Jiu-Jitsu

Monster X Camp review - When you first enroll in a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) program, you may feel more than a little bit overwhelmed. In many ways, this is understandable because there are so many different facets to the art. Some have said there are well over 4,000 techniques if you were to actually tabulate and calculate all the different moves. So, where should you start when it comes to learning the art of BJJ? In the simplest of terms, you need to start at the beginning.

No, that statement is not made to be flippant. Despite all the many different techniques which comprise the art, there is a definitive beginning you need to start with. That beginning would be escapes. In particular, you need to learn how to escape from the bottom of inferior positions.

Inferior positions would be:

The Mount
The Side Control and all its Variations
The Knee on Stomach
Headlocks, Scarf Holds, and all their Variations
The North/South Position

It is no secret that the average BJJ student will want to jump into the world of submissions right away. Honestly, there is nothing wrong with learning submissions or investing time in them. However, you cannot study submissions at the exclusion of all else. And this notion goes for sweeps and guard passes as well.

The truth here is that if you do not learn escapes from pins and inferior positions very early in the BJJ game, you will not be able to put any of your other skills into effect. The reason is that you will be flat on your back and your opponent will be the one working on finishing you.

Of course, no matter how serious you are about developing great skills with escapes from the bottom you will end up in the difficult position of being pinned on your back. It will always be a struggle to escape from the bottom until you gain the timing that comes with experience. However, if you never concentrate on improving your escape skills then you won't ever get beyond the stage of struggling. This means your ability to move onto other areas of the art will be impossible and you never will embody the skills needed to be a solid BJJ player

While escapes may not be the most enjoyable area of BJJ to train, they are among the most important. Do not sell you training short. Invest the proper amount of time in training and developing your skill with escapes. You will be surprised how your overall BJJ game improves once you do.
BJJ Combinations: A Needed Area of Skill

Those that have a year or so of BJJ lessons wish they could move onto more advanced material. This leads them to chasing fancy moves that look impressive but just might not be effective from a practical standpoint. The true entry into a higher level of the BJJ game is not so much looking for advanced techniques. Rather, the goal should be to develop a skill with combinations. When you have the ability to perform combinations, your game becomes one that is a lot smoother than it would be if you were stilted in your ability to flow from move to move.

Better yet, a skill at combinations reduces the fixation on one single technique and the desire to muscle through completing a move. Such an approach rarely if ever works. Rather than follow such an approach, it would be a better plan to work on your skill at performing combinations.

Learning combinations starts with defining what exactly combinations are. In the simplest of descriptions, combinations are the logical transition from one move to another without any pause. Most commonly, combinations are performed because a particular move was met with resistance or failed so this necessitates moving to the next more and, possibly, another move after that. There are other reasons why a combination may be employed. The first move might have been a setup solely to get a reaction to lead into the next move. In other instances, a snap decision to exit one move into a better one would be a possibility.

A common example of a combination would be attempting an armbar and an opponent postures up to avoid the hyperextension. This can open him up for a triangle choke which would be the next move. If he drops down slight to change his posture to avoid the triangle, flowing to an armbar could be the next move to employ.

Now, it is not correct to assume that all combinations entail submissions exclusively or at all. Escapes, reversals, submissions, sweeps, guard passes, and pin positions could all be used within the framework of a combination or series of combinations.

To read about combinations defined in this manner may seem as if learning them is complicated. Prose descriptions of most BJJ techniques will sound this way. However, when you actually put the time on the mat to develop the skills you realize that it is nowhere near and complicated as you thought. The reason for this is that your body begins to take to the physical movements required to perform the required tasks.

To start on your journey of combinations, you need to develop a good foundation performing moves in isolation. Once you have reasonable skill in technique with the individual moves, you will need to move onto drills designed to help perform combinations. Often, these drills entail logically stringing your moves together. As you practice these drills with regularity in your BJJ class and open mat sessions, you will slowly develop the much needed skill required to become effective with combinations.

Monster X Camp review