Mind-Mapping your Jiu-jitsu: From Escapes to Attacks [Sparring Narration]

“Professor, how do I find my game?”

I get this question a lot, particularly from beginners with just a little bit of experience.

My advice is usually the same unless I find the student has a particular aptitude for something. I say, “just focus on defense.” In some cases, I add “once you start finding things that work for you, you can start to nurture those things, but until then, stay focused on your defense.”

Defense hasn’t changed much over time.

There are technical nuances added to many of the common defenses we’ve practiced over the last few decades but the reality is, side control, mount and back escapes are still more or less fundamentally the same. What one means when they refer to their “game” is their offensive style and how they play the game of jiu-jitsu.

For me, since I was a white belt, I always loved leg entanglements like single X and X guard. I grew to love half-guard and half-butterfly variations and ultimately combined them to make up my “game”. So when it comes to “mind-mapping” my jiu-jitsu, these are areas that I do my best to get to from the jump.

Now, I’ve posted about my preferred take-down strategy (mind-mapping my takedowns) that I use in Gi and NoGi. The only difference is in NoGi I tend to predominantly use my foot sweeps to get to front headlock positions and work from there.

If I pull guard, however, I’m very quickly looking for my leg entanglements: X and Single X.

Now, what about if I’m mounted? What about if I’m pinned in side control? What about if I have my back taken?

These positions are not ideal but, they can still be treated as a “reset position” meaning that the funnel from start to finish can begin with the positional escape. [If you’re unfamiliar with this funnel, check out this post here]

Now remember a key concept:

You should ALWAYS have a precise plan to get from point A (opening) to point B (submission) as directly as possible. You also need to be able to adapt as well as bring things back to positions of strength which will get you to your point B.

Being in defensive positions is not an exception to this rule. Your goal in a defensive position is to get into a position of strength so that you can get back to your point B and submit.

In today’s email, I’m going to show you how I get back to these positions from having my back taken.

What you’ll notice is how I IMMEDIATELY get into a guard by establishing contact with my training partner the second my escape is completed.

Let’s DIVE IN!