Jon Satava Sparring At Marcelo Garcia Academy

If you're a BJJ Fanatic then you know how fun live sparring can be. That's where you get to practice new moves and work on your best stuff. But if you want to improve you have to train in positions that may not be all that fun... enter positional sparring. 

Typically, positional sparring is live training where both opponents start the round from a specific position like side control or half guard. In these scenarios you are forced to apply your knowledge to advance or defend from a position you will inevitably run into on the mat.

We recently had the chance to catch up with 2019 ADCC veteran Jon Satava at the Marcelo Garcia Academy in New York City. The session began with Marcelo teaching a throw-by move from the front headlock position that ended in a back take. Once the students drilled the move for a few rounds they then started live sparring starting from the front headlock position. They were encouraged to use the move of the day but were free to explore different options as well.

Sparring From Front Headlock Position

Jon Satava is an expert at guillotines and chokes, and is considered to have the closest game to Marcelo's of any of his black belts. We followed Jon through the class as he trained with other high level black belts like Vinicius "Tractor" Ferreira and Athos Miranda. 

Notice how Jon maintains the front headlock position or advances to the back. He also uses beautiful technique to escape the front headlock, which is one of the most common positions encountered in no-gi training.