When it comes to women in Jiu Jitsu, there is no bigger star than Mackenzie Dern. Mackenzie was born into Jiu Jitsu royalty. Her father is Wellington “Megaton” Dias, who is a BJJ legend, a multiple time champion and an 8th degree black belt under Royler Gracie. Mackenzie started training at a young age and […]

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu has become one of the most popular martial arts in the world, for both men and women. Woman choose Jiu Jitsu as their preferred style for the same reason that men do. It’s a great work out, it’s great for self defense and the competition aspect is always a fun aspect. There […]

I see this all the time. Students in Jiu Jitsu that do very well, but miss key details in how they move and act on the mat. They are usually very good students, do well in rolling and even medal in tournaments. But, because of the small mistakes they make, their Jiu Jitsu is not […]

This past weekend, if you happened to watch the UFC on FOX event, you would have witnessed the utter devastatingly effective Jiu Jitsu game of Demian Maia. Maia took out the highly ranked, top welterweight Carlos Condit. It didn’t even take Maia more than two minutes to takedown Condit, take his back and sink in […]

As Brazilian Jiu Jitsu proliferates, local and regional scenes become saturated with academies resulting in and increase in the number of competitions. I sometimes see people scoff at or ignore local competitions, but there are some major benefits to attending these tournaments, both to the local scene as well as to your own jiu jitsu, […]

In Brazilian Jiu Jitsu training, one of the best parts of training is rolling. For those who are new to Jiu Jitsu, rolling is the term that means sparring. It is where we get to use the techniques that we’ve learned in class, in a live situation with real pressure. But rolling is just a […]

The best position in all of Jiu Jitsu to get is being on your opponent’s back. There are so many different back attacks that you put him in the danger zone right away. The control of your arms in the seatbelt position and your legs working either as hooks or a body triangle is incredibly […]

In Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, the art of wrist locking has become somewhat of a lost art. People often scoff at wrist locks, saying that they do not work on resisting opponents and that they are a waste of time. That could not be farther from the truth. Unlike some other submissions on arms and shoulders, […]

Baret Yoshida is one BJJ competitor that has done it all. A crafty veteran who is still competing to this day, he has done so much in his Jiu Jitsu career. Growing up in Hawaii, Baret started his Jiu Jitsu journey in 1994 at Relson Gracie’s school, before finding and settling at the Inoue brother’s […]

As the title states, does gi training make your no gi better? This is a hotly debated topic. Some say that if you’re competing in no gi, that you should only be training in no gi? Sounds reasonable, but it is not true. Doing training sessions in the gi, will make your no gi game […]

In Jiu Jitsu, chokes are still very much the king of techniques. There are some tough people that can power out of certain submissions, but with chokes, it is harder to power out, due to the fact that a good choke only takes a matter of seconds to put someone into unconsciousness. Some of the […]

When it comes to open guards in Jiu Jitsu, one of the most versatile and dynamic has to be the butterfly guard. The butterfly guard has been a favorite of some legendary black belts and has proven its effectiveness in BJJ, submission wrestling and MMA. High percentage sweeps and submissions are available from the guard, […]

Rafael Lovato Jr is one of the best American champions to ever step on the mat and compete in Jiu Jitsu. Starting BJJ at the age of 13, he would soar through the ranks and become known as one of the toughest competitors, becoming quite well known when he was a brown belt. Working with […]

Every jiu jitsu gym has outliers when it comes to size and strength. I have seen places where most of the population weighs less than 170 pounds, and in those I was the outlier. I have seen places where most of the population was above 220 pounds. It is important to know how to roll […]

Attacking the turtle can be a difficult thing for those who are not familiar with the position. The opponent will seem tight, hard to attack and can usually roll away from any attack that does come his way. But if you know some proper ways of attacking the turtle, then it is no different than […]