The power of your hips in Jiu-Jitsu

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The power of your hips in Jiu-Jitsu

The power of your hips in Jiu-Jitsu is essential. Here are some details about using the power of your hips: In most respects the human body is not particularly impressive in terms of generating power, but the hips and legs are a notable exception. When you can harness the power of your hips in a constructive way, you’ll find your combat effectiveness greatly increases. One of the best examples of this comes when athletes use their hips effectively against takedown attempts. Aggressively checking and stopping an opponents takedown with your hips and then pulling him onto your hips to lift and rotate him enables you to strongly counter takedowns and many forms of wrestling based guard sweeps. Probably the most commonly used variation of this is uchi mata. You’ll need an upper body connection, usually an over hook, but it’s the lower body that supplies the horsepower. Learning to quickly fit your hips into and under your opponents hips provides you with a tremendous source of power that you can call on at a moment’s notice and turn defense into offense. For more tips, follow us on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/savaresebjj/

Why Jiu-Jitsu is so great

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Why Jiu-Jitsu is so great

I truly believe that one of the great reasons why classical Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is so successful as a martial art is it’s incredibly simple and clear basic directive. There is clarity of purpose in BJJ. You can explain it to a total neophyte in two minutes and it’ll make intuitive sense to him. In fact it’s so clear that I believe if you took two completely untrained people with no fighting experience of similar size and strength and explained the basic directive of Jiu-Jitsu to one of them but not the other, the one who had been taught that basic directive would have a considerably higher chance of victory if they fought each other, not because he has gained any skill – he hasn’t – but just because he now has an effective and proven SENSE OF DIRECTION while the other only has his instincts. When one person has a sense of direction and purpose in a crises and the other doesn’t – I’ll put my money on the fellow with a sense of direction and purpose every time. What is this basic directive of Jiu jitsu? It can be stated in a single sentence. WORK YOUR WAY TO THE MOUNTED POSITION OR REAR MOUNTED POSITION AND FINISH YOUR OPPONENT. It doesn’t matter whether it’s grappling or fighting. If you follow that simple directive and have the skills to do it against the resistance of your opponent – you’ll be a very difficult challenge indeed. Remember always that every rule, point allocation, recommendation, technique and tactic of Jiu jitsu Bia just a means to satisfying this basic directive. Never lose sight of its clarity and you’ll always know what to do and how to train and prepare.

The value of a good Jiu-Jitsu instructor

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The value of a good Jiu-Jitsu instructor

The value of a good Jiu-Jitsu instructor and the true value of mentorship are one in the same. Dedicating yourself to a teacher works for many reasons. The one that most people focus on is the most obvious – as a student we gain knowledge and information from good counsel and an expert eye. But mostly it works because once you’ve committed yourself fully to a teacher, you have a responsibility to actually GET YOUR ASS IN GEAR. This has less to do with anything specific that they do and a whole lot to do with the depth and obligation of the relationship. The only way to fully repay a mentor or teacher is by demonstrating that you have the wherewithal to evolve and grow in a way that actually matters. Being on the hook in this way puts you in a tough spot…which is exactly the point. It’s a commitment anyone can elect to undertake or renew regardless of where you are in your personal evolution, grappling career or jiu-jitsu lifecycle. It’s this dedication which forges the bond and, like it or not, there can be no true benefit as a student without such a commitment.

Using your legs in Jiu-Jitsu

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Using your legs in Jiu-Jitsu

Using your legs in Jiu-jitsu is important. Fight them with your legs! One of the most fundamental aspects of BJJ or all martial arts is it’s philosophy of always seeking to match your legs against your opponent’s arms whenever possible. All the best positions and submissions in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu involve you connecting your legs to your opponent’s upper body to take advantage of the fact that the human body has a basic asymmetry between upper body strength and endurance versus lower body strength and endurance. So using your bottom half in Jiu-Jitsu becomes very valuable. If you can consistently match your lower body against an opponents upper body you’ll have a great advantage even when you’re smaller than your opponent. Make it your mission to always lead with your legs and you’ll go far in this game! Follow us for more tips on Instagram /https://www.instagram.com/savaresebjj/ 

What are the best BJJ moves for you?

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What are the best BJJ moves for you?

What are the best BJJ moves for you? Highly effective, but not universally effective: There are some moves in Jiu-Jitsu that are highly effective but not universally effective. What does this mean? It describes a move that works extremely well for those people whose body type supports the move, but doesn’t work at all for those people whose body does not support the move. A good example would a body triangle. If you are blessed with relatively long and thin legs and your opponent has a reasonably slim waist, a body triangle is extremely effective as a means of back control that is generally superior to basic hooks. Anyone can use it, should use it. However, a body triangle may well be impossible for students who have short, thick legs or an opponent with a large mid section. In these cases you can’t even get the move started. So what should we do? Should we focus on universality as the trait of our move selection? Or is it better to learn the most effective moves and just apply them cases by case where applicable? I do think there is a lot to be said for having a universal game, but I’m also a realist and understand that some moves (such a body triangle) are just so damn good that you’d be handicapping yourself if you didn’t use them when you could. Remember, moves don’t have to work for everyone in order to work for you.

Fighting your way out of trouble in BJJ

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Fighting your way out of trouble in BJJ

Fighting your way out of trouble in BJJ is a near certainty. If there is one certainty in Jiu-Jitsu it’s that your opponent will create every bit of havoc and trouble for you that they can. The typical pattern will always be one of you constantly having to dig yourself out of trouble and then get back on the attack. When we drill we typically just practice moves assuming we are in control of the action, but the reality is that in sparring and competition we are rarely in control of the action. Usually it’s a back and forth battle where you’re defending against your opponents attack with you working hard to shut it down and then trying to establish your own attack. This pattern is maintained until one of you fatigues or one of you can establish a position or move that exceed the others ability to defend. Get used to this sense of back of forth struggle. It’s exhausting and frustrating but it’s the essential nature of the game. If you can’t accept and embrace that, then you cannot expect to do well.

Your favorite move in Jiu-Jitsu

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Your favorite move in Jiu-Jitsu

Your favorite move in Jiu-Jitsu usually becomes the foundation for most of your attacks. When it comes to favorite moves, almost all great athletes have their signature moves. These form the basis of their attacking game. Once you develop one solid attacking move it will force opponents to react to it in predictable ways. This will enable you to develop follow up moves that counter your opponent’s counters to that original move. Thus does the original move function like the trunk of a tree and from that trunk grows multiple branches and from them more branches until a complete tree grows and emerges. In this way a few favorite moves can create great growth across your entire game. I usually discourage athletes from trying to FORCE a favorite move. It will usually come to you naturally and organically as a response to your body type and personality and coaching lineage. Once you have a few favorites they will form the bedrock of your offense. Add appropriate supplements to those moves in response to opponent’s resistance and soon you’ll have a complete offensive game that fits you as naturally as your favorite clothes

Staying compact in Jiu-Jitsu

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Staying compact in Jiu-Jitsu

Staying compact in Jiu-Jitsu in extremely important. jiu-jitsu is more often than not a sport that generally punishes extension. In general you’re better off in most situations keeping your elbows and knees close to your core and to each other. If you just work with this simple desiderata in mind – KEEP YOUR ELBOWS AND KNEES CLOSE TOGETHER AND CLOSE TO YOUR BODY – you’ll do better on the mats. As you grow in sophistication you’ll add the idea of inside positioning but that’s a longer story for a another day. Stay compact and you’ll stay alive – stay alive and you’re always in the fight!

The power of upper body takedowns in BJJ

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The power of upper body takedowns in BJJ

The power of upper body takedowns are gaining popularity in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. usually, the most commonly applied and scored takedowns in no gi grappling are lower body takedowns (tackles to the legs). They are usually single leg and double leg variations. While there is no doubting the effectiveness of these techniques, they do have some issues in the context of no gi grappling. First, the contact they make is chest to thigh. This means that upon contact with the ground you lack upper body control. This always creates scramble conditions that make scoring under Jiu-Jitsu rules very problematic against a skilled and experienced opponent. Second, the lowered head and arm positions create dangerous amounts of head exposure (guillotine) arm exposure (kimura/Darce/armbar) and back exposure (sprawl and go behinds). It is very prudent to add upper body takedowns that begin with chest to chest or chest to back contact that greatly reduce the dangers of prolonged scrambles and submissions as you attempt takedowns. In the no-gi context these typically require a blend of wrestling, judo and jiu-jitsu skills adapted to Jiu-Jitsu scoring criteria. It is a fascinating part of the game and one that BJJ must incorporate if it is to progress towards it’s potential in takedowns suited to its unique rule set. You will often see my students utilize upper body takedowns when possible due to the advantages I mentioned. Best of all is to blend both upper body and lower body takedowns to create a dual threat that opponents will find very difficult to contend with. Most Jiu-Jitsu students have a solid understanding of upper body grips from their guard game – once they learn some principles of positional advantage in standing position they can usually adapt fairly quickly to gain competence on their feet with those same grips. This weekends Craig jones Invitational and ADCC 2024 Submission Grappling World Championship showed many competitors were able to showcase upper body takedowns to win medals at each tournament with 2 becoming millionaires in Nicky Rodriguez and kade ruotolo. With training they can work for you too!

Giving it all in Jiu-Jitsu

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Giving it all in Jiu-Jitsu

Giving it all in Jiu-Jitsu mean giving it everything. When we think of giving it everything in some aspect of our life, whether it be in Jiu-Jitsu or anything else, we typically think in terms of a single big challenge in which we give our all to prevail. So for example a very tough match in which we give everything we have to win. Certainly this is admirable and indeed necessary for your toughest matches, but the more difficult and important aspect of giving it everything is to do so over TIME. Most people can give everything they have for a ten minute match, but very few can give everything they have for ten years of a training program that prepares them for the biggest ten minute match of their life. Yet it’s who gives everything for ten years that will determine winner of loser, rather than who gives everything for that ten minutes. Your skill level is more important than anything for determining the outcome of your matches, and high level your skills are will be determined by your commitment over lonely years in gym workouts that no one sees rather than the few minutes you spend in front of an audience.