There and Back

How to Stand and Where to Put Your Hands in No Gi BJJ

I love finding gems and free stuff on the internet. Especially if they help me with real life.

After finding free BJJ instructionals online (hint: go to Bilibili(dot)com, which is a video sharing site from China, and search for “jiu jitsu”, you’re welcome), I came across this beauty: Wrestling for Jiu Jitsu: Complete 40-Part Series (Full BJJ Instructional).

I downloaded it from a video-ripping site and was super pumped! But then while searching for the instructors name, found out that this wreslting for BJJ instrictional is actually already FREE on YOUTUBE.

I started taking some notes, and I’ll share them with your today.

Notes from Wrestling for Jiu Jitsu Instructional by Dom Anderson

You want to have your…

  1. Head up
  2. Neck stiff
  3. Back Straight
  4. Legs bent
  5. Arms down by your feet or Arms on your opponent

Head up and Neck Stiff

The body goes where the head goes. If you keep your head up and neck stiff, even if your opponent does tie up with you, it wont really effect your movement.

Back straight and Legs bent

A lot of people like to go for shots. If your opponent goes for a shot they won’t be able to finish if your legs and posture are low. For your stance, keep your legs in a squared-up posture, or one leg slightly forward, the leg forward is the leg you’ll shoot with.

Arms down by your feet or Arms on your opponent

Keep your arms down by your knees as close as possible. Don’t put your arms above you or your elbows in and close to your chest.

Where do I put my hands?

In your stance, whichever leg you have slightly forward, reach across to your opponent with the opposite hand and put it on their shoulder. Right leg forward, left hand on their same side shoulder. They call this a “cross grip.” If your right leg is forward and you put your right hand on their shoulder, you open yourself up to being taken down and other attacks. So remember: whichever leg you lead with, do a cross grip with the other hand and place it on their shoulder.

Your hand that isn’t on their shoulder, you can put it behind their head and tie up, or go for same side under-hook.

Cross grip with Collar Tie up

YES

NO

If you do a cross grip tie up and go ear-to-ear, you give your opponent an equal opportunity to control you. If you stay head-to-head with your opponent, you can follow them wherever they go.

Instead of going ear-to-ear, stand firm with head-on-head, like this…

The sequence goes…

  1. Cross grip
  2. Grab the back of their head
  3. Go head-to-head

That’s all the notes I have at the moment. But I’ll be sure to share more of them when I go through the rest of the video. It was too good not to share right away!

If you have any other tips for Stand-up or Hand fighting for BJJ, let us know.

PS: I recently wrote a post called “Lex VS GSP and Why Reaching-in is a Bad Idea” and I shared GSP’s idea of getting closer to your opponent using your feet and not reaching in, like this…

But the video by Dom Anderson uses a different approach with wrestling. Both seem like a good idea to try and learn and figure out which works. Unless I completely misunderstood GSP and I’m totally wrong, it could happen, I’m a blue belt and I’m still trying to parse through all this new info. It’s like I’m relearning all my old wrestling again for the first time.

Anyways, see you on the mats.

D
, ,
, , , , ,

Leave a comment