There’s a possibility that you’ve already spent a few weeks in a self-imposed quarantine, isolated and being away from your BJJ academy; away from Jiu Jitsu classes. How much longer will this last for? There’s no definite answer… But that doesn’t mean that you should just lay down and do nothing!

There are so many BJJ-related things that you can do while stuck in this quarantine. That you should do; so that, when your academy re-opens, you can just pick up where you left off – or be a couple of steps in front:

Stuck In Quarantine? Here Are 5 BJJ Things You Can Do To Stay Motivated

The Power of Visualization

You can look at a lot of BJJ matches on Youtube or find BJJ instructionals and take notes and then close your eyes and visualize yourself performing them in class or in a competition setting.
Doing this regularly will make your Jiu Jitsu a lot better than before once you hit the mats.

Dr. Michael Gervais, a sports psychologist who prefers the term “imagery” to “visualization,” to keep the focus on all five senses rather than just sight.

The idea of visualization is not to try to predict the future but to prepare your mind for the trial that’s coming and anything that can be thrown into the mix. For a grappler this means even visualizing everything from stepping onto the tatami upto the tiniest details.

Gervais advocates that this type of preparation is not to be underestimated – mental preparation is crucial even and especially for those who are on very top of their game.

Gervais said that it is necessary to practice imagery on a regular basis well in advance of game day (or the day you give your presentation), because otherwise it’s a “hack” and won’t be as effective.

Here’s how he best explained it:

“The objective is to create such a lifelike experience that your body believes that it could be real,” he said. It’s a full sensory experience. “So there’s a switching on or an animation that happens within you when you create an image that is crisp and has colour, and sound, and smell, and taste.”

“Mindfulness is about insight and wisdom. The aim of imagery is enhanced performance.”

This guy trained BJJ in his head for 8 months of quarantine lockdown.

“No gym, no training partner, and no submission dummy when the pandemic came and shut everything down. I was determined to still train BJJ and an idea came across my mind, what if a concept called “visualization” that’s been highly touted to be an amazing method that is used by highly successful people across many range of fields can be a benefit to my continue my training. I took it upon myself as a white belt in the art to test to see if visualization can be a potential and here is what I have achieved and learned so far.”