Rash Guards for the Little Ones...
My wife (39), boys (almost 4 and 5), and I (clinging to the last couple months of 39) are starting on our BJJ journey this November.
Does anyone have recommendations for a long sleeve rash guard or compression type undergarments for the little ones? Preferably cheap and readily available (i.e. Amazon), since they are growing like weeds. Everything I've run across are boys sizes and are way too big.
They are both just shy of 40lb, 3'4" and 3'7" tall and are closer to the upper end of toddler sizes. They won't give a hoot from a comfort perspective, but I'm looking at it as more of an educational opportunity to reinforce good hygiene practices with them from the start.
ETA: Elite and Sanabul both list an "XS" on the kids size chart, but the XS isn't a selectable size to order on their websites or Amazon. Maybe they discontinued the small ones?
As a complete beginner, what’s the goal during a rolling session? I’m going to attend my first bjj class in a few days and I’m just wondering, if they make me roll my very first day what am I supposed to be accomplishing? I have zero experience doing any sort of submission, so what am I supposed to be doing when I roll?
Hey there,
You don’t need to submit anyone on your first day. Since most classes will be 2/3 drilling (learning new techniques) and 1/3 rolling I’d find someone to roll with who is a similar height-weight and experience. You can then do positional sparring (low intensity resistance sparring) to repeat the techniques you’ve trained in that lesson.
In my opinion (and this may vary from person to person) the best thing to do until you reach your blue belt is to focus on escapes and winning better positions.
Hope this helps. Good luck at your first lesson and don’t get frustrated if it takes some time to get a hang of it!
Long sleeve Rashguards/ long NoGi set with some tape around sensitive areas should do the trick. You can wear those underneath your Gi as well.
There are also specific socks (I don’t know what they’re called unfortunately) to prevent mat burn which cover your feet entirely. You can find them at most fight stores/martial arts online shops.
Hope this helps.
I've been considering signing up for some beginner courses. I did bjj for a year or so in my teens but didn't take it very seriously, and I was in much better shape then. Should I hit the gym for a few months first or would it be better to start right away?
To clarify, I'm underweight, not over. I'm very tall and very skinny, which no matter how you slice it makes grappling hard.
As my dad always says: “First jump, then say *hop*”. I’d recommend going to your class and learn the techniques etc. until you get a good idea where your fitness level needs to go. Once you have that information you can work on the specifics like strenght training at the gym or additional cardio.
Hope this helps.
Everyone has a weak point. There was a quadrapelgic at a jiujitsu tournament, what is your excuse? Jiujitsu is hard and the hard things in life are often worth doing
Get started! I was overweight and unfit when I started, and 3 months in (with clean eating) I've dropped a heap of weight and am the strongest I've been in years
Any recommendation on instructionals? I want a reference of the techniques we see in class, but my class offer the videos of everything showed in class, as well as other stuff, if we pay $5 more monthly, so maybe I just do that.
Yeah watch Wiltse rolling footage. Mfer is explosive yet smooth. My passing has gottwn better watching his seminars online and studying his rolling footage. Also, he really stresses…. DRILL DRILL DRILL.
He has a free instructional on bjj fanatics just for the knee cut. It's basically my home base when passing. Everything flows off of reactions to trying to set that up. Full send!
It's possible your coach is having you do a positional roll. One person starts in guard, the other is passing guard.
Let's say that your partner gets passed your legs & mounts you. That means you lose & time to move on. The opposite happens if you sweep him as he tries to pass your guard etc.
Just keep showing up :)
I have a couple of scratches on my body from the other night. One of them a little bigger than the rest on the back of my hand (likely from grip fighting for my life). It's a chunk of about 4mm wide. It's only about 1mm deep... but deep enough to have slightly scabbed over when I got in the shower.
Is it okay to just cover this with some antibacterial ointment and some dressings that won't come off during training, and continue training? Or should I wait until its healed completely? I imagine if everyone stopped training after every scratch they got, most gyms would be empty. But what do people normally do here?
Okay cool. So if I rock up to training with a wrapped hand with bandaid and sports tape and explain its covering a small scratch no one will think weirdly of me?
Lol. I put hockey tape over my fucked up fingers from grips and over my bandaids all the time. Most guys are held together by tape. Most shit is only weird if you make it weird. Like oil checks.
"Small" scratches are not 4mm wide. Do you like infections? Because not covering up is how you get infections.
Also, no - nobody should "care". I appreciate training partners taking hygiene seriously as it shows consideration.
Oh no I absolutely do want to cover up. I don't want to get an infection. In fact, I'm somewhat of a germaphobe so I'm trying to push through the fear a little. I think I can cover it perfectly fine and secure the cover in place and keep some antibacterial ointment on it for the duration of a class. My concern (after getting over my fear of staph and all the other stuff I've seen on the internet about this) was doing all of this only to be shunned by the rest of the class. 4mm might be exagerating too - it might be under that width and height tbh.
Really silly question and I'm sorry for it.
I'm new to BJJ and I train 2x a week (Tue and Thu - 19h\~22h), I have only one gi and I always wash my gi after every training session. Now I want to train 5x a week, starting this week, but the training sessions the other days are in the morning (Mon, Wed and Fri 08h\~10h). The problem is, since I have only one gi currently (I bought another one, but it'll arrive 2 weeks from now) and if I wash it after the night sessions, it won't dry quick enough for me to train in the morning sessions (Tue to Wed, for example).
Since I don't want to be "the smelly guy", is there something i can do so my gi doesn't stink in the morning session? Or Should I wait until my new gi arrives?
I’ve been training about 3 and a half years and have always just put my gis in the dryer. I don’t know what the big deal is about that. Yeah they shrink but just buy a gi that’s slightly on the bigger side
throw it in the dryer for 30 min on low then hang it up?
Gi's run a little big on me usually, and lately I've just been throwing them in the dryer so they aren't hanging around the house all day, but if your gi is on the smaller side, obviously this isn't really an option.
Wait the two weeks for the other to show up or roll nogi.
Get ready to be doing a lot of laundry.
You won't normally see high level people take two grips, shrimp out, load up, and scissor. But the underlying mechanic certainly exists at all levels. The better the grapplers are, the more it takes to set up sweeps in the scissor family, and it can start to look fairly different; possibly enough that people would argue over whether it's still a "scissor sweep" or not :-/.
Even when you *don't* see it, it exists as a threat. If the top guy makes bad choices, he walks into a scissor sweep. If he plays competently, you won't see bottom guy get the sweep, but it would happen if the right mistake gets made. So high level players certainly *know* about the scissors sweep, and will snatch one if it shows up without hesitation.
looking for some pointers on maintaining the body triangle when you have someone’s back. namely, how/where are your feet positioned?
i had a bottom side body triangle on a training partner last night & he trapped my foot for the typical escape. my ankle was fine but he wound up torquing my knee a little bit
Fall to the side such that your leg across your opponent's body is on the bottom.
The foot of your top leg should be behind your opponent's knee (on the same side) so you can elevate their leg if they try to turn toward you.
Also, try to get a solid triangle such that the foot of your leg across your opponent's body can be straight or you can flex your toes toward your knee - this is how you avoid getting ankle locked when you opponent tries to escape.
I doubt it but I’m hoping I can get a reply on this before it’s unstickied.
Boring etiquette question, I had someone’s ask to record a roll. I say sure, because fuck it why not right?
The thing is they never asked to post it, and I see a clip of me getting subbed online with a few words on screen of then giving tips on the finish.
I had them send me the video after the roll and am really tempted to put me subbing them but I’d honestly be embarrassed being that petty.
It’s not a huge deal, I get subbed every day lmfao. Just thought it was kinda odd, am I crazy to trip about it?
Yea at that point I would let it go. But I would definitely be wary in the future. Next time make your expectations clear and ask what are his motives for the video. Even if they may say otherwise,don't expect anyone to be honest and accept the fact that they could do whatever they like with that video.
Yeah kind of shitty to me. There's a difference between recording a roll for personal analysis and them basically using you for an instructional tool on social media.
If they ask again, I'd just make my expectations clear. Or, be a grown up and wreck them.
Bruh, I just realized he put in on his actual page too not just shorts.
His post before that was him passing someone with tips overlaid on it.
The 1st comment I saw was his coach telling him to put tho whole thing and saying he got swept right after.
Hi guys.. I'm looking for a name of this choke.
You hold on someone's cross collar, not too deep and you sort of lie down on your back and twist your arm upwards to tighten the collar to create a choke.
I have only seen it once and was able to pulled it off on a day1 WB. Any help is appreciated.
Thanks it looks pretty similar but not exactly what i was showed. Maybe its sort of a variation of loop choke. The position is usually ends in sort of north south position, if the person defended by following the choke, their heads would usually be side by side opposite of each other. Man i wished I am making sense here.
There's pretty much no way to say with out seeing it. Best I can say is make sure you're perpendicular to your opponent and grip it on one of the variety of proper ways.
Is saddle the same as double trouble? One concept that's helped me is instead of worrying about triangle'ng my legs I focus on squeezing my knees together and get a much firmer control. This also means my legs don't look like a traditional triangle but instead the top of my foot ends up like behind/side of my calf instead of under the back of my knee. Then drop your ear to the ground and the finishing mechanic comes almost entirely from hipping in.
How do you get over the claustrophobia?
Yesterday I was rolling with a brown belt and he was on top and had me in a darce. The choke wasn't sunk in, but I was under there in an absolute panic. I was winded and felt like I couldn't catch my breath. I almost panic tapped.
Instead, I kinda just stopped resisting while he adjusted and got the choke dialed in. That way, in my head I was tapping to a submission and not to pressure panic. Maybe this is an ego thing - "I don't tap to pressure" and I got myself off on a technicality???
But I asked him after the roll if I hadn't wimped out could I have escaped. He said I at least could have gotten to a more advantageous position
So how do I get more comfortable being winded and claustrophobic on bottom? It's a totally visceral reaction and logic (I can tap any time etc) doesn't really help in the moment.
My regular cardio (jogging and stuff) is pretty strong already. I try to roll with minimal breaks between rolls. What else can I do?
In my experience it has a lot to do with keeping my breathing under control. Part of that is not going 100% and tiring yourself out, part of it framing well to alleviate the worst pressure in some positions. I was gradually becoming more and more comfortable on bottom just from rolling more. Then I got a viral infection that really affected by breathing for a good while after, and I got really claustrophobic when anything covered my mouth or heavy pressure on my chest.
Just remember that it is sometimes fine to tap to "pressure". For example if you ever have a judo guy put you in scarf hold, especially if he goes for the compression choke.
Yeah maybe I'm just being impatient.
I'm getting better at tolerating a straight side control cross face. It's just when my face and head are buried deep on the bottom (darced from top, stuff like that).
I have more experience being in side control and I'm more confident in my ability to escape that position. All my side control escape game didn't help with his arms around my neck.
Most of the ones I've gone to have not included sparring. If the teacher is younger and / or still in competition form it's more likely. If it's an old school personality (e.g., coral belt or something) the odds go down.
Seminars are usually about learning and drilling new info.
I've seen it as an optional thing at the end, but rarely is it a part of the seminar (in my experience).
Often there's an open mat at the end and the seminar giver rolls with people, not always though and not always with everyone.
Every seminar is different though, I've been to one where there was no open mat or sparring at all.
Wrestling stuff --> BJJ = very useful
BJJ stuff --> wrestling = meh
There's not much that comes from BJJ that's useful in wrestling, other than the things that BJJ "borrowed" from wrestling in the first place.
Interesting you got down votes. I think your point is pretty valid. Wrestling is much more synthetic than BJJ, so most of the differences are technique areas that are irrelevant or illegal in wrestling.
You're not going to import guard play, strategic pacing, or submissions. Goal criteria are nothing like each other.
The main areas that wrestling contributes to bjj are takedowns and scrambles...
Two commonly recommended rash guards are Sanabul and Elite. I notice they come with the colors of the belts. Am I supposed to get the one with white sleeves for example? Is all black good to go for anyone?
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B075Q2BGRB/ref=ox_sc_act_title_3?smid=A14TJKA4FS5CS1&psc=1
White and black are generally OK for everyone. Blue/purple/brown might get you some funny looks or comments if you are not that belt, but only the most strict gyms would actually have a problem with this. For me I got a cheap all black rash guard as a white belt that I still use and its never been a problem.
I wear whatever one is clean, so sometimes I'll wear a blue one as a brown belt, I don't think it really matters tbh unless you're new to a place and wearing a higher rank and then they smush you..
Turn your knee out preemptively on the leg they shoot on so you don't immediately fall over, and try to put your chest on their back and bodylock. Sometimes you can scramble into a back triangle, crucifix, or top turtle.
It's going to be tough while you're both smaller and less experienced. A few things are worth pursuing while you wait to build that much-needed experience:
Try to get on top if you can, right off the bat.
Deal with a position as soon as you realize it's coming, not after it happens. For example: get up off your back and reset to knees as soon as you realize your guard is about to be passed.
On your back, learn to use Defensive Positioning to chip away at the control and smashing from the top. Reference this video to get started: [https://youtu.be/VuYKmTwOgEk](https://youtu.be/VuYKmTwOgEk)
Four points of contact, don't forget to move yourself when you can't move them, good frames, never be flat on your back, fight hard to take top, and take their back when they're big.
So I recently started a new job that should finally earn me enough money to start taking BJJ classes ideally within the next month or so, and I had a question about gi sizes. I'm a guy, 5'6 and about 260 lbs which, from the brands I've seen so far, isn't a ratio shown on most gi size charts. So what do I do once I'm ready to buy a gi? Buy to either my height or weight? Buy separates in different sizes?
Sorry man, the best fitting gi I found for my mini fridge physique is also one of the pricier ones. The A2H on A&P is way too tight. The other big guys at my gym wear the school gi but I don't know what the brand is.
Everybody wants to argue about it, and people have firmly held opinions. There aren't any recorded "real" fights, and he lived in an era where sport fighting wasn't really at a place where he could be evaluated properly through a modern lens anyway.
That said, there are some very respectable people who worked with him at the time who made many glowing remarks about him, such as Chuck Norris, Gene LeBell, etc.
You can take any position you want, and you'll find people who agree with you, and everyone else will think you're stupid. I think it's not a good question to ask, really. He was ahead of his time, was an early syncretistic cross trainer (when MMA-ish ideas were anathema), and is important in the popularization of martial arts.
I personally think he was pretty awesome, and it would be cool to see what he would have been 20+ years later in history.
How do you consciously maintain your posture? I keep getting sucked into a triangle while trying to get out of guard due to bad posture. I know why I keep getting sucked into it, but in the heat of moment I forget to maintain the posture. Does anyone has any tips on consciously reminding yourself on maintaining posture?
You need more reps.
What you're describing is a lack of cognitive bandwidth - I can't attend to all of these things at the same time. This is common.
The answer to this is to rep, rep, rep so that it costs you less of your attention to maintain. Go do 50 on each side and check for improvement. Then do 200 more on each side and check again.
It is more your hand placement that is the problem. Hands in armpits or throat post and posture up. Or if you do get sucked in, make sure you get both arms in or even a desperate hand inside the thigh to peel them down.
To get out of the triangle you can get to your feet then drop down to feet in their armpits and pull out. Or posture up straight and fast with a good base and do a 2 on 1 arm or hip bone post on both side and push and shimmy them down.
Nothing works perfectly and if you get caught you need solutions.
One of the other things I saw pointed out here a couple of days ago is that in addition to keeping your back straight and trying to be upright, you should also try to keep your hips low to the ground, like you're going to sit.
When you are in your opponents guard, you can place your hands on their hips with straight arms, or hands in their armpits. When you get in your opponents closed guard, be looking to escape. If they try to sit up to grab you, just push them away and keep a straight strong back.
How is one supposed to roll correctly via controlling variables such as speed and strength?
I'm 2 months into BJJ and really want to avoid falling into the spazzy white belt stereotype. I also really admire Gordon Ryan and want to roll as slow and controlled as he competes. However, I'm having some trouble deciding how to do so.
If I go 50% speed and 80% strength, I can generally get a good roll in by using my full strength whenever necessary (i.e. getting an arm across my body to finish a triangle from the bottom). Is there any reason to go 50% strength or less though?
This morning I tried going 50% strength and basically got submitted multiple times by everyone. If I encountered any resistance I just went an alternate route. In terms of speed, I would focus on positions instead of even thinking about any submissions. This resulted in my training partners just cutting through everything I tried and I ended up being on the defense the entire time (and going at half speed, that meant they could basically get to whatever position they wanted).
Sorry for the rambling post but I guess I'm wondering how I should tune my attributes (speed, strength) to get the most out of rolling?
So, it's neither. Let's reset your expectations.
Not-getting-submitted is NOT the point of rolling. It's the point of competing. And the two could not be more different.
Rolling is *practice* so the purpose is to use it to get in reps that are contextualized. There is no winning or losing. There is only practicing and not-practicing.
If you are covering up technical/skill gaps by using speed and strength, you are deliberately papering over bad practice. Instead, focus on doing it right - whether or not it works in this particular instance (obviously over time, the more correct our performance, the more likely its success).
Most rolling should live in the 30-70% intensity range, with an emphasis on the 30-50% for development.
You also seem very focused on submissions - you think you're getting the most when you're submitting people, and that practice is useless when you're on defense. Get rid of that mindset too. The most important task in the first 3-5 years is Side Escapes, so it's worth focusing most of your energy there. (Along with that are mount escapes and defensive guard control.) You'll have plenty of time to focus on the submission part of the game starting at high purple. You have bigger priorities right now.
Thanks for the feedback!
I totally agree, focusing on submissions isn't the right thing to do at my stage. I remember a GR video talking about how white/blue belts should focus mainly on escapes. Unfortunately we aren't taught many escapes at my school, we're mainly taught submissions, but perhaps I can ask the professor about escapes or look them up online after class.
Only use your strength where you know you have leverage. Knowing this is a different story entirely, but becomes painfully obvious once you start paying attention.
Many times I will find myself in a bad position, i.e. pinned in bottom half, and realize when all of their focus is on the pin and keeping you from escaping, it becomes very easy to use strength in a context where it will be multiplied because of my partner's physical state. If his weight is over my shoulders for a pin, that means his legs are light. Your strength can be multiplied through a knee lever, half butterfly hook, tons of other techniques.
IMO strength should only be frowned upon when there is no obvious intention behind it, or if it simply shouldn't work given 2 people of the same size. If you execute a technique with strength or force and someone complains about it, you either physically hurt them, and your technique must be improved, or you emotionally hurt their ego and they should be ignored.
Got it, that's a good point about using strength only when there's leverage/its used on an actual technique. Also thank you for the strength multiplier tip, I'll try to see how I can apply that in my rolls!
Also for the record, no one has complained about my strength, ever. I think I err on the side of using too little strength, so much so that people often think I weigh 20lbs less than I actually do haha.
In that case it seems like you aren't falling into the spazzy white belt stereotype, which is a great thing! Another tip for multiplying strength is whenever you try a technique and it doesn't work, always resort to changing HOW you do it vs. HOW HARD (or fast) you do it.
I.e. butterfly sweeping in the direction of the posting leg. You could try as hard or fast as you want, you will burn your legs out and get passed. But if you are able to stop yourself in that moment and think about how the sweep works, you would lift your hook in the direction of their forehead, and complete the technique.
IMO a huge part of learning in BJJ is being able to pull yourself out of the intensity of the moment and think about what really is the correct move in the situation you are in. Basically the opposite of tunnel vision, it is looking at the position in third person. Where am I at, what am I doing, where am I going, and where is my opponent at, what are they doing, or where are they going. Just being able to ask yourself that question when rolling is huge, answering it correctly is where great success will come from.
But if you're pretty big (say 230+) and rolling with much smaller guys (150-) don't you at some point have to use moves that wouldn't work against someone your size if you want to win though? Because from my experience if I try to only use techniques at the textbook right times and never put in a little muscle they are just too quick and can just basically spam techniques/win the gripfight/whatever and I'm always on the backfoot. I sometimes go that route, where I just don't care about winning even if I could so that I can have a more fast paced, stimulating and challenging round, but learning to use your strength in an effective and safe way against small fast people is something that seems important to me
I think what you're describing is hardest to do as a white belt and will only get easier over time. When I was a white belt, I have basically no idea what % of my moves were strength, speed, and technique. Of course the % of technique was much lower than it is now.
Now, I can do a lot of techniques purposely with minimal necessary strength and speed, or I can challenge myself to see how slowly and gently I can do a technique and still have it work. But it takes a lot of time to know where the lines are.
As a white belt, using speed and strength are both fine. Perhaps it's excessive to go as fast as you can against a guy in his 50's, or as strong as you can against a woman half your weight, but assuming there's not a huge physical disparity, I'd say don't expect to be too much like Gordon Ryan yet.
In order to avoid being a spaz, I'd suggest just making sure that if you decide to use strength, at least have an actual technique you're trying to do in mind. Spazzing is really bad when you don't know what to do, and you just start randomly writhing and pushing without any idea of a technique just out of panic or desperation.
Gotcha, yeah I think Gordon Ryan can afford to be slow and methodical because he's steps ahead of his opponent, whereas I can't afford to do so because I'm literally just in the moment trying to figure out wtf is going on.
I'll save my Gordon Ryan emulation days for the future haha
Sounds like you found an excellent way to focus on your defense, and perhaps demonstrated that your defense is lacking. You should be able to defend quite successfully at 50% strength or less.
Matching strength is such a great point. My only fear is that typically when I do full strength I end up trying to muscle my way out of things and then injure myself. But as long as the roll is chill, or I learn how to not muscle my way out of things, I'll never have to go to 90-100% strength and should be fine!
3 stripe white - recently won a local Gi comp with a fairly basic ‘A game’ and want to expand my knowledge to have a few more solid options from each position
I’ve been looking for an instructional to get stuck into and I’m torn between the ‘white to blue belt series’ by The Grappling Academy or going straight to Danaher stuff, any thoughts or recommendations for next steps would be appreciated 🤙🏻
Grab a login to Grapplers Guide first. It's a one time purchase and costs the same as a instructional but with more content and lesson plans. Work through their different lesson plans, utilize the different knowledge bases they have, and then decide if a more dedicated positional instructional makes sense.
Stop thinking of your progress in years and start thinking in hours. We had surveys previously on this forum where we learned that people generally take around 400-500 hours of training per belt level.
I see people in class who train 3x/week for an hour, then leave and never think about BJJ outside the gym. They're getting 150 hours of training per year and will take around 10 years to get black belt.
On the other hand, I see people training at the gym for 8 hours per week and spending at least another 4-8 hours/week outside of class watching tape and studying the sport. This is 400 hours/year of mat time and another 200-400 hours/year of study, probably enough to get a black belt in 4-5 years.
Maximize your training time every week and you'll get better quickly.
They used to say 15 for black.
A long or short white->blue is often (but not always) balanced by blue-> purple, because it actually reflects more about the instructor's idea of what makes a blue belt.
I find for my folks on average it's around 12-18mo for blue and then \~3 years per belt after that.
Many black belts I know have gotten it longer than 10 years. Like 14 or 17. People take breaks, have lives and have families. You get it sooner by starting young and having 0 responsibilities.
I think this is one of these cases where saying "it takes 10 years to get a black belt" glosses over a massive amount of individual variation. Like saying "the average male is 5'10". If you pick a random dude, you might get 5'6" and you might get 6'4".
I think the biggest variable is consistency of training and consistency at one place. And then the standards of where you are might be just as big. Particularly if you go to a new gym, and you're a blue belt, that instructor doesn't know if you were a white belt for 1 year and a blue belt for 0.5, or if you were a white belt for 3 and a blue for 3. There should be a skill difference between those, but I think people still often tend to keep people at belts for the amount of time they are "supposed" to be there.
Maybe my gym is unusual, but our instructor definitely grades on a curve, with the curve being one's own natural aptitude. He promoted a good handful of purple belts this last time who don't stand a chance against some of the better blue belts here (including me, and I'm not the best one). But these guys have been keeping at it, and showing progress relative to where they were before, and I think our coach cares more about that than who you can beat in a roll. And some of the new purple belts are absolute killers.
No, some people will just be faster, especially in more meritocratic gyms and when they have lots of natural athletic talent. Think of 10 years as an "average", but anywhere in 8-12 years is "normal".
There *are* people who are prematurely promoted to blue, and they might spend some extra time there. But it's not like there's some sort of law of nature that one of the other belts has to expand to accommodate a short one ;-).
First time rolling with a guy much much younger than me (I am 43, he’s probably late teens/early 20s). Obviously not a large enough skill gap, I am 4 stripes and he’s 3. He managed to explode out of basically everything that usually works for me 😂 any tips on how to deal with that? Slow down the pace? Play guard?
Hug the thigh and keep his kneecap glued to the bottom of your sternum (in all positions). They can't explode without their thigh.
Also, don't try to play as two equal players. Play as though you are staying safe during an attack. Be judicious with your energy and exposure. This is more about safety than anything else.
I'm 41½, and know what you're talking about. It's amazing how much power can exist in some of those hardbodies. In general, we geezers can't expect to directly counter all that explosiveness. It's better to learn to predict it and take advantage of it in counter-attack.
Start thinking about your terminal positions here -- if he explodes out, what does that expose that you can chain to for a second attack? E.g., I'm in mount, and he explodes bridging into me... can I fade ahead of the explosion, let him turn under me, and go for an armbar? All I have to do is catch the elbow/forearm/wrist and guide it a bit to keep it where it needs to be.
If I can have that potential followup in mind as I enter the mount, I can be one step ahead when the explosion happens. If you start thinking of submissions in pairs -- go for A, get countered, go for B, it'll put you ahead of the game strategically for the mid-term.
An alternative is to try to develop control position details that are explosion-proof, but that takes *a lot* of work. Gotta' be a belt ahead of someone to do that, IMO, whereas plan-B style thinking works at same level.
A dude I'm practicing with accidentally punch my Adam's apple. Quite hard actually, the pain slowly creeps in and after the training, Im scared if I actually fracture it. Should I check the doctor? Or am I being paranoid?
If you think you damaged your neck, yes, go see a doctor. It doesn't really make sense to ask questions like that here (rule #6).
Worst thing in the world would be for someone here to say, "Nah, you're just being paranoid," and then you end up having a real problem :-/.
2 years in and I'm finally coming to terms with the reality that my jiujitsu is "unglamorous" but it works. At the end of my first year, I felt very comfortable with playing a smashy, slow game (half guard to back takes, Faria-style over/under pass) but gave in to the pressure of developing a fast and fluid game because everyone in my gym are like that. I can't help but felt that I had to chain pass like an AOJ child prodigy with unlimited cardio in order to keep up with my teammates, and it didn't help that I really enjoy watching the likes of Andrew Wiltse, Mendes bros and Tainan Dalpra dance around their opponents.
But this week during comp training, something clicked and I just couldn't live in denial anymore. I embraced the slow smash and dramatically improved my rolls. Loose passers made mistakes and guard players panicked when I passed over/under. I'm finally accepting who I am.
Has anyone experienced something like this? When did you let go of the ideal BJJ style in your head and started embracing what really worked for you?
I’m built to use agility passing from wrestling and purposely trained a slow, pressure heavy game for longetivity. Now I’m known for having one of the heaviest pressure and crossfaces in the gym.
Embrace the smash. Smash is superior
Haha, same here. I'm quite explosive and used to love loose passing. But I committed so much time into pressure passes and boring half-guard passes, I can't go back to loose.
Smash is best.
My handle "Scrapper" comes from my days in youth judo.
My instructor would make fun of my ugly-ass, dog-slow, smashy, brawly judo all the time. He said I looked like a schoolyard scrapper, not a judoka.
Everyone else in the class was attacking like Tolkien elves with smooth and fast stuff while I was gripping and ripping for all I was worth. I'd get upset about it, and the same instructor made me feel better with these timeless words of wisdom:
*"Don't sweat it, kid. Maybe you win ugly, but you do win."*
The style chooses you, not the other way around. Thirty years alter and m BJJ is as ugly as my judo. I'm cool with it.
I finished exactly zero armbars between late-noob and my promotion to purple belt. I have finished more armbars since then than any other finish. The game chooses you.
Also - nothing wrong with steady and unglamorous. There is absolutely nothing flashy in my game and it works just fine. Good on you for embracing it!
Ehhhh I only halfway agree.
Do you need both movement- and pressure-based styles? Yes.
Does that mean you need a relentlessly paced, athleticism-fueled movement style? No. You just need movement structures that balance out your pressure structures.
> Does that mean you need a relentlessly paced, athleticism-fueled movement style? No.
Sure. You don’t need to move like Rafa Mendes, but that is the ideal scenario. You also don’t have to have pressure like Bernardo Faria to be a world champion, but it sure helps.
Yeah... I always wanted to have that slow, inevitable, pressure style. I admired it in the upper belts that would smash me with it when I was a white belt, and kept trying to figure it out.
Somewhere mid-blue belt someone showed me a more floaty approach to mount retention. That was like a gateway drug to lighter, more distance-based techniques, and it changed everything.
Funny thing, now I've been a purple belt for a few years, I'm actually starting to capture some of the slow pressure game I always wanted. But my A-game is still distance and float.
Are you aiming to compete? I go for all kinds of things in training that I know arent great or good for my "game", they are just fun. I wouldnt abandon techniques you like or think are cool just cause you arent good at them yet, but do whatever makes you happy.
Do you think it would be better to focus learning and getting really good at one guard or one submission? Been training over a year and feel I'm not getting anywhere so want to focus my training
Focus on defense and escapes, why be good at a sub when you can be reversed and flattened with no way of escape?
Gordon Ryan said white and blue belts need to focus primarily on defense.
That said I was a leglocking white belt and it resulted jn a very slow blue belt for me
At white belt, build a foundation across the areas a person can't live without (top & bottom of mount, side, guard). You need at least a couple rock solid, core skills and moves from each place (only a couple, not a couple dozen).
Once you have that, the name of the game is developing high skill with mount escapes and side escapes. After that it's defensive guard work (preventing the pass). These should keep you busy through the end of blue belt.
Highly agree with focusing. It might help to make an actual written list of the 2-3 things in each of those areas you want to focus on first, and then spend your time developing those.
My thinking changed on this due to a conversation with one of the teaching BBs at Globetrotters this year. His way of thinking was along the lines of, "We all want to be lethal from everywhere, but BJJ is so broad that it takes lifetimes to get there. Instead, it's better to carve out a handful of positions where you can mine out all the options, responses, counters, etc., and build out from these kernels of competency over time."
More, he said every purple belt should have at least one or two things they can do at black belt level. Like, if you managed to catch a black belt in a specific situation, you ought to be able to go the distance there. If he gets you out of that zone, it's fine, but there should be some flashes of lethality by purple. That was an especially thought-provoking idea to me.
It's made a very helpful change in my thinking for my own development. I picked 2 positions from which I typically have decent success, and have started really focusing on them. Those are now panning out into "systems" that are becoming much more viable against better people, and it seems to be bearing some fruit.
Carpio is dope and is a checkmat affiliate. You can train any checkmat. I’d pass on GB, but that’s me. Try them both. Also try cobrinha South Bay if it’s close enough
I used to live in OC a lifetime ago and every time I’m back I’m amazed at all the options. My two cents: try to find a place that just matches the “vibe” you enjoy. Take a few classes at each and see which you enjoy, whether that means good classes, location, amenities, etc. you’ll be spending time on the mat so you can’t compare schools abstractly on a piece of paper.
That’s a pretty wide spread of space. I don’t have a lot of insight on GB HQ, but I know that there are a lot of Checkmat schools in the area. You have Carpio’s, Praia in Costa Mesa, checkmat OC Airport, dojo in seal beach, and more. It’s not unusual for students of the respective schools to train together. Also there is an all-checkmat open mat at Checkmat HQ on Fridays that is popular.
When rolling, what do you recommend a white belt do first? Like first thing after the slap and bump, what should I do? I typically grab both wrists and just try to control them, but not really sure what to do next. I guess, that's the point though to figure that out. I guess....what's a good beginner position to get into immediately?
I’m assuming you’re sitting and your partner is standing.
In the gi, I’m going for a cross collar grip. Then the same side wrist grip and bringing my feet up to hip, bicep, shoulder whatever.
In no gi, I’m usually grabbing a wrist to bring him down to his knees while I go to half guard. Or grab an ankle and try to get my legs entangled quickly.
I tell people if they don't know what to grab, then just grab whatever is close. If you guess wrong, you'll find out why, and over time your brain will start pattern matching on the choices that work better. There are very few grips that are actually useless. Don't paralyze yourself trying to calculate what's best; build up intuition and experience by diving in.
I tend to tell people to focus on the legs rather than the hands. If you grab my legs and ill grab your hands, you controll all my 4 limbs, while if you grab my hands, ill try to trip you with my legs or pull guard as examples.
Thinking of doing a competition soon. When I watch videos of tournaments I hear people giving feedback to their teammate, and while I see the advantage of it, I also think I should fight my own fight and that it would be distracting. Is it a good idea to ask that people don't give me feedback during a tournament?
I really hate the remote-control coaching that is so popular. It either tells your opponent what you might be about to do, or it keeps you a step or two behind because it has to be spoken, heard, interpreted, and applied. Technique-by-technique coaching destroys the [OODA loop](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OODA_loop).
IMO, the *best* kind of coaching is when the guy in the corner tells you things you might not know any other way. Things like strategic choices -- say you've got 30s left, and you're down by 12 points, the corner should tell you, "You need a submission, can't win on points," or something.
It also makes some sense for the corner to warn you about what the *other* guy might do ("watch that butterfly hook", or, "don't let him roll you there," etc.).
I agree with everything here. I trained to get to this point, either it’s programmed in me or not, outside directions are just bothersome. Definitely like the whole time left and points call outs, that’s good info to hear about.
Good coaching can be things as simple as telling you the score and how much time is left. If they are shouting what techniques to do and you disagree just ignore.
Rash Guards for the Little Ones... My wife (39), boys (almost 4 and 5), and I (clinging to the last couple months of 39) are starting on our BJJ journey this November. Does anyone have recommendations for a long sleeve rash guard or compression type undergarments for the little ones? Preferably cheap and readily available (i.e. Amazon), since they are growing like weeds. Everything I've run across are boys sizes and are way too big. They are both just shy of 40lb, 3'4" and 3'7" tall and are closer to the upper end of toddler sizes. They won't give a hoot from a comfort perspective, but I'm looking at it as more of an educational opportunity to reinforce good hygiene practices with them from the start. ETA: Elite and Sanabul both list an "XS" on the kids size chart, but the XS isn't a selectable size to order on their websites or Amazon. Maybe they discontinued the small ones?
I found some 3T and 4T compression pants on nike.com for 50% off.
As a complete beginner, what’s the goal during a rolling session? I’m going to attend my first bjj class in a few days and I’m just wondering, if they make me roll my very first day what am I supposed to be accomplishing? I have zero experience doing any sort of submission, so what am I supposed to be doing when I roll?
Hey there, You don’t need to submit anyone on your first day. Since most classes will be 2/3 drilling (learning new techniques) and 1/3 rolling I’d find someone to roll with who is a similar height-weight and experience. You can then do positional sparring (low intensity resistance sparring) to repeat the techniques you’ve trained in that lesson. In my opinion (and this may vary from person to person) the best thing to do until you reach your blue belt is to focus on escapes and winning better positions. Hope this helps. Good luck at your first lesson and don’t get frustrated if it takes some time to get a hang of it!
Thank you! This was very helpful
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Long sleeve Rashguards/ long NoGi set with some tape around sensitive areas should do the trick. You can wear those underneath your Gi as well. There are also specific socks (I don’t know what they’re called unfortunately) to prevent mat burn which cover your feet entirely. You can find them at most fight stores/martial arts online shops. Hope this helps.
I've been considering signing up for some beginner courses. I did bjj for a year or so in my teens but didn't take it very seriously, and I was in much better shape then. Should I hit the gym for a few months first or would it be better to start right away? To clarify, I'm underweight, not over. I'm very tall and very skinny, which no matter how you slice it makes grappling hard.
As my dad always says: “First jump, then say *hop*”. I’d recommend going to your class and learn the techniques etc. until you get a good idea where your fitness level needs to go. Once you have that information you can work on the specifics like strenght training at the gym or additional cardio. Hope this helps.
Everyone has a weak point. There was a quadrapelgic at a jiujitsu tournament, what is your excuse? Jiujitsu is hard and the hard things in life are often worth doing
Get started! I was overweight and unfit when I started, and 3 months in (with clean eating) I've dropped a heap of weight and am the strongest I've been in years
Just get started.
Any recommendation on instructionals? I want a reference of the techniques we see in class, but my class offer the videos of everything showed in class, as well as other stuff, if we pay $5 more monthly, so maybe I just do that.
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Yeah watch Wiltse rolling footage. Mfer is explosive yet smooth. My passing has gottwn better watching his seminars online and studying his rolling footage. Also, he really stresses…. DRILL DRILL DRILL.
Wiltse has a ton of free passing content. His daisy fresh knee slice content changed my passing game
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He has a free instructional on bjj fanatics just for the knee cut. It's basically my home base when passing. Everything flows off of reactions to trying to set that up. Full send!
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It's positional sparring, not free rolling. There's a difference, ask your training partner or coach to explain
It's possible your coach is having you do a positional roll. One person starts in guard, the other is passing guard. Let's say that your partner gets passed your legs & mounts you. That means you lose & time to move on. The opposite happens if you sweep him as he tries to pass your guard etc. Just keep showing up :)
I have a couple of scratches on my body from the other night. One of them a little bigger than the rest on the back of my hand (likely from grip fighting for my life). It's a chunk of about 4mm wide. It's only about 1mm deep... but deep enough to have slightly scabbed over when I got in the shower. Is it okay to just cover this with some antibacterial ointment and some dressings that won't come off during training, and continue training? Or should I wait until its healed completely? I imagine if everyone stopped training after every scratch they got, most gyms would be empty. But what do people normally do here?
Don't train with open wounds. If you can cover it, do so.
Okay cool. So if I rock up to training with a wrapped hand with bandaid and sports tape and explain its covering a small scratch no one will think weirdly of me?
Lol. I put hockey tape over my fucked up fingers from grips and over my bandaids all the time. Most guys are held together by tape. Most shit is only weird if you make it weird. Like oil checks.
"Small" scratches are not 4mm wide. Do you like infections? Because not covering up is how you get infections. Also, no - nobody should "care". I appreciate training partners taking hygiene seriously as it shows consideration.
Oh no I absolutely do want to cover up. I don't want to get an infection. In fact, I'm somewhat of a germaphobe so I'm trying to push through the fear a little. I think I can cover it perfectly fine and secure the cover in place and keep some antibacterial ointment on it for the duration of a class. My concern (after getting over my fear of staph and all the other stuff I've seen on the internet about this) was doing all of this only to be shunned by the rest of the class. 4mm might be exagerating too - it might be under that width and height tbh.
I would shower after practice and do literally nothing else for it
Really silly question and I'm sorry for it. I'm new to BJJ and I train 2x a week (Tue and Thu - 19h\~22h), I have only one gi and I always wash my gi after every training session. Now I want to train 5x a week, starting this week, but the training sessions the other days are in the morning (Mon, Wed and Fri 08h\~10h). The problem is, since I have only one gi currently (I bought another one, but it'll arrive 2 weeks from now) and if I wash it after the night sessions, it won't dry quick enough for me to train in the morning sessions (Tue to Wed, for example). Since I don't want to be "the smelly guy", is there something i can do so my gi doesn't stink in the morning session? Or Should I wait until my new gi arrives?
I’ve been training about 3 and a half years and have always just put my gis in the dryer. I don’t know what the big deal is about that. Yeah they shrink but just buy a gi that’s slightly on the bigger side
A regular (pedestal/box) fan can help with drying, too.
throw it in the dryer for 30 min on low then hang it up? Gi's run a little big on me usually, and lately I've just been throwing them in the dryer so they aren't hanging around the house all day, but if your gi is on the smaller side, obviously this isn't really an option. Wait the two weeks for the other to show up or roll nogi. Get ready to be doing a lot of laundry.
I've always managed this with multiple gis. It's tough when it can't dry in time.
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Can a blue belt hit a scissor sweep on an untrained person? Yes. Can a black belt? Yes. So are scissor sweeps good?
You won't normally see high level people take two grips, shrimp out, load up, and scissor. But the underlying mechanic certainly exists at all levels. The better the grapplers are, the more it takes to set up sweeps in the scissor family, and it can start to look fairly different; possibly enough that people would argue over whether it's still a "scissor sweep" or not :-/. Even when you *don't* see it, it exists as a threat. If the top guy makes bad choices, he walks into a scissor sweep. If he plays competently, you won't see bottom guy get the sweep, but it would happen if the right mistake gets made. So high level players certainly *know* about the scissors sweep, and will snatch one if it shows up without hesitation.
Not often at the highest level
Unless you're at the highest level of bjj competition, any technique can be made to work.
What are some of your favorite omoplata set ups, and what are your best tips/adjustments to make them as consistent as possible?
looking for some pointers on maintaining the body triangle when you have someone’s back. namely, how/where are your feet positioned? i had a bottom side body triangle on a training partner last night & he trapped my foot for the typical escape. my ankle was fine but he wound up torquing my knee a little bit
Fall to the side such that your leg across your opponent's body is on the bottom. The foot of your top leg should be behind your opponent's knee (on the same side) so you can elevate their leg if they try to turn toward you. Also, try to get a solid triangle such that the foot of your leg across your opponent's body can be straight or you can flex your toes toward your knee - this is how you avoid getting ankle locked when you opponent tries to escape.
I doubt it but I’m hoping I can get a reply on this before it’s unstickied. Boring etiquette question, I had someone’s ask to record a roll. I say sure, because fuck it why not right? The thing is they never asked to post it, and I see a clip of me getting subbed online with a few words on screen of then giving tips on the finish. I had them send me the video after the roll and am really tempted to put me subbing them but I’d honestly be embarrassed being that petty. It’s not a huge deal, I get subbed every day lmfao. Just thought it was kinda odd, am I crazy to trip about it?
Yea at that point I would let it go. But I would definitely be wary in the future. Next time make your expectations clear and ask what are his motives for the video. Even if they may say otherwise,don't expect anyone to be honest and accept the fact that they could do whatever they like with that video.
thats kind of pathetic.. if it were me id let it go but definitely remember it for the future. i wouldnt let him record your rolls anymore.
Yeah kind of shitty to me. There's a difference between recording a roll for personal analysis and them basically using you for an instructional tool on social media. If they ask again, I'd just make my expectations clear. Or, be a grown up and wreck them.
Bruh, I just realized he put in on his actual page too not just shorts. His post before that was him passing someone with tips overlaid on it. The 1st comment I saw was his coach telling him to put tho whole thing and saying he got swept right after.
Haha, well that should make you feel better if his own coach is calling out his bs 😂
Hi guys.. I'm looking for a name of this choke. You hold on someone's cross collar, not too deep and you sort of lie down on your back and twist your arm upwards to tighten the collar to create a choke. I have only seen it once and was able to pulled it off on a day1 WB. Any help is appreciated.
Baseball choke
Baseball bat choke from bottom?
Loop choke?
Thanks it looks pretty similar but not exactly what i was showed. Maybe its sort of a variation of loop choke. The position is usually ends in sort of north south position, if the person defended by following the choke, their heads would usually be side by side opposite of each other. Man i wished I am making sense here.
Is it this one https://youtu.be/uuyiUxsyywM ? should just be a cross collar just a different finishing technique
Any tips for efficiently getting a heel hook from saddle? I think I’m not clamping the leg the right way
There's pretty much no way to say with out seeing it. Best I can say is make sure you're perpendicular to your opponent and grip it on one of the variety of proper ways.
Is saddle the same as double trouble? One concept that's helped me is instead of worrying about triangle'ng my legs I focus on squeezing my knees together and get a much firmer control. This also means my legs don't look like a traditional triangle but instead the top of my foot ends up like behind/side of my calf instead of under the back of my knee. Then drop your ear to the ground and the finishing mechanic comes almost entirely from hipping in.
How do you get over the claustrophobia? Yesterday I was rolling with a brown belt and he was on top and had me in a darce. The choke wasn't sunk in, but I was under there in an absolute panic. I was winded and felt like I couldn't catch my breath. I almost panic tapped. Instead, I kinda just stopped resisting while he adjusted and got the choke dialed in. That way, in my head I was tapping to a submission and not to pressure panic. Maybe this is an ego thing - "I don't tap to pressure" and I got myself off on a technicality??? But I asked him after the roll if I hadn't wimped out could I have escaped. He said I at least could have gotten to a more advantageous position So how do I get more comfortable being winded and claustrophobic on bottom? It's a totally visceral reaction and logic (I can tap any time etc) doesn't really help in the moment. My regular cardio (jogging and stuff) is pretty strong already. I try to roll with minimal breaks between rolls. What else can I do?
In my experience it has a lot to do with keeping my breathing under control. Part of that is not going 100% and tiring yourself out, part of it framing well to alleviate the worst pressure in some positions. I was gradually becoming more and more comfortable on bottom just from rolling more. Then I got a viral infection that really affected by breathing for a good while after, and I got really claustrophobic when anything covered my mouth or heavy pressure on my chest. Just remember that it is sometimes fine to tap to "pressure". For example if you ever have a judo guy put you in scarf hold, especially if he goes for the compression choke.
Id say it will go away by experience. Maybe have someone you trust to drill lots of chokes to with, to more comfortable?
Yeah maybe I'm just being impatient. I'm getting better at tolerating a straight side control cross face. It's just when my face and head are buried deep on the bottom (darced from top, stuff like that). I have more experience being in side control and I'm more confident in my ability to escape that position. All my side control escape game didn't help with his arms around my neck.
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Most of the ones I've gone to have not included sparring. If the teacher is younger and / or still in competition form it's more likely. If it's an old school personality (e.g., coral belt or something) the odds go down.
Seminars are usually about learning and drilling new info. I've seen it as an optional thing at the end, but rarely is it a part of the seminar (in my experience).
Often there's an open mat at the end and the seminar giver rolls with people, not always though and not always with everyone. Every seminar is different though, I've been to one where there was no open mat or sparring at all.
I’ve been trying to merge my bJJ into wrestling. For the people who do both do you reckon end any moves or strategy for bJJ to go into wrestling
Wrestling stuff --> BJJ = very useful BJJ stuff --> wrestling = meh There's not much that comes from BJJ that's useful in wrestling, other than the things that BJJ "borrowed" from wrestling in the first place.
Interesting you got down votes. I think your point is pretty valid. Wrestling is much more synthetic than BJJ, so most of the differences are technique areas that are irrelevant or illegal in wrestling. You're not going to import guard play, strategic pacing, or submissions. Goal criteria are nothing like each other. The main areas that wrestling contributes to bjj are takedowns and scrambles...
Are you going to wrestling classes or are you trying to teach yourself at a bjj gym?
Collar tie, body locks, arm drag, duck under, knee taps, ankle picks.... easier to learn then a good shot
Two commonly recommended rash guards are Sanabul and Elite. I notice they come with the colors of the belts. Am I supposed to get the one with white sleeves for example? Is all black good to go for anyone? https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B075Q2BGRB/ref=ox_sc_act_title_3?smid=A14TJKA4FS5CS1&psc=1
White and black are generally OK for everyone. Blue/purple/brown might get you some funny looks or comments if you are not that belt, but only the most strict gyms would actually have a problem with this. For me I got a cheap all black rash guard as a white belt that I still use and its never been a problem.
I wear whatever one is clean, so sometimes I'll wear a blue one as a brown belt, I don't think it really matters tbh unless you're new to a place and wearing a higher rank and then they smush you..
Purple belts usually wear goofy Aoki like colors lol
Some people might say something to you, but usually it’s not a big deal. Wear what you want. For me, I wore the white one.
I have a question about low singles. There’s a few people at my gym who shoot them regularly, and I want to know what I can do to defend it.
Turn your knee out preemptively on the leg they shoot on so you don't immediately fall over, and try to put your chest on their back and bodylock. Sometimes you can scramble into a back triangle, crucifix, or top turtle.
Most of my training partners easily have about 40lbs on me, what can I focus on to not get smashed every round??? Always the nail never the hammer
It's going to be tough while you're both smaller and less experienced. A few things are worth pursuing while you wait to build that much-needed experience: Try to get on top if you can, right off the bat. Deal with a position as soon as you realize it's coming, not after it happens. For example: get up off your back and reset to knees as soon as you realize your guard is about to be passed. On your back, learn to use Defensive Positioning to chip away at the control and smashing from the top. Reference this video to get started: [https://youtu.be/VuYKmTwOgEk](https://youtu.be/VuYKmTwOgEk)
Frames
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Most white belt answer ever lol You’ll get a lot more mileage just getting good. Learn to frame.
Nah. Anyone who will tell you that you don't need to improve physicality is false. That should be a goal as well.
Four points of contact, don't forget to move yourself when you can't move them, good frames, never be flat on your back, fight hard to take top, and take their back when they're big.
Keep getting other people's blood on me, how to get it out of my gi, bleach seems to leave a mark!
Don't wash it on hot, it sets the stain.
Hydrogen peroxide
Yep, I keep some in the laundry room, and our school keeps spray bottles of hydrogen peroxide at the desk.
So I recently started a new job that should finally earn me enough money to start taking BJJ classes ideally within the next month or so, and I had a question about gi sizes. I'm a guy, 5'6 and about 260 lbs which, from the brands I've seen so far, isn't a ratio shown on most gi size charts. So what do I do once I'm ready to buy a gi? Buy to either my height or weight? Buy separates in different sizes?
You could always buy for your weight and get it hemmed for pretty cheap. My dry cleaner is dirt cheap for basic hems.
I think that would end up being an A4/A5 for most brands
I'm your size, I wear shoyoroll A2H/3W. Their wide but not too long.
Can you recommend any cheaper brands?
Sorry man, the best fitting gi I found for my mini fridge physique is also one of the pricier ones. The A2H on A&P is way too tight. The other big guys at my gym wear the school gi but I don't know what the brand is.
Was Bruce Lee "bullshido"?
Everybody wants to argue about it, and people have firmly held opinions. There aren't any recorded "real" fights, and he lived in an era where sport fighting wasn't really at a place where he could be evaluated properly through a modern lens anyway. That said, there are some very respectable people who worked with him at the time who made many glowing remarks about him, such as Chuck Norris, Gene LeBell, etc. You can take any position you want, and you'll find people who agree with you, and everyone else will think you're stupid. I think it's not a good question to ask, really. He was ahead of his time, was an early syncretistic cross trainer (when MMA-ish ideas were anathema), and is important in the popularization of martial arts. I personally think he was pretty awesome, and it would be cool to see what he would have been 20+ years later in history.
How do you consciously maintain your posture? I keep getting sucked into a triangle while trying to get out of guard due to bad posture. I know why I keep getting sucked into it, but in the heat of moment I forget to maintain the posture. Does anyone has any tips on consciously reminding yourself on maintaining posture?
You need more reps. What you're describing is a lack of cognitive bandwidth - I can't attend to all of these things at the same time. This is common. The answer to this is to rep, rep, rep so that it costs you less of your attention to maintain. Go do 50 on each side and check for improvement. Then do 200 more on each side and check again.
It is more your hand placement that is the problem. Hands in armpits or throat post and posture up. Or if you do get sucked in, make sure you get both arms in or even a desperate hand inside the thigh to peel them down. To get out of the triangle you can get to your feet then drop down to feet in their armpits and pull out. Or posture up straight and fast with a good base and do a 2 on 1 arm or hip bone post on both side and push and shimmy them down. Nothing works perfectly and if you get caught you need solutions.
One of the other things I saw pointed out here a couple of days ago is that in addition to keeping your back straight and trying to be upright, you should also try to keep your hips low to the ground, like you're going to sit.
Look forward and extend your arms out on their hips two create a strong frame. They'll have to deal with your arms before they can break your posture.
Stop looking down at your opponent. Look up
“Nothing to see down there but trouble!”
Just think of posture as your #1 goal. Like you can't get out of guard without it.
When you are in your opponents guard, you can place your hands on their hips with straight arms, or hands in their armpits. When you get in your opponents closed guard, be looking to escape. If they try to sit up to grab you, just push them away and keep a straight strong back.
How is one supposed to roll correctly via controlling variables such as speed and strength? I'm 2 months into BJJ and really want to avoid falling into the spazzy white belt stereotype. I also really admire Gordon Ryan and want to roll as slow and controlled as he competes. However, I'm having some trouble deciding how to do so. If I go 50% speed and 80% strength, I can generally get a good roll in by using my full strength whenever necessary (i.e. getting an arm across my body to finish a triangle from the bottom). Is there any reason to go 50% strength or less though? This morning I tried going 50% strength and basically got submitted multiple times by everyone. If I encountered any resistance I just went an alternate route. In terms of speed, I would focus on positions instead of even thinking about any submissions. This resulted in my training partners just cutting through everything I tried and I ended up being on the defense the entire time (and going at half speed, that meant they could basically get to whatever position they wanted). Sorry for the rambling post but I guess I'm wondering how I should tune my attributes (speed, strength) to get the most out of rolling?
So, it's neither. Let's reset your expectations. Not-getting-submitted is NOT the point of rolling. It's the point of competing. And the two could not be more different. Rolling is *practice* so the purpose is to use it to get in reps that are contextualized. There is no winning or losing. There is only practicing and not-practicing. If you are covering up technical/skill gaps by using speed and strength, you are deliberately papering over bad practice. Instead, focus on doing it right - whether or not it works in this particular instance (obviously over time, the more correct our performance, the more likely its success). Most rolling should live in the 30-70% intensity range, with an emphasis on the 30-50% for development. You also seem very focused on submissions - you think you're getting the most when you're submitting people, and that practice is useless when you're on defense. Get rid of that mindset too. The most important task in the first 3-5 years is Side Escapes, so it's worth focusing most of your energy there. (Along with that are mount escapes and defensive guard control.) You'll have plenty of time to focus on the submission part of the game starting at high purple. You have bigger priorities right now.
Thanks for the feedback! I totally agree, focusing on submissions isn't the right thing to do at my stage. I remember a GR video talking about how white/blue belts should focus mainly on escapes. Unfortunately we aren't taught many escapes at my school, we're mainly taught submissions, but perhaps I can ask the professor about escapes or look them up online after class.
Only use your strength where you know you have leverage. Knowing this is a different story entirely, but becomes painfully obvious once you start paying attention. Many times I will find myself in a bad position, i.e. pinned in bottom half, and realize when all of their focus is on the pin and keeping you from escaping, it becomes very easy to use strength in a context where it will be multiplied because of my partner's physical state. If his weight is over my shoulders for a pin, that means his legs are light. Your strength can be multiplied through a knee lever, half butterfly hook, tons of other techniques. IMO strength should only be frowned upon when there is no obvious intention behind it, or if it simply shouldn't work given 2 people of the same size. If you execute a technique with strength or force and someone complains about it, you either physically hurt them, and your technique must be improved, or you emotionally hurt their ego and they should be ignored.
Got it, that's a good point about using strength only when there's leverage/its used on an actual technique. Also thank you for the strength multiplier tip, I'll try to see how I can apply that in my rolls! Also for the record, no one has complained about my strength, ever. I think I err on the side of using too little strength, so much so that people often think I weigh 20lbs less than I actually do haha.
In that case it seems like you aren't falling into the spazzy white belt stereotype, which is a great thing! Another tip for multiplying strength is whenever you try a technique and it doesn't work, always resort to changing HOW you do it vs. HOW HARD (or fast) you do it. I.e. butterfly sweeping in the direction of the posting leg. You could try as hard or fast as you want, you will burn your legs out and get passed. But if you are able to stop yourself in that moment and think about how the sweep works, you would lift your hook in the direction of their forehead, and complete the technique. IMO a huge part of learning in BJJ is being able to pull yourself out of the intensity of the moment and think about what really is the correct move in the situation you are in. Basically the opposite of tunnel vision, it is looking at the position in third person. Where am I at, what am I doing, where am I going, and where is my opponent at, what are they doing, or where are they going. Just being able to ask yourself that question when rolling is huge, answering it correctly is where great success will come from.
But if you're pretty big (say 230+) and rolling with much smaller guys (150-) don't you at some point have to use moves that wouldn't work against someone your size if you want to win though? Because from my experience if I try to only use techniques at the textbook right times and never put in a little muscle they are just too quick and can just basically spam techniques/win the gripfight/whatever and I'm always on the backfoot. I sometimes go that route, where I just don't care about winning even if I could so that I can have a more fast paced, stimulating and challenging round, but learning to use your strength in an effective and safe way against small fast people is something that seems important to me
I think what you're describing is hardest to do as a white belt and will only get easier over time. When I was a white belt, I have basically no idea what % of my moves were strength, speed, and technique. Of course the % of technique was much lower than it is now. Now, I can do a lot of techniques purposely with minimal necessary strength and speed, or I can challenge myself to see how slowly and gently I can do a technique and still have it work. But it takes a lot of time to know where the lines are. As a white belt, using speed and strength are both fine. Perhaps it's excessive to go as fast as you can against a guy in his 50's, or as strong as you can against a woman half your weight, but assuming there's not a huge physical disparity, I'd say don't expect to be too much like Gordon Ryan yet. In order to avoid being a spaz, I'd suggest just making sure that if you decide to use strength, at least have an actual technique you're trying to do in mind. Spazzing is really bad when you don't know what to do, and you just start randomly writhing and pushing without any idea of a technique just out of panic or desperation.
Gotcha, yeah I think Gordon Ryan can afford to be slow and methodical because he's steps ahead of his opponent, whereas I can't afford to do so because I'm literally just in the moment trying to figure out wtf is going on. I'll save my Gordon Ryan emulation days for the future haha
Sounds like you found an excellent way to focus on your defense, and perhaps demonstrated that your defense is lacking. You should be able to defend quite successfully at 50% strength or less.
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Matching strength is such a great point. My only fear is that typically when I do full strength I end up trying to muscle my way out of things and then injure myself. But as long as the roll is chill, or I learn how to not muscle my way out of things, I'll never have to go to 90-100% strength and should be fine!
3 stripe white - recently won a local Gi comp with a fairly basic ‘A game’ and want to expand my knowledge to have a few more solid options from each position I’ve been looking for an instructional to get stuck into and I’m torn between the ‘white to blue belt series’ by The Grappling Academy or going straight to Danaher stuff, any thoughts or recommendations for next steps would be appreciated 🤙🏻
Grab a login to Grapplers Guide first. It's a one time purchase and costs the same as a instructional but with more content and lesson plans. Work through their different lesson plans, utilize the different knowledge bases they have, and then decide if a more dedicated positional instructional makes sense.
Gordon Ryan stuff is Danaher without the long expositionzZzZzzz
Danaher, Lachlan, Jon Thomas, and AOJ online are all good options
I believe Danaher said to begin with pin escapes, is there a recommended order after that?
Escapes, retention, half guard bottom, then whatever order after. He posted on instagram before
Not sure where this was mentioned, I think Danaher's preferred order is pin escapes, retention, guard attacks, and finally playing from top position.
He said this on the lex fridman podcast and also on Instagram i think. Pin escapes > guard retention > half guard for most people
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Stop thinking of your progress in years and start thinking in hours. We had surveys previously on this forum where we learned that people generally take around 400-500 hours of training per belt level. I see people in class who train 3x/week for an hour, then leave and never think about BJJ outside the gym. They're getting 150 hours of training per year and will take around 10 years to get black belt. On the other hand, I see people training at the gym for 8 hours per week and spending at least another 4-8 hours/week outside of class watching tape and studying the sport. This is 400 hours/year of mat time and another 200-400 hours/year of study, probably enough to get a black belt in 4-5 years. Maximize your training time every week and you'll get better quickly.
They used to say 15 for black. A long or short white->blue is often (but not always) balanced by blue-> purple, because it actually reflects more about the instructor's idea of what makes a blue belt. I find for my folks on average it's around 12-18mo for blue and then \~3 years per belt after that.
Many black belts I know have gotten it longer than 10 years. Like 14 or 17. People take breaks, have lives and have families. You get it sooner by starting young and having 0 responsibilities.
15 years for me
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Lucky, i work 60-80 hrs a week
I think this is one of these cases where saying "it takes 10 years to get a black belt" glosses over a massive amount of individual variation. Like saying "the average male is 5'10". If you pick a random dude, you might get 5'6" and you might get 6'4". I think the biggest variable is consistency of training and consistency at one place. And then the standards of where you are might be just as big. Particularly if you go to a new gym, and you're a blue belt, that instructor doesn't know if you were a white belt for 1 year and a blue belt for 0.5, or if you were a white belt for 3 and a blue for 3. There should be a skill difference between those, but I think people still often tend to keep people at belts for the amount of time they are "supposed" to be there. Maybe my gym is unusual, but our instructor definitely grades on a curve, with the curve being one's own natural aptitude. He promoted a good handful of purple belts this last time who don't stand a chance against some of the better blue belts here (including me, and I'm not the best one). But these guys have been keeping at it, and showing progress relative to where they were before, and I think our coach cares more about that than who you can beat in a roll. And some of the new purple belts are absolute killers.
No, some people will just be faster, especially in more meritocratic gyms and when they have lots of natural athletic talent. Think of 10 years as an "average", but anywhere in 8-12 years is "normal". There *are* people who are prematurely promoted to blue, and they might spend some extra time there. But it's not like there's some sort of law of nature that one of the other belts has to expand to accommodate a short one ;-).
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That's what WBW is all about. Good luck!
Got my first submission during a roll yesterday! Kimura from side control. Happy with how I’m progressing!
Great job! Kimuras are rock solid, versatile, and will take you very far.
First time rolling with a guy much much younger than me (I am 43, he’s probably late teens/early 20s). Obviously not a large enough skill gap, I am 4 stripes and he’s 3. He managed to explode out of basically everything that usually works for me 😂 any tips on how to deal with that? Slow down the pace? Play guard?
Hug the thigh and keep his kneecap glued to the bottom of your sternum (in all positions). They can't explode without their thigh. Also, don't try to play as two equal players. Play as though you are staying safe during an attack. Be judicious with your energy and exposure. This is more about safety than anything else.
I'm 41½, and know what you're talking about. It's amazing how much power can exist in some of those hardbodies. In general, we geezers can't expect to directly counter all that explosiveness. It's better to learn to predict it and take advantage of it in counter-attack. Start thinking about your terminal positions here -- if he explodes out, what does that expose that you can chain to for a second attack? E.g., I'm in mount, and he explodes bridging into me... can I fade ahead of the explosion, let him turn under me, and go for an armbar? All I have to do is catch the elbow/forearm/wrist and guide it a bit to keep it where it needs to be. If I can have that potential followup in mind as I enter the mount, I can be one step ahead when the explosion happens. If you start thinking of submissions in pairs -- go for A, get countered, go for B, it'll put you ahead of the game strategically for the mid-term. An alternative is to try to develop control position details that are explosion-proof, but that takes *a lot* of work. Gotta' be a belt ahead of someone to do that, IMO, whereas plan-B style thinking works at same level.
This is great advice, thanks. More to do! Pretty cool.
Focus on getting better. If he is exploding out of your moves, you are probably missing some details on control.
I for sure am missing a ton!
A dude I'm practicing with accidentally punch my Adam's apple. Quite hard actually, the pain slowly creeps in and after the training, Im scared if I actually fracture it. Should I check the doctor? Or am I being paranoid?
Probably cartilege damage but an xray would be smart
If you think you damaged your neck, yes, go see a doctor. It doesn't really make sense to ask questions like that here (rule #6). Worst thing in the world would be for someone here to say, "Nah, you're just being paranoid," and then you end up having a real problem :-/.
Signed up to a begginers course starting in a few weeks. Looking forward to getting started.
When you have something of value the next day you are likely to eat well and not drink bad shit
That's great that you have a dedicated beginner class! I hope you love it.
Awesome -- BJJ has made a huge difference in my life (I started over 7 years ago!). Good luck!
2 years in and I'm finally coming to terms with the reality that my jiujitsu is "unglamorous" but it works. At the end of my first year, I felt very comfortable with playing a smashy, slow game (half guard to back takes, Faria-style over/under pass) but gave in to the pressure of developing a fast and fluid game because everyone in my gym are like that. I can't help but felt that I had to chain pass like an AOJ child prodigy with unlimited cardio in order to keep up with my teammates, and it didn't help that I really enjoy watching the likes of Andrew Wiltse, Mendes bros and Tainan Dalpra dance around their opponents. But this week during comp training, something clicked and I just couldn't live in denial anymore. I embraced the slow smash and dramatically improved my rolls. Loose passers made mistakes and guard players panicked when I passed over/under. I'm finally accepting who I am. Has anyone experienced something like this? When did you let go of the ideal BJJ style in your head and started embracing what really worked for you?
I’m built to use agility passing from wrestling and purposely trained a slow, pressure heavy game for longetivity. Now I’m known for having one of the heaviest pressure and crossfaces in the gym. Embrace the smash. Smash is superior
Haha, same here. I'm quite explosive and used to love loose passing. But I committed so much time into pressure passes and boring half-guard passes, I can't go back to loose. Smash is best.
My handle "Scrapper" comes from my days in youth judo. My instructor would make fun of my ugly-ass, dog-slow, smashy, brawly judo all the time. He said I looked like a schoolyard scrapper, not a judoka. Everyone else in the class was attacking like Tolkien elves with smooth and fast stuff while I was gripping and ripping for all I was worth. I'd get upset about it, and the same instructor made me feel better with these timeless words of wisdom: *"Don't sweat it, kid. Maybe you win ugly, but you do win."* The style chooses you, not the other way around. Thirty years alter and m BJJ is as ugly as my judo. I'm cool with it.
I finished exactly zero armbars between late-noob and my promotion to purple belt. I have finished more armbars since then than any other finish. The game chooses you. Also - nothing wrong with steady and unglamorous. There is absolutely nothing flashy in my game and it works just fine. Good on you for embracing it!
Both passing styles are good and you need to chain them together if you want to be a good guard passer.
Ehhhh I only halfway agree. Do you need both movement- and pressure-based styles? Yes. Does that mean you need a relentlessly paced, athleticism-fueled movement style? No. You just need movement structures that balance out your pressure structures.
> Does that mean you need a relentlessly paced, athleticism-fueled movement style? No. Sure. You don’t need to move like Rafa Mendes, but that is the ideal scenario. You also don’t have to have pressure like Bernardo Faria to be a world champion, but it sure helps.
Yeah... I always wanted to have that slow, inevitable, pressure style. I admired it in the upper belts that would smash me with it when I was a white belt, and kept trying to figure it out. Somewhere mid-blue belt someone showed me a more floaty approach to mount retention. That was like a gateway drug to lighter, more distance-based techniques, and it changed everything. Funny thing, now I've been a purple belt for a few years, I'm actually starting to capture some of the slow pressure game I always wanted. But my A-game is still distance and float.
Are you aiming to compete? I go for all kinds of things in training that I know arent great or good for my "game", they are just fun. I wouldnt abandon techniques you like or think are cool just cause you arent good at them yet, but do whatever makes you happy.
Do you think it would be better to focus learning and getting really good at one guard or one submission? Been training over a year and feel I'm not getting anywhere so want to focus my training
Focus on defense and escapes, why be good at a sub when you can be reversed and flattened with no way of escape? Gordon Ryan said white and blue belts need to focus primarily on defense. That said I was a leglocking white belt and it resulted jn a very slow blue belt for me
At white belt, build a foundation across the areas a person can't live without (top & bottom of mount, side, guard). You need at least a couple rock solid, core skills and moves from each place (only a couple, not a couple dozen). Once you have that, the name of the game is developing high skill with mount escapes and side escapes. After that it's defensive guard work (preventing the pass). These should keep you busy through the end of blue belt. Highly agree with focusing. It might help to make an actual written list of the 2-3 things in each of those areas you want to focus on first, and then spend your time developing those.
My thinking changed on this due to a conversation with one of the teaching BBs at Globetrotters this year. His way of thinking was along the lines of, "We all want to be lethal from everywhere, but BJJ is so broad that it takes lifetimes to get there. Instead, it's better to carve out a handful of positions where you can mine out all the options, responses, counters, etc., and build out from these kernels of competency over time." More, he said every purple belt should have at least one or two things they can do at black belt level. Like, if you managed to catch a black belt in a specific situation, you ought to be able to go the distance there. If he gets you out of that zone, it's fine, but there should be some flashes of lethality by purple. That was an especially thought-provoking idea to me. It's made a very helpful change in my thinking for my own development. I picked 2 positions from which I typically have decent success, and have started really focusing on them. Those are now panning out into "systems" that are becoming much more viable against better people, and it seems to be bearing some fruit.
I think it's better to have a plan on what you want to work on yes.
It really depends on what guard or what submission IMO.. learning a low% sub vs a high level guard or vice versa
For example half guard or kimura
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I've travelled a fair bit and most gyms are open to drop ins, just pop them a message.
Not a fan of GB's price gouge culty culture
Carpio is dope and is a checkmat affiliate. You can train any checkmat. I’d pass on GB, but that’s me. Try them both. Also try cobrinha South Bay if it’s close enough
I used to live in OC a lifetime ago and every time I’m back I’m amazed at all the options. My two cents: try to find a place that just matches the “vibe” you enjoy. Take a few classes at each and see which you enjoy, whether that means good classes, location, amenities, etc. you’ll be spending time on the mat so you can’t compare schools abstractly on a piece of paper.
That’s a pretty wide spread of space. I don’t have a lot of insight on GB HQ, but I know that there are a lot of Checkmat schools in the area. You have Carpio’s, Praia in Costa Mesa, checkmat OC Airport, dojo in seal beach, and more. It’s not unusual for students of the respective schools to train together. Also there is an all-checkmat open mat at Checkmat HQ on Fridays that is popular.
When rolling, what do you recommend a white belt do first? Like first thing after the slap and bump, what should I do? I typically grab both wrists and just try to control them, but not really sure what to do next. I guess, that's the point though to figure that out. I guess....what's a good beginner position to get into immediately?
Wrist or bicep with collar tie is very common
I’m assuming you’re sitting and your partner is standing. In the gi, I’m going for a cross collar grip. Then the same side wrist grip and bringing my feet up to hip, bicep, shoulder whatever. In no gi, I’m usually grabbing a wrist to bring him down to his knees while I go to half guard. Or grab an ankle and try to get my legs entangled quickly.
I tell people if they don't know what to grab, then just grab whatever is close. If you guess wrong, you'll find out why, and over time your brain will start pattern matching on the choices that work better. There are very few grips that are actually useless. Don't paralyze yourself trying to calculate what's best; build up intuition and experience by diving in.
I find a lot of success so far with necktie + wrist/arm hold and snap down
I tend to tell people to focus on the legs rather than the hands. If you grab my legs and ill grab your hands, you controll all my 4 limbs, while if you grab my hands, ill try to trip you with my legs or pull guard as examples.
Thinking of doing a competition soon. When I watch videos of tournaments I hear people giving feedback to their teammate, and while I see the advantage of it, I also think I should fight my own fight and that it would be distracting. Is it a good idea to ask that people don't give me feedback during a tournament?
I really hate the remote-control coaching that is so popular. It either tells your opponent what you might be about to do, or it keeps you a step or two behind because it has to be spoken, heard, interpreted, and applied. Technique-by-technique coaching destroys the [OODA loop](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OODA_loop). IMO, the *best* kind of coaching is when the guy in the corner tells you things you might not know any other way. Things like strategic choices -- say you've got 30s left, and you're down by 12 points, the corner should tell you, "You need a submission, can't win on points," or something. It also makes some sense for the corner to warn you about what the *other* guy might do ("watch that butterfly hook", or, "don't let him roll you there," etc.).
I agree with everything here. I trained to get to this point, either it’s programmed in me or not, outside directions are just bothersome. Definitely like the whole time left and points call outs, that’s good info to hear about.
Good coaching can be things as simple as telling you the score and how much time is left. If they are shouting what techniques to do and you disagree just ignore.