I'd been training for about 6 months when one of my friends asked me to lift
some weights with him. As I'd usually turn up to class early I thought I’d give
it a go. Within 6 months I found that I became much stronger. In fact, I went
from benching 60kgs to benching 100kg. This newfound strength also came in
handy on the mat. I found myself powering out of submissions and getting tapped
much less. However, this short term success came at a price.
These short term gains ended up holding me back. As my classmates became more technical I became less technical, relying on my new strength to get me out of tough situations. After coming to this realization, I stopped strength and conditioning training until I received my purple belt. I probably could have started a bit earlier but at that point I could fully understand how to apply my strength technically. This effectively made my progress through though purple belt very fast.
These short term gains ended up holding me back. As my classmates became more technical I became less technical, relying on my new strength to get me out of tough situations. After coming to this realization, I stopped strength and conditioning training until I received my purple belt. I probably could have started a bit earlier but at that point I could fully understand how to apply my strength technically. This effectively made my progress through though purple belt very fast.
There is no point having a fast car if you
don’t know how to drive. First develop the technical foundations which BJJ is
all about, then reinforce them with some Strength and Conditioning. As every
white belt gets told, "forget about your strength", I too had to find
out the hard way.
