Bjj Drill suggestions

imarayda

Purple Belt
@purple
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Anyone have a structure or schedule for drilling bjj? I've been training a while and it mostly consist of the classic "practice tech for 5 minutes then roll for the rest of class"; I want to try something different to improve my bjj. Does anyone have suggestions for specific drills or a drilling protocol to follow?
 
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Yes, with the caveat that my advice is dependent upon you being able to independently structure training sessions, which is an option not available to many people.

  1. Learn to delineate between which techniques are useful to drill a lot with no resistance, and which ones aren't. You need a little no resistance training to learn the mechanics of a move, but generally speaking the moves which benefit the most from no resistance drilling are those that require a high degree of coordination and muscle memory to pull off. So for example, shooting a double leg is a whole body motion that require a lot of coordination and benefits greatly in practice from being done quickly. It's a valuable move to drill a lot with no resistance. A cross choke from mount on the other hand is not, because it's not especially mechanically complex and is more a matter of developing feel than anything else.
  2. So how to develop feel? In most positions feel and tightness/pressure are more important than just moving quickly. The way you develop feel and tightness is by doing *a lot of moderate resistance positional sparring*. Bolded for emphasis, because moderate resistance positional sparring is probably the most important part of training for intermediate (blue and purple) level practitioners. That resistance should start low, like 40%, and gradually ratchet up to 80% or so. A good rule of thumb is that 80% resistance is when you feel like you're basically going 100% but the guy who is supposed to win wins every time.
  3. So you want to do a lot of positional sparring. Good for you. How to structure it? There are plenty of ways that work, but for me it's about trying to hit all the major positions relatively frequently spending an outsized amount of time on open guard, both top and bottom, as those are the most complex and most common types of engagements in BJJ. Depth over breath is your friend here. Pick a few moves that fit together well strategically in any given position, say 3 passes that chain well from top open guard, and just drill the shit out of those until you've developed a strong feel for when any given pass is likely to work and how to switch between them. *Do not just drill random moves*. Have a plan for each position and try to execute it.
  4. Over time you'll find yourself developing an arsenal of moves you do well. Now when you're rolling you should find that you have more success, but also that you're encountering the same problems/counters when rolling with higher belts. That's your feedback for what to drill next and which holes to fix in your game. If you've been drilling a ton of X guard variants and you're sweeping people consistently but black belts keep forcing you to half guard and passing, that's an indication that you need to work on developing some sort of half guard game (even if it's just 'how to get back to X guard'). Go back to the drawing board, figure out a strategy that appeals to you for playing half and connects well to the rest of your game, and go start drilling it.
However good I am, that's the process I followed when making my biggest improvements. IT's been a very effective system for cleaning up all the holes in my game. Doesn't mean I never get caught, but I never get caught because I don't know what to do in a position anymore and at the same time my game has become more coherent, simple, and direct since I started working this way. I highly recommend it as a long term training program.
 
What Uchi said - my only caveat is that your drilling should support your goals. While both approaches are important, drilling for competitors must be tweaked somewhat to incorporate considerations of rule sets and belt level appropriate approaches (meta games).
 
My drilling b3came way more effective when I tailored it to common reactions people give me that thwart my main game. Drilling the counter to the counter so to speak. Then kept adding to that. There are only a few common reactions to most situations and once you know them you can drill a sequence and up the resistance
 
Uchis post pretty much says it all but I would add one thing about guard drilling. IMO most people over drill submissions from guard and under drill guard retention. If you can retain guard you can flow between guards and try and fail submissions and sweeps.


If you can't retain guard you're basically praying you have your opponent in exactly the ideal position to attack - which basically never happens.
 
Uchis post pretty much says it all but I would add one thing about guard drilling. IMO most people over drill submissions from guard and under drill guard retention. If you can retain guard you can flow between guards and try and fail submissions and sweeps.


If you can't retain guard you're basically praying you have your opponent in exactly the ideal position to attack - which basically never happens.

This here.
That said, other than active drilling where your opponent has superior grips, what are some good guard retention drills?
 
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