When people talk about drilling at home by themselves, most of the time they’re referring to shadowboxing or doing some bag work for boxing or Muay Thai. However, there are plenty of at-home drills for Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioners as well. Shadow-grappling can feel awkward at first, but is a helpful drill to become comfortable in a wrestling stance and flow through positions. It’s a good idea to have some mats if you’re going to be truly shooting and sprawling, but moving around in your stance can be great for coordination and muscular endurance.
You can also get in some great guard passing practice with a chair and some floor space. Simply lay the chair on its back on the floor so that two legs are pointed at you, mimicking someone who is on their back working with an open guard. It can be hard to imagine by using a chair, but if you’re familiar with working open guard, you can see the resemblance. Check out the video below of Poughkeepsie Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt Brian McLaughlin working his passing on the chair. Coach Brian uses a “j-step” to maneuver around the chairs legs into a knee on belly position. From here he adds a fake before his j-step. The situation that Coach Brian is illustrating here, is that the bottom guard player will turn their hips to follow you as you attempt to pass. Using the fake is a great way to prevent the bottom guard player from following you. For those who want to add more diversion to their passing, Coach Brian goes through the Michael Jackson pass. This consists of circling around the opponents legs, backstepping as if performing a judo throw, then doing a 360 spin to land in knee on belly. This sounds far more complicated than it actually is as you’ll see in the video.
At home drills are great, but come learn from Coach Brian in person to maximize your potential! Become a part of the best martial arts classes in the Hudson Valley, call us today at (845)392-8495 or click HERE!
About the Author
Oliver Swanson is a lifelong Hudson Valley resident and an avid martial arts practitioner. He coaches boxing and kids martial arts classes in Poughkeepsie throughout the week and works as a NASM Certified Personal Trainer. In his spare time, Oliver loves to read and play music.
