21 weeks of learning how to Jiu jitsu, with very little time spent on not getting Jiu jitsu’d. It’s a funny concept. We often practice defense, reversals, or recoveries, but we rarely work on something as simple as shutting down offense. So for this block I’m asking something very simple, but very difficult. Can we stay behind someone’s guard without getting swept, submitted or letting our opponent stand up. So lets start with that

Game 1: Working in pods of 4, I tasked the active player with maintaining a top position for 30 seconds. Bottom player will rotate 3 times so that the top player stays active for three 30 second periods. In each 30 second period the bottom player will aggressively attempt to sweep, submit or stand up. The top player’s goal is to maintain a safe top position without passing the guard. No matter how easy the guard pass is, the top player must remain behind the guard.

Discussion: The first thing I noticed is how easily bottom player was able to stand up. This was an outcome I was certain would happen right away. Top player has it in their mind that they cannot engage in the guard, so they stay away, forgetting that the bottom player can just stand up. This is an important concept that will come into play over and over in my guard classes. A guard player that is content to stay on their back will always have a hard time, but a guard player that is actively making attempts to stand will always be met with a top player that engages to keep them grounded. When the top player was able to stay engaged they struggled to not pass. It’s so engrained in us to take the easy guard pass, and I can’t argue against that in most cases. For now it’s important to understand that I want to only maintain a safe topside position. The goal being that the guard player is doing significantly more work that the top player. This is where the concept of camping comes into play. Make the guard player carry your weight and stay active, while top player only focuses on maintaining a safe top position.

Game 2: The format stays mostly the same with the only change being length of time active. For this round the top player will stay active for 1 minute. 3 rounds, bottom player rotates. Top player must remain in a safe topside position for the entire 1 minute.

Discussion: Now that our students have the necessary context to be successful in the game we are seeing huge improvements. I think the concept of not doing anything is hard for most grapplers. We always want to attacking and pushing the pace. But its important we understand how the high level matches are won. Everyone wants a 10 second finish but those are exceptionally rare. Most matches are won over the course of 5-10 minutes with a slow progression. This goes back to the idea that the grappler in control wants to slow down the match, the grappler that is losing needs to speed up the match. So understanding how to pin someone while behind their guard is a necessary skill to have to win against great grapplers.

Conclusion: This block is so interesting to me. So far, the less the student knows the better they understand these classes. The middle belts really struggle with this. I think it takes getting to black belt to really appreciate the value of being unjiujitsuable (put that on a rashguard). I’m going to repeat this same class on Wednesday, and potentially carry this on to next week with basically no changes. I really feel like this is something I need to drive into the students. As a white belt this is a super power, stay heavy, stay slow, be unjiujitsuable.