Dictate the pace in BJJ

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Dictate the pace in BJJ

Here at Savarese BJJ Academy (www.bergencountybjj.com), we are very big on being able to dictate the pace in BJJ. In Jiu-Jitsu, you don’t have to be the fastest athlete. You just have to be the athlete who gets to the finish line first. Speed is a wonderful thing in combat sports, but not all of us are born fast and even those who are born fast lose speed over the course of a lifetime. The idea is not to value raw speed so much as the ability to get to a goal before your opponent. And there are many ways to do that that don’t involve speed. One way to create the illusion of speed is to travel less distance in the same time. For example, the basic arm bar from guard. If you begin the move with your feet locked at my opponents lower back, that’s a considerable distance to move your legs and feet all the way up to the head to perform the move. If instead you slide your locked legs up to your opponents shoulder, then the distance required to transition to the arm bar is massively shortened, creating a much quicker performance of the arm bar even though you are moving at the same speed. In everything you do in Jiu-Jitsu, ask yourself, is there a way to speed up my performance of this move without speeding up the movements of my body? In most cases the answer is YES. And the act of researching how to do this will make you a better student of the sport.

Key to reading opponents weigh in BJJ

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Key to reading opponents weigh in BJJ

The key to reading opponents weigh in BJJ, especially in the butterfly guard, can determine whether you are successful or unsuccessful. How is that? Heels or toes? Whenever your opponent is standing in front of you there is a question of the greatest importance that in most cases can only be answered you and your opponent, where is your opponents weight centered? Is it on his heels or on his toes? The answer to this question will determine what form of attack and what direction of attacks you will use. Learning to read whether your standing opponent has weight forward on his toes or back on his heels is one of those skills that is often passed over in teaching but has has the greatest effect on whether your subsequent moves actually work or not. Sometimes I will use a basic arm drag on a standing partner and feel his reaction between heels and toes. Weight on toes is a good sign to continue the drag forwards. Weight on the heels is a good sign to switch from drag to some form of takedown or sweep to the rear. Failure to pay attention or the subtle but all important weight transfers between heel and toes means you have to use brute force to get moves to work, reading the heel to toe weight transfer well makes for seemingly effortless moves. Here in a Savarese BJJ (www.njbjj.com) class, Anoop is trying to get a read on Andrew’s weight to pan his next attack.

Greatest advantage of half guard passing

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Greatest advantage of half guard passing

The single greatest advantage of half guard passing methods over regular methods of guard passing is head control. The pattern of events in a guard pass is for the passing athlete get past the feet, knees and most importantly, the line of your opponents hips, and then transition to the head to complete the pass. That transition to the head (the head control) is a constant source of problems, as the defending guard player can exploit the time and pressure release involved in that transition to create strong defensive frames and move back to guard position. Half guard passing methods on the other hand, involve working your way to a situation where your opponent is locked around one of your legs whilst your other leg is free. If you can attain a chest to chest position you can now control your opponents head BEFORE getting past the line of your opponents hips. This means that when you extract your leg from his hold, you already have head control in place and there is no problematic cranial shift. This enables you to impose tremendous control and pressure throughout the pass all the way to completion. Here, in one of Savarese Jiu-Jitsu (www.njbjj.com) training sessions, our student Sean shows the end results of a good half guard pass into a dominant side control position.

When your BJJ match is over

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When your BJJ match is over

When your BJJ match is over, there is always a lesson to be learn, whether you won or lost. Hence, Grandmaster Carlos Gracie’s mantra “There is no losing in Jiu-Jitsu. You either win or you learn.”  When the action’s over in the time immediately after a tough match, whether on stage or in the gym, is always instructive and important. When you are finished, sometimes we expressed disappointment in the match. And like all true submission grapplers, we greatly value action leading to a decisive finish.  It’s important in these after match situations to assess what was good and bad. First, if it’s competition, you may have video to break down and the lesson are easier because you trained for this specific night. The training room, however, is just that, a TRAINING room. You are supposed to make mistakes there. And leave them there. Remember that not every match will be highlight reel of action. The important thing is that every match represents some kind of growth and improvement in the athlete. Understand that improvement comes in many different forms. Sometimes, it is about mental aspects of the game. Maybe we are taking on one of the world’s most dangerous and strongest grapplers, giving up a huge size and strength advantage, with total confusion and disarray in the week leading up to the match as to what will happen and  and yet we went out and attacked as best he could to battle to a tight tactical win. This was a win for athletic maturity. In this photo, my now blackbelt Brian Procel competed for the first time at the World Championships in CA under the bright light against a very experienced competitor from the Carlson Gracie team. Under tough and intimidating circumstances, he showed the improvements in his quiet, understated but impressive mental toughness. That is one of the best kinds of growth an athlete can experience and which will benefit him or her the rest of their career. Now as a white or bluebelt, sometimes, you will learn more from a loss than from a win. Wins can make you overconfident and make you blind to your weaknesses. Everyone is different in that aspect.  When you come to judge yourself after your matches,  don’t be too kind, but don’t to be too harsh either. Remember that not every match will be fireworks but that every match has some elements of positive growth for you that will help you in the future. Focus on those, incorporate them into your training and step forward to your next challenge knowing you are a better athlete

BJJ Chokes Gi vs No Gi

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BJJ Chokes Gi vs No Gi

BJJ Chokes Gi vs No Gi. BJJ chokes, and in particular, chokes from the back, are the single most devastating weapon in all of Jiu-Jitsu. Nothing else gives such certainty of success in application while maintaining your own safety from counters. Yet the two primary applications, gi and no gi, are very different from each other. In the case of no gi chokes from the back, you must use your head as a blocking wedge close to your opponents head. Your bodies will be aligned and the power of the choke will come from the rotation of your elbow around his neck. The instrument of strangulation will be your wrist/forearm and bicep. This is rather thick and so often it can be problematic to penetrate under the chin and often requires trapping the opponents defensive arms prior to applying the strangle. In addition, it keeps you away from being elbowed by your opponent. Now, in the case of gi collar chokes, things are very different. Now the instrument of the choke is the opponents gi lapel/collar. It has a hard and very thin edge that slices under the jaw/chin like a knife and makes penetration to the choke far more efficient. The collar/lapel is like a rope around the neck,  an extraordinarily effective choking implement. In addition, unlike naked chokes, you want to form a perpendicular angle to your opponents shoulders and the power of the choke comes from your body weight hanging off your opponent and your leverage leg pressing over his far shoulder. This puts all your body weight and leg strength into the choke with a cutting rope around the neck. This creates a far greater degree of efficiency strangle than any naked choke can ever hope to attain. If you enjoyed this article, make sure you visit www.njbjj.com for more tips in the news section.

The importance of connection in BJJ

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The importance of connection in BJJ

The importance of connection in BJJ cannot be understated. Maximize your connection and minimize your opponents postural integrity is the key. The biggest initial problem you will face when working from open guard is having no solid connection to your opponent. This will allow him to immediately get past your legs and pass before you can do anything effective. The second problem is that if his stance is well set, it will be very difficult to attack him successfully with either sweeps or submissions. So start by getting, whenever possible, BOTH FEET AND BOTH HANDS SET ON YOUR OPPONENT to form a solid connection that won’t allow an opponent to simply blow past your guard before you can do anything. For my Savarese BJJ students (www.njbjj.com), the safe zones you learn in fundamentals class should be utilized all the way to blackbelt. Learn how to get away from the “kick me in the face” seated butterfly guard and learn to enter into your opponents zone and WIN YOUR GRIPS. So often, it’s who wins that grip battle is who wins the fight. Then make a pledge to yourself that prior to any major attack from underneath, you will BEGIN BY DISTURBING YOUR OPPONENTS STANCE/BALANCE. Do this two things consistently and you will soon find yourself a better offensive and defensive guard player.

Survive first theory in BJJ

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Survive first theory in BJJ

Survive first theory in BJJ in something we preach about here at www.njbjj.com. Survive first – escape second. When you first begin Jiu-Jitsu is natural to feel totally intimidated by the power of your more experienced training partners attacks. Some days you feel that as soon as they get a good position on you, it’s all over. Start with the most modest, yet important Jiu-Jitsu goal – survival. Begin by seeing how long you can hold off submission attacks. Learn to tuck your him back in close to your torso and chin to chest. Learn to turn on your side rather than flat on your back so that you can bear weight more comfortably. Once survival seems attainable you can learn to relax a little, as anxiety levels fall, your capacity to think, reason retain information and solve problem will increase. And that’s what will get you out of bad positions. Everything begins with survival skill that leads to mental calm. Mental calm begets sound decision making and sound decisions will create the routes you need to exit out of trouble. Make your first goals small. How much longer can you hold off a partner who usually finishes you in one minute from dominate position? If you can last two minutes you’re getting twice as good as before. That’s a small beginning, but most beginnings are small, in time they can lead to results that are huge.

4 limbs theory in BJJ

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4 limbs theory in BJJ

Here at Savarese BJJ (www.njbjj.com), we practice the 4 limbs theory in BJJ was guard retention and defense. Open guard is a four limbed beast. You must get your hands and feet working in unison. In addition, when working from open guard it is not your hands alone that will make you successful, nor will it be your feet working alone. Rather, it will be the interaction of your hands and feet working together that will make you a devastating open guard player. Remember always that as your opponent passes your feet and legs, you will stop and briefly hold him with your hands, but your hands are not strong enough to hold him for long, so must recover your feet and feet back into position and start anew. Thus it is the constant cycling and interaction of feet and hands, arms and legs that will make you the master of open guard that you must become in order to master the art of BJJ itself. Don’t emphasize upper body and don’t emphasize lower body, – emphasize the entire body and get feet and hands working together as one and your open guard will one day become unpassable and your attacks from there unstoppable. Multiple time World BJJ Champion Xande Ribeiro is a master of this. Here is a great video of him doing this theory:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e86MOTgrzgs&t=361s

Mounted pinning-the next new trend in BJJ?

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Mounted pinning-the next new trend in BJJ?

Mounted pinning-the next new trend in BJJ? You can make that case after watching the last couple of major events like WNO, Fight To Win and the recent ADCC Trials in all countries. Let by the New Wave BJJ team, aka The Danaher Death Squad and their BJJ fanatics videos, it seems everyone is following trend and pinning the upper body in the mount and smothering the face (aka Judo smothers). But to technique aspect of it, you only really control the pin when you control the elbows. Getting to a dominant pinning position in Jiu-Jitsu is a great thing. In addition, it scores more points than any other action if you can get to mount and rear mount. Understand however, that real dominance in top position pins comes not just from the position (in no gi) but the combination of the position AND control of your opponents elbows in ways that prevent him turning into escapes and setting up finishing holds so that you translate position into submission. Next time you are working your way into side of mounted pins, go the extra distance and start looking to control your opponents elbows as well. The more you can elevate and separate his elbows from his torso the more control you will have over the pin and the more likely that pin will turn into a submission hold. We love these positions at Savarese Jiu-Jitsu Academy (www.njbjj.com) and how they lead into submissions from the mount.

Gracie Jiu-Jitsu legend teaches in Lyndhurst NJ

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Gracie Jiu-Jitsu legend teaches in Lyndhurst NJ

It was a great night last night at Savarese Jiu-Jitsu on Park Ave as a Gracie Jiu-Jitsu legend teaches in Lyndhurst NJ. Master Royler Gracie, son of the founder of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Helio Gracie, taught at the Savarsese BJJ Academy (www.njbjj.com) at the Academy of Professor Chris Savarese, who earned his blackbelt from Gracie in 2006. Master Gracie said it was an honor to teach on the mats of one of his blackbelts and many other Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu blackbelts from NJ showed up to learn from the great Master. The theme of the seminar was “don’t let anyone steal your time” and told of many life lessons that go well beyond the scope of just self-defense. The 3 hour long seminar focus on mindset, self-defense, some groundfighting (the staple of jiu-jitsu), submission holds and takedowns. Gracie then took questions from the many in the crowd to help fix problems in their jiu-jitsu technique or gave some tips of topics such as every day self defense and BJJ competition. For more of Master Gracie’s seminar info, check here : (.http://www.graciehumaita.com/). If you are a BJJ practitioner, never miss an opportunity to learn from one of the greats like him, it is a unique opportunity to learn in so many different ways.