Advice on a training schedule w/ work life.

I plan on competing in at least 4 tournaments this year and I need suggestions on how to prepare my training regiment with my work schedule. I work M-Th 8am to 5pm, Friday 8am-12am, and Saturday nights with Sundays off.

I don't have any kids or wife but a gf.

I'm able to go to every night class M-Th, Saturday morning class, and Sunday open mat.

What would be the best way to get enough training with strength and conditioning?

 

Morning runs, you go to work late enough in the morning to get in some good ones, and attend your classes regularly. If I were you, I'd focus my Sunday open mats on drilling as opposed to rolling or atleast a large portion of the time. And as the comp gets closer, say a month and a half out, really start to dial in what your A game is and execute it in rolls. But I'm assuming you're a white belt, so an "A-game" won't really be available..so find a sub you're good at and confident in and drill drill drill. Or you could always play points...but I don't advocate that advice

 

I'm a blue belt (i consider myself at least average). I consider my a-game: open guard, passing the guard from standing, and attacks from side control/knee-on-belly.

 

Well, sorry then, made the assumption on asking for comp advice. And if you know what your a-game is already then you already know what you'll need to drill. If I were you it'd be:

2 guard breaks
2 guard passes that work well together
kob transistions from side to side
Armbars from side control and kob
1 or 2 gi chokes, if you're that kinda player
Obtaining your open guard of choice
2 sweeps from your open guard of choice

That's just what I would drill and work for in rolls if I was you and had a comp coming up.

 

Thx for the feed back. I competed a couple times as a white belt with relative success BUT that was back when I only worked 25 hours a week. I use to train bjj 5 days a week and hit the gym 4 days. Now I work 55 hours or so, so it's hard for me to prioritize...i can only imagine how hard it would be with a family :icon_neut:

 

Well honestly you have a pretty lax schedule mon-thurs and weekends off, which I'd spend mostly with the woman so she doesn't get all antsy haha, but that 8am-12am shift has gotta be a killer. Hell I'd probably just take saturday morning classes off after a shift like that to let my body rest, which is something you also need to let the body do so you're not burning yourself out before a comp.

 

train as much BJJ classes as possible and do S & C when you can, 1-2X a week is okay. Don't skip BJJ training to do S&C. If there is no BJJ training, use that time to go and do S&C

 

I was thinking this...I shouldn't be skipping any bjj classes for strength and conditioning. I want to roll/drill as much as possible. I'm not too concerned with the S&C portion though I think it's important for comp...Blue belt level of comp isn't as spazzy as white belts supposedly.

 

cut out wasted time in your life and train! TV, surfing the internet, going to the pub

add up the hours spent doing these and spend half that time training, privates, reping, drilling, cardio, streatching, learning & you will see masive improvments....

 

dude, you have nights off and nothing tying you down. go practice, or

 

Wow. That's pretty harsh.

 

Dump the girlfriend, quit your job and work part time, then train every night and as many day classes as you can get to. Also, cross train in Judo and Freestyle Wrestling.

Working 55 hours a week is just unhealthy. I wouldn't work more than 30, at most. I work 15 hours a week, personally, and it's enough to live on well enough if you don't have kids and women sucking your wallet dry.

 

See if you can train somewhere earlier in the morning as well. I'm married and work more than that but manage to train 8x a week (just jiu jitsu) and still find time to hit the weights.

 

I work 50-60 hours per week, it sucks but after a couple months of sucking you get used to it and can train fine. I get about twelve hours a week.

And how do you survive on 15 hours per week Einar? You making like $60 an hour ?

 

I work a crazy random shift where i have to work 8 days and am off 6 days in a two week period. I can make it any shift i like....4 on 3 off....5 on 1 off 3 on 5 off...or any combination there in. my shift starts at 4pm and is over at 2 am.

Combine that with a wife, baby on the way, being on call, having a life, ect and I dont have time to train.......so I make time to train. I schedule my days off around training when I have nothing else to do. I get up early and drive to an associate school for lunch time classes before work. I convence buddies to roll at 2-4 am when I am gettin off work.

Make it work. Sounds like your schedule is pretty open to it.

 

No, I just live in a glorified closet, don't drink, ride a motorbike rather than a car and don't spend much generally. I'd rather have free time to study, read, enjoy the outdoors and to train as much as I possibly can than have more money and things that I don't really need.

 

How often do you train?

 

18-22 hours a week. Not including S&C.

 

What about stuff like retirement, health insurance?

 

I live in Europe; health and dental care is free - the only thing I pay for is prescriptions (and they are all a flat, low-cost fee). I'm 24 (as of yesterday) so retirement isn't even on my radar and everyone here is entitled to a liveable state pension anyway.