Learning Jiu Jitsu Technique

Technique is the most important thing in Jiu Jitsu. Without technique, you are nothing. It’s why the weaker person beats the stronger one. It’s the core of what we do.

How you learn technique is easy as pie. You watch someone else doing it and you copy it. There. Simple!

But how you refine technique is a different thing. After all, when your partner isn’t resisting, everything works.

So it follows that you should work with resisting partners. But if your partner is totally resistant, and you’re brand new to the technique, nothing works.

Which leaves us in a quandary. And this is where good training comes in. You need to create scenarios where success is not just possible, it’s likely.

In our training at Kyuzo, we often use scenario training, aka positional training. This is the easiest to understand, and the simplest to run. If we’re learning how to hold mount, then we start in the mount with a variety of different training partners.

Some you’ll be able to be successful with, and you’ll learn what it’s like to win. You’ll go with better people and have less success, and you can see what it’s like to go against someone strong and skilled. And then you’ll have people who you’re 50/50 with, and this can be nip and tuck. Do well and you’ll win, make a mistake and you’ll lose. You need al 3 types of people to progress.

We use other drills too, but this is just one example.

As you get better, you’ll be able to use your regular sparring to learn technique. If you’re in a room and 70% of the people are less experienced than you (this would be common at around purple belt in Jiu Jitsu), then your sparring can be more experimental.

Learning technique is easy, refining technique takes time and effort.

See you on the mat,

Barry