Learning Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is a long-term journey that literally involves blood, sweat, and tears. It’s a lifetime on the mat to get to a black belt. Showing up, day after day, and the learning never ends. But these days, with the Internet and all the instructionals and courses available, a lot of beginners ask the same question: can you learn Brazilian Jiu Jitsu at home?
You can learn Brazilian Jiu Jitsu at home, but only some basic movements and fundamentals. Doing drills and watching instructionals are excellent ways to improve your game, but you’ll only learn BJJ for real if you’re practicing techniques and sparring with other experienced practitioners.
Learning Brazilian Jiu Jitsu At Home
BJJ is hard to learn, especially at the beginning, and trying it by yourself can be really dangerous for you and for your training partner at home (if you even have one). I always recommend my friends to start training in a good school in their region, because it’s the best approach. However, some people really can’t train at the gym, whether it’s because they live in a small town or for any other reason. If this is your case, I have prepared some great tips for you to learn Brazilian Jiu Jitsu at home safely.
Step-By-Step Guide To Learn BJJ At Home
1) Prepare Your Mind
Your mindset needs to meet some important requirements before even starting your first day practicing. The first thing you need to remember is: always respect the art, always respect your partner and always be careful. A well-applied BJJ technique can easily break an arm or choke someone out very fast. If you manage to find a training partner (the best way to practice at home), it’s your responsibility to take care of him during sparring and vice-versa. If your partner taps, release the position immediately. If he asks you to stop, stop immediately. Don’t underestimate this tip, this is one of the most important lessons for those looking for a healthy long-term BJJ training life.
The second thing that you need to adjust in your mindset to start BJJ at home is managing your expectations. Training at home can be a good start, and if you follow all the tips listed below you’ll make great progress. But keep in mind that it’ll only lead you halfway. BJJ is hard to learn, involves deliberate practice, repetition, correction. You’ll be able to develop a solid base, but learning at home is never gonna be the same as it would be in a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu school. Knowing that, don’t get frustrated if you feel like you’re not doing well, just keep pushing. It happens even with professionals.
2) If Possible, Find A Good Training Partner
After adjusting the mindset, this is the most important step. Getting a training partner it’s going to be the difference between actually learning BJJ at home or just doing exercises that will help you if one day you can really train. The reason for it is pretty simple: Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is not an individual sport. I mean, you compete individually, but there’s not a competition without an adversary. In training, it’s the same logic: how can you know if you’re applying an arm-bar correctly if there’s no arm for you to test it on? It’s just a silly example to enlighten you on how important it is to find (and respect) a person to get into this journey with you. If you really can’t find someone to train with you, I suggest you read tip number 3 and then jump to the next section: How To Improve Your Jiu Jitsu Training Alone.
3) Get An Appropriate Surface For Your Classes
Before starting your first training session, choose wisely the space you’re going to use for your practices. Don’t go out crazy training anywhere in the house. BJJ can be very addictive, but training on inappropriate surfaces WILL make you hurt yourself. Focus on two things: the right type of surface and an area free of obstacles like tables, chairs, walls, etc. There are different types of mats for Jiu-Jitsu, and if you want you can even buy some of them on the Internet (but you don’t one to get started). Find an obstacle-free area, that measures at very least 7 by 7 feet (2×2 meters). In this space, put a rug, a mat, or some type of material that makes the floor soft enough for you to fall and roll without hurting yourself.
4) Look For The Appropriate Instructional For You
With the right mindset, a training area, and a good partner, you’re on right track to start learning BJJ at home: you are just missing a good professor. There are hundreds of courses and instructionals teaching Jiu-Jitsu online and most of them are excellent, but don’t go out buying the first one you see or choosing the classes taught by your favorite athlete. You need to find a good instructional that is focused on beginners. There are great options available, especially after the pandemic. In some schools, you can even send videos of you executing the techniques and receive feedback from the teachers. Those, in my opinion, are the best options, because when you’re training at home there’ll be no one to check on your progress and fix your mistakes.
Another important thing to mention is that you don’t need a paid instructional to start. Until you find out if you’re going to be training BJJ for a long time, don’t expend money on it: start with free classes on YouTube. Just follow the same criteria of selecting videos prepared for beginners.
5) Execute The Techniques With Caution
I need to insist on this subject so forgive me for being repetitive: BJJ can really dangerous when you have zero experience, so execute the techniques with caution. Even if you’re training alone, respect your body and its limitations during training sessions, drills, stretching. Your abilities will improve with time, that’s for sure, but only if you stay healthy. Now, if you managed to find a good training partner, execute all the techniques with caution and respect: an arm-bar can easily break a bone. A well-adjusted choke can KILL someone very fast. So remember: there is no ego on BJJ, if it hurts, just tap. If your colleague taps, release him immediately. That’s something that you need to have in mind to avoid serious injuries.
If you follow all these steps I believe you can learn Brazilian Jiu Jitsu at home, going from zero to a solid BJJ base (basic techniques and principles). But for those of you that have no one to train with, there are some great tips of things that you can do alone to develop abilities that can help any Jiu-Jitsu student.
How to Improve Your Jiu Jitsu Training Alone
Being a complete BJJ athlete involves some pillars that go beyond the techniques and principles taught during a class. As you’ll be training at home, you can focus more time improving the pillars of BJJ that can be worked on without a professor.
1) Work Hard On Your Flexibility
Most people neglect the importance of having a good stretching routine. It has so many benefits for life and overall health that even if don’t want to prepare yourself for BJJ you should be doing stretches every day. For Jiu-Jitsu, I dare to say that being flexible brings more benefits than being super strong. All the positions and techniques demand some level of agility and flexibility. That’s essential for BJJ, so work hard on your overall flexibility.
2) Drills
Doing drills is the best thing you can do alone to improve your BJJ game. It’s incredible how much you can learn (muscular memory) by repeating exercises that replicate Jiu-Jitsu techniques. The Brazilian world champion Cobrinha (Rubens Charles) is a top athlete and a master in creating and teaching excellent drills. His YouTube channel is a great source of content and the video below is perfect for you to start.
3) Improve Your Overall Fitness
Having an activity routine is vital. The pandemic showed us one more time that exercising is one of the best things we can do to increase our immunity and health. For BJJ, being strong and having a good fitness condition is very important. Despite being a very different (and exhausting) activity, individuals that are used to exercise can adapt, learn and improve faster at Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. It doesn’t really matter if it’s running, biking, weight training, swimming… Just stay active.
4) Diet
The only possible way to cut some pounds of fat from your body is through a calorie deficit. That is, expending more energy than you consume. When you are training at a BJJ academy it’s easier to achieve (and lose weight), as in a single session you can burn up 1000 calories. While training alone, be more selective in your diet. Stick to a good meal plan and try to eat clean. Being heavy in BJJ is only a good thing if you’re agile enough to move well and take advantage of it.
5) Watch Seminars, Training Sessions and Pro Fights
Inspire yourself and learn through watching the best names of the game. Even if you’re not able to replicate the techniques (which is not even indicated if you’re a beginner), seeing how top athletes move and what positions they are trying to get is an excellent way to understand the fundamentals and principles of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. With time you’ll realize that the simple techniques are always proving themselves as the most effective. Take 15-20 minutes a day to really pay attention to good videos and I guarantee your concepts about BJJ will expand faster.
Related Questions
How Can I Learn BJJ From Home? The best way to learn basic BJJ from home is by watching instructionals and practicing the techniques with someone. You can do drills and learn the principles alone, but to build a solid BJJ game you need a training partner and supervision from an experienced mentor.
Can I Practice Jiu Jitsu Alone? You can practice Jiu-Jitsu alone doing drills, using a dummy, and studying theory. But if you have zero experience with BJJ this is not enough. Find an academy or at least an experienced training partner. To learn more, check the step-by-step to Learn BJJ at Home.
Can You Learn Jiu Jitsu Online? As a general rule, it’s possible to learn Jiu Jitsu online, as long as you have a training partner to practice the techniques with. But keep in mind: your results will always be better if you train in a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu academy with the supervision of a master.
