Category: Instruction

Why Women Should Train Jiu Jitsu

At our Jiu Jitsu academy we have a women’s program that was started a couple of years ago. It was created as a way to help women overcome the discomfort of training in a co-ed environment. One of the instructor’s at our academy is a female, and she thought it would be worth experimenting with a women’s-only program to see if there would be any interest in getting more women to train jiu jitsu. And there certainly was. That part of the school is now thriving. You can read about it here: Girls-in-Gis: The Power of Healing.

I’ve heard from a few women that have trained jiu jitsu that there is an initial discomfort to get over in training with guys. There’s the obvious gender difference that is a barrier for some women to get past, but there’s also the size difference. It’s physically demanding to train when you’re first starting jiu jitsu, and if you’re a woman starting out who has to train with guys much larger than them then I could see how it could be difficult to do the moves, at least in the beginning. Jiu jitsu was designed so that a smaller, weaker person can overcome someone larger and stronger, but when you’re first learning the techniques you don’t know how to apply the proper leverage yet, so you’re not going to be defeating size and strength from day one.

There are many reasons why women may feel uncomfortable training jiu jitsu with guys, I’m not a woman so I won’t claim to know truly what it feels like but a quick web search shows many articles that address this topic. The organization “Girls in Gis” was created to help women train together in a friendly environment. They host events all around the United States through their ambassador program and we are very fortunate to have a Girls in Gis event at our school. Girls in Gis also has a scholarship program to help offset the costs associated with learning jiu jitsu.  If you check out the testimonials on their site you’ll see that Girls in Gis have had a positive influence on many women’s jiu jitsu journey.

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Jesse Delgado Funk Roll Study

DPS Breakdowns just posted a video breaking down how to do and use a Funk Roll in grappling. If you’re not familiar with DPS Breakdowns, you should head over to their YouTube channel, tons of great videos, a lot of very technical, high quality analysis. Dan from DPS breakdowns is a high level competitor in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and has great insight into the finer details of the game.

The Funk Roll is a roll that according to Dan has 3 objectives:

  1. Disrupt the opponent’s base, by doing the Funk Roll and achieving hip and ankle control.
  2. Prevent the opponent from regaining base.
  3. Either score or force a stalemate.

From the video blow it seems like an important aspect of the funk roll (or arguably the sole reason to do this move) is to counter a take down with the funk roll, and then establish control of your opponents leg(s) or hips so that they can’t establish their own base, which kills subsequent take down attempts and opens other possibilities.

See the full breakdown below:

Hurricane Jiu Jitsu: Student Video Analysis

Hurricane Jiu JitsuIn this video John Lawrence from Hurricane Jiu Jitsu does an analysis of one of his student’s competition footage. Lawrence has a long competition history and his experience enables to him to see details in this video that I would have missed.  He breaks down what it would take for this student to finish his sweeps and control his opponent better by controlling his opponent’s posting hand and stabilizing his opponents core by gaining grips on two opposing corners of his opponent’s body.

North South Escape using Elbow Push vs Side Control

marcelo-garciaI find myself getting stuck in north  south and side control a lot lately (again). While searching for ideas on how to escape north south I found this video of Marcelo Garcia showing how to escape by getting back into side control. He says that he’d rather be in side control than in north south, so doesn’t mind escaping to that position, where he can work on escaping side control via an elbow push.

Chris Haueter Seminar January 2019

Chris HaueterI just got back from a seminar put on by Chris Haueter at the Fight Gym in Chagrin Falls, Ohio. This is the second seminar I’ve attended with Haueter, and I said the same thing last time, I wouldn’t miss a Chris Haueter seminar when he comes around. Both times that I’ve attended his seminars I’ve had several “ah-ha” moments, which totally makes the price of admission worthwhile.

This seminar we focused on the rear naked choke. We spent a little time in the beginning of the seminar after our warm up talking about how to control our partner when we have back control. Haueter spoke about the importance of controlling our partner’s hips by pushing our hips right against their tail bone and using our legs to keep their hips pulled back into ours and to the ground. We spent some time with our partner trying to escape while we attempted to hold them in place. It was pretty amazing how much control we had this way, without even really needing to use our arms that much to control their upper body. Typically we’re taught to get a seat belt grip to maintain control but by controlling their hips with our legs we didn’t seem to need that grip to maintain control.

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Beating DLR With Old School Pressure

Hurricane Jiu JitsuJohn Lawrence from Hurricane Jiu Jitsu shows a pressure pass when confronted with a De La Riva guard. Pressure passing is my favorite way to pass so I’m especially interested in this way of beating the De La Riva. I have been trying to step out of it with varying success, I’ll be curious if pressuring in will increase my success with passing this guard.

Kuzushi in the Guard

Scott BurrScott Burr from the Fight Gym discusses Kuzushi (unbalancing an opponent) from the closed guard.  This is an important concept, not only because breaking an opponent’s posture is important when they’re in your guard, but also because doing so leaves you vulnerable to headbutts. I’ve almost received accidental headbutts when rolling from trying to break an opponent’s posture when they are in my guard, so I can imagine in a real fight that a headbutt would be a real option for someone if they wanted to do some damage from that position.

Check out the details in the video below:

Scott Burr is a Jiu Jitsu Black Belt, Judo Black Belt, Steve Maxwell certified trainer and  a black belt in Kuk Sul Do. He is also the author of the novel “Bummed Out City”.

The Omoplata vs the Marceloplata vs the Baratoplata

Stephan Kesting BaratoplataMy daughter is growing fast in her jiu jitsu practice and she found this great video where Stephan Kesting shows variations on the Omoplata by transitioning to the Marceloplata (created by Marcelo Garcia) and the Baratoplata (created by Rafael “Barata” Freitas)

How To Do The Perfect Triangle Even If You Have Short Legs

Danaher TrianglesJohn Danaher and Bernardo Faria share details about how to strongly finish a triangle. Some great details here from Danaher regarding what actually makes a triangle work vs. what can interfere with the success of a triangle strangulation.

It sounds like they’re filming a new installment to the “Enter the System” series, and this one may be focused on triangles, from all positions. Exciting stuff!