drills to increase hip-control/flexibility?

[WAR MMA]

What are some good drills I can run through to help increase control over my hips? I have found that I can't pop onto my side with my hips alone, I have to use a foot on my opponent to work into this position.

 

[Respeezy]

Maybe you find something usefull in these drills?
YouTube - Andre Galvao bjj drill

 

[zombiejitsu***]

 

[bnosam]

Google some yoga positions, or just buy a yoga dvd. I recommend Stephan Kesting's yoga for martial arts.

 

[silvasurfer5253]

youtube

All the shit you need is there
Ryan hall has a great series of videos for this stuff.

 

[sfgrappler]

Butterfly stretch and splits.

 

[roqriro]

main bjj population uses ginastica natural as flexibility workout...
type "ginastica natural" in youtube and have fun, it's not easy as it looks like

 

[Rod1]

Doing bridge rolls, shrimping and developing a strong hip by deadlifting or squatting freeweights.

Also crabwalks

 

[dza76wutang]

Honestly, just roll a lot. Your body will learn to move in a BJJ way over time because it needs to. I was as agile as frozen molasses when I started and now I have much improved hip mobility, hip control and leg dexterity. It's still not as good as others, but it continues to ramp up. You don't need to be Gumby-esque to do BJJ, just keep doing it and your body will find the grooves and arcs that work.

 

[Puzo]

 

[sanchezero]

^

yoga provides a lot of bang for the buck as far as 'crosstraining' goes. ginastica stuff is pretty awesome, too.

 

[Taptap]

I've been lurking for a long long time, but this is a thing I've been troubled with recently, so...

I assume when asking about drills you're looking for some solo exercises, but tbh the best ones require a partner to help you out. I'm not an authority in terms of conditioning but I don't really like the approach of putting static stretching over complex fluid movements when talking about improving your flexibility in jujitsu. As I said I've been thinking about it lately and so I've came out with few drills:

• 
  1 - Regaining guard drill
  Get your partner to pass your guard, then push his head/shoulders down to the opposite direction and shrimp out so you put yourself perpendicular to his body regaining the guard. Yeah I know it's basically just shrimping, but let me tell you imo it's probably the best drill for the hip flexibility/movement your looking for, plus it teaches you a good habit.

• 
  2 - Armless submissions
  As it states, try to apply any known submission involving hip/leg movement for both sides - left -> right -> left -> right getting the good flow and focusing on proper (or even extended to some point) hip/leg/core movement. I find the triangle and especially the omoplata from open guard to be the best ones for this drill, but armbar form guard is fine too. Next step is to try to get them (also get from one side to another) without or with minimal use of arms/upper body in general. Of course your partner needs to help you with positioning himself - giving you the arm for the triangle or extending the arms for the omoplata and etc.

• 
  3 - Guard flow drill
  Very similar to the drill above you're going to chain some guard movements, for example:
  
  Full guard -> shrimp to the left -> hook the partner's right foot with your left foot -> stretch and insert left butterfly hook while shrimping to your right -> move to the half guard on your partner's left leg -> shrimp to the right and insert your right butterfly hook gaining the half butterfly guard -> shrimp out to the full butterfly guard -> regain full guard shrimping to the left and right -> repeat to the other side.
  
  or
  
  Full guard -> shrimp out getting the spider guard with your feet on your partner's hips and your knees bent -> extend your left leg putting your foot on your partners right arm stretching it out, not only extending your leg but also adding hips to this movement (keeping the proper grips on the wrists/sleeves ofc) -> shoot your right leg forward and acquire the lasso control over your partner's left arm -> now your partner stands on his left leg up now kneeling on his right knee -> let go of the lasso and overhook your partner's left arm with your right leg also hooking your foot under his left knee -> pull your right leg out and place your right foot on your partner's left arm -> change the stretched side from left to right -> repeat the sequence above to the left side -> pull guard -> repeat
  
  and so on.

Back to the solo drills aside from shrimping forwards/backwards/sideways/one legged etc try doing these three exercises:

Starting by two awesome ones brought by Aesopian:
+
​

^ those helped me a lot, Ginastica Natural is also great thing. But in general the best tip on drilling is just putting reps to it. And by putting reps I mean some serious numbers. Good luck with your training!

 

[blackers10]

hop on your knees put one foot infront of the other knee and lay foward onto your elbows and pull the foot that is now under you forward and stretch out

 

[Oak]

Great post TapTap, thank you.

 

[redaxe]

Whoa taptap, you are a ninja

 

[blackers10]

that last drill from NYBJJ is freakin nuts
id lay down and not get up after a session of those haha.. but I am not very fit at this stage

 

[Fedorzilla]

I was just thinking about this today because my hips were really tight during and after class. Yoga is great, but I've been slacking.

Thanks, TapTap

 

[roqriro]

This is sticky worth, there should be sticky thread just for these stuff, exercises for particular attributes and abilities