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.

Sport BJJ is a team sport

Sport BJJ is a team sport. No matter what anyone thinks, it takes a village to raise one to our highest levels. One of the greatest things about our sport is that it’s a team/Academy sport where the best athletes in the game work out daily alongside regular members of the Academy. In most sports, elite athletes are carefully shielded away from every day people, in basketball, you won’t see Lebron James working out with average Joe players. You won’t see Tom Brady working out w/ the local plumber. In grappling and Jiu-Jitsu, there is no separation between the elite and the recreational player. The result is that many recreational practitioners and every day people with every day jobs develop a shocking high level of skill over their years of training. Literally just by constantly working out with world class competitors and being exposed to the same techniques and tactics as them. I have seen many cases of every day people give a very hard time to visiting world champions. And, I don’t think you would see that in many sports. This is a wonderful thing. In addition, a great rule of thumb is “THE STRONGER THE ROOM OVERALL – THE BETTER THE BEST MEMBERS OF THAT ROOM WILL BECOME.” Remember, the rising tide that lifts all boats, some may float higher than others but all rise to some degree. Just as they say it takes a village to raise a child, so it takes a room to raise a champion. We believe this at Savarese BJJ (www.njbjj.com) and believe the better that room overall, the better the champions who come out of it.

Angles are your friend in Jiu-Jitsu

Angles are your friend in Jiu-Jitsu. This is a lesson it takes a very long time to learn in our art, sometimes takes years. Gunning for submissions underneath a tough opponent is never easy work. But you can generally make it easier if you consistently look for side on angles that result in your hips coming out to one side rather than being square on and exposed to all of your opponents weight in vulnerable stacking positions. Arm bars, triangles, omoplatas all benefit from getting your hips out. Often a big help is to scoop your arm deep inside your opponents leg and use it to help pull yourself to a good angle. Whatever method you opt for, look to get hips out/side on, and soon you will suffering a lot fewer failures to to stacking counters to your favorite submissions from bottom position. Getting the prefect angle can be the difference between finishing and not finishing your triangles and armbars from the guard. At Savarese BJJ (www.njbjj.com), we practice these movement daily.

Staying calm in BJJ

Staying calm in BJJ is an absolute must in order to escape. In a crises situation, everything begins with a calm mind. There is a huge amount physical stress associated with bad/inferior positions in Jiu-Jitsu. If your opponent knows what they are doing, they can make your life thoroughly miserable with cross faces, chest to chest pressure, forcing you into contorted positions etc. It’s very natural for that physical pressure to create mental pressure, where you feel stress to a point where you start to lose effective decision making capability. This creates a vicious spiral where additional mental stress shuts down your ability to plan escapes, resulting in worsening physical stress, which creates still more mental stress, which adds additional physical stress. Learning to maintain a calm mind under intense physical pressure will enable you to see what needs to be done and make decisions to get you out of there. The only real way to develop calmness of mind under pressure is to experience that pressure often enough to adapt to it. Here, our Savarese BJJ Academy (www.njbjj.com) student Pops, all 70+ years old of him, works on his mental game as much as his physical game by absorbing the powerful cross face pressure of his opponent, and stays calm to think his escape of the position. Only the calm mind can make the correct calculations, and that ability to observe accurately what’s happening and calculate what’s needed to turn things in your favor is what will make the difference in your sport performance when things are not going your way.

Staying calm in BJJ

No-Gi submissions from the mount

No-Gi submissions from the mount are more difficult without the use of grips to choke the neck. Getting submissions from mount without the gi is often a very different position from just holding  the mount itself. Normally when we aim to hold a tight mount, we stay roughly aligned with our opponents centerline with our hips over his hips. However, when it’s time to enter into mounted arm bars and triangles, we have to climb up high to the shoulders and pivot 90 degrees while totally changing our leg placement. This is also often referred to as S mount in Jiu-Jitsu circles. This angle and position allows you full use of your hands to pull and manipulate and the legs and hips to wedge your opponent and prevent defensive movement. This requires some balancing on your part, since you have less base under you, but as they say, nothing risked, nothing gained. The number one rule of the mount (and back) is to keep those dominant positions. And to take your time to work your angles tightly to prevent their escape. Let them carry your weight for a bit. In addition, you can use your face over their face to hinder their breathing, something the New Wave BJJ team has been very effectively using lately. Here at Savarese BJJ (www.njbjj.com), we have been working our no-gi mount game to try and find all the proper angles and set up to submission with no escape. Taking away each escape systematically so the submission is indefensible is the goal.