Chuva Brazilian Jiu Jitsu

This comes as a shock to some people, but it’s much easier to move yourself than to move someone else. When we look at the basis of any escape involving sh*****ng, it is all about stopping them from moving and moving yourself. The same applies to an arm drag, I’m limiting their movement and then moving myself around them to access the side or the back. It takes a lot of effort to pull someone who doesn’t want to be pulled, so work with them rather than against them. Let them show you where you need to go and use that information to your advantage. Move yourself.

Friction creates control. This is why control is more difficult in no gi. If I want to control someone, I have to create friction or tension. This limits their movements, allowing for a better read on their actions. In order to move then, we have to disallow friction and tension. I think the simplest example we can use to talk about both is side control. As the bottom player I need to minimize the resistance, friction, tension I face by taking as much of my back off the ground as I can. As the top player I need to make it as difficult as possible for you to move by making you fight both the floor and me. Process the position you are in and determine whether you should be creating or minimizing friction in order to achieve what you want.

A key to limiting movement is controlling opposing ball and socket joints. Ball and socket joints are your shoulders and hips. If I can pin any combination of these joints on opposite sides of a body, I now have a strong control. If you wish to attach to someone or attach them to the ground try picking two, a right and a left, then don’t let them move. Conceptually it is that simple. An insight into being on your side, if one whole side of my body is off the ground, I cannot be cross body pinned. This makes movement much easier. Process this as both people, am I controlling the opposing shoulder and hip or are my opposite shoulder and hip being controlled? Things to think about to make your grappling better.

One of the hardest parts of competition Jiu Jitsu for people to grasp is reaping. For me the easiest way to think about it is am I or could I be applying pressure on the outside of the knee towards the inside of the body? If so, I assume I’m reaping. What is difficult is the lack of a unified ruleset and the desire for hobbyist practitioners to do the things professional competitors do. You should learn leg locks, but if you are not seeking elite level adult competition, your time is better served on the multitude of skills you can use before you get to brown belt. Make your guard passing good, make your upper body submissions good, make your escapes good, because at a low level the things you can do to control people when falling back on a leg lock are much more limited than you might want. Make sure how you’re training makes sense, focus your energy in a direction that benefits both your long term and short-term goals. It may not be pretty, but dominant positional control never goes out of style.

A key component of successful submission grappling is making someone’s shoulders and hips go opposite directions. We refer to this as misaligning the spine. People want to have their knees in front of their body, it’s all in a straight line ideally. If you change this for them or allow them to change it for themselves, it will make your life much easier. There are two lessons in this. One, don’t let your upper and lower half get pinned in opposite directions and two, pin people’s upper away from the direction of their lower body. It’s not difficult in theory, but how much do you actually think about it?

We’ve talked about points of contact before and how you should have at least 3 to be effective. So let’s discuss how having level points of contact, especially in the gi, may be causing you to struggle. Let’s take spider guard for example. If your contacts are at the same level, that means you are neither pushing nor pulling. To be an effective guard player we must do both. By virtue of what you are trying to do, there should be variety in wear you place your hands and feet. Can you play double sleeve? Absolutely, but if you’ve ever grabbed a gi, you know that collar and sleeve is a much better control. How much easier is de la riva when you use both legs to off balance? I would say significantly so. Uneven points of contact create misalignment which creates balance breaks which lead to sweeps. It’s not magic I promise.

"Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall." ~ Confucius