The power of escapes in BJJ

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The power of escapes in BJJ: When we think of powerful moves in Jiu-Jitsu, you typically picture a slamming takedown or a very tight submission hold, or perhaps an immovable pin or unstoppable pass. We don’t typically think of escapes as demonstration of power. But they are, in a different way. Those typical power moves, hard takedowns, tight submissions etc are all demonstrations of power over the opponents body. Escapes exert their power on an opponents mind. This is something I have been stressing in my teaching lately at Savarese BJJ Academy (njbjj.com). Imagine working hard to take an opponent down, pass his hard and get to your favorite finishing position and then have an opponent repeatedly escape. Worse still, every time he escapes he immediately counterattacks and almost catches you as you are forced to flee and start all over again. Hard work is tough, but repeated hard work with no forward progress and no prospect of it finishing is hard for the mind to handle. It breaks many people mentally. That’s exactly what unstoppable escapes do to an opponents mind in a match. If you can send a clear message to an opponent that he has no means of controlling and finishing you, the longer that match goes, the worse he will begin to feel inside. Every escape brings your confidence up and theirs down. In a long match where points are not a consideration this is a huge factor. There is no lonelier feeling than being fatigued and disheartened by repeated frustration of being close to victory but never able to secure in a match that goes until one of you quits and you now know you have no means of making the other guy quit because he can escape all your best positions without a problem. Gordon Ryan has proven this time and time again, which is one of the reasons he favors no time limits matches. Here, my friend Alan Teo and I demonstrate an escape from a headlock at an Adopt A Cop seminar. The power of Escapes is thus not over the body but over your mind and your opponents mind, now that is real power.

Principles versus techniques in BJJ

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Principles versus techniques in BJJ

Principles versus techniques in BJJ is probably something you heard your instructor speak of often. When it come to principles versus techniques in BJJ, here at Savarese BJJ Academy (www.njbjj.com), we are very big on the underlying principles of Jiu-Jitsu. This thought process was taught and drilled into me by my first BJJ instructors, The great David Adiv (gracienewjersey.com) and the Legend Royler Gracie. Once you learn the PRINCIPLES of Jiu-Jitsu, everything else becomes easier to learn. The principles of BJJ and indeed, all combat sports, are as fixed and permanent as the night sky. Because they are rooted in the unchanging strengths and weaknesses of the human body. The TECHNIQUES of Jiu-Jitsu on the other hand, change with the speed and fluidity of the waters of a river, as they are based upon the minds of men who forever seek competitive advantage over each other through insight, study and innovation. Accordingly, stay true to the basic principles at all times, they will give you sound direction with the reliability of a compass. But recognize that techniques must be in flux, with constant change and innovation in response to a changing landscape. Your foundation in Jiu-Jitsu is most important. Hopefully, your school has a clear path for you at whitebelt as to what needs to be learned as ours does. Like the great Rickson Gracie teaches, you you don’t have the proper foundation, the house will fall down, same with your Jiu-Jitsu. White belt is the most important belt, because everything you learn at that belt will guide you through your BJJ journey.

Art and the Martial Arts

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Art and the Martial Arts

Art and the Martial Arts…  Lets start with a sketch: When teaching here a Savarese BJJ Academy, (www.njbjj.com), I often keep in mind the analogy of the artistic painter. The painter begins with a sketch and then fills in all the details over time to arrive finally at a beautiful painting. So too, the martial artist must approach every skill that he or she learns in a similar fashion. It’s tempting to jump straight into details, after all, we are told so often it’s the details that make the difference. I believe it’s essential however, to begin with a general idea of the underlying purpose and context of the move first, and once this is clearly established, then move into details. Details without direction is just so much noise that won’t improve performance and can be confusing to new students. Start with what are you trying to accomplish and why this is a good thing and when you employ it. Then start with an overview of the move and finish with details. So like the painter, begin with a sketch and in time let the painting fill out the picture into a work of art that all who see it will admire. Here I chat with many of our students in a recent competition team training day, creating an outline that will give the practice session a sense of direction and purpose that they can build towards over the training time.

Setting up the choke in BJJ

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Setting up the choke in BJJ

Here are some key details for setting up the choke in BJJ. At Savarese BJJ Academy (www.njbjj.com), we teach this approach to finished a choke. A big part of our approach to finishing is to get at least 50% of the choke set before you even connect your hands/arms to finish. Whenever you go to employ a rear naked choke without the gi, your two arms work in unison. One is the actual choke armthat encircles your opponent’s neck. The other is a support arm which solidifies and supports the strangle arm usually via figure four grip or palm to palm grip. Our contention is that your opponent should already be feeling the effects of the choke from just the one choke arm encircling the neck. Quite often, the one handed choke proves to be enough by itself and there is no need to lock hands/arms,  we just finish one handed where the elbow goes behind the head. At championship level however, it is usually necessary to bring the support arm into play to create stronger pressure. Make sure that before you do, there is sufficient initial pressure from the choke arm that the addition of the support arm finishes the choke rather than initiates it. Failure to set the choke hand properly is rarely atoned for by the addition of the support arm. Develop the skill of sinking the choke arm first and then applying the support hand as a means of finishing a job already started by the choke arm rather than as the cause of the choke. Here you can see 2 example of chokes in high level MMA fights under pressure of being choked before they have even released the other hand. Finishing from here will be easy. There are other approaches to rear chokes (choking over the lower jaw, face or nose for example), but this is always the preferred method.

How to learn watching BJJ videos

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How to learn watching BJJ videos

How to learn watching BJJ videos is an age old question. Here is my opinion on learning from videos. Often I am asked what is the best way to watch and learn from watching BJJ instructional videos. Instructional videos have been around from the earliest days of the arrival of Jiu-Jitsu in the US. They all followed a similar pattern. They were a collection of an outstanding athletes favorite moves, usually within a given general topic domain, say, guard passing. Despite being present for decades, they had only a sporadic effect on the development of most students. It was like a kind of “flavor of the month†effect where a popular current move was offered in an introductory and rather random fashion and you tried to copy it as best you could. The newer models of instructional videos are much better and have completely split away from the traditional model and instead, capture what is doubtless one of the major themes of the person’s teaching. The new models follow a deep and complete exploration of a few techniques that will garner far greater results for a student than a bunch of random techniques, especially John Danaher’s videos. They are taught in terms where one particular technique is taught within a framework of supporting skills that massively increase the chance of the technique working against a skilled opponent with resistance.  Today’s videos are radically different from the norm of the first days of BJJ. Instead of being a forty five minute sampling of moves they were up to ten hours of highly detailed analysis of every skill required to get a few winning moves to work against the best athletes in the world. The idea was to move away from sampling videos and offer genuine coaching videos that could have a real impact not only on your game, but even how you THINK about your Jiu-Jitsu. Because the videos are so different in format and style, here at Savarese BJJ (www.njbjj.com) we recommend watching them differently. Watch them sections at a time. Only the most zealous students can watch for hours and stay focused. I generally recommend watching a section or two and trying to work those lessons into your next session on the mats. Use it as you would a series of private lessons that you can repeat at will over months and years to get to the level you want. Just as you never learn by reading a book, but only by RE-READING IT, so too with these videos. Use them as a reference guide that you can access 24/7 in small or large doses to get an insight here or there as you progress over time. Many schools, including ours, if they are successful have online training programs as well. We use a private Facebook group to watch and study from. It’s an incredible resource that is so underused. Bear in mind that we may learn a staggering amount of information over the years in Jiu-Jitsu. BUT ALMOST AS STAGGERING AS HOW MUCH WE LEARN IS HOW MUCH WE FORGET! The videos can remind you constantly of the many details and concepts that are so easy to pass over until the magic of time and repetition makes them permanent and the knowledge becomes fixed inside of you. Only then is the work done. I hope this blog can help you get closer to your goals! See you on the mat.

Starting strong in BJJ

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Starting strong in BJJ

Starting strong in BJJ is essential to dictating pace. Start strong to finish strong! In any session of Jiu-Jitsu, whether in the gym or on the big stage, there are constant cycles of contact. Fighters or competitors will engage with each other, make physical contact and exchange various moves and tactics. In the vast majority of cases, neither person will be able to get a decisive finish and they will eventually break contact and then the whole cycle will begin all over again, with contact, exchange and breaking contact. These cycles continue until either a decisive finish is achieved or time runs out. It is important to understand that this cycle always begins with contact Grip fighting and tactical positioning are keys here. You must enter and make contact in a way that confers the advantage for yourself and negates any attempt by your opponent to do the same. This is soooo important. Don’t be naive and just walk forward into an ambush of grips, tactics and moves. The battle begins before you even grip up with your opponent. Your stance, motion and tactical positioning must correlate with what you want to. Then you must fight for grips, first denying the grips your opponents wants to gain of you and then assert the grips you want on them. Always be dictating the pace of the fight/match. Whoever will the battle of dictating the pace of the fight or match will have the advantage. Look as Coach Ariana Zeppetelli approaches her opponent from top position how carefully she positions his feet and how she denies his opponent a working grip with her legs whilst holding a stance that maximize his options and minimizes those of his opponent. Start the battle early and the victories will come easier. Start late and the defeats will come quicker and harder.

Two women are practicing jiu jitsu on a blue floor.

Starting strong in BJJ

What is your best skill in BJJ?

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What is your best skill in BJJ?

What is your best skill in BJJ? Yesterday we looked at the problem of lagging skills in our game. Today we shall look at our strong points. What is your best skill on the mat? Is it a positional move? Like a guard pass or sweep? Or is it a submission move, like for example the Americana lock, aka keylock? How did it become your best skill? Was it a natural result of your body type? Your personality? Perhaps some technical insights from a professor, coach, a mentor or self experimentation? We are all proud of our best skills, they give us confidence and direction on the mat. When we go against a tough opponent, we naturally gravitate towards our best moves and when things get tough, we work in the hope that we can bring our best and biggest guns to bear. Now ask yourself three sets of questions. However happy you might be with your favorite skills. First, do you really maximize your potential success with that particular move? Or, can you do more with it? Second, do you use that skill or move as a lead into other moves and skills to broaden your skillset or “toolbox”? And third, what did you experience learning and developing this favorite move of yours teach you about learning in Jiu-Jitsu? Could you use this knowledge to help you learn other moves and further your progress far beyond it’s current state? What about learning things the same way off the mats? It’s natural (and healthy) to feel a sense of pride and contentment about your best moves. Keep working hard to make forward progress and learn to use past learning success, not as a place to rest and be happy, but as a springboard to further progress and development that will elevate you far above the level that you are currently at.

What is your worst skill in BJJ?

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What is your worst skill in BJJ?

What is your worst skill in BJJ? Every BJJ practitioner, you, me, everybody, has a worst skill. For some, it starts with their attitude and willingness to listen. And for others, it is some part of the game that lags far behind their other skills. We all carry it around as a burden and hope it does not show up in sparring or competition. A great project for all Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu students is to identify the worst element of your game. It can be a move, say for example, the triangle choke, a problem for many heavier people when they start training. In addition, it can be a position, say, left side bottom half guard. Whatever it is, identify it. Then study it. Ask your instructor about it. Furthermore, study great athletes who have a reputation for excellence in that area. Then set a very manageable goal. For three weeks, start every sparring session in that position or move and spend as as much time as possible working on that specific area. Initially you will feel awful. Don’t get dispirited. Understand this, in all learning activities, the greatest jump in skill level occur early in the training and decrease over time. We preach this at Savarese BJJ Academy (www.bjjlyndhurst.com). I promise you that after a rough start, you will make astounding progress in that area in a relatively short time. Will you be a world beater? No, but you will be considerably better and put yourself in a position to improve over time. Most importantly, you will no longer see that specific area as a weakness in your game. In addition, you will see it as a growth area with potential to improve in the future. Once you see it in that light, then you can move forward with that move/position as part of your overall progress, rather than make progress in some areas and just leave that one behind and hope it never gets exposed.

A tip for getting better at BJJ

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A tip for getting better at BJJ

Here is A tip for getting better at BJJ. Handicapping yourself to make yourself better: One of the most valuable methods of improving your skills is to handicap yourself in same way that forces you to adjust in some way that encourages skill development in other critical areas. I usually find that most beginning students are hand and dominant in almost every aspect of the game. This is a natural consequence of the fact that most tasks we perform in everyday life are predominantly performed with hands and arms. However this usual hand/arm bias is not acceptable in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Trying to perform the moves of BJJ with hands and arms quickly leads to fatigue and failure. The source of all power and endurance in human beings is in the legs and hips. They are the strongest parts of your body. Only when you become leg and hip dominant in the performance of Jiu-Jitsu moves will you excel. For instance, in the case of heel hooking, a simple test for us as  teachers here at Savarese BJJ Academy (northnjbjj.com) as to whether or not a student is performing the move predominantly with legs and hips is to make him or her perform the heel hook with only one hand. This immediately forces the student to properly apply legs and hips in the move. Furthermore, they cannot compensate for failures in hip and leg work with their hand strength. When you can easily submit an opponent with a single handed heel hook, breaking an opponent with two hands is easy work. There are MANY ways to use this simple training principle in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Use it often. It will teach you a lot about how the other parts of your body are involved in any given move. When you remove the handicap and come after your opponent with full force, they will feel the jump in performance you have made.

All about the grips in BJJ

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All about the grips in BJJ

It’s All about the grips in BJJ. Especially shutting down grips. This is something we preach here at Savarese BJJ Academy (www.njbjj.com). Shutting down grips: Every attack an opponent can every do to you in grappling starts with a grip of some kind. If you can control his ability to grip you then you can nullify most of the danger he presents to you. You don’t want to take this line of thinking too far and become an overly defensive gripper. Make sure you negate the opponent’s grip and then immediately go into your attacks so that you maintain a good spirit of offense in your game at all times. Nonetheless it’s important that you be able to stop an opponent getting to their favorite grips, because once he can impose them things can go quickly from bad to worse. If you can stop his hands – you’ll stop everything that follows.