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so we got a question from Matt who
recently decided to take on the journey
of jiu-jitsu he's ready to hit the mats
and get going the only issue is that
there are no mats to get going on so
there is no gym in his area nearby for
him to train at and so he's wondering
how do you start training jiu-jitsu or
what do you do if you want to train
Jitsu and there isn't a gym nearby and
I've gotten this question recently a
bunch from Instagram YouTube and from
several people that are interested in
training but there's no gym so I
definitely wanted to touch on this one
now I'll say this I've never actually
been in a situation where I didn't have
a gym nearby my first gym was kind of
far it was about an hour out like one
way so I Drive an hour one way and drive
an hour back
but I recently did a one-on-one sort of
a private lesson through Skype where I
was working with a guy who's in a
situation where he's kind of in a remote
location and he's not able to train
regularly with the coach and so I did
some information with him sure talk to
him about it
and we went through some information he
found it useful so I'm gonna share with
you guys the guts of it and hopefully
this is helpful to you Matt and anyone
else in the situation so first things
first set up a location set up a sacred
space for your training and you can call
dedicated space if you will but
basically think about the effect of
physical locations on the way that you
feel and the way that your body reacts
right so like when you go maybe if you
ever had a job that you haven't liked
right I had several I didn't like and
just seeing the building or walking into
the building would put me in a foul mood
or it would make my body tenser it would
make me uncomfortable right or think
about what happens when you go to a
restaurant I know for me if I'm really
hungry as soon as I walk in the
restaurant I'm instantly even more
hungry because I'm starting to think
about food and I know it's coming soon
and I get in that mindset I remember
Eddie to eat and you can think about
what happens when you get done with a
long day after work and you go home and
typically homes are set up for luxury or
comfort and you go home and your first
thing you want to do is plop on the
couch and relax and so if you have a
home gym set up and you don't have some
dedicated space to it to kind of put you
in the mindset of training like when
people walk through the gym doors here
they're not in a mindset of wanting to
relax they're in a mindset of hey we're
here to learn we're here to Train we're
here to push ourselves you want to have
some dedicated space in your home
for that right so for instance I know
one of my guys has the spare bedroom
it's a matte room another guy has a
garage that's been set up as a matte
room you know for me I don't need a
matte room I've got one behind me but I
have some space in my home that's
dedicated to reading I've got a writing
desk and I've also got a little section
of my living room that's dedicated to
like yoga so I got yoga mats laying down
and as soon as I walk into that space
that's all it's there for I'm there to
do that so you know simply just making a
small step once my feet feel the yoga
mat under me I'm here to stretch I'm
here to breathe and kind of get into
that sort of routine and so I would say
start by getting some sort of dedicated
space for yourself in your home wherever
it might be wherever you can wherever
your significant other allows to put
that stuff in now after that you'll need
to recruit some friends after you get
your buddies then here's where the
training starts seek out a gym that's
somewhere nearby right I mean this could
be three hours or whatever it might be
away but find a gym that's going to be
within a drivable distance and talk to
the coach and let them know the
situation and then what you want to do
is go to that gym from time to time you
know routinely on a regular basis and
train with them because there really is
no substitute for having a set of
experienced eyes and a body to work with
you I started you Jitsu off in my
basement training from like video tapes
and stuff like that and I did this for
months
and then when I actually started trained
Jitsu a really short time in the actual
gym itself with a coach completely like
ran over top of everything and I learned
previously like I was making lots of
mistakes and I was just so much more
productive when I was having guidance
from a coach now again it's not feasible
for you to be there all the time
but you could go train with them get
some information come back and work with
it with your buddies and you guys could
build it up together you can think about
the Gracie's this kind of happened with
him right back in the day as the as the
legend goes the Japanese judoka would
come in they would teach some stuff the
Gracie's would take it the Japanese judo
would leave and then they would just
kind of work with what they had and this
you know process repeated even me like
my coach Shawn Don Nashville I used to
go down to his gym about every like
every other Thursday for a long period
of time because I was trying to teach
myself as a brown belt and again that's
tough to do I didn't really know what I
was doing yet and so I would go down
there and trim
I would get ideas for his classes and
the techniques that he was showing and I
would taking these ideas and this
training I would come back and usually
on the Thursday I would do two sessions
down in Nashville and I would come up to
Louisville immediately after and I would
take it and show it to my guys and we
would do the same stuff and I would sort
of reteach it to help me learn it better
and I would share with my guys to make
them better and so kind of the same idea
go to another gym learn from a coach
bring it back with your buddies and then
work on it some more now in the interim
between those periods you may consider
doing some video series or instructional
type video series that you can automate
your training with and the big key with
this is that if you use a video series
right stick to it for a while don't just
give up one of you know because a lot of
times there's so much information it can
be easy to hop around let's say for
instance you you purchase one of mine
right my half guard series let's say as
an example take the half guard series
and then stick with it for like a month
right so drill the techniques work on
the techniques teach the techniques to
your friends and have them work with
them work them with you and then do
situational roles to help drive the
positions home to give you a chance to
use them and then hang on to those
positions and those techniques for a
month and continue to work on them
because remember in jiu-jitsu were not
in the business of just simply knowing
the techniques we're in the business of
wiring them into the nervous system so
that we can use them under stressful
conditions those are two different
things I know people that know lots of
techniques but they can't use them right
to me I'm very functional with it I
don't care about knowing everything I'm
really worried about what kyu's what can
I use when hits the fan and that's
really what you want to start with is
giving yourself a strong base so hang on
to the information and then kind of
repeat the process so I think that kind
of that's the guts of it right so create
a dedicated space for your your mats and
your gym and your home gym from there
go find a coach periodically work with
them get some guidance from them as well
instructional videos and video series to
augment your training and then find some
buddies to train with and I think that
would be a basic start you know as far
as getting a gym set up and you can look
at this as an opportunity rather than a
hindrance guys like Maia coach Shawn
they were learning back in the day from
fax machines literally he said that at
their old gym they would get a fax sent
in right so just a complete
that would be sent to them and they
would take it and look at it and then
they would try to have they would have
to teach whatever was in the fax you
know hopefully they explained it well
but again that we're a far cry from
there but again you can look at it as an
opportunity where you can be a
trailblazer in your area where you can
bring jiu-jitsu into that area but again
you will want some help from more
experienced and knowledgeable people so
anyway Matt hope this helps and guys
anyone in that situation I hope this
video is helpful to you and guys I'll
talk to you next time
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