Ways to Develop Your Rhythm in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu

The rhythm is one of the most important things in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Not only in BJJ, but it is important in anything you do, such as pursuing a goal, learning something new, improving yourself, and many other things. It is the rhythm that makes sure you are on the right path, leading you to your target. So the same case is with the BJJ. It is important throughout your career, whether you are resting, training, sparring, or playing in a professional BJJ match, that you need to be in a rhythm, and this will leave a much better impact on you.

A rhythm is a sequence or order in which multiple events occur one after the other. These events happen again and again, and the pattern can be regular or irregular. But it denotes a particular order in which some things happen repeatedly. It is important in everything you do to make it better and bring in a particular pattern.

• A rhythm in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu means that you are training consistently, learning new techniques one after the other, and the number of techniques you have mastered is increasing over time. Besides this, it also involves that you are improving your execution of techniques, and you are doing all these things in a particular order and pattern, so that you know after one year, for example, what target you will achieve.

• You must know your goals, the steps to reach those goals, and how you can effectively take yourself both mentally and physically to your target. You need to have a solid rhythm for your BJJ career so that you can improve yourself with each passing day. You must have this feeling of improvement. If you don’t feel it, then it means that you are not in a rhythm or you are not bringing your BJJ career into a proper rhythm.

• You need rhythm for everything when you are a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu practitioner. You need it while you are training, sparring, or grappling in a professional BJJ match. So generally, you need to display it while you are on the mats. On the other hand, you also should have it while you are off the mats. It means when you are not training, sparring, or grappling in a BJJ match.

• In that situation, you should have rhythm in your mind and your overall activities. You should take care of your mind and body because you need recovery from all the intense BJJ sparring sessions you did throughout your day. So if you are a BJJ practitioner, it is a must have quality for you to excel in your career, whether you are on or off the mats.

There are two categories in this;

• On the Mats

• Off the Mats

You can develop rhythm in your BJJ career or journey on the mats by following the ways given below:

At the start of your day, you must have a goal or a purpose for that specific day. You should not be like a practitioner who is just going with the flow and doesn’t know in what direction they are going. Think about a goal to fulfil for a day. For example, you may plan about learning a new technique in the morning before the training. Now, at the end of your training day, you must have learnt that technique. You must not let anything come into your plans and try your best to fulfil them.

• The second tip for you to develop rhythm is that you should always try to alternate your training pace or the speed at which you execute the techniques or make movements. This is a reality in a professional Jiu Jitsu match, that when you grapple against your opponent, you cannot always keep yourself at the same pace. Sometimes you need to slow yourself, your movements, and the execution of your techniques.

• On the other hand, it also becomes necessary for you sometimes that you have to do everything quickly. For example, you may need to transition yourself to a new position and if you do not become quick in your transition and movement, then you will become trapped in a submissive position against your opponent.

• So, for learning a real match grappling pace and getting yourself addicted to doing it, you need to keep your pace of training alternating between slow and fast movements. Make a slow movement one time, and then the next movement should be fast. Or you can develop your own pattern for changing the pace at which you are comfortable.

• The third tip is to study your training partner or opponent. This is very important for you. It is necessary that you should be able to anticipate the moves of your oppoent. You cannot always be true for that, but you must anticipate correctly most of the time because this will give you time to prepare yourself for the reaction against their upcoming action.

• If you are in a grappling match against your opponent, then you must study their moves and their actions. You should observe how they are grappling closely. You must keep doing this all the time during the match.

• For learning this, try to practice this anticipating concept during your training or sparring. Do this with your training pattern. Read their moves and all actions they take.

• It is possible to predict the upcoming moves. The reason behind this is that your opponent or a training partner must do something that will give you a hint for a technique. With that hint, which is usually a small or quick movement of any part of their organ, or it can also be a change in their position. With that hint, you will be able to anticipate your opponent’s upcoming moves and get yourself prepared for them.

• This is probably the most important aspect of developing rhythm in your Brazilian Jiu Jitsu journey. You must be consistent in your training. It should not be like that, you are coming once a week and then the next week you are not doing anything. If you are following this pattern, then you are not going to achieve anything in your journey. With consistency, you will develop the rhythm in your training. 
• You can select any day of the week. It can be four, five, or three as you like. But you have to stick to this format, which you have made yourself. Continue doing this in your BJJ journey, and you will eventually develop a rhythm and will achieve your targets or goals one by one.

You can develop rhythm in your BJJ career or journey off the mats by following the ways given below:

• For developing your rhythm off the mats in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, the first and most important thing is to focus on taking deep breaths and relaxing. Due to the intense training in BJJ, your mind gets tired, and it needs to relax. It needs some rest. It is not easy to do the intense training throughout the day. Sometimes it is often thought that your mind is more involved than your body during intense training.

• This is because you can stop for a second from making any movement, but even at that time, you are thinking about the next action or next strategy to trap your opponent and make them even more submissive. So try to relax your mind and avoid overthinking, stress, and negative thoughts about your day, no matter whether it went well or badly.

• Sparring is important, but sparring aftercare is even more important, and one of the important components of this aftercare is the relaxation of your muscles. Muscle relaxation, or more correctly muscle recovery, is problematic for BJJ practitioners because they don’t know its importance, and they also have no idea how they can do that.

• You should take complete rest for at least 8 hours by sleeping, and this will help your muscles recover to a great extent. Moreover, if you feel the need, then you can also get your muscles massaged. This will also give your muscle recovery a quick boost.

There are usually one or two days off a week in which you take complete rest. In such days or during the training days, when you are done with your training, then you should try to learn something new or make your concepts better. You can do this by watching tutorial videos on YouTube or any website. If you love reading books, then you can read books on BJJ to improve your overall learning.

Rhythm is very important element of your Brazilian Jiu Jitsu career. It helps you to stay on the right path towards your goals. Whether it's about a single day goal or a long term goal, you must have a pattern and a format for following your goals and targets related to your BJJ career. If you cannot have a rhythm established in your life with respect to your journey in Jiu Jitsu, you will not be able to achieve any goal. Ensure you are having this element in both your body and mind, on the mat and off the mat, before the training and after the training.

A rhythm is a sequence or order in which multiple events occur one after the other. These events happen again and again, and the pattern can be regular or irregular. But it denotes a particular order in which some things happen repeatedly.

A rhythm in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu means that you are training consistently, learning new techniques one after the other, and the number of techniques you have mastered is increasing over time. Besides this, it also involves that you are improving your execution of techniques, and you are doing all these things in a particular order and pattern, so that you know after one year, for example, what target you will achieve.

You need rhythm for everything when you are a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu practitioner. You need it while you are training, sparring, or grappling in a professional BJJ match. So generally, you need to display it while you are on the mats. On the other hand, you also should have it while you are off the mats. It means when you are not training, sparring, or grappling in a BJJ match.

You can develop rhythm in your BJJ career or journey on the mats by following the ways given below:

• Set your daily target and train with purpose

• Don’t stick to a single training pace

• Study your training partner or opponent

• Ensure consistency in your bjj training

You can develop rhythm in your BJJ career or journey off the mats by following the ways given below:

• Relax your mind and don’t think negatively

• Recover/relax your muscles

• Keep learning