November 25, 2024 • 23 mins
In this episode of SocialBJJ, we dive deep into the process of building your Jiu-Jitsu game. Whether you're a beginner or a seasoned practitioner, developing your unique style and approach to Jiu-Jitsu is a critical part of the journey.
Key Topics Discussed:
- Why Build a Game? The importance of creating a personal Jiu-Jitsu strategy and style.
- Starting with Guard: How to choose a guard that fits your personality and makes training enjoyable.
- Understanding Your Style: Recognizing whether you’re aggressive, playful, analytical, or something else, and tailoring your game accordingly.
- Physical Strengths: Leveraging your natural attributes like strength, speed, and flexibility to complement your techniques.
- Fundamentals Matter: Mastering key concepts like grip fighting, posture control, and positional awareness.
- Learning from Others: How to use instructionals and competition footage to refine your skills.
- Respect in Training: Balancing intensity and mindfulness to ensure a positive experience for your training partners.
David shares his own experiences training across multiple gyms and how he developed his personal game by blending techniques, strategies, and concepts from various influences. He also emphasizes the importance of keeping Jiu-Jitsu fun, respecting your partners, and continuously refining your approach to suit your strengths.
Takeaways:
- Choose a guard that you enjoy and can use effectively.
- Develop core moves and explore natural tendencies within your chosen positions.
- Focus on fundamentals like grip fighting and posture control.
- Embrace your unique style and philosophy of Jiu-Jitsu.
Tune in to hear valuable insights, practical advice, and tips to make your Jiu-Jitsu journey more effective and enjoyable.
See you in the next episode! Peace.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome back to the pod guys episode 5 today we're going to be talking about building out your jujitsu game. How does one go about building out a game in jujitsu? Is it even important to build out a game? Do you even need to have a game in jujitsu?
(00:16):
Do you have a game in jujitsu? Right like these are the things that we're going to be chatting about today and so a little bit of history on this is so for me I started off in a certified training center for the Gracie in South Korea and in that spot we didn't have really like any games like I was new to jujitsu too so I definitely didn't have a game. It was just like you know roll and figure stuff out but they didn't have any games.
(00:45):
But they taught really good technique and you just apply the technique when you can and so it was just like kind of like just trying to do chess and it wasn't any strategy and I ended up switching gyms I ended up going to like about seven or eight different gyms throughout the last 10 years and you know I just kept that philosophy I just had jujitsu be fun for me and I never really had any one coach in particular instill any type of game if you will.
(01:14):
It was just bits and pieces and nuggets from everyone's game that I ended up adding together to do my own style or own brand of jujitsu and I think that's another way of looking at it.
It's not necessarily like building out a game or game plan or something like that it's more so like what's your brand what's your strategy like who are you as an individual.
Are you someone who is aggressive.
(01:39):
Like personality wise would your friends describe you as somebody that's really aggressive or are you someone that's like more chill more laid back.
Right when you roll are you like enjoying the process or you like super stressed out or you like really analytical are you really thinking constantly.
Are you that type of person and I think this all matters when you're talking about building out a game when you're when you're building your brand of a jujitsu your style of jujitsu.
(02:06):
Some people look at certain athletes jujitsu athletes and they will say like oh this person is like very leg lock focus or this person is very defensive focus.
This person loves to do rare naked jokes for example but in reality what is their style what is their brand and how to go about that.
So for me the first thing I think you need to start off with is guard because that's usually when you're starting off on jujitsu unless you're doing positional you're going to start off with some type of distance in between you and it.
(02:37):
You and your training partner or you and your opponent.
There's going to be some distance there so first you got to develop a guard a decent guard and that guard should honestly it should be enjoyable.
It should be enjoyable for you.
It shouldn't be a guard that you're stressed playing you don't really like it like but it's effective for example I don't really like this guard is boring but I find it really effective so I do it.
(03:01):
It's kind of like why are you what are you seriously like what are you what are you training jujitsu for are you trying to become a millionaire and be like number one you're trying to be Gordon Ryan so you're just doing all Gordon Ryan moves which will never work to be him.
You got to be innovative and creative and do your own thing but that's a side tangent.
If you're not having fun why are you where are you training.
(03:23):
First and foremost, pick a guard that's fun and enjoyable and pretty easy to use and easy to get into in my opinion.
So for me that guard for me is half guard.
Right. I like to get into half guard.
Usually, I found out early on that most people like to get into half guard on top, because they like to set up passes from there or they like to try to set up some submissions even from there.
(03:48):
And for me, it allows me to also set up some submissions or sweeps from that position as well. So it kind of becomes a battle of who's most skilled in half guard.
Right. And I enjoy that battle a lot. So I invite them into my half guard to actually play in that fire a little bit and I'm a little bit more confident in my skills.
(04:13):
Do they always work? Absolutely not. But that's the game I like to play because it's fun for me.
Some other people don't really like half guard they feel like they get smashed a lot in half guard.
So they like to play more of a De La Riva, reverse De La Riva or you know, K guard or false guard or they like to play maybe R guard, Y guard, which is not really a guard.
(04:35):
L guard is not really a guard either, but it's like more of a transition. R guard is more of a transition too.
But whatever they are, R guard being reverse guard for those who are like, what is he talking about?
There's a whole bunch of different types of guards, right? Just basically find out what is more what do you naturally do.
And one recommendation might be to record yourself and look at you and see how you roll.
(04:58):
And maybe you can get a recommendation if you're a white bow or blue belt, maybe get a recommendation from an upper bell and ask them like, hey, what do you think?
What guard do you think fits me? Because there might be a guard that you're not familiar with yet, right? And they can give you some recommendations.
Now, however, if you do have a guard already and you're already in that position, so maybe you're a blue bell or you're, you know, a purple bell or just beginning as a purple.
(05:24):
Well, you kind of have a light style of the game that you play.
Next thing is like, all right, now that I'm in this guard, where I, you know, what hip am I going to be on?
What position I'm going to be on? Obviously, hopefully you'll feel comfortable in both sides.
You know, dominantly, maybe I'm going to be better on my right hip side. Fine.
You know, on your right hip side, what are you doing? Are you looking for underhooks? Are you looking for overhooks? What are you doing?
(05:50):
So for me personally, I like to be on my right hip and I like to bait. I like to give underhooks so I could get the overhook.
It's like, why would I do that? Because I like to set up clamp guard. I like to set up, you know, triangles. I like to set up sweeps.
I like to set up a lot of different things from that. So I'll bait from half guard. I'll give people the underhook and they'll take it because it feels like a dominant position until it's not right.
(06:17):
And but sometimes I lose that battle to give it up and I'm like, oh, wait, oh, shoot. I shouldn't have did that.
But yeah, what's your style? Are you going for the far arm? Are you going for the near arm? You know, are you overhooking? Are you on underhooking?
Right. There's a difference between all of that. And you have to develop whatever that style is.
(06:38):
You know, you might be overhooking on your right hip, but on your left hip, you're underhooking because on your right side, you're a little bit more dominant on the underhook.
These are things that you have to explore and feel comfortable. You don't always have to train or drill both sides.
Like I talked about in the last episode, right. In the last episode, I was talking about how you don't necessarily like when you're drilling, you don't need to mindlessly drill.
(07:06):
You should be like thinking about, oh, the defense to this. And so when you're drilling to it's like, oh, wait, this doesn't really feel comfortable on the left hip.
Let me try it on the right hip. OK. I like it on the right hip. I'm just going to drill on the right hip.
If you're like playing half guard, for example, or on the left side, this actually feels a little bit more comfortable.
So I'm only going to do this on the left side. And when I'm on my right side, I'm going to do a different move.
(07:29):
And that makes your game more dynamic, but also fits your body much better.
It's kind of like the difference of getting how do you say having like a suit that is from Macy's that's just like off the rack versus getting like a custom tailored suit.
Right. Drilling on both sides and just doing both moves on, you know, moves on both sides and one side is maybe not as efficient as the others like that rack that that suit right off the rack.
(07:58):
But having a fine tune like on the right side, I do this on the left side. I do that.
That is that fine to tell or sorry, that fine teller suit that you got. That's very expensive.
And that's where we realistically that's where we want our games to be. Right. And so if we were to move on from here, now that you got your game, now that you understand what size you're going to be playing, what you're going to be doing on both sides of those.
(08:27):
Right. And I said, now that you're a game, I meant now that you have your guard and you're starting to develop your moves and your preferences for these moves and you're going to notice these natural tendencies that you have.
You're going to highlight what are your what are your physical strengths. This is also very, very important because it's going to dictate what you're doing as well.
Are you somebody that's really strong? Are you somebody that's really fast? Are you somebody that's really flexible?
(08:55):
Right. These three things, I believe there's shouldn't be more than that. Maybe quick, but I'm going to just put that with fast.
Those three things add up. A lot of people say, oh, he's just so strong. He should be less strong and do like jujitsu more.
Well, I would argue that strength is definitely a part of jujitsu. If I'm holding somebody down and I'm able to hold you down because I'm stronger than you.
(09:16):
Well, guess what? You need to do better at jujitsu. If you want to get up, don't say I need to do better at jujitsu because I'm holding you down.
It doesn't really work like that, especially if you're on the street. You can't complain that the person was so strong. That's why you couldn't get up.
It doesn't make sense, especially if you're a black belt or what a color belt, whatever. Like, don't make an excuse.
Let's just work around it. Same way. If you're strong, use your strength to your advantage.
(09:38):
I'm not saying like, you know, hurt people with your strength, but use it to your advantage. Right.
Just like if somebody was fast, they're going to use their speed to their advantage.
And you should if somebody's flexible, you should be using that flexibility to your advantage.
You should not be going slow or you should not be, you know, going weak or you should not be doing things that limiting yourself.
(10:03):
If you're flexible, you should be using it.
Like, why are we limiting ourselves for this quote unquote a technical aspect of jujitsu?
When you watch jujitsu on ADCC or, you know, any of like who's number one or any of the high level competition, it's all about athleticism.
Speed, power, strength, and then technique, too.
(10:27):
I'm not saying these people are not technical. They're very technical.
But also they have power, speed. They're training outside of off the mat, I should say.
They're doing these things. So don't limit yourself to that just because maybe an upper belt said, hey, you should like hold back on the stream so you could develop X, Y, Z.
It's like, no, develop X, Y, Z and be strong. Now they're really going to suffer. They're saying that just so I tell I tell I tell all the all the, you know, more less experienced grapplers in the gym.
(11:02):
Whenever I roll with them, if they're bigger than me, do you should I should not be able to get up.
You should be holding me down. I should not be able to get up because you're bigger and you're stronger than me.
Now, obviously, when you move to try to submit me, there's going to be an opening for me to get up.
And that's where my jujitsu comes into play. But if you're just holding me down, I should not be able to get up.
(11:24):
Right. You should have the technique, technical skills to be able to do that, but also use your strength as well.
So hopefully I'm painting that picture. Don't don't limit yourself.
There's too many people like coming out with all that stuff. And I heard it way too much in the various different gyms around the around the world that I trained at.
And so the next thing is and. So important. So, so, so important is really having a good grasp on these fundamentals.
(11:59):
You have to have a strong grasp on these fundamentals. Now, what do I mean by the fundamentals?
These key concepts that I'm talking about grip fighting, posture control, limiting your training partner or your opponent from controlling your body and or your head, especially your head.
(12:24):
So let's break this down in a fight or in a grappling match rather.
Whoever dominates the grips in the first initial exchange, whoever is winning on those grips more likely than not is going to win on the position from where those grips advance.
Whoever dominates is going to get a dominant position usually.
(12:50):
And then from the dominant position, usually that person, it leads to a submission hold usually or it just lends to a person at bottom suffering or the other person suffering.
That's usually what happens. And so if I'm at if I'm the person who's receiving or at the receiving end of a person who has dominant grips.
(13:15):
So I have inferior grips. I have these grips now. Now I'm in the negative and then that person advances to a dominant position.
Now I'm really in a negative. I'm in a deep hole. Now I got to climb out of that hole just to get to neutral and then I can advance.
But in order for me to advance, I got to get dominant grips on that person and then I can advance. Right.
(13:38):
That's usually this is kind of like a seesaw in that sense. So grip fighting is extremely important.
I tell everyone this is like to me this is the most important. This is judicious. It's grip fighting.
Don't let them get superior grips. If we're doing an exchange at the beginning and you get a good grip on me.
(14:01):
I'm backing out and resetting. I'm not moving forward into a worse position regardless if I'm passing or getting passed.
I'm resetting. If you're passing and you get headquarters on me, I got to reset. Right.
Likewise, if if I'm on top and I see you start sending up a false read, I got to get out of that.
(14:22):
I don't want to be there unless I'm tempting you to take your back or something. Right.
If you start getting backside 50-50 on me, I got to try to get out of that. I can't continue to try to advance.
You got a K guard locked up on me. I got to get out of that. Right.
You start you start controlling my arm with a two on one with the feet on my hips, potentially on my shoulders.
(14:46):
I got to get out of that. I can't advance because danger is waiting for me. Right.
And that's how you prolong your matches in jujitsu is just recognizing these grips and recognizing where these grips lead and resetting.
That's why matches at the highest levels when you see when you see black belts rolling with each other to see a submission in five minutes is is honestly is pretty rare.
(15:12):
It's pretty rare if they're on like, you know, if they're on the same level, if they're on the highest level, it's pretty rare.
It might be like, you know, I got you here and there. But usually matches go pretty long because they're always grip fighting.
They're always grip fighting, breaking grips, getting new grips, breaking grips, getting new grips.
And then somebody is going to take a risk. Somebody is going to take a gamble and they're going to try something and they might get caught or they might get it.
(15:34):
No risk, no reward. Right. But it's very important to make sure you're controlling that grip fight.
And then next we're going to go into posture control, making sure you have good posture, but also you're breaking down your opponent's posture, because if you can break down their posture, you're going to win.
Right. If you get dominant grips and you break their posture or you just break their posture and they're not able to do anything with their grip.
(16:00):
So say you give them the grips that they want, but you're able to manage.
You're managing to break their posture down in a way that their grips are ineffective.
Now they don't have superior grips anymore. You do. And you're able to advance from there.
Likewise, notice when they're breaking down your posture. Now your grips don't work as well. Right.
(16:21):
If you're trying to do a butterfly sweep, but they break your posture, you're a half guard, but they crunch your head down to your chest or to your knees.
Now you don't have no power to do a butterfly sweep. You have no power to elevate the person. You have no power to do really anything.
But you got to go back to neutral. Right. So these are the key concepts.
When we're trying to build the game, these are some key fundamental concepts that we got to focus on.
(16:44):
Not necessarily technique. You put your arm here, you put your leg here, you grab this and twist and do that and invert and roll and do.
No, no, that doesn't really matter. The most important thing is am I controlling the posture?
Am I am I advancing into a dominant position or is the person advancing into a dominant position?
I need to be able to recognize that reset and then try to assert my dominance. Who cares who you are?
(17:08):
I don't care what belt you're wearing around your waist. I don't care how long you've been training your person just like I'm a person.
Right. And I got to implement this strategy. I'm not going to cowtow just because you're my culture. You've been training for a long time.
No, it doesn't work that way. Right. You're trying to you're trying to kill me. I'm trying to kill you.
Maybe it's not that aggressive, right. Because I like to have you just to be fun.
(17:29):
But maybe it's maybe, you know, maybe it's like, hey, I'm trying to beat you. You're trying to beat me. Let's go at it.
All right. Let's go at it. I'm not going to give you an easy win just because.
And I don't expect you to give me an easy win just because if you're going to give me an easy win, I know it's not real.
I'm not going to like it. Right. So very, very important.
Very consistently apply these strategies to every single role that you do. Think about these things as you're doing it.
(17:55):
Don't think about the actual technical things. Put my foot here. Put my hand here. No, don't think about that stuff.
Think about the concepts of control grip fighting, limiting control over your body, over your head.
Whenever somebody grabs your head, you remove that grip. Don't let them control your head. Why?
It's not going to be anywhere good for you. Right. And again, as I was mentioning, what's your style?
(18:19):
Are you playful? Are you aggressive? Are you somewhere in between?
For me, I really, really love the fact that when I first started jujitsu,
Henner Gracie, he actually has this philosophy of keep it playful. Right.
And for me, that that was everything that I needed because I love to have fun. I love to joke.
(18:40):
And so I'll be rolling and I'll have some I'll have fun. I'll joke. I'll laugh. I'll smirk. I'll do something silly.
Right. Just to keep it playful. But that's my style.
Not everybody is like me. Some people are very aggressive and there's nothing wrong with that. Right.
As long as you're not ripping submissions. I really heard this on Reddit and I agree with it.
(19:02):
Actually, it said there's no such thing as dick moves. There's only dick speeds.
So if you have a move like a twister, for example, there's nothing wrong with that.
As long as you give me time to tap a heel hook, there's nothing wrong with that.
As long as you give me time to tap, if you just crank it zero to 100,
(19:23):
then you don't give anybody a time to tap and you're just snapping everything. Yeah.
Well, you're too aggressive. And quite frankly, you shouldn't be training judges.
You need you need to see a psychologist or a psychiatrist because why are you doing that?
When people got to go to work, you know what I'm saying? But anyway, I digress. I digress. I digress.
(19:47):
So these are some some some basic tips that has helped me over the years find to my game.
Honestly, I feel like I just fell into a game and these are just things that I naturally do to be comfortable.
When I started competing, when I did my competition, I was I was drilling things that I was weak at.
So I watched my roles. I saw certain things that was weak.
(20:10):
And we all know what are the things that we're weak at. And I just started, you know, about a couple of instructional.
I started watching instructionals and just drilling, not necessarily drilling.
I'm not a big fan of drilling, but, you know, getting some positional sparring in on on those positions and just trying to
emulate the moves that I saw on the instructionals.
But when I watch instructions, the most important thing to me is understanding the concepts that they might not necessarily be saying.
(20:36):
Right. Because a lot of the athletes that are, how you say, giving these instructionals, they're actually also competing.
So they're not going to share all their secrets. Right. They're not going to tell you everything.
Gordon Ryan is not going to tell you 100 percent of everything that he does. He's going to leave out golden nuggets here and there.
Right. But overall, it's going to be much more helpful than not having those instructions. Right.
(20:57):
It's going to be better than you trying to pave the way for yourself, make a new road on your own.
You can do that. Right. Walk on the road that somebody else builds. Sure, there might be some potholes, but you probably can fix those potholes.
Right. There might be some stones missing, but you can fill in those stones.
And that's the journey. Maybe maybe you might also be a little bit more advanced.
And this is what I found to be very helpful for me. I just started watching competition footage as well.
(21:22):
Like I was like, all right, the instructions are nice, but I realize there's a limit to that because they're not they're not truly coming forward with everything in these instructionals.
So then I just started watching footage, actual roles and seeing people do different techniques.
And I will rewatch that technique, rewatch that technique, try to go all the way back to the sequence that where it began from.
(21:45):
It might begin from the slap bump. It might begin after a certain scramble. Right.
I just look and see, all right, from where can this be recreated and and try to understand why that move work and then work on that move in a gym.
And those been the moves that actually I adapt in my game and they become my game from there is by actually watching other people do jujitsu and not necessarily just, you know, sitting there and watching somebody teach me jujitsu.
(22:12):
And it's really important to focus on these concepts, the key takeaways.
I appreciate you guys for taking the time out to listen.
Remember, always respect your training partners because, you know, if you don't have them, you're not going to be able to do jujitsu and be nice to them.
If you're very aggressive, maybe tone it down a little bit so that they can also enjoy it as well.
(22:37):
You don't want to be the spazzy white belt, spazzy blue belt. You shouldn't be there should not be such thing as a spazzy blue belt.
By the way, you shouldn't have a blue belt if you are very spazzy.
But that's my opinion and is worth absolutely nothing. But I enjoy you guys.
I enjoy doing this. Thanks for listening.
Choose a guard, develop your core moves, refine your fundamentals, establish your philosophy.
(23:01):
I'll see you guys in the next episode.
Peace.
Welcome back to the pod guys episode 5 today we're going to be talking about building out your jujitsu game. How does one go about building out a game in jujitsu? Is it even important to build out a game? Do you even need to have a game in jujitsu?
(00:16):
Do you have a game in jujitsu? Right like these are the things that we're going to be chatting about today and so a little bit of history on this is so for me I started off in a certified training center for the Gracie in South Korea and in that spot we didn't have really like any games like I was new to jujitsu too so I definitely didn't have a game. It was just like you know roll and figure stuff out but they didn't have any games.
(00:45):
But they taught really good technique and you just apply the technique when you can and so it was just like kind of like just trying to do chess and it wasn't any strategy and I ended up switching gyms I ended up going to like about seven or eight different gyms throughout the last 10 years and you know I just kept that philosophy I just had jujitsu be fun for me and I never really had any one coach in particular instill any type of game if you will.
(01:14):
It was just bits and pieces and nuggets from everyone's game that I ended up adding together to do my own style or own brand of jujitsu and I think that's another way of looking at it.
It's not necessarily like building out a game or game plan or something like that it's more so like what's your brand what's your strategy like who are you as an individual.
Are you someone who is aggressive.
(01:39):
Like personality wise would your friends describe you as somebody that's really aggressive or are you someone that's like more chill more laid back.
Right when you roll are you like enjoying the process or you like super stressed out or you like really analytical are you really thinking constantly.
Are you that type of person and I think this all matters when you're talking about building out a game when you're when you're building your brand of a jujitsu your style of jujitsu.
(02:06):
Some people look at certain athletes jujitsu athletes and they will say like oh this person is like very leg lock focus or this person is very defensive focus.
This person loves to do rare naked jokes for example but in reality what is their style what is their brand and how to go about that.
So for me the first thing I think you need to start off with is guard because that's usually when you're starting off on jujitsu unless you're doing positional you're going to start off with some type of distance in between you and it.
(02:37):
You and your training partner or you and your opponent.
There's going to be some distance there so first you got to develop a guard a decent guard and that guard should honestly it should be enjoyable.
It should be enjoyable for you.
It shouldn't be a guard that you're stressed playing you don't really like it like but it's effective for example I don't really like this guard is boring but I find it really effective so I do it.
(03:01):
It's kind of like why are you what are you seriously like what are you what are you training jujitsu for are you trying to become a millionaire and be like number one you're trying to be Gordon Ryan so you're just doing all Gordon Ryan moves which will never work to be him.
You got to be innovative and creative and do your own thing but that's a side tangent.
If you're not having fun why are you where are you training.
(03:23):
First and foremost, pick a guard that's fun and enjoyable and pretty easy to use and easy to get into in my opinion.
So for me that guard for me is half guard.
Right. I like to get into half guard.
Usually, I found out early on that most people like to get into half guard on top, because they like to set up passes from there or they like to try to set up some submissions even from there.
(03:48):
And for me, it allows me to also set up some submissions or sweeps from that position as well. So it kind of becomes a battle of who's most skilled in half guard.
Right. And I enjoy that battle a lot. So I invite them into my half guard to actually play in that fire a little bit and I'm a little bit more confident in my skills.
(04:13):
Do they always work? Absolutely not. But that's the game I like to play because it's fun for me.
Some other people don't really like half guard they feel like they get smashed a lot in half guard.
So they like to play more of a De La Riva, reverse De La Riva or you know, K guard or false guard or they like to play maybe R guard, Y guard, which is not really a guard.
(04:35):
L guard is not really a guard either, but it's like more of a transition. R guard is more of a transition too.
But whatever they are, R guard being reverse guard for those who are like, what is he talking about?
There's a whole bunch of different types of guards, right? Just basically find out what is more what do you naturally do.
And one recommendation might be to record yourself and look at you and see how you roll.
(04:58):
And maybe you can get a recommendation if you're a white bow or blue belt, maybe get a recommendation from an upper bell and ask them like, hey, what do you think?
What guard do you think fits me? Because there might be a guard that you're not familiar with yet, right? And they can give you some recommendations.
Now, however, if you do have a guard already and you're already in that position, so maybe you're a blue bell or you're, you know, a purple bell or just beginning as a purple.
(05:24):
Well, you kind of have a light style of the game that you play.
Next thing is like, all right, now that I'm in this guard, where I, you know, what hip am I going to be on?
What position I'm going to be on? Obviously, hopefully you'll feel comfortable in both sides.
You know, dominantly, maybe I'm going to be better on my right hip side. Fine.
You know, on your right hip side, what are you doing? Are you looking for underhooks? Are you looking for overhooks? What are you doing?
(05:50):
So for me personally, I like to be on my right hip and I like to bait. I like to give underhooks so I could get the overhook.
It's like, why would I do that? Because I like to set up clamp guard. I like to set up, you know, triangles. I like to set up sweeps.
I like to set up a lot of different things from that. So I'll bait from half guard. I'll give people the underhook and they'll take it because it feels like a dominant position until it's not right.
(06:17):
And but sometimes I lose that battle to give it up and I'm like, oh, wait, oh, shoot. I shouldn't have did that.
But yeah, what's your style? Are you going for the far arm? Are you going for the near arm? You know, are you overhooking? Are you on underhooking?
Right. There's a difference between all of that. And you have to develop whatever that style is.
(06:38):
You know, you might be overhooking on your right hip, but on your left hip, you're underhooking because on your right side, you're a little bit more dominant on the underhook.
These are things that you have to explore and feel comfortable. You don't always have to train or drill both sides.
Like I talked about in the last episode, right. In the last episode, I was talking about how you don't necessarily like when you're drilling, you don't need to mindlessly drill.
(07:06):
You should be like thinking about, oh, the defense to this. And so when you're drilling to it's like, oh, wait, this doesn't really feel comfortable on the left hip.
Let me try it on the right hip. OK. I like it on the right hip. I'm just going to drill on the right hip.
If you're like playing half guard, for example, or on the left side, this actually feels a little bit more comfortable.
So I'm only going to do this on the left side. And when I'm on my right side, I'm going to do a different move.
(07:29):
And that makes your game more dynamic, but also fits your body much better.
It's kind of like the difference of getting how do you say having like a suit that is from Macy's that's just like off the rack versus getting like a custom tailored suit.
Right. Drilling on both sides and just doing both moves on, you know, moves on both sides and one side is maybe not as efficient as the others like that rack that that suit right off the rack.
(07:58):
But having a fine tune like on the right side, I do this on the left side. I do that.
That is that fine to tell or sorry, that fine teller suit that you got. That's very expensive.
And that's where we realistically that's where we want our games to be. Right. And so if we were to move on from here, now that you got your game, now that you understand what size you're going to be playing, what you're going to be doing on both sides of those.
(08:27):
Right. And I said, now that you're a game, I meant now that you have your guard and you're starting to develop your moves and your preferences for these moves and you're going to notice these natural tendencies that you have.
You're going to highlight what are your what are your physical strengths. This is also very, very important because it's going to dictate what you're doing as well.
Are you somebody that's really strong? Are you somebody that's really fast? Are you somebody that's really flexible?
(08:55):
Right. These three things, I believe there's shouldn't be more than that. Maybe quick, but I'm going to just put that with fast.
Those three things add up. A lot of people say, oh, he's just so strong. He should be less strong and do like jujitsu more.
Well, I would argue that strength is definitely a part of jujitsu. If I'm holding somebody down and I'm able to hold you down because I'm stronger than you.
(09:16):
Well, guess what? You need to do better at jujitsu. If you want to get up, don't say I need to do better at jujitsu because I'm holding you down.
It doesn't really work like that, especially if you're on the street. You can't complain that the person was so strong. That's why you couldn't get up.
It doesn't make sense, especially if you're a black belt or what a color belt, whatever. Like, don't make an excuse.
Let's just work around it. Same way. If you're strong, use your strength to your advantage.
(09:38):
I'm not saying like, you know, hurt people with your strength, but use it to your advantage. Right.
Just like if somebody was fast, they're going to use their speed to their advantage.
And you should if somebody's flexible, you should be using that flexibility to your advantage.
You should not be going slow or you should not be, you know, going weak or you should not be doing things that limiting yourself.
(10:03):
If you're flexible, you should be using it.
Like, why are we limiting ourselves for this quote unquote a technical aspect of jujitsu?
When you watch jujitsu on ADCC or, you know, any of like who's number one or any of the high level competition, it's all about athleticism.
Speed, power, strength, and then technique, too.
(10:27):
I'm not saying these people are not technical. They're very technical.
But also they have power, speed. They're training outside of off the mat, I should say.
They're doing these things. So don't limit yourself to that just because maybe an upper belt said, hey, you should like hold back on the stream so you could develop X, Y, Z.
It's like, no, develop X, Y, Z and be strong. Now they're really going to suffer. They're saying that just so I tell I tell I tell all the all the, you know, more less experienced grapplers in the gym.
(11:02):
Whenever I roll with them, if they're bigger than me, do you should I should not be able to get up.
You should be holding me down. I should not be able to get up because you're bigger and you're stronger than me.
Now, obviously, when you move to try to submit me, there's going to be an opening for me to get up.
And that's where my jujitsu comes into play. But if you're just holding me down, I should not be able to get up.
(11:24):
Right. You should have the technique, technical skills to be able to do that, but also use your strength as well.
So hopefully I'm painting that picture. Don't don't limit yourself.
There's too many people like coming out with all that stuff. And I heard it way too much in the various different gyms around the around the world that I trained at.
And so the next thing is and. So important. So, so, so important is really having a good grasp on these fundamentals.
(11:59):
You have to have a strong grasp on these fundamentals. Now, what do I mean by the fundamentals?
These key concepts that I'm talking about grip fighting, posture control, limiting your training partner or your opponent from controlling your body and or your head, especially your head.
(12:24):
So let's break this down in a fight or in a grappling match rather.
Whoever dominates the grips in the first initial exchange, whoever is winning on those grips more likely than not is going to win on the position from where those grips advance.
Whoever dominates is going to get a dominant position usually.
(12:50):
And then from the dominant position, usually that person, it leads to a submission hold usually or it just lends to a person at bottom suffering or the other person suffering.
That's usually what happens. And so if I'm at if I'm the person who's receiving or at the receiving end of a person who has dominant grips.
(13:15):
So I have inferior grips. I have these grips now. Now I'm in the negative and then that person advances to a dominant position.
Now I'm really in a negative. I'm in a deep hole. Now I got to climb out of that hole just to get to neutral and then I can advance.
But in order for me to advance, I got to get dominant grips on that person and then I can advance. Right.
(13:38):
That's usually this is kind of like a seesaw in that sense. So grip fighting is extremely important.
I tell everyone this is like to me this is the most important. This is judicious. It's grip fighting.
Don't let them get superior grips. If we're doing an exchange at the beginning and you get a good grip on me.
(14:01):
I'm backing out and resetting. I'm not moving forward into a worse position regardless if I'm passing or getting passed.
I'm resetting. If you're passing and you get headquarters on me, I got to reset. Right.
Likewise, if if I'm on top and I see you start sending up a false read, I got to get out of that.
(14:22):
I don't want to be there unless I'm tempting you to take your back or something. Right.
If you start getting backside 50-50 on me, I got to try to get out of that. I can't continue to try to advance.
You got a K guard locked up on me. I got to get out of that. Right.
You start you start controlling my arm with a two on one with the feet on my hips, potentially on my shoulders.
(14:46):
I got to get out of that. I can't advance because danger is waiting for me. Right.
And that's how you prolong your matches in jujitsu is just recognizing these grips and recognizing where these grips lead and resetting.
That's why matches at the highest levels when you see when you see black belts rolling with each other to see a submission in five minutes is is honestly is pretty rare.
(15:12):
It's pretty rare if they're on like, you know, if they're on the same level, if they're on the highest level, it's pretty rare.
It might be like, you know, I got you here and there. But usually matches go pretty long because they're always grip fighting.
They're always grip fighting, breaking grips, getting new grips, breaking grips, getting new grips.
And then somebody is going to take a risk. Somebody is going to take a gamble and they're going to try something and they might get caught or they might get it.
(15:34):
No risk, no reward. Right. But it's very important to make sure you're controlling that grip fight.
And then next we're going to go into posture control, making sure you have good posture, but also you're breaking down your opponent's posture, because if you can break down their posture, you're going to win.
Right. If you get dominant grips and you break their posture or you just break their posture and they're not able to do anything with their grip.
(16:00):
So say you give them the grips that they want, but you're able to manage.
You're managing to break their posture down in a way that their grips are ineffective.
Now they don't have superior grips anymore. You do. And you're able to advance from there.
Likewise, notice when they're breaking down your posture. Now your grips don't work as well. Right.
(16:21):
If you're trying to do a butterfly sweep, but they break your posture, you're a half guard, but they crunch your head down to your chest or to your knees.
Now you don't have no power to do a butterfly sweep. You have no power to elevate the person. You have no power to do really anything.
But you got to go back to neutral. Right. So these are the key concepts.
When we're trying to build the game, these are some key fundamental concepts that we got to focus on.
(16:44):
Not necessarily technique. You put your arm here, you put your leg here, you grab this and twist and do that and invert and roll and do.
No, no, that doesn't really matter. The most important thing is am I controlling the posture?
Am I am I advancing into a dominant position or is the person advancing into a dominant position?
I need to be able to recognize that reset and then try to assert my dominance. Who cares who you are?
(17:08):
I don't care what belt you're wearing around your waist. I don't care how long you've been training your person just like I'm a person.
Right. And I got to implement this strategy. I'm not going to cowtow just because you're my culture. You've been training for a long time.
No, it doesn't work that way. Right. You're trying to you're trying to kill me. I'm trying to kill you.
Maybe it's not that aggressive, right. Because I like to have you just to be fun.
(17:29):
But maybe it's maybe, you know, maybe it's like, hey, I'm trying to beat you. You're trying to beat me. Let's go at it.
All right. Let's go at it. I'm not going to give you an easy win just because.
And I don't expect you to give me an easy win just because if you're going to give me an easy win, I know it's not real.
I'm not going to like it. Right. So very, very important.
Very consistently apply these strategies to every single role that you do. Think about these things as you're doing it.
(17:55):
Don't think about the actual technical things. Put my foot here. Put my hand here. No, don't think about that stuff.
Think about the concepts of control grip fighting, limiting control over your body, over your head.
Whenever somebody grabs your head, you remove that grip. Don't let them control your head. Why?
It's not going to be anywhere good for you. Right. And again, as I was mentioning, what's your style?
(18:19):
Are you playful? Are you aggressive? Are you somewhere in between?
For me, I really, really love the fact that when I first started jujitsu,
Henner Gracie, he actually has this philosophy of keep it playful. Right.
And for me, that that was everything that I needed because I love to have fun. I love to joke.
(18:40):
And so I'll be rolling and I'll have some I'll have fun. I'll joke. I'll laugh. I'll smirk. I'll do something silly.
Right. Just to keep it playful. But that's my style.
Not everybody is like me. Some people are very aggressive and there's nothing wrong with that. Right.
As long as you're not ripping submissions. I really heard this on Reddit and I agree with it.
(19:02):
Actually, it said there's no such thing as dick moves. There's only dick speeds.
So if you have a move like a twister, for example, there's nothing wrong with that.
As long as you give me time to tap a heel hook, there's nothing wrong with that.
As long as you give me time to tap, if you just crank it zero to 100,
(19:23):
then you don't give anybody a time to tap and you're just snapping everything. Yeah.
Well, you're too aggressive. And quite frankly, you shouldn't be training judges.
You need you need to see a psychologist or a psychiatrist because why are you doing that?
When people got to go to work, you know what I'm saying? But anyway, I digress. I digress. I digress.
(19:47):
So these are some some some basic tips that has helped me over the years find to my game.
Honestly, I feel like I just fell into a game and these are just things that I naturally do to be comfortable.
When I started competing, when I did my competition, I was I was drilling things that I was weak at.
So I watched my roles. I saw certain things that was weak.
(20:10):
And we all know what are the things that we're weak at. And I just started, you know, about a couple of instructional.
I started watching instructionals and just drilling, not necessarily drilling.
I'm not a big fan of drilling, but, you know, getting some positional sparring in on on those positions and just trying to
emulate the moves that I saw on the instructionals.
But when I watch instructions, the most important thing to me is understanding the concepts that they might not necessarily be saying.
(20:36):
Right. Because a lot of the athletes that are, how you say, giving these instructionals, they're actually also competing.
So they're not going to share all their secrets. Right. They're not going to tell you everything.
Gordon Ryan is not going to tell you 100 percent of everything that he does. He's going to leave out golden nuggets here and there.
Right. But overall, it's going to be much more helpful than not having those instructions. Right.
(20:57):
It's going to be better than you trying to pave the way for yourself, make a new road on your own.
You can do that. Right. Walk on the road that somebody else builds. Sure, there might be some potholes, but you probably can fix those potholes.
Right. There might be some stones missing, but you can fill in those stones.
And that's the journey. Maybe maybe you might also be a little bit more advanced.
And this is what I found to be very helpful for me. I just started watching competition footage as well.
(21:22):
Like I was like, all right, the instructions are nice, but I realize there's a limit to that because they're not they're not truly coming forward with everything in these instructionals.
So then I just started watching footage, actual roles and seeing people do different techniques.
And I will rewatch that technique, rewatch that technique, try to go all the way back to the sequence that where it began from.
(21:45):
It might begin from the slap bump. It might begin after a certain scramble. Right.
I just look and see, all right, from where can this be recreated and and try to understand why that move work and then work on that move in a gym.
And those been the moves that actually I adapt in my game and they become my game from there is by actually watching other people do jujitsu and not necessarily just, you know, sitting there and watching somebody teach me jujitsu.
(22:12):
And it's really important to focus on these concepts, the key takeaways.
I appreciate you guys for taking the time out to listen.
Remember, always respect your training partners because, you know, if you don't have them, you're not going to be able to do jujitsu and be nice to them.
If you're very aggressive, maybe tone it down a little bit so that they can also enjoy it as well.
(22:37):
You don't want to be the spazzy white belt, spazzy blue belt. You shouldn't be there should not be such thing as a spazzy blue belt.
By the way, you shouldn't have a blue belt if you are very spazzy.
But that's my opinion and is worth absolutely nothing. But I enjoy you guys.
I enjoy doing this. Thanks for listening.
Choose a guard, develop your core moves, refine your fundamentals, establish your philosophy.
(23:01):
I'll see you guys in the next episode.
Peace.
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