During my very first week of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu training, my teacher Greg Nelson told the class, “If you lose a match because your opponent has more skill, that’s okay. If you lose because of your conditioning, you have a personal issue.”

This created a problem for me. At the time, I understood “conditioning” to mean running and other forms of aerobic cardio. While I’ve been a runner for most of my life I had to hang up my sneakers because of chronic foot pain. In fact, one of my biggest motivations for studying BJJ was to maintain fitness without pulverizing my feet. So I started researching alternative forms of conditioning, and soon discovered kettlebells from Mike Mahler’s website.

After training with kettlebells for a while, I noticed that many other Jiu-Jitsokas train with kettlebells. I’ve never seen any type of explanation for the rapid adoption of kettlebells amongst BJJ and MMA fighters so I thought I would share my thoughts. I believe that kettlebell training is uniquely complementary to BJJ in the following ways:

Shoulder Health

Most BJJ practitioners I know have sore shoulders occasionally. Many of my team mates at Minnesota Martial Arts Academy use glucosamine or shark cartilage or both to help with shoulder pain. The shoulder has an extremely wide range of motion which also makes it susceptible to injury. Kettlebells help build healthy shoulders because the muscles, tendons and ligaments that support the shoulder joint are continually exercised with even the most basic exercises. For instance, if you squat a barbell, you can support it on your back, effectively disengaging your shoulder. If you squat with kettlebells your shoulders will be engaged even if you hang the bells like suitcases at your side. If you squat with the bells racked, shoulder engagement will be much greater.

Proportionality

Practically all BJJ techniques involve compound movements. For instance, the shrimp escape involves a coordinated exertion of every major muscle group in the body. The typical “beach physique” of huge pecs and biceps and skinny legs is extremely disadvantageous in BJJ because your legs are overburdened, making basic movements grueling. Kettlebells promote proportionality of strength because you can’t easily isolate any single muscle group. For instance, you can’t easily do bicep curls with kettlebells. The closest analogue is the hanging clean, but that exercise engages your core and shoulders as well as your biceps. If you have major strength disproportion, kettlebell training is corrective. For instance, you may be be able to press 140 pounds. But if you can’t clean two 70 pound bells, you can’t even setup a press. The clean engages your hamstrings, shoulders, buttocks and back, promoting proportionality of strength.

Grip Strength

The no-gi game emphasizes arm and head control. The gi game emphasizes collar and sleeve control. Either way good grip-strength is a key to a successful BJJ game. Nothing is worse than losing a clean set-up when an opponent breaks your grips. Kettlebell training is uniquely beneficial for grip strength. Unlike conventional weight training, you don’t need a separate set of exercises for your forearms and wrists. The handle of a kettlebell is quite thick and you need to fully engage your forearms just to establish a good grip. Even in “rest” positions like the rack, your grips are always working to stabilize and position the bells, resulting in fantastic grip strength. After I started working out with kettlebells I found that my forearms don’t get burned out anymore, and I can pull people off their base with a wrist curl, which is pretty cool.

Resistance + Cardio

BJJ is characterized by explosive movements like the double-leg takedown, as well as sustained resistance as with the rear-naked choke. Because you have to resist a human opponent, BJJ is inherently unpredictable and you rarely have an opportunity to pace yourself or “groove” as you do with running or swimming. For this reason, I believe that long-duration aerobic cardio training is a poor fit for BJJ. Interval training with kettlebells affords great cardio benefits in addition to a challenging anaerobic resistance workout.

Biomechanical Reinforcement

The biomechanics of the squat are the same as the standing guard pass. The biomechanics of the kettlebell swing are the same as the uppa or bridge. The more I train, the more similarities I find between kettlebell exercises and BJJ techniques. Since “technical” Jiu-Jitsu is largely a matter of sound biomechanics, it makes sense to me that you would want to drill these biomechanics as much as possible. Adding resistance with kettlebells makes the movement more realistic and has helped me raise my BJJ game, perhaps more than the other drills I do.

If anyone else has thoughts on how kettlebells complement BJJ, I’d love to hear them.

I had a terrible conditioning workout today. I got these 45lb Go-Fit kettlebells to work out with in Minneapolis and they have this weird rubber coat. The rubber smells intensely bad and it was kinda distracting. Also, I felt a pain in my hamstring after the first round of double kb swings so I finished the last two rounds with a single kettlebell. My pounds-per-minute statistic is going down which is totally bumming me out. I need to push harder tomorrow and make something happen.

It’s snowing, raining, and sleeting simultaneously in Minnesota and I had about seven near-death experiences on the icey roads driving to the Minnesota Martial Arts Academy. By the time I got there my nerves were frazzled and I was grinding my teeth so hard I gave myself a head ache. But I’m glad I made it because today Tom Schmitz taught us all manner of sweep and my head is spinning from all the stuff we learned. This class went by in the blink of an eye and I’m not sure I grok the techniques well so I preface this blog with my usual admonition that the following should not be considered even remotely instructional.

Butterfly Sweep

1. Posture up
2. Hip back so your head is in front of your butt - this way your opponent can’t just push you down onto your back
3. Grab your opponent’s near wrist while rotating your body so your arm is over your opponent’s arm
4. Reach down and scoop under your opponent’s far thigh
5. Hip in so your head is behind your butt and you can easily pull your opponent on top of you
6. Sweep your opponent over your shoulder without releasing control of his arm
7. Land in side control and mind your tail-side leg or your opponent will hook it and get half-guard

Half Guard Sweep
This is a cool move when you can’t get to your opponent’s back from half guard. The context is that you have an underhook and your opponent counters your transition by getting a whizzer on your underhook.

1. Break down the whizzer by surrendering the underhook and drawing your elbow into your torso. By doing this you maintain control of your opponent’s arm
2. Exert pressure on your opponent by hip-driving into his side. Your opponent will resist your hip drive which sets him up for the sweep
3. Quickly drop and scoop your opponent’s far thigh
4. Roll back and use your opponent’s momentum to sweep him over
5. Land in side control

Turtle Sweep
The context here is that your opponent is turtled up and you don’t have a good place to get a hook in. Tom explained that if you cross your opponent’s center line you are vulnerable to a sweep so it’s very important to maintain a strong position at his side, rather than directly over his back.

1. Reach across your opponent’s back and grab his kimono or armpit
2. Block your opponent’s ankle with your near knee
3. Pull his knee out from his side with your free hand
4. Put your head into the space you just created
5. Reach under and scoop your opponent’s far thigh
6. Roll back and sweep your opponent onto his side so you are behind him
7. Put your mat-side shin high on your opponent’s back
8. Pull your opponent onto his back
9. Establish heel hooks

Arm-Bar to Back
This sweep occurs in the context of a battle for arm-bar. You’re postured over your opponent trying to extend his arm for an armbar. However, he has his arm bent and you’re not able to isolate the arm. In this case, you can transition to back control and work for another submission.

1. With your head-side hand reach under your opponent’s head and grab his far armpit. It will look like you’re cradling his head. You now have very good control over his torso and it will be easy to lift him into your hooks.
2. Slide your head-side shin high on his shoulder
3. Pull him into back-control

Well tonight was my last class at Hollywood Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu for a few weeks. I’m flying back to Minneapolis tomorrow and I’m looking forward to getting reacquainted with Minnesota Martial Arts Academy. In case you’re wondering, I have contracts at two different schools simultaneously which is expensive, but what can I say, I heart BJJ.

Anyway, when I got to class I realized I lost my favorite mouth guard and I was totally dejected. That mouth guard was my immortal beloved. It was just a lump of black plastic that cost $1.99 but it was way better than the fancy Shock Doctor mouthpiece that I payed $12 for. Sigh.

Today we drilled the transition from side-control to knee-on-belly. Shawn made some observations about knee-on-belly that I would like to remember:

• Knee-on-belly isn’t the best choice with no gi because you have fewer grips. For instance, you can’t get a collar grip and work for a cross choke or baseball choke. Since there are fewer grips, it’s a little more unstable.
• If your opponent is playing very defensively you might want to get knee-on-belly to open up opportunities for an arm-bar. For instance if your opponent tries to push up on your chest then you can get an easy arm-bar.
• If your opponent blocks a mount with his knee then you can pull your forearm across his beltline to make room for your shin. But before you do this, you should clutch his armpit with the hand you have under his head.
• Your stabilizing foot should be pointed at your opponent’s head. This ensures that your torso is directly over your opponent weighing heavily on him. If your foot is turned out, your spine is off center and you will be light on your opponent.
• If your opponent tries to bridge you off you can swing your legs over and re-establish knee-on-belly on the other side. But you have make certain not to come down on your knee because then you’ll be too light. You have to stabilize with your foot so that you are exerting downward pressure on your opponent’s belly.

Shawn also had some pointers for the counter to knee-on-belly:

• Bridge and hoist your opponent’ shin off you with the V of your hand so you can hook the leg and get work for half guard. Then use your free hand to hook your opponent’s other thigh. This prevents him from mounting with that leg. But you have to keep your arm bent with your elbow close to your side so your arm doesn’t get attacked and isolated.
• Don’t use your hand to push your opponent’s thigh down into your half guard. Use your forearm to press down on his thigh while shrimping your body. If you extend your arm you’re vulnerable to an arm bar. If you need to sink in the figure four on your opponent’s leg, you can scorpion your legs to pull him down into the half-guard with your legs, rather than push him down with your hand.

BTW - I forgot to bring a hand towel to dry myself off and my partner and I were sliding around on a slick of sweat like greased pigs on a water slide.  No gi rules!

I’ve only studied at Shawn’s school for a few months but I already have a much deeper appreciation for BJJ as an evolved science, and not just ass-kicking for no-neck troglodytes. Today we looked at side-control and a lot of the bio-mechanical tips Shawn taught emphasized the physics of “being heavy” on your opponent. Basically “being heavy” is about positioning your body to always exert downward pressure on your opponent. I’m a total science dork and I found this class fascinating. Here’s what I can remember from class:

• If you have your arm under your opponent’s head, your head-side palm should be facing down. If your palm is face up, you end up controlling your opponent by means of a bicep curl which is exhausting. Also a bicep curl vectors up and you really want to exert downward pressure.
• If your head is up in side control, that means your spine is angled up too. You really want your spine to be parallel to the mat. The way to ensure proper posture is to look down and tuck your chin into your opponent’s shoulder.
• If you need to transition to side-control on the other side of your opponent, do not splay your legs out and start walking around without first establishing control of his head and hip. As well as preventing an easy sweep, this ensures that you maintain heavy chest-on-chest downward pressure via the “parallel-spine” bio-mechanic discussed above.
• Keep your tail-side knee pressed against your opponent’s body. If you extend your tail-side leg your spine is angled up and you become “light”.

Side-control to North-South to Arm-Bar
This is a cool transition. Basically the scenario is that you are in side-control and your opponent bridges out of it and gets an underhook. So this transition neutralizes the danger from the underhook and sets you up for a submission.

1. You start in side-control with your head-side arm under your opponent’s head and your tail-side arm controlling your opponent’s far-arm. Remember to keep your tail-side knee pressed into your opponent’s hip.
2. Your opponent bridges out of side-control and gets an underhook
3. When you feel the underhook switch your hands so that your head-side arm is over your opponent’s head and you’re controlling his far-arm by pinching it into his body with your bicep
4. Move your tail-side arm to your opponent’s near hip and grab his hip or the butt of his gi
5. Splay your legs
6. Walk around to north-south while maintaining chest-on-chest pressure
7. Gather his elbows beween your biceps if you can
8. Slide your palm under your opponent’s underhook arm making sure your palm is facing up
9. With your legs drive straight towards your opponent’s crotch. If you drive to the side, you relieve downward-pressure on him and he’ll escape (i.e. be heavy)
10. While maintaining control of your opponent’s arm, kickstand up so your knee is against your opponent’s waist and and his head is under your crotch.
11. Get two-on-one control of your opponent’s arm.
12. Swing your trailing leg over your opponent’s head
13. Rotate your body so you are looking across your opponent’s chest
14. Lean back for the arm bar

Whew! That was a long seqence. The mistake I kept making when we drilled this was that as soon as I felt the underhook I started to walk out to north-south. Shawn coached me to switch my hands and establish far-arm and near-hip control before I started to walk my body around. I did this move while rolling with Somo but I’m not giving myself credit for it because I think Somo was just playing with me.