BJJ INSIDERS CLUB/SEBASTIAN BROSCHE TOP BALANCE AND STABILITY

INTRO

Sebastian Brosche is an accomplished BJJ black belt competitor from Sweden.  He is also the mastermind behind the Yoga For BJJ program and website.  Sebastian turned to yoga to help undo some of the damage that his judo and BJJ training was doing to his body.  Through his practice and study of yoga he has been able to develop an approach to BJJ that uses positional pressure, balance and stability, rooted in the high levels of flexibility he has gained.

Yoga provides Sebastian with a better understanding of his own body, as well as knowledge of how to better control the body of his opponent.  Unlike physical strength, flexibility is a resource that cannot be exhausted, according to Sebastian.  The longer the match, the more the muscles become warm and pliable and the flexible athlete is able to capitalize against a less flexible competitor.

WHO CAN BENEFIT FROM MORE FLEXIBILITY?

Every grappler on the planet can benefit from incorporating yoga into their training program.  Yoga practice can be highly effective as a warmup to prepare the body for the training to come and also as a post-class routine to help prepare the body for recovery, which can help minimize soreness and stiffness in the days after hard training.

Yoga techniques can also be done anytime without any equipment or training partners, which can be helpful when traveling or rehabbing injuries.  Short daily sessions of yoga can be one of the best things you can do to extend your BJJ longevity long into old age.

Many yoga poses require the development of balance and stability as you work to move fluidly from one pose to the next.  The ability to balance upon your opponents and remain stable while they are attempting to move to a more offensive position for themselves will go a long way to expanding one’s game.

SEBASTIAN’S KEY PRINCIPLES

In this Insider Club session, Sebastian focused on his philosophy of Guard Passing.  Instead of step by step static techniques, his approach is an intuitive, more organic approach based around a few key principles.

GIVE SOMETHING TO GET SOMETHING 

When approaching an opponent’s guard, Sebastian prefers to allow them to set up their guard initially to create a connection that he will look to control and exploit for his own benefit.

 CREATE STICKINESS

 In this principle borrowed from Gordon Ryan, Sebastian stresses the importance of remaining “sticky” and connected to an opponent to better control their movements and set you up to exploit openings as they present themselves.

  BE PATIENT IN THE CURRENT POSITION

For Sebastian, there is a tendency in grapplers to naturally be “jumping” from position to position in an attempt to get to better and better spots.  The balance and stability he has developed through his yoga training allows him to be more patient and control the current position. He can then exploit the small adjustments and movements he can make to put himself in more and more powerful positions.

 STAPLE THE SACRUM

 Overtime, most grapplers learn that controlling an opponent’s hips is key to being a succesful guard pass.  Sebastian takes it one step further and distinguishes between the hips as you know them and the sacrum which lies in the center of the hip structure.

By making it a goal to keep the opponent’s sacrum pinned to the ground, one will drastically impede their mobility and ability to retain guard or even move.

 

 BECOME COMFORTABLE WITH IMPROV

Sebastian Brosche’s approach to Guard Passing is not linear or attempts to move step by step through a series of movements, which in reality never really works against an active opponent. He instead focuses on stapling the sacrum and being sticky to his opponent, using his balance and stability to make small movements and adjustments, which exploit the opponent’s attempts to relieve the pressure or regain their guards.

In the GIF below, Sebastian utilizes the above principles to allow his opponent to secure De La Riva Guard.  Remaining patient, Sebastian drives into his opponent’s right leg and controls the foot.  This creates a distraction where the opponent attempts to kick Sebastian’s leg back, which he has anticipated by stepping back and pulling the De La Riva hook leg’s knee to sit up his opponent, thereby pinning him onto his sacrum and drastically decreasing his mobility, and making it easier for Sebastian to continue passing the guard.

CONCLUSION

In this installment of the Insiders Club, we learn from Sebastian Brosche that incorporating yoga into our training routine not only helps with recovery and injury prevention, but it can also make our approach to BJJ better. Through the development of balance and stability one can become a more intuitive grappler.  One must enter the guard to pass the guard, and by creating connection or stickiness you will be able to better exploit their movements and score those guard pass points to get to more offensive positions.