GRACIE: “I ONLY DRILL TO LEARN THE MECHANICS OF A MOVEMENT”

Roger Gracie recently took to social media stating he “doesn’t drill”, but has elaborated on that initial post via a user video on his membership website, Roger Gracie TV.  

Roger explains:

“I think it’s very important to drill a movement to learn the mechanics of it – of course it is. I drill to learn the mechanics, but I do not then drill that movement over and over again thousands of times. Jiu jitsu is different from something like judo where you can practice one throw thousands of times because there’s more physicality required to go with the mechanics.

“With jiu jitsu we must learn a movement against resistance. So, again, you drill the movement to learn the mechanics and then practice against resistance to make it work. That’s why I say I learn a lot in specific sparring because that’s where I get to test my movements in a live situation over and over again. A simple example would be a triangle escape; you learn the movement with some drilling to learn the mechanics, but if you want to learn how to really use the escape, you do specific sparring, with resistance, to escape the position. Until you practice a movement with resistance, you don’t know the movement.”