As always we started out drilling the self defense techniques of Brazilian Jiu-jitsu. When BJJ was first modified from its Japanese Jiu-jitsu and Judo Roots it was to make the art more effective in the Street Fights in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. This was before the IBJJF was founded by Carlos Gracie Jr. son of Carlos Gracie Sr. one of the founders of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. The main difference between sport Jiu-jitsu techniques and self defense Jiu-jitsu Techniques are the reactions we are training for. In sport BJJ we train to deal with the most common reactions and techniques a Brazilian Jiu-jitsu practitioner will try to use against us, while an untrained person will have a much different set of reactions because they have no training. In a self defense situation we also have to make sure that we protect ourselves from strikes!
Today’s first technique was how to escape the front bear hug, one of the more common situations in a street fight. If somebody is untrained they will often try to wrap up over our arms which allows us an easy transition to a hip throw. As Brazilian Jiu-jitsu practitioners our main objective is to get the fight to the ground where we can protect ourselves from a larger, stronger, and faster person.
Once we were on the ground we covered how to correctly apply a guillotine finish and then transition to the bump sweep if our opponent tries to posture up(if your not sure what it means to posture up get to class! 🙂 ) At this point we have already covered three ways to improve our situation in a street fight and better protect ourselves! We got the fight to the ground and landed in the top position where we are considerably safer from an attackers punches and kicks. We also covered how to end the fight with a guillotine, one of the most common Brazilian Jiu-jitsu finishes to occur in the UFC and how to transition back to the top position where again we are safe from strikes. Once we got to the top position we finished the fight with a shoulder lock called the Kimora.
Once everybody understood how the techniques work and the steps required to complete them we ended class with a series of progressive resistance drills to make sure that we could apply the techniques under pressure. These progressive drills help us learn how to apply the techniques on somebody who is trying to defend them which is an essential part of the learning process in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu and the reason it is the worlds most effective marital art.
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