If you’re serious about improving your skills as a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) practitioner, there are a few basic movements that you need to master.

These movements represent the core of BJJ training, and they are an essential part of many of the...

The Guard:

The guard is the most well known, common and diverse position in BJJ.

At tournaments you will often see the majority of matches being played in some form of the guard. The guard is when the person on the bottom has their legs in between...

The butterfly guard or hooks guard, in Portuguese: guarda de gancho(s) or guarda borboleta; is one of the oldest and most traditional forms of guard playing in jiu jitsu and is often labelled as a classic guard.

The butterfly hooks are designed to...

The Spider Guard, in Portuguese: Guarda Aranha, is a grappling position whose origin points to kosen judo, having later been further developed in the sport of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu during the late 1980s.

The spider guard has many variations, but its...

Developing a good guard passing game is one of the most difficult things to do in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Guard passing is one of the most tiring, and difficult parts of bjj. If someone has a good guard, it can be next to impossible to pass. A good...

Side Control:

Under the umbrella of "side control" fall several variations. Once you achieve side control avoid being put back in your opponent's guard, and also be ready to transition to one of the other dominant positions. The knee on belly...

Mount Control:

When on top use your legs and hips for controlling their hips, and use your arms and legs to maintain base. Be prepared to move to back control if given the opportunity.

Mount Defense:

Make sure that your arms and neck are safe. Do...

Back Attacks:

Widely considered the most dominant position and safe from most counterattacks. Use your heels as "hooks" on the inside of your opponent's legs and your arms for controlling their upper body.

Common submissions available: naked...

Learning jiujitsu is like learning a language. You don’t do it all at once. You learn the smallest, most base elements of a new tongue (an alphabet, words) before you dive in to the whole grand structure.

As you get more building blocks — more...

Along with knowing the following techniques, it is the students responsibility to understand the concepts and why the techniques are done the way that they are.

Example: We glue the hand to our chest in a scissor sweep for the same reason that we...