I was hoping to get some advice on the best way to structure training with partners outside of the gym as a white belt who knows next to nothing haha. I can usually make it to the bjj gym 2-3x/week but am looking to start having some extra training sessions without the 45min drive both ways. I recently got some decent mats and have a couple people willing to train with me. The partners range from blue belt to no experience. My thought was to do situational sparring over topics I’ve covered at the actual gym with some supplemental videos from here. For example, if we are covering back escapes in class then I will just live roll back escapes in the garage. Is that the best way to go about it? I figured after COVID there would be some people here who understand how to best structure at home training. Thanks so much for the help I appreciate it.
2/3 bjj sessions per week is pretty solid turnaround for a beginner tbh! It’s great that you’re eager to get some more mats time but in all honesty, you don’t have to just stick to bjj specifically you could focus on other things like some strength training etc find somewhere you can go to locally or do it at home with minimal equipment! This will help you in the long run:) good luck ✌️
Bjj black belt here
Thanks for the reply. I’ve been lifting over a decade so I’m alright in that department. If I’m reading between the lines are you saying that due to my lack of experience any outside gym grappling should be viewed more as “fun” than something that could have appreciable gains? I appreciate you taking the time to share your experience, it’s much appreciated.
Home/carage training is where the big technical gains happen. If you want to develop your fundamentals you need to drill those positions with your friends. Back escapes is one good option so is any fundamnetal position (Mount, Side control, Knee-on-belly, Turtle, Takedowns&Pulling guard). Later when you learn more guard (control, retention, attacks) & passing chains will be the most valuable to train with a training partner outside class hours. I wish I had a carage or available room where to train and drill.
Positional drills
Positional sparring (Low resistance)
Positional sparring (higher resistance)
Those are good options.
This is what I did when I was a white belt and I saw insanely rapid growth. So much so that within a few months of nearly daily outside training my guard retention was among the best in the gym such that brown and black belts had to work really hard to pass my guard and my ability to escape pins and the back got to be pretty solid. Definitely way about my belt level. I didn’t have much of an offensive game, but given that I started BJJ in my mid 40s and was among the smallest people in the gym, being able to defend myself seemed like a pretty good outcome.
As you might divine, I suggest focusing on guard retention and pin escapes. We didn’t do a lot of dead drilling. We focused on various isolated and targeted sparring and drills or games against varying levels of resistance with constrains put on one or both of the participants. I suggest checking out Rob Biernacki’s FYJJ games. These were groundbreaking for me and my training partners (all of whom were higher belts than me).
5 years later, my training partners and I still do this type of training outside the academy and still find it the most important training we do and where most of our learning takes place.
Enkidu90046, post: 64530, member: 22193
This is what I did when I was a white belt and I saw insanely rapid growth. So much so that within a few months of nearly daily outside training my guard retention was among the best in the gym such that brown and black belts had to work really hard to pass my guard and my ability to escape pins and the back got to be pretty solid. Definitely way about my belt level. I didn’t have much of an offensive game, but given that I started BJJ in my mid 40s and was among the smallest people in the gym, being able to defend myself seemed like a pretty good outcome.As you might divine, I suggest focusing on guard retention and pin escapes. We didn’t do a lot of dead drilling. We focused on various isolated and targeted sparring and drills or games against varying levels of resistance with constrains put on one or both of the participants. I suggest checking out Rob Biernacki’s FYJJ games. These were groundbreaking for me and my training partners (all of whom were higher belts than me).
5 years later, my training partners and I still do this type of training outside the academy and still find it the most important training we do and where most of our learning takes place.
JRT6, post: 64548, member: 2970
I like the positional sparring advice. Also be careful on the techniques you're learning because if no one you're with knows how to do them correctly you could learn them wrong and then unlearning them is a pain in the ass.