Ways To Make Your Berimbolo Strong

By Corey Kuropas, February 13, 2017

The berimbolo. Depending on what school of Jiu Jitsu thought you come from, this technique can have different meanings. If you’re from the old school, the berimbolo is a negative, silly technique that has no place in Jiu Jitsu. If you’re from the new school, the berimbolo is a great way of getting to dominant positions and getting the submissions. Whether you hate it or love it, it is a technique that is here to stay. Both the Miyao Brothers and the Mendes Brothers use it to great effect in high level competition. If this is a technique that you like, there are some solid concepts to make it even better. Here are those concepts…

Working the DLR hook

When people are first starting to learn the berimbolo, they are so eager to fly through the technique, that they often forget to insert the DLR hook! The DLR hook is absolutely needed to make the bolo work. Without it, you won’t have the proper control of the opponent’s lower body and you will easily be countered. So work on hitting one or two DLR sweeps that coincide with the bolo, or work on some basic open guard sweeps where you can flow the hook in easily.

Work on your inversion

Honestly, the toughest aspect of the berimbolo is the inversion. If you don’t drill solo inversion, you will have a very difficult time on being able to successfully hit the bolo. When people start working the bolo, they usually try to roll flat on their back. If that happens, you won’t get the right angle or momentum to invert. So, before you attempt the bolo, work on your inversion. You can bring your knees to your chest and work on rolling on your shoulders, both right and left. You can also practice getting on your shoulders and rolling against a wall. Remember, if you want to berimbolo, YOU MUST INVERT. So don’t neglect it.

Train all the finishing options

Most people that only train the berimbolo to get to their opponent’s back. While that should always be the first go to option from it, you should not train that only. You can use the bolo to get to the mount position. You can use the bolo to get to the truck position. And you can even use the bolo to get certain submissions such as the triangle choke or the omoplata. Train all of those options and make your bolo truly terrifying.

To me, the berimbolo is a great technique. While it may not be the most street applicable move, it can work great on the sport Jiu Jitsu side of things. The Miyao Brothers who I mentioned earlier are probably the biggest berimbolo users in the sport. And they use it to dominate everyone that they match up against. If you really want to supercharge your bolo, then you need to check out…

The Berimbolo And Beyond by the Miyao Brothers! Click here!