Best all around method of passing guard in BJJ


Best all around method of passing guard in BJJ

The best all around method of passing guard is passing from half guard in BJJ. I have been using this style for over 15 years. There are many effective ways to pass an opponents guard, but to me, the single best all round method will always be to pass from half guard. Why? Because the vast majority of guard passes end with head control as their final step. This creates a critical weakness within them. The need to transition from control of the hips/torso to the head. Making that transition, – the head shift – always presents a window of opportunity for a talented opponent to escape back to guard as you attempt to make that final transition. The beauty of half guard passing is that unlike other passing methods, you can control the head BEFORE you pass. This removes the vulnerable head shift from the process and makes for total control from beginning to end with no real weak points. Of course you need to know other methods, but make sure you put a heavy emphasis on developing your half guard passing game, no other method is so tactically sound. Savarese BJJ (www.njbjj.com) really emphasizes this style of passing early in our curriculum.

You must relax during BJJ


You must relax during BJJ

You must relax during BJJ. When you start your journey in BJJ, you will hear your instructors tell you “relax” or “loosen up” quite often. 2 of the biggest learning secrets are Relaxation and Tension. One of the toughest things to learn on your Jiu-Jitsu journey is the side by side position of relaxation and tension as you perform Jiu-Jitsu. Relaxation is important for endurance and being smooth and efficient in your movement. If you are overly tense or tight, you can’t move well and you’ll fatigue very quickly. On the other hand, isometric tension is important to immobilize your opponent in in side control, smash passing and submission holds. If you’re too relaxed while applying these pins and submissions, an opponent can and will simply shrug you off and escape. In addition, you must learn to navigate between the demands for relaxation and tension to be effective. Hang loose 😉 One without the other will lead you to failure. When sparring, keep a good sense of when you need to relax and when you need to tighten up. Use tension only in short bursts when either extreme defensive or offensive demand compels you. And the moment it’s over, go back to relaxation. If you enjoyed this article, always check back in the news section of www.njbjj.com for more BJJ tips.

Have a game plan for your BJJ training


Have a game plan for your BJJ training

Always have a game plan for your BJJ training. You must have a purpose: The single most important thing you carry into your daily workout is not your skill, your knowledge or your desire or most of the things mentioned in this regard, it’s a sense of purpose that is needed most. Either you know yourself if you are an advanced student or listen and follow your instructor plan and curriculum, especially if your school has a history of success and the upperbelts in the training room are good. Know what you want to work on and achieve in every session and you will soon find that progress becomes the norm rather than the exception. Time spent just rolling around sparring is fun and it’s fine to do that periodically or on light days, but it does very little to make you better than you were before you walk in the training room. Drilling has a better effect. Going in to a workout knowing what you are trying to achieve and having a simple game plan for it makes a HUGE difference. Working on a particular weakness in your game is a great example of this. When the workout is over, you will have a sense of improvement and a sense of what you you need to do tomorrow. If you continue such workouts over time, you can achieve things that once seemed impossible and you will see a clear difference in your BJJ game.

Recovering energy in BJJ


Recovering energy in BJJ

Recovering energy in BJJ can be an important facet in eventually getting a submission. How do we get this done? With what one of my instructors used to call active rest. Jiu-Jitsu, like any martial art or combat sport, can be an exhausting experience. Sometimes, prolonged periods of exertion, especially when trying complete takedowns, guard passes, or guard retention versus relentless opponents, can leave you very tired. But, you can’t stop when tired. What you can do is take active rests that can recharge your batteries and get you ready for a next push forward towards victory. Whenever you capture a strong position after a prolonged struggle and you feel you are fatigued to the point where performance will be severely compromised, take a short rest in that position and control your breathing. In addition, use the position to collect yourself and understand that the onus is on your opponent to do something to get out, not you. For a period long enough to physically recover, let your opponent do the work and focus on physical recovery. Now, obviously you don’t want to simply go limp and have the opponent escape and undo all your hard work. Do the minimum physical expenditure to hold the position and keep the opponent honest by making some kind of minimal threat, like in the case of rear mount, threaten a choke. That takes little energy, but can’t be ignored by an opponent. When you feel you have recovered sufficiently, go back on the attack. I believe you will be pleasantly surprised by how just a little time at lower energy expenditure can enable you to recover and get back to your offense. What people call a great gas tank in Jiu-Jitsu is mostly the ability to vary your intensity levels so you can try to gain better positions through short bursts. Then you can actively rest in the better position. That will enable you to have the energy to finish your opponent.

 

BJJ Takedowns for Self Defense


As far as BJJ Takedowns for self defense go, he are my thoughts on their magnitude. The common sentiment you will hear in BJJ circles is that one of the chief virtues of takedowns for self defense training is that a hard powerful takedown on concrete is a fight ender, In addition, it means you don’t even need to go the ground. There is definitely some truth to this. I have personally seen some fights ended immediately by a hard Judo or Wrestling slam into the ground. The old cliché is that a boxer can only hit with the weight of his hands, but a grappler (with high amplitude takedowns) can hit with the weight of the earth. My experience was that there were mixed results with big slams in street fights. For every time I saw someone incapacitated by a heavy slam, I saw many others get right back and immediately resume fighting. Also, I have seen situations where a hard throw was performed and the person thrown tightly grabbed the person throwing in panic and both participants went hard into the cement with the thrower getting hurt as badly as the person thrown. The truth is, the harder the throw, the more difficult it is to control the landing for both of you. Futhermore, hard throws on cement can be something of a double edge sword. If you are going to throw someone hard and use takedowns as a weapon in itself rather than as merely a means to take someone to the ground, then you will want to use techniques that out your opponent into a hard fall, not both of you. This means you generally ought to favor throwing techniques where you keep both feet on the floor and can retain balance after the throw (for example, a Tai otoshi Judo throw rather than say, uchi mata) Interestingly in the sport of sambo, they award the highest score to takedowns that do exactly this, throw someone with amplitude but where you remain standing over them. You don’t see it too often in competition as it’s difficult to achieve, but it does happen and is a good reflection of the self defense ideal for takedowns. Be realistic however, understand that a hard throw certainly can end a fight immediately, but is not guaranteed. As I said earlier, I’ve seen plenty of people get slammed hard and come right back up swinging. So finally, be ready to follow up appropriately based on the circumstances.

Guard passing angles in BJJ


Guard passing angles in BJJ

It is very important while passing someone’s guard that you make proper guard passing angles in BJJ. While you might want to stand there because you think you can see better, do not stand directly in front of dangerous opponents. Standing or sitting. The human body is set up to be at its strongest both offensively and defensively against opponents positioned directly in front of it. A good boxer can/should be scared of standing in range directly in front of a dangerous puncher, and wisely always seeks to stay either out of range or angles off to a side whenever possible. In addition, a good Jiu-Jitsu practitioner should be wary of staying directly in front of a dangerous guard and should use distance and find proper angles to gain initial safety and advantage when approaching. As soon as you establish contact, look to create those angles and do as much of your work as possible with the benefit of angle instead of working working directly in front of a skilled guard player because many are very good at using their legs (when you are in between them) to do damage. Here at Savarese BJJ (www.njbjj.com) we teach a 4 limbs theory of keeping people inside our legs to attack.

The secret to guard passing in BJJ


The secret to guard passing in BJJ

BJJ practitioners are always looking for the secret to guard passing in BJJ. As far as guard passing, here are two directions for your game, There are a vast number of ways to pass an opponents guard, but at the end of the day they can be divided into two camps. The first are those passes that focus upon using your mobility to gain a tactical advantage over your opponents legs. The second are those that focus upon rendering your opponents feet and hips and getting passed their immobilized hips. So one is concerned with using your mobility to pass, the other is concerned with restricting the opponents mobility. Toreando (bullfighting) passes are a good example of using your mobility advantage (you are on your feet, opponent is on his back so you should be able to move much faster and more freely than him). Body lock passes (known as KP pass at Savarese BJJ (www.njbjj.com) after UFC Kurt Pellegrino, one of the first people in the US using these passes) would be a good example of passes that shut down your opponents hips and feet and prevent him following your movement as you pass. It’s natural that you should favor one type over the other, but make sure you have at least one of these passes in your “toolbox” (and preferably a few more than that) so that you can play both games to throw off difficult opponents.

Thinking of your next move in BJJ


Thinking of your next move in BJJ

One should always be looking ahead and thinking of your next move in BJJ. The ability to slow down and think will help you plot your next move and start to put together moves in combinations. One of the great things about martial arts that focus on grappling is they often offer you good opportunities to slow things down and to think about your next move. In striking martial arts there is usually a much higher pace and very little time to think once you get within striking range. Furthermore, in Jiu-Jitsu, all the dominant pin positions- rear mount, mount, side and north/south, along with top turtle position, half guard top and bottom and closed guard- enable you to take a breather and consider your next line of attack. Learn to use these positions as more than physical advantage, but also as a means to gain TACTICAL ADVANTAGE through the use of thinking ahead to a next move. Here, our Savarese BJJ (www.njbjj.com) student Cait has worked herself to top turtle position – a good one for taking some time to consider the next options.

Two girls are practicing jiu jitsu on a blue floor.

Your next move in BJJ

Breaking down your opponent in BJJ


Breaking down your opponent in BJJ

Breaking down your opponent in BJJ is one of the “little things” that makes a big difference. If you can break an opponent down or make them stumble, whichever move you choose to perform next will be easy. There are many truly valuable combat skills, but the ability to make your opponent get broken down or stumble at will, which may not seem very useful on the surface but is in fact, arguably among the most useful of them all. In addition, it makes possible to execute so many of the other more well known and glamorous skills. If you can do this it will be much easier to perform the subsequent moves that you use to score points in competition or finish your opponent with. You must develop this ability to the greatest degree possible. It is particularly important when you are grappling in standing position and in situations where you are seated in open guard and your opponent is standing in front of you (though it is important in other common scenarios also). The ability to make your opponent stumble both forward and backwards, as resistance to one direction will set up attacks in the other. Furthermore, you will need to develop good dexterity in your feet as you will be using your feet and legs like hands and arms to reach out and grab and push and pull. If you can make your opponent stumble, you make them defenseless for a quarter of a second, and in BJJ or MMA, quarter of a second can be an awfully long time and make the difference. So work hard on this skill, it will make many of your other skills much easier to apply.

Tying sweeps and submissions together in BJJ


Tying sweeps and submissions together in BJJ

A very important part during your rise up the ranks in Jiu-Jitsu is tying sweeps and submissions together in BJJ. Sweeps AND submissions! Very often, there is a natural tendency to divide our attacks from open guard into sweeps and submissions and to see them as as an either/or option. You either sweep the opponent or you submit him. In fact, I often say at the lower ranks, you normally fall into 1 of 2 categories. You either have good sweeps from your guard and have trouble submitting people. Or you have good submission from your guard but your sweeps game lacks. There is nothing wrong with that, but you will get much better results when you understand that they operate best when used in unison. Every time you attack with a sweep, your opponent will be forced to base out with his limbs to prevent it. This will immediately created extended limbs. And extended limbs are limbs that you can attack and used for submissions. The more you can get an opponent extended and out of balance, the easier it will be to submit him/her. Don’t see sweeps as an alternative choice to submissions, or vise versa,  see them as an attack about to come. Futhermore, watch your submission percentages increase overnight. Here, the great Kron Gracie launches an opponent into some serious air time w a sweep into an armbar at the BJJ World Championships. A sweep attack as powerful as this will either result in sweep points or at the very least, an extended and off balanced opponent who can easily be attacked via submission. If you like this article, make sure you are checking the news section of www.njbjj.com for more articles like this or BJJ tips to improve your game.

Two people are wrestling on a blue and yellow mat.

Tying sweeps and submission together in BJJ