Jiu Jitsu Moves

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