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Step 1
Improve your cardiovascular endurance and, maybe more importantly, your flexibility, since these two things allow you to do Brazilian jiujitsu longer and better. Flexibility in the hip flexors, hamstrings and glutes is perhaps the most important part of improving your body in order to improve jiujitsu skills. When it comes to endurance, sprinting or even weightlifting intervals are the ways to go.
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Step 2
Pick three takedowns, three chokes, three joint-locks and three blocks for each of these moves for you to master. Spend a few weeks going through the most classic of the Brazilian jiujitsu moves, such as the triangle choke, the arm bar, the leg shoot and basic blocks from the guard and the mount. Find a Brazilian jiujitsu expert or veteran who can watch you do these moves to make sure your technique is on.
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Step 3
Get your grip together by practicing towel pullups, rope climbs and doing a lot of your jiujitsu work with the gi (the traditional uniform). The grip work might seem superfluous, but having strength in your fingertips will make all of your other skills much more effective when it comes to fight time.
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Step 4
Start doing one- or two-minute fights with sparring partners. Whether you win or lose the majority of these fights, increase the length of the fights by a few seconds each week in order to ramp up your training and challenge your fighting skills.
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Step 5
Attend tournaments and competitions that focus on technical Brazilian jiujitsu. If you feel like you've advanced far enough, enter the competition. Either way, just being there and watching how real fights go down will have a positive impact on your Brazilian jiujitsu skill set.
