After more than ten years training brazilian jiu jitsu, I definitely feel that in order to achieve the next level of confidence and excellence in technique, one needs to gain a good understanding of wrestling.
When I talk about wrestling, I am talking about freestyle wrestling or amateur wrestling as I believe it is called in the US.
In my view, judo and sambo are also very effective for take-downs, but freestyle wrestling gives a more universal system for taking the opponent down and also controlling the opponent on the ground.
If you are interested in competition in BJJ, the other issue is conditioning. Wrestling is very good for improvement of endurance, cardio conditioning and explosiveness. Most of the gyms I see do very little to prepare you for a real competition environment. Flow rolling, light warm-ups and short rounds are just some of the examples of this kind of behaviour that makes bjj more attractive for the regular guy but at the detriment of improving actual ability to compete at a higher level.
The other thing I would say is that BJJ players are just too happy to go on their back. This is not necessarily bad if you are outstanding guard player but there is a cost to developing this bad habit. As soon as I off-balance a BJJ passer, instead of trying to stay up right and maintaining balance they fall on their back giving up the 2 points for the sweep. A wrestler would avoid this and even use this scramble as an opportunity to counter-attack.
Lastly unlike judo for example, wrestling has some great technique of controlling an opponent from the knees. How often do you pass and the guy tries to grab your leg and sweep you from practically any guard and especially half guard? Very often. A wrestler has additional tools in his arsenal for this eventuality that I think are worth learning even if you don't want to improve your conditioning or compete.
Something to think about. After all after a long time if you feel your growth in BJJ is stalling, you need to change it up. Go do some wrestling and then try to utilize it more in BJJ. Change your game, get into uncomfortable positions. That will for sure make you a better version of yourself.
When I talk about wrestling, I am talking about freestyle wrestling or amateur wrestling as I believe it is called in the US.
In my view, judo and sambo are also very effective for take-downs, but freestyle wrestling gives a more universal system for taking the opponent down and also controlling the opponent on the ground.
If you are interested in competition in BJJ, the other issue is conditioning. Wrestling is very good for improvement of endurance, cardio conditioning and explosiveness. Most of the gyms I see do very little to prepare you for a real competition environment. Flow rolling, light warm-ups and short rounds are just some of the examples of this kind of behaviour that makes bjj more attractive for the regular guy but at the detriment of improving actual ability to compete at a higher level.
The other thing I would say is that BJJ players are just too happy to go on their back. This is not necessarily bad if you are outstanding guard player but there is a cost to developing this bad habit. As soon as I off-balance a BJJ passer, instead of trying to stay up right and maintaining balance they fall on their back giving up the 2 points for the sweep. A wrestler would avoid this and even use this scramble as an opportunity to counter-attack.
Lastly unlike judo for example, wrestling has some great technique of controlling an opponent from the knees. How often do you pass and the guy tries to grab your leg and sweep you from practically any guard and especially half guard? Very often. A wrestler has additional tools in his arsenal for this eventuality that I think are worth learning even if you don't want to improve your conditioning or compete.
Something to think about. After all after a long time if you feel your growth in BJJ is stalling, you need to change it up. Go do some wrestling and then try to utilize it more in BJJ. Change your game, get into uncomfortable positions. That will for sure make you a better version of yourself.
