Don’t give your back in BJJ!

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Don’t give your back in BJJ!

Don’t give your back in BJJ! It’s also better to have the floor on your back than an opponent on your back. We are big on this at Savarese BJJ (www.njbjj.com). The worst situation in a grappling match is to have an opponent on your back. From there he has many of the most high percentage submissions in the sport available to use join you whilst you have only a few very low percentage submissions to fire back with. He has a powerful and robust position that is very difficult to escape from when well applied. Thus we must do our best to avoid back exposure as much as possible. When it does happen that your back is exposed to a dangerous opponent, the safest general strategy it to get your upper back to the floor. The logic is simple, if the FLOOR is on your back, then there won’t be space for an opponent to be on your back. Accordingly most of the back escapes of Jiu Jitsu favor the strategy of upper back to the floor – this is the one that minimizes back exposure to an opponent. There are other strategies. You can stand up, threaten kimura etc etc and these can definitely work, but they do result in a degree of back exposure such that if they DON’T work, they can get you in deep trouble. So when you feel the danger of back exposure – try getting your upper back to the floor as a first

Controlling the head in BJJ

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Controlling the head in BJJ

When it comes to controlling the head in BJJ, the theory goes “He who controls the head, controls the body”. The human body is essentially a skull connected to a spine and everything else hangs off that. As such, if you control the head, you control the movement of the rest of the body. Now when someone puts on a gi, that lapel is functions like a noose around the neck and head, so if you control THAT, then you control the head. So one of the best skills you can develop are good lapel/collar grips. From open guard, these collar grips, in particular the cross collar grip, are your single best means of getting quick and powerful control of the head in ways that make a real difference to your effectiveness on the mat. Learning to attain, maintain and exploit the great value of this grip is a huge part of your open guard journey. Use it whenever you can to enter and control open guard. here at Savarese BJJ Academy (www.njbjj.com), many of our students love this option.

Jiu-Jitsu passing the guard theory

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Jiu-Jitsu passing the guard theory

A Jiu-Jitsu passing the guard theory is to separate the knee and elbow. Just like we teach when passing to connect your elbow and knee many times, we have to separate that connection while passing. When you can separate knee and elbow you can pass and pin. One of the main difficulties associated with passing the guard of a trained opponent is separating his knee and elbow on the side towards which you are passing. As long as your opponent keeps his knee and elbow framed together you will not have the space required to establish chest to chest contact and though you may have passed his legs and his hips, you have not passed his guard. Learn to understand the need to separate knee and elbow as part of the guard passing process and you will have a lot more success getting to your pins and guard passes. Don’t be satisfied with the superficial action of getting past the legs and hips, this has little effect on a skilled opponent. Even as you are doing that, start plotting how you lever apart his knee and elbow so that you can actually profit from passing the legs/hips and get your score. We stress this theory here at Savarese BJJ (www.njbjj.com). Here, Professor Rafael Lovato Jr does a fine job of keeping knee and elbow far apart as he exerts his passing pressure and is rewards with a gap big enough to drive a truck through. The result? A clean pass to a controlling side mount.

Intensity in your BJJ training

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Intensity in your BJJ training

Intensity in your BJJ training will rise as you rise. The first thing you’ll notice when you compare a competition match or a very hard sparring match where neither of you wants to lose versus a relaxed gym match where you’re focused more on technical growth rather than winning is intensity. That the intensity immediately rises several levels above normal. This will have several immediate effects. The first is that breathing will become shallow and restricted and quickly fall behind the demand for oxygen that the extra muscular effort demands. The second is that you will tend to keep muscular tension longer and at higher levels and experience greater lactic acid build up than usual. In some cases, you may even experience adrenaline build up and release that can create an initial sensation of impaired muscle control when adrenaline levels are high and then a sudden strength loss when your adrenaline diminishes. Mentally, you will often experience a tunnel vision as you focus on an initial move or game plan and your heightened focus on that prevents you seeing any alternatives that arise as the match progresses. You will also find that as anxiety increases, so does your aversion to risk. You’ll restrict yourself only to your most trusted moves and shy away from trying anything else, thus shrinking your skill set well below what you normally exhibit in a more relaxed setting. Now if all this sounds bad, you’re right, it is, but it gets worse. As you start to experience these effects, you naturally get even more anxious as you feel your physical and mental attributes diminish and this will further increase anxiety, creating a downward spiral of anxiety and effects that compound each other until you find yourself exhausted just a few minutes into the match. Which is shocking because in regular training you may be capable of sparring for thirty minutes straight without a problem. This can be a shocking experience the first time you feel it come on. Be aware that it generally gets better with time. If you can survive the initial shock you’ll often be able to recover in the course of the match and exhibit a “second wind.†Make sure you get to feel the sensation from time to time so that the shock value diminishes.

Effective scenarios from open guard

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Effective scenarios from open guard

Effective scenarios from open guard are plentiful. What scenarios must you be effective from in open guard? The vast majority of guard play in Jiu-Jitsu is from open guard. There are many variations of open guard and the sheer amount of material you need to learn can seem overwhelming at times. Rest assured however that when you look at open guard in terms of the number of possible scenarios from which you must be effective (a rather small number) rather than the number of possible moves (an extremely large number) then things seem much more manageable. Your opponent has three options, kneeling, one knee on floor and standing (within the standing category there is a particularly important option – the split squat, often referred to as “headquarters†position. You have two options, you can be seated or you can be lying on your back and having the face upward. So the number of possible general scenarios is not so big. You will need at least a couple of trusted and effective moves in each of those scenario combinations. Seen in this light you can see it’s a very manageable project. My favorite move when I’m seated and my opponent is on his knees has always been the hook sweep (essentially a ground version of the sumi-gaeshi standing sacrifice throw). It works equally well in the gi and no gi and combines extremely well with many other moves – particularly leg locks. Make sure your training program covers all the scenarios of open guard and soon you will be able to attack regardless of which scenario you may find yourself in.

Using your head in BJJ

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Using your head in BJJ

Using your head in BJJ is important in so many areas. First, your head is a heavy weight at the end of the longest lever of the human body. So learn to use it effectively. In addition, the average human head weighs just over ten pounds (around 4.5kg) and is positioned at the end of the longest lever in the human body, the spine. As such, it can be used to supply a surprising amount of weight in directions you need if used correctly. You can use your head position to nullify what could be a dangerous underhooks. Learning to use the placement of your own head and the displacement of your opponents head is a big part of what it means to maximize the nature of the human body to advantage. Ten pounds may not seem like much, but when it’s connected to a long lever it can get very heavy indeed as that lever gets lowered over your target. Think about connecting a ten pins dumbbell to a good sized stick and then holding the other end of the stick in your hand. As long as you keep the stick vertical it is quite manageable – but as soon as you lower the weighted end of that stick it quickly becomes a very heavy burden indeed! Here at Savarese BJJ (www.njbjj.com) we teach you to learn to use your head in similar ways and you can become a burden to even a very strong opponent in ways that can point you towards victory.

Understanding your legs in BJJ

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Understanding your legs in BJJ

Understanding your legs in BJJ: A distinguishing characteristic of Jiu-Jitsu is the tremendous emphasis out upon grappling your opponent primarily with your legs. First, the guard position in all its many variations is stressed more than any other. Therefore, it is important that you understand the broad principles that enable your legs to be an effective weapon in the fight from bottom position. Understand that the hips are the engine room of the guard position, they drive everything and are the strongest parts of your body in connection with your legs. They provide the power and position that underlies guard play. By shifting side to side and slowing you to move between seated and supine positions they can out you in a position to attack and defend effectively. The kness are your shield in defense. The closer to your torso the stronger your defense, as long as you present two knees in front or around your opponents waist/hips (open and closed guard) or around one of his legs (half guard ) you are defensively sound and have the possibility of offense from underneath. Your feet solidify the connection/grip of your legs upon your opponent. In addition, they transmit the power of your hips and knees in meaningful ways to your opponents body. Don’t just touch your opponent with your feet, grip them with your feet. And you will be able to use your legs as you do your arms. We are big on this theory at Savarese BJJ Academy (www.njbjj.com). We spend all our lives using our hands and arms for a multitude of difficult tasks without thought. Jiu-Jitsu asks you to do the same with your feet and legs. When you do, you will be a very dangerous opponent from underneath.

Attacking Open Guard in BJJ

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Attacking Open Guard in BJJ

Attacking Open Guard in BJJ requires a couple of small steps to start dictating the pace. First, off balancing forward and backwards. In addition, a distinguishing characteristic of great guard players is their constant use of off balancing their opponents as a precursor to their big attacks. The main directions of thos attacks from guard are forwards and backwards (there are some good off balancing moves side to side especially when wearing a gi, but most or forwards and backwards). When you go to off balance someone forward from open guard, the best methods usually involve a pull with your upper body and a push with your lower body. Also, while off balances in backward directions usually (though not always) involve a push with the upper body and a pull with the lower body. The idea is to create a simultaneous application of two forces at two locations in opposite directions. That is what knocks an opponent off balance and creates the movement you will need to break through a tough opponents stance and posture and get your moves to work! Here at Savarese BJJ (www.njbjj.com), we really stress getting your opponents back on the floor and making an agle to start you passing series.

Win or Learn in Jiu-Jitsu

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Win or Learn in Jiu-Jitsu

Win or Learn in Jiu-Jitsu is a statement by one of our Grandmasters, Carlos Gracie. For many it’s just a saying but it is indeed a way of life in BJJ that can be very beneficial if followed. When it’s over, focus on the why of the session. When sparring or a match is over, it tempting to just let emotion fill your mind. Joy if you performed well, sadness or frustration if you lost. That’s fine initially, but at some point you want to go into ANALYSIS. In order to improve, you must eliminate the mistakes made in previous performances. Even when you win you make mistakes. But the focus shouldn’t be about winning or losing, it should be about learning and your own personal growth. NEVER compare yourself to others, your journey is your own. This is a strong message we teach at Savarese BJJ (www.njbjj.com). Continual improvement is more about elimination of error than it is about addition of new moves or tactics. Learning new moves takes substantial time, eliminating mistakes can in most cases be done relatively quickly. Just as it’s easier to make a car go faster and perform better by making it lighter than it is to put in a new engine in order to make it more powerful, so too, removing errors is easier than adding new moves. Next time you’ve had a grueling training session or match, take the time afterwards to analyze your mistakes so that tomorrow you can begin the removal of errors that lower your current performance.

Training alone in BJJ

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Training alone in BJJ

Training alone in BJJ – Three directions to make genuine progress when you can’t be in the dojo: Whenever I have students who can’t make it to the dojo for regular training I always encourage to work hard in three specifics ways. The first is to put time into solo movement drills/training. Every sport has a unique set of postural and movement demands required to play efficiently – those of Jiu-Jitsu put an extraordinary emphasis on floor movement, especially from supine (back on the floor) positions. The more efficiently you exhibit the underlying movements of a sport, the better you will perform the moves and the faster you will learn new ones. Second, stay in good shape. Jiu-Jitsu is a contact martial art where physicality plays a big role in the outcome. This is an opportunity to increase your overall physical prowess with gains in strength and flexibility. Over the years I have seen every variation of strength and conditioning program. No one method stood out as obviously superior to the others. I’ve never seen an athlete or group of athletes take on a new strength program and suddenly get dramatically better results than they were previously. Find a program that suits you and which you enjoy and which has a proven record among respected athletes and trainers and you can’t go wrong. Third, seek to increase your knowledge of the sport in all aspects. Knowledge is power. Very often just knowing one new piece of information can get you a win where previously you would have lost. Video is the preferred method of knowledge acquisition when the dojo is closed. Study the games of the great athletes past and present, if you find that difficult due to inexperience (at championship level the action is sometimes difficult to understand or confusing or unclear), instructional videos from your favorite athletes are a great alternative. Using this three directional approach means that when you return your body will move better, you will be stronger and more flexible and your mind will know more – this will set you up for rapid progress rather than deterioration during your time off. It has worked for all my athletes and it will work for you too!