The Year of Muscle

Each year I’ve been training has had a theme.

 

  • Year 1 – The year of rolling and being used as a wrestling partner !!
  • Year 2 – The year of Youtube and being used as a wrestling dummy !!!
  • Year 3 – The year of having a coach and going into temporary wrestling retirement !!

I’m not quite sure what this year has to hold but looking around me I’ve noticed for everyone else its the Year of Muscle. But me, I believe Jujitsu is not about strength or else you wouldn’t have a 68kg individual submitting opponents of over 100kg – the whole idea behind BJJ is to beat a bigger stronger opponent due to your level of skill.

 

Training does require strength no doubt about it but to waste your efforts on simply muscling up will hinder your game especially if your techniques are only working due to your extra strength.

Black belts roll in a relaxed fashion – more like a dance than a fight – many of them do Yoga or Pilates or Tai Chi to counter the hardness of BJJ. BJJ is a sport of thinking not forcing. If you know how to move well you can quite easily overcome size and strength to submit your opponent with ease. If you want to progress to purple, brown and black this evolution in thinking and rolling needs to take place.

 

The other issue with strength training is “overtraining”. Training BJJ three times a week and then doing weights three times a week along with work and a family is a very tough schedule and is almost certainly going to end up in an injury which will in turn mean you’re off the mats for a few days, weeks and possibly months.

 

You need to recover from training just as much as you need to train and the older you are the longer you need !!! My motto is stay safe and stay fit !!!!