Swimming for Jiu Jitsu By Sam Chen

Intro

The first time I ever stepped onto a mat to train Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu was my freshman year at UCLA.  As soon as I began to learn the concept of the jiu-jitsu guard, it struck me that some of the movements regarding hip movement and legwork seemed natural, almost familiar in a way.  Today, I am convinced that the reason for my natural inclination for jiu-jitsu is because I spent many years training to be a good swimmer.  One of my close friends from BJJ shared a similar perspective regarding our previous sport.  We both discussed how in swimming it was important to constantly move your body efficiently to cut through the water.  Rather than trying to barrel through the water with pure power, the fastest swimmers learn to use techniques which allow them to glide through the pool.

I can honestly say that outside of normal training which includes sparring and drilling the two main conditioning exercises responsible for my improvements in jiu-jitsu include the use of the stability ball and swimming. Regarding the latter, I have since scrutinized the reasons why I feel swimming is an extremely beneficial exercise and practice for jiu-jitsu.  Ultimately, I have come to see that swimming is actually a versatile practice which makes use of the entire body.  Swimming can be used not only to build a better body, but to train strength, explosiveness, endurance, breathing, and flexibility.  Moreover, the body is able to develop motor function from swimming that is more natural to jiu-jitsu than conventional weight lifting methods.  In this short article I’ll write a little bit about how I think each of the conventional strokes can help your jiu-jitsu game, and include a drill or two for conditioning.

The Strokes

I believe each of the main strokes in swimming have certain qualities conducive to jiu-jitsu.  The great part is certain strokes and drills will be especially helpful to you according to your jiu-jitsu game and body type.  This is the kind of versatility that I am talking about when it comes to being able to use swimming in many different ways for strength and conditioning.

“The Crawl” or Freestyle

Many competitive swimmers consider the crawl the staple stroke of swimming.  Ask any competitive swimmer and he or she will tell you about the massive distances they have racked up swimming this stroke.  Freestyle is a great stroke to work on for jiu-jitsu players, especially those who like to pass the guard. Let’s breakdown the movements of this stroke and see how it can aid your guard passing movements.

The Upper Body: A freestyle swimmer strokes on his belly and the stroke works his entire upper body, utilizing his back, shoulders, chest, and triceps.  The swimmer is constantly pulling water while rolling his shoulders to create a good angle to glide through the water.  This same concept is applicable to passing a guard: pulling an opponent into you while you roll your body’s angles to find openings to pass his legs and isolate his hips.

The Lower Body: A freestyle swimmer pivots his hips in accordance to the way you rolls shoulders while stroking.  He or she flutter kicks constantly for extra propulsion through the water.  The most beneficial aspect to jiu jitsu here is the constant exercise a swimmer gets shifting his hips over and over. The kind of hip mobility that can be acquired from this stroke is very helpful in a jiu jitsu player’s  ability  to shift the pressure in his hips while passing the guard.

Backstroke

The backstroke is an excellent stroke for guard players, especially versus an opponent who likes to keep his head glued to your torso while passing.   A backstroker continually rotates his hips and rolls his shoulders, taking his thumb out of the water first and entering with his pinky.  Mimic this movement with a push to the face on the mat, and you create a zig-zag style hip escape that keeps your opponent always at your center line.

Breaststroke

The breaststroke will help out your jiu jitsu in quite a few ways:  Practicing the froggy style kick a lot helps to build up the muscles in your inner thighs and hip flexors.  Having these muscles especially helps your “squeeze” when playing closed guard, shooting triangles chokes, or even getting good hooks in for a butterfly guard.

Swim breaststroke competitively, and you will see that timing is a crucial factor.  It requires a kind of rhythm with that syncs with your breathing.  Master this synchronization, apply it to jiu-jitsu, and see how your endurance will spike.

Butterfly

Ahh, butterfly.  The most powerful, impressive, and physically exhausting of the conventional swim strokes.  Butterfly is a good stroke for jiu-jitsu because it is so physically demanding.  It requires some explosiveness, correct body mechanics, and a good deal of core strength.  Ask the swollen meathead from the gym to try a couple laps of this stroke, and he’ll probably cry after two.

The butterfly stroke works nearly all of the body, building enormous shoulders and lat muscles.  It also helps build explosiveness, endurance, and lung capacity in any athlete, no exception for Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu players.  While very physically demanding, it is important to remember the butterfly stroke takes a great deal of finesse and attention to technique.  You should take your time and ease into this stroke if you are relatively new to swimming.

Upper Body Strength Workout:

10 x 100yd crawl with paddles and pullbuoy

10 x 100 yd backstroke with paddles and pullbuoy

The paddles and pull buoy disable a swimmer’s kicks and force him to pull more water with each stroke, training the strength of his or her lats, chest, deltoids, and triceps.

Related articles: #mce_temp_url#

Advertisement

Explore posts in the same categories: Uncategorized