Are you making this colossal mistake that most Jiu-Jitsu practitioners make?
At a past seminar, Rickson gave a talk on the “Five most important fundamentals you should not leave home without.”
I could certainly add to this list; however, if I were starting or evolving my Jiu-Jitsu today, these are the essential things I wouldn’t want to leave home without.
While I don’t have room to cover all five here, I do want to talk about one idea — because it’s a colossal mental mistake most Jiu-Jitsu practitioners make.
In fact, it’s an ongoing fight I have with my students — no matter their skill level or their gender, size, body type.
What I’ve found is that when it comes to trying to get better or more knowledgeable, they ask…
“What is the move I can use to _______________?”
Fill the blank with:
- Open a guard.
- Pass a guard or a specific type of guard.
- Keep a mounted position.
- Attack from side control.
- Etc…
Be forewarned: if you think this way, you too are in need of a mind shift and MUST train yourself to think differently. If you don’t, you will deprive yourself of the opportunity to improve, thus limiting yourself in what you can do.
In many cases, what you need to get better is a better understanding of your base and weight distribution.
Here’s an example of what I mean…
A student the other day asked me for a magic move to open a guard.
My advice was simply to keep a solid posture before trying anything.
It is easier said than done.
It requires a good base first, and the awareness of where the threats could come from so that he would deflect them by reacting accordingly.
I learned from Rickson that a good base must be solid, flexible and mobile.
Instead of asking “What is the best technique to open a guard?” — The right question to ask is… “What can I do to keep my base solid, flexible and mobile?”
In Jiu-Jitsu there is pulling, there is pushing, but also there are ways to drag you sideways.
A general rule of thumb is to keep yourself not on a vertical line, where you would be solid towards the front or the back.
Nor on a horizontal line either, because that would give a good stance to be stable for forces directing you to the side.
Rather, you should position yourself inside a square, usually occupying the diagonal of that imaginary square.
The problem is that it’s a generic rule, and generic rules don’t work that well. So you need to feel and adapt. For instance, in a situation where there is no danger coming from the side, yes, you can stay on a vertical line.
Also, it’s not only about being solid, but it’s also about being flexible.
What does that mean? It means that you need to shift your weight distribution depending on what your opponent does.
For instance, if he’s pushing you, you need to have your weight on the front. If he’s pulling you, your weight goes to the back. And so on.
Plus, there’s the mobile aspect. Staying mobile means that many times you need to move if your opponent changes his position. He’s alive, after all. Not necessarily a large movement — sometimes an inch can make the difference — but you need to adjust it anyway.
The smartest Jiu-Jitsu students structure their game, so they keep improving the fundamentals and use them to develop moves, instead of simply adding techniques to their games.
PS: If you don’t know more about the most important fundamentals of Jiu-Jitsu around bedtime every night than you knew each morning, then you are failing.
And Master Rickson is making it HIS responsibility to get all of you learning who enroll at selfdefenseunit.com. Click here to find out more & register today.
