Working Through Your Training In Your Mind  

Replay the moments of your training to get better and supplement your training through visualization in BJJ.

You’ve made it to the woo-woo side of my blog where I like to talk about manifestation, visualization, and inspired action. In my opinion, your thoughts and mindset can be the biggest part of how you live your life and how you do things.  This is why visualization can be powerful in your BJJ journey.  This post aims to inspire you to approach your jiu-jitsu both physically and mentally and how using visualization can help you before your training sessions, after class to remember and help you perform techniques better, and also before competitions.   

  If you’ve ever read or seen The Secret, by Rhonda Byrne, there is a part that talks about visualization and how it can help bring the things you want to attract into your life.  I especially loved when the guy talked about picturing your hands in front of you and thinking about wrapping them around the wheel of that sports car you’ve been dreaming about. 

The reason why visualization helps bring the things you want into your life is because it puts you mentally there feeling the things you would feel as you do them. You don’t just think “oh, it would be nice to have a sports car.” You think about every detail that goes with having that sports car: you picture yourself physically walking into the dealership, smelling the new car scent as you test drive and ultimately purchase the car, how excited and accomplished you feel as soon as you drive it off the lot and then into your driveway. You feel all the feelings around owning that car which ultimately makes you feel good. Then by being energized by your thoughts, you take inspired action to get that sports car of your dreams be it saving up more, acting on that business idea that you’ve been thinking about or getting that push to talk to that person who connects you the person that leads you to a dream job that can help you afford that car.  

Many people make fun of this aspect of manifestation because they think you’re just feeling feelings and not putting in the work. I can’t stress enough that inspired action goes along with those great feelings. You won’t be a great basketball player just thinking about basketball and feeling how good it will feel to be in the NBA. You’re also putting in the work on the court, doing supplemental exercises to strengthen your muscles, and getting games in. So of course it’s a bit more than just in your mind. Which is why visualization can be great for BJJ . 

 I have mentioned before that sometimes going through the actions in your mind and running through scenarios for sports can help you when you actually do the sport. There have been studies done with sprinters who when thinking about their starts, running the race, and their finishes activated the same muscles and the same brain synapsis went off while they physically ran the race.  I remember having to do something similar in my swim and stroke mechanics camp. So there is something to be said about picturing the activity you want to do and physically doing it 

There are a few reasons why visualization can work for BJJ. Jiu-jitsu is a very physical sport but it is also very mental. They don’t call it body chess or human chess for nothing. With a combination of practice, viewing instructionals and your own videos, and drilling, visualization can also supplement your jiu-jitsu practice.  For example, let’s say you keep on getting smashed and mounted in side control. You can of course drill how to keep your frames and how to prevent your opponent from mounting you. You can look at an instructional and see some methods you can use to recover your guard from side control or reverse the position, and practice it live until you get it. Mentally, if you put yourself in that bottom-side control position, picture your opponent’s weight on you and how they would move to counter to you it can help you physically get there.  

    There are a couple of ways you can use visualization for BJJ. The first way is watching a video of a technique you’re trying to land and go through the motions physically and mentally without an opponent. You can close your eyes and do the technique as if your opponent is on top of you and go through each action.  The second way is to record your rolls and pay close attention to how you messed up or didn’t do exactly what you needed to do better. At your bjj gym, of course review what you did wrong. Ask the person who made you make the mistake what you did wrong, and then drill the right way. When you get home, close your eyes and put yourself back in those positions and visualize yourself doing the move the right way. Come back to the gym and utilize what you learned and visualized in future rolls so you can do better.  Lastly, you can go through a roll in your mind: visualize what ways you would start the roll, what take downs you would do, what sequences or paths you would take to ultimately get to the submission you want on your opponent. If you compete, you can think about how you want the competition to go for you and those great feelings you’ll feel when you win.  

I want to stress that you need to put the actual, physical work into the practice as well.  Visualization means nothing if you’re not applying the moves and the techniques to everything you’re thinking about. Additionally, be semi-realistic in the mental pathways you take as you visualize. For example, if you’re a smaller jiu-jitsu practitioner, you’re probably not going to be picking up and throwing people who are two or three times your size. Think about the pathways you would take based on your stature and apply that to your training.  

Visualization is very “meta” and if you’re someone who is not about this, then of course this article isn’t for you. But, sometimes having the mentality and the vision of what you want to achieve in your jiu-jitsu be it during your daily trainings or on your whole jiu-jitsu journey, visualization might be the thing you need to help you supplement your jiu-jitsu and be better than you ever imagined.  

Question: Do you believe in visualization? Have you used it in jiu-jitsu, other sports, or in life? Tell me in the comments and of course on my Instagram @blackgirlwhitegi_bjj