It’s all too common for us to hit a wall in anything that we do for a consistent basis. Becoming burnt out over time is a dangerous prospect, especially if it’s something that you wish to one day make a living out of.
This happens for grapplers all the time, and what was once an interesting, fun endeavor has grown tedious. Now, with a stale training routine, you strive for something fresh to add to your training to not only make you better, but engaged once more.
Luckily, today I’m here to take a look at a drill that will do just what I explained about!
The one-and-only Ken Primola is a gold mind of drills and grappling knowledge, and while I was doing some digging on his YouTube channel, I came across a fantastic drill that will be sure to get you back into the swing of things, but also will help take your game to the next level and make you that feared grappler you wish to one day become!
Strengthen Certain Skills By Eliminating Others
I love all types of drills, from advanced to as basic as they can get; this is one of those “basic” ones. By simply doing one thing, and one thing only, you can enhance your overall skill set in no time flat!
No, I’m not here trying to sell you a super-cool product that can be yours for the low-low cost of five payments of $29.99 (plus shipping and handling, of course,) all I’m telling you is that what you need is probably one room over!
By introducing tennis balls to your rolling regimen, you will see a major enhancement in your overall grappling ability!
Holding on to two tennis balls will eliminate your ability to grab and will also eliminate a good chunk of your submission game, forcing you to work harder for your passes and for certain submissions holds that you may not always tend to look for.
Another added benefit that you will likely see over time is improved grip strength. By holding on to the tennis balls for drawn out periods of time, your grip strength will see vast improvement.
Rounding Out Your Grappling Game
This is a drill that is so basic anyone can implement it to their drilling routine. By taking away certain instincts you may have on the mat, you will be forced to focus heavily on other areas of your game.
By doing this, you will start to see a more rounded version of you when you start to grapple. Before using tennis balls, you may have been a feared submission specialist that went for guillotines left and right, but struggled with passes…but by implementing the tennis balls, your blood chokes—revolving around grips—were eliminated, while your had to focus more on the passing game.
Simply put, this is a fantastic way for you and your students to kick things up a notch. Give it a shot!
Be sure to check out this other great article at Science of Skill (http://scienceofskill.com/drilling-make-2014-the-year-you-step-up-your-bjj-game/)
Dan Faggella
