Your Jiu-Jitsu will get better

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Your Jiu-Jitsu will get better

Your Jiu-Jitsu will get better, don’t waste time or energy worrying about this. keep showing up and things will change. Making progress in Jiu-Jitsu is no easy feat, but if you give maximum effort, things will improve. . There are a thousand obstacles that you will run into daily, weekly, monthly and yearly. There will be days you swear your getting worse rather than better, times when you feel everyone is progressing faster than you, moves that seem to work well on you but which you can’t seem to perform on anyone. Understand that maximum effort is not just about how hard you can push your body, it’s about how long you can push your mind. As long as the mind leads, the body will follow. No matter how tired your body may be, if you can keep your mind active you will never stop. Keep your mind in the game by constantly setting new goals, asking yourself what you can change to improve progress and studying the great athletes of past and present and researching how their knowledge can translate into your progress. Physical exhaustion is normal and, within common sense limits, a good thing in so far as it indicates the kind of effort required for excellence. It will pass with a good meal and a sound nights sleep, but mental exhaustion is fatal as the body won’t follow a despondent, unmotivated mind. Look for ways to stay mentally engaged and motivated and physical fatigue will never stop you. Here at Savarese BJJ (www.njbjj.com), make sure you are getting in 1 of the Blitz classes every week to challenge your mind, skill and will.

Why pressure is important in BJJ

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Why pressure is important in BJJ

Here is why pressure is important in BJJ. First, the greatest submission of them all is pressure leading to fatigue. Allow me to tell you something rather obvious but which has major ramifications for your success or failure in grappling. Exhausted people are far more likely to submit you than people that are fresh! In addition, understand this: a huge part of submission is mental. It’s always an act of choice to submit and exhausted people are far more likely to make that choice than an opponent who is not under any physical duress. Learning to pressure an opponent over time, also known as “cooking” in many BJJ schools, so that they get no relief from the constant physical pressure and tactical threat is as much a part of the submission game as perfect breaking mechanics and positioning. When you are sparring, constantly monitor the physical state of your opponent and learn to dictate pace and position. These two key ingredients will be the means by which you can make even a strong opponent wilt over time. At Savarese BJJ (www,njbjj.com), we always preach “make them miserable”. Remember, every opponent will be strong and explosive at the onset of a match, your job is to test how strong and explosive they are at the end of a match. Pressuring an opponent into fatigue is as much a part of the road to grappling success as position, leverage and all the other major keys to a great game.

Hand fighting in BJJ

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Hand fighting in BJJ

Hand fighting in BJJ, both standing and on the floor, is one of the most important tools to learn. If the most important battle of the position is the hand fight, learn to trap and immobilize hand and victory is yours. So much of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu or grappling in general, involves gripping and grabbing. Learning and negating an opponents grips is a huge part of the game. Even better are situations where you can trap an arm/hand entirely and take it out of the fight completely. It’s hard to hand fight when you can’t move your hands! Here, our Savarese BJJ Academy (www.njbjj.com) student Theresa goes into her signature hand trapping sequences from rear mount, ruining her opponents ability to use their hands as a barrier to the choke. Once this is achieved, the chances of a successful application of the choke go up tremendously. The hands may not be the strongest part of the human body, but they are the means by which typically begin connection to an opponent and perform most of our tasks. Learn to negate or remove an opponents ability to use them all while retaining your own ability to use your own hands and you will be a very difficult person to defend against.

Defense first strategy in BJJ

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Defense first strategy in BJJ

Having a Defense first strategy in BJJ can be successful. First, identify the potential threat(s) and negate the. Then, go to work. The most obvious and important feature of all Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Mixed Martial Arts is resistance. You are expected to impose your moves upon an opponent who is actively resisting your attempts at those moves AND who is simultaneously attempting to impose his own moves upon you. It’s tempting when this occurs to turn this into a battle of wills. If I want it more than the other guy, perhaps I can prevail. Or, I simple expend more strength and energy than my opponent and outlast them. While these approaches can certainly work, they are not an expression of the ideals of Jiu-Jitsu. Instead, look to identify the specific grips and positions your opponent is using on you. Identify what specific dangers they create and begin by first negating those grips and positions and only when you feel they have been nullified, go on to impose your game. Avoid situations where you both simultaneously trying to impose your will on each other, this always degenerates into a dog fight where the stronger and fitter man wins. Rather, begin by robbing your opponent of any means of imposing his moves upon you, and only then trying to impose your own game. Grandmasters Helio and Carlos Gracie always preached and taught Jiu-Jitsu as a self-defense art first. And here at Savarese BJJ Academy,(www.njbjj.com), we follow those teachings. A good example of this is body lock passing. First you begin your guard pass – NOT WITH PASSING, but rather with the shutting down of his opponents butterfly guard by compressing their feet to their butt and locking the hips. Without free movement of the feet and hips the butterfly guard is useless. Then it’s time to think about how you wish to pass. To get the positive results you seek, begin with negation.

Training your mind in BJJ

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Training your mind in BJJ

Training your mind in BJJ will help you develop quicker. Train your mind to see and identify the next steps. People talk to me about speed in combat sports all the time. Don’t get me wrong, physical speed is a wonderful attribute to have and is extremely valuable in combat sports. But let me tell you this, the most important speed is the speed of your decision making. If you can make good decisions faster than your opponent, you will appear faster than an opponent who is physically faster than you. Most actions begin with a decision. If you are making decisions faster than the your opponent you will have the advantage of a head start that can make up for slower physical actions. Of course, the decisions themselves have to be good ones. Idiotic decisions made quickly don’t help. But as they say, even a decent decision made in a timely fashion is better than a great decision made too late. When you watch people spar, don’t just watch for entertainment, watch to learn the mental skill of second by second decision making. Try to figure what they ought to be doing to each other as the action unfolds. You can do the same thing watching competition footage of athletes. This kind of mental training has direct ramifications for your physical game and will make you a better physical athlete next time you are sparring. In addition, watching class and coming to watch class when you are injured is vital to staying on your routine. there is nothing more vital to your progress than coming to class. At Savarese BJJ (www.njbjj.com), we tell our students that each day. we have found that this reminder helps people stay on their routine and prevents long layoffs which hamper their progress.

The benefits of back taking in BJJ

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The benefits of back taking in BJJ

The benefits of back taking in BJJ are endless. Most of all, the back is the perfect marriage of position and submission. Normally we think of position and submission as differentiated. One comes before the other. Most players tend to be either a positional player or a submission player, especially at the early belts. The back is the position that lets you be both at the same time. Not only is it the strongest position in the sport, no other position creates such a massive difference between your attacking potential from there and that of your opponent. In addition, you have access to the most high percentage attacks in the sport plus devastating strikes if this were a fight, all while your opponent has almost nothing. At the same time, no other submission comes close to rivaling the principle submission from this position, the rear naked choke aka Mata leão (lion killer). Thus the back represents the intersection of the two main elements of Jiu-Jitsu , position and submission. Make it your lifetime study to get there and finish from there, the day you make positive progress in this direction you will see the results. We preach this at Savarese BJJ (www.njbjj.com), it works.

Focusing in BJJ

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Focusing in BJJ

Focusing in BJJ is one common theme I see people fail at. When it comes to focus, when in doubt, Jiu Jitsu is a complicated sport with a requirement on your part to learn a lot of information. Sometimes it’s a good thing to have one simple idea or directive to give direction to all that information. This can be worth its weight in gold in a stressful match situation where it’s unclear what the next move ought to be. In ashi garami based leg locks, that simple directive is always get as close to your opponent as you can and stay there until the job is done. The vast majority of your opponents defense will involves loosening the connection of your ashi garami and then pulling away to free the knee of his trapped leg. So focus on getting as close as you can, as early as you can and stay in that spot.  Only when you stay true to this simple directive can you apply all the other stuff you need to demonstrate your growing leg lock game. This theory is taught here at Savarese BJJ (www.njbjj.com). Here the great Dean Lister heel hooks World BJJ Champion Rodolfo Viera in an ADCC (adcombat.com) match..

Defensive skills in BJJ

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Defensive skills in BJJ

Defensive skills in BJJ are just as important as being an offensive killer. Lately, I see a lot of people hanging their heads after positional training and blitz, and are giving off terrible body language. As Grandmaster Helio Gracie (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%A9lio_Gracie) used to say, the primary objective of jiu-jitsu is survival, defense, which means neutralizing your opponent’s offense even when you are being dominated. Your defensive skills in BJJ are vital. If being dominated by a stronger opponent and focusing on defense is now seen as a negative, then we might as well just throw all of our history, which put BJJ on the map, in the garbage. Let’s not forget that some of the most important matches in the history of our art involved smaller fighters being dominated for a long time. Their defensive skills from the bottom was the key factor that allowed them to survive and, in some cases, win in the end. I try to tell my student at Savarese BJJ (www.njbjj.com), you are practicing, repeat practicing in timed sessions, which wouldn’t happen in a real situation. This is why I stress training more AFTER class when you can literally have a 20-30 minutes single session w/ a partner. In addition, if you are an upper belt, practice these skills against lower belts so they can train their offense and you can train position you don’t get put in often. This allows both of you to gain and grow from the training session. Remember, the faster you help your teammate improve his or her game, the faster you will have another quality training partner in YOUR effort to get better as well. Defense will be one of the most important aspects of your BJJ skill set and always remember, if you can’t be finish, you can survive. And if you can survive, you will make them tired, ALWAYS giving you an opportunity to win!

More half guard passing tips

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More half guard passing tips

More half guard passing tips for you…first, when your in half guard on top, there is no need to rush. Of all the methods of passing guard, passing from half guard gives you the most ability to slow things down and dictate the pace. We preach dictating the pace as one of the most important aspects of BJJ at Savarese BJJ (www.njbjj.com). You must learn to use this in your favor. When you first get over your opponents knee and enter half guard, take a moment to to first solidify your top position rather than rush into the passing game. Your first goal should be to shut down your opponents ability to off balance and move you (if he can do that he will be attacking you relentlessly). This means there will be a contest for arm position (most opponents will be looking to get an under hook), head position (opponent will be looking to get your head far forward over his shoulders) and hip position (opponents will be looking to get under you and on to one side rather than flat). Who wins these three battles will generally dictate the overall battle from half guard. So when you first settle into half guard – look to win these three battles first before you go into your favorite passes. Here, one of our students wins the battle for the head control position, which will enable him to start setting him up for some strong passes and thus a stronger chance at submission

Half guard passing in MMA/fighting

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Half guard passing in MMA/fighting is one of the best ways to neutralize for the top. Today’s Jiu-Jitsu has many exciting and very effective methods of guard passing that have risen to prominence in last decade. When it’s time to apply some of these to MMA or fighting however, they often run into problems due to lack of gi grips or the fact that many opponents simply stand up from bottom position as you try to pass. When it comes time to pass under fighting conditions, one method stands above all – half guard passing. I was lucky enough to see John Danaher coach George St Pierre for a couple of his fight camps. Geroge was known for his passing/top control, and often, the overwhelming majority of training time was spent in forcing half guard and passing from there. No other method adapts so well to the rigors and demands of MMA than pressure passing from half guard. He used this with great effect throughout his career, repeatedly passing even world champion Jiu-Jitsu specialists with no problems. Any many other BJJ athlete, Demien Maia for example for one, used this method after him. I can confidently attest that no other method of guard passing adapts so well to gi, no gi and MMA as half guard passing does. Even when I used to see George train in the training room at the Renzo Gracie Academy, George was able to pass even elite level grapplers under shocking pressure using this simple but powerful method of guard passing. Chest to chest contact will make it very difficult indeed for an opponent to stand up on his as he passes, this is something we often focus on in MMA classes at Savarese BJJ Academy (www.njbjj.com). Use to method while Half guard passing in MMA/fighting and what the new openings it will create and watch your game skyrocket!