Tag Archives: fundamentals

Jiu Jitsu Fundamentals: An Argument for Berimbolo and X Guard

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Aesopian wrote an interesting blog post about where Berimbolo fits in with the “basics”, and it reminded me of something that I’ve been thinking about and evolving on for quite some time.

I have long heard instructors and top-level competitors teach the value of focusing on the “fundamentals” of jiu jitsu. When I first started training, I took that to mean doing a set of basic techniques of the kind Saulo Ribeiro teaches in his awesome book Jiu-Jitsu University. But it wasn’t the techniques that made that kind of jiu jitsu “fundamental”. It was having a complete cohesive set of underlying principles…

Some Basic Principles of Jiu Jitsu

  • Posture: Similar to judo, wrestling, and even olympic weightlifting, jiu jitsu has its own posture rules that have to do both with resisting off-balancing and applying maximum pressure with your hips through leverage. Posture includes the lower back, shoulders, neck, and hips, but every part of your body contributes (including toes, hands, eyes, quads, etc.)
  • Base and balance: Maintain balance throughout the entirety of a movement when you’re on top and work to off-balance your opponent when you’re on bottom.
  • Grip control: Use grips (gi or no-gi) on wrists, elbows, ankles, lapels, pants, belt, neck, etc. to control the opponent.
  • Use their force against them: Move around the force applied by your opponent not against it. When he pushes, don’t simply push back, push and pull and use the moment of defenselessness to transition into a more dominant position or to submit.
  • Protect your limbs. Elbows in. Heels in. No floating wrists and feet.

The above is just off the top of my head. I’m sure there are many more and the list is always growing. The above has a lot of exceptions, but the point is you can win 99% of your matches without knowing those exceptions. That’s what makes these principles fundamental.

Evolution of Principles

Just as new techniques rise into popular use in competition, new principles are also uncovered and clarified in our collective jiu jitsu mind. The community learns and shares new ways of generating leverage, of applying pressure, or utilizing grips for control.

In fact, I believe that ANY system of techniques based on consistent application of the above principles (and more) is what I would refer to as fundamental jiu jitsu. So in that sense, the x-guard is a fundamental technique because with the help of people like Marcelo Garcia, Fredson Alves, and a thousand other black belts, the x-guard system has evolved a set of rules to a point where you can have a complete game within just the butterfly guard and x guard positions. You very rarely have to venture outside that if you don’t want to. You can win with it at white, blue, purple, brown, and black.

The Future of Berimbolo

berimboloI believe the same is or eventually will be the case for the Berimbolo. This de la riva guard sweep system has evolved in the last few years from a set of technique to a complete system of principles. I believe you can limit your game to just the de la riva, reverse de la riva, and inverted guard and not have to venture outside of that 99% of the time. That’s fundamental jiu jitsu.

I think people freely (and I believe incorrectly) interchange the concept of “old school jiu jitsu” with “fundamental jiu jitsu”. I’m guilty of this as well. Probably because my favorite game to play and to watch is the takedown, smash pass, mount, x-choke game a la Xande or Roger. It’s tempting to assume that this game is somehow the closest to the underlying principles of what makes jiu jitsu work. But that’s, of course, not the case. The principles are simple physics. But like all laws of physics, it only seem simple once you discover it, and there is always more to be discovered…

Cross Choke from Mount

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The cross choke from mount is one of those submissions that you learn on day one of starting jiu jitsu but can take forever to get good at. It’s not a surprise attack. There are very few tricks to it. Most of the technique’s effectiveness (as far as I understand) is about controlling the position.

I love this submission, not because I’m good at it, but because I believe that maybe I will be good at it one day. I’ve been working at it slowly but steadily. Here’s Roger showing the basics of it:

And here’s one of his black belts breaking it down in more detail:

Like many basic but effective techniques, the cross choke from mount has just a small number of details. It seems that mastering those details requires thousands of reps that develop the right strength, balance, flexibility, and control.

In Search of No Gi Guard Passing Fundamentals

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I watch a lot of instructional videos online and from DVD’s explicitly for the purpose of searching out the few fundamental principles and techniques. I’m a big believer in knowing just a few techniques (1-2 from every position) and then figuring out the dozens of ways to enter into those techniques and also the little details that make them work.

I think that a good instructor is very important in putting you on the right path with a technique. JW’s x-pass is a good example of that for me. But it can’t stop there. It’s up to me to really explore and understand WHY what is supposed to work does work.

I’ve been on that journey in gi for a while with the x-guard, butterly guard, gi chokes, smash pass, x-pass, etc, but in no-gi I’m still a complete newbie in many ways, lost without any real fundamental principles to cling to. I haven’t quite found a guard pass to believe in, and drill the crap out of. This post is just a bunch of videos that I found interesting. The search continues…

Jean Jacques Machado shows some basics. I like the standing pass with wrist control. He also offers some footlock options which I would really like to avoid as (in my mind) that departs from the whole “fundamentals” thing that I’m after. I really like jumping the hips forward when the opponent opens his legs and drops his hips:

Now, here’s a beautiful no-gi x-pass by JT Torres. I just found it, and it clicked. I will definitely have to work this:

Saulo throwing down some philosophy and an excellent explosive pass. What I like is he emphasizes not lingering in the closed guard.

Marcelo shows the jump-over butterfly pass:

And then, Marcelo shows a standing closed guard pass with behind the back wrist control. Looks tricky.

Robson Moura shows an even trickier step-over pass of the butterfly guard:

Mario Sperry shows a pass of the butterfly guard where you loop your arm around and grab the opposite foot:

I’ll start getting reps in on the Saulo, JT, and Marcelo (butterfly) passes and see where that takes me.

X-Guard is My Gateway Drug

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It’s fair to say that this was the week of the x-guard. Everyone everywhere was working on it. I was entering and sweeping with it multiple times on almost every set I did throughout the week.

The x-guard has been essential to the development of my game as it allowed me to focus on something I was pretty good at off my back. That’s why I’m referring to it as the “gateway drug” for playing off of my back. Having the confidence to go on my back then led to more confidence in exploring the butterfly, half-guard, and open guard positions. I think I’ll always be a top player, simply because of how much takedown work I do, but playing off my back seems to teach me a lot more (at this moment) about the fundamentals of jiu jitsu. Here’s a clip of some x-guard positional training: