Best Ways to Improve Your Jiu-Jitsu (That Isn’t More Jiu-Jitsu)

There are a lot of ways to improve your Jiu-Jitsu and there are a thousand people that will tell you the best way to do it.  While this article will be similar in it’s goal, I hope to provide the best ways to improve your Jiu-Jitsu that does not include your standard “eat better”, “train more”, and “lift weight” advice.  While those are great and effective, we’ve all heard them before and need something new.

I hope to give real examples that I personally use that have continued to improve my Jiu-Jitsu.  They have not only been effective, but they have been enjoyable.  These have broken up my typical trainings with new activity that has applied itself incredibly well.

Let me know if there are any I missed in the comment box below!

 

Cross-Train with Soccer, Basketball, or Rock Climbing

You may be thinking that I just randomly named off three different activities that have absolutely nothing to do with Jiu-Jitsu.  And while I agree that they seem random, I specifically have them on this list for very good reasons.

Soccer

If I had my own gym (future plans), part of the warm up and training would include a soccer ball.  You may think that sounds silly, but hear me out.  Soccer is one of the best sports there is for balance, coordination, and conditioning, and all three of those things will serve you incredibly well in Jiu-Jitsu.

When standing trying to pass an opponents guard, a huge part of their arsenal is trying to sweep you by off-balancing you.  The longer you can keep your balance against your opponent, the better chance you will have of getting around them.  The coordination you have to have to effectively play offense or defense in soccer will serve you well in the same way.

My third point, conditioning, is fairly obvious as well.  Conditioning of any kind can improve your ability to recover more quickly after rolling.  And those of you who have played soccer (outdoor or indoor), knows how incredibly tiring it is.

Basketball

For very similar reasons to soccer, basketball can be an incredible cross training for your Jiu-Jitsu practice.  Similarly to soccer, it requires an incredible amount of coordination and conditioning, which were touched on above. The quick twitch muscle gained from basketball vs soccer though will surely make you more explosive in your practice and allow you to hit your moves and escape grabs and holds that you otherwise might not have.

The other main benefit in basketball that is beneficial is the movement and coordination needed to play defense.  You are squatting down and shuffling quickly, while trying to cut off or beat your opponent to a spot.

It requires you to react quickly and adjust your movements at a moments notice.  And because of the way you have to turn, shuffle, move, and sprint consistently, your knees and legs will grow tremendously strong.

All of that movement used in coordination with passing someone’s guard have proved to be incredibly useful for me personally.  As a matter of fact, I was a basketball player before I did Jiu-Jitsu, and I continue to get comments on my ability to move and adjust positions, and I credit it tremendously to basketball.

 

Rock Climbing

For those of you that have done Rock Climbing before, I’m sure you can guess why this is in here.  For those who don’t, I strongly advise giving it a shot as there is one very clear benefit.

It is, in my opinion, the absolute best way to train your grip and forearm strength.  There is nothing like it.  I thought I was strong because of my Jiu-Jitsu grip and that I would power through every route.  Boy, was I wrong.

The way you have to hold up your body and the little pebbles they call holds that you have to do it with continues to leave me baffled.  Your hands, wrists, and grip will be forever stronger because of the workout that this puts you through.

If you are afraid of heights and don’t feel like scaling a massive wall, then have no fear! Most gyms that have climbing will have walls for “Bouldering”, which are shorter walls that don’t require you to be buckled in.  This also allows you to focus a bit more on your body position and the route itself, rather than the height.  So give the ol’ map a search for rock climbing gyms and climb to your hearts content.  Your Jiu-Jitsu will thank you.

 

Do Yoga

You get caught in a lot of weird positions in Jiu-Jitsu.  It just happens.  And there’s almost nothing worse than feeling your knee, hip, groin, or otherwise get put in a compromising situation.  The good news is, there is something that can help.  And that thing is called Yoga.

If stretching at home was a new white belt, yoga would be the black-belt professor.  To quote a friend of mine after attending his first yoga class, “I thought I knew how to stretch”.  And holy s*** is he right.

The intensity of the stretching that comes from Yoga is something to admire.  And there is no shortage of moves and positions that will give your hips, hamstrings, and all other muscles a happy pain that knows no bounds.

Since doing yoga somewhat consistently, I’ve noticed that my ability to squat down, maneuver my body, and ability to handle what have been uncomfortable positions in the past have greatly improved.  One of the biggest things I’ve learned is that triangles are not meant to put pressure on your knee.  If you feel knee pressure when doing triangles or another move that brings your foot towards your face, it isn’t your knee that’s the problem.  It’s your hip.  And man does yoga help those hips.

Need more convincing?  Increasing your flexibility is a statistically significant way to prevent injury.  I write more about this in my other post, Best Ways to Prevent Injury in Jiu-Jitsu.

There are a ton of free videos online that will lead you through a yoga session. So next time you’re itching for an alternative type of training, throw on a Youtube video or make it out to your local Yoga studio and give it a try.

And last but certainly not least…

 

Meditate / Visualization Training

Now, some of you may be rolling your eyes at this one, and I get it.  While it’s easy to label these as nonsense, the research that continues to be released on it says otherwise.

As a matter of fact, a number of professional and Olympic athletes use meditation and visualization training including Michael Jordan, Derek Jeter, Serena and Venus Williams, and many others.  Even the New York Times wrote about how much Mental Training the U.S. Olympic team does as part of their training.

To clarify, Meditation and Visualization training are not the same thing.  That being said, the practices can both involve you closing your eyes and focusing your attention.  So depending on your goals, one or both of these might be for you.

Meditation specifically can be used to improve your mood, reduce stress, and give you more ability to focus your attention.  It also can help make you more present to whatever situation you find yourself in.

So if you find yourself unable to focus or getting stressed out in your practice, then know there are some great guided meditations that can help. The Huberman Lab did a great podcast on this topic if you’d like to dive in deeper into the science.

If you are trying to improve your game or if you are actively competing, then visualization training might be for you.  This particular practice involves you envisioning yourself performing and hitting your moves.  If you are entering into a competition, then you’ll want to immerse yourself in the scene.

See the people, feel the mats, practice your moves, and put yourself into that situation as much as possible.  This has helped a tremendous amount of other athletes in their performance and it continues to be studied and practiced among elite athletes.

 

So there you have it.  Some other activities that are both enjoyable and are some of the best alternative ways I’ve found to improve your Jiu-Jitsu game. If there are any I missed, let me know in the form below!