Brazilian Jiu Jitsu has a strong culture of competition. For instance, many practitioners will compete at some point which is different from most traditional martial arts. Whilst most of these practitioners will be hobbyists, you can still add to your training regime to get the most out of your routine and improve your chances of winning.
Since competition is about winning and proving yourself, you want to give yourself the best possible chance of doing this which can be enhanced by a correct conditioning strategy. We will discuss these training strategies in-depth and how and why they should be used to improve your competition results.
Table of Contents
Strength training
This is probably the most obvious enhancement of all. However, strength training is effective and really works. Whilst getting stronger may not improve your technique, it will improve the application of your technique. By this, we mean that it is easier to hit moves whilst stronger. If ever you’ve struggled to pry open a wrist when attacking an armbar, this can be made easier in becoming stronger.
Here, your strength will allow you to remove the wrist by gripping harder and putting more force into the grip break. Although it’s not ideal to muscle moves on in the gym, it’s perfectly fine in a competition setting. As competition is about short-term goals, you shouldn’t worry about using strength and instead, it’s the perfect time to go for it.
One of the best ways to improve your strength is by using grappling based weight training exercises. For example, Turkish get-ups with kettlebells will add to your strength from the bottom. Whether using these methods to escape side control or burst into a technical stand up sweep, Turkish get-ups are great at improving your explosiveness from the bottom. This is vital as a guard player and by training a couple of times a week one or two months out from the competition date, you can add some serious strength gains during that time.
Grip strength
Grip strength is used in both Gi and Nogi. In the Gi it can allow you to control the opponent’s collar and sleeves with ease, and in Nogi it can be used for wrist control and clinch holds. In short, grip strength is very important in BJJ.
This is just one of the reasons why black belts can be so dominant, as their grip strength has slowly improved over a lifetime of grappling. Because of this, those with strong grip strength are almost playing a different, easier version of BJJ compared to the rest of us. However, instead of moaning – you too can improve your grip strength. There are many ways to do this.
One way is to put your Gi on a pull up bar and do pull ups whilst gripping onto the fabric of your Gi. This will make your fingers and hand muscles stronger and it can be quite a punishing workout. For those who enjoy lapel and spider guard grips, this method of training is ideal.
For Nogi, you can pour rice into a bucket and start squeezing and turning the rice with your hands. This sounds easier than it is, but it puts a lot of pressure onto your forearms and will strengthen them dramatically. Whilst it may look aesthetically good to have a good physique – these hand and workouts will make grappling easier. The benefit of these is that you don’t have to pour hours of your day into these methods and they can often be done from home as well.
Burpees for cardio
Burpees can be brutal and aren’t advised if you’re in bad shape or have damaged knees. The idea of burpees is to create HIIT conditions to improve your cardio on the spot. Again, you don’t need any fancy equipment or a gym membership to do burpees. However, you should look online before starting these to make sure you have the right form and technique to avoid injuries.
Depending on your level of fitness, burpees can be done in explosive bursts or more of a prolonged workout. These are ideal as BJJ is often done in timed stages when sparring. For instance, you may use a burst of explosive energy to pass or move into a submission. At other times however, you may be quite still and focus on less energy using moves such as grip fighting.
Because of this, burpees effectively mimic grappling sparring as they simulate explosiveness. Even though burpees can be punishing and aren’t everyone’s idea of fun – they get results and there’s a reason that the military uses them in fitness training. Not only this but burpees workout most of the muscles in the body which further imitates BJJ. This makes them a more realistic option to sprints which are good but don’t use as many muscles.
Squats for leg power
If kettlebells can improve your upper body, then squats can do the same for your lower body. They can also be done without weights if needed but you may need to up the reps if this is the case. Squats work by targeting the glute and thigh muscles.
These muscles are often used in BJJ whilst using takedowns or sweeps. Often, people think of sweeps as using your arms to control the opponent’s body, but legs are equally as important. With powerful legs, you can move your opponent with greater ease. In fact, most sweeps involve using the legs so with this in mind squats are very important. Like many exercises, you will know how effective they are the next day where your legs should ache as a sign of a tough workout.
Remember, if you need a sweep late on and you use your legs to do so – then squatting could be the difference between winning and losing. Competition often involves fine margins, so this logic applies to the other methods mentioned as well as squats.
Competition style sparring with little rest
Perhaps the most important idea on this list is to do competition style sparring with little rest in between. In brief, this will mimic a competition setting and get your body used to competition. Although nothing will fully replicate the intensity of competing, it’s good to try and get as close as possible. To do this, you have to constantly use energy whilst rolling. There’s no point sparring a far worse opponent who doesn’t move much.
Instead, you should spar opponents who will give you a challenge. Even if their challenge is adamantly defending submissions, this will work you harder and push your cardio. Not only this, but you can also choose to start in negative positions such as bottom side control. This means if you do escape the position, then you will start the rest of the roll with worse cardio than your opponent.
As a lot of competition is about cardio management and trying to use energy efficiently, this method is good in creating a similar environment to competition when you feel tired. With this said, you can train with many people under these circumstances even if they aren’t very good. Similarly, situational sparring can also be used to test your strengths and weaknesses if needed.
Yoga for controlled breathing and flexibility
An underlooked part of competition is controlling your breathing. Especially as a newer competitor, this is very important as you can gas out quickly if cardio isn’t managed. You may be able to spar for hours in the gym, but with nerves you may begin to breathe heavily in competition. Methods such as Gynastica Natural can help combat this.
By learning how to breathe properly under stress, you can beat adrenaline dumps and bad breathing habits under pressure. It would be a shame to be technically sound and good at BJJ, but to be let down by panicked breathing on the day of your competition.
Not only this, but yoga has other obvious benefits. If a weakness of your game is flexibility then yoga can correct this. You don’t need to spend hours on this either, but if you keep trying to push your flexibility little by little then your gains will begin to improve. Flexibility is important for guard retention and can be the difference between being getting your guard passed and not. With this in mind, yoga is probably one of the least intensive methods in improving your conditioning for competition.
Diet for competition
This idea of dieting for competition is to eliminate as much fat as possible and replace it with muscle. With this said, a simple way is to start a high protein diet and cut out foods such as sugar and processed fats. For example, if you have two competitors at 90KG and one has 25% body fat but the other has 10% body fat, then the one with less fat will have a significantly bigger strength advantage. Whilst competition weight categories do eliminate size and strength advantages, this is only to an extent. This is why some people chose to cut weight when competing to get into optimal shape.
As well as this, a good diet can improve your energy levels and give you a push when needed. For instance, if your diet involves sugar spikes then you may be more likely to crash when competing. However, if your diet is balanced and you feel energized throughout the day – then you’re probably more likely to put in a balanced performance.
Summary
Whilst nothing improves your BJJ like solid training, these methods are great for improving your chances of winning at competition. They may not improve your technique, but they will certainly make life easier when competing and add to your chances of winning.
The good thing about these methods is that you don’t have to be a full time competitor to start using these ideas either. Whilst it would be theoretically best to add all of these into your arsenal, even if you add just one or two it can seriously improve your chances as an athlete. With this in mind, these should be a consideration if you choose to compete.
