Last night during our Fundamentals of BJJ class at Crossroads Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu we began with working a self defense technique from the standing position. This class focused on defending the rear naked choke from the standing position. The basis for all of the self defense moves in the Crossroads Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu curriculum emphesize that you are in a fight before you realize you are in a fight or more simply put you were caught off guard. Of couse one of the main focus of Martial arts training is increasing your awareness so that situations like the one covered in this class don’t happen the reality is that it is impossible to be 100% aware of everything in every situation. Knowing how to escape, and drilling that escape until you can perform it without thinking is essential to being ready to defend yourself if you are ever attacked.
From the rear naked choke defense we tranisioned into the straight arm lock which worked into a sequence where the class was able to work the defense and the attack to some of the most powerful submissions in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu the armlock, the omoplata and the triangle. The main focus on this class was transitioning from one technique to the next.
Successfully switching between any two techniques requires good timing, if we fight to long for the first submission the time to switch to the second submission will have already past and we will end up missing both the first and second. Good timing is the product of drilling, the more times we repeat a technique the sooner we will recognize the correct time to apply each technique and the more effortless our Jiu-Jitsu will feel.
If your interested in learning more about Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu stop by one of our Fundamentals classes and see what it’s all about. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is the only self defense art that is proven to work against bigger stronger opponents, so if you are interested in learning real self defense don’t wait, come down and start learning.