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MANIFESTO
Techniques are useless without the right Strategy
Table of Contents
Forward...........................................................................Page 3
Introduction......................................................................Page 4
Conclusion........................................................................Page 41
Forward
Introduction
(1)
(2)
(3)
I want to emphasize that Jiu Jitsu does not work when forcing
the TECHNIQUES. The techniques of Jiu Jitsu work best when
applied based on the MISTAKE of your opponent. That is the most
important difference, and will be explained throughout this book.
This book is unique because it is about the STRATEGY.
The amount of technique explained in this book is minimal.
Techniques are a dime a dozen. There are millions of opportunities
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CHAPTER 1
Three Ways to Create the Mistake
Click the Play button or the link on the bottom to view the video.
http://www.bjjmanifesto.com/waitforthemistake.html
Wait For The Mistake
Click the Play button or the link on the bottom to view the video.
http://www.bjjmanifesto.com/whattimeisitgrip.html
What Time Is It Grip
Click the Play button or the link on the bottom to view the video.
http://www.bjjmanifesto.com/shoulderpressure.html
Shoulder Pressure
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everybody has a threshold, and its your job to use PATIENCE and
PRESSURE to reach it.
In looking at this strategy of forcing a mistake, it can be
broken down to a formula. Its Pressure + Patience = Mistakes =
Submission. Your focus should be on creating pressure and
discomfort, not looking for submission holds. The submission
comes after the pressure. So when you get to a dominant position
mount, or side mount, your outlook is not to start looking around
for submission holds. You need to start looking for ways to create
pressure. Again, the two ways that are the most consistently
successful are Shoulder Pressure and the What Time Is It Grip. So
when you get to a dominant position, start applying pressure
immediately. Eventually this pressure will get to your opponent and
will cause your opponent to reach or flip the wrong way. We make
certain assumptions that a skilled opponent is not going to make
these mistakes without you creating pressure or discomfort. In
conclusion, everybody will eventually make a mistake if you put
enough pressure on them.
Trick the Mistake
This is a more advanced strategy for setting up the
submission in Jiu-Jitsu. This makes the assumption that your
opponent is an advanced player. He is someone who understands
the art of Jiu-Jitsu, the nature of submissions, and is not going to
easily walk into a submission hold.
Tricking a mistake entails multiple strategies. One of the
more popular ones is setting up one submission to get to the other
(i.e., Guillotine Choke from the Guard to get to the Triangle).
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Click the Play button or the link on the bottom to view the video.
http://www.bjjmanifesto.com/trickthemistake.html
Trick The Mistake
magic punches, its just better use of the punches and mastery of
combinations. The same could be said for Jiu Jitsu. We can set
patterns and get our opponent to believe certain techniques are
coming and get him to anticipate, then change the pattern or
technique and catch him out of position. This strategy is more
common in striking but certainly has plenty of use in Jiu Jitsu. To
illustrate this strategy, here is a video example using the Americana
shoulder lock.
Click the Play button or the link on the bottom to view the video.
http://www.bjjmanifesto.com/settingpatternsandbreakingthem.html
Setting Patterns and Breaking Them
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CHAPTER 2
Structure of Training
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Repetition of Moves
The most important barometer you can use for each and
every roll you have is not winning or losing, but it is the repetition of
moves. Repetition, repetition, repetition! ALWAYS judge success
by repetition. A very common trap that newer students fall into is to
judge success during a roll by not getting tapped by a more
advanced grappler. This is the recipe for stalling your improvement
in Jiu Jitsu. In order for the newer student not to get tapped, he
usually relies on slowing the match and limiting the transitions.
Getting better in the art quickly is dependent upon being in as many
transitions as possible. Focusing on not getting tapped is a very
hollow victory because it limits your transitions, repetitions, and
growth. Its better to get tapped 10 times while trying 25 different
techniques then to not get tapped at all because youve tried
nothing.
Lets take two scenarios, with the same guy in each
scenario. In the first scenario, the guy worries about winning and
losing. He doesnt go for any moves, but he doesnt lose the
match. Lets say he has 200 matches like this. At the end of the
200th match, if you look at the amount submission holds he has
tried, its going to be minimal to zero because he focused most of
his training time worrying about always winning or not losing the
match.
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Chapter 3
Position Specific Strategies
All the main positions in Jiu Jitsu have strategies very specific
to them. The main positions top and bottom are: Mount, Side
mount, Back mount, Half guard, and Guard. We are now going to
highlight our PROVEN strategies that have worked successfully in
grappling and MMA competition.
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Click the Play button or the link on the bottom to view the video.
http://www.bjjmanifesto.com/postureintheguard.html
Posture in the Guard
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Click the Play button or the link on the bottom to view the video.
http://www.bjjmanifesto.com/baitthesubmission3ways.html
Bait the Submission 3 Ways
Bottom Guard
There are many different types of guard i.e. Butterfly,
Open, Spider, 50/50, Goofy Guard etc, but no matter what the type
of guard, the strategies are all the same. The most effective way to
use the guard is as a countering tool. I want my opponent to initiate
either the pass, or to try to strike me to open up submission and
sweeping opportunities. We are not saying that you cant initiate
first in the guard and be successful. But it does lower your chances
and open up easier opportunities for your opponent to pass your
guard. As mentioned earlier, there are many different types of
guards, but a good rule of thumb is if your legs are not closed in the
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full guard, at least one of your feet if not both feet should be on your
opponents hips at all times. This foot on hip position will allow
you to create space at any given moment and make passing the
open guard VERY difficult.
One of the most tried and true strategies of setting up
submissions is using the foot on hip position to defend the guard
and frustrate your opponent while he tries to pass you. Eventually
when frustration builds up enough it causes mistakes (such as bad
posture) which we can now take advantage of to submit or sweep.
If your feet are not on the hips in the open guard you have no ability
to control distance and severely limit your chances of stopping your
opponent from passing your guard. As a bonus we will show you a
video of how the foot on hips works to control distance and also
show you the best drill in the world on how to develop your foot on
hip open guard.
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Click the Play button or the link on the bottom to view the video.
http://www.bjjmanifesto.com/openguarddrill.html
Open Guard Drill
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When you have the mount, your opponent, left to his own
devices, will not stick his arm up in the air so you can arm bar him.
He will not roll to his stomach so you can rear naked choke him.
Again, were talking about a skilled opponent here. But that same
skilled opponent, when given the right stimulus (i.e., the what time
is it grip or the shoulder pressure) it is not If they will make a
mistake, but when. How long it will take depends on their pain
threshold.
Every opponent has a pain or pressure threshold where he
will knowingly put his arm or neck in harms way in exchange for
releasing some of the pressure you are inflicting. At that moment in
time, your opponent is broken and hes given up the mistake that
youve been waiting for.
For this strategy to work, you need to truly believe in it and
use pressure and patience as your friends to break your opponents
will. The only variable, again, is time. Every opponent has a
threshold. Constant pressure and patience will yield the results
youre looking for and create the mistakes you were waiting on.
(Refer back to the "What Time Is It" video to see this mount
strategy)
control their head. There will be times, usually just after passing
the guard, where you will NEED to control the hips first, but once
established in the position, using head control is far easier and
efficient. In comparison to the mount there are more submissions
available in the side mount position. Where the side mount lacks is
in its ability to allow you to deliver devastating strikes because you
have to stay tight to control the position. Much like the mounted
position the ideal strategy is to use pressure to create a mistake
and then to capitalize on that mistake to submit or advance your
position. Remember, there are so many techniques available to
you in the side mount but you will not have the opportunity to
use them if you do not control your opponent with head
pressure. (Refer back to the "Shoulder Pressure" video to see this
side mount strategy.)
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Top Half Guard
Again, its going to sound like a very common
theme with the top positions, but what Im looking to do is secure
head pressure first. I dont like to think of passing the half guard as
getting my leg out from between my opponents legs. I like to think
of it as creating so much pressure that my opponent is forced to
release my leg. This is done almost exclusively with the shoulder
pressure. We dont use the what time is it grip very much from
here. Its all about shoulder pressure, and being consistent with the
shoulder pressure.
The only thing you need is pressure and patience. If I get
put in a half guard, I look to secure my pressure, I look to lock them
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down with my shoulder and I look to push across their face to turn
them away from me. This does many things. One, it keeps them
from using the half guard position to sweep me. Again, it creates a
sense of discomfort, a sense of pain, and even a sense of choke (a
true blood choke.) No matter how strong you are, no matter what
type of pain tolerance you have, no matter what your resistance is,
this position will start to wear on you. Eventually, youre going to
turn enough where I slide right into the mounted position.
We can spend all day going through different techniques to
passing the half guard, but we feel that this is the best strategy.
Locking down pressure, letting pressure do the work, and then
advance your position. One thing to keep in mind is that pressure
and patience are always your friends on top.
Click the Play button or the link on the bottom to view the video.
http://www.bjjmanifesto.com/shoulderpressurefromhalfguard.html
Shoulder Pressure From Half Guard
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Bottom Mount
The bottom mount is certainly an inferior position. Again,
like every position, one of the things you have to ask yourself in the
bottom mount is, is it beneficial for me to go first or second? In the
bottom mount, its always better for you to go second. You dont
really have the cards in your hand when youre on the bottom of the
mounted position. The guy on top is holding all the good cards. All
things being equal: size, strength and other physical attributes, if
you try to be aggressive about getting out of the mount, if you try to
bump your hips, turn, or force the elbow escape, youre probably
going to walk your way into a submission hold.
There are two stages of somebody mounting you that you
need to be concerned about. They are the Holding Mode and
Attack Mode. Holding Mode is when somebody gets mounted on
you then tries to hold you down. He has no intention of submitting
you and is content to stay on top and neutralize any escape
attempts. Attack Mode is obviously when your opponent is less
concerned with holding position and starts to open up with
submission attempts.
If youre on the bottom and start fighting hard to get out,
the person on top is never going to leave the Holding Mode stage of
the mount. Hes going to do everything he can to hold the position
and not really ever try to submit you. Remember, he has a lot of
advantages in the mount position and one of them is that if he
decides to do nothing but hold, it will be almost impossible to get
out. Even an opponent of lesser experience can be extremely hard
to get out of the mount if his only intention is to hold the position.
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Attempting to escape at this time will also gas you out while your
opponent is resting in their holding mode.
The key to escaping the mount is to put your opponent in
Attack Mode. When he opens up with his attacks he is also going
to create more space and give you your best chance to escape the
position. It is a risk, but a necessary one if you want to be able to
consistently escape the mount. A further benefit of this strategy is
that it allows you more practice at feeling the transitions and thus
increasing your Jiu Jitsu awareness. Maybe when you first start
employing this strategy you will get submitted often, but it is one of
those situations where you need to go two steps back to jump five
steps forward. Being passive and letting your opponent start
attack mode is far from something that feels natural. What feels
natural is to fight to get out of there but that will consistently keep
your opponent in Hold Mode and thus make it VERY hard to
escape. Sometimes you have to take big risks to get big rewards.
So, remember during training, fight the urge to go ballistic when you
get mounted and relax. Sit back and watch your opponent switch
modes and watch what he is trying to set up and sure enough, in
time, you will start to see easy opportunities to escape that you
would never get by being aggressive and going first.
When we talk about opportunities for escape, were really
talking about two specific escapes. They are the Upa and Elbow
Escape. The Upa is the basic bridge and roll. We are looking to
trap our opponents arm and leg on the same side and roll them
over into their guard. This technique is far less useful then the
Elbow Escape. The Elbow Escape is the only escape that
consistently works against high level grapplers. It involves
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(If you cant get the under hook then place your forearm under your opponents throat. Notice
how his inside elbow is underneath the opponent.)
(His right elbow is glued to his hip and his left arm is in the under hook position)
really are only two techniques for you to escape; the Elbow Escape
and the Upa with the under-hook. The key variable is WHEN you
use it, that is going to be the deciding factor on whether you escape
or not. If you are too aggressive and try to force the escape from
the bottom, more often then not, youre going to fail. However; if
youre bigger and stronger than the person youre fighting,
sometimes you can force the escape. The problem comes when
the person youre fighting is bigger, stronger, and more skilled than
you. You will need to wait for your opportunity. You need to get
your arms into position and relax. Then, wait for that moment in
time when he stops holding and start trying to submit you, because
at that time he opens a nice space giving you an opportunity to
elbow escape or sneak out the back door.
side and get the far side under hook. Without these two
components in place your opponent will probably pass and
establish side mount. When we say being on your side in bottom
half guard we really mean being almost face down having our
shoulders 45 degrees to the floor. This will prevent your opponent
from flattening you out and passing and give you your best
opportunity to sweep or return to guard. Look at the pictures below
illustrating what we mean by being on your side and having the far
side under hook.
(Notice how the bottom guy has the under hook on the same side of the leg he is trapping.
This is the far side under hook.)
(Notice how he is on his side almost 45 degrees towards the floor belly down.)
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Due to the fact that the bottom half guard strategy is simple,
we decided to include our favorite half technique system we call the
GOOFY GUARD as a Free Bonus. Enjoy!
Click the Play button or the link on the bottom to view the video.
http://www.bjjmanifesto.com/thegoofyguard.html
FREE BONUS VIDEO: GOOFY GUARD TECHNIQUE
(Seatbelt Grip)
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You would not think that this is the best strategy while being in
such a dominant position. Naturally you would think that getting
aggressive and going for the finish as soon as possible would be
the right strategy. While it is counterintuitive to be in the back
position with your seatbelt locked doing nothing but waiting for the
person to reach down for the hooks, it is a very consistently
successful strategy.
If you would like to see a great example of someone who
consistently uses this strategy then watch some of Marcelo Garcia's
matches.
Click the Play button or the link on the bottom to view the video.
http://www.bjjmanifesto.com/backpositionoffense.html
Back Position Offense
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Click the Play button or the link on the bottom to view the video.
http://www.bjjmanifesto.com/escapingtheback.html
Escaping the Back
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Conclusion
If your strategy is right then many techniques will work, but
if your strategy is wrong it doesnt matter what technique you try, it
will probably fail. Jiu Jitsu isnt just about learning a collection of
techniques. Jiu Jitsu is equal parts STRATEGY, TECHNIQUE,
and STRUCTURING YOUR TRAINING properly. Focusing on only
one of these parts while neglecting the others is a recipe for failure.
You need to think not just about what technique you use but why
you are using it and what is the best way you can become proficient
with it. This book is a helpful guide to understand the strategic
aspects of Jiu Jitsu along with how to structure your training to be
as efficient as possible in a world where not everyone can focus all
their time on training. Life, jobs, family etc. all have a way of cutting
into the amount of time you would like to train. If you are not
focusing on the strategies and training structure in this book, you
are wasting valuable training time. Best of luck in your training and
we will see you on the mat!!
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