By Erin Herle

[Continued from here.]

Drilling outside of class is like doing your homework. Working on technique, situations, your weaknesses are all important and can be done outside of class. We often don’t allow ourselves to play with weaknesses when training in class and the time allotted for technique is used for a new move, adding to the list of homework assignments to ingrain into your muscle memory.

Now that you have your training partners, the mats to train on and a time to meet up let’s put the timer to use with some lesson plan ideas.

Here are some examples of drills/specific training situations to help you run your class that Gianni Grippo has adjusted through trial and error in his own competition classes at Renzo Gracie Academy NYC:

3-minute rounds of choice drilling

Drilling a guard pass of choice with a partner / Photo by Erin Herle

Every person will pair with someone near their size if possible and drill a move of their choice. SwitchStay with the same move and if you choose to do more rounds with another move, keep them similar. Extend the move into a counter defense move, a submission into another submission and ultimately all bottom game or all top game. It makes it easier to implement and gain many repetitions.

3-minute rounds of chosen drill

Leg drag drills / Photo by Erin Herle

Dictating the move to drill is a great way to have everyone secure a staple move. This could be a very common move, counter, defense, motion, etc. There are guard passes, guard recovery, positional moves and defensive techniques that everyone must know so using this time to implement these required moves into everyone’s game is beneficial for all. Even if they aren’t fancy and are sometimes even boring, making time for them is important.

5-minute situational sparring

Working situational sparring from the back / Photo by Erin Herle

Training in a position and only that position is a good way to understand the mechanics and leverage of a situation. Being in both top and bottom side control allows both defense, maintenance and offense to improve. Start with a position and state exactly how everyone should start. If you are working on back mount should the person have hooks and a seatbelt grip or should it start from turtle and the person on bottom only needs to recover guard? Focus on who needs to do what, the goal, the grips and rules. When the timer starts, shake hands and roll normal speed within the position and rules. Switch between positions with same partners then switch partners for each round.

5-minute rounds of guard defense

Guard defense rounds with adamant passers / Photo by Erin Herle

The person who plays guard must defend their guard while the person on top tries to pass. The focus of this is guard recovery and defense while the person on top can work their guard passing without the threat of sweeps or submissions. Start with open guard so that the guard player must take what the guard passer gives. If the guard is passed, start over.

90-Second Losing Situation

Losing opponent must act quickly / Photo by Erin Herle

Mostly for competition-oriented people, this drill is important for acting quickly yet smart. The person in guard is down on points and must sweep or submit to win the match. With 90 seconds left in a match it can create a type of adrenaline or hastiness that will cause mistakes. With this drill focus on the application of sweeps and submissions and acting quickly when it is most important. The person on top can work the pass like normal but you are forced to play smart and pay attention to your base. If you are winning in a match, you should always keep working instead of stalling but you don’t want to cost yourself the match. Switch partners with this drill.

8-Minute Matches

Live sparring with 8-minute matches / Photo by Erin Herle

Include regular rolling into your routine like you would any other class as it can be the best way to apply anything you’re currently working. Also, more mat time is always a good thing. Try to work on what you have drilled and focus on your weaknesses. Remember, there is no ego in the gym and what happens in training stays in training. Don’t be afraid to work on what you need to work so that you can improve in all areas. If you compete, you’ll be more prepared and have more to work with in your muscle memory. Switch partners and have at least four rounds.

Submission-Only Match with 30-Minute Time Limit

Submission-only matches create submission-oriented people / Photo by Erin Herle

You can save this round for last or have multiple matches in one session. These types of situations, especially when tired after a training session, are great for focusing on finishing an opponent. Focus on gaining dominant positions and attacking. This works the defense and offense. The 30-minute time limit can and will be reached but is a good stopping point should anyone go the length.

Gianni Grippo’s planner with lesson plans and drilling notes.

Remember that these drills are examples. The time limits, the numbers, the details can all be manipulated but are a great jumping off point. A good way to run these classes is to determine a lesson plan before so you can state to everyone involved what the itinerary will be for each class. A planner or designated notebook will be efficient.

And the most important tip for your drilling Jiu-Jitsu classes?

Enjoy yourself!

Drilling is fun! / Photo by Erin Herle

All you need is a place, like-minded training partners and a timer / Photo by Erin Herle

By Erin Herle

Sometimes classes aren’t enough to refine your technique. A lot of training can and will be done during scheduled classes at your academy but in order to really do your homework and solidify techniques, you must drill the moves repeatedly. Many athletes run into problems when organizing drilling sessions becomes difficult. Do you have partners? Do you have time? Do you have a location? Do you have a routine?

Getting started is the hardest part but with some guidance from Gianni Grippo at Renzo Gracie Academy NYC, you can organize your own Jiu-Jitsu drilling classes. Established after he returned from winning his fifth world title at the Long Beach Pyramid in July of 2011. As he reached the higher levels he knew he had a need for focused, consistent and technical training. He filled the need by gathering like-minded individuals at his academy and organized his own classes.

Here are some tips for how you can organize your own specific Jiu-Jitsu training:

What you need: Location, Like-Minded Individuals, Timer

Plan a location

If necessary, clear any permissions with your instructors or facility owners. You may have to designate the mat time beforehand, ask for space every time or if you’re lucky, you can block the space and time for a regular basis. Should you be unable to gain access to your school, consider buying mats and training at a garage or home base. There are many options.

Find interested candidates

Part of running your own class is the benefit of choice. Choice for where, when and especially who. If you have a certain standard for who you want to train with, make your class entirely invitational. You can add restrictions or you can make it an open class. Remember that if you are a higher belt, you may spend a lot of your time teaching than training should you allow lower belts or beginners.

Have a lesson plan

If you want to run your class similar to the way your instructor organizes classes, it would be limiting your opportunity. Save the type of training you do in class for just that — your scheduled classes. Use these drilling classes to make sure you are working on what you feel is lacking. Plan a lesson plan each time that designates how much time is spent on each aspect. Remember, you can warm-up, drill, spar, focus on submissions, competition aspects and anything else.

Use your time wisely

Designate how much time will be spent on each type of training. Make sure you spend a good amount of drilling and specific situation. The lesson plan you write should have a set time or amount of reps so that no time is wasted. Don’t take too many breaks and when there are breaks, plan them ahead. Try to let everyone know the lesson plan before the class starts, that way everyone knows how to pace themselves and what to expect.

Be consistent

Try to set a date and time that works best for everyone. Start a public or secret group on Facebook purely for your members and make sure communication is open. Make it a democracy, allowing suggestions that way everyone can feel they are gaining something of this type of opportunistic and unique training. If you want to switch the schedule for who is running class, organize one-on-one last minute drilling sessions, create a group calendar or anything else to stay organized, these can all be accomplished through Facebook.

Most importantly, know that you are in charge of your own training regardless of how you see it. How much appreciation you have for the art, how much energy you put forth in training, how much dedication you place on the lifestyle, it is purely your own doing. Create your own training atmosphere, start today.

Part two has lesson plans for your convenience!

Gianni Grippo (Photo: Jeffrey Chu Fighter Plus/ instagram @jeffreyschu) against Kit Dale (Photo: Personal archive)

There has always been a debate about how to organize a Jiu-Jitsu class, what the best cross-training is, or how much time to spend on sparring versus technique.

Most recently, Australian black belt Kit Dale has pursued a campaign against drilling–repeating a technique over and over to secure it into “muscle memory.” His quick ride to getting his black belt along with titles at Brazilian Nationals, Abu Dhabi World Pro, Asian Open and more prove that how he approaches training has worked for him.

On the other side of the debate is Marcelo Garcia black belt Gianni Grippo who believes that drilling outside of class will help your overall training and competition results. His multiple world titles coming up in the ranks prove that his tactics are worthwhile as well.

So how much weight should we put on drilling techniques versus sparring and/or live training? Let’s hear more from these two:

Here is Kit’s post about how drilling the same moves over and over will not help you as other methods can. The excerpt:

“One of the things I noticed early early on was that you didn’t have to drill something 100 times to be able to apply it during training. If I understood the basic principles of a movement and winged it, it would usually work. I remember using moves in sparring that I had never practised before and getting them to work. Even ones I had been told were “bad” by the instructor. My reply to him was always the same: “But it works”. I also saw that the most important thing in a movement is not the technique, but the timing. I could do anything, from a cartwheel to backflip over someone’s guard, and if it was done at the right time it would work. Conversely, I could do the most technically sound movement, but miss the timing, and it would fail. Observing these phenomena helped come to the decision to build my game on the foundations of improvisation and key principles, instead of drilled, refined techniques.”

Read the full post here.

Gianni wrote his own post about “the beauty of drilling” and how it helped him from purple belt and on. The excerpt:

“Now today I feel like my drilling revolves around my training as it helps me stay constantly goal oriented. Drilling 2-3 times a day now I have a different plan for each session. In the mornings I’ll drill from the guard, at night I’ll drill guard passing and in the afternoon sessions I’ll choose either that I feel needs more work at the time. Each session will revolve around one position with 2 or 3 variations and with that I always go into the training with a goal of what I want to try to land. Then with this I feel like it carries well into competition- knowing I have gone over each aspect of a match over and over again gives me the confidence that I can attain my goals in the match at hand. Like I said in my last post about mental preparation- everyone is different. Everyone may have something different that works better for them and maybe drilling doesn’t reap the benefits for some like it has so far for me. But, I truly believe with hours of organized and consistent sessions of drilling specific techniques your game will improve. Don’t believe me, just give it a try (I’m looking at you, Kit.)”

Read the full post here.

Kit responded to Gianni’s post on facebook:

“I love Gianni Grippo.. Nice article.. But to add an opposing point of view.. I will note a few things.. “Drilling until it becomes automatic and you don’t need to think” – This sounds like a good idea against people you can beat easily.. But applying a technique without thinking sounds like a recipe for disaster at the top level.. What if it’s a trap and you just fell into it due to being entrapped by your own muscle memory.. What if this opponent reacts differently or is shaped differently from your training partner.. Unless you have been changing your drilling partners every session which will dilute your tech..

Also you stated you drilled 3 times a day.. How often do you do live training.. Personally I don’t know many people that can train that much. And it seems if you want to take the drilling path you need something not a lot of people have.. Time! You have been training from a very young age if I’m not correct? I started at 22 while working full time and competing in another sport.. I only had time for two sessions a week for the first year..

Drilling was not an option.. Which ended up paying divid ends for me.. 4 years of training.. Averaging 5 sessions a week to black belt.. I guess I learn differently.. But so does everybody.. I believe if you are a good problem solver and strategist.. Like a chess player.. The drilling will kill your creativity.. But if you’re an athlete that has all day to train and isn’t the creative or strategist type then drilling is the answer.. What you think Gianni?”

Gianni’s response:

“Kit, while I understand your reasoning’s, as I always try to look at both sides of the coin I just want to counter a few key points that you brought up. While you say that “drilling until it’s automatic” is a recipe for disaster, I think on the contrary. For example, of course I’m going to drill the basic leg drags until it becomes muscle memory, but once I have that down I also make sure to drill the proper reaction to my opponents defenses/counters. I know there can always be elements of surprise or ways guys can counter so I always make sure to drill based off of my opponents reaction. In this case I would drill the leg drag, my opponent counters and I react to the counter- turning the drill into a series.

Although I still train twice a day around my drilling sessions and my drilling compliments rather than supplements my training, I appreciate my drilling sessions because it gives me the opportunity to make my technique better while preventing the risk of injury. So I’m putting in more mat time with less strenuous activity which leads to less chance of injury. Of course I never suggest not training and only drilling, but I feel it’s important to find a good balance.

Also I feel drilling has only spurred on my creativity. Without repeatedly drilling the same position/same technique there’s no way I’d find ways to branch off and figure out new things. If you saw a new technique from single leg X I did that was posted on BJJ Pix, you’ll see that’s a perfect example of what I’m explaining. I’ve been drilling that entry into the single leg X for a while I started seeing a different technique I could try once my opponent disengages and tries to lean back once in the single leg X. From there I saw that I could take the back.

Finally, yes on most days I do drill three times a day but that is mainly because I have more time to spend on the mats than I did a few years ago (although I still have a year of college left.) I used to drill once a day for an hour four times a week and with that I felt a huge benefit. Like I said in the blog post, drilling those sessions for one year completely changed my game. So to help your game, one session a day will still help a lot, I just do three because I love it so damn much.

p.s. poke me back.”

——-

After reading both sides, what do you believe is the best way to train Jiu-Jitsu? Have you tried both methods? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

Kit with his team of non-drillers. Photo: Personal archive

I’m not sure what aspect of Australian black belt Kit Dale makes him so notable. His beard has been considered the best in the Jiu-Jitsu community, his fast-paced journey to black belt is one that rivals most black belt’s, and his newest stance against drilling has made its way across newsfeeds.

While he wasn’t able to compete at the Pans this year, he has secured his registration for the 2014 World Championship coming up on May 28 – June 1. Learn more about this Aussie and his preparation for worlds here:

GRACIEMAG: Tell me about your training schedule and your new academy.

KIT DALE: My training schedule consists of two classes at the moment: a competition class at 2 p.m. that goes for roughly one hour, this consists of sparring rounds from 6-10 minutes with one minute rest in between, then again at 6 p.m. I teach class which I regally roll in as well, but concentrate more on my students than myself.

My academy has been open for five weeks now. I’m very happy and excited because the gym is really nice, the location is amazing, and it’s located central to Melbourne so a lot of competition-serious grapplers have come over and joined my club–which is good for all of us. Now I have better guys to train with.

How long have you been training and how did you receive your black belt?

I’ve been training five years now. I received my black belt from Yuri Simoes and Lucas Leite after the worlds last year. I progressed fast because I wanted to fight at the highest level–even if it means I’ll get beaten more at the start. I want to compete against the best. I don’t want to be the best of the second or third division.

Kit touches himself. Photo: Personal archive

What was the biggest difference in moving to the black belt division?

The biggest difference from brown to black is mindset. So far I haven’t competed at my best internationally yet, especially at black belt. It’s a confidence issue for me. I progressed quickly from white to black (in 4 years) so the downfall is experience. But this is something I’m working on diligently at the moment. Once I get the mind right I will be competing at a completely different level to what I am at the moment.

Tell me about your distaste for drilling and what the alternative is. Do you do more specific training?

Yes I do not like high repetition drilling. And I could pull information from about 100 different sources to back up why I don’t. But no one wants to read that these days haha. I basically want to have a game based around improvisation and timing, not of predictable reactions and rehearsed routines.

I replace it with specific training. Now all my training is against live partners. So timing and experience is always levelling up. I’ve tried to remove the whole concept of singular techniques and just feel my way through to rolls now. At the moment I think then do. But soon I won’t even need to think. “And where there is an opportunity, I don’t hit! It hits all by itself” -Bruce Lee

Kit promotes student Joshua Flint to purple belt. Photo: Personal archive

How many high-level belts do you train with regularly?

I have several purple belts now to train with and a couple brown. Which is a big improve man to what I had before.

How much does working out come into play for you?

Strength and conditioning plays no part in my training, I haven’t done conditioning for years now. Not because I don’t believe in it as it’s an amazing advantage. But simply because it is time I’d rather spend doing something more productive to my life. Winning competitions is great but there are bigger things in my life. I don’t want to finish my BJJ career with nothing else happening for me. I have about six other ventures I do, which I enjoy equally as much. Life’s too awesome to spend it doing the same thing every day.

———

Have you registered for your own division at the 2014 World Championship? There’s still time. Head to www.ibjjf.org and register before the May 19 deadline!

Check out the speed drills they do to pass the guard and take the back when the opponent turns away:

One single rule: Drill it until you know it.

Drilling with a timer keeps you better on track. Physical timer or app works great. / Photo by Erin Herle

The great thing about Jiu-Jitsu is that you don’t need much equipment to train. If you have mats, a training partner and a mode of learning, you can practice the gentle art.

But sometimes using some gadgets or optional avenues can help you get more knowledge and practice even more efficiently. Here are two very easy pieces of equipment to facilitate your Jiu-Jitsu training and how to use them:

A timer app

These days you have many available products that allow app downloading. Usually this can be in the form of a phone: Android, Windows, Iphone. If not, you can use a computer like a PC or Mac or any kind of tablet like an Ipad, Kindle, Nook, etc. There are tons on the market. Locate your app store and download an application that lets you use a timer. An app that controls sets of time allows you to:

• Organize timed rolls or sparring

• Manage your repetitions for drilling specific techniques

• Set how long you want to work with someone for specific training

• Design a circuit training of exercises, solo drills or both

Some of the highest rated apps for example are: Timer+, @Timer, Interval Timer – For Fitness and Workout, Impetus Interval Timer

Tip: Put the time  of your set to 2:00 or 3:00 with an interval time of 0:10 to 0:20. If you are using a circuit training, know which moves or exercises you want to add into the routine, set up whatever equipment you need and then keep your interval time and set time rather low. If you’re focused on drilling a move, make it a longer set time to make sure you’re able to get enough repetitions in and lengthen the interval time so your partner has enough time to prepare for his/her moves.

YouTube

While we always recommend you seek out an instructor and/or Jiu-Jitsu academy, it’s never a bad idea to do your own research as supplemental training. Accessing YouTube through an app or via the website, you can scour an endless amount of Jiu-Jitsu resources. Use YouTube to:

• Upload your own matches from competitions to share with friends and family, as well as for review now and then to know what you need to work on

• Watch matches either of future opponents, teammates, or high level guys to learn some new tricks and stay up-to-date with the competition scene

• Learn techniques from other practitioners. There are some unqualified people who upload these types of video so be aware. To be sure, either know who is teaching and their credentials or just refer to our GRACIEMAG channel for plenty of moves taught by the most technical and experienced black belts in the world

Tip: Make an account and use the “watch later” function or create a Jiu-Jitsu playlist and add the videos you like so you can refer to them later. Separate drills and techniques from notable matches. Do your research to know what you want to study. Never supplement your academy’s training routine for YouTube videos and never assume that what’s you’ve learned online makes you an expert. Watching matches is a great way to see what the experts are using and along with their tutorials you can bring the information to your next class and talk about it with your instructor.

Blending the two resources

Once you have your app and you have an idea of what you would like to research, you can take a move or concept and drill it with the timed sets under supervision of your instructor. Using these two together have helped some of the best competitors and practitioners better understand the art they love.

Check out this sample GRACIEMAG technique video to get you started: