As mentioned, everyone and their dog has, or can, train in the popular styles of today that rule the MMA world. Many folks have trained in gyms, online, through seminars, books, etc. All of it, is available to everyone now.
Defending against Brazilian Jiu Jitsu
And forget the silly argument of “unless you train in-person with a notable expert, you don’t know…”. Horse shit. True, there are polished aspects you may not attain, but the bulk of understanding and proficiency? Yes, you can get via video, books, and seminars. And many have. Defending against Brazilian Jiu Jitsu continues
My point, is the knowledge is all over the place for the easy taking, MMA has become the go-to validation, for anyone who wants to role play being a tough guy or super hero, and as a result, there are many skilled folks walking the street. Many are nut cases. Today’s thug, is very skilled, and well trained.
It is true, that if you know nothing about an attack or weapon coming at you, you can’t defend against it. If you know nothing about the mechanics of a punch, you will never understand using distance and body positioning to nullify range, and you will be hit, always.
Defending against Brazilian Jiu Jitsu
In order to recognize BJJ when it is being used against you, this article and the ones to come on other styles, will only serve as a validation of points made. It can’t teach you anything by itself. So study. Get your hands on some training material. I recommend a white to purple belt program.
This is where most of the people walking around today are at, or have been at in their training. The brown belts are a bit more rare, don’t know a lot more technique than the purple belts, but are more polished via competition. The black belts, are pretty much a much more polished version of the brown belts in that they have competed often, won often, and can teach winning strategies to others.
Defending against Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.
To say you have to have the understanding of a BJJ black belt to recognize when BJJ is being used against you and to attack it’s success mechanisms is ridiculous. But, you should have been exposed to some degree, to the curriculum from white to purple. Not to the point where you can pass a belt exam. Just to a point where you can connect the dots on what makes it work, coupled with what I am writing here.
Your next step, will be to practice anti-BJJ type of techniques. For example, do not wrestle with the arm coming around your neck from behind to avoid a choke. Rather, turn your face just a bit and notice how close your mouth is to the forearm. Bite. Don’t let go. And so on.
BJJ’s existence and war chest, is all on the ground. If you are standing, they want to take you down. They want to work from the top, they want to stay close to you, and want to limit your ability to move while underneath. They want to achieve a strong position, then apply submission. This would be a choke or joint manipulation of some sort.
Defending against Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.
Should they be on the bottom, they want to make sure you can not gain a stable position, they want to create space between you and them, they want to be very mobile off their back, and they want to attack you based on what you offer as you try and steady yourself, and position yourself.
So, let’s break this up into 3 parts in the article Defending against Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.: The takedown, BJJ on top of you, and BJJ under you.
Defending against Brazilian Jiu Jitsu
The Takedown: BJJ will want to hit you low, preferably below the hips. The taller you stand, the more effective they will be when they come at your legs to grab and take you off your feet. Don’t stand face to face, and keep your distance. Move to the outsides often. You will need to understand both shooting, and sprawling in order to effectively recognize, and interrupt a skilled BJJ practitioner’s attempt to take you down. This can’t be covered here. Find resources, study, and train.
Defending against Brazilian Jiu Jitsu
BJJ on Top: They will want to be like a 2nd skin when on top. This is because they need to nullify your ability to move when you are on your back. It allows them to transition positions quickly, effectively, and tight. It is from a good tight position, that submissions are launched.
You want to keep them from getting tight. This is done by understanding what is known as “posting”. In brief, posting is where a person’s weight is being supported. When you stand on your two feet, you are posting on your two feet. If you are on top of someone, and your weight is on your hands and knees, then that is where you are posting.
If there is no post, there can be no control of balance or distance. If there is no control of balance and distance, there can not be any effective position, or submission. Don’t wrestle, attack the post points of the person on top of you. Move your hips a lot, use your feet to kick/push their posting knees when they are scrambling on top of you trying to be tight. Push down on their shoulders and push them down towards your feet, stick your fingers in their eyes.
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Defending against Brazilian Jiu Jitsu continues
Distance is your weapon on your back against a skilled BJJ person. When they are on top and you are on your back, do not allow their hands to rest on either side of you any higher than your hips. If they get higher, they are already too tight. Imagine a fence at your hip level. Do let any part of them get past the fence. When they post with their hands on either side of you push at the wrists to cause them to lose that post.
Grab an open hand as they are distracted in the scramble, and break a finger off. They do not train in a way that protects their small joints as they live in a world where that type of thing is not allowed in training, thus never addressed or paid any attention to. Remember: If we do not know about a threat, we can’t know how to defend against it. Their fingers, ears, and eyes, are often unguarded targets. They are not all that aware of those areas as they scramble.
Defending against Brazilian Jiu Jitsu
BJJ On the bottom: The opposite rules apply here. They want to create distance between you and them. They do this by moving their hips and shoulders with great skill. They will want to keep you light and swing their hips out to the sides, or post up on one of their hands fast so that their shoulders are not pinned beneath you. Stay close and heavy, and smash your forehead into their nose often.
Do not post your hands on either side of them at the fence level. They know how to grab and rip the arm right off. Rather, post your hands past their shoulders, they can’t grab well from there. However, be aware of your own posting. If you are putting your weight up there as well, they will shrimp their hips out to the side, and be on your back faster than you can blink.
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This is bad, and even the most skilled BJJ practitioner has major issues dealing with anyone that takes control of their back. Should this happen, don’t wrestle. Keep your focus on one of their arms as that is all you need to control. They need both arms to close a choke on you. The arm you are controlling you will need to break fingers and bite into. Focus on that.
Simple truths: BJJ succeeds by getting you off your feet. Once that is done, it needs to control your movement and the distance between the two of you on the ground. To do so, BJJ relies on controlling distance/mobility, posting, positions and submissions. If you understand what makes distance/mobility work, and posting work, and you can attack those 2 aspects so that they never succeed, there will be no positioning, hence no submissions.
Defending against Brazilian Jiu Jitsu
Reality check: All of this, is not easy. BJJ is F’N intelligent. Practitioners know how to bait you into moving certain ways that you can’t even see, but they can. If you try to out-grapple them, you lose. You don’t know all the shit they do from the ground. And, when you try to out grapple them, you are not noticing mobility, space, posting…..but they are!
Many of their movements are designed to get you to move a certain way in reaction, or post a certain way in reaction. They are chess players. You will need to attack their intelligence as well, and this is done with the shock factor that comes from BANG!!!!, head to the nose or CRACK!!!!, finger bent back….but again, not easy.
Always remember, in combat, fighting fire with fire, almost always results in the better fire winning. Don’t grapple a grappler. Know the signs of grappling, know what makes grappling work, and attack those things. And like any encounter, the longer the fight lasts, the less chance you have of winning as the attacker gets more determined and upset and driven.
Defending against Brazilian Jiu Jitsu
Disclaimer: This article Defending against Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is not an attack on BJJ. Just like talking about defending against punches is not an attack on people with fists. Truth is, like any system, BJJ has skilled honorable practitioners. It also has just as skilled, assholes. Such is the way with anything on planet earth. Let’s not get emotional and broken hearted.
Thank you for taking time to read Defending against Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.
Train hard, stay safe, be happy.
GM Dave.
