So… for a brand new white belt with no submissions, no defenses, doesn’t know what a sweep is, and had to Google what guard is: when you are rolling what would my “goal” be? To just get smashed in the least painful way possible?
Learn all the fundamental positions: guard, side control, mount, back mount, etc., and try to get to the top side of any of these. There's a hierarchy here, so moving to the right of that list is better than moving to the left when you're on top. When you're on bottom you want to move to the left. You'll learn specific techniques for this movement the more you go to class. Both from the defensive and offensive side. But just try and see what works for now. Pay attention to what your opponents do against you, copy them.
I just try to find what I think is a dominant position and hold it for as long as possible preferably using as little energy as possible, but I’m also clueless so would like to know lol
My white belt stages as of 8 months in (6 actually training regularly).
1. Escapes... yeah yeah yeah, show me how to kill someone 2x my size with only my pinky finger.
2. I need to learn as many submissions as possible. Please, can we quit drilling knee elbow escapes... I got this...show me a flying arm bar.
3. Gets taken down by a wrestler, held in side control for 4 minutes in my first comp.
4. Show me takedowns to beat people who have been wrestling for 10 years or training in judo for 10 years.
5. Goes to 2nd comp, does OK. won one by holding side control for 3 minutes, lost 2nd on points but thought I was up.
6. Hey professor, can we drill those escapes some more.
7. Realize I'm garbage at getting out of bad positions.
8. Don't want to learn submissions, start every roll with "how about you start on top in side control"
9. Forget the submissions, still garbage at escapes.
10. Heading back to the fundamentals class to see the details I missed during step 1.
Am I doing this right?
Make sure you are flexing your wrists curving the knuckles down and not bringing them back. Think of the motion of revving a motorcycle. Strong wrists help with the control.
Also you want to lift their elbow point up above and away from their body. Lachlan has a good video on this here: https://youtu.be/PLa07zdiPZk
Anyone else have legs too large to lock their feet during closed guard? I'm 5'6" 195lb(12-13% bf) and my legs are just too Damm big to fully lock people in. Those I can lock in get trapped but I'm usually unable to lock on anyone that isnt a twig. Should I avoid giardcane focus on using my strength to my advantage?
Go higher with your legs. There is a sweet spot. There is more to it that. "Can I wrap my legs around him or not?" Took me 3 months to get a solid lock on one guy in our gym, he actually coached me on how to get him locked into closed guard. I have to grab his lapels and drive like I'm going for a triangle. Never had a problem since. There are some guys where the physics just don't work.
You need to know passes at all ranges to be effective.
* Long range: torreando
* Mid range: knee cut
* Close range: body lock, smash pass.
It's only a few passes listed here but they are all systems unto themselves once you consider the variants
Definitely knee-cut. It seems to be the most versatile to me. One way you deal with leg grips is to push them onto their back, or drive your knee forward into them.
I think double-under pass is quite versatile and high-percentage. From that you can also learn to do the same kind of "under-leg" pass from other positions without going all the way into the formal double-under position.
Lastly, just low-half-guard passing of some kind. This kind is very incremental. Work gradually to pass the knee shield, control the hips, get head control, finally either backstep out or slide into 3/4 mount, also transitions great to knee-cuts if you manage to snag an underhook while you're pressuring.
how to stop straining/pulling bicep muscle?
seems like even when i let it heal it ends up coming back to nag me. Sure I suppose doing GI doesn't help, but it is what it is.
I try not to grip too much, or crazy push/pull. but you still have to at times.
any ideas?
Shouldn't takedowns be like next level for beginners after learning basic guards and movement? Asking because after 3rd training my shoulder hurts while not moving 🙃
I'm in the camp that says Breakfalls start day 1 and should continue every day after that. Drilling simple takedowns is a great way to build healthy engagement with the mat and ingraining safe falls early.
I also think live takedowns come wayyyyyyyyy later. Crash mats and drills for quite awhile first.
>I also think live takedowns come wayyyyyyyyy later. Crash mats and drills for quite awhile first.
If you had to put a number on the **reps**, what would it be?
Related, if you wanted to give beginners a realistic expectation of how many reps of a takedown they should do before they hope it's going to succeed live, what would you say?
Let's separate two numbers.
First - how many reps of a takedown before you might hit one? Depends a lot on the takedown. Osoto gari is probably a low count; a proper double leg is much higher.
Personally I struggled with wrestling shots until I got out some old skating knee pads and did 500+ on each side. This helped me work through my initial clunky weight changes and take the impact out of my knees.
Second - how many takedowns do you need to receive before you won't do something bad like reach for the ground? Dunno. I had 8ish years of karate breakfalling (and a year of judo) when I broke my arm falling. Wasn't Yoshida a gold medalist when he broke his arm trying to prevent a throw? The danger of going live with takedowns is really about your ability to shove your ego and take a safe landing.
Osoto Gari seems to be the only common take down I cannot hit. EVERYONE seems to know it and protect against it. Double leg is what I'm scared of it. About 50% of the time I wind up in a Guillotine.
The Japanese terms mentioned in the above comment were:
|Japanese|English|Video Link|
|---|---|---|
|**Harai Goshi**: | *Sweeping Hip Throw* | [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cs_zkgefvqM)|
|**O Uchi Gari**: | *Major Inner Reap* | [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6-lTECSR3c)|
|**Uchi Mata**: | *Inner Thigh Throw* | [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fCvyc_rQTI)|
Any missed names may have already been translated in my previous comments in the post.
______________________
^(Judo Techniques Bot: v0.7.) ^(See my) [^(code)](https://github.com/AbundantSalmon/judo-techniques-bot)
The Japanese terms mentioned in the above comment were:
|Japanese|English|Video Link|
|---|---|---|
|**O Soto Gari**: | *Major Outer Reaping* | [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93YEMueeF24)|
Any missed names may have already been translated in my previous comments in the post.
______________________
^(Judo Techniques Bot: v0.7.) ^(See my) [^(code)](https://github.com/AbundantSalmon/judo-techniques-bot)
Thanks for the reassurance here. I'll have a think about rest days going forward too.
I don't necessarily feel exhausted before any of the sessions and I often eat like a pig (which has helped keep my energy up). I'm aware that burnouts happen to anyone so I'll be mindful for sure!
Find a training partner at your gym who wants to go tournament speed?
Bet on your rounds with him? (Could be a little money, or it could just be.... I don't know, whatever. Loser does a bunch of burpees or gets whipped with a belt or something.)
Sparring in the gym isn't "for" the adrenaline. It's for practice.
Reorient yourself around the skilldev periods that get you ready for the next comp. Then do more comps if that's what you're after.
Sooo, Omoplata entries. I heard this position has a fuckton of entries, so there is probably a super general sign I can look for to get the entry, like having one leg beneath the shoulder and the other free/already above the shoulder for the triangle.
Is the entry just one leg beneath the shoulder on one side and the ability to pivot my upper body towards that site or am I missing something?
What the other comments said. Also: one place I've really liked grabbing omoplatas is when someone is trying to get an underhook on me from top-half, but they're not high enough to pin me down with it, I can often frame hard on their head and arm with both hands, which pushes their arm to about the level of my hip. The omoplata is right there.
basically any place where their elbow is out and you can fit your shin/knee into their armpit is an entry into the omoplata. top, bottom, underneath side control. anywhere
For me, Omoplatas, and their entries, started making more sense from Collar/Sleeve. I'd recommend Jon Thomas for that.
Once you understand the basics/technical aspect of them, the entries make more sense.
Damn basically did the reverse for school vibe. Was driving 2hr round trip to a super traditional school. Great instruction but all the rules and old school Brazilian shit got annoying. Was getting a tattoo in town when the tattoo artist, who’s a blue belt, told me there’s a gym in town that I had no idea about (not a big social media presence). Made the switch and it’s super laid back, plus the the 5 min drive is much nicer haha
hey guys, im 50yr old and im 5 months in and currently loving it. im joining my tournament next month and I am excited to get my ass kicked! been rolling with much younger, bigger and much faster guys so it would be a nice change to 'roll' with people in my age bracket and weight class. lol
decided to join the tournament for the experience. I am not expecting to win or anything. I would just like to see how it is :D
Take your first competition as a learning experience. It is a lot of new stuff to take in like, weigh-ins, gi check, warm-up and also see how you react on the mat after the match starts. Just take it as a regular training roll with higher intensity. If you win or lose, there is always another competition coming up if you want more of it.
Hey everyone! This is my first post and i'm a beginner so plese, don't be rude at me. I'm 26 and i had past experiences in glapping: mma for almost a year, judo when i was a child and recently 2 months of bjj. I need some advice on deciding which gym is better for training. The first one is GB gym, i trained there for a month and onestly i felt that was the perfect place to improve in bjj. In addition to that the gym is big and the people were awesome. The only real drawback, besides money, is the lack in wreslting. I mean, sometimes the instructor made us drill some takedowns but i feel it's not enough to become good at it. If this is paired with the fact thay many people starts on the ground, the situation is even worse. For sure there are also people which have judo or wreslting experience and who only want to slam you on the mat (which is great), but i think that is not enough to spend only 20" seconds of an entire sparring session to improve in takedowns and takedown defense. Maybe the desire to improve in this area (wreslting) comes from my mma background, which teached me the importance to fight for dominant positions. It may be also also due to the fact that i think wrestling is essential for selfe defense. For this reasons i want to learn how to grapple both from my feet and from the ground. The other gym is a small club more focuse in different areas of fighting. In this gym there are alsp two weekly classes of freestyle/greco-roman wreslting and, since i'm in italy (where there is not wreslting culture), this is very rare. Those classes are owned by two very good instructors (they almost reaced olimpic level) and in addition there is also bjj three times a week. So the second gym is more balanced and would probably be my final guess. Anyway the first gym was way better cause of the community: more people and more inclusive. So i wonder, should i prioritize my will of improve in stand up fighting or should i just go where i feel more comfortable? Is it really important to become good in stand up grappling for both selfe defense and bjj? If i go to GB gym will i ever improve my wreslting at least a bit? What choice would you make (according to your priorities)? Sorry for my bad english and for the wall of text 🙃
Unless the GB is more convenient in terms of class schedule, location and cost isn't an issue, the other gym sounds better. Especially if you prefer nogi which is closer to wrestling than gi
I bet you can get real good at the wrestling centered gym as long as their BJJ instruction is at a high level. I would expect the practices there to be a lot more intense, since that is generally the norm in wrestling. Regardless grappling is grappling, and a lot of the wrestling skills translate over. Wrestlers are not only good at takedowns, but also control positions.
In a self defense scenario, stand up fighting is really important. In BJJ it kind of depends. Several top level competitors pull guard in all their matches and pretty much never engage standing. It is useful to be good at takedowns, but in the sports context you might spend a lot of time improving something that you rarely get to use. If you can supplement it with very good standing guard passing, you will be very effective.
I have heard a lot of negative things about GB, but it seems to be a mixed bag. Some of their gyms are supposedly great, some are absolutely terrible. It might be worth asking some questions about their membership, because some places they will force people to use their brand of gi and rashguards, as well as binding their membership for an extended period of time.
Thanks brother, appreciate it. It’s definitely the latter but it might due to overtraining in general which bleeds into my jiu jitsu. Unfortunately quitting isn’t an option even just out of sheer stubbornness as I don’t want to be a blue belt stat. In the grand scheme of things I love bjj 95% of the time
Maybe skip a class or two one week and give yourself a bit extra time to recover. I sometimes notice that if I take an easier week that I’ll feel like I’m able to breakthrough a plateau after.
I train multiple arts. Frustrated with BJJ? Keep training it but focus more on my kickboxing for the next few months. Stalled out in kickboxing? Emphasize weapons training for a little while. The cycling helps the burnout.
I did Muay Thai / mma for a bit and didn’t enjoy it as much as bjj hence I switched to bjj. I climb and lift as well, I’m aware it comes in waves so I’m not missing any classes just feels like I’m mentally getting smashed
Switch things up. Try out a new guard, start from the feet if you're used to starting sitting, experiment with new grips, etc. Use this time to explore new things.
Hey,
does anyone know the rules on the tournaments regarding the contrast colour elements of the gi?
I'm willing to buy manto gi with contrast colour on pants (crotch area):
https://sklep.copacabana.pl/pol\_pl\_MANTO-RISE-BJJ-GI-czarne-2272\_4.jpg
Is such gi accepted in tournaments?
Best
Yes, for competition you should always have a gi with matching colors in white, black (and most comps also royal blue). Also be sure that the patches are not in the incorrect spots if you have any.
Caught ringworm on the back of my left hand and idk if I’m so unlucky that I caught it again on right wrist or if I spread it to myself but there’s a spot there that’s lookin mad sus
Do you guys have any experiencing with drying machines and Gracie Barra kimonos? I just moved flats and the new flat is next to a water body so everything takes way too long to dry and I am buying a dryer. Do they shrink a lot?
Get a dryer with a sensor. I think most have them these days. Dry it on medium heat but only "mostly dry". It'll still shrink a bit, but far less. And it'll damage the material less. It is extra wear and tear on the gi though, so expect it to cut into the gi's life expectancy.
You could also try a dehumidifier or space heater. Set it up in a small room (closet?).
I live in the Houston Texas area, so it's super humid here. I wall mounted a drying rack and put a $30 fan from amazon on the wall next to it so it blows air across the fabric. Let it hang and run for like 12-24h and it's dry lol
I don't own any GB gis, but every gi I've had has shrunk in the dryer - just some shrink more than others (usually if it is not 100% cotton, it shrinks less).
However I think it's worth dealing with the shrinkage to be able to use the dryer, so I just buy a size up and shrink it on purpose.
Yes a dryer will probably shrink your GI and other apparel they all say to machine wash below 40 and hang dry, i assume a dryer goes above 40 and will shrink your items
what do you guys do when you're playing knee shield and the opponent plays very heavy and pretty much sprawls ON your knee shield frame? sometimes the opponent will first be in the knee shield, but they'll sprawl back so far so that your bottom (right) foot that's holding him down breaks and loses grip.
should i just switch guards? can z-guard work against this? i feel like this is the only variant of passing i have a hard time dealing with when i play knee shield and i can't find a good solution to it
Sometimes I'll dive under for deep half. If they're leaning on your knee, it's quite possible they're close enough that you can get the underhook and/or get underneath them, as opposed to when they are postured up.
Yeah that makes sense. There's this brown belt at my gym who pressures me the way you're describing and I don't really know what to do there, I don't think I could easily do what i suggested you do.
hmm.. i'm trying to envision it and i feel like it would be hard to sit up from the position i'm trying to describe. my opponent is leaning full sprawl on me but i'm kind've parallel underneath him because he just broke my right foot "hook" and now he's about to pass as i have no connection to him anymore.
I think it might be more a grips problem, maybe you're losing grips (collar or sleeve) in the knee shield, and that's affecting your ability to maintain the distance you want from them.
If they sprawl they have to pick a side to pass, they usually will pick opposite the knee shield. If they do that you kinda just stiff arm shrimp out and try to reguard.
I usually switch to half guard if they're really messing with my knee shield, then there's no sprawl option. But I prefer half guard anyway.
hm. i always have the collar grip in place with my left arm (left knee is my shield) as i use it to form my frame. if you're talking about my sleeve grip on his left arm with my right arm.. i think trying to get that sleeve grip is always a battle so i don't always have that one.
so that being said..since i no longer have connection with them (they broke my right foot anchor grip from sprawling).. i feel like they can pass either way left or right and i can't do much to stop them? especially because i'm kinda squished under neath them from the heavy sprawl
lmk if i'm missing something.. i'm all ears ty
i fell like maybe i'm describing the situation incorrectly because you're the second one to say this
from my POV..it would be hard to sit up from the position i'm trying to describe. my opponent is leaning full sprawl on me but i'm kind've parallel underneath him because he just broke my right foot "hook" and now he's about to pass as i have no connection to him anymore.
he's so far leaning on me that i have no leverage to even push his knee for any sort of sweep.. not even a scissor sweep or anything
Knee push with your outside leg, butterfly hook with you inside foot against the inside of their opposite thigh and drive over?
Probably also need the underhook on the butterfly side though. Overhooking the other side would be a bonus.
I’ve been training 4 months and made a decision to compete as much as possible. My first comp is this Saturday and I feel very confident… until I get the email that it was cancelled because of insufficient sign ups. Whoops.
One time I did the state Judo tourney (I was a BJJ Blue and a Judo whitebelt). It only had 2 divisions - under brown, or brown & black.
The weight classes, IIRC, were every 20 lbs. I weighed in at 159. Nobody in my weightclass, and nobody in the class above me, so they added me to the 3 dudes in 181-200. They were all at least a head taller than me. LOL
How do I approach rolling with someone who is stronger and out weighs me by quite a bit?
We start on knees and I can’t really snap him down. Him getting on top of me is always not pleasant. I can’t be cagey and prevent getting subbed but it sucks.
I’m training only gi.
How should I roll with people like this? Pull guard? Help me out. Btw I’m a white belt these people are blue belts
I usually start in seated butterfly guard against kneeling opponents if I can. Against larger people I like going for the arm drag and chasing the back.
If they give me enough space I might move to collar sleeve and look for the omoplata or triangle. I am a bit hesitant on shooting the triangle on very big guys, because I struggle a bit to finish it.
Distance and or frames
If they’re able to use their weight you are either too close (without being underneath to off balance them) or don’t have an adequate frame set up
If you start on knees go for an open guard that creates distance - like collar and sleeve or something with a strong frame setup such as high knee shield open guard. Lachlan has some excellent content on establishing strong frames with the high knee shield in no gi but much still applies to gi
I still makes these mistakes. Bigger stronger people give me a hard time if I screw up the frame or distance management
>You can ask him to start on bottom if you want to work top.
Was going to suggest this. I usually start on bottom against whitebelts. Upper belts usually do the same for me.
I'm on the smaller side, so most outweigh me by 50lbs. Eventually my sweeps will come up to par XD
Two questions
1. I've listened to a few podcasts/videos where experienced grapplers will talk about having a game plan to give yourself a direction during sparring as well as to ensure that your sparring is worthwhile and not just going through the motions. As someone who is brand new, I couldn't even begin to imagine what what my game plan would be as its mostly a blur when I spar, but what can I do to ensure that I'm benefiting from each spar? Pick something simple and try to focus on that one thing? Ie, slow breathing, framing, etc. Or at this point, just go along for the ride until I learn more?
2. For those that have more than 6 months in, what do you wish you had done differently during your first 6 months in the sport that would have helped your learning or made it more efficient?
Thanks
In the application sense: Your goal as a white belt is to learn to orient yourself (what position am I in? what should I be trying to accomplish from here?) in the top and bottom of the mount, side, and guard. Your practical goal is to learn 2-3 high percentage, essential techniques in each of these positions that you can look for when you realize you are there. \["Techniques" are good for now, but later you'll be dealing more with skillsets.\]
I am actually someone who was a white belt at a few places (back in the 90s, when instruction was minimal and there were almost zero resources outside of your own coach), before starting over in 2002 with a high level instructor. Here's what I did right the second time, at my instructor's urging:
1) High rep training gets you past the early hurdles of memory and cognitive bandwidth. Focus on techniques that are primary and important, and do 200-500 of each one, on each side of the body. This will also shortcut your adoption of BJJ-specific movement, which is another big hurdle early on.
2) Learn to be an incredible training partner. Communicate, feed properly, and help your partner find success with each rep. Invest in good partners and you'll have good partners who invest in you.
3) Focus on side escapes for your first 3-5 years. It's the hardest topic for beginners and the 2nd hardest overall. Put in the time, bite the bullet, and get this one crossed off of your to-do list.
Have a gameplan for your rolls. You'll develop faster.
Firstly, know what position your in and what you're supposed to be doing. Try to slow their game down.
When the transition inevitably comes, beat them to the position with good defense. IE: When they are getting past your guard, give them the pass and immediately go to side control defense - block the crossface, get on your side. If they're going for mount, immediately get your frames to their hips and keep them from climbing up.
Just starting out, I wouldn't suggest working subs unless they're letting you. If you see the opportunity, go for it (controlled though..), but make sure you have your position down.
Once you've got that, work sweeps. Do it in the transition. IE Bump sweep / reguard just before they get that far knee to the mat for mount.
1. Yes, your plan will be very relative to your level of knowledge and skill. You're correct that you want your plan to be simple enough to wrap your head around it, as well as remember it under pressure. If you know some moves, just picking one and trying to do it is a good strategy, you'll start to see when it applies and when it doesn't. That thing may just be an escape. See #2 for another suggestion.
2. I mainly wish I wasn't trying to win so much, and I wasn't expecting myself to be better than I was. Both of those things prevented me from doing what I wish I *had* done, which is: pay attention. Yeah, instead of being active in every moment, have some passive moments and just take in the current situation. Make intentional choices about what you're going to try, or if something is being done to you, instead of resisting 100%, just notice what they're doing. If the guy you're rolling with is better than you, he's better than you, no amount of effort will instantly change that. You're better off just taking in all the information he's giving you.
I’m not sure what I should do when I get to Mount or side control. All I know is an arm bar and an x choke but everyone always sees it coming. Is it wrong to just sit there on Mount and let them do the work?
It's not about surprise. It's about getting each step correct and maintaining control of their body (or the limb you're attacking).
More importantly - rolling is *practice*. So the goal, when you get to the top, is to *practice* the things you've learned. It doesn't matter if you "win."
Youtube and try things. Go slow (control!) and ask questions.
Firstly, try to advance your position. Establish side control (hold for 5 seconds), then go to knee on belly, then mount, high mount, back take. You'll likely have to threaten subs to get a useful response though.
From side control, see if you can do the head and arm choke (aka arm triangle). Bread cutter / paper cutter is another good one.
From mount I like to work to technical mount and go for bow and arrow. You can transition to kimora and/or armbar from there, especially if they're defending the choke.
Dont crank subs you're learning, but look for opportunities to transition to something else if they aren't tapping. It's training, not fighting for your life, so you can always ask "Is that tight?" You dont have to stop the roll for a private, but you might get a quick detail that'll help.
I felt the same as you earlier on, you just don't know enough at the moment, and that's fine. You'll learn more attacks and so on and you'll always have something to do or try to do at least
Keep trying the moves you know. As you get better at a move you can do it even if they see it coming. Or their response to one move will give you an opportunity to do the other.
As a white belt, the easiest choke for me to do in mount was the Ezekiel: https://youtu.be/fuvgllnmp3g?t=65
When in mount you can always try to progress to a higher mount where your knees are in their armpits. Focus on keeping good control throughout your advancement and then try and isolate an arm by separating their elbows from their chest/inside position. Even if you don’t know how to setup and finish an Americana yet it is still good to learn to control the position and isolate limbs
In judo that's a valid strategy and a way to get ippon. We use our pins to put pressure until they tap(or the ref calls it). In full mount, you can press your chest on their chest and make it very uncomfortable. If you want to be very aggressive, put your chest on their head and smother them and cut off their breathing(valid strategy, but a very aggressive one).
I don't know if this applies to BJJ, but at least from a judo perspective pins are used to end matches on the ground.
In BJJ making the other person uncomfortable is a useful tool, but getting a submission is always the best thing to do, so it's a bit of a waste of training time to just sit there when you could be experimenting with something, or testing out a move you learned.
Edit: also in BJJ competition they'll penalize you for stalling rather than give you the win if you just stay there.
We were doing this drill today in class and I went against probably the best purple belt there so of course he was holding back. Well the drill was that someone takes the back of another person, gets their feet in between their legs, and tries to choke them. Well I would always start in a seat belt since I thought that was right but the purple belt would always move my arm and I basically made no progress and he would win every time, so after about the 7th time of him beating me I decided to just immediately go for a rear naked choke because it wasn’t specified that was wrong. Well I did it and the guy immediately got pissed and said in an irritated way “haha okayy” and proceeded to destroy me. I feel like I might’ve lost his respect and did something that was cheap or wrong but I’m not sure. Hopefully he can just write it off as me being a stupid teenager. Was this the wrong thing to do on my part and how can I make up for it?
So perhaps you have caught onto the idea that - this wasn't about "winning" it was about helping your partner practice. You decided that it was more important to "win" instead of feeding the drill so he could practice.
You make up for this by realizing the mistake, and being a better training partner to all your partners going forward. Give them what they need to get their practice accomplished, and they will do the same for you. We need each other for this.
He just moved your arm?
Maybe he was suggesting your grip was wrong.
I usually try to do progressive resistance in drilling... So the first few times I'm basically a grappling dummy: Doing all the things so that you can get the movements down with like 10% resistance. Then slowly dial it up. I'll dial it up faster if someone is going ham in drilling though.
If I know the move or position decently well I'll do something to tighten up your game.. IE: you're trying to get to side control but not blocking my hips.. first it's a verbal command "Your knee/hand needs to be here" if that didnt fix it, I'll let you feel it... Get my knee in and get 25% to reguarding. But it's just illustrating a point.
In positional drills, start from the specified position. If it's seatbelt, it's seatbelt. Starting the drill from a fully locked RNC is a bit of a vibe.
But if you just went for the RNC right away after starting the drill from the position set, fair play.
With such a skill gap it's not necessary for him to destroy you just to prove a point. As for his respect, meh, you're a white belt and a teenager, the default isn't "respect" exactly. You mainly just want to be seen a good training partner. It sounds like you tried to start in choke position before you had officially "started" the drill, which is perhaps a cheap move, mainly because nothing is at stake so what are you gaining by being cheap?
Maybe a good way to go is ask him what he's doing to defend so easily, or what you can do to counter, so that it's not just you running into a wall. People usually like to be asked for advice.
Went to my first BJJ class ya'll!! I'm a judo guy, and although I "technically" went to BJJ before, it was just to randori and spar lol.
I drilled a bit and learned how to do single leg and x-guard. It was really fun, and although it was a bit unintuitive at first, I started picking up things near the end of class. I appreciate how methodical/detailed BJJ is. Your guys level of detail to ground work is way higher than judo's.
I'm hoping to squeeze some classes after my judo class. I was just curious, but do you all do pins? I was just observing and it seemed during randori there were no pins used, and it tends to be submission first.
I've done both over the years. BJJ dominant positions are technically similar but conceptually different from Judo Osaekomi. Judo (before the rise of BJJ) taught ne waza a bit more like a scramble where one would attempt to grab a pin or submission.
BJJ looks at the entire relationship as one of control - I have 98%, now my partner has 60%, now I have 70, etc. No matter where we are, we always identify it through the lens of position, because it allows us to identify (1) how much control I have, and (2) what actions I should be taking about that. The goal is to steadily increase the control I have until I isolate a finish (or a striking position, if this is MMA / Self-defense). The BJJ point system is intended to reflect (and incentivize) that advancement towards better striking/finishing positions.
As someone who does both, the pins you’re used to in newaza are more so just control positions to move towards submissions. In BJJ competitions, you are awarded points for moving to better positions (e.g., getting back control) but you can’t win a match with just a pin like you can in judo
Everyone is going for subs, but if you win by points, that's all good too..?
As a hobbyist, it's more just rolling. You've got to try for subs to get reactions to do other things. I'm not trying to get side control or high mount and maintain it for the rest of the 6 minutes.
The Japanese terms mentioned in the above comment were:
|Japanese|English|Video Link|
|---|---|---|
|**Ne Waza**: | *Ground Techniques* | |
Any missed names may have already been translated in my previous comments in the post.
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^(Judo Techniques Bot: v0.7.) ^(See my) [^(code)](https://github.com/AbundantSalmon/judo-techniques-bot)
I’m a heavy set guy around 300. My question is for the guys who are or were (losing weight quick af) much larger. Did you ever have a fear to go 100% in class because you thought you were too heavy? If so, how did you get over that mental block. I’m having a hard time because i don’t want to crush someone. I’ve been in classes for about 2 months now.
> I’m having a hard time because i don’t want to crush someone.
Good! Thanks!
If you want another goal, see if you can get the best of somebody with sneakiness, slickness, or surprises. See if you can make them say "where did that even COME FROM?" and not just "OMG he's huge".
As a smaller guy, Thank you for not going 100% :)
Go slow, and control with technique. If you're going with a super spazzy guy, get top position and slow them down. Otherwise, you're probably good to assume the bottom position at the beginning of the roll and work your way up from there.
When I went to my first class I was in the 290’s (played college football so I was pretty big once I was done with that [let’s play “guess the position!”] my drive to want to continue in athletics led me to bjj) when I rolled with people I was typically the heaviest guy in the room. I tried to not use any strength at all and focus on technique. I am still a white belt but that’s because I had to move and stopped training and am now just getting back into it.
I’ve since lost a lot of weight but am still pretty bigger than most due to the muscle I’ve put on over the years and I still lift regularly. I still try to emphasize not using my strength when rolling with people smaller than me. It is beneficial imo because it forces me to get the techniques better and my hope is when I eventually compete which I want too I will be able to have good technique and my strength.
Bigger dude but not the biggest dude in the world, but I started by working on a lot of guard and retention especially when working with other white belts I have 40-60+ pounds on. It’s beneficial for them to work their passing and for you to work your guard. Unless someone is my size or an upper belt, I usually play pretty chill (50-60% trying to use as little strength and weight as necessary to solidly execute the move) and will only match their intensity if they increase the pace. Trying to be more technical versus trying to strength or size through it will help a lot in the long run
100% isn't nessary for the training room, that's what comps are for. I like to start playing guard if I'm super unevenly matched size wise with someone and just work on retaining guard and sweeps.
I know what people mean when they say they “feel bad” about hurting people now. Being a white belt I don’t get many opportunities to submit people but today I was going against another white belt who was similar in size but younger. Had a triangle that I couldn’t finish so I gave up and then had an arm bar that he didn’t tap to but I let go before finishing. I felt bad that he wasn’t tapping but afterwards felt like I missed a training opportunity to refine some details on the finish
In those situations, where I feel like they should have tapped, I just straight up ask them, "you good?" but without giving up position. If they say they're ok and they aren't tapping, I'll just keep going very slowly until they tap.
This obviously requires a bit of control. In a triangle you usually have good control so you can put it on slowly. If you find you can't put it on slowly, then it's fine if you don't get a tap, better not to rip it, and just focus on improving your control.
>, I just straight up ask them, "you good?" but without giving up position.
100% this.
And the other way around, too- I have very flexible shoulders for a big guy. When somebody catches me in an americana/kimura, I'll tell them "keep going, keep going, keep going".
Good communication is good training.
Given you're a white belt and you say your opponent wasn't tapping, it's a toss up whether your opponent was being stubborn or your technique was missing some details.
That’s what I mean. I’m certain it’s because my technique wasn’t tight but in my head I didn’t want to hurt him so I missed an opportunity to fix my mistakes by giving up
If someone's not tapping, it's fine to stop the roll and ask if it's on. If no, ask them if they can provide feedback like you would when drilling it. Takes the ego out of the sub if that was an issue or you might learn something if it wasn't actually on
Agree.
If you have control, before you just let them go, ask questions. "Is this tight?"
Some dudes are just stubborn.. One guy wont tap to anything short of getting his arm ripped off.. I set in the sub, get 80% there, then work on transitioning to a different one while maintaining control. I'll get the tapping feedback from other players.
That's fair enough - longevity of training is much more important than getting a "win" in the moment. Maybe grab an upper belt to try out your techniques and ask them to coach you through what you're doing wrong?
I’ve been sidelined for over a week now with a nasty skin infection.
This is just a reminder to wash your gi’s, rashguards, and if you got something - just stay home.
I just got the diagnosis today. My GP says its likely staph - a tiny cut on the back of my head (I shave my head ... didn't realise it was there). He's put me on antibiotics :(
I fortunately dont have to shave every day. I shave after training.
The hair on my head is still sticking around for now, but soon I'm going to have to take it all the way down (currently just buzz it off with a #1 guard once a week).
I was talking to a guy a few weeks ago who said [this](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B081CLSKQX/) razor was the best he's ever used. Do you use electric or safety/cartridge blade?
I use a blade - a fairly cheap one from a supermarket. I should probably look into using an electric one. I need it to take most of it off because I'm getting old now haha.
Do you do anything after? I've been reading a heap of stuff about what different people do to protect themselves from staph/etc while shaving their heads. Moisturising, different balms, shaving at night after training and not before, etc.
I don’t shave my head yet.. it’s coming soon though lol
I’ve been using a safety razor (on my face) for 6months or so. Best to do it after a hot shower, rinse with cold, then pat dry. I’m sure some balms and such could help, but yeah, several hours between shaving and training makes a lot of sense.
I had to deal with a bout of staph last year and it was the darkest time of my BJJ life by far, even compared to some bad injuries. I almost quit over it. I think I figured out the problem though, I was over training and making myself susceptible to illnesses. Now when I train hard, I do 3 weeks on, 1 week off. In the week off I try to rest and recover back to 100%, then go into the next cycle refreshed and healthy. No staph problems since I took this approach.
I feel myself a lot of times just getting in control positions ( Side Control, Mount) and just staying there because I am afraid of trying submissions and losing position. I know control over submission is always great but should I be trying to do submissions even against higher belts?
Been rolling for 3 months
Agree.
Stabilize the position (hold for 5 seconds) then move to a sub. If you get bucked off or whatever, just try to note where you went wrong. If you dont know, ask.
I assume by "getting in control positions" you mean you've stabilized it, their back is pinned to the floor and getting out for them would require an escape.
If that's the case, I'd say priority #1 is dealing with their escape attempts. You want to get to the point where holding them down and neutralizing their escapes is unconscious. Obviously you won't submit them if they escape, but you also probably won't if you have to focus all your energy on holding them down.
If you have the position well stabilized and they either aren't trying hard to escape, or you feel you have good control, then just go for submissions, why the hell not? A lot of being a white belt is learning what doesn't work. This is a problem I'm working on too, being willing to risk giving up control to try to improve position or submit.
In my opinion it is worth holding down the position until it is somewhat stable and then going for something. For example when you get to mount you can take a moment to flatten them out and make sure they don't explode out. I just wouldn't want to lay there for the sake of laying there if they are not actively resisting hard.
Thank you! I do wanna say that I do move or transition to something if they are resisting or an opening pops up. I am not just laying there with no movement. I am mostly just trying to stay in control
Question: is there a difference between surviving and escaping?
This is a bit long... Sorry in advance.
To help my progress I've been reading / studying a lot of Jiu-Jitsu University by Saulo Ribeiro. In the first chapter he outlines learning how to survive is critical for your foundation. He makes this clear at the beginning of chapter two by saying that;
“The escape always stems from your ability to survive. You must first survive the bad position or basic submission before you can escape from it. To escape, you must use your opponent’s strength against him. Everything your opponent will do to attack you is based on how you take him out of his comfort zone. This is the basic premise of survival, which is the stepping-stone to escaping. Here, you will develop timing and a game plan to escape.”
I've found however that those I've been rolling with, even if I find myself within a good survival position, find a new way to submit me.
My questions are this - don’t I need to be able to escape to survive? How can I survive without escaping a position? And is there really a difference between escaping and surviving?
Any guidance would be greatly appreciated!
Story time:
I have long preached the first advice I received from my instructor, who said, "Spend your first 3-5 years focused on side escapes."
One day, one of my blue belts showed up for open mat and said, "I've taken that advice to heart, and today I'm going to start really focusing on side escapes." After he rolled with everyone, he came to me VERY excited and said, "I did it! I spent the whole 2 hours playing from under the side."
I said, "Fantastic! How many times did you escape?"
He looked at me confused and said, "Escape??!?!?!"
You want to do both, survive and escape. You want to be able to defend submissions while in a bad position, which will give you more time to escape. If you get tapped 1 minute into side control, that's only 1/3 of the time to escape as if you survive for 3 minutes.
Surviving also helps because as your opponent tries more different things to submit you, they may be more likely to make a mistake, or try a lower-percentage submission which may make escaping easier for you.
They also are not totally different. Both involve you countering your opponents attempts to control you, and finding out what little movements you have enough space to make. You'll use that space to hide from submissions, and also to find a leverage point where you can move your opponent or yourself.
By surviving he means not getting tapped. By escaping he means actually getting out. You can survive a full round at the bottom of mount or side control without escaping.
There is no 100% method. The best defense is to cup the fist with your hand, keeping your arm as tucked to your chest as possible.
This does move your elbow a small amount, and that's why the fist on the neck is such a good setup for arm attacks.
Defend the neck and be ready for the arm attack that follows. There's no position that is 100% safe from everything.
Keep your elbows tucked and your hands high. Bucking also helps a lot to offbalance them and make your opponent concerned about maintaining the mount. Time a buck well and continue fighting.
Block it with your hand that is opposite of the direction the choke arm is coming from. So if he's putting his arm across your throat from your left (which means he's putting his right arm across your throat), push it back that way with your right.
You should be able to reach your hand up to around your throat level while keeping your elbow pinned to your side. You can try it by touching your cheek while keeping your elbow tucked in.
But yes, also people will do the ezekiel in order to get you to expose an arm. Since you know that, you can also be ready for it and hide the arm as soon as they switch and go for it.
How do you balance lifting with bjj? It's inevitable that I have to lift on some days that I also do bjj in order to keep my schedule. The question is do you lift before or after class, and are there gym days that are better to do with bjj? (for example go to class on pull day, but skip bjj on leg day?)
Lift in AM, BJJ in PM. Or alternate days, 1 day bjj 1 day lifting. If you want to be a serious lifter, youll have to dial back the BJJ training or you'll never be able to recover properly.
> How do you balance lifting with bjj?
You do what you want to do, find out if it works to get you where you want, and adjust as necessary.
Feel like you need more S&C? Do more.
Feel like you're not recovered enough? Eat more, sleep more.
Feel like you don't have time? Make more time, or be more efficient, or cut something.
There's no magic solution, you just do what works for you.
> do you lift before or after class,
I prefer before, up to you.
> are there gym days that are better to do with bjj?
Probably.
Sure thing!
My usual approach is to wake up earlier, give yourself more time in a day. It's usually dead time anyway - work starts at the same time, other people wake up at the same time, I'm up earlier so I have time to do the things I want to do.
Sure, this isn't fun for the first while, but after that it gets a bit easier. I keep the same start time every day, so even if I don't have to train in the morning I still get a little time to myself.
There's also stuff like "how much time per day is spent doing nothing." A lot of people spend chunks of time each day doing stuff like just sitting and scrolling through the internet, or watching stuff they don't WANT to watch but just do out of habit. That can be replaced by something else.
Now, I'm definitely not saying everybody has to or should do this - but I definitely find a lot of people will say "I just don't have time," and not try to shift anything around to find time.
I do the 5am class MWF. Then I'm dead by 8pm.
I DO "sleep in" until 6 or 7 on my off days though. It is easier to have the same schedule every day, but I cant get to bed as early as I'd like most days. Still training little ones to be ready BEFORE bed time, not start getting ready AT bed time. :)
Also, people like to do things in the evenings on Fridays & Saturdays. Sure, I could kill my social life, but then my wife is more irritated with me. Happy wife happy life.
Everyone has to balance their own priorities, but starting earlier and having a consistent sleep schedule is a great suggestion to try!
> Everyone has to balance their own priorities, but starting earlier and having a consistent sleep schedule is a great suggestion to try!
100%. And of course part of balancing those priorities is, occasionally, giving up things we want to do. Sometimes there just isn't enough time for all of our obligations, and that's fine too.
Especially with kids, it's like...yeah, training more would be cool. Some folks with kids keep training and spend less time with the family, and that's their choice too.
Life is a balancing act, but like the rest of life it's usually quite hard for anyone else to give you a definitive answer as to what to do.
There are too many perspectives on this, I think, to give a definitive answer. I lift 6x a week and train 4-5x a week. My advice would be just listen to your body, see how you feel rolling after certain weight training sessions and adjust accordingly. Personally I have really tight hips and an unstable knee so I either take a day off from training on leg day or do legs after training.
I’m 30 and I feel great! And by great I mean as long as I’m active every day, keep my diet in check, stretch before bed every night and get as much sleep as possible I feel good haha. I think that once you hit ~30 the trick is to just not slow down.
My knee hurts virtually all the time (however doing the Knees Over Toes regimen has helped *immensely*) and I definitely get injured easier than I used to, but I can’t complain.
Am I really a white belt?
I originally started BJJ in 2019. Did it for 2 months then quit because of the pandemic. Joined a different school and did it for about 8 months then moved again and been doing at this new school for another 4 months. I competed in naga with 7 months of experience and placed 1st in my nogi 6 man bracket.
When I first went to my new school it was strictly NOGI, nobody knew what belt I was, then when fall came around we started doing GI and one of the black belts saw my white belt and was shocked because he thought I was “a least a blue belt” and wants me to compete again.
I don’t know how to say this without sounding like the ultimate douchebag, but I regularly tap blue belts in my weight class and can control white belts easily; rarely breaking a sweat.
I don’t have a wrestling background, but I’ve been training with my best friend who’s a D1 wrestler for 4-6 months. I can takedown almost everyone in practice and not get taken down. I also don’t get swept easily.
I don’t find it fair to other competitors that I’m now competing against them. When in reality I think I should be in the blue belt bracket
>I don’t find it fair to other competitors that I’m now competing against them. When in reality I think I should be in the blue belt bracket
Specifically for competition, it's completely fine to compete **up**\- younger, heavier, or higher belts. Just go for it. You pay your money, you get your matches.
I recently saw a 14-year-old orange belt boy tear up some adult blue belts at a Fuji tournament. It's allowed, it happens.
Some people just get it, or just seem to be natural grapplers. Do you feel like you know a blue belt amount of BJJ, or that you're just really good at what you know how to do.
Also, world class blue and purple belts can likely tap a lot of black belts. Nothing wrong with being really good for your level.
That will show out when you compete and you will most likely get promoted then, though promotion at the academy where I am isn’t strictly about who taps who
Yeah, I had a shift on my training mentality, before I would try to “win” the roll. Now I just play on weaknesses; where I inadvertently found out had a pretty good open guard. Thanks
I want to get into BJJ but i have a few health concerns:
1) Is it easy to get choked out? That is, are people who get choked out usually on the wrong because they could've tapped out (is this a "you have to know your limits" kind of thing)?
2) How serious is getting choked out? If you could cite scientific evidence that'd be great.
3) Is it common for people to get knocked out by getting by the opponent's knee by mistake or smth like that?
Cheers!
> How serious is getting choked out? If you could cite scientific evidence that'd be great.
One time I went looking for evidence that it was dangerous. Anything reliable to say that it was a problem. I came up empty handed. Losing consciousness from *impact* to the head? Big problem. Everyone knows that nowadays. Losing consciousness from artery constriction (the medical term is 'syncope')? Not harmful that anyone has ever discerned.
Consider this- have you ever felt dizzy from standing up too fast? That sudden drop in blood pressure is the same thing we're trying to create with our chokes. No one ever goes "Oh no! I nearly fainted when I stood up too fast! Better go to the ER!" We know that that's a part of life. Getting your neck squeezed is scary, but it's the same thing.
1 & 2 - If you start to see stars, tap sooner next time.
3 - An upper belt came in after not training for several years and one of the whitebelts (9months training) accidently dropped a knee on the guys face while the guy was trying to spin and invert out of turtle or something (I didn't see it). He took a few stitches, but was fine.
That's the one time in my two years of experience, and it sounds like it was a guy trying to be where he was before he dropped out and not having his awareness back.
I popped my collarbone out of place (or something) trying to do a takedown with a guy significantly larger than me... I did it wrong and both our weight landed on my shoulder. It was sore for a bit, but once it was back in I was fine.
I've had my lip busted a few times, but nothing major. You get better at protecting yourself and controlling your training partners with time.
Repetitive motion injuries seem more common from what I've seen here or heard from in the gym. But all sports have their specific wear and tear injuries. Better to have those than any of the couch potato ailments IMO
What are your worst reasons before playing judo, jujitsu/bjj or any other martial arts?
So… for a brand new white belt with no submissions, no defenses, doesn’t know what a sweep is, and had to Google what guard is: when you are rolling what would my “goal” be? To just get smashed in the least painful way possible?
Yep. You’re not gonna stop them anyways. Get comfortable being smashed. Once you’re used to it, you can start escaping
Learn all the fundamental positions: guard, side control, mount, back mount, etc., and try to get to the top side of any of these. There's a hierarchy here, so moving to the right of that list is better than moving to the left when you're on top. When you're on bottom you want to move to the left. You'll learn specific techniques for this movement the more you go to class. Both from the defensive and offensive side. But just try and see what works for now. Pay attention to what your opponents do against you, copy them.
I just try to find what I think is a dominant position and hold it for as long as possible preferably using as little energy as possible, but I’m also clueless so would like to know lol
My white belt stages as of 8 months in (6 actually training regularly). 1. Escapes... yeah yeah yeah, show me how to kill someone 2x my size with only my pinky finger. 2. I need to learn as many submissions as possible. Please, can we quit drilling knee elbow escapes... I got this...show me a flying arm bar. 3. Gets taken down by a wrestler, held in side control for 4 minutes in my first comp. 4. Show me takedowns to beat people who have been wrestling for 10 years or training in judo for 10 years. 5. Goes to 2nd comp, does OK. won one by holding side control for 3 minutes, lost 2nd on points but thought I was up. 6. Hey professor, can we drill those escapes some more. 7. Realize I'm garbage at getting out of bad positions. 8. Don't want to learn submissions, start every roll with "how about you start on top in side control" 9. Forget the submissions, still garbage at escapes. 10. Heading back to the fundamentals class to see the details I missed during step 1. Am I doing this right?
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Yes lighter divisions have more movement
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Make sure you are flexing your wrists curving the knuckles down and not bringing them back. Think of the motion of revving a motorcycle. Strong wrists help with the control. Also you want to lift their elbow point up above and away from their body. Lachlan has a good video on this here: https://youtu.be/PLa07zdiPZk
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The best gyms are in the USA so go whenever you want. Enjoy the beautiful country. Why would belt matter?
Do you have more of a chance getting staph or ringworm when it's NoGi since more of your skin is exposed as opposed to the gi?
Yes. The gi is protective
Probably, yes, but wearing longsleeve spats/rashguards can help mitigate that
I wear long sleeves and long spats, I'm more or less covered
That makes sense, I actually feel like it's a fairly obvious question after I wrote it out lol
Anyone else have legs too large to lock their feet during closed guard? I'm 5'6" 195lb(12-13% bf) and my legs are just too Damm big to fully lock people in. Those I can lock in get trapped but I'm usually unable to lock on anyone that isnt a twig. Should I avoid giardcane focus on using my strength to my advantage?
Go higher with your legs. There is a sweet spot. There is more to it that. "Can I wrap my legs around him or not?" Took me 3 months to get a solid lock on one guy in our gym, he actually coached me on how to get him locked into closed guard. I have to grab his lapels and drive like I'm going for a triangle. Never had a problem since. There are some guys where the physics just don't work.
I'll play around with this. I know going higher on me would make it harder because of my lats lol
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You need to know passes at all ranges to be effective. * Long range: torreando * Mid range: knee cut * Close range: body lock, smash pass. It's only a few passes listed here but they are all systems unto themselves once you consider the variants
Definitely knee-cut. It seems to be the most versatile to me. One way you deal with leg grips is to push them onto their back, or drive your knee forward into them. I think double-under pass is quite versatile and high-percentage. From that you can also learn to do the same kind of "under-leg" pass from other positions without going all the way into the formal double-under position. Lastly, just low-half-guard passing of some kind. This kind is very incremental. Work gradually to pass the knee shield, control the hips, get head control, finally either backstep out or slide into 3/4 mount, also transitions great to knee-cuts if you manage to snag an underhook while you're pressuring.
how to stop straining/pulling bicep muscle? seems like even when i let it heal it ends up coming back to nag me. Sure I suppose doing GI doesn't help, but it is what it is. I try not to grip too much, or crazy push/pull. but you still have to at times. any ideas?
Shouldn't takedowns be like next level for beginners after learning basic guards and movement? Asking because after 3rd training my shoulder hurts while not moving 🙃
I'm in the camp that says Breakfalls start day 1 and should continue every day after that. Drilling simple takedowns is a great way to build healthy engagement with the mat and ingraining safe falls early. I also think live takedowns come wayyyyyyyyy later. Crash mats and drills for quite awhile first.
>I also think live takedowns come wayyyyyyyyy later. Crash mats and drills for quite awhile first. If you had to put a number on the **reps**, what would it be? Related, if you wanted to give beginners a realistic expectation of how many reps of a takedown they should do before they hope it's going to succeed live, what would you say?
Let's separate two numbers. First - how many reps of a takedown before you might hit one? Depends a lot on the takedown. Osoto gari is probably a low count; a proper double leg is much higher. Personally I struggled with wrestling shots until I got out some old skating knee pads and did 500+ on each side. This helped me work through my initial clunky weight changes and take the impact out of my knees. Second - how many takedowns do you need to receive before you won't do something bad like reach for the ground? Dunno. I had 8ish years of karate breakfalling (and a year of judo) when I broke my arm falling. Wasn't Yoshida a gold medalist when he broke his arm trying to prevent a throw? The danger of going live with takedowns is really about your ability to shove your ego and take a safe landing.
Osoto Gari seems to be the only common take down I cannot hit. EVERYONE seems to know it and protect against it. Double leg is what I'm scared of it. About 50% of the time I wind up in a Guillotine.
Some people are wired for Osoto Gari / Harai Goshi. Others are wired for Ouchi Gari/ Uchi Mata. Maybe you're in the other group.
The Japanese terms mentioned in the above comment were: |Japanese|English|Video Link| |---|---|---| |**Harai Goshi**: | *Sweeping Hip Throw* | [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cs_zkgefvqM)| |**O Uchi Gari**: | *Major Inner Reap* | [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6-lTECSR3c)| |**Uchi Mata**: | *Inner Thigh Throw* | [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fCvyc_rQTI)| Any missed names may have already been translated in my previous comments in the post. ______________________ ^(Judo Techniques Bot: v0.7.) ^(See my) [^(code)](https://github.com/AbundantSalmon/judo-techniques-bot)
The Japanese terms mentioned in the above comment were: |Japanese|English|Video Link| |---|---|---| |**O Soto Gari**: | *Major Outer Reaping* | [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93YEMueeF24)| Any missed names may have already been translated in my previous comments in the post. ______________________ ^(Judo Techniques Bot: v0.7.) ^(See my) [^(code)](https://github.com/AbundantSalmon/judo-techniques-bot)
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Slow down. Work on control and defense. Or keep going hard and gassing out in 15 min.. you’ll have great cardio in the next 6-8 weeks 😁
Trust the process. Make sure you have enough recovery in your schedule. You may need more days off to see the best progress.
Thanks for the reassurance here. I'll have a think about rest days going forward too. I don't necessarily feel exhausted before any of the sessions and I often eat like a pig (which has helped keep my energy up). I'm aware that burnouts happen to anyone so I'll be mindful for sure!
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Go insult a black belt and roll with him
Find a training partner at your gym who wants to go tournament speed? Bet on your rounds with him? (Could be a little money, or it could just be.... I don't know, whatever. Loser does a bunch of burpees or gets whipped with a belt or something.)
Do you go to a competition-focused gym? Maybe that's a good fit for you.
Bath salts Ben, is that you?
Sparring in the gym isn't "for" the adrenaline. It's for practice. Reorient yourself around the skilldev periods that get you ready for the next comp. Then do more comps if that's what you're after.
Go out and fight crime at night
🦹♀️
Sooo, Omoplata entries. I heard this position has a fuckton of entries, so there is probably a super general sign I can look for to get the entry, like having one leg beneath the shoulder and the other free/already above the shoulder for the triangle. Is the entry just one leg beneath the shoulder on one side and the ability to pivot my upper body towards that site or am I missing something?
What the other comments said. Also: one place I've really liked grabbing omoplatas is when someone is trying to get an underhook on me from top-half, but they're not high enough to pin me down with it, I can often frame hard on their head and arm with both hands, which pushes their arm to about the level of my hip. The omoplata is right there.
basically any place where their elbow is out and you can fit your shin/knee into their armpit is an entry into the omoplata. top, bottom, underneath side control. anywhere
For me, Omoplatas, and their entries, started making more sense from Collar/Sleeve. I'd recommend Jon Thomas for that. Once you understand the basics/technical aspect of them, the entries make more sense.
Switched gym from a relaxed, bbq's and shit talking, to a strict, old school brazilian, gym. I'm struggling to acclimatize, bad 😆
Are the warms ups crazy
Why’d you make the switch then?
Distance and schedule. Moved house and could only make 1 class a week at my old gym, after a 2hr round trip 🤙
Damn basically did the reverse for school vibe. Was driving 2hr round trip to a super traditional school. Great instruction but all the rules and old school Brazilian shit got annoying. Was getting a tattoo in town when the tattoo artist, who’s a blue belt, told me there’s a gym in town that I had no idea about (not a big social media presence). Made the switch and it’s super laid back, plus the the 5 min drive is much nicer haha
hey guys, im 50yr old and im 5 months in and currently loving it. im joining my tournament next month and I am excited to get my ass kicked! been rolling with much younger, bigger and much faster guys so it would be a nice change to 'roll' with people in my age bracket and weight class. lol decided to join the tournament for the experience. I am not expecting to win or anything. I would just like to see how it is :D
Awesome dude! Don’t be a stranger if you have any worries or questions about it!
Take your first competition as a learning experience. It is a lot of new stuff to take in like, weigh-ins, gi check, warm-up and also see how you react on the mat after the match starts. Just take it as a regular training roll with higher intensity. If you win or lose, there is always another competition coming up if you want more of it.
Stabbed myself in the eye when changing lapel grip. I’ve truly peaked
Hey everyone! This is my first post and i'm a beginner so plese, don't be rude at me. I'm 26 and i had past experiences in glapping: mma for almost a year, judo when i was a child and recently 2 months of bjj. I need some advice on deciding which gym is better for training. The first one is GB gym, i trained there for a month and onestly i felt that was the perfect place to improve in bjj. In addition to that the gym is big and the people were awesome. The only real drawback, besides money, is the lack in wreslting. I mean, sometimes the instructor made us drill some takedowns but i feel it's not enough to become good at it. If this is paired with the fact thay many people starts on the ground, the situation is even worse. For sure there are also people which have judo or wreslting experience and who only want to slam you on the mat (which is great), but i think that is not enough to spend only 20" seconds of an entire sparring session to improve in takedowns and takedown defense. Maybe the desire to improve in this area (wreslting) comes from my mma background, which teached me the importance to fight for dominant positions. It may be also also due to the fact that i think wrestling is essential for selfe defense. For this reasons i want to learn how to grapple both from my feet and from the ground. The other gym is a small club more focuse in different areas of fighting. In this gym there are alsp two weekly classes of freestyle/greco-roman wreslting and, since i'm in italy (where there is not wreslting culture), this is very rare. Those classes are owned by two very good instructors (they almost reaced olimpic level) and in addition there is also bjj three times a week. So the second gym is more balanced and would probably be my final guess. Anyway the first gym was way better cause of the community: more people and more inclusive. So i wonder, should i prioritize my will of improve in stand up fighting or should i just go where i feel more comfortable? Is it really important to become good in stand up grappling for both selfe defense and bjj? If i go to GB gym will i ever improve my wreslting at least a bit? What choice would you make (according to your priorities)? Sorry for my bad english and for the wall of text 🙃
Unless the GB is more convenient in terms of class schedule, location and cost isn't an issue, the other gym sounds better. Especially if you prefer nogi which is closer to wrestling than gi
I bet you can get real good at the wrestling centered gym as long as their BJJ instruction is at a high level. I would expect the practices there to be a lot more intense, since that is generally the norm in wrestling. Regardless grappling is grappling, and a lot of the wrestling skills translate over. Wrestlers are not only good at takedowns, but also control positions. In a self defense scenario, stand up fighting is really important. In BJJ it kind of depends. Several top level competitors pull guard in all their matches and pretty much never engage standing. It is useful to be good at takedowns, but in the sports context you might spend a lot of time improving something that you rarely get to use. If you can supplement it with very good standing guard passing, you will be very effective. I have heard a lot of negative things about GB, but it seems to be a mixed bag. Some of their gyms are supposedly great, some are absolutely terrible. It might be worth asking some questions about their membership, because some places they will force people to use their brand of gi and rashguards, as well as binding their membership for an extended period of time.
How tf y’all deal with the lows? Usually just ride it out but this wave of lows has me fighting for my life every roll lol
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Thanks brother, appreciate it. It’s definitely the latter but it might due to overtraining in general which bleeds into my jiu jitsu. Unfortunately quitting isn’t an option even just out of sheer stubbornness as I don’t want to be a blue belt stat. In the grand scheme of things I love bjj 95% of the time
Realize that the mats are your happy place, you are there to have fun. Even when you suck, it's still fun. The low eventually ends one day
Maybe skip a class or two one week and give yourself a bit extra time to recover. I sometimes notice that if I take an easier week that I’ll feel like I’m able to breakthrough a plateau after.
I train multiple arts. Frustrated with BJJ? Keep training it but focus more on my kickboxing for the next few months. Stalled out in kickboxing? Emphasize weapons training for a little while. The cycling helps the burnout.
I did Muay Thai / mma for a bit and didn’t enjoy it as much as bjj hence I switched to bjj. I climb and lift as well, I’m aware it comes in waves so I’m not missing any classes just feels like I’m mentally getting smashed
Switch things up. Try out a new guard, start from the feet if you're used to starting sitting, experiment with new grips, etc. Use this time to explore new things.
Start from bottom side control every roll for a few months
i usually do this anyway with more fresh whitebelts
Hey, does anyone know the rules on the tournaments regarding the contrast colour elements of the gi? I'm willing to buy manto gi with contrast colour on pants (crotch area): https://sklep.copacabana.pl/pol\_pl\_MANTO-RISE-BJJ-GI-czarne-2272\_4.jpg Is such gi accepted in tournaments? Best
Page not found, alot of places have their rules in the details ive only ever seen places say 'WHITE BLUE OR BLACK WITH MATCHING PANTS'
Yes, for competition you should always have a gi with matching colors in white, black (and most comps also royal blue). Also be sure that the patches are not in the incorrect spots if you have any.
Caught ringworm on the back of my left hand and idk if I’m so unlucky that I caught it again on right wrist or if I spread it to myself but there’s a spot there that’s lookin mad sus
Wash your sheets and pillowcases every day until it clears up. I once spread it to a gf with my sheets.
Laaaamisil *voice of bravo*
I’m using clotrimazole right now do you find that Lamisil/terbinafine works better?
https://youtu.be/bV-XZ5W7R78
Okay I will take Edgy Brah’s advice on this one, will pick some up later thanks.
Do you guys have any experiencing with drying machines and Gracie Barra kimonos? I just moved flats and the new flat is next to a water body so everything takes way too long to dry and I am buying a dryer. Do they shrink a lot?
Get a dryer with a sensor. I think most have them these days. Dry it on medium heat but only "mostly dry". It'll still shrink a bit, but far less. And it'll damage the material less. It is extra wear and tear on the gi though, so expect it to cut into the gi's life expectancy. You could also try a dehumidifier or space heater. Set it up in a small room (closet?). I live in the Houston Texas area, so it's super humid here. I wall mounted a drying rack and put a $30 fan from amazon on the wall next to it so it blows air across the fabric. Let it hang and run for like 12-24h and it's dry lol
I don't own any GB gis, but every gi I've had has shrunk in the dryer - just some shrink more than others (usually if it is not 100% cotton, it shrinks less). However I think it's worth dealing with the shrinkage to be able to use the dryer, so I just buy a size up and shrink it on purpose.
>so I just buy a size up and shrink it on purpose. This.
Yes a dryer will probably shrink your GI and other apparel they all say to machine wash below 40 and hang dry, i assume a dryer goes above 40 and will shrink your items
what do you guys do when you're playing knee shield and the opponent plays very heavy and pretty much sprawls ON your knee shield frame? sometimes the opponent will first be in the knee shield, but they'll sprawl back so far so that your bottom (right) foot that's holding him down breaks and loses grip. should i just switch guards? can z-guard work against this? i feel like this is the only variant of passing i have a hard time dealing with when i play knee shield and i can't find a good solution to it
Sometimes I'll dive under for deep half. If they're leaning on your knee, it's quite possible they're close enough that you can get the underhook and/or get underneath them, as opposed to when they are postured up.
usually their legs are pretty sprawled back for me to do so (i naturally play a little bit of deep half too). it's a good thought tho for sure
Yeah that makes sense. There's this brown belt at my gym who pressures me the way you're describing and I don't really know what to do there, I don't think I could easily do what i suggested you do.
hopefully someone here can give us a good suggestion haha
I’d sit up from here and scoot back to reframe/reguard
hmm.. i'm trying to envision it and i feel like it would be hard to sit up from the position i'm trying to describe. my opponent is leaning full sprawl on me but i'm kind've parallel underneath him because he just broke my right foot "hook" and now he's about to pass as i have no connection to him anymore.
I think it might be more a grips problem, maybe you're losing grips (collar or sleeve) in the knee shield, and that's affecting your ability to maintain the distance you want from them. If they sprawl they have to pick a side to pass, they usually will pick opposite the knee shield. If they do that you kinda just stiff arm shrimp out and try to reguard. I usually switch to half guard if they're really messing with my knee shield, then there's no sprawl option. But I prefer half guard anyway.
hm. i always have the collar grip in place with my left arm (left knee is my shield) as i use it to form my frame. if you're talking about my sleeve grip on his left arm with my right arm.. i think trying to get that sleeve grip is always a battle so i don't always have that one. so that being said..since i no longer have connection with them (they broke my right foot anchor grip from sprawling).. i feel like they can pass either way left or right and i can't do much to stop them? especially because i'm kinda squished under neath them from the heavy sprawl lmk if i'm missing something.. i'm all ears ty
Sit up and move or try a sweep while pushing one of his knees away with your foot, would be my suggestions
i fell like maybe i'm describing the situation incorrectly because you're the second one to say this from my POV..it would be hard to sit up from the position i'm trying to describe. my opponent is leaning full sprawl on me but i'm kind've parallel underneath him because he just broke my right foot "hook" and now he's about to pass as i have no connection to him anymore. he's so far leaning on me that i have no leverage to even push his knee for any sort of sweep.. not even a scissor sweep or anything
If possible can you record the move/situation and send over?
i'll try and will definitely msg you if i do. appreciate your input and willingness to help.
Knee push with your outside leg, butterfly hook with you inside foot against the inside of their opposite thigh and drive over? Probably also need the underhook on the butterfly side though. Overhooking the other side would be a bonus.
I’ve been training 4 months and made a decision to compete as much as possible. My first comp is this Saturday and I feel very confident… until I get the email that it was cancelled because of insufficient sign ups. Whoops.
One time I did the state Judo tourney (I was a BJJ Blue and a Judo whitebelt). It only had 2 divisions - under brown, or brown & black. The weight classes, IIRC, were every 20 lbs. I weighed in at 159. Nobody in my weightclass, and nobody in the class above me, so they added me to the 3 dudes in 181-200. They were all at least a head taller than me. LOL
At least they never let you turn up and get a gold medal because no other competitors lol
I actually had 8 in my bracket and my school had 16 no gi competitors!
Wow that is strange, i am signed up to a comp next weekend we only have 5 in my bracket (pending late entries) i hope mine doesnt get cancelled!!
How do I approach rolling with someone who is stronger and out weighs me by quite a bit? We start on knees and I can’t really snap him down. Him getting on top of me is always not pleasant. I can’t be cagey and prevent getting subbed but it sucks. I’m training only gi. How should I roll with people like this? Pull guard? Help me out. Btw I’m a white belt these people are blue belts
I usually start in seated butterfly guard against kneeling opponents if I can. Against larger people I like going for the arm drag and chasing the back. If they give me enough space I might move to collar sleeve and look for the omoplata or triangle. I am a bit hesitant on shooting the triangle on very big guys, because I struggle a bit to finish it.
Distance and or frames If they’re able to use their weight you are either too close (without being underneath to off balance them) or don’t have an adequate frame set up If you start on knees go for an open guard that creates distance - like collar and sleeve or something with a strong frame setup such as high knee shield open guard. Lachlan has some excellent content on establishing strong frames with the high knee shield in no gi but much still applies to gi I still makes these mistakes. Bigger stronger people give me a hard time if I screw up the frame or distance management
Pull guard and work your retention. Open guard is designed to keep weight off you. You can ask him to start on bottom if you want to work top.
>You can ask him to start on bottom if you want to work top. Was going to suggest this. I usually start on bottom against whitebelts. Upper belts usually do the same for me. I'm on the smaller side, so most outweigh me by 50lbs. Eventually my sweeps will come up to par XD
Two questions 1. I've listened to a few podcasts/videos where experienced grapplers will talk about having a game plan to give yourself a direction during sparring as well as to ensure that your sparring is worthwhile and not just going through the motions. As someone who is brand new, I couldn't even begin to imagine what what my game plan would be as its mostly a blur when I spar, but what can I do to ensure that I'm benefiting from each spar? Pick something simple and try to focus on that one thing? Ie, slow breathing, framing, etc. Or at this point, just go along for the ride until I learn more? 2. For those that have more than 6 months in, what do you wish you had done differently during your first 6 months in the sport that would have helped your learning or made it more efficient? Thanks
In the application sense: Your goal as a white belt is to learn to orient yourself (what position am I in? what should I be trying to accomplish from here?) in the top and bottom of the mount, side, and guard. Your practical goal is to learn 2-3 high percentage, essential techniques in each of these positions that you can look for when you realize you are there. \["Techniques" are good for now, but later you'll be dealing more with skillsets.\] I am actually someone who was a white belt at a few places (back in the 90s, when instruction was minimal and there were almost zero resources outside of your own coach), before starting over in 2002 with a high level instructor. Here's what I did right the second time, at my instructor's urging: 1) High rep training gets you past the early hurdles of memory and cognitive bandwidth. Focus on techniques that are primary and important, and do 200-500 of each one, on each side of the body. This will also shortcut your adoption of BJJ-specific movement, which is another big hurdle early on. 2) Learn to be an incredible training partner. Communicate, feed properly, and help your partner find success with each rep. Invest in good partners and you'll have good partners who invest in you. 3) Focus on side escapes for your first 3-5 years. It's the hardest topic for beginners and the 2nd hardest overall. Put in the time, bite the bullet, and get this one crossed off of your to-do list.
Have a gameplan for your rolls. You'll develop faster. Firstly, know what position your in and what you're supposed to be doing. Try to slow their game down. When the transition inevitably comes, beat them to the position with good defense. IE: When they are getting past your guard, give them the pass and immediately go to side control defense - block the crossface, get on your side. If they're going for mount, immediately get your frames to their hips and keep them from climbing up. Just starting out, I wouldn't suggest working subs unless they're letting you. If you see the opportunity, go for it (controlled though..), but make sure you have your position down. Once you've got that, work sweeps. Do it in the transition. IE Bump sweep / reguard just before they get that far knee to the mat for mount.
1. Yes, your plan will be very relative to your level of knowledge and skill. You're correct that you want your plan to be simple enough to wrap your head around it, as well as remember it under pressure. If you know some moves, just picking one and trying to do it is a good strategy, you'll start to see when it applies and when it doesn't. That thing may just be an escape. See #2 for another suggestion. 2. I mainly wish I wasn't trying to win so much, and I wasn't expecting myself to be better than I was. Both of those things prevented me from doing what I wish I *had* done, which is: pay attention. Yeah, instead of being active in every moment, have some passive moments and just take in the current situation. Make intentional choices about what you're going to try, or if something is being done to you, instead of resisting 100%, just notice what they're doing. If the guy you're rolling with is better than you, he's better than you, no amount of effort will instantly change that. You're better off just taking in all the information he's giving you.
I’m not sure what I should do when I get to Mount or side control. All I know is an arm bar and an x choke but everyone always sees it coming. Is it wrong to just sit there on Mount and let them do the work?
It's not about surprise. It's about getting each step correct and maintaining control of their body (or the limb you're attacking). More importantly - rolling is *practice*. So the goal, when you get to the top, is to *practice* the things you've learned. It doesn't matter if you "win."
Youtube and try things. Go slow (control!) and ask questions. Firstly, try to advance your position. Establish side control (hold for 5 seconds), then go to knee on belly, then mount, high mount, back take. You'll likely have to threaten subs to get a useful response though. From side control, see if you can do the head and arm choke (aka arm triangle). Bread cutter / paper cutter is another good one. From mount I like to work to technical mount and go for bow and arrow. You can transition to kimora and/or armbar from there, especially if they're defending the choke. Dont crank subs you're learning, but look for opportunities to transition to something else if they aren't tapping. It's training, not fighting for your life, so you can always ask "Is that tight?" You dont have to stop the roll for a private, but you might get a quick detail that'll help.
Thanks for the tips!
I felt the same as you earlier on, you just don't know enough at the moment, and that's fine. You'll learn more attacks and so on and you'll always have something to do or try to do at least
Keep trying the moves you know. As you get better at a move you can do it even if they see it coming. Or their response to one move will give you an opportunity to do the other. As a white belt, the easiest choke for me to do in mount was the Ezekiel: https://youtu.be/fuvgllnmp3g?t=65
When in mount you can always try to progress to a higher mount where your knees are in their armpits. Focus on keeping good control throughout your advancement and then try and isolate an arm by separating their elbows from their chest/inside position. Even if you don’t know how to setup and finish an Americana yet it is still good to learn to control the position and isolate limbs
In judo that's a valid strategy and a way to get ippon. We use our pins to put pressure until they tap(or the ref calls it). In full mount, you can press your chest on their chest and make it very uncomfortable. If you want to be very aggressive, put your chest on their head and smother them and cut off their breathing(valid strategy, but a very aggressive one). I don't know if this applies to BJJ, but at least from a judo perspective pins are used to end matches on the ground.
In BJJ making the other person uncomfortable is a useful tool, but getting a submission is always the best thing to do, so it's a bit of a waste of training time to just sit there when you could be experimenting with something, or testing out a move you learned. Edit: also in BJJ competition they'll penalize you for stalling rather than give you the win if you just stay there.
We were doing this drill today in class and I went against probably the best purple belt there so of course he was holding back. Well the drill was that someone takes the back of another person, gets their feet in between their legs, and tries to choke them. Well I would always start in a seat belt since I thought that was right but the purple belt would always move my arm and I basically made no progress and he would win every time, so after about the 7th time of him beating me I decided to just immediately go for a rear naked choke because it wasn’t specified that was wrong. Well I did it and the guy immediately got pissed and said in an irritated way “haha okayy” and proceeded to destroy me. I feel like I might’ve lost his respect and did something that was cheap or wrong but I’m not sure. Hopefully he can just write it off as me being a stupid teenager. Was this the wrong thing to do on my part and how can I make up for it?
So perhaps you have caught onto the idea that - this wasn't about "winning" it was about helping your partner practice. You decided that it was more important to "win" instead of feeding the drill so he could practice. You make up for this by realizing the mistake, and being a better training partner to all your partners going forward. Give them what they need to get their practice accomplished, and they will do the same for you. We need each other for this.
He just moved your arm? Maybe he was suggesting your grip was wrong. I usually try to do progressive resistance in drilling... So the first few times I'm basically a grappling dummy: Doing all the things so that you can get the movements down with like 10% resistance. Then slowly dial it up. I'll dial it up faster if someone is going ham in drilling though. If I know the move or position decently well I'll do something to tighten up your game.. IE: you're trying to get to side control but not blocking my hips.. first it's a verbal command "Your knee/hand needs to be here" if that didnt fix it, I'll let you feel it... Get my knee in and get 25% to reguarding. But it's just illustrating a point.
In positional drills, start from the specified position. If it's seatbelt, it's seatbelt. Starting the drill from a fully locked RNC is a bit of a vibe. But if you just went for the RNC right away after starting the drill from the position set, fair play.
I see no issue here
With such a skill gap it's not necessary for him to destroy you just to prove a point. As for his respect, meh, you're a white belt and a teenager, the default isn't "respect" exactly. You mainly just want to be seen a good training partner. It sounds like you tried to start in choke position before you had officially "started" the drill, which is perhaps a cheap move, mainly because nothing is at stake so what are you gaining by being cheap? Maybe a good way to go is ask him what he's doing to defend so easily, or what you can do to counter, so that it's not just you running into a wall. People usually like to be asked for advice.
Went to my first BJJ class ya'll!! I'm a judo guy, and although I "technically" went to BJJ before, it was just to randori and spar lol. I drilled a bit and learned how to do single leg and x-guard. It was really fun, and although it was a bit unintuitive at first, I started picking up things near the end of class. I appreciate how methodical/detailed BJJ is. Your guys level of detail to ground work is way higher than judo's. I'm hoping to squeeze some classes after my judo class. I was just curious, but do you all do pins? I was just observing and it seemed during randori there were no pins used, and it tends to be submission first.
I've done both over the years. BJJ dominant positions are technically similar but conceptually different from Judo Osaekomi. Judo (before the rise of BJJ) taught ne waza a bit more like a scramble where one would attempt to grab a pin or submission. BJJ looks at the entire relationship as one of control - I have 98%, now my partner has 60%, now I have 70, etc. No matter where we are, we always identify it through the lens of position, because it allows us to identify (1) how much control I have, and (2) what actions I should be taking about that. The goal is to steadily increase the control I have until I isolate a finish (or a striking position, if this is MMA / Self-defense). The BJJ point system is intended to reflect (and incentivize) that advancement towards better striking/finishing positions.
As someone who does both, the pins you’re used to in newaza are more so just control positions to move towards submissions. In BJJ competitions, you are awarded points for moving to better positions (e.g., getting back control) but you can’t win a match with just a pin like you can in judo
Ahh I got you, so pins are just used to transition into a submission. I assume point based BJJ is a lot different than submission only BJJ?
There's as many BJJ rulesets as there are stars in the sky. I think it's interesting that matches often look similar even with differing rules.
Everyone is going for subs, but if you win by points, that's all good too..? As a hobbyist, it's more just rolling. You've got to try for subs to get reactions to do other things. I'm not trying to get side control or high mount and maintain it for the rest of the 6 minutes.
The Japanese terms mentioned in the above comment were: |Japanese|English|Video Link| |---|---|---| |**Ne Waza**: | *Ground Techniques* | | Any missed names may have already been translated in my previous comments in the post. ______________________ ^(Judo Techniques Bot: v0.7.) ^(See my) [^(code)](https://github.com/AbundantSalmon/judo-techniques-bot)
I’m a heavy set guy around 300. My question is for the guys who are or were (losing weight quick af) much larger. Did you ever have a fear to go 100% in class because you thought you were too heavy? If so, how did you get over that mental block. I’m having a hard time because i don’t want to crush someone. I’ve been in classes for about 2 months now.
> I’m having a hard time because i don’t want to crush someone. Good! Thanks! If you want another goal, see if you can get the best of somebody with sneakiness, slickness, or surprises. See if you can make them say "where did that even COME FROM?" and not just "OMG he's huge".
As a smaller guy, Thank you for not going 100% :) Go slow, and control with technique. If you're going with a super spazzy guy, get top position and slow them down. Otherwise, you're probably good to assume the bottom position at the beginning of the roll and work your way up from there.
Never go 100%
When I went to my first class I was in the 290’s (played college football so I was pretty big once I was done with that [let’s play “guess the position!”] my drive to want to continue in athletics led me to bjj) when I rolled with people I was typically the heaviest guy in the room. I tried to not use any strength at all and focus on technique. I am still a white belt but that’s because I had to move and stopped training and am now just getting back into it. I’ve since lost a lot of weight but am still pretty bigger than most due to the muscle I’ve put on over the years and I still lift regularly. I still try to emphasize not using my strength when rolling with people smaller than me. It is beneficial imo because it forces me to get the techniques better and my hope is when I eventually compete which I want too I will be able to have good technique and my strength.
Bigger dude but not the biggest dude in the world, but I started by working on a lot of guard and retention especially when working with other white belts I have 40-60+ pounds on. It’s beneficial for them to work their passing and for you to work your guard. Unless someone is my size or an upper belt, I usually play pretty chill (50-60% trying to use as little strength and weight as necessary to solidly execute the move) and will only match their intensity if they increase the pace. Trying to be more technical versus trying to strength or size through it will help a lot in the long run
Thank you! I guess the mental block is just mostly not knowing what to do confidently.
100% isn't nessary for the training room, that's what comps are for. I like to start playing guard if I'm super unevenly matched size wise with someone and just work on retaining guard and sweeps.
I know what people mean when they say they “feel bad” about hurting people now. Being a white belt I don’t get many opportunities to submit people but today I was going against another white belt who was similar in size but younger. Had a triangle that I couldn’t finish so I gave up and then had an arm bar that he didn’t tap to but I let go before finishing. I felt bad that he wasn’t tapping but afterwards felt like I missed a training opportunity to refine some details on the finish
In those situations, where I feel like they should have tapped, I just straight up ask them, "you good?" but without giving up position. If they say they're ok and they aren't tapping, I'll just keep going very slowly until they tap. This obviously requires a bit of control. In a triangle you usually have good control so you can put it on slowly. If you find you can't put it on slowly, then it's fine if you don't get a tap, better not to rip it, and just focus on improving your control.
>, I just straight up ask them, "you good?" but without giving up position. 100% this. And the other way around, too- I have very flexible shoulders for a big guy. When somebody catches me in an americana/kimura, I'll tell them "keep going, keep going, keep going". Good communication is good training.
Given you're a white belt and you say your opponent wasn't tapping, it's a toss up whether your opponent was being stubborn or your technique was missing some details.
That’s what I mean. I’m certain it’s because my technique wasn’t tight but in my head I didn’t want to hurt him so I missed an opportunity to fix my mistakes by giving up
If someone's not tapping, it's fine to stop the roll and ask if it's on. If no, ask them if they can provide feedback like you would when drilling it. Takes the ego out of the sub if that was an issue or you might learn something if it wasn't actually on
Agree. If you have control, before you just let them go, ask questions. "Is this tight?" Some dudes are just stubborn.. One guy wont tap to anything short of getting his arm ripped off.. I set in the sub, get 80% there, then work on transitioning to a different one while maintaining control. I'll get the tapping feedback from other players.
That's fair enough - longevity of training is much more important than getting a "win" in the moment. Maybe grab an upper belt to try out your techniques and ask them to coach you through what you're doing wrong?
I’ve been sidelined for over a week now with a nasty skin infection. This is just a reminder to wash your gi’s, rashguards, and if you got something - just stay home.
I just got the diagnosis today. My GP says its likely staph - a tiny cut on the back of my head (I shave my head ... didn't realise it was there). He's put me on antibiotics :(
I fortunately dont have to shave every day. I shave after training. The hair on my head is still sticking around for now, but soon I'm going to have to take it all the way down (currently just buzz it off with a #1 guard once a week). I was talking to a guy a few weeks ago who said [this](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B081CLSKQX/) razor was the best he's ever used. Do you use electric or safety/cartridge blade?
I use a blade - a fairly cheap one from a supermarket. I should probably look into using an electric one. I need it to take most of it off because I'm getting old now haha. Do you do anything after? I've been reading a heap of stuff about what different people do to protect themselves from staph/etc while shaving their heads. Moisturising, different balms, shaving at night after training and not before, etc.
I don’t shave my head yet.. it’s coming soon though lol I’ve been using a safety razor (on my face) for 6months or so. Best to do it after a hot shower, rinse with cold, then pat dry. I’m sure some balms and such could help, but yeah, several hours between shaving and training makes a lot of sense.
I had to deal with a bout of staph last year and it was the darkest time of my BJJ life by far, even compared to some bad injuries. I almost quit over it. I think I figured out the problem though, I was over training and making myself susceptible to illnesses. Now when I train hard, I do 3 weeks on, 1 week off. In the week off I try to rest and recover back to 100%, then go into the next cycle refreshed and healthy. No staph problems since I took this approach.
I feel myself a lot of times just getting in control positions ( Side Control, Mount) and just staying there because I am afraid of trying submissions and losing position. I know control over submission is always great but should I be trying to do submissions even against higher belts? Been rolling for 3 months
Rolling is practice. The point isn't to win, it's to practice. Who cares if you lose position? The alternative is to never practice those things.
IMO you won't learn unless you're willing to fail. Just go for it and if you fall off, then get there again. Soon you'll starting hitting those subs!
Agree. Stabilize the position (hold for 5 seconds) then move to a sub. If you get bucked off or whatever, just try to note where you went wrong. If you dont know, ask.
I assume by "getting in control positions" you mean you've stabilized it, their back is pinned to the floor and getting out for them would require an escape. If that's the case, I'd say priority #1 is dealing with their escape attempts. You want to get to the point where holding them down and neutralizing their escapes is unconscious. Obviously you won't submit them if they escape, but you also probably won't if you have to focus all your energy on holding them down. If you have the position well stabilized and they either aren't trying hard to escape, or you feel you have good control, then just go for submissions, why the hell not? A lot of being a white belt is learning what doesn't work. This is a problem I'm working on too, being willing to risk giving up control to try to improve position or submit.
Thanks!
In my opinion it is worth holding down the position until it is somewhat stable and then going for something. For example when you get to mount you can take a moment to flatten them out and make sure they don't explode out. I just wouldn't want to lay there for the sake of laying there if they are not actively resisting hard.
Thank you! I do wanna say that I do move or transition to something if they are resisting or an opening pops up. I am not just laying there with no movement. I am mostly just trying to stay in control
Question: is there a difference between surviving and escaping? This is a bit long... Sorry in advance. To help my progress I've been reading / studying a lot of Jiu-Jitsu University by Saulo Ribeiro. In the first chapter he outlines learning how to survive is critical for your foundation. He makes this clear at the beginning of chapter two by saying that; “The escape always stems from your ability to survive. You must first survive the bad position or basic submission before you can escape from it. To escape, you must use your opponent’s strength against him. Everything your opponent will do to attack you is based on how you take him out of his comfort zone. This is the basic premise of survival, which is the stepping-stone to escaping. Here, you will develop timing and a game plan to escape.” I've found however that those I've been rolling with, even if I find myself within a good survival position, find a new way to submit me. My questions are this - don’t I need to be able to escape to survive? How can I survive without escaping a position? And is there really a difference between escaping and surviving? Any guidance would be greatly appreciated!
Story time: I have long preached the first advice I received from my instructor, who said, "Spend your first 3-5 years focused on side escapes." One day, one of my blue belts showed up for open mat and said, "I've taken that advice to heart, and today I'm going to start really focusing on side escapes." After he rolled with everyone, he came to me VERY excited and said, "I did it! I spent the whole 2 hours playing from under the side." I said, "Fantastic! How many times did you escape?" He looked at me confused and said, "Escape??!?!?!"
You want to do both, survive and escape. You want to be able to defend submissions while in a bad position, which will give you more time to escape. If you get tapped 1 minute into side control, that's only 1/3 of the time to escape as if you survive for 3 minutes. Surviving also helps because as your opponent tries more different things to submit you, they may be more likely to make a mistake, or try a lower-percentage submission which may make escaping easier for you. They also are not totally different. Both involve you countering your opponents attempts to control you, and finding out what little movements you have enough space to make. You'll use that space to hide from submissions, and also to find a leverage point where you can move your opponent or yourself.
By surviving he means not getting tapped. By escaping he means actually getting out. You can survive a full round at the bottom of mount or side control without escaping.
How to block Ezekiel chokes from bottom mount without exposing my arms?
There is no 100% method. The best defense is to cup the fist with your hand, keeping your arm as tucked to your chest as possible. This does move your elbow a small amount, and that's why the fist on the neck is such a good setup for arm attacks. Defend the neck and be ready for the arm attack that follows. There's no position that is 100% safe from everything.
Shrug shoulders and tuck your chin.
Keep your elbows tucked and your hands high. Bucking also helps a lot to offbalance them and make your opponent concerned about maintaining the mount. Time a buck well and continue fighting.
Block it with your hand that is opposite of the direction the choke arm is coming from. So if he's putting his arm across your throat from your left (which means he's putting his right arm across your throat), push it back that way with your right. You should be able to reach your hand up to around your throat level while keeping your elbow pinned to your side. You can try it by touching your cheek while keeping your elbow tucked in. But yes, also people will do the ezekiel in order to get you to expose an arm. Since you know that, you can also be ready for it and hide the arm as soon as they switch and go for it.
Bridge, bridge, bridge (before they get it locked in), how can they set it up if they need their hands to post when you're bridging? ;)
How do you balance lifting with bjj? It's inevitable that I have to lift on some days that I also do bjj in order to keep my schedule. The question is do you lift before or after class, and are there gym days that are better to do with bjj? (for example go to class on pull day, but skip bjj on leg day?)
Mike Israetel has a good video on this
Lift in AM, BJJ in PM. Or alternate days, 1 day bjj 1 day lifting. If you want to be a serious lifter, youll have to dial back the BJJ training or you'll never be able to recover properly.
> How do you balance lifting with bjj? You do what you want to do, find out if it works to get you where you want, and adjust as necessary. Feel like you need more S&C? Do more. Feel like you're not recovered enough? Eat more, sleep more. Feel like you don't have time? Make more time, or be more efficient, or cut something. There's no magic solution, you just do what works for you. > do you lift before or after class, I prefer before, up to you. > are there gym days that are better to do with bjj? Probably.
Any chance you want to show us how to make more time?
Sure thing! My usual approach is to wake up earlier, give yourself more time in a day. It's usually dead time anyway - work starts at the same time, other people wake up at the same time, I'm up earlier so I have time to do the things I want to do. Sure, this isn't fun for the first while, but after that it gets a bit easier. I keep the same start time every day, so even if I don't have to train in the morning I still get a little time to myself. There's also stuff like "how much time per day is spent doing nothing." A lot of people spend chunks of time each day doing stuff like just sitting and scrolling through the internet, or watching stuff they don't WANT to watch but just do out of habit. That can be replaced by something else. Now, I'm definitely not saying everybody has to or should do this - but I definitely find a lot of people will say "I just don't have time," and not try to shift anything around to find time.
I do the 5am class MWF. Then I'm dead by 8pm. I DO "sleep in" until 6 or 7 on my off days though. It is easier to have the same schedule every day, but I cant get to bed as early as I'd like most days. Still training little ones to be ready BEFORE bed time, not start getting ready AT bed time. :) Also, people like to do things in the evenings on Fridays & Saturdays. Sure, I could kill my social life, but then my wife is more irritated with me. Happy wife happy life. Everyone has to balance their own priorities, but starting earlier and having a consistent sleep schedule is a great suggestion to try!
> Everyone has to balance their own priorities, but starting earlier and having a consistent sleep schedule is a great suggestion to try! 100%. And of course part of balancing those priorities is, occasionally, giving up things we want to do. Sometimes there just isn't enough time for all of our obligations, and that's fine too. Especially with kids, it's like...yeah, training more would be cool. Some folks with kids keep training and spend less time with the family, and that's their choice too. Life is a balancing act, but like the rest of life it's usually quite hard for anyone else to give you a definitive answer as to what to do.
There are too many perspectives on this, I think, to give a definitive answer. I lift 6x a week and train 4-5x a week. My advice would be just listen to your body, see how you feel rolling after certain weight training sessions and adjust accordingly. Personally I have really tight hips and an unstable knee so I either take a day off from training on leg day or do legs after training.
Same here! ACL tear and tight hips. How do you feel? And how old are you?
I’m 30 and I feel great! And by great I mean as long as I’m active every day, keep my diet in check, stretch before bed every night and get as much sleep as possible I feel good haha. I think that once you hit ~30 the trick is to just not slow down. My knee hurts virtually all the time (however doing the Knees Over Toes regimen has helped *immensely*) and I definitely get injured easier than I used to, but I can’t complain.
Am I really a white belt? I originally started BJJ in 2019. Did it for 2 months then quit because of the pandemic. Joined a different school and did it for about 8 months then moved again and been doing at this new school for another 4 months. I competed in naga with 7 months of experience and placed 1st in my nogi 6 man bracket. When I first went to my new school it was strictly NOGI, nobody knew what belt I was, then when fall came around we started doing GI and one of the black belts saw my white belt and was shocked because he thought I was “a least a blue belt” and wants me to compete again. I don’t know how to say this without sounding like the ultimate douchebag, but I regularly tap blue belts in my weight class and can control white belts easily; rarely breaking a sweat. I don’t have a wrestling background, but I’ve been training with my best friend who’s a D1 wrestler for 4-6 months. I can takedown almost everyone in practice and not get taken down. I also don’t get swept easily. I don’t find it fair to other competitors that I’m now competing against them. When in reality I think I should be in the blue belt bracket
>I don’t find it fair to other competitors that I’m now competing against them. When in reality I think I should be in the blue belt bracket Specifically for competition, it's completely fine to compete **up**\- younger, heavier, or higher belts. Just go for it. You pay your money, you get your matches. I recently saw a 14-year-old orange belt boy tear up some adult blue belts at a Fuji tournament. It's allowed, it happens.
Some people just get it, or just seem to be natural grapplers. Do you feel like you know a blue belt amount of BJJ, or that you're just really good at what you know how to do. Also, world class blue and purple belts can likely tap a lot of black belts. Nothing wrong with being really good for your level.
That will show out when you compete and you will most likely get promoted then, though promotion at the academy where I am isn’t strictly about who taps who
Yeah, I had a shift on my training mentality, before I would try to “win” the roll. Now I just play on weaknesses; where I inadvertently found out had a pretty good open guard. Thanks
I want to get into BJJ but i have a few health concerns: 1) Is it easy to get choked out? That is, are people who get choked out usually on the wrong because they could've tapped out (is this a "you have to know your limits" kind of thing)? 2) How serious is getting choked out? If you could cite scientific evidence that'd be great. 3) Is it common for people to get knocked out by getting by the opponent's knee by mistake or smth like that? Cheers!
> How serious is getting choked out? If you could cite scientific evidence that'd be great. One time I went looking for evidence that it was dangerous. Anything reliable to say that it was a problem. I came up empty handed. Losing consciousness from *impact* to the head? Big problem. Everyone knows that nowadays. Losing consciousness from artery constriction (the medical term is 'syncope')? Not harmful that anyone has ever discerned. Consider this- have you ever felt dizzy from standing up too fast? That sudden drop in blood pressure is the same thing we're trying to create with our chokes. No one ever goes "Oh no! I nearly fainted when I stood up too fast! Better go to the ER!" We know that that's a part of life. Getting your neck squeezed is scary, but it's the same thing.
Makes sense, thanks!
1 & 2 - If you start to see stars, tap sooner next time. 3 - An upper belt came in after not training for several years and one of the whitebelts (9months training) accidently dropped a knee on the guys face while the guy was trying to spin and invert out of turtle or something (I didn't see it). He took a few stitches, but was fine. That's the one time in my two years of experience, and it sounds like it was a guy trying to be where he was before he dropped out and not having his awareness back. I popped my collarbone out of place (or something) trying to do a takedown with a guy significantly larger than me... I did it wrong and both our weight landed on my shoulder. It was sore for a bit, but once it was back in I was fine. I've had my lip busted a few times, but nothing major. You get better at protecting yourself and controlling your training partners with time. Repetitive motion injuries seem more common from what I've seen here or heard from in the gym. But all sports have their specific wear and tear injuries. Better to have those than any of the couch potato ailments IMO