You were once new, remember that? Of course, nobody likes to remember traumatic experiences. Jokes aside, the question of how to go about rolling with the BJJ new guy is a really interesting one. There are several schools of thought and approaches, and they all have their merits and yield results. However, there’s a flaw in the “one approach fits all” kind of thinking. People are different and join BJJ gyms for different reasons. While I agree they all need to get comfortable in the discomfort of rolling, some need a different way of an introduction to our beloved sport. I’ll share my two cents on the subject.
It is always hard to be the new guy/girl anywhere. In Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, this takes on a whole different dimension. The reason that people walking into Jiu-Jitsu are squirmy at first is down to the nature of the sport. In most other martial arts or combat sports, the immediate contact between people is much more acceptable for newcomers. In Jiu-Jitsu everything is so up close and personal it can be hard to adapt to. Add to that the fact that people are actually grappling with each other and it hard to really make the BJJ new guy comfortable. The question is, how do we go about introducing new people to rolling without, well, scaring them away?
The BJJ New Guy Conundrum
First up, we have to take into account who is walking through that academy door. This is why I say that you can’t really have one kind of approach for everyone. In terms of training, drills, introductory class, and all the other stuff outside of rolling, it is easy to follow a curriculum and use general rules. However, how you roll with the BJJ new guy or girl, should be down to their attitude. How they act is how they should be received, in order to make everything logical, since there’s n way to make rolling pleasant for beginners.
A huge thing to always consider and have into account is a previous training experience. Someone with 10 years of basketball training and someone with a brown belt in Judo is going to have two very different approaches, to begin with. One is used to running with a ball, while the other knows close contact and the feel of a Gi grinding on their face. That’s why it is always great to know someone’s’ background. However, it is far from sufficient to tune your first rolls with new folks up to a level acceptable form them.
So far, there are two basic schools of thought on this particular subject. The first one is to welcome everyone with you’re a game and give them the hardest rolls they’ll ever see in life. This is the sort of “initiation” I had. I can’t say it didn’t work, to be honest, nor that I haven’t done it others myself. Revenge is sweet! The second option out there is literally cuddling people into it, by flowing and giving stuff away until they get used to all the stuff that goes on in rolling. Iн essence, both have their strong and weak sides. Bottom line neither is applicable to everyone, and that’s the most important take away here.
Go Hard Or Go Home
Let’s start with the first approach. You have a BJJ new guy, brand new, walking into the gym for their first training. Whatever happens in class happens, and then you put the speakers on and it is time to roll. You grab them off the bat and start molesting them as hard as possible. In other words, they won’t see the light of day for the duration of the roll, regardless of positions or situations. In most cases, these types of rolls last only about halfway through the regular roll time. The reason is simple –people gass out, and sometimes, they’re even too afraid to go on. But that’s not how everyone feels.
Form time to time a person walks into the academy that is all up for rolling like this. The “go hard or go home” mindset is all they care about, given that they watched UFC and have been weight lifting for years. This is what I meant by gauging someone’s actions and adjusting the rolling intensity to them. If you go and cuddle someone like this, you’ll most likely paint them a wrong picture of the sport. IF you grab them and pull them right into deep waters directly, you’ll do them a favor and give them the experience they thought they’d get. It doesn’t matter that this isn’t BJJ inherently, they’ll figure everything else as they go about training.
This approach is definitely beneficial. It is the “old-school” way of doing things and if you can go through it, you’ll emerge ready for a grappling challenge. It does teach character, I’ll give you that. However, throughout the year, I’ve also seen this approach chase people away before they actually have the chance of really getting to know Jiu-Jitsu. That’s when I started contemplating and attempting a different approach.
A Light Introduction To Submission Cuddling
Of course, instead of trying to scale things back slightly I went to the other end of the spectrum. Instead of welcoming everyone with the “roll from hell” I started trying to flow roll with new people. This was much harder to do what you may think. Most people do typical BJJ new guy stuff – the lock, spaz, try to squeeze stuff for their life, etc. The thing is, it can really be a challenge to flow roll against people with that mindset.
In that sense, rolling light is a very useful tool for learning, as we already know. However, there are certain caveats into allowing people to do everything when you roll. Namely, people might end up thinking they can pull off more stuff than they really can. When you raise the intensity, or they try to roll with someone else, they’ll suddenly see that they find themselves in a confusing situation.
In terms of benefits, rolling like this gives people time. In a roll, those that like to think rather than act in a senseless way will find this type of approach much more understandable than all-out rolling. It will give them time to think about what they need to do and how they need to move.
Conclusion
Both these basic schools of thought on welcoming new people work. However, at the same time, they both have flaws. As I found out through years of experimenting, you can’\t just go all the way with one or the other. Instead, gauge the BJJ new guy or girl you’re about to roll with. Then, start off nice and slow, and keep raising the tempo as you see fit. That way you’ll both give them time to adjust and you can get a better feel of whether they’ll be looking to go hard or not. Of course, constantly adjusting to find the perfect intensity for the right introductory experience varies with everyone. I think it is worth dedicating effort to this as everyone can train JIu-Jitsu, and those first few classes are the most important ones.
In the IBJJF rankings, the rank is decided by calculating points. It this point system that’s pretty hard to figure out, and hence all the confusion arises. Moreover, there are lots of categories, ranging between world rankings, by athletes, by competitions, etc. For our purposes, looking at world rankings is the best way to try and figure things out. First things first though, let’s see how the points work.
Finally, the ideals scenario would be to unite people based on all their accomplishments. I know the IBJFJ rankings are for IBJJF tournaments, but most competitors do a lot more tournaments. An integrated point system that counts everything, from IBJJF to ADCC and even pro invitation tournaments is a great way to really help us build a sustainable ranking for years to come. Another huge factor is whether someone is still active in the competition scene as well, and should be introduced as a criterion.
The criteria according to which the IBJJF calculates points are the following: the weight of the tournament (championship), the weight of the season and standing value. In terms of weight of the tournaments is different for different ones. The larger the tournament, like Worlds, Pans, Europeans, etc rank higher, meaning you get more points from these tournaments. In simple terms, whatever you win at the Worlds, points-wise multiplies by 7.
In terms of Brazilian JIu-Jitsu, illegal BJJ moves are those that you can’t do in competition. Or, better said, you can do them if getting disqualified is your main goal. That said, there’s not a unified list of illegal BJ Jmoves which is where things get murky. For most, the IBJJF / UAEJJF rulebook is the law. In there, most moves are legal or illegal according to the belt and/or age level. When it comes to the kids and juveniles, the more restrictions, the better. That’s something nobody has a problem with.
Advantages, on the other hand, are much more loosely defined. In rulebooks, they’re defined as actions that almost led to something significant, like a submission, pass or a sweep for example. However, despite attempts to really clarify and systematize them, they’re still pretty much down to the judgment of referees. Still, they prove hugely important as many world titles have been won by way of a single advantage.
In the ADCC, you also get two points for sweeping or taking someone down. There’s a catch, though. Once you sweep or take someone down if you end up inside their closed or half guard, you’ll get two points. If you end up outside the guard, you actually get double the points. The knee on belly position features again as a two-pointer, with pretty much the same rules. What’s different here is that you also get two BJJ points for the mount position.
First up let’s talk about my new favorite way to have fun at any IBJJF competition – advantages. I used to hate those pesky advantages, as they seemingly come out of nowhere to help people win. I couldn’t really make much sense of them until I had to learn the rules in order to referee matches. That’s when I got a Eureka moment. Suddenly I understood what that most black belt competitors already know and take for granted. Knowing how they work and gaming the system to get them is the mark of someone’s that’s a seasoned competitor.
However, when it comes to submitting, it’s not about putting pressure on the Achilles. It is not about pressure at all. It is about rolling the ankle so that you get a twisting submission rather than a straight one. More painful, more efficient and hard to defend., Best of all, it is a completely legal way of doing a toe hold/heel hook hybrid under your armpit, without anyone being the wiser.
All you need to do is pass the half guard but forget about side control and all that jazz. Instead, head to the mount. A pass gets you three points, while mount gets you an additional four. That’s seven easy points with just one motion. BU that’s not the best part. You’ll never get a penalty for stalling form mount, as it is a position that’s on the top of the proverbial mountain. So, you can stay there as longa s you want. What you can do is let eth opponent get you back into the half guard at any point in time. The trick is to remain in the half guard for at least three seconds, preferably more. That’s when the referee considers the position as a guard, which means you can pass it again.
The world of professional sports is a really crazy one and people often misjudge the requirements of such a life. Don’t get me wrong, anyone can give it a shot, but the reality is,m not anyone can make it. So being mindful whether you’re a recreational grappler, an amateur or a full-blown Professional BJJ athlete is key to managing your expectations. My point here is that in most sports, it is not the top 1 % that really makes it. It is the top 0,1 % that we get to know, talk about and admire. Regardless if it is Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, soccer, football, baseball, MMA or whatever. How many people do you think train JIu-Jitsu in the world? How come only a handful keep reappearing in all the top professional events around the world?
Writing this article doesn’t have a goal of telling anyone they can’t become a professional BJJ athlete. On the contrary. My goal here is to let you know how things stand, and where you are at in the natural order of things. Knowing whether you are a recreational, amateur or a pro is going to allow you to think about getting to the next step and so one and so forth.
This is the hard part when it comes to executing this choke. The easy part is actually choking someone out. All you need is to place your chest on the elbow of the trapped arm. IN certain situations, given people’s build, you’ll get a choke even there. However, for the real Mizzou, you want to grab the near side leg with your free arm. The final piece of the puzzle is pushing that leg all the way to the other sid,e like for an end-of-class stretch. It is an instant choke that puts people to sleep before they can react.
Dirty for wrestling but tailor-made for Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. After all, innovative ways of putting people to sleep is what we do anyway, right? That said, this wrestling submission works like a charm however you go about setting it up. The “original” setup I saw, thanks to Neil Melanson was from the top half guard, after going for a guillotine. OF course, if a guillotine doesn’t work rolling out to switch o D’arce and Anaconda chokes and neckties is the next logical step. Well, that’s the perfect moment for setting up the Mizzou choke as well. Whenever you find yourself in an 
Another great use is to get the Anaconda choke. The one key reason why Anacondas often fail is the range of motion of the arm you need for the choke. The Mizzou choke is a great way to trap and secure the arm and switch back to an actual deep Anaconda from there that’s extremely hard to defend. The best part about it is that you can loop this unexpected wrestling submission and the Anaconda as much as you want until you get a tap.
There’s no real order to the best MMA gyms on this list, as all of them offer top-of-the-line 
Kings MMA is a California-based gym run by Rafael Cordeiro. They have two main gyms, one in Huntington Beach, and the other in West Holywood. They offer regular BJJ classes on top of BJJ for MMA ones. Apart from Cordeiro himself, who has several “best coach of the year” awards, esteemed black belt Ricardo Testai is in charge of grappling training. Visiting Jiu-Jitsu practitioners can look forward to training in the Gi, in No-Gi, in competition classes, or simply roll. As a bonus there’s also BJJ for kids included. Notables that train and have trained there are Wanderlei Silva, Mauricio Rua, Anderson Silva, Fabricio Werdum, and many others.
As you might suspect, this is one of the top grappling dens of MMA. Even among the best MMA gyms, when it comes to grappling, Alpha Male clearly stands out. Their headquarters are in Sacramento, and this gym is famous for having the best (and most) lighter-weight fighters in the world. There have been many changes in the BJJ coaching staff with founder Uriah Faber always switching things up in any department. However, high-quality grappling is guaranteed, although mostly in No-Gi. Still, what you get is the chance to actually train and roll with folks like Faber, Chad Mendes, Cody Garbrandt, and others. Marcelo Clemente black belt Fabio “Pateta” Fredo is the head BJJ coach (world No-Gi Champion). Still, other black belts, like UFC fighters Chris Holdsworth and Dustin Akbari also jump in regularly to coach.
Wherever you read the words SBG, you can rest assured you’re in for an awesome grappling experience. 
Duke Roufus is definitely a household name when it comes to MMA coaches. Operating out of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, he runs a very tight ship. Although himself a prolific striker, he is one of the very best overall MMA coaches. In terms of grappling, Roufusport offers regular BJJ classes dubbed “Carlson Gracie Jiu-Jitsu”. That’s pretty much self-explanatory. Namely, the have Daniel Wanderley, a black belt under Gutenberg Melo of the Carlson Gracie lineage heading the JIu-JItsu classes. On top of Gi and No-Gi Jiu-Jitsu classes, Roufusport also offers submission wrestling and grappling, for those Jiu-Jitsu practitioners looking for variety. Plus, you might run into Anthony Pettis or a number of other UFC fighters there. 
When it comes to the best MMA gyms in the world, one of the absolute favorites of everyone is Jackson – Winkeljohn’s in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The gym, as you know, houses the who-is-who of top MMA fighters in the world as well as the most UC champions. Grappling-wise, they have an entire Gracie Barra team training out of the gym. The people in charge are Roberto Alencar and Rafael “Barata” Freitas which says it all really. There are also regular Gi classes in the curriculum. In addition to that, coach Jackosn himself teaches grappling classes on a regular basis.
Finally, we’ll conclude with Black House MMA, but it is not the end all be all. There are plenty of other MMA gyms out there perfect for JIu-Jitsu practitioners. The ones on our list, though are proven to be among the best MMA gyms in the entire world in addition to offering world-class BJJ and grappling classes. Brothers Antonio Rodrigo and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira are in charge, which is all the proof you need of the level of Jiu-Jitsu there. The who is who of Brazilian MMA fighters have trained in Balck House at one point or another. In charge of Jiu-Jitsu are, of course, the Nogueira brothers in the Rio facility as well as Kevin Casey in the California facilities.