I agree ! I’m at a Gracie school and we do a 10-15 minute warm up and I HATE IT. If I want to run circles and shrimp across the room…I could get there early and do that. When I go to class I want to learn techniques, drill, and roll. Thank you for hopefully spreading the word !
In my gym while we are shrimpping through the room we practicing guard pass and retention with a training partner. Much more fun and effectiveness than the kick boxing gym i used to visit where we ran around and did one hour of stupid gymnastic exercises for the sake of getting tired. I wasn't stronger bc of it, actually it had negative effect on my strength training I had been doing before starting kickboxing.
I teach/train at a Gracie Academy CTC we don't do a "traditional warm up" the first 10 mins of every class is on your own review time where u drill the techniques that u want to work specifically and/or the techniques from the last class u did.
@@naakaalastudio6655 all Gracie Academy Certified Training Centers (CTC) do it this way or they're supposed to at least lol. So ya could always check one out if there's a CTC near u . Osu!
If BJJ is about being efficient, start with the warm ups please. Use the time more wisely to do grappling specific techniques while ALSO warming up--couldn't agree more, great video!
First of all, thank you for the wonderful content. You always bring thoughtful perspective for us, and especially for us older grapplers. For me, 57 year old, Purple Belt, 12 years training, just got my 2nd stripe on my belt last night. Tortise and not the hare, average Joe practitioner. I mainly train at the day class during lunchtime. So I do find the warmup valuable because I am coming from the office or rehearsal with a cold body. I'm an orchestra conductor. So to transition my body from the "streets' to the dojo, the warmup helps get me there to reduce injury. Often times the instructor will have me to lead the warmups so it will last between 5-7 minutes. Get the heart rate up some, calisthenics and stretching. Not crazy but enough to get the temp up some and relax the muscles. 5-7 minutes because like you said, the class wants to get to jiu jutsu. I do feel that the class appreciates my warm-ups. Every school is different and the example you gave of the school that did the Death Warmup before drills are not something that would interest me. Anyway, those are my thoughts. Again, thank you for the content and your perspective. Merry Christmas to you and I wish you good health and happiness in 2022!
I'm getting close to 40 and a bit more than 6 months in. I'm in good shape overall but sometimes an innocent quick move will hurt me. I appreciate the warmup to limit this, though I don't really know how much they do.
You make some fantastic arguments. The only counterargument that I would suggest is that a "warm-up" is meant as an injury prevention activity (not conditioning, I agree). The difference between a warm-up and rolling might be the range of motion. A warmup is meant to lubricate and add pliability so that you will minimize the chance of injury because the body (muscles, tendons, etc) is ready to work. Many JiuJitsu moves are designed to bring a joint to its end range of motion...often violently.
A brilliant point. many people forget the warm up has several teaching purposes, not just preparing the body, but expanding range of motion, isolating hard to learn skills (for example Shrimping in Jujutsu, pivoting and spinning in stand up), developing overall body, spatial and balance awareness, etc. for example breakfalling is essential to real world street defense and MMA, but maybe only happens usually once in a real situation, and the skills need hours to develop. It also develops group cohesion, the ability of students to respond to verbal commands (critical in competition). When I did BJJ the thing I noted was a lack of flexibility, little time spent on stand up grappling, and some injuries that could Have been prevented by some work on various exercises. the argument that "You're spending all this time doing non jujutsu," is silly, often the ONLY way to expand attributes and skills to bring in ancilliary exercises and specific movements.
That doesn't change that drilling is a warm up. A warm up gets your blood flowing, heats your body and increases flexibility. Using drills to warm up does not alter this. If you've ever done stretching exercises then you're likely familiar with doing non-stretches to warm up, like jumping jacks. You don't need to specifically stretch to warm up and increase your flexibility, you need your core temp to rise.
@@kiraPh1234k You basically made my point. I was saying that drilling things like Kimuras or Americanas will take your joint to an extreme range of motion before being actually warmed up (core temp elevated, joints lubricated, etc). As a side note, if someone wants to increase their flexibility, they will have much more success doing stretching exercises after being warmed up.
@@pbuehner Well, exactly, warming up increases flexibility - with and without extra stretching. Thinking they are going to warm up with Kimuras is just an extreme you chose to go to, hopping right over many drills to submissions. For example, drilling an old school sweep is not likely to harm your body. And even with drilling the Kimura that is only an issue if people don't comprehend what they're doing. People do not generally try to disable or maim the people they train with.
Speaking facts...My students have told me many times that they aren't paying to exercise, and I happen to agree with that, because I wouldn't pay for that shit either...great stuff man.
Completely agree. I thought I was the only one who thought this way. Specially as an athlete/competitor, It feels like a lot of the warm up is just designed for regular people/hobbyists to ‘get in shape’ as opposed to actually focusing on GRAPPLING specific technique. If I wanted to work on my cardio I would do so in a strength and conditioning session not in my skill practice. I just wish Grappling sessions would be purely TECHNICAL. I’ll worry about my own conditioning during my lifts. This is how the Russian Wrestlers train and it shows, it’s all technique and skill work.
This video is 100% spot on. I like to do drop-ins at other gyms but I typically avoid gyms that have that stupid warm-up. My home gym usually does a warm up with flow rolling or drilling a technique. You are also bang on with "fun". Even us old adults want to have fun. Why would we pay such a high membership fee to NOT have fun? Funny story, just last week, I did a drop in at another gym and the normal instructor wasn't there. The fill-in instructor got people doing tons of warmups and the purple belt just refused to do them period.
I agree so much. I usually get to class 20-30 minutes early so I can stretch out and get some calisthenics work in. There's no need for an extra warm up. I would love for classes to be 10 minutes fundamentals, 20 minutes more advanced techniques, 30-45 minutes rolling.
I've been reducing our warmup, especially after reading a bunch of sports medicine material about the research results on things like stretching and warmups. We're now down to about 5 minutes, and I'd say 50% of what we're doing are your "grappling movements". It's been great to get a new chunk of time for positional sparring, which has generated a positive response from the students.
do not mix between warmup and stretching...warming up is neccessary either you make it with traditional warm up or through your grappling and drilling movments
I 100% agree! I’ve trained at gyms, as I’ve moved around the world, that do everything from an intense 15 minute session to smoke you out to letting you warm up on your own with technique for technique drills. The best way I’ve seen to incorporate Strength and conditioning is with a HIIT circuit AFTER training is done (ex: multiple rounds of 20 Rep sets of pushups, burpees, burpee-pullups, etc) The casual students can slip out at the end of class while the more serious students stick around and train during a time when no class would be going on. Since they’ve already blocked off time in their schedule for BJJ, the additional 20 minutes at the end is an easier pill to swallow from a scheduling perspective.
Also, daaamn you are so spot on about the hierarchy of fun in BJJ. Sparring is by far the most fun thing, technique/drilling is a necessary evil, and the warm up is yah.....
BJJ is the worst taught subject I’ve ever seen. I’m a private tutor, a former English teacher, a teacher of foreign languages and a former business trainer. If I taught any of those subjects the way BJJ is taught I’d have been fired and lost every student. Here in England it’s taught randomly by trial and error relying entirely on the student’s hard work with no system. It’s the stupidest, rudest and most inefficient teaching I’ve ever seen.
@@GMunoz-oj5zb a structured program at least for white belts. Start with basic takedowns (double leg, single leg, sprawl), positional control for the most common positions (mount, rear mount, side control) and basic escapes for these positions (hip escape, trap and roll), then closed guard posture, posture breaking, basic passing (one from knees, one from standing), and two or three submissions (kimura, triangle), and one or two sweeps (scissor, hip bump) then the basics of half guard. That should be enough for a white belt for months 0-6). At the start of class warm up for ten minutes with functional movements (shrimping, bridging, double leg simulations, technical stand up, triangles). Drill guard passing vs retention for twenty minutes. Drill positional control vs escape for twenty minutes. That’s the first hour. The next thirty minutes is 5 minute rounds of rolling white belt vs white belt only. White belts learn nothing from rolling against higher belts and getting tapped twenty times in a row. They just get demoralised. They only roll after learning the basic white belt curriculum. In each class you should have one teacher conducting the advanced belts (purple - black) another teacher conducts beginners (whites) and another teacher conducts the blues. Ideally that’s how it would work rather than one teacher conducting a class that can consist of a black belt regional champion AND a total newbie from the street, which means neither of them learns anything.
@@jordangill2710I like this but as someone who came in with a wrestling background I feel like this would rush us into blue belt as 90% of the introduction curriculum is already 2nd nature to even a decent wrestler. though most wrestlers already roll at a blue belt level from the start especially if you start standing
Agree. Drilling does everything that a warm up is supposed to do + is teaching you techniques. Cancel warm ups and do half the class drill and the other half sparring.
I felt really sad when I heard his summary of BJJ schools has having 20 minutes of warm-ups, 20 minutes of drills, and then sparring. At our club, we do about 10 minutes of warm-ups, 20 minutes of yoga, 1.5-2 hours of drilling, and then 20-30 minutes of sparring. Our classes start at 7:00pm and go until 9:30-45pm. We are incredibly spoilt, but our instructor teaches because BJJ is his passion, not for efficiency or money.
If this is true im moving wherever you train because 2 and a half hours sounds great if its well laid out and you get a good variety of stuff to drill for that amount of time. And BJJ+Yoga is such a great pair I'd love to do it in the class room instead of plan time in my day for yoga.
LMAO. I'm laughing because I knew that someone of your expertise would completely debunk some of these folks in the comments who INSIST on trying to prove that "aimless" warmups actually are necessary before drilling/sparring. DRILLING should be the damn warmup. And there are degrees and ways to drill on a "cold body" to get it warm while still minimizing risk of injury. And you're getting the most of your time because you're getting warm, AND you're acquiring muscle memory from actual technique, not from certain warmup exercises. Warmups just make you better at warmups. They do not make you better at Jiu Jitsu. They make you last longer, but that won't matter if you're sparring/fighting someone with way more technique than you who is not in as good of shape. They'll still beat you. I've trained 5 1/2 years, and I know for a fact that drilling to warm up is just as safe as warming up to warm up. lol. It's just good to see a real expert in physiology instead of these fake ones.
A problem is that you're not drilling alone. A repetition is not identical to the next one, you might do a wrong move or be swept awkwardly and on a 40 yo body that might make a difference. I believe it does and did for me at least.
I totally agree. My background is Ryukyu Bujutsu, and its warmups are absolutely foundational to waza oyo. But many dojo have incorporated warmups for the sake of warming up. When I started teaching a small group of teens years ago, I used the curriculum I was taught, and no one would stay. They were initially motivated but didn't last long. The warmup was too taxing. As the years went by and I no longer affiliate with anyone, I changed the way I teach, still keeping the Waza related Taiso, but also showing how they apply. I am in my 60s now with physiological problems related to the forced extreme conditioning where I now have to sometimes walk with a cane. I swore never to teach that way. I am considered "rogue" by the past relationships and I am okay with it. I ordered the Roy Dean videos because of you, Rick Ellis, Sensei. I have been studying them alone as well as I can, as it is difficult to find people my age who are not spooked by the current boogie-man tactics being forced on us these days. I have 25 years of training in the Okinawan and Chinese Arts, and many of the BJJ techniques are familiar to me, as I can associate them with waza in my arts. I just need a brave partner to work them with. Hopefully will soon be able to.
Very good video. Made me think critically about our warmups. I believe ours is efficient and relevant (having thrown out most of the non-relevant movements a long time ago). But I sent your video to my students and asked them what parts of our warmup we should quit doing.
For the past year, I've been having students warm up with a seated open guard. Their job is to sweep (dummy sweep, balloon, tripod, sickle, collar drag) and the top person's agenda is to pass the guard. It's a live, 2-3 minute drill/roll and then you switch top to bottom. We'll do this for about 15-20 minutes. We'll do other positions also, like scaffold, back control and butterfly.
I resonate 100% with the sentiment. I have a background in strength training, sprint coaching, judo and boxing. Everytime you talk about judo, I have listened to to a number of podcasts, I get the idea that you think Judo is just stand up. There is not a single BJJ move that doesn't have origin in Judo. Even the ones people think are from wrestling.
Love this and great points! And you hit it right on the head. People skip warm-ups People are there for Jiu-jitsu! And jiu-jitsu has gotten me back into the gym to get stronger for Jiu-jitsu. I focus more when my instructor is talking and teaching. Great great points.
Valid points. Yes, I believe the fun factor of jiujitsu keeps people coming back. We had about 10 kids from the high school show up last year. They were there for about a month then faded away. Coach did hard, brutal old school warm ups. Then we rolled. Not sure if they hated the workouts or BJJ just wasn’t their thing. At 45 I need a brief warm up to get my joints going, but I do it in less than 5 minutes before the class starts. My school does a brief warm up of movements we do during rolling. The more situational drills done over and over are my favorite because I can feel my muscle memory improving which makes my sparring even better. I keep doing BJJ because there is always a new thing to learn and I love getting better at it. Warmups are just there, sometimes they are short and I like that.
Great stuff man! Yep…I’ve always been a believer in doing movements that are useable, functional and directly related to jiu jitsu. If someone wants to run a “conditioning class” then by all means, go for it. But I also believe that I’m not being paid by our members to do mindless conditioning during class time…they can do that on their own time. They are paying me for my expertise in jiu jitsu technique. Also I’d like to mention that rolling itself is a plenty good workout to elevate the heart rate. If someone doesn’t think so…their not rolling hard enough or long enough! 🥋
I think as much as we want to believe Jiu jitsu is for everyone... The reality is ... It's not .. Jiu jitsu is hard .. rolling.. drilling ... Warning up ... Whatever... It remains hard ...
As a judo instructor, I couldn't agree with you more. I teach judo the same way you teach bjj. We spend a little time with an easy warm up/rolls and falls just to get the blood flowing, then do efficent standing, ground and self defence technique, followed by randori. This is one of the problems I with the rest of the judo world is their training method along with their lack of understanding of efficiency. Also were a 50/50 school, were as most judo clubs are 80/20. I'm thinking of going to bjj soon so that I can teach both eventually.
My bjj school warms up with soccer on the mats. 3 players a side, scoring team stays in, losing team rotates out. Super fun and great for team bonding!
In our school, the warmup depends upon who is conducting the class, so the student chooses, by going to a class where there are drills and no warm up. I go to a class that drills instead of having a warm-up. I agree as well, 🙏
Your channel is awesome sir. I really appreciate your inputs, thoughts and knowledge. And yes I agree the warm up is boring, I'm not sure if I can is pointless and if I had to choose between warm up or doing the technique surely I would go for the technique. I've been to gyms where the warm up broke me, never went back there. Anyways, thanks again for your time here and keep up the great work you doing. 🤙
Imagine being a driving instructor and teaching like this: okay we’re going to start with some random driving patterns and then we’ll drive on the road with other pro drivers and learn by trial and error and every time you crash you’ll try to learn from it by YouTubing what to do in that situation when you go home and we’ll do that for an hour 3 times a week and if you quit that’s YOUR fault.
"Random driving patterns" well the JOB of an instructor, school, style organization is not to pick exercises at random, but use ones specifically designed for the task. instead of "random" patterns of anything, try this: lets start with a series of movements some of which have been tested and tried and passed on for generations, then revevaluated in the light of modern science to warm you up, develop the flexibility, range of motion, stability, while also preventing injury, enabling you to learn how to take commands while moving, building a group morale. Then we'll do well thought out drills, ending with either live two person sparring, and other times with conditioning designed to build fitness and resilience without injuring you. We understand many of you will quit, sometimes for reasons that have nothing to do with the class, style or for scheduling conflicts, but we want to make sure our program protects you from injury, gives you good instruction and helps you achieve your goals. that's how every physical activity and martial art I've done since 1979 works, if it's done right.
My BJJ class: warmup for 15 minutes with pointless movements. Drill two totally random moves that aren’t related to each other and have nothing to do with the previous lesson for 15 minutes. Now go spar and keep getting tapped for an hour. Come away from lesson having learned nothing at all. There’s no system, nothing makes sense, it’s all trial and error. There’s zero structure and zero efficiency. Then people BRAG that it takes ten years to get a black belt. It takes that long because the training is DUMB!
Here's one nobody seems to talk about: A lot of schools have crappy instructors (yes, they can be great practitioners but still terrible instructors) and they're extremely poor at organizing and structuring an hour or longer class and so they feel they have to "fill the void" of their lack of structure with useless warm ups so that in essence they only have to "teach" a 20 minute class with 1 or 2 techniques and no basis for them. I've seen this a LOT in many different schools / clubs.
I think warm-ups are a good thing, but a distinction between conditioning training and warm-up is needed. I've been to schools where a 20 minute heavy "warm-up" was standard at the beginning of every class. To me, that's not a warm-up but a conditoning workout. A warm-up is about getting the body moving and prepared to train. That means it should be short, be more technically based, work your range of motion, and leave you with a light sweat. I agree that more time should be spent drilling, but a proper warm-up (an actual warm-up and not a conditioning workout) will prepare the body for good technical drilling.
When it’s a 6 am class and most people attending are over 35 years old then some sort of a warm up is helpful. I have guys in my class roll out their backs and move their hips for just a few minutes before we drill.
YES ! I am in total understanding of this!! The school where i train at sadly went back to doing the bear crawl - pushup - running types of warm ups before class.
🙄 so glad I dont have to deal with that ...sure it got me in shape like.a beast but that was gonna happen anyway 😂 There were days I dreaded going to class knowing there was this certain purple belt that did.warmups before the b b instructor came . Always hoped on any given day he was not there or on vacation ..etc 😂😂
Agree 100% ...just moved to a new school where the warm up is simply light sparring both on the feet then taking it to the mats. Last place the warm was geared towards a 25 year old competitive athlete, not this 64 year old hobbyist . In the end I went off to the corner and did my own thing that did not involve pain and wearing me put before the class began. I am plenty active off the mats as an ice hockey player both as a goalie and skater usually six days a week. I pace myself there too. I can do my own warm ups by arriving 15 minutes early if need be. I am paying for BJJ instruction not a warm up I care not to do.
OH MY GOD, that is so true... we do 20min warmup too it is so annoying, I do like flow rolling at start. I kind of scared to share this vid with our coach. He might get offended, hopefully he sees it :( Thanks again for your vid.
Warm ups are jiu jitsu drills. I call them warm ups but they are jiujitsu related. Everyone learns different. Muscle memory is important for me and has helped me personally using jiujitsu at work and competitions. Being able to perform movements without thinking has Been a blessing. I dont have them drill everyday though. Some days i have more rolling related training, fine-tuning (open session) meaning i ask what they need help in and i cover multiple things. I follow a curriculum as much as possible. We have fundamental days as well. Also,it depends on the school. I've seen so many videos posted of classes where they teach tech after tech but the instructor doesn't even bother walking around making sure that everything has been didn't learned the technique of the day. I am very big on that. I go to every pair of students and I have them show me the technique to see if they learned it if not so I can work with them some more. I like drilling also because when I am teaching something I call out the name of the drill that is related to the technique of the day and it helps some people understand easier. For example armdrag To back take from the sitting position. This requires a butt scoot as you drag your partner in to take the back. So I'll say "butt scoot" as you drag them over. The slower learners like myself understand easier because they Just did some butt scoots during the drilling portion so they'll apply the technique a little quicker this way. As far as burpees and jumping jacks and all that other stuff we can do that at home if they wish or hit the gym to lift some weights. I am there to teach jiu-jitsu
We couldn't agree more! Getting a purple belt is great because we are one step closer to black. But, the biggest benefit is it being socially acceptable to skip the warm up! Keep up the amazing content Rick!
Great points. This is easily transferrable to so many other areas of skill improvement; music, language learning, writing. A lot of people waste time doing the surface level crap because they think they have to, or because it's easier when you aren't engaging your mind. Good point about going to the gym too. BJJ (at least how I was doing it) was worth nothing to me as a strength building program. I was a typical weak mid 40s guy until I went to the gym and did specific strength workouts, then everything improved. I also do a proper and generalised warm up for BJJ at the gym before class. That improves my training efficiency.
We do a 5-7 min warm up. Is same at all GB schools. JJ's, squats, push ups, crunches, upas, hip escapes + 3-4 active stretches and then we go into techniques. Love the video and content.
I left BJJ once, and it was because of the warm up. I'm 45 years old and 116KG, getting the floor and dragging myself by the arms from one side of the gym to the other is just going to make me quit, while learning the techniques is what I actually like doing and I'm good at
This is how we do it. Maybe 2-3 minutes of some basic streatching then we partner up and do 20 arm bars, 20 triangles, 20 umas, and 20 side control conversions. I usually have a good sweat going by then. Then it;s off to the daily lesson.
We don't do warm-ups in class. Individuals do their own warmups on their own before class starts. My class consists of about 45min of technique and 30-45min of rolling.
Thank god you have this video. My coach thinks the same exact way, we drill 3 techniques back and forth for 6 mins each as our warmup, after that we go right into live rolls for 4-6 mins with 1min breaks to switch partners. I LOVE jiu-jitsu. It's been 9mo and I nvr miss a day unless I can't avoid it
I've been Jogging now for 55 years non stop I NEVER warm up..!! I just start walking & slowly go into a light jog 6 -7 min. of that then I go at my speed.... I Have NO INJURIES ....55 years of Jogging Calisthenics Karate Boxing .. I always start Very Slow ...
@@martiallife4136 correct...I've been training swimming jogging calisthenics gymnastics yoga boxing karate ect.. I'm 64 NO INJURIES. whatever I'm doing for example kicks , I start to kick not too high and very relaxed with minimum stress...boxing same thing punch very slow RELAX.. BUT what I do is stretch after my training for sure 20 min...
Couldn't agree more. Indeed I'd go further and argue that you can practice those "fundamental movements" in the context of "drilling". The only reservation I have is that I think (especially for "older grapplers") it is important to start every session with some dynamic ROM movements (and no that's not a "conditioning" warm up. If you don't know what it is look it up). Even there you can focus on the "movements" that you will be using in your BJJ. Anyway, love your channel. Keep it up!
100% agree. Additionally, lets say your doing jumping jacks. What possibly are you conditioning your body to do? It is not natural movement and has also been shown to cause more damage than benefit. Just like lifting weights- -it might be good if your conditioning to lift a weight in real life but when you stop doing that then the muscles atrophy (Ive seen that in many body builders.) I like to do things that will aid and condition myself for what I normally do and what might be "functional" in what my habits will be. For example, doing a Kimura sit up with a partner - When I practice that with a partner it is fun AND conditions my abs, obliques, etc for what might be functionally used in real self defense or sparring. I am never going to "bench press" someone off of me in mount. I personally like drilling over sparring especially for beginners because sparring with bad technique causes injuries and I want to build good habits and technique before I spar to prevent injury of myself or others (which I have seen happen so many times in the dojo.) Lastly, who wants to pay 100-300 dollars per month doing calisthenics that I could do for free at home.? I personally want to pay for quality instruction. The bravado behind the ridiculous warm up is simply a downer. I really like that you speak candidly- that is a sign of great strength (inner strength) and bravery (knowing it might ruffle feathers) which indicates free thinking and authenticity. Questioning authority is absolutely necessary for evolution- so my hat is off to you on that. Super cool video and great insights and articulation. Im 53 years old so what do I have left? 25-35 summers if I am lucky- I don't have time to waste doing stupid things. Thank you so much for taking your time to make this video - it is extremely useful.
Warmup is about 5 minutes at my school. Couple of laps, some shrimps, granby rolls, etc, but then straight into reviewing the last lesson's techniques for 10 minutes or so. The review period is the warm up, so we have 30-40 minutes to focus on learning the technique of the day.
We typically do the traditional warm up (run circles, shrimp, etc). But every once in a while Professor has us pick a partner and flow roll for 10min. Those are my fav warm up's❤
Learning BJJ and the worst part is the group warm ups. I hate it. Doing the warm ups in a line is a waste of time. I rather use the time to get feedback, get teaching/drilling, and rolling.
Sunday morning jiu jitsu class at 9am, a bunch of us show up at 830 , put on headgear, gloves, & shinguards, and we do a couple of rounds of kickboxing sparring. By the time 9am rolls around, we are ready & warmed up for an hour of BJJ, which is usually 20 minutes of technique drilling, then 40 min of sparring.
Oh boy, you are going to get some folks up in their feelings just based on the title! 😆 Personally, I like drilling and/or flow rolling as a warm up 10x more than the calisthenics.
Agree. Many of us also lift or another workout outside of BJJ. If I lift at lunch time, I don’t need to be doing pushups that evening as part of a warmup, if anything it hinders recovery.
I wish more schools had this philosophy. Im 42 and am 6'4 and 270 (working my way to 220). I go 2x per week and we do warmup first 20 mins. thats 33hours per year.
Respect: @6:50 To me this video isn't about how Practitioner Ellis thinks "warm-ups" are stupid. It is more about some of us as beginners acting "stupid" by neglecting to train away from the mats and depending on class for our strength, stretch, conditioning and skill sets. Easily seen where this can be a burden on Coaches and players who are prepared for class.
Most people who train find rolling the most fun. If it's not fun for a student, it's usually because they have not yet learned enough, or they aren't training with the right partners.
In general I agree. The problem I have with that approach in beginners class is that pupils some are so uncoordinated they need to start by doing some basic warm up drills instead of BJJ drills. Higher belts/ more advanced pupils- 100% Im with you
Most Jiujitsu schools I mean most average Jiujitsu school just don’t understand this. Discipline, self defense, fitness all comes after fun . Don’t take it to the extent where it’s not fun anymore .
Ive been sating the same since I was a Blue Belt and coaching the Fundamentals Classes. Students are there to learn Jiu Jitsu not Calisthenics. So we started doing exactly that, drilling escapes, Armbars drills, and of course technical get ups, and so on.
OMG thank you. I hate BJJ Warmups. I will respectfully ask my current professor if we can drill instead of the typical warmups once I've earned the right to ask him. I go because the drilling and sparring is great. When we DO drill, I love the teaching. I just wish we did more of it. I hate these fk'ing warmups. It's annoying af.
I'm 51 and going into my 6th class this evening. On day one I wondered why we did 3 sets of 10 reps, jumping jacks, squats, and push ups. I would prefer to just do a ramp style of drilling. Start at lets say 10-15% speed then work up. That would cover warm up and lose no drill time. Nothing I can do about it though.
I'm 68, and I completely agree with you. I'm about 14 months in now, but my school also does warm ups (luckily not excessively). I hate 'em, too. But, I tolerate the warm ups because my school is only a mile from my house and there is nothing else closer than 45 minutes away (and I don't love Jiu Jitsu enough to spend 1.5 hours two or three times a week just travelling to train). If/when I eventually quit, it will be because the waste of time of warm ups will outweigh the fun/gains of learning/drilling/rolling (or I'll break one or more of my brittle old bones). Your post is 5 months old at this point. I hope you hung in there. I'm only now starting to feel even slightly competent (still mostly defending, might submit somebody once in a blue moon). FYI, I'm 6 feet, 175-180 pounds with no real health problems (besides struggling against getting older and weaker by the year). Remember, tap early, tap often. We're too old to get injured for no good reason.
Our warm-up is mostly jiu-jitsu related movements. Some of them are drills of JJ techniques, including shrimping, break falls, standing up in guard etc. I don't have a problem with the content, but the length is not optimal for an old guy like me. It could be more efficient. I'm happy when the instructor decides to cut it a bit short and says, "that's good, let's get started.." learning, reviewing, and drilling technique. I've also been told the reason is to wear us out so that we won't rely on strength, speed etc. in lieu of technique. I've actually heard this said, "now that you're wore out, you can learn some jiu jitsu". But when I'm first learning something as a beginner I think I need more reps and fine tuning of the technique than conditioning. I understand the concept, and for 20 something aged, large, strong athletes I see the benefit more. But often by the time we start drilling JJ techniques, I'm on my last 15-20 minutes of prime focus, attention, and physical ability. After that its diminishing returns for me. That's ok if I'm working on my endurance or trying to evaluate how I perform when I'm wore out, but often I can't work very much the last part of the class after that. FWIW, I'm a small, white belt 60+ age.
I'm a weirdo. 😂I come half hour to 1 hour early, run in place, pushups, squats, look at the lesson technique but I would do all this even on a day I wasn't coming to class.❤ I also scored extremely high, 78% on consciousness with 13% compassion, Agreeable 43%. Without the consciousness and orderliness (88%) I'd definitely be a sociopath. I scored 94% intelect - not sure what that means but I love to deep dive and get nerdy on learning things. I'm just embracing my weirdness and trying to be the very best me I can be. I'm having fun.❤love your channel. And the Flow rashguard rocks! Just a plug for Dr./Professor Andy Galpin, kinesiologist who did a masterclass 6 sessions on exercise on Andrew Huberman's podcast.
We stretch on our own for a few minutes before class, then our warmups are self defense drills for 10 minutes or so. Then we move on to the new instruction. I also don’t want to pay for calisthenics. LOL
Warm ups are important to avoid injury. You could tear something easy. Schools should just do 5 minute jog then give everyone 5 minutes to do whatever stretches they want.
I have gotten injured more when we warm up doing "flow rolls" and drilling style warmups than the more traditional types. We all know that flow rolls almost always turn into real rolls. Might be great for the 20somethings who are ready to go but for my 51 year old body I find that the traditional warmups really do a great job of getting me limbered up in a safe way. Call me old fashioned. Also, when I was a white belt I got a TON of benefit out of doing front/back/granby rolls, shrimps etc...and I still do.
I tend to agree with this…still, the point is that various drills that are functional/jiu jitsu movements can still serve the purpose of preparing the body for live rolling. I think what Rick is saying is (more or less) that calisthenics as warmups are kind of a waste of time…which I’m on board with. 52 year old black belt here. 25.5 years on the mat. 😊
Very well said and qualified opinion on warm ups! As an older purple belt I find I get much more benefit from drilling fundamentals and working techniques from the previous class. I do have to say our instructors do have us progress from flow/positional slower roles to full sparing rolls at the end of class. I do think that some of the new students who are out of shape or desire conditioning would benefit from a stand alone conditioning class. That being said I do agree with you that it’s the students responsibility to get in shape but having a class dedicated to conditioning may help those students who need a helpful push in the right direction.
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I agree !
I’m at a Gracie school and we do a 10-15 minute warm up and I HATE IT.
If I want to run circles and shrimp across the room…I could get there early and do that. When I go to class I want to learn techniques, drill, and roll. Thank you for hopefully spreading the word !
I hate it too, yet I still do it and love it. Because it's about mental toughness
shrimping is actually a BJJ move so... yeah
In my gym while we are shrimpping through the room we practicing guard pass and retention with a training partner.
Much more fun and effectiveness than the kick boxing gym i used to visit where we ran around and did one hour of stupid gymnastic exercises for the sake of getting tired.
I wasn't stronger bc of it, actually it had negative effect on my strength training I had been doing before starting kickboxing.
@@murkythunder
What's tough about that?
Do an hour of maths homework, that requires much more mental toughness than any of that shit.
@@sawoszao "shrimp isn't a real move " Ryan Hall
I teach/train at a Gracie Academy CTC we don't do a "traditional warm up" the first 10 mins of every class is on your own review time where u drill the techniques that u want to work specifically and/or the techniques from the last class u did.
Man I wish the place where I train did this. Or at least light rolls for warm up.
@@naakaalastudio6655 all Gracie Academy Certified Training Centers (CTC) do it this way or they're supposed to at least lol. So ya could always check one out if there's a CTC near u . Osu!
Yes I train at a CTC and we do it this way too.
Same, I train at a CTC as well. There's no warmup in Combatives, but in Master Cycle we do a very quick bit of warming up before reviewing techniques.
@@timoftams yea we will do a similar thing at my school b4 master cycle its not a part of the curriculum etc .
If BJJ is about being efficient, start with the warm ups please. Use the time more wisely to do grappling specific techniques while ALSO warming up--couldn't agree more, great video!
First of all, thank you for the wonderful content. You always bring thoughtful perspective for us, and especially for us older grapplers. For me, 57 year old, Purple Belt, 12 years training, just got my 2nd stripe on my belt last night. Tortise and not the hare, average Joe practitioner. I mainly train at the day class during lunchtime. So I do find the warmup valuable because I am coming from the office or rehearsal with a cold body. I'm an orchestra conductor. So to transition my body from the "streets' to the dojo, the warmup helps get me there to reduce injury. Often times the instructor will have me to lead the warmups so it will last between 5-7 minutes. Get the heart rate up some, calisthenics and stretching. Not crazy but enough to get the temp up some and relax the muscles. 5-7 minutes because like you said, the class wants to get to jiu jutsu. I do feel that the class appreciates my warm-ups. Every school is different and the example you gave of the school that did the Death Warmup before drills are not something that would interest me. Anyway, those are my thoughts. Again, thank you for the content and your perspective. Merry Christmas to you and I wish you good health and happiness in 2022!
I'm getting close to 40 and a bit more than 6 months in. I'm in good shape overall but sometimes an innocent quick move will hurt me. I appreciate the warmup to limit this, though I don't really know how much they do.
You make some fantastic arguments. The only counterargument that I would suggest is that a "warm-up" is meant as an injury prevention activity (not conditioning, I agree). The difference between a warm-up and rolling might be the range of motion. A warmup is meant to lubricate and add pliability so that you will minimize the chance of injury because the body (muscles, tendons, etc) is ready to work. Many JiuJitsu moves are designed to bring a joint to its end range of motion...often violently.
A brilliant point. many people forget the warm up has several teaching purposes, not just preparing the body, but expanding range of motion, isolating hard to learn skills (for example Shrimping in Jujutsu, pivoting and spinning in stand up), developing overall body, spatial and balance awareness, etc. for example breakfalling is essential to real world street defense and MMA, but maybe only happens usually once in a real situation, and the skills need hours to develop. It also develops group cohesion, the ability of students to respond to verbal commands (critical in competition). When I did BJJ the thing I noted was a lack of flexibility, little time spent on stand up grappling, and some injuries that could Have been prevented by some work on various exercises. the argument that "You're spending all this time doing non jujutsu," is silly, often the ONLY way to expand attributes and skills to bring in ancilliary exercises and specific movements.
That doesn't change that drilling is a warm up.
A warm up gets your blood flowing, heats your body and increases flexibility. Using drills to warm up does not alter this.
If you've ever done stretching exercises then you're likely familiar with doing non-stretches to warm up, like jumping jacks. You don't need to specifically stretch to warm up and increase your flexibility, you need your core temp to rise.
@@kiraPh1234k You basically made my point. I was saying that drilling things like Kimuras or Americanas will take your joint to an extreme range of motion before being actually warmed up (core temp elevated, joints lubricated, etc). As a side note, if someone wants to increase their flexibility, they will have much more success doing stretching exercises after being warmed up.
@@pbuehner
Well, exactly, warming up increases flexibility - with and without extra stretching.
Thinking they are going to warm up with Kimuras is just an extreme you chose to go to, hopping right over many drills to submissions. For example, drilling an old school sweep is not likely to harm your body. And even with drilling the Kimura that is only an issue if people don't comprehend what they're doing. People do not generally try to disable or maim the people they train with.
@@kiraPh1234k Fair enough. I don't think that we are really disagreeing. Happy Holidays to you and yours.
Speaking facts...My students have told me many times that they aren't paying to exercise, and I happen to agree with that, because I wouldn't pay for that shit either...great stuff man.
Completely agree. I thought I was the only one who thought this way.
Specially as an athlete/competitor, It feels like a lot of the warm up is just designed for regular people/hobbyists to ‘get in shape’ as opposed to actually focusing on GRAPPLING specific technique.
If I wanted to work on my cardio I would do so in a strength and conditioning session not in my skill practice.
I just wish Grappling sessions would be purely TECHNICAL. I’ll worry about my own conditioning during my lifts.
This is how the Russian Wrestlers train and it shows, it’s all technique and skill work.
So well said, I need to relay this on my channel
This video is 100% spot on. I like to do drop-ins at other gyms but I typically avoid gyms that have that stupid warm-up. My home gym usually does a warm up with flow rolling or drilling a technique. You are also bang on with "fun". Even us old adults want to have fun. Why would we pay such a high membership fee to NOT have fun? Funny story, just last week, I did a drop in at another gym and the normal instructor wasn't there. The fill-in instructor got people doing tons of warmups and the purple belt just refused to do them period.
I agree so much. I usually get to class 20-30 minutes early so I can stretch out and get some calisthenics work in. There's no need for an extra warm up. I would love for classes to be 10 minutes fundamentals, 20 minutes more advanced techniques, 30-45 minutes rolling.
I've been reducing our warmup, especially after reading a bunch of sports medicine material about the research results on things like stretching and warmups. We're now down to about 5 minutes, and I'd say 50% of what we're doing are your "grappling movements". It's been great to get a new chunk of time for positional sparring, which has generated a positive response from the students.
Well done :-)
do not mix between warmup and stretching...warming up is neccessary either you make it with traditional warm up or through your grappling and drilling movments
I 100% agree! I’ve trained at gyms, as I’ve moved around the world, that do everything from an intense 15 minute session to smoke you out to letting you warm up on your own with technique for technique drills. The best way I’ve seen to incorporate Strength and conditioning is with a HIIT circuit AFTER training is done (ex: multiple rounds of 20 Rep sets of pushups, burpees, burpee-pullups, etc) The casual students can slip out at the end of class while the more serious students stick around and train during a time when no class would be going on. Since they’ve already blocked off time in their schedule for BJJ, the additional 20 minutes at the end is an easier pill to swallow from a scheduling perspective.
Also, daaamn you are so spot on about the hierarchy of fun in BJJ. Sparring is by far the most fun thing, technique/drilling is a necessary evil, and the warm up is yah.....
BJJ is the worst taught subject I’ve ever seen. I’m a private tutor, a former English teacher, a teacher of foreign languages and a former business trainer. If I taught any of those subjects the way BJJ is taught I’d have been fired and lost every student. Here in England it’s taught randomly by trial and error relying entirely on the student’s hard work with no system. It’s the stupidest, rudest and most inefficient teaching I’ve ever seen.
WHat do you suggest the teaching methodology should be?
@@GMunoz-oj5zb a structured program at least for white belts.
Start with basic takedowns (double leg, single leg, sprawl), positional control for the most common positions (mount, rear mount, side control) and basic escapes for these positions (hip escape, trap and roll), then closed guard posture, posture breaking, basic passing (one from knees, one from standing), and two or three submissions (kimura, triangle), and one or two sweeps (scissor, hip bump) then the basics of half guard. That should be enough for a white belt for months 0-6).
At the start of class warm up for ten minutes with functional movements (shrimping, bridging, double leg simulations, technical stand up, triangles).
Drill guard passing vs retention for twenty minutes. Drill positional control vs escape for twenty minutes.
That’s the first hour. The next thirty minutes is 5 minute rounds of rolling white belt vs white belt only. White belts learn nothing from rolling against higher belts and getting tapped twenty times in a row. They just get demoralised.
They only roll after learning the basic white belt curriculum.
In each class you should have one teacher conducting the advanced belts (purple - black) another teacher conducts beginners (whites) and another teacher conducts the blues. Ideally that’s how it would work rather than one teacher conducting a class that can consist of a black belt regional champion AND a total newbie from the street, which means neither of them learns anything.
@@jordangill2710I like this but as someone who came in with a wrestling background I feel like this would rush us into blue belt as 90% of the introduction curriculum is already 2nd nature to even a decent wrestler. though most wrestlers already roll at a blue belt level from the start especially if you start standing
Agree. Drilling does everything that a warm up is supposed to do + is teaching you techniques. Cancel warm ups and do half the class drill and the other half sparring.
I felt really sad when I heard his summary of BJJ schools has having 20 minutes of warm-ups, 20 minutes of drills, and then sparring. At our club, we do about 10 minutes of warm-ups, 20 minutes of yoga, 1.5-2 hours of drilling, and then 20-30 minutes of sparring. Our classes start at 7:00pm and go until 9:30-45pm. We are incredibly spoilt, but our instructor teaches because BJJ is his passion, not for efficiency or money.
If this is true im moving wherever you train because 2 and a half hours sounds great if its well laid out and you get a good variety of stuff to drill for that amount of time. And BJJ+Yoga is such a great pair I'd love to do it in the class room instead of plan time in my day for yoga.
Awesome!
Lucky
That sounds awesome.
Damn, what school is this!!? I'm down to roll.
I agree with you, I'm a physiotherapist and I think it's completely safe to go straight to drills without warm up
LMAO. I'm laughing because I knew that someone of your expertise would completely debunk some of these folks in the comments who INSIST on trying to prove that "aimless" warmups actually are necessary before drilling/sparring. DRILLING should be the damn warmup. And there are degrees and ways to drill on a "cold body" to get it warm while still minimizing risk of injury. And you're getting the most of your time because you're getting warm, AND you're acquiring muscle memory from actual technique, not from certain warmup exercises. Warmups just make you better at warmups. They do not make you better at Jiu Jitsu. They make you last longer, but that won't matter if you're sparring/fighting someone with way more technique than you who is not in as good of shape. They'll still beat you. I've trained 5 1/2 years, and I know for a fact that drilling to warm up is just as safe as warming up to warm up. lol. It's just good to see a real expert in physiology instead of these fake ones.
A problem is that you're not drilling alone. A repetition is not identical to the next one, you might do a wrong move or be swept awkwardly and on a 40 yo body that might make a difference. I believe it does and did for me at least.
I totally agree. My background is Ryukyu Bujutsu, and its warmups are absolutely foundational to waza oyo. But many dojo have incorporated warmups for the sake of warming up. When I started teaching a small group of teens years ago, I used the curriculum I was taught, and no one would stay. They were initially motivated but didn't last long. The warmup was too taxing. As the years went by and I no longer affiliate with anyone, I changed the way I teach, still keeping the Waza related Taiso, but also showing how they apply. I am in my 60s now with physiological problems related to the forced extreme conditioning where I now have to sometimes walk with a cane. I swore never to teach that way. I am considered "rogue" by the past relationships and I am okay with it. I ordered the Roy Dean videos because of you, Rick Ellis, Sensei. I have been studying them alone as well as I can, as it is difficult to find people my age who are not spooked by the current boogie-man tactics being forced on us these days. I have 25 years of training in the Okinawan and Chinese Arts, and many of the BJJ techniques are familiar to me, as I can associate them with waza in my arts. I just need a brave partner to work them with. Hopefully will soon be able to.
Loved your story and much regards for your dedicated commitment to the fine arts. With that where are you located brother?
Very good video. Made me think critically about our warmups. I believe ours is efficient and relevant (having thrown out most of the non-relevant movements a long time ago). But I sent your video to my students and asked them what parts of our warmup we should quit doing.
Would love to see a list, or video of what you guys end up with!
What did you decide?
For the past year, I've been having students warm up with a seated open guard. Their job is to sweep (dummy sweep, balloon, tripod, sickle, collar drag) and the top person's agenda is to pass the guard. It's a live, 2-3 minute drill/roll and then you switch top to bottom. We'll do this for about 15-20 minutes. We'll do other positions also, like scaffold, back control and butterfly.
Can't agree with you more. It's a total waste of time!
I resonate 100% with the sentiment. I have a background in strength training, sprint coaching, judo and boxing. Everytime you talk about judo, I have listened to to a number of podcasts, I get the idea that you think Judo is just stand up. There is not a single BJJ move that doesn't have origin in Judo. Even the ones people think are from wrestling.
Love this and great points! And you hit it right on the head.
People skip warm-ups
People are there for Jiu-jitsu!
And jiu-jitsu has gotten me back into the gym to get stronger for Jiu-jitsu.
I focus more when my instructor is talking and teaching.
Great great points.
Valid points. Yes, I believe the fun factor of jiujitsu keeps people coming back.
We had about 10 kids from the high school show up last year. They were there for about a month then faded away. Coach did hard, brutal old school warm ups. Then we rolled. Not sure if they hated the workouts or BJJ just wasn’t their thing.
At 45 I need a brief warm up to get my joints going, but I do it in less than 5 minutes before the class starts. My school does a brief warm up of movements we do during rolling.
The more situational drills done over and over are my favorite because I can feel my muscle memory improving which makes my sparring even better.
I keep doing BJJ because there is always a new thing to learn and I love getting better at it. Warmups are just there, sometimes they are short and I like that.
Great stuff man! Yep…I’ve always been a believer in doing movements that are useable, functional and directly related to jiu jitsu. If someone wants to run a “conditioning class” then by all means, go for it. But I also believe that I’m not being paid by our members to do mindless conditioning during class time…they can do that on their own time. They are paying me for my expertise in jiu jitsu technique. Also I’d like to mention that rolling itself is a plenty good workout to elevate the heart rate. If someone doesn’t think so…their not rolling hard enough or long enough! 🥋
I’ve left a school because of the warm ups. I’ve only got so many hours in the tank per week and I don’t have time to fuck around
100 percent true. So many people do things because they have been told or taught to, but do it blindly.
I think as much as we want to believe Jiu jitsu is for everyone... The reality is ... It's not .. Jiu jitsu is hard .. rolling.. drilling ... Warning up ... Whatever... It remains hard ...
As a judo instructor, I couldn't agree with you more. I teach judo the same way you teach bjj. We spend a little time with an easy warm up/rolls and falls just to get the blood flowing, then do efficent standing, ground and self defence technique, followed by randori. This is one of the problems I with the rest of the judo world is their training method along with their lack of understanding of efficiency. Also were a 50/50 school, were as most judo clubs are 80/20. I'm thinking of going to bjj soon so that I can teach both eventually.
Spot on Rick. Keep the content coming.
Well made, intellectually thought out.
My bjj school warms up with soccer on the mats. 3 players a side, scoring team stays in, losing team rotates out. Super fun and great for team bonding!
In our school, the warmup depends upon who is conducting the class, so the student chooses, by going to a class where there are drills and no warm up. I go to a class that drills instead of having a warm-up. I agree as well, 🙏
Your channel is awesome sir. I really appreciate your inputs, thoughts and knowledge. And yes I agree the warm up is boring, I'm not sure if I can is pointless and if I had to choose between warm up or doing the technique surely I would go for the technique. I've been to gyms where the warm up broke me, never went back there. Anyways, thanks again for your time here and keep up the great work you doing. 🤙
Imagine being a driving instructor and teaching like this:
okay we’re going to start with some random driving patterns and then we’ll drive on the road with other pro drivers and learn by trial and error and every time you crash you’ll try to learn from it by YouTubing what to do in that situation when you go home and we’ll do that for an hour 3 times a week and if you quit that’s YOUR fault.
"Random driving patterns" well the JOB of an instructor, school, style organization is not to pick exercises at random, but use ones specifically designed for the task. instead of "random" patterns of anything, try this: lets start with a series of movements some of which have been tested and tried and passed on for generations, then revevaluated in the light of modern science to warm you up, develop the flexibility, range of motion, stability, while also preventing injury, enabling you to learn how to take commands while moving, building a group morale. Then we'll do well thought out drills, ending with either live two person sparring, and other times with conditioning designed to build fitness and resilience without injuring you. We understand many of you will quit, sometimes for reasons that have nothing to do with the class, style or for scheduling conflicts, but we want to make sure our program protects you from injury, gives you good instruction and helps you achieve your goals. that's how every physical activity and martial art I've done since 1979 works, if it's done right.
@@deejin25 yep I agree. It’s a shame BJJ is usually taught in this haphazard, trial and error way.
My BJJ class: warmup for 15 minutes with pointless movements. Drill two totally random moves that aren’t related to each other and have nothing to do with the previous lesson for 15 minutes. Now go spar and keep getting tapped for an hour. Come away from lesson having learned nothing at all. There’s no system, nothing makes sense, it’s all trial and error. There’s zero structure and zero efficiency. Then people BRAG that it takes ten years to get a black belt. It takes that long because the training is DUMB!
The biggest problem with what you describe is not the warm-up, it's you don't have a consistent, structured curriculum for beginners.
@@RicoMnc that’s true. The warmup is just an additional, pointless 15 minutes.
Here's one nobody seems to talk about: A lot of schools have crappy instructors (yes, they can be great practitioners but still terrible instructors) and they're extremely poor at organizing and structuring an hour or longer class and so they feel they have to "fill the void" of their lack of structure with useless warm ups so that in essence they only have to "teach" a 20 minute class with 1 or 2 techniques and no basis for them. I've seen this a LOT in many different schools / clubs.
I've been training for a year
I live in Perth Australia
I wish I could find a gym with your philosophy
My gym has a brutal warm up most days
Lol I feel ya bro… wtf is going on with teerrrrrrrible warmups haha!
Maybe you could go train with professor Tom!
100% positively agree. I hate the damn warmup . Stretching, great. Getting toasted off a damn warmup drives many many folks away surly
I've never really thought about it but you're correct. Time to switch shit up...
Man great video as 49 year old three stripes white belt I feel warm-ups are way too long
My warmup mirrors my wrestling warmup from 20 years ago some stretching some jump rope,
Neck and body rolls then light rolling to loosen the joints
I think warm-ups are a good thing, but a distinction between conditioning training and warm-up is needed. I've been to schools where a 20 minute heavy "warm-up" was standard at the beginning of every class. To me, that's not a warm-up but a conditoning workout. A warm-up is about getting the body moving and prepared to train. That means it should be short, be more technically based, work your range of motion, and leave you with a light sweat. I agree that more time should be spent drilling, but a proper warm-up (an actual warm-up and not a conditioning workout) will prepare the body for good technical drilling.
When it’s a 6 am class and most people attending are over 35 years old then some sort of a warm up is helpful. I have guys in my class roll out their backs and move their hips for just a few minutes before we drill.
YES ! I am in total understanding of this!! The school where i train at sadly went back to doing the bear crawl - pushup - running types of warm ups before class.
🙄 so glad I dont have to deal with that ...sure it got me in shape like.a beast but that was gonna happen anyway 😂
There were days I dreaded going to class knowing there was this certain purple belt that did.warmups before the b b instructor came . Always hoped on any given day he was not there or on vacation ..etc 😂😂
Thinking about this wonderful concept is warm-up enough!!!
So great to hear this from a black belt.
“ it’s good to train tired .” Awesome, let’s get tired drilling.
Agree 100% ...just moved to a new school where the warm up is simply light sparring both on the feet then taking it to the mats. Last place the warm was geared towards a 25 year old competitive athlete, not this 64 year old hobbyist . In the end I went off to the corner and did my own thing that did not involve pain and wearing me put before the class began. I am plenty active off the mats as an ice hockey player both as a goalie and skater usually six days a week. I pace myself there too. I can do my own warm ups by arriving 15 minutes early if need be. I am paying for BJJ instruction not a warm up I care not to do.
OH MY GOD, that is so true... we do 20min warmup too it is so annoying, I do like flow rolling at start. I kind of scared to share this vid with our coach. He might get offended, hopefully he sees it :(
Thanks again for your vid.
Me too bro.
Haha I hate my warm up lol
Share the video to learn your coaches thoughts or reasoning.
Warm ups are jiu jitsu drills. I call them warm ups but they are jiujitsu related. Everyone learns different. Muscle memory is important for me and has helped me personally using jiujitsu at work and competitions. Being able to perform movements without thinking has Been a blessing. I dont have them drill everyday though. Some days i have more rolling related training, fine-tuning (open session) meaning i ask what they need help in and i cover multiple things. I follow a curriculum as much as possible. We have fundamental days as well. Also,it depends on the school. I've seen so many videos posted of classes where they teach tech after tech but the instructor doesn't even bother walking around making sure that everything has been didn't learned the technique of the day. I am very big on that. I go to every pair of students and I have them show me the technique to see if they learned it if not so I can work with them some more. I like drilling also because when I am teaching something I call out the name of the drill that is related to the technique of the day and it helps some people understand easier. For example armdrag To back take from the sitting position. This requires a butt scoot as you drag your partner in to take the back. So I'll say "butt scoot" as you drag them over. The slower learners like myself understand easier because they Just did some butt scoots during the drilling portion so they'll apply the technique a little quicker this way. As far as burpees and jumping jacks and all that other stuff we can do that at home if they wish or hit the gym to lift some weights. I am there to teach jiu-jitsu
We couldn't agree more! Getting a purple belt is great because we are one step closer to black. But, the biggest benefit is it being socially acceptable to skip the warm up!
Keep up the amazing content Rick!
Great points. This is easily transferrable to so many other areas of skill improvement; music, language learning, writing. A lot of people waste time doing the surface level crap because they think they have to, or because it's easier when you aren't engaging your mind.
Good point about going to the gym too. BJJ (at least how I was doing it) was worth nothing to me as a strength building program. I was a typical weak mid 40s guy until I went to the gym and did specific strength workouts, then everything improved. I also do a proper and generalised warm up for BJJ at the gym before class. That improves my training efficiency.
We do a 5-7 min warm up. Is same at all GB schools. JJ's, squats, push ups, crunches, upas, hip escapes + 3-4 active stretches and then we go into techniques.
Love the video and content.
I left BJJ once, and it was because of the warm up. I'm 45 years old and 116KG, getting the floor and dragging myself by the arms from one side of the gym to the other is just going to make me quit, while learning the techniques is what I actually like doing and I'm good at
I think 10th Planet warmups seem to be pretty productive.
This is how we do it. Maybe 2-3 minutes of some basic streatching then we partner up and do 20 arm bars, 20 triangles, 20 umas, and 20 side control conversions. I usually have a good sweat going by then. Then it;s off to the daily lesson.
Time on the mat doesn’t necessarily mean better Jiu Jitsu, it’s the quality of Jiu Jitsu that you’re drilling.
You have said exactly what I have always thought!
Slow Relaxed Rolling is a Warm up... Common Sense ...
How to become every Purple belts best friend in 15 minutes? Make this video.
We don't do warm-ups in class. Individuals do their own warmups on their own before class starts. My class consists of about 45min of technique and 30-45min of rolling.
Thank god you have this video. My coach thinks the same exact way, we drill 3 techniques back and forth for 6 mins each as our warmup, after that we go right into live rolls for 4-6 mins with 1min breaks to switch partners. I LOVE jiu-jitsu. It's been 9mo and I nvr miss a day unless I can't avoid it
You’re not wrong! Now, I’ll hate warmups that much more 😂
Sounds a lot like me! Perhaps that is why I sit here watching you!
I've been Jogging now for 55 years non stop I NEVER warm up..!! I just start walking & slowly go into a light jog 6 -7 min. of that then I go at my speed.... I Have NO INJURIES ....55 years of Jogging Calisthenics Karate Boxing .. I always start Very Slow ...
Your walk is the warm up.
@@martiallife4136 correct...I've been training swimming jogging calisthenics gymnastics yoga boxing karate ect.. I'm 64 NO INJURIES. whatever I'm doing for example kicks , I start to kick not too high and very relaxed with minimum stress...boxing same thing punch very slow RELAX.. BUT what I do is stretch after my training for sure 20 min...
Aww... not the bear walks... i love them!🥺
Couldn't agree more. Indeed I'd go further and argue that you can practice those "fundamental movements" in the context of "drilling". The only reservation I have is that I think (especially for "older grapplers") it is important to start every session with some dynamic ROM movements (and no that's not a "conditioning" warm up. If you don't know what it is look it up). Even there you can focus on the "movements" that you will be using in your BJJ. Anyway, love your channel. Keep it up!
100% agree. Additionally, lets say your doing jumping jacks. What possibly are you conditioning your body to do? It is not natural movement and has also been shown to cause more damage than benefit. Just like lifting weights- -it might be good if your conditioning to lift a weight in real life but when you stop doing that then the muscles atrophy (Ive seen that in many body builders.) I like to do things that will aid and condition myself for what I normally do and what might be "functional" in what my habits will be. For example, doing a Kimura sit up with a partner - When I practice that with a partner it is fun AND conditions my abs, obliques, etc for what might be functionally used in real self defense or sparring. I am never going to "bench press" someone off of me in mount. I personally like drilling over sparring especially for beginners because sparring with bad technique causes injuries and I want to build good habits and technique before I spar to prevent injury of myself or others (which I have seen happen so many times in the dojo.) Lastly, who wants to pay 100-300 dollars per month doing calisthenics that I could do for free at home.? I personally want to pay for quality instruction. The bravado behind the ridiculous warm up is simply a downer. I really like that you speak candidly- that is a sign of great strength (inner strength) and bravery (knowing it might ruffle feathers) which indicates free thinking and authenticity. Questioning authority is absolutely necessary for evolution- so my hat is off to you on that. Super cool video and great insights and articulation. Im 53 years old so what do I have left? 25-35 summers if I am lucky- I don't have time to waste doing stupid things. Thank you so much for taking your time to make this video - it is extremely useful.
Agreed. GU Combatives warm-up is drilling the lesson from the previous class for 10 minutes.
Warmup is about 5 minutes at my school. Couple of laps, some shrimps, granby rolls, etc, but then straight into reviewing the last lesson's techniques for 10 minutes or so. The review period is the warm up, so we have 30-40 minutes to focus on learning the technique of the day.
We typically do the traditional warm up (run circles, shrimp, etc). But every once in a while Professor has us pick a partner and flow roll for 10min. Those are my fav warm up's❤
Learning BJJ and the worst part is the group warm ups. I hate it. Doing the warm ups in a line is a waste of time. I rather use the time to get feedback, get teaching/drilling, and rolling.
Sunday morning jiu jitsu class at 9am, a bunch of us show up at 830 , put on headgear, gloves, & shinguards, and we do a couple of rounds of kickboxing sparring. By the time 9am rolls around, we are ready & warmed up for an hour of BJJ, which is usually 20 minutes of technique drilling, then 40 min of sparring.
If your drilling without resistance then your also wasting time.i agree with you about the warmups
Oh boy, you are going to get some folks up in their feelings just based on the title! 😆
Personally, I like drilling and/or flow rolling as a warm up 10x more than the calisthenics.
Agree. Many of us also lift or another workout outside of BJJ. If I lift at lunch time, I don’t need to be doing pushups that evening as part of a warmup, if anything it hinders recovery.
I wish more schools had this philosophy. Im 42 and am 6'4 and 270 (working my way to 220). I go 2x per week and we do warmup first 20 mins. thats 33hours per year.
I agree. I watched a class last night and the warm up was lite rolling. It was awesome. I go to jujutsu to do jujutsu not run 5 miles.
Can't argue with anything that you've stated. I'm 57 and not looking to waste what little energy I can muster up on non-technical warmup exercises
Couldn't agree more 100%! It's so frustrating having to do non-jujitsu, when I pay a premium price to specifically train your jujitsu.
Respect:
@6:50 To me this video isn't about how Practitioner Ellis thinks "warm-ups" are stupid. It is more about some of us as beginners acting "stupid" by neglecting to train away from the mats and depending on class for our strength, stretch, conditioning and skill sets. Easily seen where this can be a burden on Coaches and players who are prepared for class.
love this, have been doing drilling techniques instead of warm-ups since I started teaching
"Everybody loves to roll"
I guess I'm not everybody...
Most people who train find rolling the most fun. If it's not fun for a student, it's usually because they have not yet learned enough, or they aren't training with the right partners.
In general I agree. The problem I have with that approach in beginners class is that pupils some are so uncoordinated they need to start by doing some basic warm up drills instead of BJJ drills. Higher belts/ more advanced pupils- 100% Im with you
Most Jiujitsu schools I mean most average Jiujitsu school just don’t understand this. Discipline, self defense, fitness all comes after fun . Don’t take it to the extent where it’s not fun anymore .
I see I’m not alone here, at Gracie we review technics and practice with a partner for the first ten minutes. Which I believe helps immensely.
Ive been sating the same since I was a Blue Belt and coaching the Fundamentals Classes. Students are there to learn Jiu Jitsu not Calisthenics. So we started doing exactly that, drilling escapes, Armbars drills, and of course technical get ups, and so on.
Hahaha he literally named the exact order my instructor makes us warm up
I think some light stretching is appropriate. But truthfully, show up 5 minutes early and knock it out.
Thank god. I thought I was going crazy. Warmups are so dumb.
OMG thank you. I hate BJJ Warmups. I will respectfully ask my current professor if we can drill instead of the typical warmups once I've earned the right to ask him. I go because the drilling and sparring is great. When we DO drill, I love the teaching. I just wish we did more of it. I hate these fk'ing warmups. It's annoying af.
I'm 51 and going into my 6th class this evening. On day one I wondered why we did 3 sets of 10 reps, jumping jacks, squats, and push ups. I would prefer to just do a ramp style of drilling. Start at lets say 10-15% speed then work up. That would cover warm up and lose no drill time. Nothing I can do about it though.
I'm 68, and I completely agree with you. I'm about 14 months in now, but my school also does warm ups (luckily not excessively). I hate 'em, too. But, I tolerate the warm ups because my school is only a mile from my house and there is nothing else closer than 45 minutes away (and I don't love Jiu Jitsu enough to spend 1.5 hours two or three times a week just travelling to train). If/when I eventually quit, it will be because the waste of time of warm ups will outweigh the fun/gains of learning/drilling/rolling (or I'll break one or more of my brittle old bones).
Your post is 5 months old at this point. I hope you hung in there. I'm only now starting to feel even slightly competent (still mostly defending, might submit somebody once in a blue moon). FYI, I'm 6 feet, 175-180 pounds with no real health problems (besides struggling against getting older and weaker by the year).
Remember, tap early, tap often. We're too old to get injured for no good reason.
Our warm-up is mostly jiu-jitsu related movements. Some of them are drills of JJ techniques, including shrimping, break falls, standing up in guard etc. I don't have a problem with the content, but the length is not optimal for an old guy like me. It could be more efficient. I'm happy when the instructor decides to cut it a bit short and says, "that's good, let's get started.." learning, reviewing, and drilling technique.
I've also been told the reason is to wear us out so that we won't rely on strength, speed etc. in lieu of technique. I've actually heard this said, "now that you're wore out, you can learn some jiu jitsu". But when I'm first learning something as a beginner I think I need more reps and fine tuning of the technique than conditioning.
I understand the concept, and for 20 something aged, large, strong athletes I see the benefit more. But often by the time we start drilling JJ techniques, I'm on my last 15-20 minutes of prime focus, attention, and physical ability. After that its diminishing returns for me. That's ok if I'm working on my endurance or trying to evaluate how I perform when I'm wore out, but often I can't work very much the last part of the class after that.
FWIW, I'm a small, white belt 60+ age.
I 💯 agree. Great video.
Genius
Also, could specify exactly what fundamental movements you do. Much appreciated
I'm a weirdo. 😂I come half hour to 1 hour early, run in place, pushups, squats, look at the lesson technique but I would do all this even on a day I wasn't coming to class.❤ I also scored extremely high, 78% on consciousness with 13% compassion, Agreeable 43%. Without the consciousness and orderliness (88%) I'd definitely be a sociopath. I scored 94% intelect - not sure what that means but I love to deep dive and get nerdy on learning things. I'm just embracing my weirdness and trying to be the very best me I can be. I'm having fun.❤love your channel. And the Flow rashguard rocks! Just a plug for Dr./Professor Andy Galpin, kinesiologist who did a masterclass 6 sessions on exercise on Andrew Huberman's podcast.
Next video: why shrimping is not that great of a movement in Jiu jitsu.
We stretch on our own for a few minutes before class, then our warmups are self defense drills for 10 minutes or so. Then we move on to the new instruction. I also don’t want to pay for calisthenics. LOL
Warm ups are important to avoid injury. You could tear something easy. Schools should just do 5 minute jog then give everyone 5 minutes to do whatever stretches they want.
I have gotten injured more when we warm up doing "flow rolls" and drilling style warmups than the more traditional types. We all know that flow rolls almost always turn into real rolls. Might be great for the 20somethings who are ready to go but for my 51 year old body I find that the traditional warmups really do a great job of getting me limbered up in a safe way. Call me old fashioned. Also, when I was a white belt I got a TON of benefit out of doing front/back/granby rolls, shrimps etc...and I still do.
I tend to agree with this…still, the point is that various drills that are functional/jiu jitsu movements can still serve the purpose of preparing the body for live rolling. I think what Rick is saying is (more or less) that calisthenics as warmups are kind of a waste of time…which I’m on board with. 52 year old black belt here. 25.5 years on the mat. 😊
I think video is making a distinction between exercises merely to make students tired vs practicing movement patterns that are essential to grappling.
Very well said and qualified opinion on warm ups! As an older purple belt I find I get much more benefit from drilling fundamentals and working techniques from the previous class. I do have to say our instructors do have us progress from flow/positional slower roles to full sparing rolls at the end of class. I do think that some of the new students who are out of shape or desire conditioning would benefit from a stand alone conditioning class. That being said I do agree with you that it’s the students responsibility to get in shape but having a class dedicated to conditioning may help those students who need a helpful push in the right direction.