Sambo Jiujitsu Specific Pullup Training

I initially put this together for one of our guys, Jim Gillette, rock star and kick ass Gracie Jiujitsu athlete. Jim recently built a "home gym" that's nicer than most professional fighter training halls. He has installed an incredible monkey bar system, and asked if I could give him ideas for his Jiujitsu conditioning.

Most exercise programs focus on pushing. Wrestling programs tend toward this focus because of the forward pressure of top-game control. However, submission fighting involves a much slower and balanced game, demanding as much pulling strength as it does pushing.

For example, as opposed to submission fighting or mixed martial arts competition, working for the pin in folk-style, or collegiate, wrestling demands significantly more strength and endurance to force the opponent’s shoulder blades to the mat, as well as prevent him from escaping or reverse. This is due to the fact that a wrestler can “scramble” – use explosive strength with even little technique – without the danger of being exposed to submission holds or strikes.

In submission fighting or mixed martial arts, scrambling out from the bottom exposes you to dangerous and painful locks and openings for being hit. As a result, in sub-fighting and MMA, positional maintenance on top requires a lot less forward pressure, and more sensitivity.

Contrarily, when on the bottom, sub-fighting and MMA demand highly athletic pulling attributes, so that one can prevent the top fighter from creating openings for submissions or strikes, as well as for setting up his own attacks (such as from the guard.)

As a result, I incorporate many non-conventional use of our monkey bars at the RMAX Gym, some of which can be seen in the “Sonnon Day” videos on youtube.com.

Here are an example of a few of the techniques which I use for fighting-specific and strategy-specific (bottom-game sub-fighting) pulling athleticism.

• RMAX

Sambo Pull-ups