Hi I've recently started Ju Jitsu and am loving it. Does anybody have any ideas on solo home training. I'm thinking more along of skills rather than fitness. I know it's an awkward one. Thanks in advance.
Not a lot that can be done I'm afraid, unless you can get a high rank to come and train with you in their free time. Or do what I do and watch videos on Youtube and try them when you get a chance in the dojo.
You could use a heavy bag to practice a few side and top mounts. I made a dummy for my son. All I did was fill a pair of cover alls with crunched up newspaper and small bags of strategically placed sand bags for weight. Wrapped the whole thing tightly with duct tape, and let him go at it. It however does not resist, and is very limited.
You can let your one hand to fight your other hand. For example, let your right hand to grab on your left wrist. You left arm tries to break that grip. Your right hand tries to hold on tight. You will soon find out that it's easier for your left arm to fight against your right thumb (1 finger), than for your left arm to fight against the other 4 right hand fingers. You will then develop a quick reaction which way to turn when your opponent ever grabs on your wrist. At the same time your right hand can use grab as a fake, when your left arm tries to break it, your right hand then move to wherever that you right hand really want to move to. This will help you to develop a good fake move and set up sequence. If you have played chess game against yourself, this idea is not new.
Do this in a public area such as a mall while speaking jibberish and you will have no shortage of training partners .
Here are some good drills that you can do by yourself to build habits and attributes that translate well to most grappling styles. Of course they're not very useful for learning specific techniques and (except maybe the solo uchikomi) I don't know how much randori or competition your classes involve, so it may be wasted effort. Tie a belt or gi around a door, tree, or heavy bag. Stationary things and things that move are both good. Use it to work on your entries. You can place shoes or bricks on the ground to represent the opponent's feet if that helps you visualize. If your school does flying techniques like scissors or flying armbars, you can work those on a pole or thai bag. You can also do breakfalls, sprawls and rolls on your own. For groundwork, you can do bridges, shrimps, sit-outs and side rolls. A swim escape is easy to practice alone, and so is a scramble from being thrown. If your system includes the swim escape that shouldn't be any issue to figure out but the second drill involves placing your head on the mat while on all fours, somersaulting over your head into a bridge (helps prevent scoring as your back does not touch. Also is a much better platform for getting back to a good "stance") and then scrambling back to the starting position without touching the mat with anything but you hands, head and feet. If my camera cooperates, I'll post a video. EDIT: It did. Here's the scramble drill. http://youtu.be/YszOj4IyuD8
Get flexible, and comfortable being flexible. That goes a long, long way in actual training where you become a human pretzel.
Get a heavy bag practice your atemi strikes. if you have mats practice your uchikomi work your flexibility , enjoy .
working on your transitions from one position to the next is good too. lots of useful tips in this thread! slow movements and transitions will improve your technique and as a bonus work your core strength also! will force you to visualize as well which is really important for building a skill set successfully
Do you have one of those big inflatable exercise balls? They are great for posture, balance and transition in grappling [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2m-iFo_iFIA"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2m-iFo_iFIA[/ame]