In order to be the best, you have to train with the best, which is why this past Saturday Crossroads BJJ brought 3x No-Gi world champion and 2019 ADCC North America Trials Champion Josh Hinger to Connecticut to teach a 3 hour seminar at Crossroads Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in Waterford, CT. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is a martial […]
One of the most common sayings in Jiu-Jitsu is “Technique over Strength”, this essentially means that you want to correctly position your body so that you are using the majority of your body both muscularity and structurally to attack or “weaken” your bjj training partners body. Over the last several weeks we have been working […]
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 […]
Last night during our Team Training Class at Crossroads BJJ we added more Submissions to our Kimora series. The more ways we have to funnel our bjj training partners into a submission, the more successful we can be. In this class we added three submission entries, a new entry into the Kimora, an entry into […]
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 night at Crossroads Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu during our Team Training class we held a marathon training session completing over an hour of 10 minute rounds! As you progress in the Martial Art of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu you will need to spend more time rolling in order to refine your techniques. At a certain point your Jiu-Jitsu […]
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 […]
The last several lessons have discussed what to do when we are put in a headlock from the standing position, and making sure when we bring the fight to the ground we land in the top position. In lesson 7 of the Crossroads Martial Arts Curriculum we discuss how to escape the position where we […]
In Lesson 6 of the Crossroads Martial Arts Curriculum we continue our study of the headlock and the different different variations you may find yourself in if you are even actually put in a headlock. Of course we always hope that we will never need to use our jiu-jitsu for self defense […]
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 […]
Today’s lesson started with learning what to do when somebody grabs you around the waist. There are a few different ways that this will happen, a person will either be in front of you or behind you, and they will either grab over your arms, or underneath them. By drilling all four different scenarios we […]
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 […]
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 […]
Lesson One starts with a basic standing headlock escape. The headlock is one of the most commonly used tactics somebody who is untrained will use in a street fight so understanding how to escape is essential to being able to defend yourself. There are two basic variations of a headlock, the first when the attacker […]
Open mat or free training is an essential part of learning Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu or BJJ, it is a time where you can ask questions or simply gain some extra sparring time with your training partners. Brazilian Jiu-jitsu has a seemingly infinite level of depth to it and in order to learn as much as you […]
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 […]
Tonight during our Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu ( BJJ ) class we worked on what to do if your training partner tries to stand up to pass your guard. Since all guard passes in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu can be broken down into two categories, passing from the knees and passing from standing, understanding how to defend both is […]
Today in our kids class we kept working our basic takedowns and our break falls. Making sure every student in the Crossroads Kids BJJ program knows how to fall correctly is extremely important both inside and outside the gym. Because falling the wrong way can cause serious injuries, we want to make sure we land […]
Today in team training we continued focusing on how to control somebody who is actively trying to escape from side control, specifically trying to get to the turtle, by applying pressure in the right spots of our training partners body we can force them to use additional strength to get to the position and create […]
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 we warmed up with stretching to increase our flexibility and get ourselves warmed up for the technical portion of our Brazilian Jiu-jitsu Class. While being flexible isn’t a requirement for learning jiu-jitsu improving our flexibility is an essential portion of any exercise routine. So many people spend their days sitting in offices or repeating […]
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 […]
Tonight during the Crossroads BJJ Team Training class we continued to work on shutting down the elbow escape from side control and how to deconstruct the position so everybody understood exactly where to put pressure and where to position there body to ensure they maintain position. One of the most popular sayings in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu […]
Everyone knows the belt system in Jiu-Jitsu. White, blue, purple, brown, black. If you want to get technical, black is followed by coral, and then red. When your Jiu-Jitsu journey begins, the higher belts can seem like super heroes, and you’re instructor can seem like Zeus atop Mount Olympus. But what is the one thing […]
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 […]
Carlos Machado never fails to disappoint. This past Saturday Carlos taught at Crossroads BJJ for the 4th year in a row. Carlos made the trip from Dallas, Texas all the way to Waterford, Connecticut to share some extremely high level Jiu-jitsu concepts and strategy. For over 3 hours Carlos taught how to do deal with […]
The UFC is huge these days. Barely a month goes by where there isn’t a UFC pay per view event on tv. This is where my interest in jiu jitsu began. As most fans know, to be a well rounded fighter in any combat sport like the UFC, you need a good ground game. Jiu […]
Our BJJ or GJJ(Gracie Jiu-Jitsu) Team Training Class we continue to work the butterfly guard using an overlook to control our training partners posture. Today we added the detail of hooking our opponents arm when they are sitting square in front of us and have neutralized our favorable angle. By hooking the arm we can […]
BJJ is a contact sport! You are in close proximity to the people you train with, so being clean is supremely important. Dirty gis and dirtier people spread bacteria and other nasty infections, so it really is a health issue. We don’t really have this problem at Crossroads bjj but it’s still important to go […]
Today we in No-Gi BJJ we continued to work the Butterfly guard position, modifying the the grips to make the techniques work for No-Gi and MMA. Once we understood the basic control positions we covered several options for when our training partner keeps the far hand out of reach in-order to prevent the sweep. This […]
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 in our Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu class we continued to work the headlock defense where a Stronger opponent has already Broken our posture. The main points of today were understanding the right time to go for the move. By knowing when to apply the technique we can make our movements much more efficient with allows us […]
Friday Night Open Mat is taught run by Coach Denis and is always a great time. Friday night is always filled with the students who love jiu-jitsu and want to get better! This Friday we had 3 purple belts on the Mat as well as several blue belts and a few white belts all helping […]
Today we warmed up for team training with Bear crawls and “Crocodiles” , Jacare Souza style, we finished off the warm up with arm drag drills and practicing our double legs takedowns. The fight starts from the feet, so just like in our BJJ class we start drills from the standing position. Once we started […]
Thursday’s Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu class started with a good warm up and then went right in to the technical portion of class. We started work from the stand up position working from one of the most common situations in a street fight, the headlock position. There are several different ways to escape the headlock positions, today we […]
More Butterfly Guard Sweeps! Today in our BJJ Team Training Program we covered more sweeps from the Butterfly Guard and went into detail on how to create momentum from the position as well as how to adjust your angle in order to switch between sweeps. We also covered a sweep directly into a submission. Working […]
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 […]
Today Crossroads Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu held another great kids class and due to the stormy weather we were able to have a 1 to 1 student to teacher ratio, so every student got 45 minutes of one on one attention with one of our great Kids Martial Arts Instructors. Todays Kids BJJ Class focused on Three […]
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 all the members of the Crossroads Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu competition Team who traveled from Waterford CT up to Manchester, Ct to compete at the New England Submission only Challenge. The team was able to bring home several medals and we are very proud of everybody who stepped on the mat and took the opportunity […]
Congratulations to Bryan for his Double Gold Performance at NAGA last month! Bryan has been working hard on his Jiu Jitsu at Crossroads In New London County and on his Wrestling in Groton for Fitch High School! Hard work pays off! Congratulations Bryan!
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!!!
What you should you expect your child to learn at a Crossroads Kids Class? At Crossroads Brazilian Jiu-jitsu our Children’s program has 3 main goals, giving your child the tools to prevent an abduction, teaching your child how to deal with bullies at school, and teaching your child how to move and feel comfortable and […]
Crossroads BJJ is now running Competition and Fitness classes 3 Days a week to help students get in the best shape of their lives. With Several Crossroads BJJ students looking to Compete in Tournaments in CT and in New England being in great shape is a one of the best ways to be prepared for […]
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 […]