Bent over stance in BJJ?

A

Aeilegs

White Belt
Joined
Aug 12, 2012
Messages
10
Reaction score
0
I train in judo, and did bjj a while back. I see a lot of bjj players bending over in the stand up game, whereas in judo I am always told to stand up straight, as the bent over stance is not a good defence. Yet I see even experienced bjj guys doing it all the time. Is it just a bad habit? Or is there an advantage to it?
 
bad habit of people who don't know how to grapple, you should stand like a wrestler. Makes it difficult to throw you judo style, keeps your defenses in check.
 
It's perfectly fine defense for BJJ. You need to be ready for the guard pull as well as wrestling style shots much more so than a big uchi mata, so the bent over stance works well. Standing straight is good if you're worried about big turning throws because it allows you to hip in and avoid them, but those are pretty rare in BJJ (since they're risky and can leave you in a bad position even if it's a good throw in Judo terms). I stand pretty much straight up when I do Judo, but I bend a lot more when doing BJJ standup. It's much closer to wrestling IMO than it is to Judo, plus I don't want to allow a closed guard pull.
 
I should add that there's a difference between lowering your stance and bending over at the waist with relatively straight legs. I never do that, and neither should anyone else. But I do fight from a more crouched, lowered stance in BJJ than I do in Judo.
 
Aeilegs said:
I train in judo, and did bjj a while back. I see a lot of bjj players bending over in the stand up game, whereas in judo I am always told to stand up straight, as the bent over stance is not a good defence. Yet I see even experienced bjj guys doing it all the time. Is it just a bad habit? Or is there an advantage to it?
Click to expand...


Just curious, how long have you trained judo?

A bend over stand keeps your hips back, if your hips are back is very difficult to throw someone. Throwing someone usually entails you getting behind and/or under the hips. They tell you stand straight in judo because it promotes throwing.
 
In Judo you are looking for, and expecting to defend, fairly big throws for the Ippon.

In BJJ, people are just looking to get you down any way they can. There is no extra points for more dramatic throws. Also you can grab the legs in BJJ, so 90% of attacks will be a single leg (of varying quality). Hence the bent over stance.
 
Wutang said:
Just curious, how long have you trained judo?

A bend over stand keeps your hips back, if your hips are back is very difficult to throw someone. Throwing someone usually entails you getting behind and/or under the hips. They tell you stand straight in judo because it promotes throwing.
Click to expand...

Yeah this

standing straight in Judo is supposed to be a very small effort of compliance to get good.

after you're good you're supposed to be able to do those moves on someone who has a high defense up.
 
I had the same problem with incorping Judo into BJJ due to the difference in stances....I had some wrestlers help me develop that part of my game. For Judo there are some set up attacks that can change their feet positions to set up other throws, but that can be some advanced judo
 
The crouched stance is much better for BJJ.

Honestly if they removed the restrictions on leg grabs and did not award higher scores for higher amplitude throws, you'd see Judo guys taking the same sort of stance. But then it wouldn't really be Judo anymore.
 
Following up on Balto, look at a sambo match for a near-ideal BJJ stance. Sambo doesn't have the rules effectively forcing you to stand upright that judo has, its grip rules are much closer to BJJ. Under an open takedown ruleset, even if you are great at takedowns and throws, your ideal stance is going to look more like sambo. Not the pitiful bent-in-half "I have no standup" defensive BJJ position, but also not the ippon-crazed, "I don't need to worry about my legs because of the rules" stance of judo.
 
Zankou said:
Following up on Balto, look at a sambo match for a near-ideal BJJ stance. Sambo doesn't have the rules forcing you to stand upright that judo has, its grip rules are much closer to BJJ. Under an open takedown ruleset, even if you are great at takedowns and throws, your ideal stance is going to look more like sambo. Not the pitiful bent-in-half BJJ "I have no standup" defensive position, but also not the ippon-crazed, "I don't need to worry about my legs because of the rules" stance of judo.
Click to expand...

Judo had more bent over stances, especially among eastern European and Soviet bloc Judoka back in the day. First gripping rules made it less effective, and then the leg grab rules pretty much killed it.

It's important to remember too that Judo is about the throw itself, but BJJ is about the position you end up in. That simple fact changes the standing game a great deal.
 
Zankou said:
Following up on Balto, look at a sambo match for a near-ideal BJJ stance. Sambo doesn't have the rules effectively forcing you to stand upright that judo has, its grip rules are much closer to BJJ. Under an open takedown ruleset, even if you are great at takedowns and throws, your ideal stance is going to look more like sambo. Not the pitiful bent-in-half "I have no standup" defensive BJJ position, but also not the ippon-crazed, "I don't need to worry about my legs because of the rules" stance of judo.
Click to expand...
Weight class dependent in both sports.

You see very Judo-esque upright postures in the higher weight categories in Sambo and you see very crouched bent over postures in the lower weight classes in Judo.
 
JudokaUK said:
Weight class dependent in both sports.

You see very Judo-esque upright postures in the higher weight categories in Sambo and you see very crouched bent over postures in the lower weight classes in Judo.
Click to expand...

Good point. You also see much more upright stances in HW BJJ, in fact most of the TDs that occur in BJJ occur at higher weight classes as competitors are less apt to pull guard.
 
Since Sambo guys can throw people who are bent and being bent them selves... it's 100% possible to them.

All it takes is to train for it.


Uchi Mata said:
Good point. You also see much more upright stances in HW BJJ, in fact most of the TDs that occur in BJJ occur at higher weight classes as competitors are less apt to pull guard.
Click to expand...

Great observation. Also the higher the game, the less pulled guard.
 
Uchi Mata said:
Judo had more bent over stances, especially among eastern European and Soviet bloc Judoka back in the day. First gripping rules made it less effective, and then the leg grab rules pretty much killed it.

It's important to remember too that Judo is about the throw itself, but BJJ is about the position you end up in. That simple fact changes the standing game a great deal.
Click to expand...

True...it takes a lot to go from either style to the other...you really have to focus and understand the goal of each
 
Balto said:
The crouched stance is much better for BJJ.

Honestly if they removed the restrictions on leg grabs and did not award higher scores for higher amplitude throws, you'd see Judo guys taking the same sort of stance. But then it wouldn't really be Judo anymore.
Click to expand...

Umm, 2004 olympics, leg grabs were legal. I don't recall BJJ stance being dominant. Also, as mentioned before, lowering your base and crouching over are not the same thing rounded back crouch without lowered base just means shitty posture, and does fuck all to defend you from double legs
 
selfcritical said:
Umm, 2004 olympics, leg grabs were legal. I don't recall BJJ stance being dominant. Also, as mentioned before, lowering your base and crouching over are not the same thing rounded back crouch without lowered base just means shitty posture, and does fuck all to defend you from double legs
Click to expand...

BJJ stance makes a lot of judo throws very difficult due to the distance
 
Saenchai said:
Great observation. Also the higher the game, the less pulled guard.
Click to expand...

That's an interesting hypothesis.

http://bishopbjj.com/2012/08/06/its-science-w-marcelo-garcia/

In the 10 matches they studied there, Marcelo pulls 4 times, more than any single other type of takedown.

And what about worlds?
http://bishopbjj.com/2012/06/29/world-jiu-jitsu-case-study-1-2/

I'm not arguing that I don't need to step up my takedown game. I do. (It sucks.) But it's naive to say that guard pulling doesn't take place at the highest levels.
 
The idea that The bent over bjj stance makes it difficult for judokas to throw is a myth.
 
Steelviper said:
That's an interesting hypothesis.

http://bishopbjj.com/2012/08/06/its-science-w-marcelo-garcia/

In the 10 matches they studied there, Marcelo pulls 4 times, more than any single other type of takedown.

And what about worlds?
http://bishopbjj.com/2012/06/29/world-jiu-jitsu-case-study-1-2/

I'm not arguing that I don't need to step up my takedown game. I do. (It sucks.) But it's naive to say that guard pulling doesn't take place at the highest levels.
Click to expand...

Yeah, top guys pull guard all the time, though mostly at the lighter weight classes. Marcelo's actually a funny one, because he'll pull guard as a kind of shot where he pulls and then immediately pops back up on a single. It's almost like a boot scoot (can't embed Lincoln McIlravy vid because I'm at work, but you can Youtube it).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
1,280,940
Messages
58,329,478
Members
176,000
Latest member
Markooz86

Share this page

Back
Top