The Most Important Techniques of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu

This video shows the importance of posture for both positions.

If we have the guard we should always be looking to break our partners posture so we can control and build our attacks. On the other hand, if we are the ones inside our opponent's guard we must find ways to earn our posture so we could start to work on getting out and passing.

This is the first solid guard pass we will learn. Pay close attention to the advanced details of this famous basic technique. It is all about increasing the distance between our hip and our opponent's hip until he has no option other than open the guard.

Once the guard is open we must never allow our opponent to lock us back again in the guard. After the guard is open, "passing over the leg" is the preferred pass of the majority of Jiu Jitsu students.

This is a powerful pass if you have a good base. This is my favorite pass and starts with me keeping good posture by having a solid squat while maintaining one of my opponents arm's under control. The highlight is the hip twist movement that increases leverage. After the guard is open, "passing over the leg" is the preferred pass of the majority of Jiu Jitsu students.

This video show two chokes: a) the symmetrical choke, and b) asymmetrical choke. For any attack from the guard we must know how to create angles. This is especially true for beginners who are struggling with their guard attacks. Most of the time when we are having a hard time to accomplish a Jiu Jitsu move, we may think that we are not flexible enough, but most of the time we just need to fix our angle.

For us to have a strong arm bar from the guard we must know a few things:

We must create the correct angle, and we must control our opponent's posture. Most importantly, we must know that... "Nice guys don't get arm bars from the bottom" - Prof. Felipe Guedes. This is a famous phrase I use with my students to focus on the pressure they apply with their legs on their opponent's neck (and not to tell them to go hard on their opponent's arm). We must "not be nice" and add as much pressure as possible to our opponent's neck, and even getting them to touch their forehead on the mats. If that happens, they won't be able to recover and the tap will be eminent.

Like the name says, it is a tri-"angle" and not a tri-"square". So the angle is extremely important. We must close the gap between the back of our knee and the opponent's neck to build a powerful submission, and of course we must control our opponent's posture.

It is important that we go to war with two guns! Knowing the connection between the attacks will make us feel this way. The arm bar & triangle combination is the first combo attack from the guard a student should learn. It will increase the student's chances to finish his opponent and also it will lay a foundation to learn other endless combinations of attacks.

Are you tired yet of hearing how important creating angles is on guard attacks?

The kimura is not different! Beyond angles, understanding how to break the grips is very important for the submission. The kimura is one of the most powerful attacks we have in Jiu Jitsu because of the amount of leverage we can build towards our opponent's shoulder joint. My safety tip for you is to always apply this submission gradually, and with a lot of control. Stay alert for your opponent's tap.

This is definitely a must know! Simple and solid. We can't train without knowing our defenses or we will get caught!

"Be quick but don't hurry!" - J.W.

We must stay strong, believe in the technique, and prevent our arms for getting extended at all cost.

Let's say that this is the "first level" of a triangle escape where we still have a good posture. Our immediate reaction when we feel the legs over our shoulder is to keep good posture and use pressure for the pass. One thing we should keep in our mind is that our opponent is thinking about a "triangle" and we are thinking about a "square". He wants our shoulders as close as possible to each other, whereas, we want our shoulders as square and as far away as possible from each other.

Let's call this the "second level" of a triangle escape where we find ourselves in the worst position with our arm across our chest, and about to tap. This must be a very explosive escape with 100% commitment.

This is a great alternative from the traditional escapes. Small players will especially love this escape because of their abilitiy to sit back.

OK, don't overthink! We have to act fast while we can still get oxygen, and before our opponent decides to switch to the arm bar.

For sweeps, I always like to say that as important as it is to know the steps of the technique, it is just as important to know when the right time to apply it is too. For the scissor sweep, if our opponent has the head down or is not trying to move backwards we will have the chance to apply to sweep. At this point hip explosion is very important.

This video shows three different set ups we can use for the sit up sweep. Definitely the last one is the most advanced, but the one I have the most success with. Timing and commitment is very important.

Taking your opponent's back from the guard is also considered a sweep. It is really awesome because we could work with the hooks and back control after and connect with a choke right away. This is one of the techniques where we will be moving slowly but surely with speed not as important as being tight to our opponent.

The half guard use to be a very defensive position, where the bottom fighter would only think about stopping the pass and recover guard. Over time the half guard bottom became a very offensive position where fighters now use this position to use different sweeps and submissions. This video we will learn the proper position for half guard and the first sweep of the series covering taking our opponent's back.

This second sweep for half guard is a regular favorite for blue belts. Once you understand the mechanics of this sweep it will serve as our base for many other more elaborated types of sweeps.

For every action there must be a reaction. We have to always keep ourselves alert for what our opponent is giving us. In this case our opponent is basically giving us a chance for the reversal. Always be alert about the weight distribution of you and your opponent.

These are awesome techniques that you will use for the rest of your Jiu Jitsu career. These three techniques are very are very effective, and we should train them a lot before we choose our favorite.

Being able to control our opponent on the ground is an art itself, and we should understand the principle of adaptation. We should always try to recognize what our opponent is trying to do and then adapt. Most beginners think that it is about muscle and strength, but when they become advanced they start to realize that it is all about body weight distribution and keeping our hips low.

For this video I would like to remind us that in Jiu Jitsu speed is good as long as we are not skipping any steps. Every step has it's own importance, and if we skip one we may end up not achieving the desired goal.

In my opinion escaping from side mount is the hardest thing to learn over the first year of a Jiu Jitsu practitioner. That is because at the beginning we are not patient and we do not know how to use our frames. To learn how to escape from side mount is by far the most frequent request I receive from beginners when they sign up for private lessons. It is inspiring to see their games changing when they finally understand how to build and use their frames to open opportunities for escapes. This is definitely one of the most important videos, and when we know how to use our frames no one will hold us down anymore.

We have frames! So lets use them and recover guard or simply get out.

We have frames again! Now, pay attention to your opponent's position and recognize where the opportunity is they are giving to you to escape.

The key lock is one of the first submissions we learn in Jiu Jitsu. We see it happening a lot between the beginners, but once you have an advanced opponent in front of you it becomes hard to catch them with it. This video show us how to set up this basic submission in a way that you will be able to slowly and properly execute even on advanced opponents.

The paper cutter choke is one of the moves that becomes a game changer after learned. It is very powerful and hard to stop once you have that arm trapped. Definetely a strong finish for all practitioners.

There are many ways we can attack with a kimura. The extra tip this video has is that we should not be shy or a type of "Mr. Nice Guy" when controlling your opponent. Do it properly and you will succeed. And once again, my safety tip for the kimura attack is to always finish slowly since the kimura is one of the most devastating submission out there.

The keylock is a basic submission you often see advanced belts not knowing how to properly escape from. This video will give you some options where timing and opportunity plays a big role.

Since the nature of the kimura attack is very powerful I recommend anyone to watch this video multiple times and drill it with your partners asking them to gradually increase the pressure on your arm, so we can then build our defenses and feel confident with them. This video shows us solid defensive options.

Stay calm and work with combinations to get out of the mount position. Use both the uppers and lowers escape, left and right, and soon you will find your way out.

For any submission from the mount the first thing we should have in mind is balance. We will hear the phrase "position before submission" a million times. So make sure your base is good and you work your submission having the correct balance in mind. Even if you have to give up of the submission and start over again is better so we can keep the top position.

Once you start to learn chokes from the mount, you also start to realize that they are not easy to set up. This is a very effective and easy choke to apply from the mount. Everyone who learn this for the first time makes the comment: "I can't believe I had never learned that before."

This is not the most basic arm bar, but to me this is the arm bar that everyone should know. The reason is because by using the S-mount we are able to keep good pressure and control, and never allow our opponents to get their arms out. There is no separation between us and our opponents at any time. Drill it until your opponent sees it coming but can't stop it!

It is definitely easier to escape from the keylock from the mount than it is from the side mount. This video will give you some options where timing and opportunity plays a big role.

First of all when we think about arm bar escapes we must think about that famous phrase, "the best defense is to not get caught in the first place". So first we must try to prevent the arm bar from happening and act fast, but if we do get caught in it, this video will give us a not so common escape but a very safe one. Please pay attention that we will be working on this escape until we can make our elbow touch the ground, and only then we will be safe.

The world famous "mata leão" translated literally to "lion killer". This is the most classic choke submission in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. This video shows the complete and classic version. This choke can be used with Gi or NoGi.

The collar chokes are a must have in your game. Despite the fact that the rear naked choke is the most famous one, the one and two hand collar chokes actually happens more often than the rear naked choke due to the advantage of us being able to use the Gi. Learning the combination between the one hand and two hand collar chokes gives us more opportunities to finish our opponents.

In this video we will be studying two escapes. The first one should be performed as quick as possible and make sure we pick the correct side for the escape.

The second one we have to be explosive at first until the back of our head touches the ground, and then use one of the best qualities of an advanced Jiu Jitsu player, which is our ability to stay calm under pressure. This way we will be able to keep our opponent's elbow off the ground as we move to the top position.

Once again we use a couple of options to escape from the turtle back control and the combination between them. It is important to remember we do not need to finish on top to escape from the situation. We can also escape by recovering the guard and getting the fight back under our control.

Once agin we will work with two options. One will give you the top position and the other will give back the control.