The United Arab Emirates has had a long history of supporting supporting BJJ and Submission Grappling. Ever since the Abu Dhabi Combat Club (ADCC) began holding the ADCC Submission Wrestling World Championship in 2001, top-level athletes in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Wrestling, Judo, Sambo, Shooto and Mixed Martial Arts have flocked to Abu Dhabi and later Sao Paolo, Brazil and the USA for a chance to win the coveted tournaments.
On September 27th of this year, they’ll do it all over again in Barcelona, Spain – spreading the gospel of the mats and competing for one of the highest achievements in our sports’ competition in the 2009 ADCC Championships. Athletes such as Marcelo Garcia, Kron Gracie, Pablo Popovich, Robert Drysdale, Roger Gracie, and Braulio Estima are just a few of the athletes slated to participate in this year’s edition of the the bi-annual tournament.
On that day, another landmark event for Brazlian Jiu-Jitsu and Submission Grappling will also be taking place in the birthplace of the Abu Dhabi Combat Club.
The 27th will be a landmark, weâre already counting down. There will be more than 20 thousand kids in 42 public schools practicing Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu,â explains the teacher responsible for the project dubbed School-Jitsu.’
Professor Santos is heading a team of 81 Brazilians slated to teach a BJJ curriculum to children in the UAE.
Every day is fun. Putting several powerful people together always yields something new. But the folks surprised me, as they all gelled as a team so quickly, even the ten girls, which was a complicating factor. Technically, Iâll highlight Michel Maia and Jose âCientistaâ Junior, who arrived from Araruama with a silly look on his face but is really tough.
This year weâll also have for the first time a student championship along the lines of the Brazilian Team Nationals, with each school sending five representatives. I hope all goes well so that next year doors will open for more professionals here in Abu Dhabi. Once again I thank the boss, Sheikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, for the opportunity he granted Jiu-Jitsu,â Carlao says in finishing.
Indeed, a considerable amount of gratitude should be granted to Sheikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who has been the individual supporting this initiative, as well as those of the Abu Dhabi Combat Club for years because of his own interest in the sport. Thanks to him, BJJ has reached national sport status for the first time since the sports’ inception. With support from other leaders and educators around the globe, the sport’s growth can only expand from here.
Just saw this video of Glover’s Travels feauturing Jeff Glover, a 10-year veteran of the International BJJ Scene. Jeff’s concept for his show consists of him traveling, touring, and training at top schools around the nation. Pretty cool if you ask me.
Ever heard of Ginastica Natural? This method, developed by Brazilian, Alvaro Romano, is a workout which influenced in large part by many of the same ground movements we see in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and other martial arts.
This style has been gaining popular over the years. I remember seeing Ginastica movements for the first time in BJJ Master Rickson Gracie’s fight documentary Choke. In that film, Rickson can be seen performing a ginastica workout on a beach in Rio. At the time I had no idea what he was doing but now, I can see that this workout helps tremendously with BJJ. It allows muscles to memorize some the would-be rigorous movements we see as practicians of BJJ and grappling on a daily basis.
Ginastica Natural is all about keeping your body in constant motion by combining many different movements incorporated from Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. This can be considered a strength exercise because of the resistence one’s own body provides. It also incorporates flexibility and breathing techniques to help with cardiovascular conditioning as well.
Certainly a very unique and innovative way to keep your body & mind in tune with your techniques.
Watch the Andre Galvao video below for an example of Ginastica Natural being incorporated into a BJJ Workout. Galvao also gives a good explanation for why he does this and how it helps as well.
I just saw this video from a post on the atama brazilian jiu jitsu forum. Â Good use of the gi to nullify your opponents side. Â Must experiment with this later!
By the way here is a link to access the website and forum.
Early in your BJJ development you should be a generalist. This means developing basic skills in ALL areas of BJJ. (Eventually you’ll probably specialize a little bit more, but that comes much later, usually around purple belt).
So for now you need to make sure that you’re covering all your bases. You really don’t want there to be severely underdeveloped areas of your game!
One way to figure out whether there are major holes in your game is to use a checklist like the one below.
Try ranking these positions in order of how much you know about them:
Closed guard
Open guard
Half guard
Side mount
Knee mount
Full mount
Rear mount
This ordered list then becomes a handy tool to decide which techniques to practice, and what positions you should start your sparring in.
Remember, usually you make your fastest progress by working your weakest area!
Another, somewhat more analytical approach, is to subdivide these positions even further. Lets split each of the above positions into three technical areas:
Submissions from that position.
Transitions from the position to an even better position
Escapes/guard passes if you’re caught in that position.
When we take consider those three types of skills for each of the major positions, we end up with 24 skill sets:
Closed guard submissions
Closed guard passes
Closed guard sweeps
Open guard submissions
Open guard passes
Open guard sweeps
Half guard submissions
Half guard passes
Half guard sweeps
Side mount submissions
Side mount transitions
Side mount escapes
Knee mount submissions
Knee mount transitions
Knee mount escapes
Full mount submissions
Full mount transitions
Full mount escapes
Rear mount submissions
Rear mount transitions
Rear mount escapes
Turtle submissions
Turtle transitions
Turtle escapes
Now I don’t normally assign homework, but I want you to try this. Go down that list again and figure out if you know at least two techniques for each area.
To be able to flow and spar and play and feel comfortable on the ground you need to have at least a few good options for each one of the above 24 areas.
This approach also helps you identify areas for improvement.
Hypothetically, let’s say that you know 17 different sweeps from the open guard, but you’re completely lost when you get stuck in the half guard.
Question for you: if that’s the case, should you work on more open guard techniques, or spend some quality time on the half guard?
Since my last post, I have been familiarizing myself with Saulo Ribiero’s Book Jiu Jitsu University. Of the first 150 or so pages, I have been reminded of some of the core principles of defensive posture.
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You’re constantly reminded to keep your elbows in and for good reason. Anytime you’re in the bottom, whether it be side control or mount, an elbow flaring out and leaving the body will usually result in the beginning of the end especially when going against an experienced jiu jitsu player. They will dig to raise that elbow to lock in a submission or use the space created to get deeper in their positioining.  For example, a person mounted fails an upa attempt and person on top uses space created to switch to an s-mount. Just remember that when you’re on bottom, lock you elbows to your side then start working the escape from there.  Also, while escaping, try bridging into the person first so that when you elbow escape out you can use the space created from the earlier bridge into your opponent to slide your guard back in.  Remember, it is that much harder to escape when defending a submission so keep all your limbs at bay!Â
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Another observation I have come to realize that has improved my top game considerably is the power of the cross face. The cross face can affect anyone at any level. Something to remember about the cross face is that your opponent can not turn his body where his face isn’t looking. I like to use the cross face anywhere from top of half guard, side control to full mount. It’s even useful in back mount when you have trouble finishing a choke, open them up with a cross face. I have had good success at pinning and controlling the upper body with the cross face which leads to a greater pass percentage especially from top of half guard. Combine the cross face with hip switching and you’ll find yourself a lot more dangerous. From mount, I like to use the cross face to open them up for chokes and armbar setups. Remember to keep your cross face tight to your opponent so they can not turn back into you and to keep you hips low. If you tripod while crossfacing keep your weight balanced between your head/arm cross face and your feet as to not get swept over.Â
I hope this is clear enough for the majority to understand and that my personal notes help those who read this. Have fun training!
The United Arab Emirates has had a long history of supporting supporting BJJ and Submission Grappling. Ever since the Abu Dhabi Combat Club (ADCC) began holding the ADCC Submission Wrestling World Championship in 2001, top-level athletes in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Wrestling, Judo, Sambo, Shooto and Mixed Martial Arts have flocked to Abu Dhabi and later Sao Paolo, Brazil and the USA for a chance to win the coveted tournaments.
Indeed, a considerable amount of gratitude should be granted to Sheikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who has been the individual supporting this initiative, as well as those of the Abu Dhabi Combat Club for years because of his own interest in the sport. Thanks to him, BJJ has reached national sport status for the first time since the sports’ inception. With support from other leaders and educators around the globe, the sport’s growth can only expand from here.
Ever heard of Ginastica Natural? This method, developed by Brazilian, Alvaro Romano, is a workout which influenced in large part by many of the same ground movements we see in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and other martial arts.