Q&A For BJJ: Improving Comp Training & Unlocking Your Ankles for Better Wrestling
May 21, 2024Season 4Episode 334
JT & Joey
Episode 334: Do you have a dedicated Competition Training Class at your Gym? Preparing for BJJ comps requires next level intensity to help simulate the big energy required to compete. Joey & JT discuss what you need to do to boost your rolls to be really prepared. Do you have tight ankles and find it hinders your ability to get low and shoot in to take people down. Ankle mobility can be the unlock to help improve your wrestling game and the boys unpack 3 key tips that will get you right. Fix Your Ankles: https://youtu.be/kreL20zs_HY?si=x8P1aT7A9a3Q_6t3
Episode 334: Do you have a dedicated Competition Training Class at your Gym? Preparing for BJJ comps requires next level intensity to help simulate the big energy required to compete. Joey & JT discuss what you need to do to boost your rolls to be really prepared. Do you have tight ankles and find it hinders your ability to get low and shoot in to take people down. Ankle mobility can be the unlock to help improve your wrestling game and the boys unpack 3 key tips that will get you right. Fix Your Ankles: https://youtu.be/kreL20zs_HY?si=x8P1aT7A9a3Q_6t3
A good martial artist does not become tense but ready. Essentially, at this point the fight is over.
Speaker 3:
So you pretty much flow with the goal.
Speaker 4:
Who is worthy to be trusted with the secret to limitless power.
Speaker 2:
I'm ready I've had that situation a couple of times recently where I've come to training with some water but I haven't had any electrolytes, and I've finished training and I've had to go to a convenience shop and buy myself some kind of sports drink. Usually, a gatorade cost me like seven bucks. It's small and it really doesn't contain that much of the good stuff that I'm looking for, which are the electrolytes. Sodi, on the other hand, is my partner when it comes to hydration and I'd simply just run out of it and it sucks because I got to go buy expensive stuff that doesn't do anywhere near as good a job. I'm super stoked that we've been restocked with the Sodi and now I can be properly hydrated when I train Jiu-Jitsu. This has always been an underexplored aspect of my training and I'm so stoked that we now have these guys in place to support us and also the listeners of the show. So if you want to be hydrated on the mats so that you can perform at your best and have the best mental clarity while training, get yourself some Sodi. Go to sodicomau that's S-O-D-I-Icomau. Get yourself some delicious hydration salts and use the code BULLETPROOF15 for 15% off. Go to sodicomau, get yourself hydrated.
Speaker 2:
Welcome to the Bulletproof for BJJ podcast. It's your boy, joey, here. Jt's in the house and today it's a Q&A. We've got a couple of questions coming through. A note on that. You should go and record a question for us. You go to bulletproofforbjjcom, jump onto the podcast tab and leave us a voicemail, because here's the deal. You're thinking of, something that you want help with, guaranteed. There's going to be hundreds. Help your jiu-jitsu brethren to get better. First one coming in from our boy, kyle.
Speaker 1:
Yo.
Speaker 4:
Hey guys, kyle from the US here. Quick note I know this isn't the point of the voicemails, but for anybody listening and who is considering doing the Bulletproof program, just do it. It's amazing. The workouts are incredible. These guys are super active in the chats helping us out. So yeah, you guys are amazing. Question about doing competition style roles in the gym to help people prepare. We've had a few people in our gym that come out of their first or second you know competition and they're like, wow, holy shit, that was so much different than ruling in the gym. We want to help get people better prepared but we don't have a competition class. Our instructor has told us, you know, we're free to kind of do a comp style training session, like after regular class or things like that. It just hasn't really been organized yet and I want to help organize that. So just curious if you guys have tips on how to do that and how to help people get the most out of it.
Speaker 2:
So yeah, that would be super helpful. Thank you guys so much. Kyle, what a legend. All right, that's nice man. Kyle Wood is on the group, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. What a fucking ledge. So Kyle Wood follows the Bulletproof program. Started his voicemail by giving us a huge amount of props, saying program's awesome workouts areouts are great.
Speaker 2:
The guys are super active in the chat groups. Thank you, get on it, great, mad dog. Then he said competition rolls. Yes, we want to prep the dudes in the gym. Like myself and others, we want to get more prepared for competition. People have said that rolling in the gym is not like rolling in competition. What would you guys suggest around that Okay in competition. What would you guys suggest around that okay? Um, you want to fire away on what you know? You go, you lead, so I so? Yeah, it's obviously very different and I think the competition thing is always hard to replicate in its entirety. However, you can, there's a couple things you can do. The first thing you can do is do like competition roles, where it's like okay, we're counting points Yep, we got a timer on and even getting like having some students who are not rolling, who are on the sides, who are calling out points calling out time and going for competitors Atmosphere.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, Like you're two points down.
Speaker 1:
Joey.
Speaker 4:
Let's go, let's go.
Speaker 2:
Yeah. So I think that could just be a great training session. Right, that's sometimes what it becomes. But taking that a step further to actually having like one-on-one competitive roles while everybody watches, yep, so you're like all right for the. You know, for the next 45 minutes we're just everyone, we're gonna, and it's gonna be like two competitors at a time, yep, and then we're gonna have a ref and we're gonna kind of we're making like a little in-house comp here. Yeah, I think even just doing, just doing that, you're like holy shit, this is serious.
Speaker 1:
Yeah.
Speaker 2:
Like. It changes that frame of like oh, wow, okay, I got to win this.
Speaker 1:
I think adding spectators or having people watch you elevates the adrenaline, which elevates fatigue, which elevates intensity, everything. And I think that's what people even though when you're at a jujitsu competition, almost no one is watching you Like your, your friends, your family, maybe your coach, you know, hopefully, but I mean your team might be there Maybe, but it's the idea of performance in front of a crowd.
Speaker 2:
Yeah.
Speaker 1:
I think that does a lot. So yeah, simulating it in the gym of having people sit there and watch you and have people call for you too, like because sometimes when the adrenaline hits you, it's hard to hear.
Speaker 2:
Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:
You just you don't hear what your coach is telling you, You're just doing whatever the bloody hell.
Speaker 2:
You get that like tunnel vision and tunnel hearing. Yeah Well, you can hear all this stuff, but it's like outside of the tunnel you're in.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, it's not helping. I think intensity is a huge factor. So, uh, what my Taekwondo coach used to make us stay in the gym all day, we couldn't leave, yeah, but that's what it's like when you're at a tournament, right, you're in that basketball stadium or whatever the whole day or half the day, so you do your round and then you go off and you eat and you drink, and then it's like, right, you're being called up again. Now you go against a new opponent or whatever. But it's the idea that you're set for the same amount of time, there is a referee and you're both trying to win, like I think it's not simply, oh, we're just here to you know, win or learn. It's like no, someone's going for a win, hold your positions, like it's competition time.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, it does take it up a notch, you know there's um, I think you could go even a step further and I look at say what Grappling Education have done with their Friday night fights, yeah, yeah, and this is a very competitive gym here in Sydney Broadcast, yeah, where they do Grapple Mania. And it's Friday night and they've just started matching like super fights amongst the entire local jiu-jitsu community. Yeah, and they broadcast it all on YouTube. It's free, but they got some smoke machines and shit. I think, yeah, like doing entry and yeah, like they do a really good job of making this like broadcasted like jujitsu event and people, like people are fucking tuning in to watch yeah, here for it but the coolest thing is is that, like, you can be whatever belt and you can be like, hey, I'm keen to get on, and they'll be like sweet, where are you at all?
Speaker 2:
right, we'll match you up with someone and then all of a sudden, you're fucking fighting on tv you're on the hook yeah, and so you know you don't have to go and roll the cameras at your gym. But you could go like, hey guys, we're gonna do a friday night thing or a wednesday night thing yeah it's call it grapple mania.
Speaker 2:
If you want give some props to grappling education, um, but make it a thing, you know, get the fighters to walk out, like, because all of that, even though it seems kind of silly, if you have a bit of fun with it, that actually adds to the pressure. Yes, I mean, I know it does for me, right? Yeah?
Speaker 4:
yeah.
Speaker 2:
As soon as like coach is like hey, we're doing comp rounds, all right, who's that You're like?
Speaker 1:
oh shit, it's on. Finding a way to raise the intensity and make it more real to the event is going to help you.
Speaker 2:
Next one coming in from Bree, we know.
Speaker 1:
Bree we know Bree very well.
Speaker 3:
Hi Joey and JT. This is Bree calling from Allentown, pennsylvania. I have a question about ankle mobility and wrestling. I've been really trying to get better at my wrestling recently and my question is about shooting and penetration steps. So you know that first move where you've got your front leg down, bending at the knee and then bringing your other leg forward. I really seem to get pretty tripped up in that and I think it's because of my ankle mobility. So, without being able to see it, I just wondered if you had any specific things I can work on to be better at like getting really low with wrestling. Um, if it's maybe ankles, knees, hips, feet, everything I don't know. So, um, any advice would be really appreciated. And, as you guys know, um, I love the podcast, I love the program. I use it faithfully. I'm six months into standards. So thanks so much for all you do and I really look forward to continuing to learn from you guys. Thanks.
Speaker 2:
No, that was another lovely one, bro, oh cool. So that was Brie from Pennsylvania. Right Big shout outs she did. After her question. She said I love the program, I love what you guys do. I'm six months into standards.
Speaker 1:
She's come a long way.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, she has and she's like I'm here for it, I'm sticking around and I'm loving learning from you guys. So really lovely sort of message there. Her question was specifically around ankle mobility and specifically the penetration step with wrestling Right, and so she just said that she's struggling with the penetration step and I guess she's identified that the ankles are a bit tight, and so she's like what can I do about that?
Speaker 1:
Sure. So I think there's two elements here at least I've identified from myself because I've been wrestling a little bit more recently. The level change is super important. So even if you improve your ankle mobility, if you're still trying to roll your knee over your toe and you're trying to step, to penetrate and get to the legs, but you don't change your level, you don't drop your lunge. That's not going to be a smooth motion, Like if you look at Jordan Burrows or you look at like they just recently had the America team Olympic qualifiers If you don't get low to go through, you're still going to smash your knee.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, that's what people are traveling trajectories down, down into the mat, not forwards.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, so I think that's a mistake jiu-jitsu people make we tend to not level we were a bit lazy with the quads and the glutes.
Speaker 1:
You know we don't level change to do it but with the ankle mobility the thing, because my left ankle is a bit tighter than my right, every morning I get down into a full squat and I hang out there and I grab a post or I grab something I can hold onto edge of the couch and I pull myself into that squat to force my knee over my toe and I kind of just hang out there until I feel like a deep stretch in my Achilles, lower calf whatever, and I I work on pushing my knee over my toe just a little bit. I do that on each side. I probably am hanging out there for a couple minutes and I find that doing that my squats then better all day. If I don't do that, I suffer as a result of it. So I think taking some time specifically to mobilize your ankles, whatever move you want to use before wrestling, is important. Like and they won't tell you this because at wrestling they'll make you do cart wheels and backflips, you know all kinds of crazy stuff.
Speaker 2:
I coached the backflips. You just do another bear crawl man. You flop around.
Speaker 1:
But if you are at training early, I would encourage you to roll out the soles of your feet, because that'll help, and then spend a dedicated three to five minutes mobilizing your ankles before you wrestle.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I like that. Dedicated three to five minutes mobilizing your ankles before you wrestle? Yeah, I like that. Yeah, I would. A couple thoughts on it. I would, yeah, rolling out the bottom of the foot using something hard like a lacrosse ball or a cricket ball, or even like the edge of like a barbell. You can roll your foot along that something hard.
Speaker 1:
Baseball.
Speaker 2:
Stretching the calves. This is, like I would say, the first thing to do and you might find that your calves are fine, in which case move on. But for a lot of people they're like oh, my calves are actually super tight and you can just do that by hanging like standing on the edge of a step with your forefoot on the step and then just let your heel drop towards the ground and keep your knee locked. You kind of lean forward. You get that nice big calf stretch. If that's a thing I would say, that's a great starting point, along with the bottom of the foot, with the ankle mobility specifically. We've got some drills on that on our youtube, so we do. It's probably better, you know, to try and describe them. It wouldn't really do it.
Speaker 1:
Just I'll. Um, I can, I'll link the video, you'll link it. I send it to so many people. People always say oh man, my ankles are fucked from not tapping, or whatever it might be, unlock your legs this one this is the video.
Speaker 2:
That's cool but what I would also like to mention is that, like wrestling and having a good shot is really not something most jujitsu people are good at, and it's purely because we just don't do enough repetitions. Yes, it's kind of like an afterthought in jujitsu. Now of, of course, if you come from a gym with a strong sort of wrestling heritage, then this isn't going to be the case, and I'm sure that there's heaps of gyms in America like that we're speaking very generally.
Speaker 2:
Very generally. But if you look at jujitsu, it's always been like let's talk about the ground fighting. And then, maybe once every few weeks, it's like hey, we're doing some standup stuff today. And for me personally it was always like doubles and single legs, yeah, and it was always learning how to shoot, but we're always so terrible at it and it then it. You try it and you get guillotined or you get sprawled on and it hurts. You're like I'm not going to do that again. And then two months later it's like, hey, we're doing double legs again and you just, you never actually attain it, yeah, so as a result, I never shoot doubles like or very rarely right, sure.
Speaker 2:
So I think that there's a bit of a um. I think you absolutely should go on that journey, brie, and I think that you absolutely should try to fix the shot, and I think that, yeah, addressing your ankles is part of it. It's probably more, though, that your technique, sure, um, because, like I'm sure, there's a bunch of good wrestlers with a great double leg who probably have tight ankles, tight ankles yeah. And while, like if you do it slowly and deliberately, there is a whole lot of ankle flexion required.
Speaker 1:
Sure.
Speaker 2:
If you're actually just at max velocity, it doesn't matter. Yeah, you know, like it's. It's a very, very fast movement. You're passing through that range. Yeah, you know, but yeah, I just think it's like I don't know. Like I sprained my right ankle years ago playing football, Yep, and I've got good ankle range compared to most, but for me that ankle is considerably tighter than my left.
Speaker 1:
Yeah.
Speaker 2:
I never shoot on that.
Speaker 1:
Right Ever On that side? Yeah, yeah, no, I just don't. Yeah, fair and that's fair enough. And I think injury is definitely a constraint when it comes to wrestling. Like, if you've ever hurt your neck, like, oh, that whole wrestling thing puts a lot of strain on my neck, yeah, you know, because it's we just like. You know, like you get trauma. You're like, oh, last time I tried to shoot, I got sprawled on and I kind of jacked my back up. I don't want to experience that again, but that's not necessarily what's going to happen, right, but it's difficult because if your coach doesn't have a wrestling pedigree of sorts, or if there's not someone in the team who's dedicated to kind of stand-up grappling, in that way you can work on it. But if there's no one there to say, hey, you know, like, put your head like this, put your arm like that, then you just don't know.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, that's right, and this is not a cop-out, right? No, but the thing is that in jiu-jitsu, the system of points and whatever often rewards that it's more efficient for you to like, pull guard and sweep them it is. Then it is to battle for a shot, which is this big, dynamic, athletic a lot of work you could potentially get choked yep right, and you probably will for the initial couple of years of trying to use it. Um, it's like it's not an effective trade-off.
Speaker 1:
This is why wrestlers hate jiu-jitsu people. Because they work so hard to have this skill and then, if it's an open grappling context, like someone is a wrestler and then someone is a jiu-jitsu player or a butt scooter, they can just sit and then fuck, you took my wrestling away.
Speaker 2:
I worked so hard to have these skills you bastards, I mean, but don't get me wrong. From an ideal perspective, I think that every grappler should aspire to be good at wrestling. Good at the top, great takedowns, all of it. Good on the bottom, like have everything.
Speaker 1:
Be, well-rounded.
Speaker 2:
So go on that journey, bree. We. So go on that journey, brie. We appreciate you. Thanks for the question. Awesome Guys. If you've got a question for us, please leave it. Go to the website bulletproofforbjjcom. Hit the podcast tab, record us a voicemail. We'll feature you on the show. We look forward to answering your questions, thank you.