Power of elbow control in BJJ

Power of elbow control in BJJ

The power of elbow control is a huge part of success in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Elbow control comes from posture, and a big part of good posture in Jiu-Jitsu is concerned with keeping your elbows close to your hips and torso. In addition, the more you can do this, the more difficult it will be for an opponent to control you and open you up to attacks. It stands to reason then, if you flip that thinking around, the power of elbow control in BJJ also shows that taking your opponents elbows out of position and away from the hip and torso, is an excellent way to undermine his game. It makes it easier to apply your own. This is particularly important when employing chest to chest pinning attacks, especially from the mount position, but it’s also a valuable idea when passing half-guard. Using double underhooks is a great way to  undermine your opponents elbow position and thus make defense from half- guard bottom very difficult. Note that head position also becomes important in this context. Here at Savarese BJJ Academy, (www.njbjj.com), we really love to attack this way from the mount. Also, the basis of defense in Jiu-Jitsu is elbow position. There is a reason why the old masters call them elbow escapes,  knock that domino over first and all the others will soon fall. Defense is the most important aspect of jiu-jitsu, if you can’t be finished, there is no way to lose, right?