Bulletproof For BJJ Podcast
Discussions on improving your BJJ, navigating mat-politics and all aspects of the jiu jitsu lifestyle. Multiple weekly episodes for grapplers of any level. Hosted by JT and Joey - Australian jiu jitsu black belts, strength coaches, and creators of Bulletproof For BJJ App. Based out of Sydney, Australia
Bulletproof For BJJ Podcast
Mastering Your BJJ Game: When To Specialize vs When To Expand
When is it time to hone in your already cemented BJJ skills? Or when is it time to study up on the latest instructional by Danaher? Or maybe you are worried about mobility, and wanna try out our program. We believe you can make some gains in such little time, but we'd encourage you to stick with it for longer than 2 to see some serious improvement. We answer is all in todays QNA episode...
----------------------
BULLETPROOF SHIRTS: https://www.fanwear.com.au/products/core-bullet-proof-for-bjj-classic-tee
----------------------
Leave us a question for the next QNA episode:
https://bulletproofforbjj.com/podcast
---------------------
Increase athleticism, reduce injuries and build a grapplers physique with the Bulletproof for BJJ App. Start your FREE 14 Day Trial today:
iOS: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/bulletproof-for-bjj/id6444311790
Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bulletproofforbjj&utm_source=na_Med
Stay Hydrated with Sodii the tastiest electrolytes in the Game! Get 15% OFF: BULLETPROOF15 https://sodii.com.au/bulletproof
A good martial artist does not become tense but ready. Essentially, at this point the fight is over.
Speaker 2:So you pretty much flow with the goal. Who is worthy to be trusted with the secret to limitless power? I'm ready.
Speaker 3:Welcome to the Bulletproof for BJJ Q&A episode. Today. We've got a couple of questions from you guys, and if you want to leave us a question, go and do it now so we can feature it on an upcoming episode. Go to the webpage bulletproofforbjjcom, hit the podcast tab and there's a nice big red button. Record us a voicemail. We love to hear from you guys. It's where we get to have a connection with those around the world and it really means a lot to us. And also, you probably got some shit that you're wondering about your jiu-jitsu journey or perhaps your work in the gym strength, mobility and we're more than happy to share our semi-professional insights on that. And so let's go into our first one coming in. Let's go no name on this.
Speaker 1:Why not?
Speaker 2:Hey guys, mitch from Vancouver here, big fan, I can touch my toes during warm-up, thanks to you guys. I'm a 46-year-old purple belt, been training a little over five years. Bit of a mindset question how to kind of focus my training, particularly in the context of attacks, although I guess it applies anywhere. I'm not athletic bad hand-eye coordination, all that stuff but I'm in good shape, pretty strong. Work out all that stuff. Mobility work out all that stuff. Mobility.
Speaker 2:I have a few attack systems, guards, I guess we call them. Where I'm good, happy with, where I'm at, able to give people trouble, and I end up just kind of funneling my roles towards those and working from there for most of the time. Should I be kind of trying to broaden my horizons or just get those little improvements in there on the stuff I'm already good at, kind of the guy who throws a thousand kicks once or whatever? That saying is kind of question, I guess. Am I doing myself a disservice by trying to get that you know, omoplata from Collar Sleeve perfect or um, should I just keep trying to become excellent at the things I'm good at? Uh, thanks for your time again. Really, uh, love the show.
Speaker 1:Awesome, mitch from Vancouver. What a legend. Thanks, mitch. Cool fucking city, great city, I think.
Speaker 1:Relevant to that, you actually need to do both, but you got to go somewhere first. The first step is to try to get as good at the thing as you can be that you're like yeah, I feel I have a good level of proficiency here and it's good for you to get feedback from your coach. So it's not just you patting yourself on the back. Your coach goes no, you're really good there. You should try and expand your game, you know.
Speaker 1:And the other thing is this sometimes, how effective you're being with a technique can determine, like can be. You can be more effective or less effective based on the setup. So, even though you might think, oh man, I'm not good at this technique, you might just be not setting it up the right way. And so, therefore, knowing a different sweep or knowing a different position will make you actually more effective at the thing. Like a piece of advice that was given to me by uh Cabrinha was that um, if you really want to get a submission, fake a sweep, which will create an opening for the attack. In the same way, if you really want to get a particular sweep, fake an attack to get them to react which will open up the sweep, and I'd never heard that before and I was like God damn, that's like genius level. Maybe that seems very simple to most folks, but once I started doing that, that improved both my sweeping and my um submissions. So I think that you can actually get better at what you're already doing by doing something different yeah, like that.
Speaker 3:I think, um, I mean, you know, when you said that you've got like two to three different attack systems, I'm thinking fuck, that seems like a lot, a lot yeah yeah, and if, if I mean I've got one, you know, just to put it in context.
Speaker 3:So I'm like, well, if you got two or three, I would think probably don't add more, I would add more complexity to those existing systems.
Speaker 3:Um, you know, more nuance, more perfection, more precision, all that sort of stuff. And I'd look to explore other areas of my game outside of my. You know my guard attacks, but so you know, I think, what you can take from our, our sort of opinion, and I'd look to explore other areas of my game outside of my. You know my guard attacks, but so you know, I think what you can take from our, our sort of opinion there is that it's up to you. But I definitely don't think you need to be rushing to go and like, acquire a new guard and and start to build that I can tell you Mitch is a black belt, that I am so aware of my unfamiliarity with the majority of techniques in jujitsu, and that's just me, right, and I really am. And while I don't think that that's something you should necessarily strive for, I tell you that so that you can understand that you know, most people will never grasp all like. No one will ever grasp all of it.
Speaker 3:It's just too much. It's too vast, definitely. So you know. Make from that what you will.
Speaker 3:There are a bunch of choices out there for your strength and mobility training and when it comes to choosing a program, it's really hard to sift through what's good and what's not. One thing I can guarantee you is that the Bulletproof for BJJ app is exactly what you need as a busy grappler who wants to prioritize time on the mat, which means you're not spending hours upon hours in the gym each week. But you also want the biggest returns in terms of your performance on the mats and also your recovery off. The bulletproof for BJJ app has you covered. You can take a two-week free trial right now, and if you go beyond that and you commit to a subscription and you get a few weeks in, you realize you know what I don't love this. We give you a 100% money back guarantee. So nothing, nothing to wait for. Jump into the two-week free trial right now. Go to the App Store, search Bulletproof for BJJ and we'll see you on the inside. Question number two Mike Jones.
Speaker 4:What's up, joey and JT? My name is Mike Jones. I'm sending in this question from Richmond, virginia, where I train at Upstream BJJ. Shout out to all the homies there if you're listening. I've been thinking about sending a question for a while, but after your episode on train mobility I had to ask.
Speaker 4:So just as a quick background, I'm 34. I just recently discovered BJJ about six months ago so I'm pretty fresh, but I want to make sure that I have longevity on the mat. So I want to improve my flexibility and mobility. So my question is what should I look for in a good program? Number two, personally with me, my knees are a big issue for me. Like I can't sit very well on my knees, as I see most people doing in BJJ, and now, as time has gone on, I've noticed like I feel like I had a little joint infusions in my knees, just like limiting my range of motion. So I also want to work on my hips and ankles.
Speaker 4:So my question is you know, what should I look for? What should I focus on in terms of mobility and flexibility and mobility? Lastly, I know you guys have your program out there. So if I were to try your program, how much progress would you expect me to make after just two weeks of the trial period to know that I am making effective progress? So that's my question. Thank you, guys, so much Again appreciate what y'all do. Keep it up, thank you, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 3:Mike, you're a legend Legend. That's a good question actually about like how far can I get in two weeks?
Speaker 1:Yeah, look that's pretty open-ended right. So, speaking to your point, there's many folks in BJJ who really struggle to fully flex their knees. You know, for various reasons, whether they've been doing it a long time or a short time, and there is a few contributing factors, you know, and for many people they have a lot of tightness around their kneecaps, their quads, their calves, and it can feel like really painful and jammy in the knee. One of the easiest ways for yourself to start to improve your full knee flexion is by helping yourself squat through some assistance, right. And we do have certain easier progressions within mobility within our program that you can work on that. I believe you can get really good improvements in a fairly short time if you are consistent.
Speaker 1:Here's the caveat we don't know your current level. You might be on a real bad one and so it might take you longer than you expect. But if you're pretty close to full flexion, maybe it might take you longer than you expect. But if you're pretty close to full flexion, maybe it will take you less time. But this is the caveat If you're doing lots of jujitsu and you're not doing much mobility, it will take you much longer to progress. But if you are doing, say, three jujitsu sessions a week and you're doing mobility with every session and working on it on the in between days, in two weeks you could get great gains. But that is the caveat.
Speaker 1:it's got to be how much dependent yeah, how much time are you actually spending improving this movement quality? If you're spending a good amount of time on it and you're following our program, you will see significant improvements in two weeks. But if you you're not, you won't.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think oh. And what should he be looking for in a good mobility program? That was his main.
Speaker 1:Look, there's a bunch of programs out there, right, and I think it has to be a mixture of dynamic work as well as longer hold work and potentially a little bit of loaded work, and I believe that's where a lot of programs fall down. There's not many programs out there that are teaching loaded stretching, and it is a component of our program. So I think there are some good. There's many good programs out there, but they're missing key factors. Your take, joe.
Speaker 3:So the knee thing yeah, could be a bunch of different things. I have encountered people who just simply cannot do that Mechanically. They can't kneel down on their shins right and sit in that kind of SESA position that we see a lot in martial arts. Some folks have certain mobility restrictions that, due to the shapes of their joints and connective tissues and whatnot, they'll never be able to achieve certain positions, right. So some people will have certain limitations that require them to spend more time on it. And then, at the other end of the spectrum, you have people that are just gifted with this shit, right. So we don't know where you're at with that.
Speaker 3:Mike, what I would say is, if you sit in that position and you feel really restricted there, do some of the assisted squatting work, like JT was saying, where you're really focusing on the flexion, but also try getting into that position. But before you sit down towards your heels, put some kind of block. I used to use like an ab mat, or you can use a broomstick. Joe actually did a really good video on this a little while back.
Speaker 1:I used to use like an ab mat, or you can use a broomstick. Joel actually did a really good video on this a little while back, about restoring knee function. It's on the YouTube, isn't it On the YouTube channel? We'll get Jack to link it below. Yeah, sick.
Speaker 3:But yeah, if you put a wedge like a broomstick into the back of your knee joint and then sit down, that wedge actually helps to create space or a gap in the knee joint, which for some people and for me when I was coming back from knee surgery, was actually the key for me to be able to increase range of motion there. So have a little try of that. What you'd be looking for in a good program. Look, here's what we know about programs. Yes, to what JT said. Right, it's the different elements of flexibility training that are going to produce the most well-rounded response. But the best program is the one that you can follow.
Speaker 3:Yes, and so you know, whatever it is, I would say just start something and give it six months, right, you probably won't know much in two weeks time. Yeah, you might. You might notice some quick gains and be like fuck, this is sick, or you might not, and those gains might come at six weeks or eight weeks or fucking six months, and so in that way I would focus like jujitsu, right, it's kind of like asking um, how much jujitsu do I, how many weeks, before I know if I'm good at it or not? And it's like you just do it, man. You just got to commit to the process. So I'd say, yeah, six weeks would be good.
Speaker 3:What you are looking for is something that's addressing hips, trunk, shoulders, and when I say trunk, that's, you know, spine. They're the kind of three main components that make up the majority of your movement, and so, as long as you're doing something along those lines, I think you're good. Here's what I would say If you followed Mobility Foundation on our app for six weeks and you didn't notice some kind of beneficial improvement, I would be shocked.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and hey, you know what? We give you your money back, yeah.
Speaker 3:If you get in there and you're like boys paid for it did it wasn't my thing. Just let us know and we'll give you your money back when our questions are, it's no problem. Would love you to do it and would love to get a future fucking check-in from you on the podcast voicemail here letting us know how you're going. That'd be awesome, legend. Thank you for the questions today, guys. If you got one for us, go to bulletproofforbjjcom podcast tab, record a voicemail and we'll feature you on an upcoming episode. Peace, peace you.
