The Ultimate Guide to Beginning Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
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The Path to Blue Belt
The BLUE BELT. Your first belt…Will you wear it?
The blue belt, and the requirements to achieve it can seem challenging and elusive. Becoming this is a gargantuan first step in your skill progression. It takes time, effort, skill & grit, but what exactly does it take to be a Blue Belt? What does it mean to embody the skills that represent and don this first important rank?
The Path
The following is a comprehensive pathway to help you reach your goals. To be awarded the rank of blue belt. Everything you need to know and be able to do. All of this material will be taught to you in classes over time.
The skills listed below will be evaluated during testing. Testing is to be conducted on certain days scheduled periodically throughout the calendar year. If you feel you are ready, you may request to be evaluated on the next testing day.
Good luck, and I look forward to tying this belt around your waist when the time is right.
Ground Fighting Basics I - Master your Foundation
The Basics
To help you get started - here is your FREE pdf that will help you navigate the art of ground fighting. Click the button to download my Basics of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Guide.
Mastering our Foundation
Spider Walks
Spider walks are not only an excellent dynamic warm-up exercise, they build our core, arm and leg strength. These are also a critical element to add to your training for good jiu-jitsu movement down the road for ground maneuvering and agility.
Hip Escapes
Purpose: there isn’t enough ink on the internet to list the practical uses for this movement. If there were only 1 movement you could practice for jiu-jitsu it would be this one, hands down!
Sit Up Guard
Purpose: a pre-cursor to the 'technical get-up’ and a way to pull sweeps and advanced guards as we progress.
Technical Get-Ups
Purpose: critical movement for getting back to our feet when knocked down and the opponent is still standing.
3 Stages of Basic Sweep Training
Sweeps are throws on the ground. Ways to topple our opponent. This drill will prep you for the body mechanics necessary to execute the sweep later down the road when you grapple.
See Saw Training Drill
An excellent exercise to not only build core strength, but flexibility and mobility for grappling an opponent. Due to the neck/shoulder region, some people find this uncomfortable. If this is true for you, refrain from this drill until you seek help from an instructor on proper technique.
Basic Bridging
This video will be included later in your mount escapes training course. However, it is a critical movement for us to begin building into our repertoire now. For mission 1 we’ll be including not only this bridge movement, but a bridge and cross shoulder touch as part of our training.
Mission 1
Foundation Building
This mission is designed to be repeated as many times as you feel necessary.
Warm-Up
Jump Rope for 3 Minutes
20 Torso Twists
20 Toe Touches
20 Squats
Training - complete 3 rounds
Spider Walks - 30x
Hip Escapes - 30x
Over the Shoulder hand touches - 30x - link
Sit-Up Guard - 30x
Sweeps - 30x
See Saw - 20x
Bridge and Roll - 10x
Technical Get-Ups - 10x
Critical Skills
Now that you’ve completed my Mastering your Foundation course you are ready to continue your progress and training with Ground Fighting Basics II - Critical Skills. Take it to the next level!
Ground Fighting Basics II - Critical Skills
Now that we’ve worked on our foundation, it’s time to tackle the critical skills that we’ll need as we venture forth in our ground fighting game.
The Basics
In case you missed in the Mastering your Foundation course, the following guide will help you navigate the art of BJJ as you get started.
The Critical Skills
Forward Hip Escape
Break Down
At times we need to hip escape in the opposite direction in order to escape, or gain a position. This drill helps build the muscle memory for this movement pattern, and preps you for the De La Riva guard sweeps down the road.
Side Hip Escape
A highly useful variation to the hip escape that will be used in a variety of escapes and prevention.
Sit-Thru Breakdown
The sit-thru is going to be used to pass guard in some instances, and in others, we’ll use it to escape from turtle to the bulldozer sweep.
Triangle-Ups
The triangle is one of the deadliest and most effective submissions in jiu-jitsu. This drill prepares us for the technical movements required, and builds our core strength as a bonus.
Hip Break Drill
The hip break is an upper level movement pattern that once learned, becomes an integral part of passing an opponents guard.
Turn to All Four Drill
This is a skill we use at opportune moments where it imperative to turn a bad situation into a good one e.g. - mount escape to dominant position.
Critical Skills Training Mission
Warm-Up
Do a light warm-up before performing the following training mission.
Training - complete 3 rounds
Fwd Hip Escapes - 30x
Side Hip Escapes - 30x (15 each side)
Sit-Thrus - 20x
Triangle Ups - 30x
Hip Breaks - 12x
Turn All Four - 12x