Spats are something you see in almost every Jiu Jitsu school or MMA gym. They are primarily worn by grapplers. They can be worn by themselves, underneath fight shorts or under gi pants. Besides looking pretty cool, they serve actual functional purposes. That’s right. They are not just another piece of gear to get just […]

There is one takedown in the grappling world that is considered the most dangerous. It is banned completely in Judo. In most BJJ tournaments it is banned as well, perhaps with the exception for some tournaments in the black belt division. That takedown is the flying scissor. The flying scissor became popular from the Russian […]

It blows my mind that people who have more than six months of training still do not know how to escape one of Jiu Jitsu’s most fundamental techniques…the armbar. While the armbar is a solid technique, there are some equally solid ways to escape the lock. The big reason people get submitted with it, is […]

The move of going from solely playing closed guard, to then playing open guard is a big one. Many people find it difficult to make that jump. The fear of once they open their guard is that their guard will be passed and put in a bad position. While that is a threat, the good […]

Have you ever heard the term, pulling the trigger? If you have been around combative sporting martial arts, it is probably something that you’ve heard at least once. Usually you will hear it in Muay Thai or Kickboxing. All it means is to not be so tentative. It means to go for your attacks when […]

Sparring (or rolling) in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is one of the reasons that the art is so effective. Unlike other styles of martial arts that perform their techniques in the air, with no real resistance, BJJ relies on actually proving its worth through sparring. BJJ students show their knowledge by using their techniques on fully […]

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu has different meanings to different people. Some people train in it just for the hobby. Some people want to be Jiu Jitsu champions and to make it their career. While some people want to train in BJJ to be able to defend themselves. But believe it or not, BJJ can be a […]

When you first start to learn Jiu Jitsu, the most important spot you can practice is the guard, the full guard. The guard allows for many offensive and defensive opportunities. It also a relatively easy to get to the position. Besides all of that, unless you wrestled while in school, you will probably find yourself […]

Foot locks are a great equalizer of competitors. They are painful, effective and can even partially replace passing guard in certain situations. Out of all of the foot lock attacks in Jiu Jitsu, probably the most interesting is the straight foot lock done in the style of Luiz Panza. Luiz does not perform the straight […]

Learning BJJ can be a tough task, you go to your academy, your instructor teaches the same techniques to everyone in the class and some of the techniques will work great for you and some won’t. It is always important to learn every aspect of BJJ, that’s how you will build your base and fundamentals […]

In Jiu Jitsu sparring, there is so much going on. We work on our technique, we test ourselves physically, and we learn where we are weak. But I am also an advocate of rolling with a specific handicap. The handicap is rolling while blindfolded. It might sound silly, but blindfolded  Jiu Jitsu it does have […]

While it is a common joke and meme throughout the Jiu Jitsu community, believe it or not, Jiu Jitsu is a great form of therapy. There are actual reasons on why Jiu Jitsu makes such a good therapy session. It works out people physically, mentally and spiritually as well. With those three important aspects of […]

For us Jiu Jitsu fanatics, going to seminars can be an awesome experience. You can learn from world champions, specialists of a given area, and meet some great people that are involved with the Jiu Jitsu community. But some of you may have never attended a true Jiu Jitsu seminar. It can be a positive, […]

There are some key warm up motions for Jiu Jitsu that need to be practiced, for white belts and higher ranking students as well. They are the motions and movements that will always be the base of BJJ and will help us learn about a variety of movements later on. While a newcomer will learn […]

Every time when we train or compete, there could be the chance of getting an injury in Jiu Jitsu. The most common injury that I see on the mats are sprains to the ankles. It makes sense that sprains are the most common. Whether standing up, or on the ground, are ankle can take some […]