Every Monday and Wednesday night the dedicated students at Crossroads BJJ step on the Mat and look to hone their skills. As a martial artist and a grappler we should all seek to have well rounded skills, in the beginning this means understanding the five major positions both on top and on the bottom, knowing […]
The most uncomfortable position in Jiu-Jitsu: knee on belly! The knee on belly position in bjj offers the top player a tremendous amount of control, the ability to be mobile and the power to make the person on the bottom life completely miserable. The position looks exactly as its name would have you believe, your […]
Last night at Crossroads BJJ during our Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Team Training class we continued developing attacks and transitions from the Kimora grip. Over the past few weeks we have gone over a number of transitions that provide us with a plan of attack for when our Jiu-Jitsu sparring partner turns into us in an attempt […]
In every Jiu-Jitsu technique we try to use leverage and proper body mechanics instead of strength to make it work. The idea behind this is that we want to train to defend ourselves against somebody who bigger and stronger than us. If we only train to over power somebody, if we ever have to fight […]
Last Saturday at Crossroads BJJ we covered two sequences or “flows”, one from the feet and another from the ground. A flow is essentially a Jiu-Jitsu kata that allows us to drill techniques and see one possible way that these techniques can blend together. From the feet we covered 3 techniques, an arm drag, a […]
Last night during the Crossroads Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Team Training class we worked on using our legs to great a heavy guard. Typically when you think of being heavy in BJJ you think of the person on top, however the bottom player can also be heavy by using their arms and legs to hang their weight […]
Last night during the Team Training class at Crossroads BJJ we covered two possible submissions from the guard off of one movement. What separates BJJ from other Martial Arts is the philosophy that you never know what is going to happen in a fight, there are any number of potential reasons to why you could […]
Last night at Crossroads Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu we promoted our first Female blue belt! After over a year of consistent hard work and dedication Julia earned her Blue Belt and begins the next phase of jiu-jitsu her journey! The blue belt is the most important belt to obtain in bjj, it shows mental toughness, persistence, knowledge […]
Working towards strong angles was the theme of Tuesday Nights No Gi BJJ class last night at Crossroads Brazilian Jiujitsu. Students came down to waterford CT to gain a better understanding what angles give you the advantage in attacking off your back or looking for the pass. By understanding angles in BJJ we can begin […]
This past Saturday Crossroads BJJ had its first Q & A class and there was a fantastic showing. The class focused on trouble shooting the knee slice pass and what to do when two common counters are implemented as you attempt to complete the pass. The two methods of attempting to shut down the pass […]
Hey everybody since the roads are terrible and it doesn’t look it’s going to stop anytime soon we’re going to cancel tonight’s classes at Crossroads. Sorry to all the crazy’ who were going to make the drive. Stay safe and stay warm!
Today during team training we continued working from the half guard, discussing how to get the undertook and then understanding the technical options it provides. Today we worked on moving from our back to a seated position which works very well when our training partner is keeping very good posture, or you can create a […]
Today during our Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu class we covered what to do when somebody grabs you from behind. This can be one of the most starling attacks because you can not see it. We discussed making sure you don’t et knocked over. In brazilian jiu-jitsu we refer to this as dropping in base and is the […]
Today in our kids class we continued working with the kids on foot sweeps. A foot sweep is a very effective way to move a self defense or bullying situation from standing to the ground where a smaller child can control and protect him or herself. The kids then did some live rolling drills with […]
Today in our Brazilian Jiu-jitsu class we continued covering how to maintain back control. Back control is the most dominate position to have in a self defense situation, an mama fight, or a jiu-jitsu tournament. Because your training partner can’t see you and has a very limited number of escapes we can easily control their […]
Today in our Brazilian Jiu-jitsu class we went over basic stand up strategies with a focus on head position and grip fighting. In grappling angles make a huge difference in who has the advantage and while our main focus in BJJ is to close the distance and get the fight to the ground any way […]
Today during our Team Training Brazilian BJJ Class we worked on Pressure from Side Control and how to shut down the most common escapes in Brazilian jiu-jitsu by using pressure to neutralize an explosive elbow escape. As we progress in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu tapping untrained opponent because extremely easy and we begin to focus our training […]
Today during our Brazilian Jiu-jitsu class we went over how to break the posture of somebody on top of you in-order to prevent them from hitting you by controlling the distance. Once we have control over our training partners we no longer have to worry about being hit and can then move on to either […]
Today during our Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu class two ways to escape the mount position. The Mount position is one of the most powerful ways to control an attacker in a self defense situation because of the number of BJJ style submissions that are available as well as the number of ways to completely neutralize your attacker […]
Today during our Brazilian Jiu-jItsu class we continued working the idea of timing and flow. Timing is a crucial aspect of BJJ, if you don’t understand when to transition after your training partner is defending your techniques you will always be reacting to their movement instead of the other way around. We started working the […]
Today in our Team Training class we continued working working Butterfly Guard, today working an overhook variation similar to what we covered in our No-Gi BJJ class on Tuesday night. Our main focus was moving our hips so that we can keep constant pressure on our training partner in order to break their poster and […]
Today during the Brazilian Jiu-jitsu Class at Crossroads BJJ Coach Doug covered the toronado pass. This is one of the most commonly used passes in BJJ and can be seen in pretty much every tournament you will every see. The toronado pass is a loose style pass that is accomplished by controlling your training partners […]
Today during Team Training We continued working the butterfly guard sweep! This time using an undertook to control our opponents basing hand,and adding a grip readjustment to deal with the situation where our opponent is still able to get a hand on the mat in an attempt to base. Paying special attention to which way […]
Today during class we continued working headlock escapes from the bottom position. While this is not something that will typically happen during a sparring session at Crossroads BJJ because the headlock does not offer a great deal of control over our training partners and there aren’t many submissions from the position it is something that happens […]
Today during the Brazilian Jiu-jitsu class at Crossroads BJJ we continued with our theme of escaping the headlock. While Brazilian Jiu-jitsu practitioners will not try to headlock you wether they are in class training or in a tournament because you can’t finish a fight from the position and once you know how to escape it […]
Is there a better endorsement as a teacher of the martial arts, than to have Chuck Norris as a student? If there is, I can’t think of one. Now imagine the very same teacher wants to teach you (yes, I’m talking to you reader) the same things he’s taught Mr. Spinning Roundhouse! Not possible you […]
Today during our Brazilian Jiu-JItsu we continued working escaping the headlock position from the ground. Last week we started defending the headlock from the standing position and today we continued working how to escape the headlock once your training partner is on the ground. The first details we covered were how to stabilize the position […]
Today during Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Team Training we continued working from the butterfly guard adding a fourth way to control the arm in order to prevent our training partners from basing out and blocking our sweep attempt. After everybody understood how to control the arm, we continued by adding specific resistance. The people on top were […]
Wednesday nights class Began with Coach Doug walking everybody through how to perform the hip bump sweep from the Guard Position. One of the things that separates BJJ from other Martial arts is the range of techniques it has to defend yourself while you are on your back underneath your training partner. The guard is […]
Learning the art of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu was never a goal of mine. It was never on a checklist of things to accomplish nor did I know much about it. Prior to being dragged to the gym by a good friend, I had studied Muay Thai for a few years and that was good enough […]
Today during our No-Gi Team Training class we held a marathon rolling session, completing 60 minutes of 5 minute rounds! With a mix of Black, Purple, Blue and White belts on the mat everybody put in great work and continued to sharpen up their techniques. Marathon rolling sessions are a great way to develop mental […]
If you’re new to Brazilian jiu-jitsu, you may be wondering how you can improve your game. Well the long and short of it is that you’re only going to get better by consistently going to class and consistently sparring. However, there are certain things that you can do to make it easier for your body […]
When the voice of experience speaks, it’s usually a good idea to listen. When that voice is talking about jiu-jitsu and has an undefeated professional MMA career as backup evidence, you pay close attention to what it’s saying, because it works! On Saturday, December 5th, Crossroads BJJ was proud to host one such distinguished voice, […]
It’s promotion season at Crossroads, and James is the latest to pass his test and reach the rank of purple belt! James was a strong folkstyle wrestler when he got to Crossroads three years ago and has grown into a formidable, multi-faceted grappler in his time training here. Known for his excellent cardio, fitness, and […]
The last 2 weeks have been busy ones at Crossroads BJJ! The hours of training put in on the mats has collectively raised the caliber of jiu-jitsu being practiced by everyone, and nowhere is that more evident than with Nils and Mike, two longtime students of martial arts, who both achieved new belt ranks- blue […]
Everybody has been training hard and it shows. In the past two weeks we’ve had 3 students earn well-deserved promotions. Denis made it through a super-tough, top-secret (Shhhhhhh ;-)) test to receive the second Purple Belt ever awarded at Crossroads BJJ! Denis has been training with Dustin for almost 4 years and has been an […]
Congratulations to Bryan for earning his Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Blue Belt! Bryan is a long time Crossroads student and one of the Jiu-Jitsu schools most dedicated members. We are all excited to welcome him into the next phase of his BJJ journey!
Congratulations to Ryan for earning his Blue Belt! Ryan has been working hard and winning competitions at white belt and we are all excited to watch him take home some hardware at the Blue belt level!!!
The Advanced Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Class at Crossroads BJJ in CT has begun studying a new position. While our last segment was devoted to passing the open guard, the next segment will be spent practicing details on how to control and attack from the Side Control Position. One of the most popular saying in CT Jiu-jitsu […]
There are lots of Tournaments coming up in the Near Future! If your thinking about competing here is a list of events you may be interested in. Massachusetts Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation(MASSBJJF) Saturday November 9th, 2014 Click here for Details North American Grappling Association (NAGA) New York – Saturday November 15th, 2014 Click here for Details International […]
This past September Crossroads Brazilian Jiu-jitsu Celebrated its 4 year anniversary. It doesn’t seem that long ago that we were sharing space with the local batting cage. When we first opened in Waterford, CT we would put down the mats at the beginning of every practice, train, and then wash the mats, wait for them […]
Crossroads Brazilian Jiu-jitsu is proud to have had its 3 year anniversary this past September. Over the last year we have grown significantly. In the past year Crossroads Brazilian Jiu-jitsu has moved into its own dedicated training facility with roughly 700 square feet of mats, a sitting area for parents and guests and a separate […]
Crossroads Brazilian Jiu-jitsu is now officially registered with the International Brazilian Jiu-jitsu Federation (IBJJF). Being registered with the International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu federation (IBJJF) gives our athletes the opportunity to compete at the highest level. IBJJF events such as the Boston International Open and the New York International open attract the best grapplers on the East […]