Cross-training jiu-jitsu has many benefits and more and more athletes are realizing it!
For those who don’t keep up with NFL, Adrian is an American football running back for the Minnesota Vikings. In his career he has quite a few landmarks and among them being the 6th fastest player to reach 8,000 rushing yards.
After some legal issues, Peterson was reinstated on February 26th. He struggled a bit in his year back but jiu-jitsu and boxing helped him immensely
According to ESPN, coaches suggested Peterson focus on jiu-jitsu and boxing.
“I talked to Adrian about it, and he said, ‘The biggest thing about the lack of ball security is, it’s a mental thing,'” said Gordon, the Heisman Trophy runner-up in 2014. “You can do a lot of drills, but you can still go out there and mess up if you’re not mentally focused on it. It’s [having that reminder of], ‘Someone’s there. Someone’s always there [trying to take it].'”
Peterson and Gordon took their turns fending off Cooper’s punches, and a few verbal jabs — “You might want to take off your little Mr. T. starter kit,” the trainer chirped to Gordon about the gold chain he was wearing before the drill. Then, the two running backs shifted to a mat, where Cooper set up a drill he’d adapted from Brazilian jujitsu. Both backs tumbled over a balance ball, landing on their feet or placing a hand on the ground to steady themselves before rising and regaining their stride with a football still tucked under one arm, in a move designed to improve balance and awareness while going to the ground. This time, Gordon handled the drill more gracefully, while Peterson tended to charge the balance ball rather than decelerate and roll over it, leading to several stumbles.
“This drill busts his butt every time,” Cooper said, “because he doesn’t run like this. He’s used to running a certain way, so this gets him out of it. That’s why this is so dynamic: It makes an old dog have to learn new tricks.”
