Chain BJJ Drills – Be A Move Ahead Of Your Competition

One important lesson, in regards to BJJ drills, I’ve learned over the years is to chain movements and techniques together 

A chess master can be shown multiple boards and they’ll be able to remember the exact positioning of the pieces. It isn’t because they have some sort of extraordinary memory. But rather they are so familiar with the chessboard and the patterns of the pieces that it becomes easy to recall them.

 

I’ve talked to good chess players before and they’ve told me that while they move 1 piece at a time, they’re moving with a pattern or a chain of piece movements in mind.

 

Brazilian Jiu-jitsu is the same, at least for me. My students sometimes think that I can somehow read their minds and predict their movements before they make them. But this isn’t the case. Instead it’s more of an intuitive thing. I FEEL the patterns of their movements and make my adjustments. But where they are moving with 1 movement in mind. My body has memorized chains of techniques and is moving in multiples. This is something that is a consequence of doing BJJ drills with connected techniques.

 

Going back to the chessboard. For every 1 piece they move I’m moving 3. 

 

As anyone trains longer. The ability to execute more movements and techniques in tandem with one another becomes easier. But something you can do in order to speed up the process is drill techniques in connecting combinations. 

 

The idea is to drill multiple techniques together in sequences so that once you execute one, you can possibly execute multiple if the conditions are right.

 

Think of guard passing to submission drills or moving from triangle to armbar to oma plata from the bottom.

 

Drilling techniques together helps take the hesitation away from potential opportunities that might pop up. You’re moving movement by movement, but your body has the ability to combine multiple movements together if needed. When you do this, you’re becoming the chess player who moves with a pattern in mind.

 

In several competitions I’ve been able to see the effect of this kind of drilling. One that really sticks out was a move back in 2013. I was taken down and then executed a failed butterfly guard sweep to x guard entry and sweep, to double under pass to back take. I drilled that sequence over and over again in the gym and when I got out on the mat in the finals it came off exactly as I had drilled it.  I was able to attack with multiple weapons and not let up

 

2 Ways To Chain Drill

 

– Take techniques that you already know very well and find ways to combine them. For instance if you have a good double under guard pass and a good armbar from side control. Is there a particular defense that your competition uses that could give you the option of using the armbar? If so, drill that. Do your double under pass, have your partner give you the particular response from bottom you’re looking for and use your armbar.

 

– If you don’t have a ton of time to drill or don’t have the option because of your gym’s rules or scheduling. Use your lesser skilled training partners and active drilling partners. If you can submit your partner left and right with little effort. It’s very unproductive to just keep smashing them. Instead try to execute multiple techniques quickly and then give them the option of escaping or adjusting so that you can set up your next attack.

 

I’ve been teaching full time since 2010 and this is one of the tricks that keeps my cardio up and keeps my skills sharp. When I do this I’m constantly moving which is tiring, I don’t actually submit my opponent so the roll never ends and I’m using the connected techniques I’ve been drilling against someone who is actively resisting. The other benefit is that I’ve also giving my lesser skilled training partner a chance to engage and use their techniques too. So it’s a win-win, rather than just smashing them down and pumping my own head up.

-Chewy