The only way to improve in BJJ is to fail first

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The only way to improve in BJJ is to fail first

Must like life, the only way to improve in BJJ is to fail first. I was speaking to my students last night about how the only way to improve in BJJ is to fail first. We’ve all heard the “if you’re not tapping, you’re not learning” quote and while I think it’s an awesome quote, sometimes I think it goes in 1 ear and out the other to many. So I told an experience I had as a student coming up through the ranks to my students last night about how when I was a purplebelt training with a guy who was probably the best blackbelt in the Renzo Gracie Academy at the time. Being the top guy at the Academy, I was a little in awe of him and I was getting worked pretty good. He was obviously working on his passing directly to mount ala Roger Gracie and must’ve mounted me what felt like 20 times. Futhermore, I couldn’t escape or do anything even remotely offensive to him. But instead of pouting, saying “I suck or I’m not making progress”, I wrote down everything he did to me that night, worked it with some of my training partners and last night, about 15-16 years later, I was teaching that pass to mount series to a room of 35-40 of my students. Don’t ever give up, sometimes what seems like your worst day can lead to the biggest breakthroughs.

BJJ students: Reward yourself!

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BJJ students: Reward yourself!

BJJ students: Reward yourself! One of the biggest questions I get from white and bluebelts is “what am I doing wrong?’ You are doing nothing wrong, you are still a beginner. Jiu-Jitsu is an art of patience, learned mostly by trial and error. First, focus on the things you are doing correctly and give yourself a pat on the back. Look at how much better you were than 6 months ago. At my Academy (www.njbjj.com), we do year-end evaluations w/ everyone and go over their goals for that previous year w/ them. Most can see how much progress they made that year. BJJ is a process, be patient. The problem is most people want instant results. This is the reason why so many people stop short of achieving their goals. They quit or use steroids….because it the easier road to take. It is easy to think that if it doesn’t come easy to you, it is not for you. It is easy to try something, and then if it doesn’t work out immediately, we can tell ourselves that it isn’t important to us. Ask any successful person in any field how they managed to achieve so much, they will all have a very similar answer (and formula for success) I WORK HARD AND NEVER QUIT!” Like the great Renzo Gracie says “A blackbelt is a whitebelt that never quit”. Have a great day of training….oss.

Back attack tips in BJJ

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Back attack tips in BJJ

Here is a back attack tips in BJJ. When behind an opponent, create the constant threat of chokes and make them defend. Everything else you do feeds off this. The back is the ultimate position in no-gi grappling (and you could also argue that the same is true in gi Jiu-Jitsu and fighting). However, like any position, it has its limitations and getting the position does not guarantee victory against tough opponents. It is very important then, that you create a constant and unrelenting threat of chokes from the back so that your opponent MUST address it or be finished. If you ever see your opponent getting forgetful and raising his chin, go! Snake your wrist under the chin and finish them! If they are disciplined with their chin position, use his defensive chin and hands against him with arm traps and chokes that make defense very difficult indeed. Another plus is that by forcing them to use their hands to defend your attack, you immobilize their hands so they can’t be used to escape the position. Here, 2 of our Savarese BJJ (www.njbjj.com) students Ariana and Kayla (who are actually sisters) competing at the same time and using this theory to perfection.

Two women are wrestling on a blue and red mat.

Back attack tips in BJJ

Fighting bigger opponents in BJJ

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Fighting bigger opponents in BJJ

Fighting bigger opponents in BJJ can be rough. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is one of the few combat sports that still allows open weight competition where smaller athletes can be matched against much larger opponents. In addition, in daily training at your Academy, we are routinely matched with larger training partners. Whenever faced against someone bigger and stronger than yourself, the key to beating them is to take their back or attack their legs. One thing I always advise…get behind them and choke them out or attack the legs, especially from 2 on 1 leg attacks. These two approaches to victory have proven more successful in my experience watching my students over my 20 years of teaching than all others. There are other good methods as well. I like guillotines,  I think the guillotine works well against bigger opponents, but nothing has had the level of success of rear naked chokes from the back and ashi-garami based leg attacks. The back makes good sense. A big opponent can’t crush you with his weight when you’re behind him and chokes can be applied even on very big people, especially in the gi. An opponent can use simple strength to push or pull someone behind him. In the case of leg locks, most people are inherently less coordinated with their feet and often more careless and forgetful of foot/leg placement than they are of hand/arm placement. So remember, when it’s time to take on the big people, think about BACK and LEGS as your path to victory! In this photo, the legend Marcelo Garcia attack the much larger Rico Rodriguez’s back in the 2005 ADCC submission wrestling World Championship. For more articles like this, always check the news section of www.njbjj.com

Two men wrestling in front of a crowd.

marcelo garcia vs ricco rodriguez

Art of teaching BJJ

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Art of teaching BJJ

There is an art of teaching BJJ, once you start teaching, you have to find your niche’. I was so lucky in my BJJ journey to have been able to train under some amazing Master of BJJ, Royler and Renzo Gracie, David Adiv, John Danaher and Sean Williams. And now w/ Rafael Lovato Jr. John Danaher often used to joke after class that he was a Dictator and Libertarian instructor. He would say “as a coach I am a dictator with regards the fundamentals of the sport, but a libertarian with regards everything else.” In BJJ and indeed in life, there are certain fundamental skills without which you simply cannot perform well. It is absolutely crucial that these skills are developed and maintained. Any other projects must be curtailed until they are mastered. In this sense, John would come across as dictatorial and inflexible. I share this as an instructor as well other beliefs, many of which I learned from John himself. He had a tremendous impact on me as a practitioner and teaches (all of those mentioned above have, Royler’s work ethic, Dave’s details, Renzos tenacity, Raf’s calmness). The great Rickson Gracie used to talk a lot about how “if the foundation isn’t strong, the house falls down”. I have always agreed and subscribed to this theory as a Jiu-Jitsu instructor. A skill as fundamental as an elbow escape simply cannot be overlooked. Show me a student with a feeble elbow escape and I will show you a student whose game as a whole is feeble. One of the most talented students I have ever had the good fortune of working with is Danny Rinaldi. Interestingly, when Danny first came to work full time with me, his game was largely confined to half guard based scrambles to the back and finishing with rear strangles. I always insist that a good Jiu-Jitsu player be equally adept at choking from behind an opponent and in front of an opponent. I don’t care what chokes you do, obviously there are many choices, but you must have (at least) one good choke that you really apply well from the back and one from the front, if not, your game overall will suffer from the deficiency. I started pushing Danny towards darce and arm-triangle attacks. Surprisingly, Danny really struggled with the arm-triangle for a time and we tweaked it a lot. I put my dictatorial foot down and insisted he keep working. it would come. Our persistence paid off as Danny eventually mastered these chokes which he showcased in several high profile matches in ADCC trials and many, many training sessions. Once more advanced players have demonstrated a solid foundation of skills, the libertarian side emerges. I believe the long term directions of my students will be mostly determined by their body type and their personality. In class, I show a very wide array of techniques under the assumption that advanced students will pick and choose over time for themselves rather than try to force my favorite moves upon them and make them an imprint of myself and my personality. I believe this is a huge difference between us and many schools that are just “mini mes” of the head instructor. When visitors come to my class they are often surprised by the many very different styles of Jiu-Jitsu my students can express on the mat. This, I believe, is a healthy thing; as it makes BJJ a very satisfying form of self expression that will change as you change and grow as you grow.

Implementing your game in Jiu-Jitsu

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Implementing your game in Jiu-Jitsu

Implementing your game in Jiu-Jitsu is a place where BJJ practitioners sometimes overthink. When you see an opening, you have to try it. The old BJJ philosophy comes into play here…win or learn. If you try and it works, you gain confidence to do it again. In addition, if it fails, you know you are doing something wrong and you can ask your instructor and correct it. As you get more adavnced, when you have dangerous submission holds, even the ones that don’t fully work will have an impact on your opponent. A big part of how your opponent behaves towards you in a match is how dangerous he/she perceives you to be. If your doesn’t see you as dangerous at all, they will do whatever they want with no fear of consequences. However, if you have sharp submissions they will recognize that if they ever let you go too far on a lock, the match is over. As a result, they will approach you differently in the match. If you lock on a tight submission hold on a opponent that takes him within a hair of them tapping but they just manage to slip out, I guarantee you the next time their approach will be in a cautious manner. It is important that you be able to carry a threat into a match that your opponent recognizes and respects. This will funnel their actions in other directions and allow you to control the direction of the upcoming action. In this way, the threat of submissions is almost as important in match outcomes as the their actual successful application. Here, our student Ariana puts the powerful Brian Procel under great pressure with a very strong leglock attack. It was very close, but not completed, but it had a significant impact on the rest of the session as it meant Ari could initiate all the subsequent leg attacks for the rest of the match and force Brian in other directions and possibly open up other submissions. Don’t be discouraged by submissions that almost worked but didn’t, they will still have an effect in your favor that you can exploit later in a match/fight.

Best all around method of passing guard in BJJ

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Best all around method of passing guard in BJJ

The best all around method of passing guard is passing from half guard in BJJ. I have been using this style for over 15 years. There are many effective ways to pass an opponents guard, but to me, the single best all round method will always be to pass from half guard. Why? Because the vast majority of guard passes end with head control as their final step. This creates a critical weakness within them. The need to transition from control of the hips/torso to the head. Making that transition, – the head shift – always presents a window of opportunity for a talented opponent to escape back to guard as you attempt to make that final transition. The beauty of half guard passing is that unlike other passing methods, you can control the head BEFORE you pass. This removes the vulnerable head shift from the process and makes for total control from beginning to end with no real weak points. Of course you need to know other methods, but make sure you put a heavy emphasis on developing your half guard passing game, no other method is so tactically sound. Savarese BJJ (www.njbjj.com) really emphasizes this style of passing early in our curriculum.

You must relax during BJJ

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You must relax during BJJ

You must relax during BJJ. When you start your journey in BJJ, you will hear your instructors tell you “relax” or “loosen up” quite often. 2 of the biggest learning secrets are Relaxation and Tension. One of the toughest things to learn on your Jiu-Jitsu journey is the side by side position of relaxation and tension as you perform Jiu-Jitsu. Relaxation is important for endurance and being smooth and efficient in your movement. If you are overly tense or tight, you can’t move well and you’ll fatigue very quickly. On the other hand, isometric tension is important to immobilize your opponent in in side control, smash passing and submission holds. If you’re too relaxed while applying these pins and submissions, an opponent can and will simply shrug you off and escape. In addition, you must learn to navigate between the demands for relaxation and tension to be effective. Hang loose 😉 One without the other will lead you to failure. When sparring, keep a good sense of when you need to relax and when you need to tighten up. Use tension only in short bursts when either extreme defensive or offensive demand compels you. And the moment it’s over, go back to relaxation. If you enjoyed this article, always check back in the news section of www.njbjj.com for more BJJ tips.

Have a game plan for your BJJ training

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Have a game plan for your BJJ training

Always have a game plan for your BJJ training. You must have a purpose: The single most important thing you carry into your daily workout is not your skill, your knowledge or your desire or most of the things mentioned in this regard, it’s a sense of purpose that is needed most. Either you know yourself if you are an advanced student or listen and follow your instructor plan and curriculum, especially if your school has a history of success and the upperbelts in the training room are good. Know what you want to work on and achieve in every session and you will soon find that progress becomes the norm rather than the exception. Time spent just rolling around sparring is fun and it’s fine to do that periodically or on light days, but it does very little to make you better than you were before you walk in the training room. Drilling has a better effect. Going in to a workout knowing what you are trying to achieve and having a simple game plan for it makes a HUGE difference. Working on a particular weakness in your game is a great example of this. When the workout is over, you will have a sense of improvement and a sense of what you you need to do tomorrow. If you continue such workouts over time, you can achieve things that once seemed impossible and you will see a clear difference in your BJJ game.

Recovering energy in BJJ

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Recovering energy in BJJ

Recovering energy in BJJ can be an important facet in eventually getting a submission. How do we get this done? With what one of my instructors used to call active rest. Jiu-Jitsu, like any martial art or combat sport, can be an exhausting experience. Sometimes, prolonged periods of exertion, especially when trying complete takedowns, guard passes, or guard retention versus relentless opponents, can leave you very tired. But, you can’t stop when tired. What you can do is take active rests that can recharge your batteries and get you ready for a next push forward towards victory. Whenever you capture a strong position after a prolonged struggle and you feel you are fatigued to the point where performance will be severely compromised, take a short rest in that position and control your breathing. In addition, use the position to collect yourself and understand that the onus is on your opponent to do something to get out, not you. For a period long enough to physically recover, let your opponent do the work and focus on physical recovery. Now, obviously you don’t want to simply go limp and have the opponent escape and undo all your hard work. Do the minimum physical expenditure to hold the position and keep the opponent honest by making some kind of minimal threat, like in the case of rear mount, threaten a choke. That takes little energy, but can’t be ignored by an opponent. When you feel you have recovered sufficiently, go back on the attack. I believe you will be pleasantly surprised by how just a little time at lower energy expenditure can enable you to recover and get back to your offense. What people call a great gas tank in Jiu-Jitsu is mostly the ability to vary your intensity levels so you can try to gain better positions through short bursts. Then you can actively rest in the better position. That will enable you to have the energy to finish your opponent.