bjj

Stretching For BJJ: Develop Black Belt Flexibility

March 12, 2024

If you’ve done BJJ for any length of time you have undoubtedly encountered an opponent with high levels of flexibility and been frustrated as their rubber like limbs stymie your pass attempts and squirm out of submissions. You may have even ended that roll and decided that you want that kind of advantage for yourself.

While some people seem to have been born flexible it is possible to earn it. Regular stretching, in combination with a good strength training program, can lead to huge improvements to your Jiu Jitsu performance. Better flexibility leads to more powerful throws & takedowns, slicker escapes, better guard retention and more agile passing. Beyond performance gains, a regular stretching practice also helps promote your longevity in the art by protecting your joints and correcting skeletomuscular imbalances brought on by the demands of training or the effects of daily office work.

The very best way to begin developing your flexibility is to regularly participate in a program like Yoga for BJJ under the guidance of a qualified instructor.

Failing that, targeted stretches performed on a frequent basis as a part of a wholistic training plan is the way to go.

Basic Programming

Make sure to warm up before doing any kind of concentrated stretching or flexibility work.

Never stretch through an injury except under the direction of a physiotherapist or sports doctor.

Static stretches (like most of those demonstrated) should ideally be performed separate to strength training. The best times would be directly after BJJ training or as their own session.

If stretching after class pick two to three different movements and focus on them for two weeks. At the end of the two weeks change one of the movements.

Hold each stretch for 3 sets of 30 seconds with about 30 seconds rest in between.

The best stretches for improving performance focus on the hamstrings, glutes and lumbar.

The best stretches for longevity focus on the shoulder capsule, thoracic spine and hip flexors.

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While there are literally hundreds of stretches and mobility exercises you could choose to work on here are some of our favourite stretches for BJJ.

Middle split (no hands)

Stand in a deep horse stance, and slowly start to walk your feet away from your body. Hips in line with feet, knees locked out. You shouldn’t feel any pain.

Front split

Lunge forward with one foot, keeping both feet hip width apart. Slowly start to slide/walk your front foot further away from you, ensuring you’re up on your toes on your back foot, and weight through the heel of your front foot. Your hips and shoulders should be square and your front knee should be locked out. You should feel a stretch in the front leg through your calf, into the glutes, and in the back leg from your quads down.

Couch stretch (hip flexor)

Made popular by Kelly Starett, the couch stretch is a really effective way of stretching your quads and hips. Start on all fours, close to a wall, slide one leg back and place your knee in the intersection of the wall and floor. Now raise your upper body, so that your front leg is at a right angle to the floor – squeeze your glutes to support your lower back.

Pancake

Sit on the floor with your legs in a straddle position about 90°. Reach forwards with both arms, and walk your hands away from your body. The goal is to compress your hips to get your chest, and head to the ground.

Bridge (high and low)

For high bridge, start by lying down on your back with your feet close to your bum, and your hands by your head, a little wider than your shoulders. Start to push your hands and feet into the floor, with straight arms, so that your body forms a smooth arc – there shouldn’t be too many right angles with this one!

“Kinks” in your bridge usually indicate areas holding large amounts of tension. As you can see, Simon is currently very tight through his upper back and shoulders. To help alleviate this, or if you’re not particularly mobile, you can place your feet onto a box.

For a low bridge, jam your heels underneath your bum with the weight going through your toes and ball of your foot. Push your knees forwards and down (your south), head and shoulders touch the floor, and you can choose whether to use your hands or not. Squeeze your glutes!

Depending on where you are tight, you may find one easier than the other – it’s ideal to be able to do both, especially for Jiu Jitsu.

Pike:

Keep your legs together. With your knees locked out, try to compress your body at the hips. And yes, you can point your toes if you like to make it pretty.

The Jefferson Curl:

First popularised by Steve Maxwell and then more recently by Christopher Sommers, the Jefferson Curl is a fantastic tool for promoting both strength through the spine and flexibility.

Start by standing tall on a flat surface or an elevated surface and with some kind of weight in your hands. This could be a barbell or kettlebells. You’re not looking for the heaviest weight possible, so start light (eg. 5kg) and progress from there.

When performing the movement, lock out your knees so your legs are straight. Then lean forward slowly, and think about “peeling” each vertebrae one at a time, until your arms are hanging down as low as they can. Do not to let your hands rest on your feet or the floor.

If you can touch the floor, move up onto an elevated surface (for example, a box or weight plate). Ultimately you are looking to have your upper body rest against the front of your legs. To return to the top, contract through the backs of your legs, concentrating on your hamstrings, and roll up one vertebrae at a time.

Pigeon:

This particular version of the Pigeon stretch has a slight tweak to it and it’s fantastic for opening up your hips.

Start on all fours and slide one leg back. Lean forward to place most of your weight on the front leg. Now play around with letting that front knee fall out to the side. Find your sticky spot and hang there for a moment.

Rather than hold for time perform 10 slow pulses then a hold for 10 seconds on the last rep.

90/90:

For this one, start with the lead leg directly in front of you with the knee bent at 90° lining up with the foot. Then place the trail leg out to the side and also bent at 90° inline with the heel.

Lean forward to get the deep stretch through the hip and glute minimus.

For the trail leg, try to square yourself off inline with the knee but, if you cannot, you can lean back to help achieve the position.

Quadratus Lumborum Stretch:

Sit on the floor in a typical hamstring stretch position. Turn your upper body towards the bent knee, grabbing it with the opposite hand and lean your upper body towards the foot of the straight leg. The trick with this one is to hold on tightly and think about guiding your head and shoulders towards and beyond the foot.

Cossack Stretch:

The Cossack Stretch is a great position to ‘teach’ your hips how to do the splits and is similar to positions you can find yourself in while passing guard or attempting a takedown.

Straighten one leg (again point your toes if you feel like it). Tuck your other leg up towards your butt, trying to keep your heel and glutes nice and close to each other. With that same leg, try to keep your foot flat on the ground, and your knee and toes pointing in the same direction.

Deltoid capsule stretch:

Lie face down (prone) and feed your left arm underneath your chest. Let your left knee fall out to the side. To add more intensity to it, reach forwards with the non-stretching arm.

Scorpion stretch (pec to bicep):

Lie prone on the floor. Reach forward with one arm, then out about 45° (so either 10:30 or 2:30 on a clock). Keep the non-stretching arm close to the body (like a push up position), and use it to create leverage and push the stretching shoulder into the ground.

Reach the opposite leg to the stretching arm backwards over the body and just hang there.

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In combination with a regular strength practice, implementing a consistent stretching routine has some serious benefits for Jiu Jitsu athletes. As your flexibility develops improvements in performance and resiliency will shortly follow.

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Demonstrations and descriptions by Simon Le. Simon is a Strength & Conditioning coach at Elements Fitness, holds a Black Belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and is a Contra Mestre in Capoeira. If you’re interested in training with Simon he can be reached through our contact form or at his website Simon Le Coaching.

Training BJJ – Managing Good and Bad Days On The Mats.

August 16, 2020

After any BJJ training session it’s pretty common to hear people talking about having had a good or bad day of training.

In any difficult long term pursuit – such as learning music or a martial art – you will experience an ebb and flow to the perceived quality of your training. Annoyingly, the most effective training strategies are also the most frustrating as they force you to continually butt up against the limit of your abilities and face failure over and over. And while I often have to gently let beginning athletes know that they are simply not yet good enough to be disappointed by their performance, the better you get the more aware you become of the gulf between the ideal execution and your performance. All of this adds up over time to athletes facing a training existence in which there is more perceived failure (uncomfortable growth) than perceived success (comfortable attainment).

This makes it extremely important that athletes do not attach a moral component to quality of their training. It is vital for continued long term development that you realise that there are no “good” or “bad” training days – there are just training days.

When you think of training days as good or bad it creates two distinct problems. First, it makes it difficult to reflect on training sessions and instead encourages you to label a training session as “good” or “bad” and simply leave it at that. Reflecting on training sessions is a key part of skill acquisition as it helps you determine which elements of your performance worked well and which need extra attention. Second, as effective training is essentially an uncomfortable experience it is easy to chalk up more days as being “bad” and become disillusioned.

It’s an easy trap to fall into – just last week I was having a Jiu Jitsu training session where I was almost completely failing to perform on any level. I was forgetting to grip fight properly, barely remembered to pummel my legs to defend guard passes and managed my breathing so badly I ended up with a spasming diaphragm. Afterwards I was angry and disappointed with myself – I thought I had not only wasted my own time but my training partners’ time as well.

I had had a “bad” training session.

However, when I was able to catch that thought and free myself from it the session was transformed from a “bad” one to an informative one. I realised I had to take my age more into account when training (turns out that warming up, cooling down completely and then jumping straight into hard rolling is no longer easy for me) and I had a genuine insight into a grip fighting strategy. Also, my training partners didn’t care in the slightest that I was performing poorly and were more concerned with my health than anything else.

The way you perceive your training will change over time but if you can discipline yourself to look at each session from an educational stand point your development will be better for it. One of the best ways to do this is to practice reframing any “bad” session with the Why How Then method.

Ask yourself why you feel the way you do about the training session

Try determine how this was happening.

Then think about what you can do about it.

When going through this exercise it’s important to keep things technical and not to make any judgments about yourself or your skills.

For example –

Why am I feeling angry about my last training session?

CORRECT – My guard kept getting passed.

INCORRECT – Cause I suck.

How was my guard getting passed?

CORRECT – My opponents were able to easily grab my pants and Toreando pass.

INCORRECT – Cause my guard sucks.

Then what can I do to stop my pants getting grabbed?

CORRECT – I can control my opponent’s sleeves earlier in the match. Failing that I could establish a far cross collar grip to better control distance.

INCORRECT – Nothing. My guard sucks, my jiu jitsu sucks and I suck. (Begin eating ice cream straight from the tub while weeping).

Achieving a high skill of development is a long term process of repeated knowledge acquisition, application and review. Labelling particular training sessions as “good” or “bad” adds nothing to this process and can actively detract from it. Treat every session as a step forward towards your goal and it is more likely to be the case.

The Kimura Trap & Positions of Transition

April 18, 2017

The Kimura Trap leads to an excellent series of transitions and submissions. It has been popularised by David Avellan and frequently utilised by such names as Andre Galvao, Keenan Cornelius, Andris Brunovskis and Dominick Cruz.

It is also an example of one of the most difficult positional concepts to understand in Jiu Jitsu: A Position of Transition.

Positions of Transition are positions where control is not exerted in a traditional pinning or riding fashion.

Pins are dominant positions in which control is exerted by restricting and controlling the opponent’s movement and Rides are dominant positions where control is exerted despite the opponent’s movement.

A Position of Transition’s primary method of control is the gateways it creates to other positions or submissions. However, unlike pins and rides, the ability to remain in these positions is comparatively limited and these gateways are created almost exclusively through the opponent’s choices.

In this example it is easy to see how the attacker’s options are essentially dictated by the choices of the defender and it is equally easy to see how the attacker has little means to force any particular choice upon the defender.

Why is any of this important?

Well, despite being easily entered into from a variety of situations and allowing a series of extremely powerful actions, Positions of Transition are comparatively under utilised. And they are not uncommon – Kimura Trap, Harness, Two on One and Seatbelt are all Positions of Transition if used correctly.

Secondly, realise that due to their action/reaction type nature, Positions of Transition take significantly more drilling than more conventional positions to make use if their full potential.

How to start training BJJ (or any martial art)

January 26, 2017

Training in a martial art can be one of the most rewarding and positive experiences you can have in your life providing benefits to you physically, mentally and emotionally. That said, getting started can be daunting and for a lot of people just walking through the doors of an academy for the first time is incredibly intimidating.

While taking a deep breath and simply turning up for a class will generally work out for the best there are still a few things you can do to ensure your early experiences lay the foundation for a rewarding martial arts adventure.

Before You Go to Your First Class

Do your research.

Not all BJJ academies are the same; some focus on sport jiu jitsu, some on MMA, some on self defence and others will cover the full spectrum of the martial art. There will also be significant differences in the gym cultures which is what will really determine whether or not you continue training.

We live in an age of information so it’s easy to check out the Facebook page, business reviews and website of anywhere you are considering training. If you are uncertain how to do this click —>here<—

Go to the website.

So you’ve found a place that looks good. Now go back to the website and actually read it.

Read the class descriptions, view the timetable, check out the cost and find out whether or not there is a free trial. You should also see if there are starting requirements as some places will have specific beginners courses or insist that you do a number of one on one sessions before jumping into the group class.

Email or call the academy.

It’s always a good idea to actually check in with the academy before you turn up; There may be a special event or some other unusual circumstance that would make it a less than ideal time for your first session.

Turn up about ten minutes early.

Not thirty.

If you turn up this early then, depending on how the academy in question is organised, the coach will either be busy or not there yet. Just give yourself enough time to find the place, introduce yourself and fill out a small amount of paperwork.

During Your First Class

Expect some culture shock.

Every martial art has its own culture, traditions and social expectations and they can seem totally unfathomable to a new student. To add to the confusion no two academies are exactly alike even within the same style. Jiu Jitsu, which is generally considered to be comparatively informal when it comes to martial arts, will still have a number of rules of etiquette including, but not limited to:

You might be expected to line up in rank order at the beginning and end of class

You might be expected to bow whenever you walk on or off the mat

You might be expected to refer to the instructor as “Professor”

You might be expected to slap hands and/or bump fists with your training partner

You might be expected to line up and shake everyone’s hand after training

You might be expected to say “Oos” way too often and in ways that make no grammatical sense

Or you might not.

Hopefully the coach or a senior student will explain to you ahead of time what’s going to happen and what is expected but there’s no guarantee so be prepared to just roll with whatever happens – people will understand that you are new and learning “how things are done”.

So to recap:

If you haven’t done a martial art before then there are many things that are going to seem unusual to you.

If you have done a martial art before then there are many things that are going to seem unusual to you.

Expect to feel unfit.

Unless you are transitioning from another kind of grappling art, expect to feel very unfit during your first few sessions of BJJ. Even if you run marathons and crossfit every day a typical BJJ training session will get you very tired. It’s not that jiu jitsu is unusually demanding, it’s that the physical demands of any martial art tend to be very specific and this, combined with your lack of knowledge on how and when to relax, will quickly wear you out. The plus side is that this feeling is short lived. A couple of weeks of regular attendance and you’ll feel like you’re back at your base level of fitness.

Expect to be terrible.

Martial arts are complicated and it can take many years of training to become highly skilled, but for some reason a decent number of people seem to assume that they know what they’re doing before even completing their first lesson.

Realise that you are a danger to yourself and others.

If you are doing any kind of full contact martial art, such as Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, the potential for minor and major injuries is present and, as a beginner, you won’t yet know how to take care of yourself.

This means that your training partner is doing all the work to make sure that neither one of you gets hurt. So rather than fighting as hard as you can “to win”, realise that your partner is fighting to keep you safe. Keep it light and remember that you are here to learn. This will have the added benefit that your higher ranked partner is less likely to decide that simply crushing you is the easier option.

If you come with a friend expect the coach to split you up.

There is no surer path to injury than having two beginners train with one another.

After Your First Class

Expect to be sore in ways you haven’t experienced before.

You’ve just used your body in ways it’s never been used before so expect a few new muscle aches to crop up the next day. After a few more classes your body will adapt and these new aches and pains will cease to occur. This would be exactly the same if you had just lifted weights for the first time or spent an hour trying to learn how to play squash despite never having picked up a racquet before.

If you did some kind of sparring then you’ve probably picked up a few bumps and bruises too. Like the aches, these are largely the result of experiencing something new – in this case significantly more body contact than you were previously used to – and these will also diminish as you begin training more regularly.

You will have questions. Many, many questions.

If your question starts with “What if” then please just stow that sucker in the back of your brain/write it down on a piece of paper and set it on fire. Understand that generally these kind of questions are answered with time and training and that the answer is frequently “It’s a fight, try not to let them do that”.

Other questions though – questions about the gym, the gear, the training, the coaches and the art itself – should be asked without hesitation. Common questions include

How do memberships work?

What kind of training gear do I need and where do I get it?

How do I tie my belt?

How do I care for my hair while training?

How hard should I go in sparring?

The Next Few Weeks

Start with two or three classes per week.

I know you’re excited and want to get as much out of this new experience as you can but you really need to ease into it. I’ve seen a number of people get started with BJJ and immediately jump into six classes a week and less than a month later they miss a class and I never see them again. Those who become long term students of the art start off with two or three classes per week and might, over time, build to more frequent training.

Expect to be corrected.

When you start training in any martial art there are two very common scenarios. Scenario one is that you feel like you are doing the technique or drill correctly but you are still being consistently corrected. Scenario two is that you feel like you are too uncoordinated to do the technique or drill correctly but you are still being consistently corrected. Neither scenario is correct.

You are not doing the movement correctly but you don’t know it yet because you are untrained.

You are not doing the movement correctly but you are not uncoordinated, you are untrained.

Accept the correction, continue training and never forget that, despite what movies and your mother tell you, it is statistically very unlikely that you are either amazing talented or particularly inept. You are paying a coach to teach you when you show up, help you when you want it and correct you when you need it.

The Keys To Progressing In Brazilian Jiu Jitsu

November 17, 2016

Recently I was listening to social media entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk talking to an aspiring entrepreneur. He posed the question, “Are you losing belief, or do you just wish it was happening faster?” I instantly applied this question to my own BJJ journey, and the kind of thoughts I know many people who train also have.

BJJ is full of ups and downs, and you often spend a great deal of time thinking, “why am I not progressing?” Or how you can feel good one week about your game, but the next feel much worse.

I think in these situations Gary’s question, “Are you losing belief, or you just wish it was happening faster?” is the perfect question to ask yourself in order to help get over those humps and stay positive. I’m willing to bet that a majority of the time you just wish you were better, and didn’t have to worry about being swept, missing opportunities, getting subbed, and other BJJ woes.

So how do you speed up the process? Its simple, more mat time! Get to the gym more, and spend as much time as you can in that environment. If you’re already living at your gym, then concentrate on smarter training. By this I mean apply yourself in class, and study the techniques the coach is teaching, both inside and outside the gym. Spend time at home watching matches and techniques, going over techniques, moves and sequences in your head.

BJJ is unique in that I don’t think it takes very long for someone to go from just starting and doing one class a week, to then filling out all their spare time with classes and investing a lot of time into improving.

So if you’re doing all this and still feeling frustrated, there’s one other key aspect to focus on, and that’s developing patience.

Stay patient and believe in your training and keep positive. If you put in the time you will see the rewards! Its only a matter of time, and patience.

Don’t get down about it, keep training and doing the best that you can, and everything you want in your BJJ will appear, but you have to keep training. If you slow down in a slump, or take some time off, you’re only going to make it harder on yourself if improving your BJJ is something you truly want.

Gymnasticbodies: Foundation One training

November 10, 2016

Simon is one of our coaches who specialises in one-on-one and small group training. Below he shares his experience and thoughts on participating in the Gymnasticbodies method of training.

I have always enjoyed doing bodyweight training. I think we should all be able to control our bodies in space, whether it is in a basic functional way, or by taking it to the next level with acrobatics and fancy movements.

Last year I participated in the Gymnasticbodies (GB) Level 1 Seminar hosted by Coach Christopher Sommers. You can read my review here.

When you sign up for the seminar, you also receive two online programs, Foundation One (F1) and Handstand One (H1).

So with my little boy Ash being roughly two months old at the time, and needing to spend more time at home (with not a lot of sleep), I decided to make the Foundation series my main training focus.

Both programs require only a limited range of equipment, so I could do a lot of it at home, and use the equipment when I was at the gym (gymnastic rings and a pull up bar).

I started the program at week 5 to 9 for each phase, as the earlier phases were very basic. I also knew it would take me nine months to get through all of F1.

One of the good things about the GB website is that it has all the programming set out for you, so you only have to concentrate on the week that you’re up to. It also has a follow along format so you don’t get to confused with all the shorthand.

There are also a range of videos you can watch if you need to remind yourself of the form and technique for both strength and mobility.

The Foundation Series uses strength and mobility in each area of the program, and it always includes strength, followed by mobility/flexibility. So if you skip the mobility you’re technically only doing half the work.

For example: Bent Hollow Body Hold (FL/PE1 60sec) then Cat Cow (FL/PE1>iM 5reps)

Here’s where all the training leads to:

Front Lever (FL)

Straddle Planche (sPL)

Side Lever (SL)

Manna (MN)

Single Leg Squat (SLS)

Hollow Back Press (HBP)

Rope Climb (RC)

While I say that I completed all of F1, I couldn’t do most of the Single Leg Squat section due to partial meniscus tear in my left knee from BJJ, it just wasn’t stable enough for me to trust it.

As I am writing this, I just had a look at the F1 programming again and they have changed the SLS programming to what looks a lot easier or achievable for people who are limited in the use of their lower body.

Now for what I thought about the F1 program. I really enjoyed it, I guess coming from a Capoeira background means that I could pick some things up a little quicker than some other people.

The program is not a quick moving program, by that I mean it’s not a super entertaining program, but it’s not supposed to be, your focus should be on accuracy not intensity.

I like the process of the step-by-step actions that lead from simple to challenging.

Also, each exercise has a ‘Mastery’ part to it. For example: Bent Arm Chin Hang (RC/PE6) which was 5x60sec which was really hard at the start, but now it’s possible (again I checked the site and it’s only 5x30sec…)

Where my mindset differs from what they (GB) are looking for is mastery, and looking for mastery in movements isn’t why I train (but doing cool movements is nice).

When I first started Capoeira, I wanted to be good, I wanted to be able to walk into the Roda and be able to keep up with whoever I was playing, and I feel the same with BJJ.

When it comes to movement it’s always good to think about the bigger picture. Basic movements lead to more complex movements, but it’s up to you how far you take it.

For me, longevity is what keeps me motivated and focused. I want to be in this game for the long haul.

Find out more about training with Simon and his background here.

(Photo credit: Unity Gym)

BJJ In Canberra: My 14 Year Journey To Black Belt

August 31, 2016

2002 – 2005 – White Belt

I was a 21 year old who had just begun a philosophy degree at university. The local video store had allowed me to see the first five UFC events and, inspired by the exploits of Royce Gracie, my friends and I began ‘training’ in a garage. A few months later, a customer at the shop I was working at alerted me to the existence of a Machado BJJ club in the area, and so I went to have a look. Keen to test my garage sharpened ‘skills’, it was in May of 2002 that I showed up to my first class in my grass stained, low budget judo gi ready to roll.

Needless to say, I was soundly handled by everyone during sparring that night, but the roll that really captured my attention and imagination was the one I had with the instructor. Michael was only a blue belt, and he was a little bigger and stronger than me, but the way he handled me was such that at no time did I feel like anything I did mattered. He could have been a ten year old girl and the result would have been exactly the same. The dude was water. This was what I wanted to do.

The main thing I learned at white belt was to relax. Most of the guys I trained with back then were much bigger than me, as they were mainly guys with professional martial arts or security backgrounds, and so I quickly learned that pushing, pulling, or grabbing harder never really helps, but it does always tire you out and sometimes leads to injury. Once you can get that super-chill breathing going with a super heavyweight sitting on your face, then you can focus your mind on positional maintenance and problem solving in any situation.

2005 – 2008 – Blue Belt

Still at uni. One of only a handful of blue belts in a sea of white belts.

Cocky. The move collector. The cutting edge, half guard/hooks guard phenom.

You know JJ Machado? I roll like him.

“Stupid purple belt instructor is living in the past, man. Saulo Ribeiro and Marcelo Garcia are changing the game and this dope has us doing closed guard sweeps? Bleh. I’m off to the corner to do my own stuff with the other cool blue belts.“ – Me ‘07

Anyway, I was pretty deluded as a blue belt. Don’t get me wrong, the stuff we were doing on the side was good stuff, but my attitude towards moves I ‘already knew’ was misled. At that time, I thought the key to the game was simply to know more moves than your opponent, and that knowing a move was a simple matter of getting to the point that you could demonstrate it.

However, as I got closer to purple belt I started to understand that the new school stuff I had been doing was only particularly effective for me because of how much work I had invested into learning how to use it. This reality check made me see all of the techniques I had previously learned in a different light, and I started to move my training focus away from the acquisition of new techniques, and towards the sharpening of existing ones.

2008 – 2011 – Purple Belt

Public Servant. Instructing the no gi Saturday class.

“To be the man, you gotta beat the man.” – Ric Flair

More than half the rolling I did as a purple belt was against one brown belt. He was about my weight and one of the best brown belts in the country, and so I had made it my mission to get to the level needed to credibly compete against him. I adopted Saulo Ribeiro as my surrogate instructor by watching his three instructionals to the point that I sounded like Saulo, and then used these teachings to sharpen my defensive postures and escapes to the point that I was eventually able to give ‘the man’ a run for his money through sheer defensive capability.

When ‘the man’ got his black belt from Anthony Perosh, he gave me my brown.

So what did I learn as a purple belt? Teaching is a good way to figure out that you don’t know shit about a move. White belts will ask perfectly valid questions about your favourite move and you will not have an answer, and begin to question whether you yourself actually do the move correctly. However, hopefully this will lead you to find the answers to these questions, which will then further your understanding of the move. At purple belt I learned that furthering your ability to teach a move is the final process of developing your own mastery of it.

2011 – 2016 – Brown Belt

Tried to be a real estate agent in 2012. No training for 18 months. Came back out of shape in 2014.

“Wtf just happened? The little kid is a beast.” Me ‘14

Before my 18 month hiatus, I had shared many rolls with one particular teenage blue belt, and had always had an easy time beating him. I once subbed him sixteen times in a minute during a grading roll. Anyway, while I was away, not only had he grown from a blue belt boy into a purple belt man, but he had also made two six week trips to AOJ in San Diego, where he had trained six days a week.

I came back, and the kid destroyed me. He took vengeance for that sixteen sub exhibition I had laid on him back in the day, and it wasn’t pretty. Not only that, but he was using techniques that I was largely ignorant of. As I previously noted, I had stopped collecting moves back when I was a purple belt, but as a result I had not kept up with the newer tactics as I had always thought that my ‘brown belt fundamentals’ would see me through. Convinced that it must be the new moves that were allowing an inferior grappler to defeat me, I scrambled to learn about every berimbolo, single X, curu curu, fifty fifty, whateverty doo-dah I could find, only to arrive at a far scarier realisation.

It wasn’t the moves. The kid had just been training way harder than me, and was now a better grappler than me.

The colour of my belt together with all my additional years of experience didn’t change the fact that I threw everything I had at this kid over and over and never came close to getting an attacking position. I had been resting on my laurels, and now the student had become the master.

So I started training harder, and seeking more knowledge with clearer goals in mind, and slowly I began to close the gap. The kid’s a freak so I don’t think I’ll ever have the edge on him again, but at 36 I’m happy just as long as I can give the top guys a good competitive match. It seems dumb to learn it so late, but at brown belt I really learned that goal-focussed mat time is what leads to improvement in BJJ, i.e. train as often as you can, know what you are there to work on, and work on it.

It was in 2015 as a brown belt that I accepted a coaching position at the new Atos club in Canberra.

2016 – Black Belt

Here’s me in 2016

I’m still coaching at Atos Canberra as the women’s instructor and assistant instructor to the main class. I am enjoying my BJJ training as much as ever, and I am looking forward to continuing my BJJ learning long into the future.

So, that’s my BJJ journey so far. Thanks for reading, and good luck with your training.

Here’s a video of me getting promoted to black belt by Professors JT Torres, Antonio Mota, and Ben Langford at Atos Canberra.

Fundamentals of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu

July 28, 2016

One thing I consistently notice when training with different Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) coaches and instructors, is that everyone has a different opinion of what techniques are considered fundamental. It got me thinking about the idea of fundamental positions vs fundamental techniques, which really made sense to me.

I recently started using this concept while teaching, to help beginners learn and understand BJJ more intuitively.

Fundamental positions like closed guard, open guard, side control, mount, and back control are positions we encounter in every roll, and in most cases are easily recognisable for either person in the fight, or even a spectator. With this recognition of the position, we can use this as a sort of a cue to then get people thinking about the techniques they should be doing, and better understanding the situation that they are in.

As for the fundamental techniques, I honestly do not believe there are any. Techniques vary too much from gym to gym because they’re often based on what that instructor feels comfortable teaching and showing. This is either because they have a particular type of strong game, or they teach how they were taught when they were learning.

This of course leads me into the whole berimbolo debate – specifically, where we see a lot of people complaining about white belts learning berimbolo before other ‘fundamental’ techniques.

I never quite understood this argument. The berimbolo itself isn’t too complex, and its pretty easy to grasp which situations to use it in. In this sense it’s no different than any other technique. As long as students understand this, I don’t see an issue in teaching it as a fundamental. If they struggle to understand it, they can try other techniques to achieve the same result.

The same rules apply for every other technique. There is always a situation associated with it, and it’s followed by a reaction or lack of a reaction. Once people understand this it will help them use it in sparring.

Essentially, regardless of the technique shown and weather you consider it to be fundamental or not, I think its important to link these with positions and situations, to help people understand and recognise when its appropriate to use the techniques they’ve been taught.

Boy Walking Down Misty Country Road 1400

Travelling with Brazilian Jiu Jitsu

January 26, 2016

One of the nice things about Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) is that you can travel practically anywhere in the world and find somewhere to train. Training in a new academy in a different city or even a different country from your own can be one of the most rewarding and revealing experiences you can have as every gym has its own culture, philosophy and technical emphasis. Here are six quick tips on how to get the most out of your trip and make sure that you are welcomed back.

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Do your research

Google the city you’re travelling to in conjuction with BJJ, and ask your coach and team mates if they’ve had any experience training at the destinations you’re keen on. Chances are that some of them have traveled to wherever you are going before and can suggest some good places to train. A personal recommendation is always a better bet than simply going with Google’s first page.

Once you’ve decided on a place, learn everything you can from their website. Find out the class schedule, the location, whether the sessions you plan to attend are gi or no gi, and what the mat fees are likely to be. This last point is especially important if you are planning on going somewhere famous. Places like Renzo’s or Marcelo’s academies in New York and the Mendes brother’s Art of Jiu Jitsu academy in California have significantly different mat fees for tourists and locals.

Call ahead

Apart from it simply being polite, it’s always an excellent idea to call the academy to let them know that you are coming. This is a chance for you to find out anything you couldn’t glean from their website, and for them to get an indication of who you are and how long you’ve been training. Ask which classes it would be appropriate for someone of your experience to attend, and whether they have any particular requirements regarding safety equipment or training gear.

Pack appropriately

Pack a standard white gi, and if you will be training enough to require a second gi then I would recommend bringing a white ultra light travel gi. You read that correctly – only pack white gis. Preferably ones unadorned with patches, although I do realise that’s not always possible.

Many gyms require all students to wear white gis, and many of those same gyms are not very good at communicating this requirement, so making your gi white by default is cheap insurance. Also wearing a white gi instead of your unicorn patched purple tiger striped gi is a small measure of respect for your host, which is often an under appreciated gesture. It’s the difference between attending a business lunch in a simple suit and tie, and attending that same lunch wearing a popped collar polo, tight white jeans and oversized aviators.

We all know that guy. Don’t be that guy.

Apart from that, I would also suggest packing a micro fibre towel and a notebook. It’s also a good idea to have your own sports tape, but if you are flying you should buy that once you arrive at your destination city, as airport security will confiscate any before you board the plane.

Arrive early

Make sure you arrive 15 minutes or so early so that you have time to sign any waivers, get shown around, meet the instructor and get changed. Seems obvious but many, many people fail to take these things into account and rock up expecting to be able to just jump on the mats.

Before class talk to a friendly looking blue belt

For some reason every academy assumes that all the little ceremonies and gestures of respect that make up “the way things are done” are the exact same at every gym world wide, but I have yet to visit two that are alike. So find yourself a blue belt, someone that knows what’s going on but who hasn’t been doing it for so long that it’s just a part of the background noise, and ask the following questions:

Do you bow before stepping on or off the mats?

Do you line up before or after class?

What do I call the instructor?

There’s bound to be a few more culture traps that will leave you wondering what the hell is going on, but the above should at least get you through the first 10 minutes.

Go to train

Remember the reason you are visiting this club in the first place; specifically, you are there to train. You are not there to teach – so hold back on offering your insights (unless asked specifically by the instructor of course). You are not there to show how good you are – so roll like you’re trying to improve and not like you’re in the final of the mundials. You are not there to deliver your one man comedy show – so do the drills and restrict chatting to the breaks and after class.

BJJ Rank – Progression and Training.

September 30, 2015

A recurring question from students throughout all the learning stages of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) is “What should I be working on?” While this can be a highly personal and specific question knowledge of the general goals of each belt can help with this problem immensely.

White Belt

The purpose of white belt is to learn the underlying theories of Jiu Jitsu and the mechanics, goals and primary transitions of each major position. That is, guard top and bottom, side control top and bottom, mount top and bottom, and back top and bottom.

A white belt’s personal mantra should be “Do what it takes to learn not what I think it takes to win”.

The end goal of white belt is know what to do, how to do it and why you do it in each major position.

Blue Belt

A blue belt in BJJ should be focused on getting really good at everything they learned at white belt and developing a consistent level of performance. As previously stated white belt is really just about learning what to do in each major position and against anyone who doesn’t know what to do this can make even a white belt in BJJ disproportionately effective. A blue belt should be training to become consistently effective against skilled and knowledgable opposition.

Blue belt is also the last major stage of technique acquisition. As BJJ is a constantly evolving martial art there will always be something new to learn but after blue belt this should largely be a case of adapting existing knowledge.

A blue belt’s personal mantra should be “What can I do better?”

The end goal of blue belt is to be able to deliberately execute the core transitions and purposefully apply pressure in each core position.

Purple belt

The purple belt stage of development is about getting good everywhere. Learn what the goals are in every position, every transitional position and every situation and get good at executing on them.

This is also where you should start being able to apply and adapt specific strategies to help deal with specific kind of opponents and situations.

If this sounds like a lot of work that’s because it is.

As a purple belt is already a reasonably formidable grappler it can be difficult for some people to leave their ego at the door and risk the short term drop in performance caused by exploring the positions, techniques and strategies that they are less skilled in. As a result it is not uncommon to become “stuck” at this level.

A purple belt’s personal mantra should be “I will turn my weakness into strength”.

The end goal of purple belt is to be able to bring game regardless of where the fight goes.

Brown belt

A brown belt should be legitimately dangerous to every grappler they ever touch hands with. Someone at this stage of their journey should be developing a consistent game that is a true reflection of their body type and personality.

While rolling a brown belt should be seeking to impose their game regardless of their opponent, situation or position.

A brown belt’s personal mantra should be “Can I do it again?”

The end goal of Brown belt is to be able to consistently execute a unique and truly personalised game against an opponent of any calibre.

Black belt

You’ll often hear people say that once you’ve achieved your black belt you will then be ready to truly start learning and when I achieved my black belt I was super pissed to find out that those people are 100% correct.

Black belt is about starting all over again but with the advantage of all the knowledge you have painstakingly earned. A black belt returns to all of the previous stages but their pre existing knowledge and skills permits a level of attention to nuance and detail not previously available.