The best positions to finish in BJJ

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The best positions to finish in BJJ

The best positions to finish in BJJ are usually considered the mount and the back. So, make sure you have good chokes and control from those positions of importance. History has shown that chokes from rear mount have been the single most successful and versatile form of submission in Jiu-Jitsu. All students should do everything in their power to increase their skill in this area. Less well known however, is the idea that one of the best ways to increase your success with rear naked chokes is to get good at chokes from the front headlock position. My friend John Danaher, widely considered one of the top BJJ instructors in the world, used to say the front headlock position was so dominant, he believed points should be scored in competition for it. Once you establish a reputation as having dangerous chokes from front headlock position, opponents will be forced to go into strong defensive reactions to that threat. Their reactions will be so strong and predictable that they will make the task of shifting to the back position to set up rear naked chokes much easier than they would otherwise be. Diversion will always be one of the best means to break through strong defenses in combat sports. In addition, and a good choke attempt from the front headlock position is an excellent diversion for a quick go behind and entry into your favorite rear attacks. So make sure you can attack well both front and back with your choke attacks, since improvement in one will always lead to increased success with the other (this goes in both directions, though usually front to back is preferable over back to front because it leads to a more controlling position.) See you on the mats.

BJJ offers something for everyone

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BJJ offers something for everyone

BJJ offers something for everyone, it one of the best things I love about Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Some want to compete, some lose weight, some maybe just want to make some new friend with common fitness goals. Maybe some want to be a MMA fighters. People from all walks of life, doctors, lawyers, fireman, policeman, office workers, high school athletes etc fill our mats daily.

Here are two ways of the biggest ways of studying Jiu-Jitsu: One of the beautiful things of Jiu-Jitsu is that you can approach it in two very different ways. Both of which are very profitable to your development. The first is to study Jiu-Jitsu as a martial art/combat sport in itself. If you study Jiu-Jitsu as a stand alone art by itself you can make fast progress and really focus on pure grappling. I still believe after all these years that just BJJ by itself makes for an extremely effective fighting style. Even a very highly ranked fighter would have to be very wary of a very good Jiu-Jitsu practitioner who had no MMA training and stay away from certain positions and play a smart tactical game to win. The other approach is to see BJJ as a component of a complete fighting style that borrowed from various combat sports to produce a well rounded MMA style that covered everything. This is generally the best approach for fighting but is often not suitable to part timers or older athletes or professionals who simply can’t risk daily injuries while working a full time job. Many BJJ students are BJJ specialists who dedicate their time to single discipline, BJJ as a self defense art the way the Gracie Family created it. Takedown to grappling position to submission. Someone like Georges St Pierre is the all rounder who uses Jiu-Jitsu training as a vital component of an overall program as a professional MMA athlete. Both are wonderful ways to approach the art. I’ve always loved the fact that BJJ can adapt to the needs of its followers like this and it has created some amazing memories for me as a coach and competitor to see different athletes with different goals working together in their own directions.

www.njbjj.com  will be back tomorrow with more BJJ advice
A group of people in white uniforms doing sit ups.Two people in a judo match on the ground.

A woman in white uniform sitting on the ground.

The power of the closed guard

Pulling the trigger on submissions in BJJ

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Pulling the trigger on submissions in BJJ

Pulling the trigger on submissions in BJJ sometimes takes time to learn, but is a necessary skill in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Opportunity won’t last forever, sometimes, it’s just a flash. The higher in rank you get, the smaller the openings become.  Jiu-Jitsu is a game of movement. As the two athletes move around each other, opportunities to attack will naturally arise. No doubt all of you will already have your favorite opportunities. In addition, some of you will favor front headlocks, some kimuras, some leg locks from variations of leg attacks. Arguably the most effective opportunistic scramble targets are the back and mount- whichever one you favor – understand that the opportunity will be fleeting and the better your opponent, the more fleeting it will be. As such, you must build the capacity to PULL THE TRIGGER UPON OPPORTUNITY. You will need to build this skill in two ways. First, building the skills that lead to success with the move. Second, building the defensive skills that will enable you to recover in cases you fail to succeed with the move. Fear of the consequences of failing in the split second of opportunity has stopped more athletes from attempting the move when the opportunity was there than athletes who tried and failed. In a world of fleeting opportunity it’s not just about the skills that make the move work, but about the confidence to pull the trigger and attempt it, for without the attempt, no amount of skill will be of value in that fleeting time you have to perform the move you seek. See you on the mats.

Finishing your single leg

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Finishing your single leg

Finishing your single leg is something that needs to mastered. The second you make contact with the leg, you have to attack your opponents balance. One of the most common problems with Jiu-Jitsu practitioners/competitors is a tendency to simply pick the leg up when going into their high single legs. . As a result, their opponent escapes. Because their opponents can easily maintain balance on one leg and because they are in good balance, they can immediately go into strong counters. Counters like guillotines, kimuras, as well as leg lock entries. These present all kinds of problems. It is very important that the second you get two hands to the leg, you immediately exert strong downward pressure with shoulder/chest while pushing with your head so that your opponent is out of balance with weight on his heels of his feet. Often this will force him to use his arms to help regain balance. In addition, this precludes him from using this arms to lock up his guillotine, kimura and leg lock counters. This will put all his attention with staying up rather than attacking you. Then you can focus on the task of completing the takedown without the distraction of defending yourself from his counters. Make a habit doing more than picking the leg up. Make sure you go further disturb his balance at the same time and keep him hopping and reaching so they he never gets settled enough to counter attack so you can make a smoother completion to your takedown.
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Uke and Tori meaning in BJJ

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Uke and Tori meaning in BJJ

I am often asked, what is the meaning of Uke and tori in BJJ? To answer, almost all drilling in a Jiu-Jitsu class is done with one person, usually a professor or instructor, who is PERFORMING the move being practiced. That person is the Tori (Tori – the executor of the technique). In addition, the other person who has the technique  BEING PERFORMED UPON THEM is the Uke (Uke – the receiver of the technique). For the students of Savarese BJJ, the uke is often Elliot, Nate or Maverick. In some places, being the Uke is an honor, as you are someone the instructor trusts to be in lock step with him and not interrupt his “flow” while teaching. One of the best ways to learn in Jiu-Jitsu is to be the Uke to a more advanced Tori. When I started Jiu-Jitsu, I was often the Uke to my instructor David Adiv (www.gracienj.com) at his school at the Somerset Hills YMCA. At first I was nervous but realized I was learning a lot more by having the techniques being performed on me and feeling them. As time passed I benefitted immensely as first, I felt what perfectly executed technique should feel like first hand, and in time I got closer and closer to replicating that in my own training. Second, I gained insight on technique that can only come from feeling it rather than just watching it. Third, I learned about the correct reactions to the technique as they were taught in chains and combinations. When you are the Uke in training,  recognize it as a tremendous opportunity to boost your skill level indirectly and be loose, not stiff. Soon the best people in the Academy will want to drill with you and you will accelerate your learning even faster. In addition, if you are the guy that when it’s time to get a partner for drills and everyone walks away from you and no one makes eye contact, that’s a pretty good sign that you are not a good Uke during positional drilling and need to improve.

Winning scrambles in BJJ

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Winning scrambles in BJJ

Winning scrambles in BJJ in a very big part of the live training process. As your reaction time and defense improves, so will your ability to win the position in a scramble. There are an infinite number of possibilities in a scramble, but there should be only one goal…the opponents back. If you follow the sport side of BJJ, John Danaher’s students seem to excel at this in no-gi and guys like the Miyao brothers, Mendes brothers and Keenan Cornelius as well. It can be hard to know what to do in the fleeting time and motion of a scrambles. The single most useful thing you can have under these circumstances is a sense of direction. You can actually go in several good directions in a scramble, but in my opinion the best direction will always be towards your opponents back. (and the mount as well, Khabib Nurmagomedov excels there). The back is a big target, a huge percentage of our body’s surface area, so it will always be available at some point as you move through a prolonged scramble. Once you get there it enables you to control and finish the toughest opponents. When your world is a confusing tangle of limbs flying around the mat,  keep your thought process simple and clear, aim for the back. Remember, in a race between a speedster with no sense of direction versus someone with a tight BJJ game who knows exactly where he wants to go, – the tight game will beat the speedster every time.

Check back tomorrow at www.njbjj.com

How to still improve while injured in BJJ

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How to still improve while injured in BJJ

How to still improve while injured in BJJ? To train or not to train, that is the question. BJJ is not easy on the body sometimes, especially if you are an older practitioner. The trouble with having a BJJ injury is not that you’re hurt. It is that you can’t train. Or can you? If something is minor, and you are the type of person who falls out of their schedule easily, has the tendency to quit at first sign of adversity, change that! Get a brace, tape it up. If if becomes too much, seeing your doctor is the next step. Next is actually following their advice. So, if the advice is to rest for a couple of weeks, listen. What you mustn’t do is skip it all together and jump straight back in. Take it slow, some flow rolls, grab a partner you trust. Just give your body enough time to heal. I always tell my students “don’t turn a 3 week injury into a 3 month one”. Aggravating an injury is very easy to do if you train without letting it heal up enough. In addition, even if you do not make an existing injury worse, you’ll can cause a new injury. When you’re favoring a certain part of your body, the body tends to compensate. That is why “rest is sometimes best”.

That said, let’s see how you should train after a BJJ injury, or with a minor one.

To Train Or Not To Train?

Injuries!!!! Listen to you body. If it is screaming at you for a day off, take it! you do not “lose your game” in a day a month, or a year. That  being said, and this is SO important, STAY IN YOUR ROUTINE! Whatever your training schedule, it is so important that you come to class and watch while you are injured, especially if you are a white or bluebelt. First, you don’t want to fall behind and you can still be learning the moves even without drilling them (sometimes, it is even better this way, you see more) And secondly, I see this all the time. When you are training consistently, it becomes part of your day to train or work out. When you are not coming consistently, it works the same way in reverse, it becomes part of your day not to come and makes it harder to come back. Do not fall into this trap!! Also, and **BEWARE OF THIS TRAP** Please understand that in the majority of cases your situation and/or injury is not special. Someone is or has gone through it and a lot of times they are training right beside you and you’d never know it. Unfortunately, I’ve had tons of students quit over the years because in their minds, their injury or circumstance was “the worst.” And, for that person, it became OK to quit because they can use that injury or situation to rationalize their quitting spirit. “I had to quit because…..” Don’t be confused, you quit because you made the decision to, that’s it . The first time you overcome these pitfalls will set the foundation for your ability to succeed in the future, regardless of what your endeavor is…and then when you run into injuries or tough times again, you will be better equipped to handle it because you’ve rewired your brain to understand that if it’s important, you will find a way.

Multiple attacks help you finish in BJJ

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Multiple attacks help you finish in BJJ

Multiple attacks help you finish in BJJ. Don’t just attack the joint, attack their balance at the same time. I’m positive in your training sessions many times you have had the frustrating experience of locking on a nice submission hold and having your opponent hold a strong defensive posture and then work his way free of the hold. Most submission defense against submission holds applied from bottom position begin with 2 things: posture and base.  So, it is for that reason that whenever possible, go beyond just attacking with the submission hold. So, and this is especially relevant,  – attack your opponent’s balance, posture and base at the same time! This severely hampers their defense. Here, our student Ariana is not only attacking a arm-in guillotine, but w/ the guillotine, she is control his posture by controlling the head,  she has his head in her armpit to stop him from freeing and her leg around his back to prevent a roll through. Therefore, note how she goes the extra distance to break her opponents balance as well – immediately making escape more difficult leaving no room for an escape as a bonus. Next time you are locked into an arm bar, triangle, leg lock or whatever from bottom position, make a simultaneous attack on your opponents balance and you will soon find that the balance attack makes the submission attacks much more successful. We always share tips like this at www.njbjj.com in the news section.

A woman is on the ground in a judo match.

Multiple attacks help you finish in BJJ

Making progress in Jiu-Jitsu

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Making progress in Jiu-Jitsu

Making progress in Jiu-Jitsu is no easy feat. It will take maximum effort from you. There are a thousand obstacles that you will run into daily, weekly, monthly and yearly. There will be days you swear you’re 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. To tell a personal story, back in 2001, I tore my ACL/PCL/LCL in a tournament final. We didn’t have many of the medical advancements we have today. The rehab was hell. But some of my best days in rehab came the day after some of my worst. It taught me a valuable lesson about never giving up, never giving in, living to fight another day. I took on the quote by Jim Rohn-“if you really want to do something, you’ll find a way, if not, you’ll find an excuse” as my own personal mantra. 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. There is more video out there than ever for this process. Find someone w/ a similar body type to follow. 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. This 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 in making progress in Jiu-Jitsu.

if you enjoyed this article, check us out daily at www.njbjj.com for more BJJ related advice

Risk assessment in BJJ

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Risk assessment in BJJ

Where is the right time for risk assessment in BJJ? Where there is danger there is sometimes opportunity.  The game of Jiu-Jitsu is essentially a game of risk management. You want certain outcomes, getting those outcomes will entail a degree of risk. You try always to lower the risk as much as possible but always remembering there is the understanding that nothing risked, nothing gained. While it’s in our best interests to general seek to lower risk to the greatest degree we can, there is no denying that sometimes we can get excellent results by increasing risk, provided we do so in a way that we can control to an acceptable degree. Probably the riskiest thing you can do in BJJ is expose your back to your opponent. However, there are things you can do to mitigate the risk to some degree, and as a reckless opponent over extends himself going for your back some interesting counter attacks become available, some of which can lead directly to victory. For instance, sometimes leaving an open door to your back via elbow position can bring an opponent on to some very strong leg locking positions. When your usual attacks aren’t getting the breakthroughs you need there can be times when upping the risk can turn a match in your favor. There are even escapes from the mount position into leglocks.  Learn to make risk assessments and marry these to specialized techniques and you can start drawing overzealous opponents into traps that can get breakthroughs that direct attacks could not.