Jiu Jitsu = riding a bike?

[Cash Bill 52]

Do you know of people who have trained jiu Jitsu for a long time; take extended periods off, come back and still wreck people?
I used to make the bike comparison by saying, “it’s like riding a bike for 50 miles up hill.”
I recently had a minor knee injury and it got me thinking...there is so much more to life than jiu Jitsu. I have accomplished quite a bit in the sport and I have no burning fire to achieve any more. At 50, I am considering taking another hiatus. I’m not retiring. Just lowering the priority level of my training. My body feels better after going to the gym, lifting some weight, and going for a swim. I want to explore the world. I need my knees to do that.
Anyway, John Danaher wrote a bjj=bike Facebook update. It got me thinking...

“The bicycle wheel: Students often come to me concerned that due to some circumstances in their life, be it injury, career, family/personal, they have to reduce training. Their concern is that with reductions in training time they will lose the skills they had worked so hard to develop. Don’t be concerned. Skills take tremendous work in order to be CREATED OR IMPROVED, but very little work in order to be MAINTAINED AT (OR CLOSE TO) THEIR CURRENT LEVEL. My friend, Jean Charles Skarbowsky, used a fine metaphor to express this idea. Remember when you were a child playing with a bicycle? You could prop the bicycle upside down and spin the front wheel with your hand. When you first began to spin the wheel, it took a fair amount of effort to get it spinning quickly - you had to overcome the inertia of the stationary wheel through effort. BUT ONCE THE WHEEL WAS SPINNING QUICKLY - YOU COULD EASILY KEEP IT MOVING AT SPEED BY PERIODICALLY BRUSHING THE WHEEL WITH A LIGHT TOUCH OF YOUR HAND. Realize this - YOUR PHYSICAL SKILLS WORK THE SAME WAY. Once they are well developed, even minimal efforts will maintain them close to their current level. Have faith that should life and circumstances take you in directions that mean you have to reduce training time - don’t despair. Just stay in the game to the degree that you keep most of what you worked so hard to gain. THE ONLY TIME I SEE PEOPLE DRASTICALLY LOSE SKILLS IS WHEN THEY COMPLETELY ABANDON THE GAME BOTH MENTALLY AND PHYSICALLY. All the time I see athletes keep ninety percent of their skills with just minimal upkeep for extended periods of time. As soon as circumstances change favorably you can get back in the saddle very quickly and then devote the extra time and effort to making improvements and innovations- which require considerably more time and effort. Whenever training time gets compromised let the metaphor of the bicycle wheel be your guide.”

 

[Kenny from MD]

Much more to life than jiu jitsu? Heretic!

 

[Cash Bill 52]

Much more to life than jiu jitsu? Heretic!

Let the trial begin!

 

[jr jr]

I am also on the long tooth end of the spectrum. I still do three days a week but never more. I still make it every Saturday but my other hobby (bicycles) has been calling. I really want to go explore some mountains farther away. Spend some more time among the trees in solitude.

They can burn us at the stake together.

 

[2008]

Short answer, YES, I do know one person like that. I'm generally a little jealous of people who can do that.

The funny thing, too, is if this student trained consistently and hard for one more year he probably get his black belt(he's currently a purple).

 

[Thrawn33]

When you get older the bounce back time increases.

Worse is when you try to go the speed you used to too when you were in shape.

 

[TheMood]

I think for some people this might be the case. One of the guys I train with that is significantly better than me took two and a half years off. He came back like he never missed a class. Same grip strength, great cardio, and seemed to remember all the techniques. It was really something to see.

However, that was not my experience. I missed five months with a broken thumb and my return was much worse. It was very rough the first few weeks of training. I learned why some people quit and I had times where I was wondering if it was worth it. Thankfully, I just kept showing up.

 

[Rod1]

I have taken 6-12 months long hiatus all over my BJJ career and only once did i felt not to be competitive and the reason was that i let myself go for an entire year (no physical activity at all).

Since that time i have never let myself go so even at my worst i still went to lift weights at least one time a week. So if you keep a minimum level of fitness you should bounce back quickly.

Although experience may vary depending on your game, my game is super basic due to doing college judo and having the same basic skills repeated over and over, so even if i forget the most fine skills in BJJ i can still be competitive through a solid base and killer armbars from judo.

 

[BJJ_Rage]

totally is.

at 37, I notice that when I take big breaks, 2 to 3 weeks, the first week I come back Im much better than the last days before the break. Overtraining is a real thing. Now long period of times, like 6 months, it will take a little to gain fluidilty I think, the most Ive been out was like 2 months, but I didnt notice much.

 

[Kenny from MD]

Short breaks have always made me come back much stronger, but only because I am so eager to train again that I think I am going way harder.

I've only taken one long break. I came back fat and out of shape and couldn't move well at all. It was frustrating and almost discouraged me from returning at all, but in the end, I trained consistently, got back to a place where I could move better, and in the meantime focused on areas I was weak (passing and wrestling/judo) and came out better for it.

 

[EGDM]

I think I'm "that guy". I've taken many long breaks from training due to injury - a full year twice, then three years, and several multi-month stints. I always lose a step or two but nothing catastrophic. One of my prouder moments was being told by Lucas Lepri, "You're one of those annoying people who takes a year off and comes back better, aren't you?" after my first class post-meniscus reconstruction. The biggest loss is my conditioning, which invariably sucks for a month or three.

While I'm off the mats I make an effort to stay mentally active in BJJ by watching tournaments and technique videos. I've always classified myself as a kinesthetic learner (learning by "feel"). One of the main skills I built over a decade+ of Aikido was to develop an eye for body mechanics that allows me to simulate how it would feel to execute a technique just by watching someone else do it. It's by no means a replacement for real training, but it helps a lot.

One thing that I've noticed about training breaks is that for my first few rolls after a hiatus I'm not thinking consciously at all. The techniques I use are limited to whatever is in my muscle memory, so they're comparatively fluid and automatic. As soon as my conscious brain is in "learning mode" for a couple of weeks and I start trying to do specific moves my performance drops dramatically. People have usually forgotten about the break by then, though.

 

[Lenny7]

I can take a long break from my bike, I mountain bike, and after a few rids all my confidence is back and I'm good to go. I just came back to JJ from a long break and holy cow it's like I'm riding a unicycle.

 

[Cash Bill 52]

I think if you've trained for 10 years or more, time off will help your body recover from repetitive motion issues.
As long as you stay in shape by being active, lifting, swimming, etc, you could step back in after a year layoff without too much difficulty. Cardio and timing might take a month or so...
Sitting on the couch eating donuts would mess that plan up, though.

 

[FatherSauce]

I'm kind of in that maintaining situation right now. Work and injuries has meant that the last 3 months or so I'm doing great to get an hour of training a week. It's frustrating because I know I'm not getting any better but it's encouraging when I roll to see that I'm not really getting significantly worse. I'm looking forward to when I can train more regularly again.

 

[Thaijitsu612]

I didn't read that entire wall of text by I did take a couple extended breaks and always felt just as good when I came back. My stamina and timing were a little off but came back within a few weeks

 

[jr jr]

I didn't read that entire wall of text by I did take a couple extended breaks and always felt just as good when I came back. My stamina and timing were a little off but came back within a few weeks

Why the snark?

 

[karma2burn]

I'm about to find out. Been out 6 months due to nagging injuries and life events. Although I didn't really wreck people before I left so I doubt that will have changed. I fully expect my fat old ass to get handled for the first two months until I can get my wind and timing back.

 

[Forceof1]

I do agree, but am curious what the impact of aging will be. By study and nature of how I learn, I can continue to make progress training 2-3 times per week. It's all family and work life balance allow. But as I get closer to 40, there is a big difference with how I'm bouncing back from my last lay off to this one.

When i took 4-5 months off for shoulder surgery, I bought 4 of Ryan Halls DVD's and watched them all the time. I felt like it was a course in BJJ theory- and after a month or two for cardio and timing to return, I was SIGNIFICANTLY better at BJJ than I was before due to a better understanding of it.

Four years later, I'm currently recovering from elbow surgery , but having difficulty finding the same motivation to study. It may be a combination of relying on BJJ and lifting for working out- I hate riding bikes or running, so operation get fat over the holidays is in full effect. Or it may be that I was promoted shortly before surgery, so there is nothing in the immediate future to focus on. I'm hoping once I get cleared to get back on the mats (another month or so) the fire will return. I might sign up for a tournament or something just to have a goal (besides losing the 20 pounds I'm putting on).

It is funny that my employees are starting to realize they like me a lot better when I am choking people on a regular basis

 

[Thaijitsu612]

Why the snark?

No snark, just saying I didn't read the entire post as a disclaimer. Sometimes there may be details in op that matter or would change my respons or make what I said not make sense.

 

[wordspeaker]

You're a really experienced grappler right?? Youre not going to lose that. And if you did? Who cares. Be happy, be healthy, enjoy life and serve the things you love.

If you want to save the body but keep progressing, take some of the energy you put into competing in physicallity into competing mentally. Take in new information. Start to teach your system to someone less experienced to see if troubleshooting them helps you. Roll with other older grapplers. Just think more while u roll u roll until that's how you get gains.

Other tip I've got is that breaks interrupt your habits. Good and bad alike. If you take a break, use it as a chance to be mindful and only reuptake the good habbits and use it as a chance to stop making the same mistakes.