E192 | Reimagining BJJ Fundamentals: The Invisible Concepts That Actually Make Technique Work

Transcript with Timestamps

00:00 Welcome to Tapped In. My name is David Figueroa-Martinez of DFM Coaching, and today we're going to be discussing the fundamentals of Jiu-Jitsu. If you have been training for a bit, you'll notice that often classes, classes... oftentimes classes are set up by fundamentals or intro versus advanced. And when you watch a fundamentals class, if you know what you're looking for, you notice that there isn't really a difference between the techniques that are being shown and those that would be shown in an advanced class.

00:50 An armbar is very complicated. A kimura can be very complicated. A scissor sweep can be very complicated, and we can look at it and be like, "Oh well, it's a simple sweep." No, there's a lot of moving parts to it. There's a lot of ifs and maybes and if they angle themselves this way and that way. Jiu-Jitsu is complicated. And so I always get a... I always raise an eyebrow to when people say "fundamentals." And when you look at those classes, and I was part of the recording of a fundamentals program, and that program had a ton of techniques in it.

01:41 And looking back at it, and I was just there as uke, but looking back at it, I, with more experienced eyes, I don't think I would have labeled a whole lot of that "fundamentals." There wasn't really much of a difference between that and an advanced class. And sometimes in the course of the fundamentals, there were just individual... individual techniques that didn't always connect. And that may have just been the person who was putting them together.

02:22 But there was too much paid into the techniques themselves, opposed to like fundamental concepts. And I completely get the advertisement or the need to break between someone who's new, let's say first couple of months, and someone who's been around for a couple of years, and how it's useful to make a split in the class. Whether we want to call it fundamentals or something else is probably a better debate for this.

03:07 Because at the quote-unquote "fundamentals" level, you want to create that class so that people can get used to training with other people around the same levels. And then you may or may not allow them to roll, specifically the first couple of classes. You may just want them to see what rolling is like and then put them together with someone else of similar or just a bit more experience level. You don't necessarily, in most cases, want to put them up against someone who's a brown belt, for example. Unless your class structure on the mat size just doesn't allow for it, and you have helpful colored belts that go out of their way to kind of help people and, you know, usher them through and coach them through the roll.

04:03 That's great. I think what we really need to focus on when it comes to fundamentals is, yes, the techniques, but more what's behind them. What's setting up the techniques that allows them to actually function. Those things that will traverse any one given technique and you'll find them behind other techniques. So we can discuss the fundamentals as in like "essential," but really it should be, again, about what really makes things work. It's almost like the invisible shit that's really hard to put a finger on sometimes.

04:53 And things like, if you're going to show techniques at the fundamental level, emphasize, and I know some of us do this really well, but we have to emphasize things like alignment. Breakdown why a straight spine, quote-unquote "posture," works one way, but if you're able to bend that spine, it works to your advantage. Or why someone who's being pulled into the guard and their body, their spine is curved, it's more advantageous for the attacker, the person playing guard, than if their spine is straight and their head is up.

05:43 So breaking that alignment. Breaking the alignment of structure, if you're passing the guard. Understanding things like pressure. Understanding things like wedges. Things like distance management. Those are really the things that are more fundamental that really need to be discussed. And when I talk about why a technique works, oftentimes I try to, at least, specify those aspects. I specify a lot of the why behind a technique that I might teach.

06:26 And it really depends on who's in the class. If I have a lot of upper belts, then maybe I don't harp too far on that because I expect that they have understood this element by the time they got to purple, brown, and so on. But things like, if I'm teaching a fundamentals class of someone who's brand new, the first couple of months, I'm going to talk a lot about alignment. And there's certain things that I love to do when it comes to alignment where I'm either twisting them, or I'm bending them, either sideways or breaking the posture.

07:12 And those two, those elements of breaking that alignment, go a long way when you're passing the guard. Like let's say we do, uh... I can't... I don't remember what it's called. It's from knee shield, you have one arm behind the thigh, and then you're grabbing the pants of the bottom leg, and then I get a grip on the collar. I tend to twist them up there. When twisting them up, they don't have the power to fend you off. So then I discuss how that element is huge for you.

07:53 I love to discuss the element of when I'm knee cutting, and I pass the knee, the hip line, and I'm no longer having any trapped feet, I like to push my hips back, taking small steps, and making their knees face the other way. Because then, it makes it harder for them to come back and try to regain the guard, and it also allows me to encourage them to turtle away, which gives me the back.

08:29 I like to discuss when I'm in side control, the arm that's controlling the head, I will palm the mat and then walk my fingers so that there's a curve in their spine, forcing the neck... neck and upper body to be pushed away. It's harder for them to come back and regain a guard when they're not aligned correctly. Things like that are super important. Because then you start to understand, oh, when I have posture broken, it allows me to submit people better, or to sweep people better.

09:14 The other thing I like to do is you sometimes grab the crown of the head or the upper part of the head, and you hold that in place, and then they are not able to posture up very well. The other thing is, when you're in side control, pulling the head and making them look the opposite way. So now, bridging into you is difficult. Those are characteristics or approaches that are going to be used regardless of what belt you are, and they're super important regardless of the attacking sequence that you have set up afterwards.

10:01 They're just useful things to know. But we don't necessarily teach all that in many fundamentals classes, at least the ones that I've been in. I'm sure there are classes out of there and instructors out of there that are doing it at a basic level and doing a fantastic job. I don't normally see that there. It's usually not something you start seeing until you've kind of moved up a bit or you gain more experience.

10:30 The other thing is harping and really focusing on frames. And early on, sometimes we think frames are just pushing away. It's not exactly it. If I'm pushing with a bent arm, I can only push for so long. If I have straight arms and framing, then I can push for a bit longer because the structure of my arms is one, opposed to there's a bend and now I'm using musculature.

11:08 There's also the kind of framing that I do when I'm in side control and I'm framing against the hip from bottom. I'm not using my wrist and hand. I'm using more the elbow or the... the part of the forearm that's closest to the elbow. That allows me, so again, similar to when my arms are straight, to frame against weight. And I have a couple of training partners who are black belts and are much larger than me, and that saves my life sometimes. Sometimes it doesn't matter. Sometimes they... they crush it anyway.

11:45 But if I was using my hand, I would get into territory of when they start almost wrist locking you or dropping the weight real hard and almost... almost biceps slicing you without the actual bicep slicer. It's a weird sensation, I hate it. So those are things that we start to look at, start looking at how do I create frames with my knees when I'm in bottom of half guard?

12:18 The knee shield. That framing is so important. And yes, some of us are great at explaining it at a fundamental level. But oftentimes we don't really learn the art of it until we get later. And those are things that should really be taught at the fundamental level, so that they understand the importance of these keys no matter what they're doing. Oftentimes we have it the other way around and we're trying to teach techniques in hopes that they understand the other part. But it's really that aspect that really needs to change a little bit.

13:06 The other thing that I like to teach early is... is weight distribution and pressure. Pressure, again, me coming up, was not something we learned until a little later. I want them to understand weight and pressure early. And I'm not saying that they're understanding it completely, but I do have some white belts that are starting to get it and they at least feel heavy. Can I feint one way and get their weight to move and then take advantage of rolling them the other way? Yes.

13:46 They haven't quite mastered that yet, of course. They're... they're new. But I can at least feel their weight. And it's super important to get them to understand how to drop their weight with their hips, how to make people carry their weight on their chest opposed to their knees, how to position the weight so it's a little uncomfortable. They're not going to be masters at it, but you want them to be heavy. You want them to understand, "Oh, I need to be a little... I need to be... I need to impose myself here."

14:31 And oftentimes, when you're going against white belt, and sometimes even blue belts, they're really nice with their weight. I know sometimes I get guys who come in from like... at an open mat and I'm rolling with them and they are serious and they're imposing themselves in the technique of like trying to get this armbar, trying to get this sweep, this pass, but they're gentle with me with their weight. And I... I sometimes catch myself and I'm like, "Hey, you're being too nice to me right now." And they'll look at me like, "What... what do you mean?"

15:13 And I have to explain it to them and I'm like, "This is what you feel like," and then I do it. And they're like, "Okay." "This is what I want you to start feeling like," and I start dropping my weight and they're like, "Oh, okay, I see the difference." But again, sometimes we don't convey that message. You're supposed to use everything at your disposal: your frames, your knees, your elbows, your shins, your forearms, your weight.

15:47 You're supposed to impose yourself not just with technique, but with weight. I want people to feel like, "Oh, being on bottom sucks." And so I try to convey that early. And one... one of my funnest things for me is getting the lightest person in the room to understand it. Because it's an advertisement for everyone else. If I can get the 130-pound person to really understand weight distribution and... and pressure so that they feel like they're 180, 190, 200, everyone else kind of takes notice.

16:34 Because now, oh, if he can do it, if this person can do it who doesn't have a whole lot of imposing weight just carrying around, if they can do it then imagine the person who's 200 pounds. Person who's 215. And that starts to feel different. So that ends up being a little advertiser for me. So then other people start asking me, "How do you... so how do I put weight? How do I put pressure down?"

17:03 And it takes time and you got to understand where to put it. But those are one of the fundamentals that I think we should be discussing more, earlier. Way earlier. Um, one of the things that I've noticed, I think it's changing, but I noticed for a while there was that upper belts weren't doing it either. Upper belts were really utilizing speed and transition and moving from one position to the next. Which is great, especially if you're young.

17:42 But when you start getting older, you're injured, or you got an ailment, and you don't have the ability to create pressure, people escape real easily. So my... my goal is to introduce it super early so it's a tactic that they can use, regardless of whether they are about speed and momentum and... and shifts. So that when they need to drop that weight, they have it in their back pocket.

18:17 Um, the other thing that I try to convey early is understanding how to create dilemmas. For example, one that comes up quite often, and I don't know why, from side control and from mount. One of the most quote-unquote "fundamental" submissions that I see across the board is americana. For whatever reason, I don't know if it's Jiu-Jitsu, I don't know if it's the way we teach it, I don't know if it's just across the board, it's a very like... easy to make a mental connection with.

18:57 They get their americana, and when the bottom person resists, they kind of move on to something else. But they had the... they had the figure-four grip. And what I've had to teach some of the students is: do not bail on that, that's gold. If I'm not allowing you to submit me with it because maybe I'm putting my head back on the inside, or maybe I'm grabbing my hands, or maybe I'm stronger than you, transition to mount.

19:33 I have them transition to mount because now they've created a dilemma in side control. They've focused all my energy and my focus to defending the americana. Then now, the legs are sometimes busy. They're not... it's not your focus. So then they transition to mount. And then once I get them to transition to mount, they think it's done and then they let go. And I'm like, "No, no, no, keep it." You can still finish from mount.

20:06 And then they try it and they figure out, "Oh yeah, I can." And then I say, "And if I continue to defend, what's the next route?" And they're not quite understanding and I'm like, "Okay. I might bridge to the other side and pull my arm in. Continue with the lock. That's going to transition to an armbar." So that's what I mean by creating these little dilemmas. You want your opponent to have to make a decision that's tough for them, one that you know you might have the answers to, and then you generate a course of action that benefits you best.

20:53 So when you get that americana from side control, maybe you finish, you win. Maybe they extend the arm, you chase an armbar. Maybe they extend the arm or they curve it down to the hip, now you're going to chase kimura. So there's going to be a cat-and-mouse game there. But let's say you have the americana and you just can't finish, but you can go to mount. Go to mount. Advance the position and make it worse for them.

21:24 If you can't finish the americana still, advance the position and start turning everything into an armbar. Like today, for example, we had... I rolled with a woman and she had a slight, tight... but I was able to kind of like... lean to the side a little bit and give myself air. And her next move should have been an armbar, but she didn't see that it was there. So I had to walk her through it.

22:01 We get so fixated on the one submission that we forget or don't see the other possibilities. And... and yes, that comes with time. But also, it should come with getting people to understand the relationship of submissions to other submissions and other possibilities. And when you go to a... sometimes when you go to a fundamentals class, and you see they have, I don't know, 32 techniques, 52 techniques, whatever it might be, but the techniques don't really, like, they don't feed into each other and they don't discuss the dilemmas that they can create.

22:50 There's an... there's a shortcoming there. And that's kind of like... the way I teach is: you have an option, you create a dilemma, you have another option, you create another dilemma, until there are no more options other than victory. And I try to teach in more connecting. And that's, in my opinion, what we should be doing. Um, so again, when you coach these fundamentals classes, yes, you want them to know technique, and you want them to understand technique, and you want them to understand the naming conventions of positions and so on.

23:41 But really, you want to teach the underlying current between each technique and the... the approach that you can take from one technique right into the next. You know, like I mentioned, posture, framing. One that I forgot to mention that I tend to tell people, like I think I mentioned this today: if you can't move your opponent, move yourself. Like, I didn't learn that until later. I didn't understand it. I'm trying to move this wall and the wall is telling me, "I am not going to move." Move.

24:26 So if I can't move the wall, I move me. And that's one of those things like when you hip escape and you got them off, just off balance a little bit when you're trying to escape mount, and you got the... your forearm in their hip and you're trying to get the legs out and they don't move, hip escape. Get the legs in that way. So these are things that we should be teaching them early so then they can apply it to all the other things that they're going to see.