As I promised here, this is my review of Roy Dean's latest volume: Brown Belt Requirements.
"After all, this is your personal
expression"
The music-lead voice of Roy Dean
introduces this giant volume. The brown belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is quite an
advanced rank and rolling with a solid brown belt is quite a humbling
experience and that's exactly the feeling you get from watching the 3 minute
flow of techniques that starts off this DVD: humbled. Humbled by the skill of
presentation but also by the amount of effort and production quality that Roy
invested in this product. We are treated to a variety of Roy's personal
expressions of the usual techniques of jiu jitsu. Triangles, chokes, sweeps,
leg locks and armbars are not just performed, they are expressed.
Roy doesn’t instruct as much in this
volume. Rather, he shares. He shares his (and in some cases his instructor’s Mr
Roy Harris’) experiences and expectations for the brown belt. I have tried to
outline my review to reflect this.
The best way to learn BJJ, grappling or any other activity is to focus on the details of the fundamental skills. The more we understand grappling details, the better we understand the whole picture and the reason for that is because everything is connected in BJJ. If you do the first three moves correctly, there is a higher probability that what you do after that will be good too.
My strongest memory of enhanced learning is from spending a lot of time with my karate instructor sensei Siamak back at the Gothenburg Kanzenkai. On one occasion, we were practicing lead leg inwards foot sweeps entry to punches (ashi barai to gyaku tsuki) and I just couldn't get the sweep to work. I was bashing the hell of my partner's leg (to his dismay) but I just couldn't get it to budge. I asked sensei over to watch and correct and very quickly he realised what I was doing (or rather not doing). Simply, my angle of entry was a little off (I searched the internet for pictures to demonstrate what I'm saying and these two are the best I could find)
This is the angle I was coming at
this is the correct entry angle
While that technique did become my favourite attack (and I still use it, even in BJJ), it's what he said afterwards that was one of the most important lessons I've had in martial arts and learning in general:
"You must always try to steal the most amount of knowledge from all your teachers. We as instructors always strive to share as much as possible, but there will be times when a move or detail gets missed. We are only human. You must not only watch my actions and listen to my instructios, but also listen to my actions and see my words"
You often hear about team loyalty in BJJ. People who belong to a particular BJJ team or, as some call it, fly a certain flag, feel a sense of identity and common grounds with others from other BJJ clubs from the same team, even referring to them as "sister clubs" and such. In some cases, decreasingly so nowadays, you have BJJ athletes who refuse to train with non-team members and therefore never visit their jiu jitsu academies for a roll or a lesson. "Each to their own" taken to a whole new level.
That attitude has always bemused me a little. Maybe it has to do with my upbringing and maybe it has to do with my initial training in martial arts or even my introduction to Buddhism 5 years or so ago but I think it mainly has to do with a wider point of view. I feel it all has to do with how I look at luck, serendipity and randomness.
When competing in BJJ it is vital to understand the rules of the event. As more and more events are adapting the IBJJF rules and since two of my friends and team mates are competing at the upcoming British Open this weekend, I thought I'd look at what's allowed for white, blue, purple, brown and black belts submission wise.
If you scroll down the IBJJF rules document to the page were penalties are outlined, you get a breakdown of what is allowed for which BJJ belt. See the screenshot below*
But that doesn't really look very simple and straight forward, at least not to a slow fella like me so I decided to flip it around (chart screenshot below):
Here is an example of three technique sequences that are aimed at different levels of proficiency in BJJ:
Americana from mount: Everyone should know how to perform this technique. It's a basic and very very effective Brazilian jiu jitsu attack from mount and while there are many good instructionals on how to perform the Americana from mount, I feel that Ryron and Rener show it best in the Gracie Combatives (watch here for free, courtesy of Gracie University) course. If you don't want to go the link, this clip from 2007 Gracie Insider is very good too.
Amrbar counter to the americana prevention: No technique will work all the time and on everyone. Every technique in grappling and BJJ has counters and counters to the counters and here is a beautiful example. It's beautiful because of it's simplicity. It's almost impossible to finish the americana shoulder lock with one of your arms still trapped under the opponent's head so a simple way to prevent them from finishing it is to trap that arm there with a heavy head and a death grip. As you progress in grappling and BJJ it's important to learn to combine your attacks and the counter demonstrated here by Mr James Smart at the Gracie Academy in Cape Town (I trained privately with James during my last visit there and he is very good) is an excellent transition.
Omoplata counter: This is just crazy. This is just mad ape-shit jiu jitsu from Mr Paulo Sandsten and I mean that in the bestest way possible. I honestly have no idea what the hell is going on here but I find it very intriguing. Becoming creative with your jiu jitsu is a beautiful process that everyone should "indulge" in. I say "indulge" because I don't think this is where the majority of mat time should be spent but when someone with solid jiu jitsu fundamentals invests in his or her creativity in grappling, you get this kind of beauty. The fact that the clip comes from somewhere in my homeland of Sweden is the cherry on top.
I don't feel beginners should only ever practice fundamentals or that black belts should never dedicate time to the good ol' elbow knee escape et al. In fact, Stephan Kesting said it best recently when referencing the way the staff at Google work - They spend the majority of their time of productive activities. Maybe 70% or so on the fundamentals. They also invest 25% of their time on projects that may or may not lead to productive outcomes. These are not fundamentals but they rest firmly on them. The last 5% is spent on totally bonkers and out-there activities. Crazy shizzle that is not necessarily aimed at producing anything of use but, funnily enough, sometimes does!
What is the difference between a blue belt and a purple belt in BJJ? Many well-respected black belt instructors will tell you that a modern day blue belt has more or less all the tools she needs to become really good at grappling. Learning more and more BJJ techniques is no longer the number one goal, but rather getting good at what you already know. How do we do that? We practice. We put in the hours on the grappling mats. That is hardly a secret. What you do on those sacred mats, however, is up to you. How and how much you dedicate yourself to your grappling journey is all you. Your instructor or coach can guide you and show the way, but you always have to put in the graft yourself. Think about the following for starters:
If you waste 3-4 minutes of every BJJ session this could mean the difference between being a blue belt and a purple belt in BJJ!
I've recently received Roy Dean's fantastic new product
"The Brown Belt Requirements". I'm currently in the process of
writing a review but if you are impatient, feel free to check out Slidey's take
on it here. I agree with a lot in it (not all) and it's a very thorough review
so I highly recommend it.
One thing that really struck me in it is how narrow and
focused the BJJ game becomes at the brown belt level. I've always known that
from other fields that the more advanced you become the more focused and laser-sharp
your details become, but the level required here for a brown belt is something
I've never witnessed before in other fields.
Brown belts are required to shift their focus from
effectiveness* to efficiency. It's no longer good enough to be able to beat
someone (or escape their attack) but you must also be doing it efficiently. If
you are unsure what this means, I remind you of Dr Jigoro Kano's words:
"Minimum effort, maximum output"**
The way this translates to day-to-day training and rolling
is
