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Why does Chuva Brazilian Jiu Jitsu exist? Jiu Jitsu forged me into the person I am today. When I started Jiu Jitsu I was struggling. I was very overweight, suicidal, angry, and felt abandoned by the people closest to me. At the gym I felt like I belonged, people expected things of me, I got to leave behind the outside world and get out of my head every time I went to class. Even at 15 I knew that teaching Jiu Jitsu would be something I would do forever. When I moved to North Carolina, I found my opportunity. I wasn’t finding the type of training I wanted, so I decided to chase the dream that started over 20 years ago now. It has changed a few times since the beginning, but this is the most confident I have felt about what we are doing since this journey began. The goal of Chuva Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is to allow you to believe you can accomplish difficult things, you can make it out of difficult circumstances, and you have community. This is an environment of struggle; you will be held to a high standard, and you will know if you are not meeting that standard. We care about the quality of people and the quality of grappling that exit our facility and look forward to helping you test your potential. If an introvert like me can walk out to “Careless Whisper” by Wham!for professional Jiu Jitsu matches or move to New York City by myself, imagine what you can do.
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https://youtu.be/2XfbkVNKg80?si=_6ZdqscvpORzvnnx
https://youtu.be/utZs33FolAc?si=Kx463ITmDTGNryAA 1a. Side Control- maintain frames, reverse or full closed guard
1b. Maintain dominant position 1c. Mount- Reverse or full closed guard 1d. Maintain dominant position 2a. Up/Down- make and maintain connection 2b. Engage and break connections 2c. Closed guard- no hands retention 2d. Exit legs- split or pin to pass 3a. Attack across center line 3b. Exit legs- split or pin to pass 3c. Kimura- finish 3d. Free arm 4a. Full closed- pass 4b. Stop 4c. Up/Down- pass 4d. Stop 5a. Side control- acquire figure 4 5b. Neutral or Better 5c. Head & Arm- finish double closure 5d. Exit danger 6a. Spider Web 6b. Exit Danger 6c. Mount- isolate arms to finish 6d. Neutral or better 7a. Rodeo grip- finish double closure 7b. Remove chest to back 7c. Back figure four- finish hyperextension 7d. Exit danger 8a. Single leg- hands or hips 8b. Disengage 8c. Double leg- hands or hips 8d. Disengage I came up in the traditional model of teaching Jiu Jitsu. When I first started training, class was an hour and a half, 30-45 minute “warm up”, 30-45 minutes of technique, and roll from the knees with the leftover time. There are good aspects to that and maybe less desirable aspects that arose from it. Even when I opened my gym I taught the traditional model, and it works, but it’s not the most efficient use of limited time. It’s easier absolutely, but with limited time the classic training methodology won’t create the desired results as quickly. Training ecologically has been a part of grappling for my entire time in the sport, we just didn’t call it that. In the days of the sherdog Internet forums, the question of how do I get better faster always came up, and the answer was when you roll limit yourself to certain things. That’s all this is, instead of giving you a set of techniques that you may or may not find useful and then having you roll from a neutral position where you may not be able to even get to the techniques you’ve just seen, you begin with a specific task, from a specific place and self organize an answer, then you discuss the things that posed problems. I’d love to run a three hour class where we can exercise, drill, and do task based games and free roll, but no one has time for that. It’s makes sense for Gordon Ryan to say that ecological dynamics don’t work because he’s detached from the normal populace, regular people don’t train hours a day 7 days a week, and if people don’t focus so much on the perfect singular technique for every moment, he can’t sell as many 8 hour long multiple hundred dollar instructional videos. Information processing is absolutely a more digestible, less taxing way to learn Jiu Jitsu, you just aren’t going to build the skills as quickly unless you put an inordinate amount of time in
Jiu Jitsu is more difficult for those who are not physically gifted. All else being equal the more physically imposing will win an altercation. What allows Jiu Jitsu to be effective is a gap in skills, knowledge, and strategy. If someone is larger, faster, and stronger than you, you will need a significant gap in the tactics, skills, and knowledge department to overcome the deficit. At white belt, brand new people will come in and beat you just by shear force of will, and this may continue for a long time. In order to overcome a physical disadvantage you must gain a tactical advantage. That tactical advantage must nullify the physical strengths of your opponent. If you feel like you are not able to win physically you must transition to achieving victory through strategy. Ideally you can do both.
In anything you must do the simple things well if you want to accomplish more complex tasks. If you don’t focus on the foundation everything else falls apart. So what are some simple tasks you should focus on?
Keep your elbows in: this is a good rule of thumb across grappling, my elbows protect my torso, and having my elbows in protects my arms. Protect your torso: if I control the space between my armpit and my hip, life is easier, you cannot pass my guard if you can’t get through my elbow and knee Be in front/above their hips: I am in the better attacking position if I am in front/above their hips. There is no guard if my legs are not between myself and my opposition. All dominant positions require you to be above your adversary’s legs. Make useful connections: Connect to your opponent in a way that is advantageous for you and at best neutral for them Minimize/Maximize friction: If I’m on the bottom my goal is to be as mobile as possible and therefore I need to limit the amount of contact with the ground and friction I am experiencing. On the flip side if I am in a pinning situation I need to increase contact with the ground and friction for the other party Separate the extremity from center mass: if you want to attack a limb the first stage is to take it away from the body Bend or Hyperextend: that’s all joint submissions are you bend it or you hyperextend it Double closure: close the arteries on both sides of the neck Physicality is a big part of early success in grappling. If you’re timid or have a hard time imposing your will on others, that’s a big hurdle to clear. It’s not that you can’t do Jiu Jitsu if you’re not aggressive, it’s just harder in the beginning. You have to build a technical skill set to combat physicality, and that takes time, which means you take beatings. I took a lot of beatings in the beginning, it happens. The goal is to identify what your attributes and abilities are and build from there. If you are less physically gifted, find ways to make people play to your strengths. If you are more physically gifted, use it to your advantage. In either case whatever your strengths, the goal of Jiu Jitsu is to be tactically intelligent with the tools you have. Worry only about whether you have improved, and the success will come.
Forward isn’t always the answer, this is something that wrestlers and strong or big people have a harder time with. Sometimes going forward is the answer, but there are also times when doing so makes things worse. If you’re in someone’s closed guard, driving straight forward doesn’t really afford offensive opportunities. Trying to just yank your leg out of half guard also isn’t the peak of efficiency. Range and distance management are critical to success in all arenas of combat, when you do not change your tactics you become predictable. Our goal is always to work smarter not harder, sometimes you will have to work hard, but it should be necessary. Slow down and evaluate whether what you are doing is the most economical use of your knowledge and skills. All movements should be purposeful, that is how you get to train in old age, that is how you keep yourself together. Remember not every problem is a nail, so being a hammer won’t always be the solution.
You can accomplish just about anything you would like to do in life, but you will need to make sacrifices and choices for anything you wish to achieve. I shouldn’t be a black belt in BJJ, and I shouldn’t have an art degree, but I do, and it’s not because of natural talent. Those are things I chose to focus on. I can pretty much lose weight any time I want, but oftentimes I slack on how I eat or what I eat, and I get heavy. That’s a choice I make and a sacrifice I don’t make too often. Everything you want is probably on the other side of doing something difficult and if you’re not willing to do the difficult things then you won’t get the desired result. I don’t want to have a 26 class per week schedule or wake up at 4:30am 4x/week, then go to bed after 11pm, but I do, because that’s the life I chose and that’s how I can do what I set out to do at 15 years old. No matter what you choose to do, accomplishing something is never all rainbows and unicorn farts. Make the choices that align with the desired outcome, or it won’t be the outcome you get.
You are never as good as you think you are. That’s the starting point of improvement. If you believe that you can rest on your laurels, eventually someone will catch you. If you train once a week and someone else trains 3 days a week, that person will improve faster. That’s not bad or good, it’s just something you have to accept. The people who push more, train more, train smarter, and put work in outside the gym are out there. If you have a life outside of grappling, they will frustrate you. It will be really hard to keep training if you don’t accept that people will surpass you. Life gets in the way, injuries happen, you don’t have the same natural gifts, or you just can’t put the time in. Don’t believe that your skills will maintain at the same level forever. That’s impossible. The only way to maintain or get better is to keep putting the work in.
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AuthorThis is the blog page of Chuva BJJ. It's where you will find information that seems pertinent to the academy. Archives
January 2026
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