This post is going to focus on some advice for the novice BJJ player. The first bit of advice comes in the form of a well-done article by Matt Kirtley called “Starting BJJ: What to expect on your first class“. This is a very good article hosted at grapplearts.com and I highly encourage all new BJJ students to read it! This WILL make your first experience at the academy go a lot smoother.

The second piece of advice is not just aimed at beginners, but all BJJ players: Have a basic understanding of the difference between being efficient and being lazy. Strive to be efficient and try to avoid being lazy! Being completely efficient in your movements will take you years to understand and master, but understanding the differences on a basic level now will give your game an immediate boost! Here are a couple things to keep in mind when you are training to help you understand the difference:

Being efficient = working hard and smart. 
Being lazy = not working at all. 

If you ask any high level grappler what got them so successful, they will all have the same answer: They put in the work! They went to every class they could. They never missed a warm-up. They could never do a technique too many times. They never just rolled; they also drilled the movements over and over again. They rolled every round they could. They worked hard to understand everything they could about jiu-jitsu. Eventually, they started to become more efficient in movement. They started out by working hard, then over time they started to work smart. While no one expects you to just go out on the mat on day one and hang with everyone workload wise, you should expect for yourself to work as hard as you are able to. You will see improvements in your game over time, including your efficiency.  If you go out there and just do as little as possible, you are not being efficient. You are being lazy, which is a very bad habit to pick up and your overall game will suffer. Humans have a habit of finding the least path of resistance to achieve a certain goal and I can tell you from experience, this does not cut it for jiu-jitsu. To be efficient, work hard!

Being efficient = paying attention to the basics. 
Being lazy = ignoring the basics.

When you train jiu-jitsu, you WILL be tempted to try to take shortcuts in certain positions. Taking shortcuts in positions (not practicing the basics) can happen if you are tired or you are trying to think of what to do next so much that you forget what you need to do now. Let me give you an example of what I mean: Let’s say that you’ve been rolling for a couple of minutes and you wound up on the bottom with closed guard. If you are tired, the tendency is to just lock your guard, lay back on the mat and rest. What are the basics of a good closed guard? Your head should be off the mat, you should have 4 points of contact, you should have posture control and you should be looking to sweep or threaten submissions. Since you are just lying on the mat, your opponent postures up, breaks your legs and starts to pass. Uh-oh. Now you are paying for being lazy in the closed guard and you will probably now have to work harder to prevent the pass. To be efficient, keep your basics in mind as you drill positions like this over and over again. Your body will naturally begin to get more efficient in this position over time. Then one day, you have an impassable closed guard! But that day will never, ever come unless you study and practice the basics each and every time. Perfect practice makes perfect!!

Being efficient = moving when you are supposed to. 
Being lazy = not moving when you know you should.

This will come with time and experience. Energy conservation is important in jiu-jitsu. If you learn to be more efficient by working hard and practicing your basics over and over again, eventually you will get a sense of when you need to move and when you should wait. If, for example, you are stuck in side control with no way out, you can hold your defensive posture until the top guy makes a move, then you can work an escape. Being lazy in this same situation would be to just stay in side control (even if you recognize an escape) and let the top guy just get into another position without doing anything about it.

Being efficient = working to fix your mistakes. 
Being lazy = not caring about improving at all!

You will make mistakes. All these lazy no-nos will happen to you in your jiu-jitsu journey. It happens to everyone (I certainly know it happens to me). Just remember that it’s not the mistake that counts but the eraser you use to correct it. If you work to correct your mistakes, you will become efficient over time.

Happy Holidays from The Pendergrass Academy of Martial Arts!!! In this post, we decided to change up a bit and show a very high percentage technique from the Half Guard.In this scenario, Co-head instructor( and Gustavo Machado Black Belt) Guy Pendergrass shows what to do when our partner has us flat and we are unable to establish our under hook position. This technique can turn a bad situation into a very good one quickly!

We offer programs for Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Submission Grappling, Muay Thai Kickboxing, and Self Defense.  For more info about Pendergrass Academy check us out at http://www.PendergassAcademy.com and don’t forget to ask about our 30 day free trial for new students and 60 day money back guarantee!!!