Drills. Drills. And more drills. The repetitive and often mind-numbing practice of repeating things over and over again is the keystone that holds the entire institution of training. You may have done your own set of drills, and may be thinking that mastery is just a couple of drills away. But this mindset has some drawbacks. Often, a BJJ player’s growth is stunted by becoming complacent with the techniques that he is most comfortable with.

The Takedown

Takedown drills take more energy than the other drills. Every fight starts with both competitors on their feet. And with BJJ, let’s say at 99% of the time, it ends up on the ground. Unless you can pull off a flying arm bar (still on the ground, though), or choke the person with that awesome guillotine that you have been doing for the past few weeks, we just cannot stress the importance of knowing how to do take downs the right way.

The Single Leg Takedown Drill

More often being credited to wrestling, the single leg take down, (or all take downs for that matter) requires speed, strength and an insane amount of grit to get the fight on the ground. For the rookies out there, an effective single leg should be down with your shoulder staying at the same level as your opponent’s waist or even as low as below the buttocks of your opponent. This gives you the leverage to over the pelvis.

The Arm Bar Drill

Rhonda Rousey must have done a million arm bars in her life. Thus her consistent wins in the UFC with this finish. The arm bar drill is easy. All you need is a training partner willing to stay underneath you for the next 10 minutes or so. There is a growing popularity of rapid fire armbar drills. But, remember that drills are supposedly to correct the technique and establish the muscle memory. Remember to be careful not to strain the arm too much. It’s just a drill.  Remember to change sides / targeted arm after executing one armbar. Ask for feedback if the armbar was effectively executed. Be conscious of the drill. One good technique to keep in mind is to always check the position and posture. One missed armbar can be corrected by doing 2-3 correct ones.

The Mount Drill

Side mount, full mount, side mount, north south. The drill is invaluable to players who love earning points. The drill is quite simple. Side mount, establish mount posture, full mount – establish mount posture (control), then transition to another side mount, then to the north south position.

Remember to count how many mounts you can do in 60 seconds.

Mount to Back Mount to Mount

In this drill your opponent will try to hip escape from your mount, then as soon as he does, you are going to try to take his back. And then as soon as he escapes his back, transition again to a full mount. Wash. Rinse and Repeat.

Tips to Making Drills Fun

Get your training partners to form a circle. Probably around 5-10 of them (at this point, making friends would have been useful) You will be staying in the middle. Training partners will be taking turns being taken down by you. The cool thing about this game is that you get to practice taking down dudes of different sizes. Beware of not going all Spartan on them.

Drilling to victory!