The People, Process, & Progress Podcast - Welcome to Murder Yoga - Quick Tips for the New Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) Player | PPP #94

Episode Date: November 7, 2021

Sharing some quick tips to help brand new Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) trainees enjoy the first steps into the BJJ world.

Welcome to People Process Progress, episode 94. Welcome to Murder Yoga. Murder Yoga is a joking term that has to do with Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu because, well, I guess literally, if you don't stop choking someone in class, they will die. You get folded up, bent around, like in yoga, hence Murder Yoga. But what is this episode about, Kevin? Well, I'm going to share some things that I found helpful that I try and help others with that are newer or brand new to help just have a little more fun. Enjoy your first week, your first couple weeks, your first couple months.

And there's much more than this and much higher level folks with probably more intensive guidance on the YouTubes and everywhere else. But you know what? This stuff helps. It helped me. It helps folks that I share it with. So I'm going to share it with you all. But before I do, please silence your cell phones, hold all sidebar conversations to a minimum, and we will get started with People Process Progress in three, two, one. Hey, everybody. Thanks so much for sticking with this episode and with the podcast. Remember, you can hear this and other episodes

and write-ups on pupilprocessprogress.com, at pupilprocessprogress, Facebook, Instagrams, Kevin Pannell, LinkedIn. So let's get into this episode. This is going to be a pretty short one, but hopefully helpful, particularly for the folks that are grappling doing Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu out there in particular. I am a year old blue belt. I've been practicing Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu for three years. So I'm sharing my experience and from what I see with folks that are newer, that have a tough time, and honestly some tricks that I use or that have gotten used on me.

The first thing, and I've seen this both in adult and honestly in kids class, is for folks, if you're going to sign up, if you have signed up, like I suggested in other episodes of this podcast, namely episode 78, Foundation of Five to Survive as a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu weight belt. I redid Kipling's If, that poem for Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu players. 62, I talked about how you get to your blue belt.

So some good tips there on if you've been in the game a little bit, a year, a couple years, you're rocking the house. The second episode of this whole jam, Brief History of Ancient Grappling Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. And that will give you some groundwork and some other more in-depth tips. For this one, though, I want to talk to the folks that are real, real new. And, again, some things that I see all the time. The first thing is to think more of yourself, right? So I see this both, as I mentioned, in kids' class and in adults, is being really, really passive, and I get it.

Like, let's say, for example, we get paired up, right? I don't have a white belt on. I'm still just the next belt, so I'm still new, kind of like you. I'm a pretty big guy. I'm 5'11", 205-ish pounds. I'm in pretty good shape, right? I think I'm pretty nice, but could be intimidating if you're smaller. Other folks that are smaller than me are way deadlier than me and to me more intimidating. But at any rate, but a lot of folks that I've seen get really passive when we start even drilling,

right? Even this is just slow or the warmups or something, and you're in a new school and I get it, but think of yourself, you went to a school that is grappling martial art, that is proven, that is rough and tough, that is hard. You're there, right? So let that build your confidence initially, and don't be intimidated by the folks around you. Most schools, the schools that I've been to, I guess I won't say most schools because I haven't been to most schools, but the ones that I was a member of or that I visited are very welcoming and very nice and folks aren't just going to smash you and murder you. And if they start to, other folks in the gym are going to help out and make sure you're safe. So one, think higher of yourself. When you step right in that door, you signed up for that intro class. It's your first day. If you don't have an intro class you did it right are you going to win air quote no you're not now if you're a wrestler as

i talked about in other episodes you probably have a much better chance against older folks like me but by and large you're not really going to know what to do if you don't have a grappling background or you're smaller or maybe you are bigger but you're not in good shape whatever the factor is but that's fine that's why you're there to learn right should you be passive though and here's the part where i think you need to have think more of yourself is when you're rolling you're not going to go level 11 berserker you might a lot of new people do i did um but you shouldn't right but you also shouldn't just fall over and shouldn't just sit there and shouldn't just not try right try what you know other than eye pokes and all these illegal things but try to get out right try to move try to push

me over try to push the other person back try to pull them down just try a little harder you're there to learn adversity that's going to translate outside of the jiu-jitsu gym i promise you it will it has for me it has for if you go listen to any of the various podcasts, Joe Rogan, Jocko Willink, Cleared Hot with Andy Stumpf, anybody that's a regular jujitsu practitioner, you will get that. So, you know, again, while you'll be sore, you'll be frustrated, you'll be maybe a little disillusioned, you can just try harder, right? Don't be a limp and noodle. Don't accept that you're helpless because you're not to a point where if you just lay there, you could go do that

at home, right? So step one or tip one for me, think more of yourself going in there. You're doing this. Be confident that you're there, right? You're there for a reason. It's going to help. The second thing is it helps and we have such great resources with Google and YouTube. Study the positions first. Super easy to find that out out then you're not totally lost some schools have intro programs so you're going to get this indoctrinated into you you're going to learn the difference between guard and side control and mount and half guard and some other things but if you don't have that google it right look at youtube so so many great resources out there here's a little tip guard and this is the icebreaker of jujitsu uh if you want to say you know be uncomfortable your first day or see

somebody that's uncomfortable here's what guard is let's say i'm gonna get you in my guard i'm gonna lay on my back you're gonna get on your knees you're gonna get between my legs and i'm gonna wrap my legs around your back. Now I have you in guard. Why is this a working position? Well, let's say you have pushed me down or you have punched me and I fell down, and you're coming at me, and I'm able to move my head out of the way from you punching me in my face, and I wrap my legs around you, and I can grab your torso and pull you down. It's a lot harder to hit me, right? If you can picture that scenario, that's why this guard position is a working starting position. It is huge and it's a base for doing tons of stuff and it's a safe

spot, air quote. You can still get hurt in it, but this is a key position in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Side control. Another key position that you both want to get someone else into and do not want to be in. This is where you lay down on your back i am perpendicular with you i have one arm under your head i have my knees against one one on your hip one up by your head my other one is kind of under your other arm and i'm just kind of on you and squishing you vice versa you're the one on the bottom this is a great control position if you're on top it's a position you want to get out of if you're on the bottom mount this is both the best position to be in this is I am straddled across you right about at your waistline and I am

staying low and I am trying to do things choke you break your arms do other things a lot of different positions or if you're on the bottom you are in mount this is a horrible position to be in both if someone's laying on you in the bigger and you can't breathe and all this kind of stuff and then there's back mount half guard all this kind of stuff but learn them so that if by chance you're not taught them immediately you have an idea of what they are right so that when you're day one or day seven or whatever and someone says today we're going to work on mount escapes tomorrow we're going to work on mount escapes. Tomorrow we're going to work on side control. You have a general idea of what that is and it's so easy to do pre-research. And even to brush up,

like let's say you just want to get better, so many great resources out there. So first, think more of yourself because you're going in there, you're getting it done. Study the positions is the second thing. The third thing I would say is start to consider, and you may not get this until you get in there a little bit, is as you study the positions and you maybe study some movements study the connection or pay

attention to the connection between what you do in warm-ups and maybe what you see when people are rolling so let's say you're new and you don't get to roll for a first few weeks or months or you're in the intro program or whatever or you choose not to which is totally legit right you're in a gym you're not comfortable you're good with the warm right? You're in a gym. You're not comfortable. You're good with the warmups. You're good with the drills. You don't feel like rolling. Okay. And now I don't, you know, I'm not in charge of a gym, but I'm just saying to me, that

seems pretty acceptable. So study. So look at people. So if you just did this thing called shrimping, right? Which is where you're on your back. You kind of push, use your legs. You push your hip to one side and then you switch to the other side and you're kind of pushing yourself back. Just Google it if you don't know what it is. It is great for getting out of bad positions, right? Someone's trying to get on top of you.

Someone is on top of you in certain positions, that side control, that mount, you could shrimp and get out of it. It's a huge, huge thing that you will use hundreds, thousands of times, depending on how long you train Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Crawling singles, another thing you do in warm-up this is where if any of you have seen high school wrestling any level of wrestling you see people these wrestlers they step in they get low their knee goes to the ground they grab a leg they stand up and they take them down or their ufc if you're a ufc fan these are single leg takedowns or they could be or something simple you're warming up and you kind of squat down you shuffle to the side one way, then you spin around the other way. Well, one, these are good. You want to stay low. Let's say you're in a grappling match, right? You start standing. You want to be

lower than the other person, just like in wrestling. They also, which is great, which is hard, build up the endurance in your legs. If you squat down, right, and you shuffle side to side and back and forth, left and right, it's going to build up the endurance in your legs. If you squat down, right, and you shuffle side to side and back and forth, left and right, it's going to build up the endurance in your legs, which is going to help just general fitness, but certainly helping you jiu-jitsu. Another example, if you Google this, is standing in base. You've kind of, let's say you've gotten knocked down, you're going backwards, you've got one knee, one foot down, your knee up, your other foot's kind of bent under it, you put your hand up because you don't want to get hit, you put hand behind you stand up and kind of kick your feet back there's a little more detail to that but generally right you do that at warm-ups where you fall stand and base fall

stand and base well this is practical to the standpoint of someone's coming at you trying to hit you or kick you or whatever you've fallen down you've tripped your hands up you're blocking it you're getting up out of the way just try and start to think about even early super early right week one week two what does this warm-up have to do with jiu-jitsu and will you know for sure no because you haven't really rolled but if you start to think about connecting these things it's just really helpful and it's awesome right you may do a warm-up and think what what in the world is this about and then be rolling months later and go oh yeah that's what that's for part of the awesomeness of jiu-jitsu i'll tell you to me the fourth thing is

there are no free grips right i use collar grips and so if you can picture folks uh out there if you've seen judo in the olympics these of heavy-looking outfits, they grab sleeves and collars, which is up around the neck piece. That's very similar to the jiu-jitsu gi, which is the outfit that you wear, which is what I train in mostly. I do some no-gi, which is like the tight shirt and kind of shorts. It's much more like wrestling, grappling, submission grappling. So in the gi, you can grab the lapel area and really control somebody and and i learned this both in class in the in the school i'm in now in the school i was in before but also in this great seminar that that i watched from hickson gracie who's one of the the

best jiu-jitsu practitioners ever and he talked about the importance of you know strong wrists and strong grip and you can push and pull folks and control them and so I use that all the time what I also do which is counterintuitive right if I want to be kind of the champion of my role or whatever is that I tell folks or show folks that just don't even pay attention to me gripping them but but I push or pull them and kind of let them go where I want to hey what's the problem right now it's my grip right what are you worried about my neck for, my hands, when you can't even do anything? Well, so if you can grab that person's cuff, right, your fingers are in the cuff on their sleeve and kind of pull it away from you, keep fighting grips.

You do this thing grip fighting, which you'll hear about. You don't let anybody get free grips. When someone grabs your collar, right, unless you're kind of thinking about something else. But if you're brand new, don't even worry about that. Just focus on no one can grab me, no one can grab me. Could they be setting you up for something else? Yes, but you won't know that until you've been rolling a little bit more. But if someone grabs your collar, grab the cuff with both hands, pull it off, right, push straight out.

No one gets free grips. Something great to remember the fifth thing for this kind of short episode that i hope is helpful for folks that are getting into this murder yoga this brazilian jiu-jitsu frame frame frame right don't passively get crushed if someone has passed your guard that guard remember your legs are around that person and you're trying to hold them down well there's ways to get out of that and they'll get around past your guard means they get around your legs and I'm perpendicular to you I'm crushing your amount or something well don't just pass all these sit there think about frames and this concept of frames is I'm gonna weave my hand under

that person's chin I'm gonna get my elbow in their hip and my hand on their hip and there's some room I can have some room to breathe because I'll tell you having somebody on you, they don't even have to be bigger than you, but they're just good with their body weight. They can control you. Makes it hard to breathe. So always think about making frames because if you just sit there, you're going to be exhausted. There's nothing you can do and that person is just going to start thinking about how they're going to pick you apart,

choke you, set you up for an arm bar or something like that. But if you can frame, and here's where thinking about how this all goes together, if someone has you in that perpendicular side control, your chest to chest, they're kind of squishing you, you get one hand under the chin, you get the other one in their hip, you push your hips away, you shrimp, right? Like the warmups that you'll do and push out and pull them back in. You'll start to see, oh, that made space. I'm not getting crushed. I can pull them back in.

Now as you go more and more, as you go with folks that are better, they'll close that gap. But when you're starting, think about that, right? Think about just these basic warm-ups that apply to basic escapes that work. These are things that I think folks struggle with that I've seen particularly lately I think they're key ingredients to how I've made my game better you know I'm a as they say hobbyist I'm not a regular competitor right I'm not some high class dude I'm a 47 year old blue belt but I also appreciate when folks have shared stuff with me and so i am sharing with all of you out there that of whatever age have started training brazilian jiu-jitsu are gonna start your intro

soon or in your intro or something like that i would suggest that you start out making sure you think more of yourself you study positions before you go it's easy to google things and watch youtube that you study the connection between warm-ups and rolling or start to pay attention to it. You don't have to study them. Just start to pay attention. No free grips, right? Nobody gets to just grab your collar or your wrist or anything like that. Think about that.

If someone grabs your collar with one hand, you grab theirs and pull it. You grab their sleep cuff and pull it off and use your frames, use your frames, use your frames. Thank you so much for helping me frame this quick episode this week. I hope you all had a great weekend enjoying this extra hour. For those of us, at least some on the East coast in America. So we've, we've fallen back as they say. So we've got an extra hour, but it's a little darker these mornings, but that's all right. And the darkness there is serenity sometimes right when we get up early to work out or go to jiu-jitsu class like I'm gonna tomorrow morning thank you so much for taking the time to hit play I hope this is helpful I hope you all stay safe out there

please certainly wash those hands and Godspeed