Importance of posture in Jiu-Jitsu

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Importance of posture in Jiu-Jitsu

Importance of posture in Jiu-Jitsu can be tricky for some. One tip for posture in Jiu-Jitsu is to stay compact. Probably one of the biggest problems beginners in BJJ face is that of extending their bodies at times that make them very vulnerable to attack. Most of the fundamental postures of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, particularly the defensive ones, involve contraction of the body – spine rounded, elbows and knees tucked in tight, often times connecting the elbows to the knees. Learning to trust in this contraction as the best means of slipping your limbs inside your opponent’s limbs as the most high percentage route to escape and evasion is a big step for the beginner in Jiu-Jitsu. As you progress, the problem will change from that of getting to a safe, contracted posture to that of maintaining this strong posture throughout the course of a long tough match against a skilled opponent who is doing everything he can to subvert that posture. Either way, learning and fighting to keep your limbs in tight at the appropriate time will be a constant theme of your training. Just as a good boxer constantly keeps his chin tucked, shoulders high and rounded to protect his jaw and elbows in tight to protect his torso when in danger, so will a good BJJ practitioner. A good Jiu-Jitsu practitioner puts his or her primary effort into sound defensive structure before anything else. Here, one of our Savarese BJJ Academy (www.njbjj.com) instructors Sean presents our student Kayla with a wall of knees and elbows that prevents her from exploiting the angle she has gained. His well rounded spine will give him the mobility he needs to quickly recover his legs and square up to her so that he can immediately shift from a defensive cycle to an offensive one. Posture before all, and in defense, when in doubt, contract and pull everything in tight. Practice the posture in BJJ theory and watch your BJJ game evolve.

Moving up the ladder in BJJ

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Moving up the ladder in BJJ

Moving up the ladder in BJJ can be tricky for some. The higher you go….Moving up the ladder in BJJ, the less you will concern yourself with the standard techniques of the sport. Your first challenge when you begin your BJJ journey is to develop strong skills in the basic operations of the game. You must train often to develop skill in the basic moves. So for example, you work hard to develop a good arm bar, a tight triangle, a reliable elbow escape etc etc. By the time you get to a good level, you will come to realize that in the majority of cases, there is near uniformity in the ability of most of the people you train with or fight against to perform the basic moves of the sport. In addition, some may even do them better than you. If you watch the current world champion perform a basic move, say for example, an arm bar from closed guard, there is little to distinguish it from a local black belt. But, at the higher levels, it is much more about your ability to outperform others at the particular setup of that techniques than the technique itself. Among competent black belts, EVERYONE has a strong arm bar, a strong kimura, a strong triangle choke. What makes one stand out from the others is mostly about the small and subtle skills and tactics that enables him or her to get into the situation where they can actually apply that technique. Due to the fact that the vast majority of your opponent’s defense to any given move comes from the integrity of his stance, the single most important skill at the higher levels becomes the ability to redirect, negate and degrade your opponent’s stance. Only then will you be able to actually apply the basic moves of the sport. Beginners must focus on moves, but as you gain in expertise, you must shift your direction to breaking your opponents stance and structure, Then and only then will the opportunity to apply those moves arise. Our teaching here at Savarese BJJ Academy (www.njbjj.com) reflects this fact…moves are taught in great detail, but always embedded in a coherent system of preliminary moves that make them work in competition.

In BJJ, Use the power of your hips

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In BJJ, Use the power of your hips

In BJJ, Use the power of your hips! Using the power of your hips is important o building a good defensive system. In most respects the human body is not particularly impressive in terms of generating power, but the hips and legs are a notable exception. When you can harness the power of your hips in a constructive way, you’ll find your combat effectiveness greatly increases. One of the best examples of this comes when athletes use their hips effectively against takedown attempts. Aggressively checking and stopping an opponents takedown with your hips and then pulling him onto your hips to lift and rotate him enables you to strongly counter takedowns and many forms of wrestling based guard sweeps. Probably the most commonly used variation of this is uchi mata. You’ll need an upper body connection, usually an over hook, but it’s the lower body that supplies the horsepower. Learning to quickly fit your hips into and under your opponents hips provides you with a tremendous source of power that you can call on at a moment’s notice and turn defense into offense. Here at Savarese BJJ Academy (www.njbjj.com) we teach escaping your hips is the one thing every defensive BJJ movement has in common. From there on, if you take a look at the BJJ bridge, another huge part of using the hips, you’ll notice that the end goal is the same. Escape your hip from underneath your opponent. In fact, you might argue that the bridge is nothing more than a hip escape done with your hips higher off the ground. In short, everything in BJJ is about the hips. Even a bridge. Next time you need to bridge, think about being close to your opponent, using your hamstrings for power, and going in the right direction. Throw in the concept of escaping your hips away when you’re at the peak of the motion and you have a foolproof way of bridging. Now transfer all this knowledge to any other position that requires you to bridge another integral part of using your hips to escape. .

The great divide in BJJ

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The great divide in BJJ

The great divide in BJJ: There are two approaches to winning in Jiu-Jitsu. The first are PROACTIVE methods. Here the idea is to initiate the action. You set the goal and start the work towards it. So if I favor arm bar attacks, I will begin with set ups that push the action towards position where I can attack arm-bars. This stands in contrast to REACTIVE approaches. Here, I passively observe my opponent’s actions and I  counter. He initiates and as I observe, I see opportunity arise in the course the the action or the flow. I then match the opportunity with the appropriate technique and score. Let’s understand something very important about these two different approaches. Proactive approaches generally require a small set of favorite moves encased in a large collection of set-ups that enable you to force their application against someone who knows they are coming. Reactive approaches on the other hand, generally require a large set of moves to cover any situation our opponent puts us in, but very little set up as the opponent creates the opportunity for us. This means the stylistic difference between the two can be quite dramatic. Proactive games are all about creating the conditions for a few favorite moves. Reactive methods are all about patience, pacing, sensing opportunity and having the breadth of technique to cover whatever opportunity emerges in front of you. There have been great champions using both approaches and also great champions who merged both approaches together. Here at Savarese BJJ Academy (www.bjjlyndhurst.com) we teach that understanding which approach you want to master will help give you a sense of what kind of training program you must adopt to make good progress. In addition, it can give you a defined path for your training, what you should be working on and how.

Finishing mechanics in Jiu-Jitsu

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Finishing mechanics in Jiu-Jitsu

Finishing mechanics in Jiu-Jitsu should always be on your mind. A distinctive feature of our coaching style here at Savarese BJJ Academy (northnjbjj.com) is an unusually heavy emphasis on finishing mechanics for all the major submission holds that we teach at our Academy. So often I see talented athletes do a fine job of entering into a submission and controlling their opponent, but then exhibit weak finishing mechanics at the crucial moment when submission victory was within their grasp. Furthermore, the hold is now lost. As a BJJ practitioner, you must have a very clear understanding of the mechanical details that make a given submission work against determined resistance. Perhaps more than any other aspect of Jiu-Jitsu, the submissions game is the one where the smallest errors of placement of hands, feet or angles and application of directions of force will have the most detrimental effects. Study your favorite submissions with an eye for detail that surpasses all other aspects of the game and you will soon find that opponents who used to easily slip away from you are now trapped and helpless when you get to your finishing positions. Make your primary focus tightness, restrictions of movement and precision in placement of angles rather than application of power or strength. If you base your entire BJJ game on strength, you will lose every time you face an opponent who is stronger than you. Observe the impressive tightness of the kimura used by Professor Rafael Lovato Jr to win this Fight To Win match against a super tough opponent in Ricardo Demente, such is the precise placement of hands, head and elbows, along with the rotational direction of force that we favor  Take pride in your finishing mechanics, once you master them you will have a set of weapons that opponents will fear and upon which you can attach great faith.

Mentors in BJJ

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Mentors in BJJ

Mentors in BJJ: I am a huge believer in the idea of taking on grappling mentors, usually someone with a similar body type as you, or just outstanding figures in the art Of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu  who you believe have some characteristics that strongly appeal to you or which you believe could greatly improve your performance and direction if you were to implement them. Some truly great grapplers who dazzled the sports of grappling and MMA (earlier known as NHB or No Holds Barred) when they entered ADCC, the World BJJ Championships or the UFC or Pride inspired me These legends were Rickson, Royler, Renzo and Roger Gracie as well as Saulo Ribeiro and Jean Jacques Machado. Watching and studying ALL of them had a huge impression on my BJJ. Of course my Instructors had the most but film study has always been a huge part of my BJJ and these are the men were who I studied the most. I even studied Leticia Ribeiro because her X-Guard was awesome.  Jean Jacque for his guard and the way he blitzed his weight division on several occasions, it was not just that he won that was so impressive, it was the WAY he won. There was not a moment wasted on the mat, he embodied what I take as the ideal of Jiu-Jitsu. His BJJ always had a purpose, purposeful movement towards head control that lead to submission. Royler for strategy, something I learned masterfully training under him. Renzo, man, I owe so much to him, I learned so much from him. Rickson for the way he capitalized on mistakes (and forced them) If you wanted to show a curious friend what great grappling looks like and were looking for exciting and technically flawless matches you could not do better than Rickson Gracie. Roger and saulo for their passing mastery and Saulo’s standup was always amazing. Roger was like watching a genius. From the start of the match until the inevitable submission finish it was a hustling bustling flurry of well directed attacks in combinations that flowed evenly between position and submission and created tactical pressure rather than physical pressure, watching this pressure crack his opponents was one of the most instructive lessons of my own development. Trying to recreate that sense of efficient and unrelenting attack has been a big part of my work, and todays grapplers are still using his style (Roger heavily influenced John Danaher, so his guys mimic Roger’s top game often) and it should be yours too.

A series of pictures showing different types of martial arts.

Mentors in BJJ

Why BJJ is so effective

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Why BJJ is so effective

This is my opinion of Why BJJ is so effective…Clarity of purpose. Here at Savarese BJJ Academy (bjjlyndhurst.com) we truly believe that one of the great reasons why classical Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is so successful as a martial art is it’s incredibly simple and clear basic directive. You can explain it to a total beginner in two minutes and it’ll make total sense to them. In fact, it’s so clear that I believe if you took two completely untrained people with no fighting experience of similar size and strength and explained the basic directive of Jiu-Jitsu to one of them but not the other, the one who had been taught that basic directive would have a considerably higher chance of victory if they fought each other, not because they have gained any skill, they haven’t, but just because they now have an effective and proven sense of direction while the other only has his instincts. When one person has a sense of direction and purpose in a crises and the other doesn’t,  I’ll put my money on the person with a sense of direction and purpose every time. What is this basic directive of BJJ? It can be stated in a single sentence. Work your way to the mounted or back position and once there, establish control and finish your opponent. It doesn’t matter whether it’s grappling or fighting. If you follow that simple directive and have the skills to do it against the resistance of your opponent, you’ll be a very difficult challenge for sure against anyone. Remember always that every rule, point allocation, recommendation, technique and tactic of Jiu-Jitsu is just a means to satisfying this basic directive. Never lose sight of its clarity and you’ll always know what to do and how to train and prepare.

How to coach new students in BJJ

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How to coach new students in BJJ

How to coach new students in BJJ is always up for debate. Here at Savarese BJJ Academy (www.northnjbjj.com) , we always think long term. Coach the big picture first. The growth and development of any given technique in our repertoire follows the same pattern as the growth and development of our physical bodies. A technique starts off weak and vulnerable, unable to survive on its own. Then it grows into early development where it begins to mature into early adulthood. Finally it enters into a mature phase where it can not only survive on its own, but work with others, improve itself and rise to prominence. When first coaching a move to a student, I always begin with the big picture. What is the general nature of the move? What are it good and bad points? What are the main things to focus upon? What are the broad movements required for its execution? Sketch the outline first, THE DETAILS CAN ALWAYS COME LATER. Just get them moving in the general directions they need. Just as an artist begins with a sketch and only then brings in the complexity of colors fill the canvas and create a masterpiece over time, so too, The martial artist must begin with the rough outline of the move and over time, add details as a painter adds color to complete a picture. In all technique development , start with general movement and over time refine it with precise movement. Don’t be obsessed with precision at the start, that will come later.

Biggest problem that BJJ beginner students face

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Biggest problem that BJJ beginner students face

The single biggest problem that BJJ beginner students face: When people begin the study of Jiu-Jitsu, they often see it as a matter of learning a sufficient number of moves in sufficient detail to be able to hold their own on the mat with their classmates. Certainly there is a lot of truth to this. Here at Savarese BJJ Academy (www.bjjlyndhurst.com) we see the main problem a little differently. The human body has some fundamental and very important imbalances. An obvious example is the left side/right side balance. People are either right handed or left handed and will be stronger and more coordinated on their strong side. Another extremely important balance is that between upper body and lower body strength and coordination. We are all much stronger in the lower body than our upper body. If I asked you to walk several times across the Academy, you could do this easily and with little effort. If I asked you to walk several lengths of the Academy on your hands in a handstand, even if you had the balance skills to do so, it would be a strenuous and tiring workout. If I asked you to sign your name on paper with your hand, you would do so easily. If I asked you to sign your name holding the pen in your toes it would be a real struggle. Humans are insanely stronger and less coordinated in the lower than upper body. This has clear ramifications for Jiu-Jitsu training. We must learn to grapple (and defend) predominantly with our lower body (legs). This means we have to overcome the lack of lower body coordination that most of us bring into the sport. As a beginner, you must put your primary focus upon development of coordination and dexterity in your legs so that you learn to grapple with them.  You must overcome the natural beginners tendency to grapple with the upper body and learn to let your legs do most of the work. Every time you drill moves, be mindful of letting your legs do the majority of the work involved. There is no shortcut here, it will take time. but let me assure you that forming a strong connection of your mind to your legs (knowledge to action) will be the single biggest skill you need to grow in Jiu-Jitsu.

BJJ: Attack the back, immobilize the head

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BJJ: Attack the back, immobilize the head

Here at Savarese BJJ Academy (www.njbjj.com), we have a saying: In BJJ, Attack the back, immobilize the head. Attacking the back and surrounding and immobilizing the head is so important. There are many effective ways to control and attack from the back, but one of the most important if your goal is to finish by rear naked choke is that of forming an effective circle of wedges around your opponents neck that inhibits head movement and positions you to choke them at a moments notice. The fundamental need in these cases is to always maintain your head on one side of your opponents head and your choke arm on the opposite side. This essential configuration must be locked in place by your control hand which goes under your opponent’s armpit to either snare his wrist/hand or lock up with your choke hand. The combination of tight head position on one side, choke arm on the other, all locked in place by the control hand makes for a superbly controlling position from where escape is difficult. In addition, you are just inches away from a devastating choke finish at any moment and from where it is easy to add additional lower body control by hooking your legs into your opponent’s hips or even locking a tight body triangle around his waist. Practicing this fundamental head and arm positioning as the basis of your back control leading to chokes will soon pay dividends in your submissions game.