What to do when you can't train

[u4ia]

Hey guys, I'm feeling kinda down right now because I had to miss my training session today to go to a family dinner (they're extremely rare, so I had to be there). I only go once a week, that's all my budget allows, and I've gone for around a month or two straight now. I'm at Beverly Hills Jiu Jitsu Club if that's relevant at all.

What I mean to ask is that Winter Break is coming up shortly, and they're going to be closed for it -- that would mean that including this session I just missed, I would miss three more. What my problem is is that I have no one to train with (10-year-old bro, cousin and friends too scared to "get hurt", or simply not willing to train for a couple hours straight). I have no heavy bag at home, no focus pads, no mat for grappling or sparring safely. I have two pairs of 16oz's, I often spar on the grass with whoever feels like it until the want to stop shortly after.

Apart from body weight exercises and the occasional workout, is there anything that's available to me apart from shadowboxing? Anything you know to train on the mental level, as well as the physical? Anything I can punch :redface: ? Thanks a lot for your time, I apologize for the long post.

 

[dutchmasterj3]

Try a gym

 

[guardpasser]

work on cardio and look at bjj or sub wrestling dvds
also , if you write down the techniques you know, step by step, it will help your memory of them a lot, or it does for me anyway

 

[u4ia]

work on cardio and look at bjj or sub wrestling dvds
also , if you write down the techniques you know, step by step, it will help your memory of them a lot, or it does for me anyway

Thanks a lot man, I'll try that. As for a gym, I don't have the time or money to do that. Thanks for the advice though.

 

[CanadianStriker]

Movies and books are great to help you learn and even better if you have a brother, roommate or friend to try things out on. their is alot of stuff you can do at home like cardio or even simple pushups and sit ups. If you can get a partner to try some moves you only need a little space but try working on your moves and not just grappling with them, go at a slow pace to learn the technique before you go at a fast pace.

 

[D3thr0n3d K1ng]

Lift wieghts, spar with whomever you can, jog, do anything.

 

[Brad]

drills drills drills drills drills...

and then more drills..

practice hip movement and "hipping out" on the carpet, throw round kicks until you want to puke, do burpees till you pass out. then get your bjj fix by watching techniques on the internet or ordering videos

 

[agu0001]

drill and study dvd's for technique, Ive been out for 2 months with a broken collar bone but i spent most of my spare time watching old gracie tapes and pride videos, when i returned last night I had allot more technique than i did before

 

[u4ia]

Again, thanks for all the advice. I will heed all of your kind words :wink:

 

[Nate Pringle]

do some burpees- also you amy be able to fin bas rutten workout somewhere - it doesnt need any equipment and is great for staying in shape. work on your grip strength by climbling a rope. work cardio conditioning by hitting hill sprints. theamount of ways to stay tuned up for grappling and mma even without equipment is limitless.

 

[triso]

Play video games that have grappling type moves in them ... no seriously.

 

[DMcKayBJJ]

Drill.
Cardio (run/jog).
Books (Eddie Bravo's $11 book on Amazon).

 

[dutchmasterj3]

Get Erik paulson's grappling drills. Easy to do stuff at home.

 

[tf]

dude, i'm in the same boat as you. family, work and other responsibilities limit my training to only once a week. once in a while, i get to train twice in a week. sometimes though, when things come up, i have to miss that week and it totally sucks.

i started drilling at home whenever possible and it has helped my game a lot. i also built my own grappling dummy for practicing submissions.

i keep my drill sessions relatively short (~ 30 minutes) and intense. this ensures that i'll actually do my drill session and that i get a decent workout from it. start at the beginning and do not take a break in between drills.

- shrimping across the carpet 5 minutes
- bridging 50 right side/50 left side
- egg beaters 5 minutes
- guard pass recovery drill against a wall (20 right side, 20 left side)
- side mount guard recovery drill against a wall (20 right side, 20 left side)
- ball spin on medicine ball (5 minutes) keep only your chest on the ball and your feet touching the floor. everything else off the floor.
- arm bar drills on grappling dummy
- any other submission drills i want to work on

keep the session short and intense and specific to grappling and it will improve your game and help pass the time until your next class.

 

[ColClaypool]

Thanks a lot man, I'll try that. As for a gym, I don't have the time or money to do that. Thanks for the advice though.

Ill be honest with you now...QUIT. If you dont have the money to attend more then one class a week, or cant go to the gym because of money and time? QUIT. DVDs, equipment, all that stuff costs money. Sorry, but if you dont have the dedicaiton to make the money to make it work...then quit now. Seriously.

You sound pretty young, join the freaking high school wrestling team.

 

[Gavin LeFever]

get your friends into it. just gotta get them interested by showing them one cool choke or something and they'll be hooked.

then again if you and your friends are all young and such this could be potentially dangerous, so be wise about who your teach and train with. teach him a hook and he pops your shit when you let him try, not good times.

 

[tf]

Ill be honest with you now...QUIT. If you dont have the money to attend more then one class a week, or cant go to the gym because of money and time? QUIT. DVDs, equipment, all that stuff costs money. Sorry, but if you dont have the dedicaiton to make the money to make it work...then quit now. Seriously.

You sound pretty young, join the freaking high school wrestling team.

this is bad advice.

there are 52 weeks in a year. that's 52 times you get to train jiu jitsu. if you train for a couple of hours each time, drill on the side, and take careful notes of what you went over each class, you can learn a lot. look at it like this, because you're going once a week, you have a lot of time to focus precisely on the things you're learning at each class. you may even learn more than some guys who are rolling 2-3 times a week but are not taking it seriously. you can't replace time on the mat. but more time on the mat doesn't necessarily equal a better jiu jitsu game. investing yourself more mentally into your game will help.

just because you can only train once a week now doesn't mean you won't be able to train more in the future. think long term. if you quit now, what happens in a couple of years when you can train more. you'll want to get back into it and you'll wished that you would've been training once a week.