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.

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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.

Coaching vs Criticism in Jiu-Jitsu

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Coaching vs Criticism in Jiu-Jitsu

Coaching vs Criticism in Jiu-Jitsu is a major topic that I wanted to take a moment to talk about. It is important as a BJJ student or as an athlete of a team sport to understand the difference between coaching and criticism. Now sometimes in a workplace situation, you have have a boss who is full of themselves, just a plain jerk or on a high horse. But when it comes to Jiu-Jitsu or sports related situations, I find that many people mistake coaching, when someone is trying to help you, for criticism and then take the lesson to be learned negatively. A coachable student/athlete will progress far faster if they stay in a positive mindset and keep a learning mentality. In BJJ, always keep the mindset of a whitebelt and take all information from your instructors as a way to improve. Your instructor wants you to get better, most instructors I know love questions from students. People who ask questions are usually in the right state of mind, in tune with their instructor in an effort to “level upâ€. If you are doing something wrong, wouldn’t you want to fix it so you can get better? People that are coachable are open minded to tips or small fixes in their game and use that advice to improve. They don’t take any advice personally. In addition, they don’t hide their mistakes from their instructors. Checking your ego and being willing to listen to people who have more insight and being humble to that instruction will always benefit your development. If you become defensive every time an instructor tries to help, you are only hindering yourself long term. Hope this helped.

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Always end your BJJ class positively

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Always end your BJJ class positively

If you get in the mindset to always end your BJJ class positively, it will make your journey through BJJ much smoothly and you will improve faster. How you end today’s training session will determine tomorrow’s. When most people end a Jiu-Jitsu training session, they are typically exhausted. Understandably they usually either go home to rest or hang out on the mats and take a mental break with small talk and banter with their buddies. In most cases this is fine, but very often I find that this time immediately after class is one of the most productive to teach a quick lesson in response to a problem I saw students experience in that session. Always, training when you are tired in the best time to train, because you are forced to use technique, not strength, because you have none left. In addition, instrcutor love to fix problems when they are fresh in your mind. When we experience a problem on the mat that irritates us, a good solution will be much more memorable and likely to “stick†in our minds precisely because the initial irritation creates a demand for knowledge, and that demand will make the lesson memorable. Post class discussions of a problem students ran into in the best time to learn. Typically I will state the problem and offer initial solutions and bounce ideas around as we experiment with solutions. Some work well for some students, others for other students. These last thoughts often provide a good lead in to tomorrow’s class – and this is the important thing – for only when classes build upon the lessons of previous classes in a continuous line of progress can you build towards your long term goals in BJJ. Keep that smile and good feeling when you leave.

Which BJJ techniques they should focus on?

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Which BJJ techniques they should focus on?

People often ask me which BJJ techniques they should focus on? My answer is simple. The fundamentals. Legendary trainer John Danaher used to teach say Ask yourself one question. “IF YOU WERE IN THE FINALS OF THE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS, IN THE TOUGHEST MATCH OF YOUR LIFE, WHICH TECHNIQUES FROM YOUR REPERTOIRE WOULD YOU BE USING? In all honesty it would be a rather small set of trusted moves wedded together in mutual support to get the win. And those moves would be based off your fundamentals. Roger Gracie, considered by many to be the greatest BJJ competitor ever, used a very strong fundamentals game to win 10 IBJJF World BJJ Championships, double gold at the 2005 ADCC World Submission Championship and the Bellator MMA World title. The great Rickson Gracie, widely considered by his peer to be the greatest BJJ practitioner ever, also shares the same mindset. He would speak of your BJJ foundation is like the foundation of a house, if your foundation isn’t solid, the house fall down. Also compared it to the 4 legs of a chair as far as balance. If one of the legs falls off, the chair 9and you), fall down. Your fundamentals lead to more movements over time. Focus on THOSE BJJ techniques if you want to maximize the effectiveness of your training time. But your mind, body and spirit are also important. Here are 3 tips to help you in those areas:
Mind: Stay as calm as possible but remain alert
Body: Stay relaxed but ready for short bursts of near maximum effort
Spirit: Walking the line between never underestimating your opponent or yourself and never overestimating your opponent or yourself. Try to have a “no excuses” mentality and never give up.
That is your state in good Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

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Standing foot sweeps in BJJ

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Standing foot sweeps in BJJ

Standing foot sweeps in BJJ, just like in Judo, are a vital part of the standup game if your plan on doing competitions. Using your feet for takedowns must be trained for months, even years before mastery. Most Jiu-Jitsu practitioners spend the vast majority of their training time on the floor. This concept makes perfect sense since that is where most matches are won and lost and you always have the option of sitting to the floor without using takedowns. So when BJJ players do use and learn takedowns, they tend to focus on hand dominant takedowns w/ grips since most people are more naturally coordinated with their hands than than feet and legs. In adition, they are used to the gripping process. This is fine for short term development, but long term you must begin to use your feet and legs for takedowns to utilize the greater power and reach of the lower body over the upper body. Takedowns like standing foot sweeps, Uchi Mata, Ouchi Gari, Osoto Gari etc will make you much more effective on your feet. The learning time is longer but the potential rewards are greater. One of the best takedowns for Jiu-Jitsu purposes are the various foot sweeps. All of these techniques work very well along side the rules of guard pulling in Jiu-Jitsu and can send an opponent tumbling to the mat before he can get a grip on you to pull guard. Futhermore, try to implement low risk moves where you don’t have to turn your back on your opponent and are fairly easy to learn the variations most applicable to Jiu-Jitsu.

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The power of the closed guard

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The power of the closed guard

Here at Savarese BJJ, we constantly preach about the power of the closed guard. Nothing good happens when you’re inside a closed guard. In a grappling match, as long as you are locked inside a closed guard, there is an undesirable feeling because you don’t have any form of offense, In addition, your opponent has many attacks that he can employ against you (obviously fighting is a very different story as there are many effective strikes that the top athlete inside the closed guard can employ). As such, you want to spend as little time as possible inside the closed guards of your opponents as possible so that you are not caught on the wrong side of this any longer than necessary. As such you must develop reliable ways of opening a closed guard in a timely manner so that you don’t waste long periods of match time in a position from which you cannot advance and score. Also, where your opponent can submit you with many of the best moves in the sport but you have only a few long percentage attacks on them. I strongly prefer standing methods of opening a closed guard and believe that these work best for most people in most situations (though some athletes have specialized methods of opening closed guards on their knees). We even use a phrase “what’s the best time to stand vs a closed guard? IMMEDIATELY!” Learning to stand inside a dangerous closed guard can be rather discouraging at first as you will often be knocked down – don’t get discouraged – getting knocked down a few times before you succeed is perfectly normal even at world championship level – it’s not as bad as sitting passively inside a closed guard letting time waste and defending yourself from submissions. Opening a closed guard is one of the first skills you must master if you are to make progress in the sport since without it you couldn’t even get started in top position. Find a method that suites you and get to work!

Guard attack theory in BJJ

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Guard attack theory in BJJ

Wanted to write about guard attack theory in BJJ today. First thing to know is every attack from bottom is first an attack on your opponents stance and balance. There are a thousand ways to attack from bottom position in Jiu-Jitsu, but they all have a common start. Breaking posture. Many times, when your opponents posture is broken, that is where the openings to attack occur. In addition, your opponent can only withstand your attacks and go on to pass your guard when he/she establishes good posture and balance. Therefore, it stands to reason then, that every time you go to attack from bottom position, your first target should be your opponents posture and balance. It doesn’t matter what attack you’ve chosen. When you can snap an opponents hand down to the floor, knock his butt back to the mat, get his head lower than his hips and all those other signs of successful breaking of balance and posture, then you will suddenly find whatever attacks you like are suddenly working much better. In our opinion, for new students to BJJ, it’s always best to learn attacks from the closed guard first. You learn the importance of control and then attacks. Once that is learned, you can start to move on to more guards – half guard, Spider guard, lasso guard, deep half guard, butterfly guard etc. Find a guard you are comfortable with and work it for another of months. You will not find success in 2-3 weeks. There is a lot of trial involved in getting better at a guard or developing a game that involves entries, attacks and defense. As a result of this work work, you will see your game get better and better. Good luck!

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Taking notes during BJJ class

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Taking notes during BJJ class

One thing we really encourage at Savarese BJJ is taking notes during BJJ class. People usually learn more visually but sometimes taking notes, in your own words, can trigger something that will help you remember. Often I am often asked is whether it is beneficial to take notes after Jiu-Jitsu training sessions. My experience is that there is one common goal for all students – the ability to retain and access learned information under the stress of sparring/competition. However, different people have different ways of accomplishing that common goal and no one method appears to outperform the others. For example, I used to take private lessons w/ the great John Danaher w/ a group of 4 guys that are all blackbelts and school owners/instructors now. Joe D’arce never took a note in his life, he had a uncanny ability to remember everything. Myself and others were prolific note takers to the point where the legend Renzo Gracie would joke as he walked by or joined by saying “school is in session!” in a way only he could. . All of us were able to retain information successfully despite the polar opposite approach with regards notes. What I generally find is that people from an academic background are used to the idea of note taking already and adapt it well to Jiu-Jitsu study. Those who are not, don’t. Just do what you’re comfortable with. Experiment with both and see if there is a difference in your retention performance, but don’t feel you HAVE to take notes. If you do choose to take notes, focus on writing down what was new and interesting in that session rather than every detail. Remember that our memory has limits so don’t overstock on detail that aren’t essential. So if you’ve never taken notes, give it a try, but if you don’t feel any retention benefits don’t feel you have to do it or that you are at a disadvantage, you are in good company because most champions don’t take notes either. But if you feel like it does help (as it probably did when you were in college), then stick with it. Do it with a focus on what was new and important for that day rather than a record of everything that happened. I definitely recommend taking notes at seminars because those hours are crammed w/ more info than the normal BJJ class.

 

 

Expressing yourself through Jiu-Jitsu

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Expressing yourself through Jiu-Jitsu

Expressing yourself through Jiu-Jitsu can be a great stress reliever and confidence booster. Expressing who you are through Jiu-Jitsu offers an infinite amount of moves to its practitioners. You could live a million lifetimes and not master them all. It’s important that you focus on those which best suit your body type and personality. When you first begin study, you need to simply learn the basic moves as best you can. But in time, you will begin to notice that certain moves come more natural you than others. By the time you are a black belt, your game will reflect who you are as clearly as your fingerprints. Don’t try to force this process. Don’t start off with a statement that this or that move will be your favorite, It will happen organically over time as naturally as your features change with age. At Savarese BJJ, we teach a program that has a distinctive look among all our students, beginning with cast iron defense and submission offense around the whole body with a heavy emphasis on mount and back. We make sure to teach a large number of moves and tactics and leave lots of room for individual experimentation so that within the commonalities of our students, there are many different interpretations to suit their individual body types and personalities. In the early stages the moves of BJJ must be given out under the control of the teacher, but as you develop over time they must be offered as a smorgasbord that allows the students to pick and choose those which best suit what they want and need. I always tell my students – I am a dictator on the fundamentals of Jiu-Jitsu – there is no choice on those, they have to be learned – but I am a witness on the rest of the game. As you practice, keep a note of those moves that seem to come more naturally to you than others. Research how successful/high percentage they are in top level competition. Perhaps one day they will become the defining feature of your game.