Craig Jones, and Andre Galvao are adding their own evolution into the Martial Art. 

What This Article Covers:

• How to Maximise Your BJJ from Home
• Movement You Can Do Alone
• Preparing the Body
• The Downside to Training Alone
• Online Help
• Finding the Balance 

Training for a combat sport like grappling involves students to use their awareness, and their intelligence, as learning BJJ takes some serious dedication. Most students join BJJ academies in search of fitness, and self defense, and once they have been there for a little while they realise just how much more valuable the art of BJJ truly is. Some students prefer to learn inside of large classes, where other students prefer a one on one style of learning. Every athlete is different and it's up to the instructors to identify how each individual learns. Some students wonder how to get better at jiu jitsu at home, as they want to spend more time with their families, and in their personal lives. Training Jiu Jitsu alone has its downfalls, but with hard work, consistency, perseverance, and dedication, athletes can improve through self teaching.

Let rising star Helena Crevar and BJJFanatics.com give you the best at home solo drills to improve your BJJ!

HOW TO MAXIMISE YOUR BJJ FROM HOME

Once a student decides to start training from home and doing it alone, then they are making life harder for themself. In a perfect world students should be looking to train at academies, under high level practitioners, as this is a great way to bolster an athlete's skills in the art. Not every student will thrive under the stresses of a full time academy, so some jiu jitsu beginners will choose to learn under the comfort of their own roof. Training from home, and by yourself takes some serious dedication. Students will need to work comprehensively on many of the dynamic movements involved in BJJ. Being alone means they cannot battle test any of their learning, instead they have to rely on technical proficiency within each technique. Students can buy a grappling dummy, or even build ones out of boxing equipment. This will give the student an opportunity to practise their techniques.

Mastering the solo drills is how students will build up their skills in BJJ. Many of the movements in the art take significant amounts of core strength, flexibility, and agility, to execute. It is extremely important for students to maximise their efficiency while training by themself. If a student doesn't have a training partner to spot them, or to push them beyond their limits, students will need to find their own motivation for hitting their target goals. To maximise a student's BJJ, they should focus a lot of time on strength and conditioning, and knowledge of technical aspects in BJJ. This means that students should be doing comprehensive cardio based, strength and conditioning, and flexibility based workouts, to help their athleticism and muscles develop. Even more important is the concept of learning, as students need to watch plenty of content in order to practise many of these techniques by themself. Students must stay focused, and put in even more dedication if they want to succeed at learning by themselves.

MOVEMENT YOU CAN DO ALONE

Although doing drills by yourself is not ideal, it is a concept that does work for some people. It is important for students to have their own mats at home, if they want to successfully learn the art of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu by themselves. Students should be working on many of the BJJ movements that are relevant to their game style. All students need to start with fundamentals, so doing drills like hip shrimping, and then hip inserting is important for escaping positions, and looking to retain their guard. Bridging is another important aspect which relates to hip shrimping, as students will look to arch their hips high into the air, before using their arm reaching over their head to create space underneath an opponent. These kinds of drills help students to understand the mechanics involved in trying to escape.

Working on movements like forward rolls, backwards rolls, and granby rolls are extremely important too. Understanding how to smoothly transition into a roll, whether that is forwards, backwards or sideways, is an important aspect for students. These types of movements can be practised a lot, as they are the building blocks to the invert game. The great part about training by yourself means there are no limitations;students are free to work on any aspect of the game, all they need to do is find the best bjj instructionals online, and then start practising. This can be an exciting time for a student, as they will often look at more advanced movements like berimbolo back takes, and other high level leg lock entanglements.

When students have that sense of freedom within their own learning, they have an opportunity to excel in their field. An important tool for athletes that are training by themselves at home, is to shadow roll. This is the same as shadow boxing, instead the student will be rolling with a pretend partner on the mats. This may seem strange, but believe it or not, trying to pull off the same techniques without a partner, takes some significant core strength. Students that adopt these principles in Jiu Jitsu, will improve their proficiency dramatically. There are many different types of solo drills, and students these days have the added bonus of being able to access any of these tutorials online. Movements like bear crawling, sit throughs, knee cuts, break falls, technical stand ups, and sprawling are just a few that will help students at home improve on their Jiu Jitsu. The mental health benefits of brazilian jiu jitsu are incredible, as students that may need to be alone, can still find a way to release tension and occupy their minds.

PREPARING THE BODY

What can often happen when a student begins training at home by themself, is they end up doing more strength and conditioning than learning BJJ. This may not be a bad thing in terms of health, strength, and fitness, but they may find themselves falling behind other students who are putting in extensive mat time. Students will sometimes feel the need to overcompensate for their BJJ, by getting incredibly strong. In the beginning students will question how long does it take to master bjj, and once they realise how intricate the Martial Art is, they usually begin increasing their levels of strength and conditioning.

Training in strength and conditioning can be extremely beneficial to BJJ students, as long as what they are doing is functional for the art. Learning how to lift weights for a purpose is easy now, because of the different versions available online. Students should be preparing their body with extensive core workouts, cardio based training, endurance strength training, explosive power training, and different mobility exercises. If the student can find the perfect balance between all of these aspects, while still trying to practise various techniques, then they still could become a serious grappler. When students use extensive conditioning workouts, they can easily simulate functionality that relates specifically to rolling in a competitive Brazilian Jiu Jitsu match. This means that training alone can be successful if the student prepares their body the right way, and adheres to the right structures of that training. 

THE DOWNSIDE TO TRAINING ALONE

Training alone can be detrimental to a student's Jiu Jitsu, purely because without a training partner it will become hard to battle test any techniques they learn. Most students improve in grappling by rolling with high level practitioners in their academy, as getting beat up by higher belts will always help a student's resilience. This is one of the most important parts of Jiu Jitsu, and when a student decides to train alone at home they will miss out on this vital part of the learning process. No matter how many instructionals a student watches on YouTube, or how many solo drills they practise, they will always be a little behind the eight ball when it comes to technical proficiency on the mats. Rolling at home with a grappling dummy does have some benefit to students, as this will help them master many of their techniques they learn. The problem is without a human training partner, they will never be able to work on what to do when their opponent counters their movements. This is an important concept for students, especially if they are considering competing at local tournaments.

Students may also become unmotivated training alone at home, as it can be quite easy to swap training time for other activities at home. Usually when a student is training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu they will come to an academy even when they are not feeling motivation, but as the training session unfolds they will discover how the atmosphere of the academy takes over, and gives them extra inspiration. This cannot be achieved alone at home, as it can be quite lonely and boring, especially when there is no one there to push the student beyond their limitations. Some students do like seclusion, as they may not be comfortable with training in large groups. A good recommendation for students that have this issue is to seek out higher belts to come to your house, and roll with you one on one. This Factor will most definitely help a student reach their next belt ranking levels in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.

ONLINE HELP

These days there are many different avenues for students to learn Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. The days of old where students need to attend an academy to learn the art, are well and truly over, as the age of the internet has taken over mainstream Jiu Jitsu. There is an abundance of instructional videos flooding the internet, which are all accessible to students. There are many free videos that students can find on YouTube that will help them master different techniques. If a student wants more extensive learning from some of the best BJJ teachers in the world, then bjjfanatics.com have you covered with a large range of some of the best instructionals, and coaches in the world. There are also other avenues for students like many online courses that students can subscribe to, for a small price. The popularity of online content has hit an all time high as organisations like the Gracie University offer a wide range of BJJ courses for kids, women, law enforcement, ordinary civilians, and the more seasoned athletes. There really is no limit to how much content a student can learn, as the entire game of BJJ is out there for everyone to find. These days students are getting quite good at figuring things out for themselves, as many up and coming athletes are adding their own innovations into the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu arsenal.

Let rising star Helena Crevar and BJJFanatics.com give you the best at home solo drills to improve your BJJ! 

FINDING THE BALANCE

One of the most important aspects of learning a complex Martial Art like Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, is finding a balance between everything. There are many sides to Jiu Jitsu like the technical application, the extensive knowledge, bulletproofing your body, increasing your range of mobility, preparing your body through stretching, and pushing your body's limitations through cardio based workouts. Some good bjj tips would be to not focus too hard on all of the strength and conditioning workouts, and to make sure that they are increasing their knowledge, and technical application of Jiu Jitsu. BJJ is a strength workout in itself, so putting too much of your time into external strength workouts maybe defeating the purpose entirely. Finding the right balance between how much external training a student should be doing, compared to the internal training of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, is always the difficult task. Students should listen to their body, as their body will tell them if they are overtraining, or not training enough. 

When students are training at home alone they should steer clear of lifting really heavy weight, as this can be dangerous to do without someone to spot. Students should instead be using kettlebells, resistance bands, or machine weights, to help them increase their strength. The most important part of balancing everything is not just training, as students should not obsess too much, and allow themselves time to follow any other passions they have in their life. This may include family time, as one of the biggest mistakes a new student of Jiu Jitsu can make, is neglecting their family while trying to become a BJJ athlete. Students should be training smart and still leaving time for every other good thing they have in their life, as this is how they will embody the spirit of Jiu Jitsu, and enjoy the art for many years to come.

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