Today during our Brazilian Jiu-jitsu class we started by warming up with a simple action-reaction drill moving between 3 BJJ style submissions, The arm-bar, triangle and omoaplata. As our opponent defends one submission we work to effortlessly to switch to the next submission without using strength. Drilling without using strength allows us to learn these techniques in a way that will work for everybody, not just the strong or athletic. The second warm up drill was the elbow escape from the bottom of mount to the scissor sweep, this drill focuses on moving from the bottom position where we are in danger of strikes and submissions to the top position where we are safe from our opponents punches and can control the situation.
The technique portion of class focused on a variation of the elbow escape where we use our feet as hooks to control the distance between us and our training partner and then use that distance to move back to the guard. If you are new to Brazilian Jiu-jItsu the Guard is a position where even though we are under our training partner we can use our legs to control how our partner moves, by either keeping them very close where they can not generate enough force in there punches to hurt us, or far enough away where there punches can’t land because they are to far away.
The final technique of the class was a sweep. In Brazilian Jiu-jitsu a sweep is defined as anything that moves you from the bottom position to the top position. Today we worked the WheelBarrow sweep which is a sweep which we can implement when our training partner moves into us in an attempt to shut down our elbow escape. By moving into us our training partner creates momentum and we can blend with this energy to create the opportunity to sweep.
As always we finish the class with Controlled drilling and practicing the techniques we covered in class with increasing levels of resistance. In the technical portion of class we drill the techniques with the help of our training partners, making sure we know all the steps and working them into our muscle memory. However if we ever really need to use these techniques to defend ourselves or protect our family the attacker will not be cooperating. So it is extremely important that we practice these techniques with resistance, however it is almost impossible to go from 0 resistance to 100% resistance so the goal of our beginners class is to gradual add resistance in way that is comfortable but also expands that comfort zone. Each one of our drilling sessions is carefully designed to do just that, starting with a small amount of resistance and then building on that.
If you are in the New London Connecticut or Groton CT area and are interested in learning Brazilian or Gracie Jiu-Jitsu you are invited to come down to Crossroads Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and watch or participate in a Brazilian Jiu-jitsu Class Crossroads BJJ offers a free trial program for you to experience how easy and fun the Crossroads Brazilian Jiu-jitsu Curriculum makes it to learn BJJ.
Dustin Rhodes
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Black Belt
Head Instructor at Crossroads Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
316 Boston Post Road
Waterford, CT
[email protected]
www.CrossroadsBJJ.com
Kano Jigoro->Mitsuyo Maeda->Carlos Gracie Sr.-> Carlos Gracie Jr. -> Carlos Machado -> Tim Burrill -> Dustin Rhodes