A lot of folks are talking about strength and conditioning and how it applies to jiu jitsu. I think many of them are bringing biases and anecdotal observation to jiu jitsu from other fields, like MMA conditioning or, more often, football or wrestling conditioning.
This is understandable. Joel Jamison, whose work at 8 Weeks Out really got me thinking seriously about what conditioning for combat sports was all about, admits that his initial foray into MMA conditioning included a lot of lessons he learned from training football players.
Jiu jitsu is a young sport - however old the martial art of jiu jitsu is. We are at the earliest stages of trying to understand, scientifically, what it means to be above average in terms of "jiu jitsu conditioning." So some of what is currently advocated for jiu jitsu conditioning can be forgiven for being insufficient.
But what must be kept in mind are the unique aspects of jiu jitsu competition and training - especially at the highest (and a growing number of) levels.
Consider this: at the highest levels, a jiu jitsu athlete, a black belt, has to be prepared to fight three to five ten-minute matches, including the potential for overtime, with as little as five minutes in between matches (it could be even shorter in some instances, of course. But five minutes sounds like a reasonable minimum expectation in most instances.)
So on the BJJ athlete's longest day, the first day of a major tournament, the athlete needs to prepare for at least 50+ minutes of activity, with five minute breaks every ten minutes.
So whatever the conditioning routine is, the fact of the matter is that aerobic capacity has to be at a maximum. There is no way around this. Strength won't get you to the other side of 50 minutes. Flexibility won't get you to the other side of 50 minutes. Technical skill, as competition gets tougher and tougher each year, may not always be enough to get you to the other side of 50 minutes.
So you've got to be able to go for 50+ minutes at a nice aerobic clip. I always suggest that guys roll like they are out taking a Saturday bike ride or a jog on a tough course. The course is tough, and will require some real work to both navigate and finish. But just because the course is tough doesn't mean that you should make it any tougher on yourself. Try and keep an aerobic pace. You'll drift to threshold levels from time to time. But always think about bringing yourself down to that aerobic level where your thoughts are likeliest to remain clear and your technical capacity most accessible. Remember that great Dan Inosanto quote?
“If you are tired you’re not strong, if you are tired you’re not fast, if you’re tired you don’t have good technique, and if you’re tired you’re not even smart”
That is the truth.
What are the particulars beyond the critical need for above-average aeroboic capacity? One major distinction with jiu jitsu is the amount of time spent in relatively static, isometric positions.
Here, the real trick is to avoid wasting energy in these instances. But preparing the body, the arms, the hips, the shoulders, the neck, for being in these positions is as important as any other aspect of conditioning. Will your legs allow you to pass the guard in the ninth minute of your third match of the day? Will they be there to defend your guard, or lock in your triangle?
This is a local muscle endurance issue in large part. And at the beginning of a conditioning program like an 8 Week Program doing a lot of non-BJJ work to help strengthen those local muscular issues is a good idea (I'm focusing on hip flexors right now with decline situps, incline leg raises, etc.). As always though, with jiu jitsu, I agree whole-heartedly with Alliance's Fabio Gurgel who points out that moving your body through the range of motions you expect to put it through in training is more important than stretching or "warming up". Especially as the competition draws near, more and more time should be spent in the movements (sweeps, passes, attacks, guard replacements, etc.) you expect to use in competition. This is also a major insight by Joel Jamison in his work when it comes to MMA conditioning, and it was his reference to this point that initially got me thinking about the importance of this often-overlooked concept.
The other major issue with jiu jitsu that I think is unique is the concept of agility. I think this is what a lot of people in BJJ mean when they say "explosive". I think the idea of being "explosive" in grappling is extremely overrated. In fact, I think it is an example of MMA conditioning theory being misapplied to jiu jitsu conditioning.
When I think of the best guys at my academy, the guys who give me the most trouble, "explosiveness" is nowhere on the list of things I have to deal with. Not even close. It is almost always a matter of technical mistakes that my opponents capitalize on, forcing me into a narrower and narrower range of good alternatives until I am either able to change the circumstances for the better or concede the match.
I think this is true for most of those who train jiu jitsu. It may be different for MMA - or even for no gi grappling. But I think this is accurate as far as BJJ is concerned. It is for me.
And for those times when I have been overwhelmed at least in part by an opponent's physicality - size or "explosiveness" - there rarely has been a time when the counter to that physicality was greater physicality. This is what I call the "Frank Mir Folly", from Frank's unfortunate attempt to "bulk up" for his fight with Shane Carwin after losing the rematch to bigger Brock Lesnar.
But agility, the ability to move your body the way you want to, when you want to, is something that jiu jitsu athletes both need and can improve. This is the yoga, gimnastica natural, CrossFit connection for many when it comes to conditioning for jiu jitsu. But you can take care of all your agility needs in the academy (including home and garage academies). Hipscapes, bridges, hook sweeps, backrolls, sitouts, sprawls, breakfalls, technical lifts ... the list is long and very, very, very much worth making a part of the jiu jitsu athlete's conditioning program.
The point of agility isn't necessarily speed - though speed is a part of it. It's will-to-act and accuracy. It's being able to do exactly what your body can do exactly as you want it to exactly when you want it to.
Other smaller issues are things like flexibility, especially hip, hamstring and glute flexibility - though shoulder flexibility is an often overlooked area that more jiu jitsu athletes should focus on early in their training. All of these I would probably rank higher than lifting weights - as much as I've love throwing iron around from time to time.
I'm looking forward to reading and hearing more discussion about "strength and conditioning" in BJJ as more professionals from other fields start to enter the world of the gi and the tatame. And I'm hopeful that some will follow a approach that looks at the unique environment of jiu jitsu to develop conditioning strategies that really help those who train jiu jitsu train longer, better and more productively throughout our jiu jitsu lives.
