BJJ / Grappling Tips: The four corner stones of Gracie Jiujitsu

A couple of years ago I was lucky enough to be on the mat at the Gracie Academy out in Torrance California when Ryron was giving one of his first introductions to a 4-pronged approach to grappling and jiujitsu. He saw me intently taking notes and started laughing. Knowing my intentions, he asked me to not publish them immediately so, 2 years down the line, I feel I've honoured my promise.

In a nutshell, he explained that he approaches every exchange with these objectives:

• Defend: anything the opponent may try to throw at you: including distance management
• Escape: When the time is right, escape the bad position
• Control: Using 3 methodologies (explained below) control the chaos when you are in a dominant position
• Submit: only if it fits within the grand objective of survival.  It's not always necessary to submit.

How to Afford A BJJ Holiday: Jiujitsu in LA - Travel report of my 2018 visit

“How can you afford your BJJ trips?!” Is one of the most common questions I get asked, right after “did you train with any big names out there?” and “when and where are you going next?”

The reason these questions stuck in my mind and why I am sharing this is because it used to be me asking the questions. Like many Jiujitsu practitioners I used to enviously listen to or read about Jiujitsu vagabonding stories and wonder how the person made it happen, often dismissing it as an anomaly or at least something that I thought was beyond my control: “they have more money / time / connections / luck than I do”.

And who knows. Maybe I was right. Maybe I needed the post Social Media era to finally realise my (fairly modest) travel plans and dreams. All I know is that when I ask my friends about their Jiujitsu travel dreams, they all sound so...achievable.

To start off, let me outline the major obstacles to just picking up your gi or rash guard & shorts and just hitting the proverbial road and then offer a few suggestions as to how you can work around them.
After that I’ll give you my modest advice for travelling for Jiujitsu and I’ll finish with a breakdown of my most recent trip to the Gracie Academy HQ in Torrance, LA (aka Gracie University or Jiujitsu Heaven.)

Budget:

You need an outline. You need to be good at planning and sticking to the plan. I can give you my numbers and figures, but ultimately you need to plan around your own time and budget and you (have I mentioned this before?) need to stick to your plan. Here are my figures for my experience for a week in a major jiujitsu mecca in California such as San Diego or LA:

BJJ / Grappling Tips: How to leglock like Garry Tonon

Leg locks of all variety are gaining a huge momentum in both Brazilian jiujitsu, MMA and of course Submission Grappling. There are many different ways to attacks the joints of the leg such as straight foot locks, heel hooks, figure - 4 footlocks, knee bars...etc. But how can we learn to leglock like a champion of Garry Tonon? Well you need to know how to set up the leg lock from a variety of positions. In this video we see the standard basic entry to the straight foot lock from the open guard by Professor Ryron Gracie, head instructor at the Gracie Academy in Torrance, California:

What is often missed when entering the foot lock (and the guillotine, as Garry explains below) is the invisible details during the transitions. These are the details that will win or lose the leg lock battle:

Master Rickson Gracie discusses the future of jiu-jitsu with master Pedro Sauer and the head instructors at the Gracie Academy HQ: Ryron and Rener Gracie.

In a new video shot at the Gracie Academy in Torrance, California, Master Rickson Gracie discusses the future of jiu-jitsu with master Pedro Sauer and the head instructors at the Gracie Academy HQ: Ryron and Rener Gracie. Here's the video and the subtext to the video as published on YouTube:

Published on 7 Jun 2016

Jiu-Jitsu has reached a critical point in it's evolution. On one hand, it is one of the fastest growing sports on the planet, on the other hand, it is at risk of losing its identity and suffering the same fate that has negatively affected nearly all other martial arts. What made made jiu-jitsu famous in the 80s and 90s was its unprecedented effectiveness in real fights, yet today, most jiu-jitsu academies do not teach the elements that make the art applicable in a real fight.

Munoz Ellenberger Gracie: Super Seminar - Problem solving in Jiu Jitsu and Buddhism.

Recently I attended a great mega-seminar with Mark Munoz,Jake Ellenberger, Ryron and Rener Gracie and the gems I left with were invaluable! Not only did the fantastic 4 show great wrestling and jiujitsu moves, they also shared some great pearls of wisdom.

“Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% what you make of it” Mark Munoz

I was very interested in learning some more solid fundamentals of wrestling: stance, movement, pummelling, entries and a takedown or two. In jiujitsu terminology: I wanted to have a few fundamentals of the posture, pressure and possibilities of wrestling (Martin Aedma explains it very well here and below)

BJJ / Grappling Tips: mat time - fundamentals v combinations v crazy jiu jitsu

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!

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Liam "The Part Time Grappler" Wandi

Proudly sponsored by Predator Fightwear: Built for the kill and Brutal TShirt: Made By Grapplers For Fighters

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BJJ / Grappling Techniques: 143 Armlocks by Ryron Gracie

How many Brazilian or Gracie Jiu Jitsu arm locks can you do in 10 minutes?

In this recent video, Ryron Gracie, the eldest grandson of Helio Gracie, whips out143 armlocks in less than 10 minutes :). Possibly, the first armbar / armlock BJJ record video ever!




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First BJJ / Grappling Session

I remember reading an interview in Ultimate Grappling years ago with Ryron and Rener Gracie where they explain that a beginner should not feel totally exhausted from training the first couple of weeks.

I also remember thinking to myself that that was too soft. I filed it under “marketing” or “McDojoism” but I’ve come to change my mind recently.

I have a passion for the mat. I love stepping into the LABS and seeing my friends’ faces. I love putting the gi on and rolling and drilling. Most importantly, I love the way it makes me feel. Brazilian Jiu Jitsu makes me happy.

I spent an hour last Friday teaching my 14 year old brother the upa escape and a couple of mount maintenance techniques ala Gracie University. I had a great time and so did he (at least he said he did). He worked against progressive and suitable resistance and when I checked on him on Saturday, he wasn’t aching or too exhausted. He is asthmatic so I made a point to check that he was OK.

Yesterday, a completely new guy walked into the LABS. His name is John and it was the first time he'd ever stepped on a mat. Order of the day was Side Control Escapes. Martyn covered all the details of getting to a better survival position before working a number of escapes. He made sure everybody was on the same page and walked around the room correcting details during the drilling portion and ensured the resistance was progressive and suitable. It was an hour of work. Technical work, but work none the less.

I paired with John for the first couple of rounds and then he paired up with another player for the remainder of the session. He worked hard and struggled a little with the new geography, the long-forgotten muscles and the other usual suspects. He did, however, pull off a few moves against the appropriate resistance. What was the most important thing, however, was what he said after he got changed and was heading out of the door:

“See you all on Wednesday”

The magic is in the long-run and I’m in it for the magic.

I thank Allie and my brother for inspiring this post.


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Ryron Gracie's Guest Article on JiuJitsuKingdom

I just read a great guest article by Ryron Gracie on Felipe's JiuJitsuKingdom. I heard about it on Cage Warriors but here is the link for your eyes anyway.

I got very excited when I saw it and I can imagine it will get quite a response from you too.

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Drop me a line on parttimegrappler@ymail.com or explore some of the recommended past articles on the right...