An Intelligent Training Approach to Jiu-jitsu
Understanding "Bottom-up" and "Top-Down" Approaches
"How should I train?"
Chances are, you've probably asked yourself this question at least once. The truth is, you never really answer this question because your training in jiu-jitsu will forever be dynamic. It will constantly evolve and grow with your journey.
For the veterans who have been doing this for a while, we're still more or less adapting and figuring things out and we're still asking ourselves "How should I be training jiu-jitsu" every once in a while.
It really is a great question . and the question isn't limited to just beginners. It's a problem that everyone has regardless of rank and I think eventually, it situates after years of experience. The thing is, you probably don't want to wait a long time to figure it out. You want to know how to train jiujitsu ASAP so that you can maximize your training progress.
Maximizing your Training Approach
Well, here's my thoughts on how you can maximize things.
I used to be a huge proponent of working from the bottom up.
In other words, you start with your foundation and go from there.
The foundation for jiu-jitsu is self-defense. This means that the foundation for your training will be defending submissions and learning positional escapes. This is, of course, a technical foundation that doesn't include some of the conceptual stuff like off-balancing or timing. That would lead us down a whole other rabbit-hole that goes beyond the scope of this email (which is specifically how you should focus your learning and training from technical and positional perspectives).
Now, if you consider this bottom up approach then you must start with your foundation and work on your defense. Then what?
Historically I've taught my students to build from there.
You create a great defense and then focus a little on learning how to attack from your defense and then see what sticks. There's one huge challenge with this philosophy and in my opinion, if you continue to only focus on defense and foundations, you're always left wondering "what's next?" after your defense gets rock-solid.
So, yes, you should be focusing all of your time as a beginner on learning fundamentals and positional defense.
BUT, what about some of the other things that are essential to your training like submissions and attacks?
This is where your own personal brand of jiu-jitsu will start to develop further. And in my opinion, this is where you can't stay focused on a "Bottom-up" approach to training.
Here's an example:
I have a student. He lost two competitions but in those competitions I noticed he almost hit some Kimuras. For whatever reason, he was unable to capitalize but I realized he had an aptitude for the Kimura. For the post-competition feedback, I suggested he dive deep into Kimuras. I suggested he check out Vagner's Kimura trap system so he did. A few, short months later, he started hitting them left and right. His game has improved tremendously.
It got me thinking: If too much emphasis is placed on defense, then how good will you ever become at offense?
You see... Building a strong foundation is great but rather than focus 100% on building a foundation, you also need to identify the things you're good at. You have to throw enough "shit to the wall" to see what sticks. And if the shit sticks, then you don't need to throw more of it to the wall. This is what made me start thinking of a "top down" approach to jiu-jitsu.
Looking Back: A Top-Down Approach to Training Jiu-jitsu
Interestingly, my journey as a beginner was quite the opposite to "bottom-up". My game as a beginner was very much focused on attack-first. I got quite good at leglocks and guillotines (as a white belt lol) and I abandoned most of this top-down approach when I moved to a more "fundamentals-based" school.
It's interesting to me because this was a time when leglocks were frowned upon. I often look back at my NoGi game and wonder "What would've been?" No less, because of the move, I became more focused on positional defense and less focused on the attacks that worked well for me (a transition from top-down to bottom-up).
Now, I want to clarify that building from the bottom up is important, especially at the beginning stages. But I think it's equally important to spend some time nurturing your strength instead of focusing 100% on your defense. So how should you balance?
How to Train Jiu-jitsu "Top-Down"
Ok, before I continue, I want to emphasize what I mean by a "Top-down" approach to training jiu-jitsu.
Recall that the end-game of jiu-jitsu is positional control that leads to submission. The end-game of jiu-jitsu is the attack itself. So therefore, if you can identify attacks that you are good at and nurture those attacks, then you will be focusing on the top and working your way backwards.
Here's what I mean:
Say for example, you notice you're pretty good at a triangle. The first thing you need to note is how you are catching these triangles. This pathway to submissions or sweeps is generally a little-thought-about thing in jiu-jitsu. People tend to get an idea for what they're catching but not too aware of HOW they're catching them.
Therefore, if you start to really analyze HOW you're starting to catch these techniques you have an aptitude for, you can start to work backwards. The first step, as example is this:
I'm really good at catching triangles. I catch them from open guard (say, Spider Guard as example).
Now we have the beginning for a "top down" approach.
You're good at triangles from spider guard. Now you work from there. This is where you ask yourself the following questions:
How do I get into spider guard?
Are you transitioning from closed guard?
Are you pulling straight to spider guard?
Are you just randomly ending up there?
And if so, dive deep into HOW you're "randomly" ending up there. There's no such thing as "random". If it's random, then it's likely you have an aptitude for it that's subconsciously automatic.
What happens when my triangle fails? This is going to help with your transitions especially when people start figuring out that your A game is triangles from spider guard.
Can I hit triangles from other guards that are related to Spider? This is where the exploration into other guards can come into play, especially hybrid guards like Spider-DLR and Spider SLX.
There are many more questions you can ask yourself but these 3 are a great start. What you'll end up noticing is that over time, you can work top down from that spider guard attack to the foundations you're currently building.
An example here is:
Side control escape to Open Guard to Spider Guard to Triangle.
In other words, if your spider guard gets passed and your retention fails, then you should be able to link the side control escape and the transition to open guard (and vice-versa).
The same with mount escapes:
Mount escape to Single Leg X. Single Leg X??? Yes, Spider Guard and Single Leg X are closely related. If you asked yourself those questions earlier, you could make this connection and begin working SLX and X Guards as a transition from Spider.
And so on and so forth.
To recap on a Top-Down Approach to Training Jiu-jitsu
Action Items:
In the beginning, think "80/20". Focus 80% of your training on defense and positional and submission escapes. If you focus 100% on weaknesses, this can create well-rounded practitioners who are great at defense but not great at much else. Remember, the end-game of jiu-jitsu is positional control that leads to submission. You need to be oriented to your attacks in the beginning but not on ALL attacks. Just the ones that seem to be working.
If you focus 100% on strengths, you could create yourself to be one-dimensional. The downside to this is that once people start figuring you out, it will be hard to execute any of your attacks because you'll end up getting stuck in defense. Again, the trick is to focus something like 80/20. In the beginning, you focus 80% on building a strong foundation of positional defense and find the things you're good at and nurture only those things.
Over time, as you get better and better to the point where you have already created a strong defense, you can shift your focus to 80% offense (the things you're good at) and 20% on maintaining your foundation and defense. This is where I believe you get to nurture your strengths and continue nurturing them into what will eventually become your game.
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