“Give me a lever long enough and I’ll move the world” —Some Greek guy who obviously knew jiu-jitsu.
Luckily in jiu-jitsu, we’re not moving planets. We’re just moving human beings.
With that said, in most cases, we have long enough levers AND we have the strength necessary to apply them. Leverage is what makes jiu-jitsu magical; it’s what allows smaller, weaker people to take on the bigger, stronger people (unless they also know how to use leverage.)
So, what is leverage?
A quick google search of “leverage” turns up the following
For the sake of this post, let’s talk about the following quotes from the above screenshot:
“The Exertion of Force by Means of a Lever”
“Mechanical Advantage”
“The Power to Influence a Person or Situation”
Perfect.
With regard to leverage, I provide the following riddle.
I ask “If you had to lift 200lbs off the ground, how would you do it?”
Usually the answer is along the lines of “deadlift”. This is a great answer if, and only if, you are trying to build muscle and/or get stronger.
BUT, lifting 200lbs off the ground in and of itself is inefficient. It takes a LOT of energy (relative to your strength). So, if you wanted an easier way to lift the 200lbs, how would you do it?
Some students reply with “I’d use a lever.” Excellent! This is a better answer.
Using a lever allows you to use less energy while still achieving the desired result.
Now, there is an even better way to move 200lbs. Very few students get the answer but I’ll go ahead and give it to you after a quick pause...
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Have you guessed yet?
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Get someone else to move it for you.
THIS is maximum leverage.
Getting another person to do your work for you is exactly what you should be aiming to do as a jiu-jitsu practitioner.
Now, in most cases against skilled opponents, they won’t let you move with their energy. People who are quite skilled understand when you are using their energy against them and are good at disengaging. This is where your job is to maintain connection (if offensive). So more often than not, you’ll be moving using the ground.
The ground is another way you can effectively connect and use as a lever since it is always fixed in space and cannot disconnect from you. You must disconnect from the ground, which is rarely a good idea.
Now so far, I hope I’ve been able to define the idea of leverage better for you. As of now, it’s a matter of making another human being do the work for you. If you’ve noticed that when you train with your instructors, if feels like you’re working much harder than they are, it’s because they’re using this principle (among other things). You are probably doing all the work for them.
Thus, we’ve been able to show leverage as defined by the statement “the power to influence a person”, but this takes a lot of time to get good at.
For now, you’ll want to understand leverage as developing a “mechanical advantage” per the definition.
Beyond the paywall, I’ll post some older videos that are worth a watch. These videos will talk all about leverage and how to use levers of the upper body and lower body including a sparring narration showing how leverage works in context.
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