Jiu-jitsu Made Simple: Distance, Frames and Hooks
Distance management, in my mind, is one of the easiest concepts to learn in jiu-jitsu. It can be explained quite easily with the following two sentences:
If you’re attacking, close distance. If you’re defending, create distance.
In jiu-jitsu, understanding distance and how to management is monumentally important. If you cannot manage distance, your offense AND your defense will suffer. What makes this simple concept more complex is the dynamic aspect of jiu-jitsu. It’s not enough to create and close distance, you have to know WHEN to create or close based on where you’re at in the offensive or defensive cycle.
The complexity becomes complicated because sometimes, all it takes is one little bit of off-balancing or one grip that means the difference between attacking or being attacked so these shifts from offense to defense (from closing distance to creating it) are subtle and happen instantly.
Today I’m going to talk about the importance of distance and get into aspects of controlling distance (Frames and Hooks). The main idea here is this:
It’s not enough to manage distance in one direction but rather, you have to learn how to manage distance to and fro; your opponent has to be stuck and cannot move away from or towards you.
With that said, controlling and maintaining an effective attack distance requires that you not only frame to keep an opponent from getting too close but also use hooks to keep them from moving away. This puts them in an optimal attack zone where they’re in perfect range of your attacks.
Furthermore, in this email, I’ll give you a glimpse as to when to use frames and when to use hooks depending on where in the offensive/defensive cycle you’re in. This part is much more nuanced but by the end of it, you should have a solid idea of when you should be trying to close or create distance in order to be safe and when to switch it up into an attack.
So, to summarize, here’s what you’re getting today:
Why Distance is so important
How to use Frames and Hooks to to Manage Distance
The Optimal “Attack Zone” and how to use Frames and Hooks together
By the end of it, you should have a solid understanding of how to manage distance more effectively and further, give you some knowledge of how they relate to attack cycles.
Let’s dive in!
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