Jiu Jitsu Moves

Takedowns are important for jiu jitsu tournament success. Obviously since matches start standing up, but let’s face it: if you wanted to drill takedowns you’d be reading Judo Moves not Jiu Jitsu moves. So I’ll give you a tip that I learned early that allowed me to enjoy competitive success while still focusing on the ground game.

First though, you might as well face this up front, at higher levels you are going to have to drill takedowns and wrestling as you will most certainly encounter high level guys at submission grappling competitions. Also this tip won’t work against any of those established stand up guys.

At one of my first jiu jitsu competitions a teammate at my school offered me this bit of advice. She told me that as a white belt she just drilled grip fighting for her stand up game. That was it, and never worked wrestling or throws at all. Just grip fighting.

She explained to me that because most BJJ players are uncomfortable on their feet they often lose confidence early and pull guard. Her plan going into white belt matches was to gain superior grips and get them to pull guard. From there she worked guard passing and submissions.

If you’re wondering if it worked for her, it did, all the time. She would just grip fight. She used this tip to win BJJ Pan Am’s as a white belt and took third at worlds using the exact same plan (by worlds she was a blue belt). In fact if you go to the videos section I have several videos posted of me doing the exact same thing.

So spend time drilling grip fighting and the rest of your practice time on what you love, drilling jiu jitsu moves, after all if you encounter a wrestler or a judo player at an early level they ARE going to get the takedown, you will want to have to skills to take the match over from there.

Now the trick is learning grip fighting. Most jiu jitsu schools don’t work grips or stand up at all. I know, I used to be at one. During that time I enrolled in an online bjj takedown course that helped me out quite a bit. It taught a pretty good grip fighting system, along with other takedowns for jiu jitsu competitions.

Take a look at the online moves here: Jiu Jitsu Takedowns.

written by JR \\ tags: Tournament Success

Most Jiu Jitsu players are faced with a predicament. They want to succeed early in their career and their coaches want them to focus on jiu jitsu moves that build a strong foundation. The problem is most beginners view these goals as contradictory. To the coaches fundamentals are often position and defense, while the students define success as using the latest fancy triangle choke they’ve seen on the latest BJJ DVDs.

Both are important. Without the fundamentals anyone with experience will cut through you like a grappling dummy. Without early success the student probably won’t stick around long enough to enjoy those fundamentals their coaches urged them to build.

So how can a submission grappler have the best of both worlds? By training in the area of takedowns. Standup is an important aspect of Jiu Jitsu that if one focuses on they can build fundamentals while enjoying early competitive success.  They are extremely important to drill and understand.

This is for several reasons. First all matches, gi and no gi, start standing up. It is possible to focus entirely on the basics like posture, grip fighting, and ties and still win early in your bjj career. Learning takedowns will translate to all aspect of your game, are useful in every grappling tournament, and you will never get to a level where the skills are not useful.

Second most Jiu Jitsu schools don’t focus on stand up at all. All grappling in class begins on the knees with no exception. This puts the student who trains takedowns at a huge advantage. With little training, a student who practices takedowns can begin almost any match up 2-0 and with dominant position. Needless to say this puts you in at an awesome advantage, early in your bjj career.

Practicing standup jiu jitsu moves are important to early and continued jiu jitsu success. Whether you train Judo or wrestling will depend on whether you are a pure jiu jitsu player or a no gi or mma fighter, but neither is a bad idea. The throws you learn in Judo translate to MMA and the takedowns from wrestling can be used in jiu jitsu. Either way practicing takedowns and takedown defense will ensure early competitive success while still building a fundamental skill your coach will be proud of.

written by JR \\ tags: Tournament Success