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Improve your Jiu-Jitsu by Rolling with Handicaps: 1 Arm, No Arms & Eyes Closed

Improve your Jiu-Jitsu by Rolling with Handicaps: 1 Arm, No Arms & Eyes Closed

Written By Guillaume (Gile) Huni, BJJ black belt and head instructor of Kimura Academy in Serbia.

The story goes that years back (in 1989), Roberto Correa, commonly known as Gordo, was forced to play half guard due to a injury to his knee that prevented him to use his leg to full extend for a long while. Half guard was the only position in which he could stop his opponents from passing his guard and it was due to Correa and his handicap that the half guard evolved. He revolutionized it by discovering the importance of the underhook, the back take being one of his favorite attacks from there.

Rolling with handicaps can mean anything from rolling with the eyes closed to rolling with one arm and one leg tied. I often have my students warm up using all three methods, and it has been very effective in improving their level.

Humans have a multitude of senses. Sight (ophthalmoception), hearing (audioception), taste (gustaoception), smell (olfacoception or olfacception), and touch (tactioception) are the five traditionally recognized senses. The ability to detect other stimuli beyond those governed by these most broadly recognized senses also exists, and these sensory modalities include temperature (thermoception), kinesthetic sense (proprioception), pain (nociception), balance (equilibrioception), vibration (mechanoreception), and various internal stimuli (e.g. the different chemoreceptors for detecting salt and carbon dioxide concentrations in the blood).

The human body and mind are made specifically to adapt to hardships. This means that whenever you remove one sense, let’s say sight for example, the rest of your senses take over.

I usually roll with handicaps when facing a white or blue belt student. It makes our roll much more interesting and evens out the level. I get to work on other parts of my game, while they get to work on theirs.

Let us further examine the benefits of rolling with handicaps:

-Rolling with one arm tied under your belt.

Especially useful for making you think that much more about grips and using your legs more. Only having one arm available, you will think very carefully on what grip to use and what grips to not use aswell as making sure you grip your opponent all the time. You start to use your legs much more.

Nursing a shoulder injury, Rener Gracie decided to tie down his right arm under his belt:

-Rolling with both arms tied under your belt. A very good exercise for guard retention. Having to only use your legs to retain guard will prove very difficult, but it will improve the use of your legs for guard retention.

Rener Gracie rolling with both arms tied under his belt, with a purple belt:

-Rolling with your eyes closed. It makes you feel your opponent better. By having to rely only on your senses, you will actually have to feel out your opponent’s body and how he is positioned in order to know where and how to move.

Rolling with your eyes closed makes you gain sensitivity, balance and timing. The important thing is ALWAYS be in in contact with your opponent, either a foot, a grip so as to feel the opponent’s movements.

Here you see a blindfolded Georges St Pierre rolling with Royce Gracie:

Stephan Kesting shares a drill to improve your BJJ even with an injured shoulder, wrist or elbow. He rolls with one arm tucked under his belt: