Adeline Quackenbush recently published an article in The Mighty on how her BJJ practice helps her deal with the effects of mental illness. It’s important to note that Quackenbush is not saying that BJJ is a cure for mental illness.  And anyone who...

As we talked about in Part 1 and 2, rules play a big role in how your game develops and what it eventually grows in to. Now on to Part 3 to look at the Pros and Cons of Submission Only Grappling as...

The Omoplata can be a frustrating submission to finish if you don’t have all of the details just right.  Over the years, I have met several people who have their own thoughts on the position, unfortunately it seems often times that this submission...

To paraphrase Professor John Danaher regarding his thoughts on the fundamentals of Jiu Jitsu; Everyone agrees that the fundamentals are the most important part of Jiu Jitsu and are what form the very foundation that we build our own Jiu Jitsu game.  The...

No one likes getting submitted, especially by a choke, at least that’s my feelings on the matter. One of the worst chokes in my opinion is the guillotine choke. It seems that it can happen from anywhere, and it comes on quick, so...

As a white belt, when you first start out in training it can be overwhelming trying to learn the names of everything, the basic positions, the fundamental body movements and which submissions are which and which ones you are supposed to be most...

  As we start to develop our game, the guard we decide on as a “favorite” quickly becomes the foundation on which we begin looking at the rest of Jiu Jitsu.  Once we have decided on a guard then everything we do becomes,...

There are few things worse than being stuck under someone in North South position.  Being stuck here becomes increasingly less fun the bigger and or sweatier the opponent is at the time.  I remember when I first started training there was a student...

When we first start training, we are taught the closed guard position along with a few sweeps and submissions from the closed guard position.  We are also taught how to open an opponent’s closed guard and either go over the opponent’s legs using...

Passing the guard is one of, if not the most important skills to develop.  Guard passing is one of the many things in Jiu Jitsu that never gets easier, it’s constantly challenging us because as we get better at guard passing, our opponents...

Gi or no gi, the shin to shin guard is an incredibly useful position with a multitude of interesting utilities. Once the position is established, we can use it to reverse, transition, and funnel our opponent’s in to a whole host unfavorable scenarios....

Although it is not as popular as it once was, deep half guard was once one of the most utilized positions in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Although it is just as effective now as it once was, Jiu Jitsu is a sport that is...

Although the guillotine is one of the most simple and versatile submissions in Jiu Jitsu, while also being one of the oldest, it is one the most underutilized submissions in the sport. Students will go through white belt and even blue belt without...

Half guard has been and will always be one of the top positions grapplers utilize in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. It is easier to attack sweeps and submissions from half guard, especially against skilled opponents, because when compared to closer guard, the guard player...

If you have been training Jiu Jitsu, you have probably heard of Edwin Najmi. Edwin is a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu black belt training out of California. Edwin began his martial arts training as a child and eventually progressed to become one of the...