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Home » Learning BJJ Faster » How do I get back into BJJ after taking a long break?
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How do I get back into BJJ after taking a long break?

- John Q. Whitebelt

Posted by John Q. Whitebelt in Learning BJJ Faster | 1 comment

Community Answers

  1. 76
    7-28-13
    Aesopian says:

    You just get back on the mats and train! Sorry if you wanted a “better” answer, but that’s the most honest one. 

    If you were out due to an injury, focus on healing, but keep as active as you can without risking reinjury. You can keep your habit of going to the gym if you can just watch class. The legend goes that Helio learned jiu-jitsu by sitting and watching his brother, and whether or not that’s true, many black belts will tell you how much you can learn by observing others.

    When watching classes, resist the urge to jump back in before you are fully healed. You can probably start doing light warm-ups and drilling before you’re back to 100%, but be disciplined about not sparring until you are really ready, and even then only picking safe training partners. A lot of people make their problems even worse by being overeager to jump back in right where they left off.

    If your break wasn’t due to being hurt, and you just had changes in your life like a new job or a baby or moving, you need to simply get back into the gym. Just start training again and try not to worry too much.

    When you first return, you may not be in as good of shape, and your timing and reactions will likely be slow. Sparring may be frustrating and exhausting. Don’t act surprised when people who you used to beat are now beating you or giving you a lot of trouble. That’s what you should expect if they were training while you were not. This can be very depressing if you’re higher ranked than the people you’re now struggling with, but jiu-jitsu doesn’t really care about feeling or belt rank. I’ll assume your training partners aren’t jerks and they understand you took time off.

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