Training for the Adaptations you're looking for. Part One: Plyometrics

Your body only adapts to the training it receives. It sounds simple enough, but when you really apply it to your program, you can see a world of difference. In this next series I will be going over 3 types of training that I see are sorely lacking in most programs, and how they will directly benefit areas of BJJ most people say they want to improve: ability to quickly perform movements, being able to sustain speed of movements through scrambles and moving their body into exotic positions.

Part One will focus on high-speed movements or “explosiveness”. While technique reigns supreme in our martial art, being able to quickly disengage (or power through) can save you from more than one sticky situation.

This is actually one of the most trainable aspects of athletic performance as well. Without getting into too granular of detail, every muscle is made up of 2 types of fiber (the actual contracting part): Type I or “slow” and Type II or “fast”. While genetics play a key factor in how the split is determined, research has shown that through direct training, you can have MORE of the type of fiber being used.

Look at marathon runners versus sprinters, their training differences are immediately apparent when you look at them. We can take advantage of this adaptation in the body by performing high speed movements under resistance, so that when we are doing our sport we can perform more powerfully. Through consistent, intelligent training you can change the composition of your muscles so that they contain more of the fiber type you want.

With the recent explosion in CJI and UFC BJJ style events, that have rounds with time limits, they lend themselves very highly to having a more explosive, get the position and then submission you want QUICKLY than ever before.

The best way to train your body to move quickly is with plyometrics. Plyometrics or “Plyos” are exercises in which muscles exert maximum force in short intervals of time. You may have been introduced to them through hopping or jumping. These are great ways to get the lower body to move quickly. You can select the exercise on whether you want your tendons to get springier, like with a single leg hop, or get your muscles to have that rubber band reflex with a reactive jump off of a box.

Almost all of the Judo style takedowns we use rely on having a quick entry and redirection from our lower body, so it is essential we train our muscles to move at these speeds, if we hope to be able to perform at the highest levels.

Even those familiar with plyos may not be familiar with using them for the upper body. Our sport rarely relies on using only part of the body to perform a movement, so training holistically is key. Upper body plyos can be done with medicine balls, ropes, or even with calisthenics by doing bear crawl style movements for example.

You may be thinking to yourself, “well I play guard, I don’t need explosiveness.” Do you think that way when you face someone who prefers an outside passing style? How about when you go into crab ride and want to transition to kiss the dragon. Technical, high-speed movement, under duress, is foundational to anyone’s game.

That’s why plyometric training is so important, because even white belts that aren’t used to coordinating their body like this can begin to lay down the neural pathways that they will later utilize when performing techniques.

Older grapplers are notorious for “not having power” as well. I would argue that it is so prevalent because they are not training for their muscles to perform that way. Yes, as you age you will lose speed, but it doesn’t need to be the degree that some think is inevitable.

So, down to the training itself. You should slowly add volume over time to your plyos each week. The way to count reps for plyos is through “contacts” as in each time the body part you are training does a movement that would be one. So for 1 leg hops, each time you leave the ground and land, it would be 1 contact. The level of intensity or the rating perceived exertion (RPE) should also factor into the amount of contacts. Lower RPE can have more contacts, while higher RPE workouts should have less. It’s also advisable to not increase the contacts by more than 10% per week.

Since we are focusing on maximal power output, you need to have a base of performing the movement correctly before adding speed to it. Our body can only adapt to what we train it to do, so if you move correctly that will be ingrained into your neural pathways, but so will faulty movements, so progress accordingly.

After learning how to do the movements, I suggest a volume of full speed contacts in the 100-200 range before progressively overloading by 5% more in contacts each week.