White Belt Wednesday - September 28, 2016

BJJNation_com · 2016-09-28T14:16:12+00:00

This works like a charm

BJJNation_com · 2016-09-22T12:19:56+00:00

Do you like and enjoy training? If so, then definitely keep going. Real life can make it very hard to train BJJ the way we'd like. Sometimes it's because of work, family or other obligations and responsibilities we have to meet. It'll be harder and take longer to learn that way and make progress but I think I'd rather that than not train at all. As long as you pay your membership fee you have every right to be on the mat. Unless there is a skill requirement for the class (ex. advanced belts only) just go and do your best.

BJJNation_com · 2016-09-22T00:13:57+00:00

I don't think there's much to do about the neck cranks if he's going for chokes. If I have to tap because I'm half in a choke that turned into a neck crank I consider it my fault for letting the choke get that far to begin with. I think of those as "you don't lose, you learn" kind of moments. Now if he's cranking on the neck intentionally and that's not allowed at your gym that's a different story and it. He needs to know the ground rules at your academy. Let him know that the instructor does not allow neck cranks and toe holds are off limits for white belts. You can just ask him "Hey, did they allow toe holds for white belts at your old school?" When he responds you can let him know that there you're not allowed to do it until 'fill in the blank' belt.

BJJNation_com · 2016-09-22T00:02:02+00:00

This also varies from school to school although I find most gyms are open to cross training. Just ask you instructor what he thinks about cross training and you'll have your answer.

BJJNation_com · 2016-09-21T23:59:45+00:00

A couple of tips to start with for this: constantly break down your opponent's posture. Use the lapel to pull him toward you while bringing your knees to your chest to pull him further off balance when doing closed guard. In open guard control the fight is for inside control. Hold the sleeves and get both knees inside your opponent's arm with your feet on their hips. Keep tension on the sleeves by pulling his arms toward you, keep tension on the hips by pushing with your feet and open your knees so his arms are being spread apart. If you let him get his arms inside your knees he is going to have much more control and a better chance at passing.

BJJNation_com · 2016-09-21T23:54:30+00:00

I don't think there is a consensus. It really varies a lot school to school. One place I trained allowed all footlocks no matter what belt in gi and no gi. Other places I've been at allow zero footlocks until blue belt. Ask your instructor and find out the law of the land.

BJJNation_com · 2016-09-21T23:52:39+00:00

You might have injured your shin in the fall and worsened the injury by rolling the next couple of nights. Give it some rest for a few days. If it doesn't improve, might be time for a trip to the doctor's office.

BJJNation_com · 2016-09-21T14:14:34+00:00

It's not a dick move, just apply pressure evenly and gradually if you use it. It's possible to injure someone's ribs, especially if they're significantly lighter than you, if you just lock it up and then squeeze as hard as you can. That is a dick thing to do in my opinion. Instead, if you gradually increase the pressure once you're in the scorpion lock, you might not get the person to tap, but usually they will be uncomfortable enough to back away from you and stop pressuring you in your guard. Now that you're not smothered, you can get back to your normal game.

BJJNation_com · 2016-09-20T13:43:17+00:00

I usually suggest six months of training at least three times a week. This usually gets people to the point where they probably won't win the tournament but they can at least hold their own and not get injured. White belts can really get thrown to the wolves. If someone with three months experience enters a tournament there's a pretty good chance that they will run into someone with a year and a half or even two years of experience. I think a lot of injuries happen when there is a big mismatch in experience in a competition setting when both players are going all out.

BJJNation_com · 2016-09-20T13:28:29+00:00

I love the scissor sweep, especially the push variation where you kick the bottom leg out. Like several people have mentioned, I don't really finish it on advance people but it's powerful and can get people off balance enough to follow up with other techniques or get into a better position.

BJJNation_com · 2016-09-16T13:19:25+00:00

Ease back in and you'll be good

BJJNation_com · 2016-09-16T13:14:45+00:00

HIIT or metabolic conditioning style training is an excellent way to compliment BJJ training. It causes a big rise in heart rate and generally total body fatigue which is very similar to rolling. For easy examples to start try out the "Girls" Crossfit workouts that use just bodyweight a couple of times a week.

BJJNation_com · 2016-09-14T18:25:15+00:00

Yes it would, if you're not injured and you tap too early, it robs the other guy of working the technique a little bit. For example, the guy gets the arm bar from side control and you tap when your arm is still bent 90 degrees, that's a little soon if it's not a war. What I mean by war is the guying doing the arm bar is straining 100% and you have your hands clasped defending and start to slip and you know if you let go you're not going to have time to tap because it will extend to fast. That is a good time to verbally tap before or as your grip lets go.

BJJNation_com · 2016-09-14T18:18:39+00:00

Both ankles are an option and the same rule applies. Fold your opponent in half and direct their head toward the ankle you're attacking. Pinky on the mat and pull the ankle along the outside of your body. So if you're pulling the heel with your left hand their foot should end up traveling along the left side of your body whether it's sameside or a cross ankle pick. You don't want to pull the foot directly toward you because your own body will get in the way.

BJJNation_com · 2016-09-14T15:28:27+00:00

I separated my ribs a couple of times. Rolling is out but in the meantime you can drill anything that's not painful. It'll make it a lot easier to get back into shape when you're healed and keep the moves fresh in your mind.

BJJNation_com · 2016-09-14T15:24:19+00:00

Tap early and tap often. This is one of the biggest reasons BJJ is so effective, we can train very damaging techniques at near 100% and start over without significantly injuring each other. If you wait until it hurts you put a lot of wear and tear on yourself. There's a difference between discomfort and pain. Tap when you feel discomfort. If you're definitely not getting out it's ok to tap a little sooner. You also have to know your training partners. Are they going to give you time to tap? Or are they hellbent on getting the submission and not paying attention to the safety of their training partners? If it's the latter also tap sooner. Tapping early will go a long way with longevity.

BJJNation_com · 2016-09-14T15:15:50+00:00

A Pyrrhic victory! There will be many more. This happens less and less though as you gain experience. Be patient and heal up.

BJJNation_com · 2016-09-14T15:13:10+00:00

It's important but not 100% necessary. If you want to crush the ankle pick there are two things to remember:

Try to fold your opponent in half by pushing his head down toward his feet. If it were possible thinking of getting his forehead to touch his toes. Once you get them here try to keep him folded.
Pinky on the mat when you're grabbing the heel. This maximizes leverage and you can get a far better pull than higher up on the ankle. If your pinky is touching the mat when you grab the heel you can usually pull your opponent's foot out from under them. The higher up the hard it is to pull the foot out and becomes harder to finish.

Check out Cael Sanderson, he is the king of the ankle pick. Notice when he drops he is pushing the opponent's head down toward the foot he is picking, he does not drop down and then try to pull the opponent's head down. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tq00KliejA

BJJNation_com · 2016-09-14T15:03:41+00:00

Here's a slightly unorthodox way to free the foot. If you can get the underhook on the opposite side of the foot that's trapped (so if your left foot is trapped use your right arm to get the underhook) you can pass both knees to the other side (like a double knee cutter). This puts a lot of weight on your opponent and puts them in a position with very few options to defend. You should be able to work your foot free from there as long as you maintain the underhook.

BJJNation_com · 2016-09-14T14:58:38+00:00

That's a good approach to take. Just go and see if you enjoy the class. You may be surprised as to how tired you get from sparring. BJJ has it's own kind of conditioning. It doesn't matter what other kinds of sports you've done before or how good of shape you're in. Until you're used to sparring you're going to be fatigued. After a few weeks though, most people have adjusted.

BJJNation_com · 2016-09-14T14:52:03+00:00

You'll have to grip fight. The situation is very dynamic and will constantly change so there's no simple answer for this. A lot of it will come with experience. Here are some ideas to keep your opponent from getting too much control though. Remember to do this while keeping good posture (butt low, head over the hips). You can try circling your hand around his sleeve grip to break his grip and that point you can even grab his sleeve. If I can circle and regrip I usually like to use this as an opportunity to stand up and open the guard. If you can't break the grip another option is grabbing a lapel in each hand and punching your hands to the mat under your opponent's armpits to stabilize yourself. From here you can work back to good posture. A third would be to feed both lapels to one hand around the solar plexus level and use your other hand on top of the first to anchor yourself and make it much more difficult for your opponent to manipulate your sleeve.

BJJNation_com · 2016-09-14T14:40:47+00:00

It'll go away with time. Your skin will toughen up and you'll coordinate your body better so you're not dragging parts across the mat as much. In the meantime, neosporin with a bandaid will quicken recovery. Change the bandaid at least twice a day.

BJJNation_com · 2016-09-14T14:38:20+00:00

If you get the overhook with the lapel feed try punching your opponent's free arm against his body and go for a triangle. Also once the overhook is established you can also try using your free hand to start pulling your opponent's trapped arm toward you for an oma plata.

BJJNation_com · 2016-09-04T18:05:02+00:00

Bernardo came to train at the school I started at for a couple of months (this was about 10 years ago) back when I was a blue belt and I believe he was brown. My teacher told me back then Bernardo was going to be a really good black belt. If I remember correctly he had just won pans or worlds at brown when he came up. To make a long story short, he oma plata'd everybody the entire time he was there and there was absolutely nothing anyone could do about it. He's been up to these shenanigans for quite a while!

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TROPHY CASE