Progressive Jiu Jitsu: It's All About The Basics!

By Vinicius "Draculino" Magalhaes

As your jiu jitsu journey begins, you'll quickly realize the amount of techniques and situations you have to deal with is overwhelming. Getting stuck in bad positions is the norm, and you will be submitted often.

Don't get discouraged, because you can survive!

An awesome thing about jiu jitsu is that it is fantastic at leveling the playing field. The fast or strong can be at a disadvantage against a skilled jiu jitsu student, especially if they are untrained in ground fighting. The problem is lasting long enough in class to become skilled.

In a word, basics. If you become a master at just the jiu jitsu basics, you can generally prevent yourself from getting in bad positions and are able to handle yourself if you happen to end up in one. Practice these at home by yourself, and keep them in mind during your classroom training to apply them there as well. After a few weeks you'll have a basic skill level that'll really allow you to focus on learning and applying your techniques instead of a panicked defense.

What are these basics?

Hip Escapes

Hip escapes are the grand daddy of jiu jitsu basic techniques. While training you should always have "loose hips". Transitioning from side to side and using your hips for positional leverage is critical. This can't be reinforced enough. Hip escapes (aka shrimping) are important in creating space allowing room for both defenses and attacks.

Breathing

Another basic you need to get down is breathing. If you tire out in training or a real life fight, you're dead. You CAN relax and you need to slow down and breathe while you work your game. If rolling/sparring becomes a sprint for you, you'll be done in 30 seconds. In a typical 5-7 minute training round, that would be miserable! So slow down, take your time, breathe deeply, and relax.

Open Mind

Many people come to train thinking that their strength is going to get them through whatever challenge they face. And just as quickly they are proven wrong by some 120 pound-when-soaking-wet kid with a bit of experience. To learn the fastest, open your mind to a new way of doing things. Learn and use the techniques properly and without strength. Accept that you are going to have a learning curve and don't try to power your way through things.

Ego

The majority of BJJ students are men and of course have good sized egos. Leave it at the door. You must really enjoy the journey of learning jiu jitsu and take in all of the nuances. If you insist on being the guy that never taps, you will get hurt much more often. And of course if you are injured you won't be able to train. Be open to losing while in class. Help your classmates to get better. Enjoy the journey. Become a family!

These basics aren't a fully exhaustive list of everything you need to master. But they provide a great foundation to build upon. Walk into class ready to learn, guide your classmates where you can, and train hard. This is a special martial art and it can change you if you let it.

- Draculino

About the Author:

Draculino's online training site is known for the best in BJJ training. Also check out his jiu jitsu forum and talk with others around the world.

The One Thing You Need To Know To Have The Most Powerful Punch In The World!

By Al Case

Power, in the Martial Arts, especially martial arts like Tae Kwon Do or Gung Fu is often measured by how hard you can hit. Thus, people strike the punching bag and the Makiwara, and they do push ups to strengthen their arms, and...and they are doing it all wrong. You see, there is one critical factor that they don't understand, and so all their push ups and punches are having less effect than they would wish.

I want to make a point here...and I can only do that by asking you one specific question. Where, during your punch, do your arms bear the most weight? The answer is obvious, they bear it at the end of the punch, when the arm is nearly extended.

So why do you need to push up your arm through the whole range of motion from the floor? Being strong at the beginning or middle of the punch is not important. Concentrating your work out through the whole range of motion is not addressing the exact needs of the punch.

So, when you do a work out, make it gentle and general, and build up your body and your arms as a whole unit, then focus your work out on the end of the punch where you need it. This is easy to do, you can do it for virtually any exercise there is. All you have to do it isolate the part of the exercise where the arm is nearly extended, and concentrate your efforts on that part of the exercise.

Let's say you're doing a push up. Do the push up until your arms are nearly extended, then do go to town. Do as many six inch push ups with the arms nearly extended, as you can, fast, concentrating on keeping your belly tight.

Here's the trick, you need to feel the strength in your shoulders. The impact of the punch, you see, is going to go up your arms and into the shoulders. Thus, it is the shoulders that must become dense and strong.

For a good punch you need thick and dense shoulders, so perform the six inch push up I have detailed here, and do it throughout the day, until the muscles of the shoulders become as dense and enduring as the leg muscles of a marathon runner. It's odd that people have never thought of what I am telling you here, and I scratch my head at it. I suppose the problem is that people are taught how to exercise in one manner, and never actually look at the exact goal they are trying to accomplish.

So do those 'end of the arm six inch push ups like a maniac. Do them and breath and put your awareness in your shoulders, letting your shoulders grow and grow. This is the way you develop a punch that is stronger than anybody else's, this is how you have the most powerful punch in the world.

About the Author:

Al Case, The Doctor of the Punch, has studied martial arts forty years. If you want the straight goods on how to build the most powerful punch in the world, pay him a visit at Punch 'Em Out.