This is just a quick bit of advice that I wish I’d been given – meaning advice I wish I had actually followed – when I was just starting Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.
As a coach I find myself saying the following to almost every new student who walks through the door to my gym and those that actually attempt to put it into practice are those who – without fail – advance the quickest.
Have a goal in mind
A lot of beginners have trouble knowing what to do when they first start rolling; they’re yet to develop enough skills to put together a game and they have nothing specific to work on as they are working on everything. My advice is this: decide before you start rolling where you want to get to (mount, back control, side control, guard) and how you want to get there (sweep, passing guard, shoot).For your first few lessons just try and get to a point where you can execute what you just learnt in class. Although I’m not saying you’ll be successful straight away this will give your roll some immediate purpose beyond just trying to stop your training partner doing what they want to do.
Where ever possible put your hands on your opponent and not on the ground
This is an especially important point when you are in someone’s guard but it makes a fairly good general principle. When we are on top putting our hands on our opponent puts more of our weight on them and increases the likelihood of controlling them, when we are underneath putting our hands on our opponent – note: on not around or pushing – creates a barrier between us and them making it easier to defend and create space. When we put our hands on the ground we lose these benefits and give our opponent opportunities to escape, control and submit us.
Use your entire body
Because we are so used to doing everything with our hands, when we first start Jiu Jitsu our inclination is to continue doing exactly that. Only using our hands though is severely limiting; if you are using your hands to pin your opponent you will lose control of them the moment we try to do anything else but if our knees and hips our controlling our opponent our hands are free to attack and set up transitions. We must learn to use all parts of our body including our head, shoulders, elbows, knees, hips and feet to control and attack our opponent to be at our most effective.
Always move yourself
Trying to move your opponent is a tiring, often dangerous manoeuvre which frequently requires you to be the bigger and stronger competitor. Jiu Jitsu is an art that allows a smaller weaker person to overcome a large aggressive opponent so our techniques must not be reliant upon physical strength. When training it is important to always try and move yourself into the correct position rather than trying to shift your opponent. This saves energy, is low risk and will work against anyone regardless of their size and strength.
Slow Down
Doing a technique fast doesn’t make it more effective; doing something correctly makes it more effective. Going fast results in increased fatigue and the increased probability that you won’t notice the mistakes you are making. Going fast also means that you’re more likely to be moving in a wild uncontrolled manner which increases the risk of injury for both your training partner and you. There is no surer way of annoying the person you’re training with than poking them in the eye several times and remember that you’re just starting so chances are they’re better than you.
Ben is the co-owner and head coach at Elements Fitness. To book a session you can contact him by email at info@elementsfitnessact.com.au or calling 0402 581 977. 
