May 6-19 @ Oceania BJJ Okinawa

Awesome couple of weeks training.

A few new students joined the team!

We have been working hard on our passing techniques.

It is important to understand how passing works and what is fundamental to each position.

A single guard pass rarely results in success but combination guard passes often work well.

If we want to be able to pass the guard without problems we need to be aware of what our opponents can do to attack us. Taking the back, sweeping, or simply returning back to guard after we have battled to almost get the pass.

We also need to consider: What type of guard are we facing? What grips? What hooks?

How do we intend to pass the guard? Speed? Power? Smashing? Floating? Sideways? Over? Under? Through? Spinning? Rolling?

Do we even need to pass? Can we finish from inside the guard with a choke or footlock?

As someone who spent a long part of my BJJ life in guard - mainly because I'm usually the smallest person in the room - I preferred fighting from the back.

Recently, I've been having more fun fighting from the top. Especially in no-gi.

Here are a few reasons why I want to spend more time working on my top game:

In a situation against multiple opponents you don't really want to be on the bottom because you will get kicked in the head.

In MMA or fights on the street the person on top generally has an advantage because he can strike more effectively.

I think once people learn the guard they fall in love with its diversity and eternal evolution.

However, we don't always want to be in the guard nor can we always get into the guard.
We need to be able to fight from everywhere.

We can't simply ask someone who is trying to hurt us or rob us on the street to put on a gi so its easier to do a berimbolo because you need your belt grip.

Last two weeks @ Oceania BJJ Okinawa

Phew. Big couple of weeks.

The Ryukyu free fight tournament and Yuki Nakai seminar were last weekend.

No one from our team fought in the tournament but some of our members went in support of other teams and fighters.

The tournament was well organised and flowed well. Good job Ryota Matsune!!!

Following the tournament was a seminar taught by the legendary Yuki Nakai.

The seminar was interesting and covered a variety of techniques from how to escape the back to the berimbolo.

The instruction was excellent and Yuki Nakai spoke excellent English and took the time to explain the moves one on one.

He took the time at the end of class to explain some BJJ philosophy.

He explained how important it is to train with different people and different martial arts.

He shared an idea that I have heard a few times recently: "You shouldn't think of positions in bjj as bad positions or good positions but instead treat them a position with its own unique possibilities."