Passing guard one step at a time

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Passing guard one step at a time

Passing guard one step at a time is something that is commonly taught here at Savarese BJJ Academy (bergencountybjj.com). In addition, it is my favorite way to pass guard. There are many effective ways to pass an opponents guard, each has their good and bad points. But if I had only one way to pass guard for the rest of my life, I would unquestionably choose the method of forcing my way to half guard and passing from the half guard. Of all the methods out there, this is, in my experience, the most versatile and the most high percentage of all ways to pass the guard. It works equally well gi or no gi, grappling and fighting. As well as MMA. All my students excel at it and it figures very heavily in their passing game. No other method of passing can create such direct pressure upon the opponents head, which is a big part of why it is so successful in world championship competition. Next time you get stymied in a someones guard, break it into two steps. Force your way forward into half guard and then pass from there! I guarantee more success.

The 3 roads to victory in MMA/BJJ

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The 3 roads to victory in MMA/BJJ

The 3 roads to victory in MMA/BJJ that I believe in are taught here at Savarese BJJ (www.njbjj.com)
1) Perfect Execution : The first is to have such PERFECT EXECUTION of technique that it can be known and anticipated by an opponent but he simply cannot stop it (this usually requires a skill and/or athletic disparity such as speed, strength or size) between the two opponents at hand.
2) Systematic Control: The second is based on SYSTEMATIC CONTROL where the idea is to have such an elaborate system of set ups, controlling grips and positions, that an opponent is gradually funneled into an ever more controlling predicament that increasingly limits his defensive options until escape becomes virtually impossible (this is typically only possible when extreme control and a slower pace is available which usually means ground techniques). Take away all of their abilities to defend your attacks and they have no way out.
3) Deception: The third is to be able to DECEIVE an opponent as to what your real intentions are and achieve a breakthrough via feint/fake/misdirection that creates an opening or weakness that can be exploited before he can detect the ruse and create an effective resistance (this is typical done more in speed based elements of combat sports usually standing techniques where speed is far easier to generate than on the ground)

If you follow these 3 roads, first in your training at the Academy, during positional training, live training or drilling after class, you will notice a significant jump in your Jiu-Jitsu.

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!