Base in Jiu-Jitsu

Base in Jiu-Jitsu

Base in Jiu-Jitsu. Here at Savarese BJJ Academy (www.northnjbjj.com), standing up in base is literally your first lesson. Whenever you are in standing position or top position it is generally demanded of you to keep a solid base of support that enables you to keep standing or top position as long as you desire it. Intuitively, it feels like the best way to keep a strong base of support is to WIDEN your base as much as possible. This would be true if you were alone and static – but in a match you aren’t – you are constantly moving in response to an opponent. As such width of base is only a part of the story. What you really want is a dynamic base. It will be your ability to maintain base through movement that makes you successful against a resisting opponent. It’s not so much the stationary width of of your base as your ability to step and post to a new base of support in response to second by second changes as the match unfolds. Very often this means taking a rather narrow initial stance so that you can pick up a foot easily and move it, rather than a heavy, exaggerated wide stance that makes it difficult to make a reactionary step in response to an opponents movement. Here, our student Daniela uses a good natural stance to easily pick up a foot and move to a new base of support in response to an opponent trying to off balance her in a recent class.