One of reasons Brazilian Jiu-jitsu is so effective as a self defense art is you learn how to protect yourself in the most common street fight / self defense situations. Carlos Gracie Sr. and his Brothers spent over 60 years refining and developing techniques that actually work effectively in real street fights before Brazilian Jiu-jitsu moved to America and eventually around the world. With an linage only 4 steps away from the founders of brazilian Jiu-jitsu you know you are getting the highest level of instruction at Crossroads Brazilian Jiu-jitsu.
There are only so many different ways an attacker can grab onto you and the techniques taught in the Crossroads Curriculum teach you how to escape these so you will feel confident defending yourself . In lesson 3 cover how to escape a headlock when you are already on the ground with an attacker holding you down. By creating space on the bottom using proper mechanics we can use our entire body to generate enough power and momentum to escape the bottom position.
Once on top lesson two covers how to control somebody from the Side control position. The side control position is basically when somebody is laying on somebody’s chest while they are perpendicular to the person in the bottom positions. Some would argue that this is the most effective way to control somebody on the ground because there are only so many ways a person can get up and there are a large number of submission attacks from the top of side control.
One of these submission sequences from the top of side control allows you to switch between attacking the opponents shoulder and elbow. In lesson two you will learn how to move between the kimora, straight arm-bar and the american. Switching between submissions means you are not putting yourself in a strength vs. strength match. If you are trying to submit somebody much stronger than you and they power out of your submission attempt instead of trying to force the submission you can simply switch to the next one.
One of the best things about Brazilian Jiu-jitsu is that peoples reaction to defend one submission moves them directly into another submission. That is why drilling these sequences and understanding how they work is essential to your success as a Brazilian Jiu-jitsu practitioner.