Why I love Jiu Jitsu

My first lesson in BJJ wasn’t that I was terrible at the sport, but rather that I could literally trust my training partners with my life.

There are a million reasons that people train Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Some like the self-defense aspects. Some like that it is an amazing workout. Others just love feeling confident and in control. If you’re thinking about trying BJJ, then let me tell you why I LOVE jiu jitsu.

This “Gentle Art” has changed me in ways that I never expected when I started. I’m so thankful that I swallowed my fear and walked into the gym on that first day.

While I’m far from a professional athlete, I have enough basic athleticism that I’m rarely the last person chosen in recreation kickball. That being said, I had never been so thoroughly outclassed in anything as I was in that first training session. Every single instinct that I had was wrong. When I finally left the gym, my head was spinning and I was trying to understand what had just happened to me.

I had tried other martial art classes before, but at 25 years old (at that time) I wasn’t challenged by even the meanest 9-year old black belts of those other sports. I felt those ranks were purchased rather than earned, and so it felt very inauthentic to me. BJJ was something different. Something special.

BJJ White Belt > TaeKwonDo Black Belt

The people that I trained with that first session were maybe at the blue belt level at the time, which is just one rank higher than my lowly white belt, and several ranks still below black belt. I don’t think that I even gave them a proper warm-up, though I had put everything I had into each match.

I had been submitted countless times, yet I left the gym without a single injury. I didn’t have a black eye or a busted nose. My teeth were all intact. My joints had been stretched to the limit, and I had been choked out several times. Every single time that I tapped out, however, I was immediately released and was shown a lot of respect. No taunting or jeering like you see in so many other sports.

I learned that day that a Rear Naked Choke is the ultimate trust fall.

My first lesson in BJJ wasn’t that I was terrible at the sport, but rather that I could literally trust my training partners with my life. I get goosebumps thinking about how powerful of a first lesson that is. I can promise you that I wouldn’t trust Devon from my book club with anything more than a handshake (if you’re reading this, Devon, I want my copy of Twilight back!) Yet, every single day I trust each person in my gym with my health and my livelihood, and they trust me with theirs.

This unique social dynamic allows you to short-circuit the typical process of making friends and quickly plunges you deep into the folds of the brother/sisterhood of the Jiu-Jitsu community. When somebody submits you, you show them a vulnerable side that you probably have never shown even your closest friends before. It strips the ego away and reveals the true person beneath. The people you train with bond with you in ways that normally take months or years to achieve otherwise.

This could be your next BFF

I have some amazing friends at my gym that I know I could count on for anything, yet we know almost nothing about each other outside jiu jitsu. Earning trust is usually a long and complicated dance. It’s a dance where both parties slowly give small, intimate pieces of themselves through conversations or shared experiences, and then they wait to see if that other person somehow breaks that trust before extending greater amounts of trust. BJJ cuts through all of that.

If you don’t believe me, I challenge you to go to a Jiu-Jitsu tournament sometime and watch the competitors before and after a match. Before the match, these people are strangers. They have their emotional walls up and their game faces on. There is rarely small talk unless the two people happen to know each other from somewhere before. But after the match, you would think they have been friends for life. They’ll often discuss the match excitedly. They’ll trade pointers, joke about mistakes, and show every indication of deep friendship. Sometimes people are too disappointed by a loss to make friends, but often there is a new bond that was built in 5 minutes of sweat that would have taken two months in the real world.

You don’t just make friends in Jiu-Jitsu. You create intense bonds that go deeper than the limitations of conversation will normally allow. You learn to trust people, and people learn to trust you. The more people trust you, the more you become a teacher to them, and becoming a teacher is where real confidence begins.

Some people seem to be born with an abundance of self-confidence, but most people need social feedback to build themselves up on the inside.

We often need somebody else to believe in us before we too start believing in ourselves. Positive feedback is the seed crystal that allows all of our self-worth and confidence to grow.

The problem with a lack of self-confidence is that in showing that you lack it, society will readily agree with you. And why not? You know yourself better than anybody else can. If you don’t believe in yourself, why on earth would anybody else take the chance to believe in you? You have to reverse this cycle, and I promise Jiu Jitsu is a great way to do that.

Elite Sports

This sport drew me in because it was a challenge to my own self-confidence. When I started training, I was a lost lamb out there on the mats, and the wolves were getting hungry. I knew that I wouldn’t have confidence in myself again until I had proven myself capable of succeeding in this sport.

Day after day I put myself out there and day after day I learned important but tough lessons through defeats. In the beginning, I never felt like I was improving, but I had no frame of reference for judging my improvements.

That changed the first time this new guy came into the gym who was maybe 15 pounds bigger than me. He was a macho guy, and that intimidated me. I was nervous to roll with him. I had worked so hard and I didn’t want this brand new guy to be able to beat me even though he had never trained a day in his life.

If it had been a movie scene, I’d have beaten him using some ancient secret that looked fantastic in slow motion. But this was real life. It was a very physical match that ended at the buzzer with neither of us “winning”. While not getting tapped out was a confidence booster for me, the real ego boost was yet to come. “Man, you’re strong,” he said. “How did you flip me like that?”

I’d never been called strong before, and he was bigger than me! But more importantly, I had just become a teacher. The lost little lamb had grown a little claw. Suddenly the wolves didn’t seem quite so intimidating. Now, 10 years later, BJJ has built upon that moment for me and has brought me such a deep feeling of inner peace and belonging. Those voices in my ear that always whispered doubts have had their volume turned way down.

BJJ has given me that quiet inner-strength that lets me know that I can deal with defeat, and so I’m no longer afraid to take risks in order to win–both in BJJ and in all other aspects of my life.

I have met so many people that started their journey in Jiu-Jitsu as timid or meek individuals, and over time I have watched them find a strength that they never knew they were capable of having. I don’t believe for a second that this new-found confidence is a result of developing the ability to beat people up. I believe it comes from naturally transitioning from the role of a student to being a teacher.

The beautiful thing about Jiu-Jitsu is that you don’t have to be the person leading the class to help teach a teammate some detail that they are struggling with. White belts teach each other all the time; it’s just part of the culture of the sport. As those little lessons increase in scope and complexity, so the student becomes the teacher. Teachers become leaders, and leaders begin to receive those positive social cues that reinforce and build self-confidence. By the time somebody reaches the rank of blue belt, they are already stepping out of their own shadow and into a brighter version of themselves.

So, to answer the question of why I love Jiu Jitsu:  it is a fundamental part of who I am. It continues to steer me towards being the best version of myself that I can hope to be. I can no longer separate the part of me that practices Jiu-Jitsu from the rest of my identity. Through learning the sport, I’ve discovered more about myself than I ever thought possible. I’ve exposed my hidden doubts to the world and have watched them whither as I’ve become stronger both in and out of the gym. I’m a better communicator. It has helped me in my career. It has helped me as a husband and as a father. It has shaped me for the better, and I can’t wait to see where it will take me next.

I plan to always be a Student of BJJ, even as I become a teacher through this site.

If you made it this far, Thank you! I’d love to hear your story below in the comments. Also, I want to take a minute to thank Elite Sports for sponsoring this post. If you’re looking for quality, budget-friendly gis and fightwear, look to them first! (You can also find them in the UK and Australia)

Jiu Jitsu Sweep Theory

Welcome, Estudantes, to Sweep Theory 101.

The purpose of this post is to help my tribe, my Estudantes, think about their Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in a new, fresh way. These are the sweep concepts that work for me, and they are broad enough that I think everybody can benefit from them. Nothing is 100%, but approaching sweeps using these core principles have really increased my sweep success rate.

I spent a long time learning Jiu Jitsu the wrong way.

To put it more precisely, I didn’t learn the wrong way, I was (and sometimes still am) taught it in the wrong way. My Jiu Jitsu system didn’t really improve like I wanted it to until I took my education into my own hands. I find it overwhelming to spend a class learning a series of ultra-specific moves branching off of some themed position. I just can’t bring up that obscure technique or detail that I drilled 3 years ago. Especially while in the heat of a live roll. I need concepts that I can fall back on.

Concepts are adaptable.

Concepts grow with me and allow me to be creative when situations get tough. Details are what separate a brown belt from a black. Most of us aren’t brown belts, so details overwhelm and paralyze us. This resource may be lacking in specific moves, but it is rich in concepts, which can be adapted towards your specific body type and style of Jiu Jitsu. Mastering a single concept is like learning a thousand techniques at once. Spend your time learning why a particular technique works, and you’ll be a much more competent grappler than if you mindlessly drill each variant over and over and over just in case that specific scenario comes up in a live roll. My goal is to introduce you to the foundation that almost every sweep is derived. Understanding that will help you understand how each and every sweep variant works, and perhaps why it failed when you tried it last. It will help you understand what you can do in order to succeed next time. Understanding and internalizing the core concepts will allow you to improvise during a live roll and even pull off sweeps that you’ve never seen before.

The first thing that we need to do is define a sweep.

I’ll take a broad definition and say a sweep is taking an opponent from an equal or dominant position and forcing them into the inferior bottom position. In a very broad sense, it is flipping somebody that is on the offensive into a defensive position. If that’s unclear, you’ll know you’ve swept somebody when they go from looking down at you to looking up at you because of something you intentionally did.

Overhead Sweep

So… you are simply trying to flip somebody over.

See how easy that is? What’s weird, though, is that it took more than half of a decade for me to figure that out. People don’t teach you to flip somebody over. They teach you how to scissor sweep. Or hip bump. Or butterfly. Or bridge and roll. Or whatever and whatever and whatever. But when’s the last time that your professor told you to just flip somebody over?

A typical human body is, in its simplest form, a cylinder with 4 moving sticks attached to it, plus a smallish, lumpy stick at the top. It’s those five moving stick–or limbs–that keep the cylinder from just rolling right off of you. When you decide it’s time to flip somebody over, your priority becomes manipulating those limbs so that they can’t make it difficult to roll the cylinder around.

 

A sweep will almost always use this core concept: incapacitate two adjacent “sticks” and then push the cylinder in that direction.

So you need two main parts—a way to control two limbs, and a way to manipulate the mass of the cylinder body. The easiest thing to do is control an arm and a leg on the same side of their body and then push their body over those incapacitated limbs. If they can’t reach out with an arm and/or leg to stop the roll, then they have no leverage to stop you. You might have to get creative (and sometimes strong), but the core of most sweeps is in this concept.

The thing that took me so long to understand was what it meant to incapacitate the limbs.

It’s not always as straightforward as gripping a limb. For example, if an opponent is using one of the limbs to support their weight, then that limb is now anchored to the mat. Think about if somebody is standing on one leg. If they get pushed by anything, they’ll fall over unless they can either do a little hop or utilize another limb to catch themselves. That one supporting leg is basically incapacitated because it doesn’t have full mobility. It is performing a critical job of keeping the person upright, so even without you grabbing it, you incapacitate that limb if you keep them from adjusting their weight distribution.

via GIPHY

This concept can be used to incapacitate a limb when you get to be a more advanced sweeper. Shifting your opponents mass so that their weight is centered on a limb, rather than having their weight evenly distributed between two or more limbs, allows you to control that limb remotely without ever having to touch it. If I can get my opponent to put all their weight on one leg by pulling on their sleeve and/or lapel, and then knock that leg out from underneath them, they will flip before they know what hit them.

So, when you’re decide to sweep somebody, you’ll need to look for the two main components of the sweep: limb control and mass management.

This doesn’t have to be complicated. Start with that simple idea of wanting to flip somebody over. You’ll need to decide which direction you want to flip them (left, right, over your head, etc.), and start planning ahead to make it happen. Let’s say you want to flip them to your right. The first thing you’ll need to do is understand that they won’t want to be flipped, and when you make your move, they will try to stop you. A successful sweep will depend on you removing the ability of them to put a hand, foot, or head onto the mat on the right side. You’ll need to make sure both the arm and the leg on that side are incapacitated. Think of it like this: you know they’ll instinctively reach out to catch themselves when you push them, so for a sweep to work, you have to squash their ability to reach out in that direction. There are hundreds of variations of scenarios, but they all boil down to how can you incapacitate two of those limbs—and here is the important part—get the rest of your opponent’s mass moving in that direction.

Often, the most difficult part of the sweep is mass control.

via GIPHY

Grips can be easy, but convincing every atom in your opponent’s body to suddenly move in a direction that it wasn’t planning on going can be a tricky maneuver, especially against big, strong opponents. Your body type will often dictate what options are available to you, and your opponent’s body type will further narrow your options. Sweeping a big, savvy opponent will require you to improvise and be ready to exploit any mistakes in posture and positioning that they make. If you’re a smaller grappler (like me) controlling their posture will become very important to developing your sweep game. If you can break their posture, you can control their mass much easier. Remember, the human body is basically shaped like a barrel. It’s easier to roll a barrel on its side than it is to flip it end over end. The same is true with humans. Try to get their spine to be parallel to the floor, or at least not straight up and down. The closer you get them to horizontal, the easier your job of rolling them will be. Here are a few of the most common posture control methods:

  • Pull down on the back of their head in a clinch or horse collar to put a curve in their spine

 

  • Get an underhook, overhook, or lapel grip and use that to pull them to you. Your strength will be multiplied if you push their knees or hips with your feet

 

  • Change your angle so that they aren’t facing you head on. An opponent is strongest when facing you directly. If you can get even a small angle on them, their functional strength is greatly reduced, making you suddenly much stronger by comparison.


Keep in mind that double limb control and mass management aren’t necessarily two separate steps.

They are two components that must be used together in order to successfully sweep somebody. If you are using a clinch on the back of their head to break their posture, then you are also controlling one of the 5 limbs with that same grip. If you can get an overhook with your other arm, you now have both mass management and limb control of two adjacent limbs, which opens up your sweep options. You’ll see this applied in sweeps such as the butterfly sweep and from takedowns like the hip toss (a takedown is really just a sweep performed from standing).

No Gi Butterfly Sweep Details

Once you have double limb control and have broken their posture in some way, you’ll have to actually get their mass moving.

Exactly what you do to make this happen will depend greatly on your position and body type. Certain body movements can help make this much easier in the right situation:

  • Bridging – make sure your feet are as close to your butt as you can get them, and arch your back towards the ceiling. This is a very strong movement and can often give you the momentum you need to make a sweep happen.
  • Shrimping – You learn this on day one, and spend the rest of your BJJ career realizing how useful this movement is. By shrimping, you can quickly change your angle and location relative to your opponent, which can multiply your strength relative to them and give you better angles of attack.
  • Butterfly hook and lift –  Getting your feet locked under an opponent’s leg, like in a butterfly guard, can greatly disrupt an opponent’s base, making it much easier to get them moving. A mistake people often make is to try to lift an opponent’s leg straight up with their hook. This movement is much stronger when you use it in a broad circular motion.

The last thing I want to mention about sweeps is the importance of sticking the landing.

A sweep isn’t over just because the person flipped. If you can’t keep the dominant position after a sweep, then you haven’t really accomplished that much. If you’re going to put forth the energy and effort to sweep somebody, train yourself to follow through with the attack. Press the advantage while you have it. Sweep them and then control them. Get on top, and stay on top.

Now that we’ve hit the core concepts of sweeping, what happens next?

How can we apply this to our jiu jitsu? Really that’s up to you, but I can tell you how I applied it in my own game if that helps. Once I finally got wise that almost all sweeps are rooted in the same basic concepts and share basically the same goal, I started picking apart every sweep that failed, and trying to understand why it didn’t work. I started recording all of my matches in class using my phone and a cheap tripod, and watching what went wrong during my attempts. I asked myself how my opponent was able to defend it and was it a breakdown in limb control or mass management? It didn’t take long for me to realize where the holes in my game were. And as a bonus, I had footage of every sweep that worked on me. I began to see where my opponents were able to control me, and I suddenly became much harder to sweep. Obviously, I’m neither unsweepable, nor do my sweeps always work, but the grappler I am today could 100% destroy the grappler I was a year ago, and a huge reason is how I’ve applied core concepts into my BJJ.

In Conclusion.

My goal is to take the information that I’ve compiled here (plus more!) and create a high-quality video to make the information easier to understand. I want to make it available free of charge on my YouTube channel, but video production can be an expensive endeavor. If you love what I’ve written and you believe a video of it will help you, please consider either donating via Paypal to the video fund below (or better yet, check out my apparel line here and support the Student of BJJ brand!) For the official “Sweep Theory” shirt, click here.

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5 Tips for Your First Week In Jiu-Jitsu

Two students of Jiu-Jitsu beginning to roll from guard position.

So, you’ve decided to take the plunge and begin Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

Fantastic! In making this decision, you have already shown more guts than most of the population ever will. Maybe you decided to start your Jiu-Journey because you read my previous Post. Maybe you have a friend or family member that can’t stop talking about BJJ. Or maybe you just thought it might something fun to do on a Monday evening until the next season of the Bachelor begins. No matter what your reason is, you have made the decision. Now what? How do you get started in Jiu-Jitsu? Continue reading 5 Tips for Your First Week In Jiu-Jitsu

What is Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (and what does it mean to me?)

Spider Guard in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

What is Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu? I get this question all the time, and though it seems simple enough, I always struggle with the answer in the same way that a racecar driver might struggle with the question “what is racing?” For example, if they were to answer like this: “I and my friends jump through the windows of our cars and quickly make left-hand turns on a one lane road until a black and white flag is waved at us!” They aren’t really communicating their passion or capturing the spirit of the sport.  Continue reading What is Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (and what does it mean to me?)