Let your opponent feel the stress

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Let your opponent feel the stress

Let your opponent feel the stress, this is a common phrase here at Savarese BJJ (www.njbjj.com). Always let the other guy feel the stress. Also, a common problem I see all the time is that of a BJJ practitioner or any grappler doing a good job getting to a dominant position like the mount or back and then trying too hard too quickly to get a submission. In addition, losing control of the position they worked so hard to attain. Unless there is limited time left on the clock, relax, your opponent, not you, should be the one in panic mode, be patient. Use the superior position to recompose yourself, recharge your lungs if necessary and formulate a plan to finish. If at any point you feel the danger of escape, protect the position first and worry about the submission second! You can always come back to that later. We love to teach “the most important part of the mount and back is to keep the mount and back, then submit!  Here, Rafael Lovato Jr anchors himself in place in the mount position at the World BJJ Championship after a long period his opponent going crazy trying to escape. He kept his position first, remained in control and finally finished with a beautiful cross collar choke from the mount to secure the victory. Using this simple pattern of exertion to gain a position followed by active rest and recomposing in that position to gather resources into a final push for submission allowed him to secure the choke soon after this photo was taken. In conclusion, always remember to remain calm in the dominant position, you spent energy to get there, let you opponent waste their energy trying to escape (also known as “cooking” your opponent), get tired and then apply your finishing hold.

Leglock theory for no-gi BJJ

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Leglock theory for no-gi BJJ

Some leglock theory for no-gi BJJ that we teach here at Savarese BJJ (www.njbjj.com) goes as follows. Break them down to a hip: One of the distinguishing characteristics of the revolution in leg locking that has swept the world was the heavy emphasis on leg locking from bottom position. In the old days, the vast majority of leg lock entries were from top position. Indeed, leg locking was largely seen as an alternative to guard passing. This created a lot of naïve criticisms of leg leg locking that seem almost out of touch nowadays. Students were told that leg locks were a bad idea because if it didn’t work you would lose top position. Well, what if we entered from bottom position? Then there was no danger of positional loss, and many leglockers who compete in grappling have put their emphasis there. There are many, many great entries from bottom position into an opponents legs. But be sure to realize that though your ENTRIES into the legs will be on a standing or kneeling opponent in your guard, be sure to knock your opponents down to their hips/buttocks (or at the very least one knee) before you start working for your FINISHES. It is quite difficult and risky to try finishing as a skilled opponent stands over you. Much safer to off balance him down to a hip first and then and only then start working for the finish. Remember always that the magic of ashi garami position is that it has a dual nature. It is just as good for off balancing and sweeping as it is for finishing. Use both of those aspects of ashi garami from bottom position and your success rate from under tough opponents will start climbing in the directions you want!

Covering distance in BJJ

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Covering distance in BJJ

Covering distance in BJJ in its essence: Don’t worry about the speed with which you move, concern yourself with the distance you have to cover. Very often, I am asked by students if they are too slow or old or too unathletic to be effective in Jiu-Jitsu. Certainly it’s an impressive thing to see an athlete with blazing speed in the mats. In truth however, most of the finest players in the sport work at a rather slow pace for the majority of the match and many more never really use speed at all in their game. And there are some awesome Masters competitors so age cannot be used as an excuse either. Clearly then speed is not essential to success, though it definitely can be useful at times. Understand that because Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is predominately a ground sport, speed will always be limited. A much more important consideration than top speed is the distance you have to cover to get to your objectives. If I have a speedy opponent who moves twice as fast as I do, but through inefficient positioning and course setting, always has to move twice as far to get to his objectives we will be working at effectively the same mat speed. Sometimes, I like to slow a “fast” opponent down in a tight closed guard to limit him. Indeed, I will be able to sustain that mat speed longer since I am doing less work and may end up being faster as fatigue becomes a factor. The first step to becoming faster on the mats is to become more efficient at covering distance to get to an objective. The more direct your path, the sooner your arrival time. Practice the skill of minimizing wasted motion in getting to the next position every time you move. We teach this theory a lot at Savarese BJJ (bergencountybjj.com). Soon you will find yourself beating faster (but less efficient) opponents in the race to get to the next position!

The mental battle vs open guard

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The mental battle vs open guard

The mental battle vs open guard or the great challenge of open guard is understanding your desire for offense with your need for defense. Open guard play is probably one of the most frustrating elements of Jiu-Jitsu for most players. It offers almost limitless possibilities for attack with sweeps and submissions, but it also offers our opponent limitless opportunities for positional attacks of his own – guard passes. As we are thinking about our offensive possibilities it takes only a fraction of a second for an opponent to blast past our legs and in a flash we have gone from pondering offense to scrambling desperately for defense and preventing an opponent scoring with a guard pass. Everything we do from open guard has to be done with a sense of defensive responsibility. The main thing that prevents an opponent gaining the distance, angle and level change he requires to get past our legs is our connection to his body. If we are well connect to him, we will follow his movement easily as he tries to out flank our legs. If we lack sufficient connection he can pass your guard in a heartbeat and put you under great pressure. Whenever you begin to feel your connection to an opponent is failing, you must begin to shift from PULLING connection (offensive) to PUSHING connection (defensive) and thus create frames that prevents an opponent getting chest to chest contact and control of your head that will enable him to solidify a pass. Learning shift seamlessly from offensive grips to defensive frames as the second by second dynamic of the match unfolds is the key to reconciliation of your desire for offense and your need for defense from open guard. Here, our Savarese BJJ (www.njbjj.com) student Leo shows excellent defensive responsibility as his opponent Anoop threatens to pass his legs. His frames are quickly set in place and this will prevent further advances long enough to recover the position of his legs and the integrity of his guard.

Don’t freak out in BJJ

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Don’t freak out in BJJ

Don’t freak out in BJJ. Freaking out isn’t going to help. It is natural when you find yourself in a bad situation in Jiu-Jitsu to feel some degree of panic. No one likes losing, even in the Academy, and so the intensity always goes up as the danger of losing increases. Now, as this feeling of foreboding starts to escalate into genuine concern, the danger of it degenerating into total panic increases. It’s at this point that one starts to see chaos break out. Students will start exploding in various directions in order to affect a breakout. This can definitely work in many cases at beginner level, since most beginners lack the ability to control and immobilize a wildly thrashing opponent.  Here at Savarese BJJ (www.njbjj.com), this is something we address right away in your training. It can also work if you are bigger and stronger than an opponent. However, as size discrepancy decreases and skill levels rise, this will work less and less. If you were given a complex math problem, would it help you to solve it if you began by freaking out? No. In fact if we look at almost every daily problem we have to overcome, from flat tires, to navigating through an unfamiliar part of town, to paying bills over the phone, we see that it is almost never the case that wild emotional or physical reaction aid our ability to solve and overcome the problem. Jiu-Jitsu is no different. Just as the solution to any complex math problem is best found with a calm mind that calmly and methodically searches for the solution, the same case is true in Jiu-Jitsu. Make your first reaction to a difficult hold in Jiu-Jitsu be a grounding breath, and then a mental commitment to the idea of staying as calm as you can and THINKING your way out rather than FREAKING your way out. This is the spirit you want to operate in whenever you find yourself on the defensive. This will ensure you prevail in all situations rather than just against smaller or less experienced opponents.

The importance of the hook sweep

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The importance of the hook sweep

The importance of the hook sweep was taught to me very early in my BJJ journey. Mastery of the hook sweep also known as the sumi gaeshi, has always been  an essential part of my approach to Jiu-Jitsu. In my purplebelt and brownbelt days training at the Renzo Gracie Academy in NYC, very often visitors would recount recount their training experiences to me. A very common theme that I hear many many times is this – “Man, I was expecting everyone to be good at leg attacks and back attacks and guillotine 9all staples of our Academy at the time), but the one thing that really caught me by surprise was how easily and often everyone swept me from butterfly guard.†There is a reason for this. A very heavy emphasis was put on the hook sweep by our instructor, especially John Danaher, who favored entries from butterfly guard and open guard game for his competition team. No other sweep is performed as often and in so many forms the my coaching program. for me personally, one of my favorite fighters to watch was Jean Jacques Machado, I always loved the smoothness of his technique and how he was equally effective gi or no gi. He was the master of the hook sweep and I must have watched his match in ADCC vs Cael Uno 1000 times. The hook sweep can be used from any grip, in both left and right directions, standing or on the floor and creates defensive reactions that set up all our favorite entries into lower body and upper body submissions. Development of a strong hook sweep game is one of the first signs I look for when assessing the progress of a developing students bottom position skill level. All of my top students excel in this move without exceptions. I have even done hook sweep months where half your sweeps had to be hook sweeps. There aren’t many moves that I enforce upon my students, generally I liked to let them pick and choose their favorites past purple belt, but the hook sweep is one of them. We drill it every class in warmups. Make sure you devote time to this classic and powerful move. It will benefit every aspect of your bottom game both position and submission.

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.