Bjj Flow Drill

The importance of the Flow

In Grappling, Timing, reflexes, movement and agility are of the utmost importance, and this is exactly the objective of this next exercise.

Many schools advocate that the Flow drill is more beneficial for advanced students, and that beginners will not understand or take advantage of this exercise as much as an advanced student. We tend to disagree with that opinion, many good schools throughout the world practice this every day, however, if you are a beginner to our sport, do it slowly and carefully, bumping heads and getting accidently kicked in the face while doing this exercise with a clumsy person is a very distinct possibility. We advise you to do the drill under supervision.

The flow drill is usually divided into two categories, one were both opponents will roll, without any grips and will never try to go for submissions. The objective is to move, move plenty and move often. Just like “shadow boxing/Sparring” the opponents will not go “full on” contact, they will roll lightly and never stopping in one position, meaning that if you end up in closed guard (for example) you should immediately open it and work something else, even if you lose position. In fact, this is the objective, to lose position and interact with your partner. This will give you (with time) and excellent knowledge of timing and added agility, as well as being an excellent warm up/work out. Do it well, and 5 minutes will seem like 20 minutes of normal sparring. Another advice for anyone that wishes to give this a try is: never, ever do this exercise with your ego, this is not a sparring session. This is a workout between two team mates.

The other way of doing this Flow exercise is to do the same exercise, with the same dynamic, but this time you will add the grips and the submission movements. But again, do not insist on submissions, you may put them in place, but release immediately. Do not stop for one moment, the objective is to move (like the previous exercise), trying to use as much momentum as possible. Again, if you lose positions, there is no problem, this is not a roll it is an exercise, like drilling arm bars, but instead of working on perfect technique, we are trying to improve our muscle memory and our ability to scramble.