Flow Drills are minimal resistance, (minimal tension required to maintain the structure of the position), drills that tend to loop techniques together.

This allows both students to work on the sequencing and timing required for effective Jiu Jitsu. The aim should be to start rough and focus on developing smoothness in the transitions.

On our Stripe Checklist we delineate levels of skill as

• 1 No Clue - Don't know

• 2 Can, on some basic level, demonstrate with partner

• 3 Can perform in live sparring - Consciously & On Purpose

It is almost impossible to see a technique once or twice and then just pull it off in live training. You need to learn to work through the basic transitions and pick up a little more detail with each repetition.

Resistance is slowly added in. As you develop smoother technique - you can start to add a little more resistance. The goal though is smoother technique, not maximal resistance.

Resistance is tempo, timing, structure, and much more often than not, just learning when to yield and move on to a different move. Resistance isn’t Crossfit. It is smarter, not more aggressive. It definitely isn’t “meaner”. Whatever that is.

Jiu Jitsu is about letting the other guy make the mistakes. You just capitalize on them. We use movement to give them that chance. Flow drills help you learn good movement paths and options.

Once you have a good handle on how the flow drills FEEL, you can explore techniques that branch off the base flow. This will make it much more likely for you to see the options in live training and move you solidly into level 3 territory

Can perform in live sparring - Consciously & On Purpose

Please note: That is much different than memorize the technique, then go crazy in training.

It is practicing all of the movements, options, and pressure. And getting smooth with that. THEN looking for those options in training. The smoother you get in practice, the smoother you will be in training.

Here are some basic flow drills we wil use in learning to pass the guard.