Life is a balancing act, and most of us have multiple priorities. We have to juggle BJJ with work, family life, relaxation time, etc. A couple of days away from training never killed anybody. In fact, we’re usually refreshed and eager to get back at ‘er when we return!

But sometimes the breaks are longer than a couple of days. Life intervenes, and before you know it weeks, or even months have gone by and you’ve only trained once or twice:(

It’s easy to get down about this and want to throw in the towel altogether, but hear me out. Training layoffs are normal, and ultimately inevitable. They happen to everyone.

Ecclesiastes (and the Byrds) had it right: “to everything there is a season.” It just wasn’t your BJJ season for a while…

I’m a black belt and a self-proclaimed ‘expert’ on grappling and BJJ. But this doesn’t make me immune to ups and downs in my own training.  One of my dirty little secrets is that my own training suffers every time I’m working on a new Grapplearts video. For example, I’m working on a soon-to-be-released video project right now, and because of the long hours spent writing, designing, filming and editing, I’ve been lucky to get on the mats once a week.

Kind of ironic, isn’t it? I’m working on a tool to give everyone else’s grappling skills a huge boost, but at the same time it causes my own skills to temporarily decline… (Don’t get me wrong, I’m NOT complaining about making videos. I work on these projects because I love doing them. I just hope that admitting this it puts things into perspective a little bit.)

You see, training layoffs and slow-downs no longer freak me out. I know that whatever is making training difficult will eventually pass and I’ll be able to get back into it full-bore! A BJJ black belt usually takes 9 to 12 years, so you’re definitely in this for the long haul. And on that timescale things are going to come up in EVERYBODY’S life, no matter who you are.

Let’s get a bit more specific…

Say that things get crazy for you at work. You’re putting in 70 hours a week at the office. You barely have time to brush your teeth, let alone sneak away three times a week for your usual training sessions.

It may take a few months, but then you finally get things under control and are ready to get your life back. Time to start training again!

I’m not gonna lie to you; your first couple of sessions probably won’t be pretty… In fact, there are TWO areas where you’re probably going to be most challenged in your game.

The first problem you’ll likely notice is that your ENDURANCE now sucks. You’ll be sucking wind bigtime when you drill, and especially when you spar. This inability to go for as long and as hard as you could before your layoff is partially due to a decrease in your objective fitness (by ‘objective’ I mean that you could measure it on a treadmill).

In the running world they talk about specific measures of fitness like ‘VO2 max’ and ‘lactate threshold.’ These are numerical values which tell you how fit you are. And if you haven’t been training for a while then all your numbers probably just went down!

In addition to these objective physiological factors killing your endurance, your ‘sports-specific fitness’ just went down too! For example, you won’t be moving as smoothly and efficiently as you were before your layoff. You’ll use muscle to pull off moves where once you would have used leverage. You’ll use strength instead of timing. You’ll rely on gross body movements where once you would have automatically made more subtle adjustments.

All this means that you’ll be burning more energy, which, of course, makes you get tired faster.

Now I said that there were two problem areas after a layoff… The second thing to go out the window when you don’t train is your TIMING.

It’s a mental thing.

Your opponent will start to pass your guard but your brain will be like the computer in the original Star Trek series (…computing… …computing… …computing…). You’ll remember the perfect counter to the guard pass long after the chance to actually use it has come and gone.

When your timing is messed up like this then your brain is soaked in molasses – always a little too slow and a little too late.

But the good news is that it will all come back to you. As I’ve now said many times, training setbacks happen to everyone. Your timing and your sports-specific endurance AREN’T gone forever; they’ll come back, I promise!

Remember that every Mundial medalist has had layoffs, and every UFC champion has spent time on the couch waiting for injuries to heal. If they managed to get back into it, so can you. To get back to your previous level you need to stay strong, believe that it will all come back to you, and KEEP TRAINING!

Here are some real life tips-from-the-trenches about what you can do minimize your loss of skills during these inevitable training layoffs and get you through the tough times. (I’ve included a lot of links to other articles, make sure to check them all out!)

Layoff Survival Strategy 1: Make Time for Grappling

There’s no doubt about it. The more you train, the better you get (provided, of course, that you don’t overtrain).

Friendly competition between training partners is the heart and soul of getting better on the mat. So if you don’t train as often, chances are that you’ll be left in the dust relative to most of your training partners.

Everyone continuing to improve while you stagnate can be very frustrating, and sometimes it’s a natural reaction to want to throw in the towel completely. The thought process might go something like “screw it, I won’t train until I actually have the time to do it properly.”

But this is a mistake…

Here’s a noted authority (that would be *ahem* myself) talking about how often you should train in a week:

“But let me reassure you that training once a week is much, much, much better than not training at all. You will maintain at least some of your timing and conditioning, and will be much further ahead when you can return to your previous level of training. Of course if you can augment your weekly training session with some cardio or strength training so much the better.”

So if you’re going through a crazy busy time, try to figure out a way to somehow sneak out and train once a week… Or once every two weeks… Or even just once a month…

My BJJ coach, Marcus Soares, calls guys who train infrequently ‘tourists’ and jokes about them needing a visa to be allowed into class. But it’s all in good fun. And the truth is that he’s still glad to see them…

Now it’s true you probably won’t improve much with once-a-week training (unless you’re a complete beginner). But at least it keeps your head in the game and prevents your skills from backsliding completely.

If you can’t train at your regular club because you’re traveling for work or pleasure, then you’ve got another option. Find a club to train away from home!

Many BJJ and grappling clubs offer drop-in training, especially for out-of-town training. There’s often a small fee – usually $10 to $25. But even if it’s a really high drop-in fee (I’ve seen up to $40) it’s still less than what you’d pay for a single person at a good restaurant, so just consider it part of the whole vacation.

And even a single training session in an unfamiliar club will give you valuable insight into how other people train. To find a school either use Google or search the Grapplearts school database.

Training in a new, unfamiliar club can be an experience worth going out of your way for!

For example, in a previous life I was required to travel across the continent to just outside of Lakeland, Florida. Once there, I worked in a gray office cubicle, chained to a computer, for 10 hours a day. There were no BJJ clubs in town at the time.

One of the highlights of my time in Florida was the once-a-week visit to Orlando where I would train with BJJ black belt Marcelo Grosso. I’d leave right after work and then spend 1 1/2 to 2 hours in traffic get to Orlando, but training at this club was a really cool experience! And it helped prove to me that my timing and sports-specific endurance wasn’t going to disappear overnight.

Who knows! If you train a few times at a new school you may even learn a technique or two with which to confound your training partners when you get home again!!

Sometimes the best way to get through a tough time is with a little help from your friends. Specifically friends who are willing to train with you at unusual times and/or in unusual settings.

Being physically flexible is a good thing in BJJ, but so is being flexible with your training schedule! And a little lateral thinking about where and when to train can go a long way. I’ve rolled with training partners who had full time jobs and could only meet me for 6 am training sessions. And late at night on mats laid down in my kitchen. And in police stations, the back of a friend’s factory, and on a tarp laid down on top of grass in the park…

Take a good look at your schedule. Being conscious about how you spend your time is incredibly important!!

Laura Vanderkam – the author of “168 Hours; You Have More Time Than You Think” – cites a poll in which the average North American thinks he/she only has 16.5 hours of leisure time in a week. But, strangely enough, the average American also watches somewhere in the range of 18 to 23 hours of television every week.

Hmmmmmm….

(I threw out my TV years ago. One of the best things I ever did: freed up tons of time…)

So let’s say that you absolutely, positively don’t have time to train. Fine. I accept that. I’ll even agree that it sucks and feel appropriately sorry for you.But not if you’re still managing to watch all new episodes of Entourage, Glee, and Dancing with the Stars, plus posting on Facebook five times a day. If you can do this then you DO have the time to train, and I’m a little less sympathetic!

Layoff Survival Strategy 2: Find Time to Exercise

Do anything you can to avoid becoming a sedentary blob!!!

When I was in Florida there weren’t any BJJ or submission grappling clubs in town. I’ve already talked about my weekly pilgrimage to Orlando, but another piece of the puzzle was the daily run. Almost every day on the way from office to hotel room, I’d squeeze in a quick 2 to 3 mile run on a trail around a pretty lake.

Running is such a good way to build up your endurance. It’s been called “the king of the exercises” for good reason… Some people find running boring, but I think that being outside makes it a lot more enjoyable for me.

Here’s a list of tips that might help you if you’re one of those people who ‘just can’t run.’

Here’s what it comes down to: human bodies are very adaptable and this is a double edged sword.

On the one hand, it’s a good thing because it means that our bodies actually respond and adapt to the stresses encountered in the environment. For example, if you lift a heavy weight every day then eventually you’ll get stronger and that weight won’t seem quite so heavy.

But our adaptability can also be a bad thing. For example, as a species we’re very good at accumulating body fat. Maybe this was a good thing when our caveman ancestors needed to store energy for the winter, but in the modern era we’ve got so much cheap food all around us that our programming to eat more works against us.

So if you spend your days driving a desk in an office and don’t counteract that with exercise then your body will adapt, but in the wrong way. Your metabolism will slow down, your body fat will increase, your endurance will decrease and your bones will get weaker. These changes will make life much harder for you when you get back on the mat, and put you at an increased risk for injury. So it’s really important that you find a way to include some physical exercise into your weekly 168 hours.

Assuming you sleep 8 hours a night, that leaves you with 112 hours of waking time every week. And from that perspective you should probably be able to squeeze in a couple of hours of straining and sweating somehow, right? And one or two hours a week are a hell of a lot better than nothing!

I don’t believe that holidays are an excuse to let yourself go. After all, cruise ships usually have treadmills as well as ridiculously overflowing all-you-can-eat buffet tables! In fact, I wrote a whole article about how to staying fit on holidays…

When it comes to working out you can do a lot with a bit of determination and improvisation. If you want some inspiration then check out the workout routines of these MMA fighters (some of these fighters are no longer active, but you might still get some good ideas from their routines nonetheless).

But don’t think that you have to do epic UFC-style workouts. When you’re under the gun, then do Yoga, running, crossfit, bodybuilding, Pilates, Zoomba, pole dancing or fitness bootcamps in the park, it really doesn’t matter!

The bottom line is to do something – anything – to keep moving.

Layoff Survival Strategy 3: Keep Your Mind Active

Yogi Berra said “baseball is 90% mental, the other half is physical.” And the same is true in grappling.

I’m not going to get into the nitty-gritty of it here, but there are no shortage of studies demonstrating the power of visualization. Basically, if you think about an activity hard enough, then your brain basically is ‘tricked’ into thinking that you are actually doing it. And that literally improves your objective performance of the task.

The take-home message is that the more you think about an activity, watch an activity, and research an activity, then the faster you’ll improve at that activity!

I believe that deliberately, attentively watching grappling videos – either footage of people rolling/competing, or instructional footage – is a form of visualization. And in the modern digital age there’s no shortage of online video, DVDs, downloadable instruction, etc. etc. that you can use to keep your mind sharp during layoffs.

Here’s some specific examples of how the internet helped my training. And while we’re on that topic, here’s some great advice on how to actually use instructional media to get better (plus a bit of background on what’s happening at the neurological level too):

I’m not saying that watching instructional DVDs and youtube clips is better than actually training. But doing something is a hundred times better than doing nothing! Unchallenged muscles shrink and get weaker. And your grappling brain works much the same way, so challenge your noggin any way you can. If life takes you away from the mats for a while, keep your chin up and your eyes on the prize. You WILL eventually figure out a way to train regularly again.

And since you’ll eventually get back to training I’ll leave you with a few tips on coming back from a training layoff!

Take care, and good luck
Stephan Kesting
www.grapplearts.com

Starting Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
at Sixty Years of Age!
by
Ormond Morford

I had decided to take jiu-jitsu when I retired three years ago at sixty years old. I needed something to keep me motivated to get regular exercise, including lots of stretching. I had always been interested in martial arts and jiu-jitsu seemed like something I could do. Although I had never done any wrestling, it did not appear too complicated or difficult. So I thought that I would give it a try.

I soon discovered that I could not beat the younger guys through strength and determination alone. They were so much stronger, more limber and quicker than me. The first few classes I attended were discouraging. I seemed to leave each class with a new set of bruises. What was I thinking?! The harder I tried, the more bruised and beat up I got.

My instructor, Chris Jones, at Durango Martial Arts said that I was trying too hard and to just relax. I had always been fairly strong and had done some kickboxing in my younger years, so I had assumed that I just needed to apply that approach with increased determination to jiu-jitsu. However, that is not how jiu-jitsu works and it slowly dawned on me that my instructor was right. When I was trying hard, I was probably doing it wrong.

Armbars, triangle chokes, kimuras and omoplatas... it was all a mystery to me. It took me about six months to relax and just focus on learning the leverage and techniques that apply to jiu-jitsu rather than trying to muscle my opponent around. I began to get a little more limber and learn the basic positions of Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Then I could start learning about the various submissions.

I do have to say there were many times when I was discouraged and wanted to quit, but Chris kept encouraging me and kept reminding me to stop trying so hard. He pointed out that the difference between a white belt and a black belt is that a black belt was at one time a white belt who just kept plugging away and did not get discouraged and quit. He didn’t buy my story that I was too old and would never get it.

Jiu-jitsu was not tailor-made for me, but I could tailor my training to make it work for me. One thing that helped was that the gym began offering private lessons and I connected with a young purple belt, Matt Young, who took me under his wing.

We began to methodically go through the basic passes, sweeps, submissions and defense of submissions and I started to make slow, steady progress. I began visualizing some of the basic jiu-jitsu moves when I was not even at the gym and that seemed to help lay down muscle memory patterns almost as well as drilling the moves in the gym and with a lot fewer bruises.

Being older, another problem I had was my memory. I would quickly forget which moves I had just learned, not to mention how to do them. So I decided to start keeping a training journal.

I am a very methodical, left-brained person. My learning seemed to become less random and haphazard when I began writing my own curriculum. I gained a certain comfort level with my learning, where I was going and where I had been.

It got so I could hold my own against other students with similar experience. I began enjoying my training sessions and I could see The Plan of how to gain a progressive knowledge of the sport and how to monitor my progress and fill the holes in my game as they became apparent.

As of this writing I have been training for about three years and I am currently a blue belt working toward my purple belt. Adjusting my training to make it appropriate to my age has been a challenge. I can remember one time when a young purple belt was snickering, because I could not finish my triangle choke. So I just squeezed down harder and accidently broke wind in his face. We both ended up rolling on the floor in laughter.

Some of the younger students don’t really understand my situation. They assume that since Helio Gracie was still rolling at age 93, I should be able to do it at age 63. But Helio had been rolling since he was a child and I am sure that he continually adjusted his game to accommodate his aging. Now I seek out kind and understanding partners who just want to share in the back and forth ebb and flow of advancing positions, defensive positions and defense of submissions. It is a lot more fun that way. I don’t get too exhausted or quite so banged up.

Interest in jiu-jitsu has been increasing dramatically over the past few years, especially with the popularity of the “Ultimate Fighter” and the UFC in general. A lot of folks probably believe that they are either too old, too overweight, not coordinated enough or the wrong gender to participate in a sport like jiu-jitsu.

Well, if a sixty year old retiree like me can begin the sport and be reasonably successful, why not give it a try? It is really fun and very motivating to improve your overall conditioning, flexibility and physical strength, not to mention your confidence level and feelings of accomplishment!

Master Pedro Sauer, Gracie Jiu Jitsu, The Making of a Legend.
By Russell W. Dickson

When you talk to experts in the field of martial arts, one name comes up, "Master Pedro Sauer". Just who is this fabled fighter, you might ask? Some say, he is a cross between Sun Tzu and Bruce Lee. While his name isn't as recognizable as Bruce Lee's, one thing is for sure, Sauer's greatness and skill on the mat is the stuff of legends.

According to http://www.pedrosauer.com, "Pedro's skill, confidence, and fearlessness as a jiu-jitsu practitioner win him the respect of all that work with him. However, it is through his sincere personality, his passion for teaching, and his ability to transfer his skills to his students in an efficient and professional manner, that he has earned the loyalty of students across the nation, and has established himself as one of the premiere military and law enforcement instructors in the U.S."

Professor Pedro Sauer grew up in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where he began training in the martial arts at a young age. His sister's boyfriend, Marcio Mattar, a professional boxer, first encouraged him to learn to fight, "He had so much faith in me and was able to turn my energy and fearless attitude into a positive by recommending to me that I begin studying martial arts." Sauer started boxing at age 5 and later learned Judo and Taekwondo.
Shortly after he began his training Sauer met the Great Master Helio Gracie, the founding father of Gracie Jiu Jitsu. "He took me under his wing, welcomed me into his home, and treated me like a son," said Sauer. Gracie was uniquely able to relate to Sauer because he was a small man as well, "he taught me leverage and how to get out of difficult positions with moves and strategies for smaller fighters, he taught me how not to lose," said Sauer.

Under Helio Gracie's tutelage, Sauer learned to visualize what his opponents would do before they did it. This ability saved his life in later years, "In 1988, I had just dropped off my niece at her friend's house, and when she got out I forgot to lock the door. On the way home, I was at a stop sign behind a car when a man walking by noticed my door was unlocked, and jumped in. As he sat down in the seat next to me and put a knife to my throat he said, 'don't look at me, just drive and pray, because you are going to die!'"

The would-be thief soon realized he had gotten into the wrong car because, "When I pushed the brakes at the stop sign, his arm moved away from my neck, and gave me the opportunity to grab ahold of it and put it into an American Arm Bar. I broke his shoulder and held his broken arm in my hand as I pummeled him with elbow strikes to the face. He ran out of the car screaming in pain."

Sauer wasn't always so proficient at Jiu-Jitsu, it was difficult for him in the beginning, because he was only 120 pounds and had to learn to fight against the Gracie brothers. The Gracie's were all black belts, so he lost constantly and learned to fight (ironically) through submissiveness. "I was lucky not only to grow up training with the Gracie brothers, but also to receive perfect technique as I learned the mechanics of my body straight from the source. Helio taught me the strategies that he invented. I am forever grateful to the inspirational man who taught me everything I know, because he pushed me to be better and to continue my path towards success."

Sauer's training with powerful opponents didn't end with the Gracie's. He continues to train to this day with fighters like Mark Shultz, a 203 lb. MMA fighter. Sauer said, "Mark Shultz was the toughest person that I have ever trained with on the mat. He was very friendly and an incredibly fighter and one of the greatest people I have met."

Sauer Recalls, "I was an extremely hyper kid who could never sit still and I was always in trouble. I got kicked out of one school after another and everyone thought I was either crazy or just plain bad. I used the label of "bad kid" as an excuse to do bad things, but Jiu-Jitsu provided an escape from that, and calmed me down... a little (wink). It was definitely a turning point in my life. Helio Gracie never believed that I was as crazy or bad. He often used the analogy that I was a lion outside of its boundaries and that Jiu-Jitsu would put a leash on me. Helio used that leash to hold a firm grip on me during the training process. Many years later he told me that the leash was now in my own hands and that I now had the ability to either tighten it to control myself or loosen it when necessary for defense."
Sauer says, "The Gracie family as a whole was great. We boys were always competing against each other whether it was on the mat or out on the weekends with girls. Healthy food was always around the house to make sure we were in top shape. Helio turned us into the most technical people in the world, as he encouraged us to train 6 hours a day, non-stop, he made sure we stayed in the best condition." Sauer says that anyone can learn Jiu Jitsu and that there are many health benefits from its practice, it tones the muscles and is a great cardiovascular workout. Mentally, it creates better people that are more tolerant, patient, laid back, and fearless of losing. It teaches the student that you don't always need to be aggressive in tense situations, giving them an advantage.

Sauer works extensively with the military, including the Marines, Navy SEAL teams (including the snipers). He has also trained FBI and CIA agents in Texas.Master Pedro Sauer is Gracie Jiu Jitsu royalty, yet he has managed to stay well grounded, "Gracie Jiu-Jitsu made me humble as I learned respect, honor, integrity, and loyalty. I can never stress enough how important loyalty is in any future career in Martial Arts. I would like to thank all of my loyal students who have stayed with me throughout the years and have been unconditionally loyal and honest with me. They have exceeded any expectations I have had for them. I could never ask for better pupils. It is difficult to mention specific names, but all the guys in my affiliations of 120 academies are on my website pedrosauer.com."

When Prof. Sauer was asked about one student, that credits him with "saving his life," Master Lovi of the Robert Lovi Academy in San Diego, CA, graciesd.com, he said "Rob Lovi is a great example of character. He has discipline, integrity, and above all, dedication. He was a bit crazy when he started Gracie Jiu Jitsu :) but training has completely changed his life."
"Today, he is a totally different guy who is always helping the community and transforming the lives of others. I am very proud of him and his talent. I am lucky to have had him walk into my academy and be one of my students." Muhammad Ali once said, "Champions aren't made in the gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them - a desire, a dream, a vision." Pedro Sauer is one of these champions.


For more articles by Russell W. Dickson go to:
http://www.nolanchart.com/author1512_Russell_W_Dickson_The_Invisible_Eye.html

Columnist Russell Dickson, 'The Invisible Eye' at Nolanchart.com, is a prolific opinion, news, and fiction writer. Contact him by writing to NewsBlaze or at his blog.

It is easy to see the improvements that jiu-jitsu feminine does to the body (muscles and turned in the right set) and mental (concentration, inhibitions, increase self confidence, etc.) As known in the art or Suave Jiu-Jitsu. In women will increase self esteem, pride and no doubt the quality of life.

No wonder that now the girls also invaded the ring for a good fight.

You can eliminate 750 calories per class entry level, caloric expenditure doubles in advanced training, up to 1500 calories. If you want to lose weight and improve muscle tone, or it wants to acquire knowledge of self defense, Jiu-Jitsu is the right sport.

In addition to learning self defense, this fight brings benefits to your body by increasing your muscle tone and your cardiovascular capacity, in addition you will also be more mentally healthy, because those who practice this art gets more

 self-confidence is better prepared, make friends, and finally eliminate all your stress on the mat.

The jiu-jitsu for women, benefits beyond the conventional. With all the benefits that afull-back sport jiu-jitsu has still hardly specific characteristics found in a single sport.And even more in women, they learn more easily, since by their nature are more flexible, more committed and why are not much easier to teach.

By having great demand and be very anaerobic isometric jiu-jitsu makes a woman develops all his strength, studies show that women who trains jiu-jitsu may come to have the strength increased up to four times, including increasing muscle mass which decreases the possibility of cellulite, stretch marks, fat spots, varicose veins, improving the quality of sleep and life.

Flexibility on the part of the jiu-jitsu of a real show in many other sports and even more if speaking in jiu-jitsu female, as women already have more easily acquire ease and jiu-jitsu is the most polished, the part the fight it self is an exercise in stretching.

The technical part because it requires much concentration and attention are women candidate to be the best student. Because of technical foundation based on the levers of the body and the use of force added to the opponent's strategy make the set perfect for the woman to stand out in comparison to men. Good for the heart for the much required aerobic capacity increases the cardio respiratory improving the layout and burning the fats undesirable.



Jiu-Jitsu decreases stress, the timid inhibitions and calms the agitated and anxious. It builds self-esteem and self confidence, it works the whole body, especially arms,shoulders, abdomen and hip, and helps increase stamina.