These things I wish I had known when I first started jiu-jitsu
Not every roll needs to be a fight:
If you are using an inordinate amount of strength to hold a position, move someone around, get a submission, get out of a submission or escape a position, you are wasting valuable energy and not just physical energy. Chasing submissions with your training partners and trying to dominate everyone you roll with will only slow your progress to a snail’s pace.
“Size and strength is meaningless”:
This statement is nonsense. (That’s why there are weight classes in tournaments). This might sound counter to the previous paragraph, but the reality is size and strength is absolutely an advantage when it comes to combat. If both individuals are trained and are fairly equal in ability, the bigger, stronger one will more likely dominate. Have you ever heard the expression “a good big one will beat a good little one every time”? Using your size and strength coupled with good technique is a deadly combo. Size and strength are less of an advantage when a trained individual in jiu-jitsu faces a bigger, stronger untrained person. We all know what the outcome should be.
Telling someone to not use their weight or strength when they train is, in my opinion, a “cop-out”. Nobody ever tells the fast athletic 150 lb blue belt to slow down and not use their speed or flexibility. We didn’t build ourselves, use what you are gifted with, but be reasonable and don’t smash people you outweigh by a hundred pounds. If you are the bigger, stronger heavier one in a training session, feel free to try and equalize the grapple by slowing the pace a bit by controlling a quicker more athletic training partner with a bit of size or strength, they will try and overcome the size disadvantage with speed and athleticism. As long as either partner is not trying to dominate the training session with their built-in advantages I see no problem with any of this.
Be humble:
this sounds cliche but it is one of the most difficult qualities for people to embrace. Don’t feel that you need to tap everyone you roll with. The flip side to that is don’t feel that tapping is a sign of weakness. Allowing a less experienced student to get a submission is a good thing, it builds confidence in them and lets them practice the technique during an active grappling situation. However, making it obvious that you let them get a submission can feel patronizing, making it a bit of a challenge for them. “cranking” submissions (especially when you let someone get it) only builds resentment. Don’t “crank” submissions period. (Unless it competes, the dojo is no place for hard submissions). Submitting someone aggressively might make you feel like you just “won” and you may brag about it afterwards. What you have done is taught the person you just submitted that you can’t be trusted and they will do everything they can to make sure you don’t get the chance to do it again. You just lost the opportunity to be able to practice that technique over and over and over again with the same person. Repetition during an active roll is the absolute best way to get better.
The value of flow rolling:
Flow rolling is a tremendously valuable training tool, I prefer the term “zero strength” grappling. It literally means everything you do during this type of roll is done with absolutely no strength. If you pass your training partner’s guard, they will allow it. When you pass and maybe go to Mount for an arm bar, this also will be allowed to happen. Now you allow your partner to escape the arm bar, they will go on offence and so on and so on. I find that both individuals get to practice a tremendous amount of technique in a short period during this type of roll. You will do techniques that you have convinced yourself that are impossible to do because it isn’t “your game.” Your training partner is not only allowing you to try them but helping you do them.
Learn from the top ranks….don’t compete with them:
This is easier than it sounds, usually, when someone reaches a brown or black belt they have learned much of the points I have touched on here. They don’t feel the need to dominate a lower belt, it’s easy for them to shut down the most aggressive lower-ranked students. If you actually stop competing with them and just leave the ego off the mat, you will be surprised at just how positive and fun training with them can be. Come at them hard and try to use the opportunity to add a proverbial notch to your belt by beating them, you will more often than not get caught in a nasty submission or be completely locked down. This is very frustrating for both, especially so for the higher-ranked individual. They probably won’t look forward to training with you again and might avoid you altogether. If you are being avoided by high-ranked partners the reason should be obvious.
Don’t be afraid to turn down a grappling session with someone who you feel goes too hard or aggressively torques submissions.
Tell them “No thank you, I’m going to roll with someone who is not so aggressive”.
This is also an example of how to leave the ego off the mat.
Raise each other:
This one is simple, higher ranked grapplers should be trying to bring the lower-ranked ones under them up to their level.
As a lower-ranked grappler, let this happen.
If you are the higher-ranked one in a training session, don’t overteach. Pointing out – positive obvious ways that a technique can be improved is ok, but a constant verbal coaching session while grappling is extremely annoying for the one being “coached” Don’t ever stop someone who has a submission or technique locked in to “teach” them a better way to do it, this is not only lame but it’s also very obvious that your ego can’t take the fact you are in a tough situation. Tap, congratulate them, and move on.
There are no shortcuts to success in jiu-jitsu:
Watching Instagram videos that show flashy moves is entertaining but if you are watching these and trying a different one out every week before you have a strong understanding of the fundamentals, (the ones you are taught as a white belt) then you are slowing your progress. The best jiu-jitsu players in the world might have some flashy moves, but they have trained for years learning how to do the “boring” stuff that you are taught your first 6 months.
Get good at the fundamentals before the flash. The fundamentals will usually beat the Flash anyway. Just ask Roger Gracie, Marcelo Garcia, and Andre Galvao. These guys beat the best grapplers in the world with techniques they learned as white belts.
(If you don’t know who these guys are, shame on you, look them up).
Roger Gracie has said he’s only really good at maybe 10 techniques. He knows hundreds but relies on just a few when the fight matters.
By the way, anything you can dream up in jiu-jitsu or see on Instagram has already been thought of, developed, and drilled many many times by a Japanese samurai hundreds of years before you were even on the planet.
Jiu-jitsu is a martial art, treat it like one. It’s not just a sport like hockey or football,
It should be a lifelong commitment, there is no finish line either. I’m going to be involved with jiu-jitsu until I’m put in a box and thrown in a hole in the ground.
We are learning thousand-year-old deadly techniques that can and do maim and sometimes kill. This is what it was originally developed for. Unarmed self-defence against someone trying to harm you. Respect those who came before you, learn a little of the history of it. Jiu-jitsu means “the gentle art” but it doesn’t have to be. we can severely hurt and kill if we choose. In a self-defence situation, the gentle part should be up to the aggressor, pain will usually get them to settle down and comply. There’s no need to harm them if it can be avoided. (Especially on the training mats).
Finally remember this is supposed to be fun, and therapeutic. When you are on the mats you aren’t thinking about work, bills, politics, traffic jams, or your nagging in-laws. You are hyper-focused on the task at hand. Keep it playful, positive and above all support each other.
Thank you for your time
Philip Moore