Mobility

Four Solo Drills To Help Improve Your Guard

One of your greatest weapons in developing a killer guard is flexibility. The more flexible you are, the easier you’ll be able to transition in and out of attacks, and the less your opponent will be able to force you into positions you aren’t comfortable in and exploit the gaps in your guard.

The nice thing about flexibility and mobility is you don’t need a training partner to develop it. You can develop your guard anytime, anywhere through a little solo drilling.

To help you get started here are four of my favourite solo drills to help improve your guard. These drills have been incredibly beneficial in my own training, hopefully, they can do the same for you.

Try these stretches and tactics out for the next 30 days and see how they help you.

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3 Stretches To Improve Your Hip and Hamstring Flexibility

I’m want to share with you 3 stretches that have dramatically increased my hip and hamstring flexibility.

But before I get into that I want to share two flexibility concepts that have helped develop my flexibility consistently.

The first concept is let your body tell you how long you should hold a stretch for.

Instead of forcing a stretch for a specific amount of time, let your body relax into a position and every time you relax increase the stretch further. Keep doing this until your at the maximum range of movement. I found this has greatly improved my flexibility and it far less damaging to my body.

The second concept is even simpler; stretch whenever and wherever you can. I know the importance of flexibility and training but I find the idea spending an hour just stretching mind-numbingly boring.

So when I tried to stretch like this I would keep putting it off. I no longer try to do this.

Instead, I spend a few minutes stretching and mobilise before and after classes and I stretch whenever and wherever I can. For example, if I’m watching TV I stretch or if I’m writing an email like this I stretch (yes, I’m stretching as I write this).

Try to stretch pretty much any time you can. It may only be for a few minutes at a time but over the course of a day that all adds up and this will allow you to continually improve your flexibility.

Now for my favourite hip and hamstring stretches. I learnt these from Rob at Elite Flexibility.

In fact, the first time he showed me the hamstring stretch I instantly felt the benefit. My back and hamstrings kind of sighed in relief. Check out the video below to learn these three simple stretches.

Try these stretches and tactics out for the next 30 days and see how they help you.

Follow Rob at Elite Flexibility for more information about flexibility training. Either visit http://www.eliteflexibility.com/ or follow him on Instagram @eliteflexibility

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Click the button below to get your FREE copy of Performance Drilling and discover how to train like a world champion.

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3 Ways To Prepare Your Back For Jiu Jitsu

Back injuries suck. But I didn’t really understand how much they sucked until I had one. Putting my socks on became a challenge and a sneeze would drop me in spasms of pain faster than a Mirko CroCop head kick.

Injuring my back was also the first time I’d ever had to take time off training. And it kept me out for around 6 months. During that time, I spent all the monies and saw all the specialist trying to figure out to fix it.

But it wasn’t until the initial pain had subsided that I discovered what had caused it.

Years of martial arts training had created imbalances my body and tightness in my hips. Which is bizarre as I could almost do the splits at the time. Once I realised this, it allowed me to start the road to recovery.

A big part of that was understanding how to relieve the tensions of Jiu Jitsu and increase my hip and hamstring flexibility. This video covers two ways I prepare my back for training and the best way I’ve found to relieve the tension created by Jiu Jitsu.

Follow Rob at Elite Flexibility for more information about flexibility training. Either visit http://www.eliteflexibility.com/ or follow him on Instagram @eliteflexibility

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Solo Inversion Drills

Whether you love it or hate it inverting has become a big part of modern Jiu Jitsu. And even if you never plan on Berimboloing like a Miyao, learning to go upside down can be very beneficial to your Jiu Jitsu.

The inversion movement is used in many different areas of Jiu Jitsu including back attacks, sweeps, submissions, and guard retention. On top of that, the increased flexibility developed from practising inverting can also help you avoid injury.

The video below covers a few simple solo drills that you can use to improve your ability to invert and flexibility.

Here’s what covered in the video:

Inversion Progression
Wall Drills (Cross Stepping, Spider Guard Stepping, Inversion)
Shrimping Inversions
Inversion flexibility drills (S Stretch, Hamstring Stretch, Squat)

Typically, when I practice these drills, I do each one for around 30 – 60 seconds. I find this is enough to loosen my back, hips, and hamstrings. That makes them ideal to use as a warm-up or cool down.

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3 Stretches To Improve Your Hip and Hamstring Flexibility

I’m want to share with you three stretches that have dramatically increased my hip and hamstring flexibility.

But before I get into that I want to share two flexibility concepts that have helped develop my flexibility consistently.

The first concept is let your body tell you how long you should hold a stretch for.

Instead of forcing a stretch for a specific amount of time, let your body relax into a position and every time you relax increase the stretch further. Keep doing this until you at the maximum range of movement. I found this has greatly improved my flexibility and it far less damaging to my body.

The second concept is even simpler; stretch whenever and wherever you can. I know the importance of flexibility and training but I find the idea of spending an hour just stretching mind-numbingly boring.

So when I tried to stretch like this I would keep putting it off. I no longer try to do this.

Instead, I spend a few minutes stretching and mobilise before and after classes and I stretch whenever and wherever I can. For example, if I’m watching TV I stretch or if I’m writing an email like this I stretch (yes, I’m stretching as I write this).

Try to stretch pretty much any time you can. It may only be for a few minutes at a time but over the course of a day that all add up and this will allow you to continually improve your flexibility.

Now for my favourite hip and hamstring stretches. I learnt these from Rob at Elite Flexibility.

In fact, the first time he showed me the hamstring stretch I instantly felt the benefit. My back and hamstrings kind of sighed in relief. Check out the video below to learn these three simple stretches.

Try these stretches and tactics out for the next 30 days and see how they help you.

Follow Rob at Elite Flexibility for more information about flexibility training. Either visit http://www.eliteflexibility.com/ or follow him on Instagram @eliteflexibility

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