Now we come to a vital stage in jiu jitsu skill acquistion. We need to bridge the gap between being able to demonstarte the mechanics of a technique and being able to utilse that technique against a resisting opponent.

The top guys in your gym probably do this quite naturally. They can see a technique do it a few times then nail people with it.

For those of you just starting out or not as talented
(don’t worry most talented people tend to quit when things get hard. Talent is overrated, hard work will always triumph), we need a little help.

This help comes in the form of isolated drilling. This involves breaking a technique down into it’s constituent parts and applying it against a progressively resisting opponent.

Let’s take an overhook triangle as an example. To utilise this technique we need to achieve our grips, execute the technique and finalise it.

We could begin the game by doing a couple of short rounds of overhook sparring where the guard puller aims to catch an overhook and escape his hips to the side. Once this is achieved the athletes restart.

In our next drill we could have the guard puller with a dominat overhook position. From here he/she must work to bring the leg over their partners shoulder and keep the head down before finalising the triangle.

Finally we could have the guard puller begin with their guard locked over their partners shoulder. This time we will give their partner good posture (the most common defence) and the aim is to break them down correct the hip angle and finish the technique.

All these drills follow the concept of progressive resistance. If you are completely shutting down your partners offence everytime you are being a dick. Ease up a few percent and let them work out the feel of the technique.

Simalarly If they are catching you with ease you need to pick up the pressure a bit.

This pattern can be applied to all techniques is you are creative enough. Many coaches like to throw a vast array of techniques at a class the result is often that they get to see a lot of stuff but can do very little of it.

Training in the manner outlined above will help ensure a steady gradual improvement that can be maintained for the rest of your jiu jitsu life.

I’ll have the final part in this series up by tuesday stay Reading and feel free to leave some comments.