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I pay a lot of attention to the successful coaching personalities of Jiu Jitsu and this is from Dan Lukehart, the coach of Nolan Stuart. From a competitive perspective being the first one to the bottom is better. In an environment where there is no penalty for pulling guard it does not behoove you to be on top without earning something for it. There’s no guarantee in ibjjf competition that someone will participate in a takedown battle with you. As soon as they pull to the bottom, they are now ahead in terms of being able to score both points and advantages. As the top player you can only pass, and if you mess up, you are now down on points. Your opponent meanwhile only needs to reset to the bottom if they miss a move. From a strategic standpoint to be the first on the ground is the smarter plan if you build the game to execute it effectively.
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Sometimes I feel like people look at me sideways when I tell them to be mean. Maybe it’s because I’ve rolled with people who are elite, maybe because I’ve been training since prehistory, or maybe it’s that when I wrestled in middle school that was all the advice my coaches had. Whatever it is, you do a combat sport, as long as what you’re doing isn’t with the intent to injure, it’s all sort of fair game. Maybe the threat of retribution looms too large? Unfortunately, you are doing yourself and your training partners a disservice by not utilizing the tools at your disposal. Whatever situation you may have to grapple outside of our room will be less forgiving. If you have some understanding of how difficult things can be in the outside world, you are better prepared. We are all trying to get comfortable being uncomfortable, so start making people uncomfortable.
I’ve been rolling with a visiting black belt recently and it has been enlightening. If I were to want to compete, I would need to get less complacent in my positions. I don’t fight hard enough to win and keep positions, and I rely too much on my ability to catch people in scrambles. I allow others to dictate the terms of engagement and just sort of hope that I will find what I need at some point. This is not a competitive strategy. I am unsure how to fix this passivity, but it is something I will think about. Here’s what may trip you all out, these are the things running through my brain in positive exchanges.
https://youtu.be/0QVOzIFJGVU?si=-mr2xYlXJxxWiHLJ
https://youtu.be/1e0fWUDp41E?si=uRMOisoh-VZuhvZL 1a. Seoi nage- dynamic start
1b. B2M or sub 1c. Ankle pick- Dynamic start 1d. B2M or sub 2a. DLR or RDLR- stop 2b. Pass through center 2c. 2d. 3a. Long x- stop 3b. Disconnect to pass 3c. 3d. 4a. Short x- stop 4b. Disconnect to pass 4c. 4d. 5a. FHL- choke or hooks in 5b. Freedom 5c. Mount- choke or hooks in 5d. Freedom 6a. Turtle- choke or hooks in 6b. Freedom 6c. FHL- hyperextension 6d. Hyperextension 7a. Mount- hyperextension 7b. Hyperextension 7c. Turtle- hyperextension 7d. Hyperextension 8a. Turtle- trail of tears 8b. 8c. Mount- trail of tears 8d. You can call it grit, determination, perseverance, and many other names but the desire to win is a powerful thing. Oftentimes, with everything else being equal the person that wants it more comes out on top. In Jiu Jitsu I’ve always felt that the king of this is Buchecha. Multiple matches I would see buchecha look like he would lose, be down by a significant amount of points for an elite black belt match, and then with maybe two minutes left, he’d find a way to win. This happens in the room as well, people with a more mellow demeanor and more skill or experience get beat by people who don’t want to lose and are willing to get aggressive to compensate for their deficiencies. We do what needs to be done to achieve the desired outcome.
As the top player putting my opponent’s shoulders to the mat is critical. It then stands to reason that as the bottom player, having both of my shoulders on the ground is bad. In Jiu Jitsu, your legs are your first line of defense. In order to use my legs, my hips and shoulders must be aligned. If both shoulders are pinned to the ground I can only use my legs effectively when someone is directly in front of me. This is information we can use as either player. As the top player. I know that I can limit movement by getting both shoulders of the opposing player to the ground. As the bottom player, as long as I keep one of my shoulders free, I increase mobility. These are simple things, all that’s left is execution.
We said there are two stances for takedown offense in Jiu Jitsu. I feel like a lot of this has to do with weight, but I haven’t done a deep dive to actually back this up with evidence. Generally, if someone is going to use the more compact wrestler type stance, they exist below 181lbs. High calorie grapplers tend to play more in the judo/greco realm. So Dorian Olivarez, Dante Leon, Deondre Corbe, and the like take shots, get under people, and wrestle in the conventional sense. Michael Pixley, Gordon Ryan, and the majority of middleweight plus grapplers stand more upright and don’t often drop their head below chest level on their opposition. Nicky Rod and PJ Barch are examples of outliers to this, but that will happen. Perhaps this will assist in your choice of grappling stance or maybe this is a Billy Madison moment, either way thanks for reading.
In stand up grappling your stance determines not only what you can do, but also what other people can do to you. Guard pullers tend to play hips back head down, wrestlers play hips down head up, and judoka/ Greco people stand relatively upright. The modern no gi stance is a sort of middle between a true wrestling stance and a more upright stance. If we want to hit takedowns, we need our hips under us and we need control of their hips as well. Defensively and in implementing a guard pulling strategy hips back is fine, but it limits your takedown options. If you are seeking takedowns that leaves you with two options. Picking between these options will be a matter of preference and predilection, and since this is already long winded, I’ll elaborate on that later.
https://www.youtube.com/live/NXoz9JPNeD8?si=_KfiBEejXQi1OPMd
https://youtu.be/E6XNc46dYJw?si=qSP_59tTTrLmDW6v https://youtu.be/BqxdS5HFPNg?si=HJ5SMjj4YsQ2rZNa |
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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