3 Essential Principles for Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Beginners

The Importance of Principles in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

In many sports and disciplines, focusing on principles rather than individual movements or techniques is crucial for long-term success. Chess players emphasize controlling the center of the board, while boxers learn to create angles that allow them to hit their opponents without being hit back. However, in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ), these overarching principles are not always explicitly taught, especially to beginners.

This article will explore three fundamental principles that are essential for white and blue belts to understand and incorporate into their training. By grasping these concepts early in your BJJ journey, you'll set yourself up for greater success and faster progress.

Principle 1: Keeping Your Elbows In

The Power of Tucked Elbows

One of the first and most crucial principles in BJJ is keeping your elbows close to your body. This concept may seem simple, but its importance cannot be overstated. Here's why:

1. Structural Strength: When your elbows are tucked close to your body, you become structurally stronger. This can be demonstrated with a simple experiment:

   • Have a training partner keep their elbows tucked while you attempt to deadlift them off the floor.
   • You'll notice that they can maintain this position even while supporting their entire body weight.
   • In contrast, if their elbows are extended away from their body, maintaining this position becomes much more difficult.

2. Defense Against Attacks: Many common BJJ attacks rely on isolating and manipulating your arms when they're away from your body. These include:

   • Armbars
   • Kimuras
   • Omoplatas
   • Arm triangles
   • Duck unders to take the back

   By keeping your elbows in, you make it significantly harder for your opponent to execute these techniques successfully.

Applying the Principle

For white belts, one of the best defensive strategies is to focus on bringing your elbows close to your body whenever possible. This simple act can dramatically reduce the number of submissions you fall victim to during training.

Conversely, when you're on the offensive, your goal should be to get your opponent's elbows away from their body and keep them there. As a beginner, you'll find that many opponents naturally reach for you, making it easier to exploit this principle. Some strategies to achieve this include:

• Using your knee as a wedge between their arm and body
• Securing an underhook to prevent them from bringing their arm back in
• Applying pressure to encourage them to frame against you, thus extending their arms

As you progress through the belt ranks, you'll need to develop more sophisticated methods of manipulating your opponent's arms. This might involve:

• Creating situations that force them to extend their arms
• Using clever grips and controls to keep their elbows away from their body
• Employing misdirection and feints to open up opportunities

Principle 2: Gaining Inside Position

Understanding Inside Position

The concept of inside position has gained popularity in recent years, largely due to the teachings of renowned BJJ coach John Danaher. In simple terms, inside position refers to the placement of your limbs relative to your opponent's:

• Inside Position: Your limbs are inside your opponent's limbs
• Outside Position: Your opponent's limbs are inside yours

Both positions have their advantages and disadvantages, but for beginners and those grappling with larger opponents, inside position often provides more control and safety.

Benefits of Inside Position

1. Defensive Advantage: When a heavier opponent is on top of you, having inside position prevents them from establishing strong pins. This allows you to create effective movement and begin manipulating their weight.

2. The Power of the Underhook: The underhook is a prime example of inside position. By securing an underhook, you "glue" yourself to your opponent, maintaining inside control. This is why the battle for the underhook is so crucial in positions like half guard.

3. Leg Lock Defense and Offense: Many leg lock setups begin with pummeling your feet inside your opponent's legs. Conversely, maintaining inside position with your legs can protect you from many common leg lock attacks.

4. Standing Grappling: In both gi and no-gi grappling, inside position is vital for controlling distance and establishing dominant grips or ties.

Applying Inside Position in Different Scenarios

1. Half Guard: Focus on securing the underhook to maintain inside position. This will give you better control and more offensive options.

2. Guard Retention: Use your legs to maintain inside position, making it harder for your opponent to pass your guard.

3. Standing Grappling (Gi): Work on establishing inside grips on your opponent's sleeves or lapels to control their movement and set up takedowns.

4. No-Gi Takedowns: Practice pummeling for inside position to secure strong collar ties and elbow controls, setting up snapdowns and other takedowns.

5. Leg Lock Exchanges: Learn to recognize when you have inside position with your legs and how to use this to your advantage in leg entanglements.

While inside position isn't always the optimal choice, understanding its value will significantly enhance your grappling game.

Principle 3: Utilizing Structure and Frames

The Power of Efficient Resistance

The concept of structure and frames in BJJ is about finding ways to resist your opponent's force without relying on muscular strength. Instead, you use the strength of your skeletal structure to create efficient and powerful resistance.

Understanding Frames

Frames are positions where your skeleton is aligned against the force of your opponent. Rather than pushing them away with muscular effort, you create a structure that redirects or nullifies their force. Key points about frames include:

1. Skeletal Alignment: Effective frames align your bones to resist force, rather than relying on muscles.

2. Ground Connection: Strong frames often involve connecting your structure to the ground, creating an immovable object for your opponent to push against.

3. Elbow Position: Sometimes, creating a frame requires extending an elbow. Learning when it's safe to do this is an important part of BJJ development.

Examples of Structure and Frames

1. Kimura from Side Control: When applying a Kimura from side control, keeping your elbow on the mat creates a strong structure. Your opponent must push through your forearm bones and into their own hip to escape, which is nearly impossible without exceptional strength.

2. Guard Retention: Using your legs and arms to create frames against a passing opponent allows you to maintain your guard with minimal energy expenditure.

3. Side Control Escape: Framing against your opponent's neck and hip from bottom side control creates space and prevents them from applying their full weight.

4. Mount Defense: Proper framing from the bottom of mount can prevent your opponent from posturing up and striking, while also creating opportunities for escapes.

Developing Your Understanding of Structure

Mastering the use of structure and frames is a lifelong journey in BJJ. Here are some ways to improve your understanding:

1. Mindful Practice: During training, pay attention to moments where you feel you're resisting force effortlessly. Analyze what makes these positions effective.

2. Experiment with Alignment: Try different ways of aligning your bones against your partner's force. Notice which positions feel stronger and more stable.

3. Focus on Connection: Work on maintaining a solid connection to the ground through your frames. This often involves using your hips and core to link your limbs to the mat.

4. Study Advanced Practitioners: Watch how higher-level grapplers use frames and structure. You'll notice they often appear to be exerting minimal effort while controlling their opponents.

Integrating These Principles into Your Training

While these principles - keeping your elbows in, gaining inside position, and utilizing structure and frames - are fundamental to BJJ, fully understanding and implementing them takes time and practice. Here are some strategies to help you integrate these concepts into your training:

1. Focused Drilling: Dedicate time in each training session to drill techniques that emphasize these principles. For example, practice guard retention focusing on keeping your elbows in and maintaining inside position with your legs.

2. Situational Sparring: Set up specific scenarios that allow you to work on these principles. For instance, start in side control bottom and focus on creating effective frames to escape.

3. Mental Rehearsal: Before training, visualize yourself applying these principles in different situations. This mental practice can help reinforce the concepts.

4. Partner Feedback: Ask your training partners to give you feedback on how well you're implementing these principles during rolls.

5. Video Analysis: Record your sparring sessions and analyze them, paying special attention to moments where you successfully (or unsuccessfully) apply these principles.

6. Seek Instructor Guidance: Ask your instructors for specific drills or exercises that can help you better understand and apply these concepts.

Conclusion

Mastering the principles of keeping your elbows in, gaining inside position, and utilizing structure and frames will significantly enhance your Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu game. These concepts form the foundation upon which more advanced techniques and strategies are built.

Remember that fully grasping these principles is a gradual process. Don't be discouraged if you struggle to implement them consistently at first. With dedicated practice and mindful application, you'll find these concepts becoming second nature, leading to more efficient and effective grappling.

As you progress in your BJJ journey, you'll discover that these principles interconnect and reinforce each other. Keeping your elbows in often helps maintain inside position, while proper structure and framing can make it easier to keep your elbows close to your body.

By focusing on these fundamental principles early in your training, you're setting yourself up for long-term success in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. They will serve as a solid foundation as you continue to learn and grow in the art, helping you develop a more sophisticated and nuanced understanding of grappling dynamics.

Keep these principles in mind during your training, and you'll likely find yourself making faster progress and developing a more intuitive feel for the art of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

Article created from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azzYS65sqks